“Sleep in peace, for you have not failed.”

–     From Og Mandino’s 1968 classic, The Greatest Salesman in the World

With Letterman retired, we have to look elsewhere for Top Ten lists, and here’s one that is timeless, telling and true.  From the ten scrolls in Og Mandino’s classic business book;

1.  “I will form good habits and I will become their slave.”  Make no mistake, we become slaves to our habits, good or bad, the decision on which to choose becomes the difference maker.

2.  “I will greet this day with love in my heart.”  We can choose to superimpose good intentions on everyone we meet, and to love them even when we’re wrong.

3.  “I will persist until I succeed.”  Or, as Jim Valvano admonished us, “Don’t ever give up.  You’ve got to keep on trying and never give up.”

4.  “I am nature’s greatest miracle.”  Arrogant?  Nope.  Factual.  Think of all the ingredients that make up you, and marvel at the miracle — and go forth to honor it.

5.  “I will live this day as if it is my last.”  It might be.  No regrets is a decent goal!

6.  “I will be the master of my emotions.” This doesn’t mean ignore them, it means overcome the negative and leverage the positive.  Master them.

7.  “I will laugh at the world.”  A)  It’s funny.  B) When it’s not, our only other option is to cry, and laughing is more better.

8.  “I will multiply my value one hundredfold.”  Play to our strengths.  It makes Marcus Buckingham proud and it multiplies our gifts.

9.  “I will act now.”  All that matters, and all we can impact, is what we do next.

10.  “I will pray for guidance.”  Not for money, success, fame, accolades, an easy path, a lucky break.  For guidance.

When salespeople — strike that — when we follow this Top Ten list — we will make a difference.

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” 

–     Herman Melville, as quoted in an ad campaign for the new Cadillac ATS-V Coupe

It’s a compliment when we hear someone say that another person is “the real deal.”  It’s a compliment when we say that someone has “fresh ideas,” or “an unencumbered perspective.”

It’s also a choice; to be genuine, to be original.  It is also a choice (substandard and beneath a difference maker) to imitate or copy.

Being the “real deal,” the “genuine article” or “the idea person” should be a more popular choice not just because it’s the best way to bring about improvement in the team and its outcomes, but because the bar never changes if we just stand and look at it.  When it comes right down to it, if, as an employee, we’re trying to be “Bob’s replacement,” or the “next Mary,” we’re going to fail.  We ain’t Bob, and we ain’t Mary.  If, as employers, we’re trying to hire the next Bob or Mary, we’re going to be frustrated for two reasons.  First, we ain’t getting Bob or Mary back, and second, we’re missing an opportunity to upgrade.

Yep.  I said upgrade.  Not only is no one truly irreplaceable, but virtually no one is un-upgradable.  And, as leaders, our #1 job is to have a plan for what we’d seek if Bob or Mary won Powerball and rode off in to the sunset.  (Editor’s Note:  If I win Powerball Wednesday night, it’s been really good writing for y’all, and I’ll miss you…)

That’s right everyone can be upgraded upon.  A couple obvious examples follow here:  Very few (if any) Green Bay Packer fans thought Aaron Rodgers would be the Hall-of-Famer he’s becoming, primarily because he wasn’t Brett Favre.  Favre was one of a kind, and so is A-Rodg.

Eric Clapton the end of the era of great guitarists?  Tell that to Joe Bonamassa, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, John Mayer or Joe Satriani.  Eric “Slow Hand” Clapton is legendary, but close your eyes and listen to one of these “new” guys — and you realize that the bar is being raised.

People on the Left are hoping to find the next Bill Clinton, just as those on the Right are in the lab, hoping to clone / re-create Ronald Reagan.

Tomorrow at work, be your own person.  Raise our kids to be their own person.  Hire people for what they’re great at and then help them be even greater at those things, rather than teach them to do what we’ve always done.

I’ve had great mentors, but it’s insulting to them when someone says, “Steve is the next WB, RD, DC, BC or HJ,” not just because they were the real deal themselves, but because as mentors, they encouraged, coached and drove me to be genuine and true to my own wiring.

We owe it to the people we work with to do the same.

“I got to go on living ’cause I ain’t got time to die.”

–     Lyric from “I Ain’t Got Time,” by BR-5-49

If we ain’t got time, how is that possible, since time is all we have…

But, we all want to believe we ain’t got time, and we’re right, in the correct context.  We ain’t got time…

To waste, that is.  We ain’t got time to waste.

So, why do we waste it?

Is it fear of failure?  Fear of success?  Fear of ridicule?  Fear of acceptance?  Fear of making a stand?  Fear of being too passive?

Look, it’s the only asset we have, so why not use it accordingly?

Lots of question marks in this post.  How close at hand are the answers that lie between us and making a difference?

“The subtle accumulation of nuances, a hundred things done a little better.”

 –     Henry Kissinger’s definition of “Quality,” from Tom Peter’s classic business book, In Search of Excellence

The hardest thing about progress, for a difference maker, is that it’s so difficult to keep in context.  People with vision, or those that seek to maximize each opportunity, can struggle mightily with incremental improvement, because it’s incremental.

Yet, we must.  In each moment, we’re called upon to read the nuances and do one thing at a time a little better.

Frustrating, especially when we already see the “big fix” and know full well how to “force it?”  Yes, it is.

But forcing something — think “square peg and round hole” — rarely leads to a good or permanent fit.  And if maximization is our ultimate goal, each “fit” matters, to keep the bigger contraption together.

“I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay, I sleep all night and I work all day; I cut down trees, I skip and jump.  I like to press wild flowers.”

            –           Monty Python’s Lumberjack Song

Not my favorite verse, but the DD is a family publication, and references to ladies undergarments might not be appropriate…

So, you may be wondering, “How on Earth is he going to loop this back to Mother’s Day?”  Well, here goes…

My mom loved my friends, for the most part.  She thought the fact that everyone had a nickname was a stitch.  She didn’t understand 80% of the inside jokes (thank goodness!), but she laughed at our laughter.  She never saw Monty Python, but one day, as she heard a few of us launch in to this song, she began to laugh…and when we got to the naughty parts, she had her usual look of aghastness…um, er, aghastnicity…her usual aghast look and then quickly walked away, shaking her head at what a bunch of dip-weeds we were.

Sunday will be the “Ninth Mother’s Day without Mom,” but the cool thing is, I get to celebrate with The Three’s incredible mom.  She does so much for them, I hope they know how good they’ve got it!  For those of you who are Moms…THANK YOU, and please have an incredible day.  For those of you who are married to Moms, find a way to let them know that they do the hardest and most important job in the world, and that they do it well!  And, for everyone, if you can, call or see your mom, and thank her for making a difference by bringing you in to the world, and keeping you from doing major harm to yourself or others so far.

Make a difference today, whether or not you’re a lumberjack and wearing “suspendies and a bra.”  (I just couldn’t resist…sorry!)

“It’s knowing how you’re thinking and why you’re thinking like that, and what you need to do is alter it in some way.”

–     Rory McIlroy, #1 ranked golfer in the world

When under fire, McIlroy bakes it down to a two-word thought stream.  “Process” and “spot.”

The rules of the golf of golf haven’t really, materially changed.  Ever.

The equipment and fitness and training and resources available to golfers, though, have.

The dominant forces in the game used to play with persimmon woods and skinny, whippy irons, using golf balls that, after you hit them once or twice, simply were not likely to be round.  Jack Nicklaus, out of loyalty to MacGregor Golf, played their ball, which many of Jack’s contemporaries thought weren’t even round before you hit them.

So, why have Bob Jones, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy been so dominant?  Because no matter the course or the equipment or the competition, they were able to break things down to the one or two critically important factors.  For Rory, it’s “process” and “spot.”  For the others, they’d give you a different word or two.

But the evolution of domination has constants.  And the one most important constant in domination is “focus.”

“(Warren Buffet’s) game can best be described as the pursuit of unchanging goals through ever-changing means.”

     –    From a story by Jason Zweig in the May 2 – 3, 2015 “Wall Street Journal”

Let’s face it.  Everyone would like to be Warren Buffet.  Maybe not in our 80’s, maybe not with the eyebrows, but to be the market maker, the “Oracle of Omaha,” the wealthiest person alive (or perennially one of them) simply would not suck.

In the first of our series on “The Evolution of Domination,” this quote about Buffet — “unchanging goals through ever-changing means” — is particularly appropriate.

The “what” should not vary widely, and one could argue that it should not change at all; be it value, market leadership, customer experience, profitability, etc.

The “hows,” though, must evolve.  In some cases they must go quickly beyond evolution and change radically. Research Disney’s My-Magic+ project.  Consider Buffalo Wild Wings transformation of the way chicken wings are priced in the market.  There are dozens of other examples in recent business history.  If the impact of the “hows” doesn’t register yet, consider that Milwaukee and Chicago were virtually the same size until the road and rail replaced the lakes and rivers as the how in transporting goods.

As usual, “Why?” becomes the driving question.  “Why will this get us to / keep us on our “what.”  “Why should we do this now?”  “Why isn’t anyone else doing this (or are they, and, if so, why don’t we know?)?

Unchanging whats.  Ever-changing hows.  All based in knowing, “Why?”

“The coffee market has lost its best consumer:  the kitchen sink.”

–     Coffee executive Hernando de la Roche, in Bloomberg Business Week (4/27 – 5/3)

Everyone loves their K-cups, except for the people who benefitted for years from the coffee we dumped down the drain after having a cup or two.

Similarly, think of all the untrained bartenders than run half a draft beer down the drain trying to eliminate the head on a beverage meant to be served with a head.

Planning is a critical function of any business, and it’s only effective when we understand how our products and services are consumed (or wasted).  A fundamental part of being able to plan, or alter a plan for whatever comes next, is to really “get” the end result.  And the only way to get it, is to see it, first hand.

Is there a K-cup or lazy bartender out there, primed to shake your market base?  Better to know now, than later.

“The NFL is one of the few industries that finds perfect candidates for their jobs and then makes them change everything.”

–     Kevin Clark, in a Wall Street Journal article Thursday

Maybe not many industries make this mistake, but way too many companies do.

Recruiting, done correctly, is a continuous process and not an inexpensive one.  So, why, when we find just that “right fit,” do we set about the business of “Company-izing” the new talent?  As Clark calls out in the article, beautifully, why don’t we let the new talent “New Talent-ize” us, instead?

In many cases, evolving our business, updating them, changing with the times is work best led by those least connected to “what we’ve always done.”

“The waiting is the hardest part; every day you see one more card.  You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, oh, the waiting is the hardest part.”

–     Lyric from Tom Petty’s “The Waiting”

We spent the better part of three hours in line this week, without access to a chair, let alone access to a rest room.

Not to see a cool new band here in the ATX.

Nope.

To get a passport.  For a 15-year-old.  During the school day.  (Only open 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM, weekdays!)

I could go all “why the post office sucks” on you, but I won’t.  What I will do, is admonish those of us who rely on customers and clients (that would be ALL of us, for those of you scoring at home) to intentionally, relentlessly and with conviction put ourselves through the buying experience of our customers or clients.

They might need what we sell.  Hopefully, the want what we sell.  At any rate, they deserve our respect, and if there is waiting involved, we ought to make it as brief and enjoyable as possible, and we ought to make sure that they know exactly what to expect during the wait.

It doesn’t have to be the hardest part.