Trizle

You're running a ridiculously-awesome business.

But, you have no safety-net to save your business's life:

1. You get hit by a bus? KAPUT!
2. You go on vacation? STALLS!
3. You dance the funky-fried-banana-chicken-crispy-wing at your high school reunion? BAM!

Your business = gone.

Who's Gonna Save Yo Bidness?

Sure, you might be in the process of automating your business where nobody needs you.

• "I'm already putting procedures in place so the business runs without me!" you might be saying.

But say that to Supertreezy's ears, and he'll slap yo face:

1. "What if the person that will run your business get hit by a bus?" he screams.
2. "Won't your business destroy itself then chickenhead?" he yells.

Even if you're about to automate your business to have someone replace your position:

1. Think backup.
2. Think backup.
3. Think backup.

Not only will you keep your business running smoothly with a backup plan, but you will:

1. keep yourself/your-CEO burnout-free
2. keep morale high: "Hey, the world doesn't rest on my shoulders! I have a partner in crime!"
3. boost intelligent business decisions (two smart brains will kick one smart brain's ass any frickin' day of frickin' mankind's frickin week)

Take it from the most well-organized nation in the world.

(in our humble opinion, anyway)

• One backup: good.
• Multiple backups: even better.

What if something happens to the President of the United States?

1. The *VP* steps in.
2. The Speaker of the House steps in if something happens to the VP.
3. The President pro tempore would step in next.
4. The Secretary of State would then step in afterward.
5. etc.

Ideally, you'd want a company where:

1. If Person A drops the ball, Person B can step in.
2. And if Person B drops the ball, Person C can step in.
3. And if Person C drops the ball, Person D can step in.

Not only backups for the top, but backups for those in-betweens as well:

1. Duane can step in for Debby**.
2. Kaleb can step in for Kathy**.
3. Henry can step in for Henrietta**.

Succession down the line, where people know: "Hey, I have another person here that I can rely on!", makes good businesses everlasting businesses.

Backup Yo Business.

Ignore how much suckity-suck-suck your business/industry/product/finances/etc. really are:

Fail.

We humans:

1. love praise
2. love good news
3. love happy talk

But, we hate:

1. harsh criticism
2. disastrous facts
3. negativity-up-the-heezy

So, we ignore the bad news.

We continue doing our usual thing:

• ...as our products horrifically suffer.
• ...as our cash flow quickly drains.
• ...as we wreak havoc on our projects.
• ...as we gradually drive away awesome people.
• ...as we steer ourselves toward bankruptcy.

If you want to stay and business and thrive:

1. Confront the viciously-big-bad suckity-sucks of your current situation.
2. Then, gradually demolish each and every one of them.

Examples to get you on your way:

• "How are our finances sucking?"
• "How is our industry sucking?"
• "How are our products sucking?"

Confront the bad. Freakishly. Constantly.

Finish.

Worry about the details later.

You + Building a Car

You can beautify the car all you want for Customer A, but it's NO FREAKING GOOD if it can't run.

1. Get it to run.
2. Worry about the details later.

Details drain time.

Yet, we usually spend ridiculous amounts of time (e.g., 80% of our allotted time) working on something that only provides 20% importance to the totality of the project.

Distracting ourselves is a reason why:

1. Projects = late.
2. Goals = squandered.
3. Dreams = never started.

Think of Fat Guy + Running

Fat guy screams he'll run this year:

• "I need to get the nicest shoes!"
• "I have to read the latest running magazines!"
• "I need the latest gear!"
• "I need the most awesome running trail!"

Yet, details eventually get him:

• Instead of just frickin' running, his immersion into details prevents him from achieving that goal.

Likewise:

1. We Business
2. People
3. Suck
4. Like
5. Fat Guy
6. Because
7. We're So
8. @^%^^
9. Obsessed with
   1. The Details

We want X to be oh-so-fricko-perfecto that we forget the most important part:

• Accomplishing the @^^%, even if we're the ugliest @^^% finisher in the world.

Finish.

The Oakland A's went out of their college-picking-realm and recruited a 16-year-old 6'7" Latin American pitching talent.

• "It's crazy what they're doing!" the critics say.
• "They're not following sabermetric principles! SABERMETRIC PRINCIPLES!"
• "Boo!"

But get this:

1. The A's had recruited college players because no one else did, helping them exploit market inaccuracies to get talent at bargain-basement prices.
2. Now, since frickin' Moneyball exposed what they did, every team and its mother starts to recruit college players -- increasing prices for college talent.
3. With the herd running to college talent, that creates a market inefficiency for overlooked Latin players, lowering their prices -- producing an inefficient market.
4. A's go bargain-hunting in Latin America.

Kaboom!

The Lesson

You'll command higher premiums by going where the masses overlook.

For instance, take programming + India:

1. Everybody's recruiting programmers from India.
2. That raises the prices for Indian programmers.
3. In the meantime, programmers from Latin America = ignored.
4. That'd mean you'll get more bang for your buck if you recruit from Latin America.

Or get this lesson from the 1960s:

1. Everybody's selling hamburgers.
2. "Let's sell some frickin' tacos! BOOYAH!"

3. Kabam: Taco Bell, son.

Capitalize where nobody else is going.

1. Save costs.
2. Generate more revenues.
3. Command higher premiums.

Buy more Cheetos.

But before you get too happy...

Eventually, the market will realize what a secretive punk you are, and they'll go gold-hunting in your area -- lowering your premiums.

For instance:

1. Folks discover your Latin American talent.
2. More demand + unchanging supply = higher prices for the talent.

"So, I'll go discover another inefficient market -- like Indochina -- to capitalize on the inefficiencies of the market!" you tell yourself.

And, you'd win like a superstar who dances the Kazatzka while drinking your juice in the hood.

Because you can.

You're badass.

Capitalize on market inefficiencies.

1. You list your todos.
2. "I'll finish my todos!"
3. You try, but get distracted by the internets.

When you have no anal micro-manager above directing you like a madman:

• You're likelier to slack off.
• You drain productivity exponentially with every distraction.

Here's a way to help:

The Gem to Get Productive

First, do this:

1. Take out a stopwatch. Start it.
2. Work for XX-minutes straight (e.g., 60 minutes).
3. Stop the stopwatch. Relax.
4. Return to ^1.

Do that throughout the day.

Rules:

1. When the clock runs, you have to work.
2. When the clock stops, you can stop working.

(It's like you're clockin-in and clocking-out of work. HOORAY!)

Why You're More Productive

When you do something -- anything -- with the clock running, you force yourself to work.

• No distractions (or you clock-out).

Phenomenon:

1. Simply forcing yourself to work as if a tidy-whitey baby-bunny has a gun to your sternum if you don't work a gets you doing something.
2. The little "something" gradually builds your productivity momentum to get more things accomplished.

That enforcement to-work-or-bunny-offs-you gets you thinking:

1. "I can work like a bored-unproductive piece of shizzit."
2. "OR, I can work like one happily-productive mofokoko."

Unless your momma dropped you down the elevator shaft when you were two-months old (because you = ugly), chances are, you'll choose the latter:

• "I have to work. I might as well have fun and get things done!"

More fun = More productive = More tasks accomplished.

Now, Beat Your Records

Example:

1. "Yesterday, I accomplished 100 minutes of good work by 11 pm!"
2. "Today, I will accomplish 100 minutes of work by 10:30 pm!"

Or:

1. "Last week, I completed 1500 minutes of work!"
2. "This week, I'll go for 2000 minutes of work! WHO'S THE MAN?!"

You start taking the deliberative approach to improve your daily productivity (e.g., "Let's save time by not checking NYTimes this morning!") -- constantly looking for different ways to improve how efficient you work.

Result: Freakishly more work done everyday.

KABAMBIZZLEWHOSTHEWINNERNOWBEYOTCH!

Clock in.

1. "Hire somebody!"
2. "No, I can't afford it!"

So, you continue doing the same ol' lame ol'.

You continue sucking like you've always sucked.

Get this: What if you hired somebody?

1. How would you change your work habits?
2. How much more productive would you be?
3. How focused would you become to bring in more business?

Think of new Teen Mom Julie:

1. Julie: "oH yOu kNo wHatZ! LoLZ!! OmGz! LoLZ!"
2. Tiffie: "omgZ!! omgz!! wHaT?! whAT?! LoLZ! oMGz!"
3. Julie: "I WaS pReGGerZ n jUsT hAd mY bAbY! oMGz~!"
4. Julie: "cAnT hAnG oUt toO mUcH =(. I gOtz 2 tAkE oF tHe bOy wHiLe bAlaNcInG sKooL n mY nEw JoB! OmGz! LoLz! LOLz! i sTiLL <3 u aLL!"

Instead of being the crazy irresponsible wild-child that she was before, she uses her frickin' bomb on her life to get her life straight and productive to care for her her kid.

She becomes more motivated to work her butt off to provide sufficiently for her new family.

Scare Your Business

Similarly, when you scare yourself, chances are, you'll frickin' work your boo-tay off to un-scare yourself.

For instance:

1. You bring on Billy.
2. You increase your productivity, amplify prospect contacts, and work freakishly smarter to ensure you can pay hard-working Billy at the end of the month.
3. You: "I got a new family member! I must feed him!"

That is, an external consequence drives you to change your behaviors to satisfy the consequence.

Winner!

Try this:

1. Horrible products? 110% satisfaction-guarantee.
2. Late on a project? Project presentation by 5 p.m.
3. Sucking at managing? Discussion of how you suck in 1 hour.

Scare yourself to rock yourself.

You're gonna build your industry's greatest business.

1. You anticipate the rewards and accolades.
2. You imagine your grand future with people basking in your presence.

But, you never get there. You fail.

• Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, and horribly fail.

"Am I a failure?" you thoughtfully ask yourself.

"If I look deep down inside my heart of hearts, am I a failure?"

Of Course You're a Failure!

You big frickin' failure.

You suck.

Hooray!

The moment you try to impress others:

• the moment you fail.

Rules:

1. You don't live in others' shoes.
2. You don't know what impresses people.
3. So, you can't possibly super-duper-rifically understand what will impress people.

You can only do this:

Impress yourself.

Understand that millions of others like you exist, and will too be impressed.

Winner: You + Millions of Others.

Ask:

• "Am I happy with myself?"
• "Am I happy with my work?"
• "Am I happy how I manage?"
• "Am I happy with our products?"
• "Am I happy with my business?"

Make masterpieces as defined by YOU, Inc.

Impress yourself.

1. You give Bob Task Z.
2. Bob does the Task Z.
3. You see it needs major tweaks.
4. You micro-manage Bob until he finishes Task Z.
5. Task Z finally finishes.

How often do you micro-manage Bob?

That is:

• Do you frequently have to micro-manage Bob until he achieves "good work"?
• Can he not take initiative to realize what "good work" means?
• Are you spending more time managing Bob than focusing on your business?

You've gotz problemz.

Good people:

• don't need to be managed
• will take initiative to do what works best
• is a million times better at doing their tasks than you ever could

You know you've got a hiring mistake if you're picking up the slack for Bob.

Decisions Quickly

If you find yourself frequently managing Bob (i.e., you constantly give him pointers on how to do his work better), make a hiring decision quickly.

That is, either:

1. give him a different position
2. let him go

Who benefits?

• Your business.
• Your sanity.
• Bob -- because that allows him to find another place where he could excel.

The quicker you make a hiring decision, the more you benefit your business, your sanity, and Bob.

That sets you on a quick path to find the right person who can do the work without you constantly checking their work.

Result:

• More time
• More time
• More time

People who inherently rock give you more time to work on your masterpiece (i.e., your business).

Freakish-juiced bald eagles.

Try this:

1. Unplug your computer from the internet.
2. Work.

Try that for an hour.

(Or, even 10 minutes.)

See how much more productive your become.

1. Before the web = productivity high.
2. After the web = productivity low.

The Candy Store

Keeping your computer online is like walking into a candy store without touching anything.

1. You'll be okay at first.
2. But, temptations will eventually drain your productivity like MoFo.

And If You Really Need the Internet...

Sweet action plan:

1. "Before I touch the computer, this is what I want done..."
2. "Now, I will get those things done..."
3. Repeat ^1.

See how productive your freakish boo-tay becomes.

Unplug. Work.

1. You're planning to change the world today.
2. A friend tells you to get away.
3. You reluctantly follow your friend.

You know how that gut feeling (i.e, the "I don't know if I should do this..." feeling) developed?

• It's not a two-second thing.
• It's what you've conceived throughout your life.
• It tells you the rights from the wrongs.
• It's your life's freakish compass.

Follow it, and you'll boost your chances to achieve whatever ridiculous thing you want.

What's the feeling like?

• It's that feeling you get when you do something immoral at work.
• It's when you rob your customers out of something small.
• It's when you take pencil sharpeners from conferences.

Or:

• It's that feeling when you know you've got to talk to that one person.
• It's when you've got to pitch that big customer.
• It's when you've got to chat with those vendors.

Your instincts rarely lie.

Follow your gut, and soar like freakish flying hyenas on PCP.

Obey 'em instincts.