Trizle

Timmy's running his little shop. He thinks he knows everything. So, he creates user manuals. Then, he hires cheaply. He thinks he'll profit most that way.

• He thinks he can "build" an expert salesperson.
• He thinks he can "build" an expert CFO.
• He thinks he can "build" an expert HR department.

But here's why he's wrong.

People, Listen Up: You're Ain't That Smart

Ridiculously skilled people take 10-15 years to perfect their crafts. Take any NBA player, any chessmaster, any Grammy-award winning artist, or any other person at the peak of their professions; those mofos needed more than a decade of hard training to arrive. To reach peak awesomeness, according to research on the making of experts by Emory and Florida State professors: it takes at least 10 years of focused/deliberate practice. Now, if you wanted to build a blue-chip-high-flying record label from scratch while you're still in tip-top-shape, you wouldn't take:

• 10 years to train your singing voice.
• Another 10 years to boost your business chops.
• Another 10 years to discipline your marketing skills.
• Another 10 years to mold your financial acumen.

Oh no -- that'd take 40 years. Instead, you'd hire:

1. a ridiculously good singer
2. a ridiculously good music businessperson
3. a ridiculously good music marketer
4. a ridiculously good person to keep your finances in check

What does that give you? You gain 40 years of knowledge in 0.001% of the time. That leaves you the rest of your years to empower the mutha-!@^^% out of your business to rock the world. Win.

Say NO! to Doing a Timmy

"Maximizing profit" to entrepreneurs like Timmy means building his very own (1) sales dept., (2) hr dept., (3) financial dept., (4) marketing dept., (5) technical dept. by relying on his amateurish:

• 100 hours of sales experience
• 100 hours of human resource experience
• 100 hours of financial experience
• 100 hours of marketing experience
• 100 hours of technical experience

How do you demolish Timmy's little business? Get those with:

• 10,000 hours of sales experience
• 10,000 hours of human resource experience
• 10,000 hours of financial experience
• 10,000 hours of marketing experience
• 10,000 hours of technical experience

Then, you'll be a kabillion hours ahead of Timmy. Win.

"But wait! I can't afford those expensive peeps!"

No problem. Options include:

1. consulting
2. mentoring
3. coaching

And, if you have no money:

1. Just ask for advice (it's free! yay! high-five!)

You ultimately want to learn as much as possible from those expert folk -- and rely on their decades of expertise to guide you. The expert folk will collectively steer you on the path to awesomeness by giving you golden shortcuts.

You suck. Seek the good.

You scan your to-do list.

1. You see tedious tasks.
2. You're bored.
3. You want the weekend.
4. You want football.
5. You want friends.
6. You're bored.

Yeah, so we hear you askin': "How in the mother-!@^^% can I make my mother-!@^^% DAY a little less mother-!@^^% boring?" Well, hold on there, buddy. We'll show you how!

The Remedy

Three prep steps:

1. Describe the happiest feeling you've ever experienced: ________________.
2. Scratch your to-do lists for the day.
3. Get ready to manipulate your brain to experience ^1's effect.

"Can I make work like sex?"

Kablingo! You can. Here's how:

1. Pick a goal.
2. Pick a bigger goal.
3. Pick a much bigger goal.
4. Pick something that will rock the world and its mama.
5. Place that on your to-do list for the day.

Yeah, that's right. Complete the mother-!@^^% by today.

Humans thrive on meaningful work.

• That's how our ancestors built rich societies.
• That's how we landed humans on the frickin' moon.
• That's how we built civilized societies that keeps on tickin'.
• That's how we viciously demolished infectious diseases from robbing our families.

We're built to do something totally fabulous.

That's how our brains get our happy highs. We crave meaningful work, but most of us don't know it. And that's why we're bored. Don't be bored.

Do something fabulous.

Betty's Little Story

Once, Betty was once a high school dropout. Years later, she revolutionized the paper industry with her billion-dollar company. What likely drove Betty to change for the better?

• a) Betty gained some new insights.
• b) Betty acted on what she already knew.

Research points to (b). That is, people likelier change when they use concepts they've learned/experienced/previously-used.

Change Within

Ask yo-self:

1. "What do I already know?"
2. "How can I apply what I already know?"
3. "Most important, when will I apply what I know?"

They don't need new books, new consultants, or new insights to drive improvement. Instead, change most often happens when you apply what you've already learned.

"So, why do people rarely change?"

It's what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton calls the "knowing-doing" gap. That is:

1. Johnny learns X.
2. Johnny never applies X.
3. Johnny renders X useless.

Like Johnny, the people all over the wonderful world rarely apply what they learn/know. That's why they're continually buying new books, hiring new consultants, creating new "strategic" missions -- thinking that next new "spark" will change their lives forever. That's akin to them running the streets looking for their next high, when the biggest high they could ever get lies at home -- with their families. (Deep.)

You = Smarter Than You Think

1. You've stored a ridiculous amount of super-very-very useful knowledge already.
2. You probably apply 10% of it.

Rock the other 90%. (When you've done so, gain new insights to empower yo-self further. That prevents you from chasing high-after-high.) Win.

Rock the 90.

"No! You can't do that! It'll hurt people's feelings!" says Bubba-the-consultant-extraordinaire. But what Bubba-just-dont-understand: Ranking your employees empowers your entire team. Here's why.

The Scenario

Johnny ranks first in sales. Bobby ranks last.

1. "Bobby, you suck in sales," you tell him.
2. Bobby starts crying.
3. You slap him. "Bobby! No! That just means I misplaced you!"

What do you know?

1. You know that Johnny ranks first in sales, so you better keep that dude in place where he can kick boot-tay for your compa-nay.
2. You know Bobby needs a different position where he can empower your team.
3. You place him in different positions. You see where he ranks well.

Finally: light bulb! Bobby ranks second-best in cost-cutting. You give him a full-time position in cost-cutting, where he excels for your company reducing costs-after-costs-after-costs. With your ranking system, you gradually empower every other team member in every facet of your ridiculously awesome company. Win.

Rankings Optimize Your Team to the Fullest!

Take another example. You're the basketball coach full of different talents.

1. You start ranking them by: points, assists, rebounds.
2. After 5 games, you look at your stat sheet.
3. You see that Sally's the best scorer, Ashley's dishes the most assists, and Rachel grabs the most rebounds.

What does the information tell you?

1. I know who's my first option to score.
2. I know who needs to take the ball up-court.
3. I know who I need to play the low post.

With your stat sheet, you start placing people where they can excel for the team. "Ashley will play point guard; Sally will play shooting guard; and, Rachel will play center," you proudly chime. Optimized Team = Check!

What Variables Do You Measure?

1. Start with the big ones (e.g. sales).
2. Break them down (e.g. leads generated, sales closed, etc.
3. Start ranking.

Experiment with your own variables that drive sweet growth. Then, measure/measure/measure to realize and optimize your players' strengths, empowering your company. Tell em' now:

I Will Rank You. Yay!

You're starting a hamburger joint.

Your sexy self needs some inventory. "Let's buy some lettuce, 100 pickles, 100 tomatoes, 50 buns, and 50 patties, and 30000 napkins," you affectionately tell yourself.

You buy stuff.

So, you hook up with a vendor who sells you the pickles, tomatoes, buns, patties, and napkins. You sense promising results when talking to people, which gets you thinking: "OMG! OMG! I anticipate selling millions of our hamburgers, so we need to buy much more inventory! OMG!" But, then Master P. Biznezz comes around the corner, and slaps you. "Listen, son!" he teaches. "Stocking inventory is like buying milk for your home."

Say NO! to Excess

You don't buy 300 gallons of milk for the week because:

• You'll end up with 298 gallons of wasted milk.
• You'll increase costs to manage the milk.
• You'll ridiculously deplete your your cash flow.

"Okay, I get it. Keep as little inventory as possible," you start to think. "The million dollar question then becomes: How?" Master P. Biznezz slaps you for being such a pretentious question-asker-person. So, in turn, he asks you:

• "How much milk do you buy at the grocery, bizattichi?"

No Set Number

"Well, I don't have a set number," you say. "It's pretty random. Sometimes, I buy a gallon when I have another gallon in my fridge. Other times, I buy two to refill my last remaining gallons."

• "That is," he tells you, "you purchase milk to replenish the milk supply you've used."

Think about that:

1. You purchase inventory to replenish the inventory you've used.
2. You purchase inventory to replenish the inventory you've used.
3. You purchase inventory to replenish the inventory you've used.

Why?

• You want milk when you need it!
• You say NO! to spoiled excess milk!
• You have more important things to spend the rest of your cash!

Buying milk for your fridge = buying inventory for your company. That is, you want to ensure:

• You'll rid sucky inventory as much as possible.
• You'll house the freshest inventory possible.
• You'll optimize cash flow.
• You'll supply demand where most necessary.

How? If you're running your ridiculously-deliciously-good hamburger joint named for your mama's mama, you:

1. Purchase pickles to replenish the number of pickles bought.
2. Purchase tomatoes to replenish the number of tomatoes bought.
3. Purchase napkins to replenish the number of napkins customers used/stole.

That is, you buy inventory to replenish the inventory you've sold. The Fab Result: Freakishly fresh good inventory to sufficiently supply your real-world customer needs, with cash left over for your mama.

Milk your inventory. (<- witty.)

You need a business gut check report. Who do you assign the report?

• Mikey, the accountant?
• Sally, the chef?
• Johnny, the waiter?
• Borag, the customer?

Let's say you're feeling thrifty, and you give it to Johnny. You think:

• He's most in touch with the customers.
• He knows the front lines ridiculously well.
• He knows what customers want.

So, you hand the report to Johnny. Johnny takes days to fill out the report, and when he sends it to you, you get something disgustingly disappointing.

• It's filled with cliches.
• It's filled with sparse ideas.
• It's filled with pointless absurdities.

When you delegate something (i.e. "Johnny, I want you to do: _______________"), how disappointed do you really get?

1. Often.
2. Frequently.
3. Always.

Here's why. When you assign Johnny to do Task XYZ, he feels obstructed from following his real passions. It's as if you're throwing him a giant bolder in the middle of his world-class pursuits for your company. What results?

• Lame results.
• Lame morale.
• Lame progress.

The Rule: You can't tap your people's passions by assigning them tasks. You can only attract the passionate people to Task XYZ when they actively volunteer to rock the mutha-@^^%^ out of it.

Seek volunteers.

1. Timmy's tired.
2. Timmy just worked 20 hours.
3. Timmy revamped his corporate software.
4. Timmy rebuilt his infrastructure.
5. Timmy's going insane.
6. But, Timmy thinks entrepreneurs are workhorses.
7. So, Timmy thinks he's heading in the right direction.

Now, ask your bad self:

• Is Timmy really heading in the right direction?

If Timmy took 20 hours to debug a tiny piece of code for his client's software, did he really make good use of his time? Here's what conventional wisdom thinks:

• The more X hours you work, the more $X you'll make.
• The more stress you have, the more $X you'll make.
• The more hectic your schedule is, the more $X you'll make.
• The busier your schedule, the more $X you'll make.

Reality check time:

1. No one cares how hard you work.
2. No one cares how tired you are.
3. No one cares how many stars you have.
4. The world doesn't care.
5. Your mom doesn't care.

The world doesn't pay for the number of hours you work. The world is selfish: It wants you to give it something first -- before it can return the favor. In our beautiful free market world, the gorgeous relationship boils down to this:

How Much You Earn = How Much Value You Provide to the World

So:

• Don't spend chump hours.
• Don't do chump work.
• Don't make chump-change.

Instead, do something extraordinary.

Give value.

For all you entrepreneurial business peeps, your goals might resemble something similar:

1. "By next month, I'll sell 20% more. Then, I'll be happy."
2. "By Month 3, I'll sell 35% more. Then, I'll be happier."
3. "By Month 4, I'll sell 50% more. Then, I'll be even happier."
4. "Yay! High-fives all-around! Booyah!"

Two scenarios could happen:

1. "I didn't reach my goals. I'm not happy."
2. "I reached my goals. But, I'm not happy as I expected."

Boo.

Why Johnny Ain't Happy

Johnny's mindset:

1. "I expect Situation X will happen in the future."
2. "I conclude Situation X will make me happy."

But uh-oh: According to Harvard's researcher Daniel Gilbert, conventional "happiness" is fleeting -- and we trick our minds into believing something that really won't happen. If you've ever:

1. bought a new car
2. got a that coveted birthday gift
3. dated your dream boy/girl
4. got a big raise
5. had your wedding
6. yadda!

You'd realize something after receiving something you just oh-so-totally thought would change your world:

1. "Yo! I'm not as happy as I thought I would be."
2. "My level of happiness just returned to normal."
3. "But wait! Maybe chasing a different goal will make me really happy..."

(That vicious cycle of chasing happiness won't stop.) So, we all wonder:

• "Where's happiness?"

Do this:

Say NO! to Chasing Happiness

If Johnny-boy ain't happy now, he won't get that happiness he desires even if he gets what covets. Falling into the anticipated-happiness-trap will disappoint him and you every-effin-time.

How to Be Happy

If you want to sense supreme happiness, try this:

1. Choose a customer.
2. Help that customer using your world-class gifts, as much as your freakishly can.
3. Experience ridiculous happiness.

(Or if your butt has no customers, try helping somebody -- anybody.)

• Help two more peeps? Experience more happiness.
• Help three more? See even more happiness!
• Four more? Caution: You're entering sexy happiness time.

According to research on happiness from the London School of Economics: The more impact you feel you have on the world, the happier you'll be. So:

1. Switch your mindset from "What can I get?" to "How can I mutha-!@^^% give?"
2. Experience sweet happiness.

Affect the world. Be happy.

Scenario: "We're going to be sofareaking rich with this opportunity, and it's gonna-be-sofareaking easy. High-five!" So, what does Billy and his cronies do? They go through the cycle of doom:

1. Start a project.
2. Find no real big success.
3. Repeat cycle with another project.

Why Entrepreneurs Fail

Why do 90% of entrepreneurs fail, and return home to their mamas? Probably because of this:

1. Peeps think making big bucks = easy, with their "ideas".
2. Peeps pitch their ideas to the real world, and make measly cents.
3. Peeps then either (1) give up, thinking their ideas suck; or (2) start different businesses thinking that'll instantly make it big -- which won't happen.

Here's the rule:

1. Making it big takes time.
2. Making it big takes persistence.
3. Making it big takes consistently improving.
4. Making it big takes small-wins-on-top-of-small-wins.

How Much Can You Earn This Week?

Say your goal is to build a million-dollar business.

• "But hey! I can only earn $100 this month!" you scream.

And, so we're like -- "Hey doodsie, no problem! You can still do it!" Here's the deal-i-o:

Consistently Improve!

Tell yo-bad-self: "I will improve my startup's earnings by ___%, monthly." Ta-da-sha-bam-dizzle! (one.of.the.greatest.stuff.we.know)

The $1,000,000 Formula in Action

Your scenario: "I will improve my startup's earnings by 20% monthly!" (Fortunately, your earnings growth is sky-high when you're starting.) So, you tell yourself and your company:

• "Each month, we will be 20% more efficient."
• "Each month, we will talk to 20% more prospects."
• "Each month, we will close 20% more business."
• "Each month, we will cut our costs by 20%."
• "Each month, we will improve productivity by 20%."

Unveil-The-Magic-Oh-Yeah!

The magic of the 20% compounding rate on your company's monthly earnings:

• Month 1 earnings: $100.
• Month 2 earnings: $120.
• Month 8 earnings: $358.
• Month 12 earnings: $743.
• Month 16 earnings: $1540.
• Month 20 earnings: $3194.
• Month 24 earnings: $6624.
• Month 27 earnings: $11,447.
• Month 31 earnings: $23,737.
• Month 35 earnings: $49,222.
• Month 39 earnings: $102,067.

Ding, ding, ding! You just put your business on pace to earn over one million bucks over the next 12 months, oh-no-you-didn't! "Oh, yes I did!" you holler. With your consistent improvements over time, you gradually built a ridiculously wealthy business that's on pace for another ridiculous run. While Billy's home with his mama tinkering with another idea, you celebrate cruisin' the docks, sipping your juice, and basking in the glory of it all. Congrats-to-you.

Consistently small wins, playa.

Following your dreams is crazy-cool-oh-yeah, but then there's also that practical side:

• Ensuring you'll live that dream forever-and-&^%^!-@^^%-day.

How do you do it? Do it by building your business like you're gonna sell the sucka. (Even if you'll never sell your business.) We'll explain.

The "Sell My Business" Mindset

Why do private equity companies ridiculously increase their firms' values over a short time? According to a recent HBR entry by Goold and Barber, private equities use the "build-the-sucka-to-sell-the-sucka" approach. That is:

1. They buy high-potential companies.
2. They pimp them out.
3. They sell them for high profit -- ASAP.

Private equities know they better deliver something awesome that's promising both short-term/long-term -- or risk their futures.

The Benefits

Over a short period of time, private equities:

• Place people where they'll thrive.
• Get dope advice from the brightest.
• Cut bureaucracy inch-by-inch.
• Cut communication with costly customers.
• Bargain with vendors further.
• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Write ridiculously-detailed operation manuals.
• Seek growth opportunities.
• Yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Result: Freakishly fattened value provided to their firms.

Build-to-Sell Mindset = Sexy Profitable

Adopting the build-to-sell mindset gets you focused on the more profitable aspects of your business (i.e. the bigger picture). Because your mindset tells you:

• "I have to build my business where if hand it off, it'll still rock as if I'm not there!"

You automate your business's profit machine to continually churn bla-bling without your presence. That makes your business more adaptable for growth, cuts costs, and increases its agility.

Exponentially Awesome

With (1) exponentially reduced time spent, (2) exponentially reduced money invested, and (3) exponentially reduced energies expended, what do you get? Exponentially increased value/profits/sales/yadda. Shabam!

"So, how do I start?!"

Challenge yo-self:

1. You have 7 days to sell your business.
2. What would you do?
3. Ready. Set. !@^^% Go!

(You'll surprise yourself to your business's true potential.)

Build-the-sucka-like-you're-gonna-sell-the-sucka.