The 6 Things You Need to Know to be Great in Business

There are no shortcuts in business.  In order to be successful there are some things that you must know.  These are not all of them by a long shot, but IMHO they are 6 of the most important

1. Know how to sell.

Selling means being able to convey why your product or service, which may be you if you are looking for a job,  will make things better. Selling is never about convincing. It is always about helping.

2. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer

If you know how to put the person you are dealing with in a position to succeed, you can be successful. In order to do this, you must be able to quickly understand the needs and demands of that person and those of the company(s) they work for or with.  Every person and industry is different.  This is something that comes from investing incredible amounts of time to understand different industries , businesses, roles, and what has made them work and not work.

It is a never ending process of learning about what companies need.  What people in those companies need and how they work. If you don’t understand what it takes to make the people and companies you work with better, you don’t understand how to be successful

3.  Know as much as you can about technology

The beautiful thing about technology is that it changes every day.  Look at any tech you can see today or have ever seen. Any tech you have read about. It was invented by someone(s). They know the product better than everyone.  On the day that it is released, you are as knowledgeable about that  technology as anyone else in the world.  From there its just about effort to keep learning.

If you are one of the few people that know the new technologies, you are in a unique position to put yourself in the shoes of your customer(s) and determine if the new technology can be of benefit.  New technologies enable change and where there is change there is opportunity.  Its up to you to figure out  what that opportunity is.

4.  Always ask how you would design a solution if no current solution existed.

99.99pct of the things we do in business are being done the way they have always been done. No one has re imagined how things should be done.  That is what successful people do.  Every situation they are in they take their knowledge of the business or situation they are visiting, whether its buying a deck of playing cards,  eating at a restaurant or trying to solve a problem and think about how to re invent it.  They dont ask people what they would want. They envision a complete reapplication . Then they decide what to do with what they just recreated.

5. Is it the path of least resistance to something better.

Lots of people come up with ways of doing things that they think are great/amazing. What they fail to ask is whether it will make anyone else’s life better or easier. The simple test of any imagineering of a process or situation is simple. Is this the path of resistance  to a better place for the user ? Yes or No.

6. Be nice. 

People hate dealing with people who are jerks.  It’s always easier to be nice than to be a jerk .  Don’t be a jerk

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What Jay Leno Can Teach You About Growing Your Business

I have a rough homework assignment for you, entrepreneurs: Go visit a comedy club.

More specifically, try to find your favorite big name comedian working at a small club. Jay Leno, for example, usually appears in Hermosa Beach, California (just outside of L.A.) every Sunday.

At these often unbilled appearances, usually the comedians are only on stage for a few minutes, typically with notes in hand.

What they are doing is trying out material.

As you watch them work--and that is exactly what this is, work, as in research for them--don't pay all that much attention to the jokes, study their process.

Of course they want to know what's funny and what isn't.

But you'll see if you go back for a second night or a third, they are going far deeper than that. They want to know if it's better to set up the joke by saying X, or Y; they are trying to figure out when they should take a pause; should the new joke work in combination with an old one, or serve as a transition to the next bit?

In other words, they are dissecting their product--their future stand-up routine--down to the granular level and then they rebuild it from there.

Are you doing the same thing, when you are thinking about introducing a new product?

You should be.

Early on in the creation process it is remarkably easy and cheap to test what you have. Between online surveys and empty space in a mall you can get detailed feedback from your customers quickly and at little cost.

And because you are at the start of the creation process changes are easy. You can keep tweaking until you have something that truly resonates.

It is the best way to create the new.

This kind of preparation can be summed with four letters: ALBR

Act. You show people what you have, much like the comedian unveils the joke he has been working on.

Learn. You study their reaction. Did they like overall premise. (Did they think the joke was funny.) What did they tell you through their reaction about how your product (the joke) could be improved.

Build off that learning. Incorporate the feedback that makes sense.

Repeat. Show the second iteration to customers (just like the comedian will tell the revised joke at the next show); learn from this reaction and so forth.

This process works.

No joke.

5 Phrases Every Leader Should Overuse

As the leader of a startup, you have to deal with a never-ending series of issues. Startup CEOs must motivate the rest of the team, establish a company culture, and find a way to keep everyone together.

When stepping into a leadership position, it's easy to become overwhelmed. To help, here are five phrases that you should repeat as often as possible. Use these phrases as guidelines for decision making, and you'll become much more effective as a leader.

1. "I trust your judgment."

When your team members are facing hard decisions, there will be plenty of times when they come to you looking for a solution. While your natural tendency will be to tell your team what to do, it is better to let them make decisions themselves. It is your responsibility to help your team grow; if you always have the final say in everything, you prevent it from growing.

2. "I don't know."

As people step into leadership roles, there is pressure for them to act like they know everything. Many times, leaders will push an idea on their team or convince themselves that they have to know the answer to everything. This is a disastrous way to lead a company. As a leader, you have to be the first one to admit that you do not know everything. Members of your team may think that by admitting they're unsure of something, they are doing something wrong. This not only prevents them from improving, but also builds a company culture that won't allow people to make mistakes. When you show that it's OK not to know the answer to everything, your team will have much better communication and trust.

3. "What did we learn from this?"

Being a leader is a roller coaster ride, especially in a startup. One day your company is booming and the next you're almost out of business. Mistakes are happening and many times your team is facing obstacles for the first time. When things go sour, it is your job to make sure your team is taking full advantage of its failures. Instead of getting angry with team members, take a step back and ask your team what they've learned from their mistakes. Don't answer this question for them. Instead, give them time to think about what the root cause of the problem was, and how to prevent it the next time. When you do this, you not only prevent future mistakes, but you also keep your team motivated to take future risks.

4. "I'll take care of it."

The ideal situation for a leader is to recruit a team where every member is smarter than than the leader. Then, when faced with tough decisions, they can delegate to the best person on the team. With that said, there are times where you will be the only one on the team that can take care of a problem. When these situations occur, you need to tell your team you'll handle the problem, and to do whatever it takes to execute. Startups are anything but stable, which is why, as the leader, you have to be the one person upon whom everyone on the team can rely. 

5. "We're all in this together."

There's a lot of advice for how leaders should overcome failures. There's not enough written about how you should also celebrate success. Being the leader of a company is a double-edged sword. When your company fails at something, fingers usually are pointing at you. Even worse, when your team succeeds, people will try to say it's because of you that your team won. This is one of worst beliefs a leader can have. If you watch interviews with Steve Jobs, you'll notice how many times he attributes Apple's success to his team. While no one will make a movie about every employee at Apple, Jobs knew he would never have been successful without his team. When your team accomplishes something, remind them that they're the ones who got you to where you are. You win together, and you fail together. That's how you build a great company.

Why the Best Leaders are Servants, Not Kings

If you set out to climb Mt. Everest, one of the first things you do is hire a Sherpa. Originally an ethnic group in Nepal, today a "Sherpa" is the common term used for the leader of a mountain climbing expedition. In business terms, you are hiring a CEO to help you get to the top.

Thinking of yourself in the role of the Sherpa will help you become a stronger leader. This is especially true today where leaders must empower their people, not just command them. As I reflected on the treacherous and risky conditions endured by climbers, it reminded me of our current business landscape and the need for courageous and thoughtful leadership.

Here are five powerful lessons borrowed from those tough-as-nails, yet compassionate, expedition leaders:

1. Your real job is to lead others to the top.

Sherpas are successful by helping those around them reach their full potential. The same is 100 percent true for you as a leader in your organization. Ironically, the more you make it about others, the more individual success you'll enjoy.

2. Detailed planning saves lives.

If your Sherpa just looked up the mountain and said: "Let's go," you'd sprint in the opposite direction. Great leaders carefully plot out each step of their attack to ensure a safe ride.

3. Expect and prepare for setbacks.

Sherpas routinely deal with unexpected weather, animals, obscured paths, and many other obstacles. Rather than becoming derailed, they build contingency plans and adapt in real time. Do you?

4. Walk with your team.

The role of a Sherpa isn't to lead from afar. Instead, these leaders climb the mountain right alongside their teams. As a result, they build trust and achieve success. You can't ask your team to jump through fire unless you're willing to do it too.

5. Become a great listener.

To reach the summit, Sherpas must carefully listen on many fronts. They need to truly understand input from their team, the basecamp crew, and other hikers. They also need to hear rapidly changing weather reports, advice from other Sherpas, andthe latest advances in their field. Are you so busy talking that you fail to listen to others? Great leaders listen intensely and speak thoughtfully. Quite the opposite of the typical blowhard boss.

The old-school ways of barking orders from afar, thinking you have every right answer, shooting from the hip, refusing to adapt, and putting yourself first have been rendered totally ineffective in today's fiercely competitive economy. However, if you embrace the ways of the ancient Sherpa, you may just end up reaching that rarefied air sought by many but enjoyed by few. It's time to reach your own summit by shifting your approach. No ropes or helmet required.

6 Things All Successful Entrepreneurs Believe

Entrepreneurs have a different way of doing things.

It takes a special kind of person to be able to turn the spark of an idea in their minds into a full-fledged income-generating operation that's built to last. It's no wonder entrepreneurs seem just a little bit different from everyone else. They really are different.

By understanding these 6 things that successful entrepreneurs believe, you can learn lessons that will help you succeed in your own business--and in your career and life.

1. Entrepreneurs believe that anything is possible.

This is what drives them to create the impossible out of pure ideas. They don't understand why other people don't reach for their dreams and put everything on the line for an idea, because that's just how their brain works. Because of this, it may be difficult for some people to convince an entrepreneur that his or her idea is impossible. Entrepreneurs don't know the meaning of the word impossible, and they will pursue their ideas until they find the success they are looking for.

2. When people see hurdles, entrepreneurs see ways to get over them.

It's in nature of entrepreneurs to start figuring out possible problems before they exist, and to figure out ways to neutralize them the moment they arrive on the scene. if anything, obstacles and naysayers push entrepreneurs to want to succeed even more. Don't try to stand in an entrepreneur's way because you are likely to get run over.

3. Entrepreneurs are extremely optimistic.

They know they are going to succeed--eventually--and they always look at the word as a glass half full instead of a glass half empty.While this optimism is at times misunderstood, it's one of the best qualities that an entrepreneur possesses. The ability to look to the future with rose-colored glasses is a gift that many people wish they were blessed with.

4. Entrepreneurs can't stand authority.

Whether it was a boss in the past that they couldn't stand, the feeling of being stifled in a corporate position, or just the fear of mediocrity, there's a driving force behind entrepreneurs wanting to work for themselves. Entrepreneurs don't do well with authority because they are used to living up to their own expectations, not someone else's.

5. And the same goes for rules.

Entrepreneurs like to answer to themselves--and themselves only. They don't like being put in a box or confined to a set of rules that they didn't create. This doesn't mean they don't follow the rules that really count, because they do. They aren't going to break the law just because they don't like it. But entrepreneurs set very high standards to live up to, and their own expectations are higher others would expect or hold them to.

6. Entrepreneurs see limitless possibility.

Ask any entrepreneur if all the success in the world has already been exhausted, and he or she will surely look at you like you must be crazy. Entrepreneurs look at the world and see endless possibilities. Because of this, they never stop reaching for more opportunities and success, and are highly unlikely to ever retire. Most entrepreneurs continue to grow their ideas and start new companies for the entirety of their lives.

10 Excuses Unproductive People Always Use

They moan. They wail. They shuffle around the office looking for free candy. Unproductive employees have an excuse for everything. Here are a few of the phrases they use to explain away the problem. Listen for them, then correct the action to get things back on track.

1. I'm overworked.

I hear this one constantly. What unproductive people might not realize is that we are all overworked. We're in an overworked age. Instant access to email and a mobile browser means work is always just a click away. What separates the wheat from the chaff? The really productive people don't dwell on the problem. They just do the work.

2. That's not my job.

I've written before about staying productive by focusing on your job and not doing the work of unproductive co-workers. That's always a bad pattern to set. Curious, then, that the really unproductive people always seem to notice when they're doing extra work to help a project. They focus on their role too much and on what everyone else is not doing. Truly productive people don't even care. They just do whatever it takes to get things done and plow ahead, analyzing the exact role definitions later.

3. I'll finish that later.

Forget the Mark Twain quote about procrastination. Unproductive people waste time because they live in a constant state of incongruity. The loose ends of their tasks never meet up, and stay loose. They start one Word document, work on it for a while, drop it, then start working on a PowerPoint. In the "picking up and setting down" process they waste time because each tasks needs a jump start, which uses more energy.

4. I don't have all of the answers yet.

Overly detail-oriented people use this one. They wait until everything is perfectly lined up before starting a task, usually languishing in perpetuity because things rarely do line up. And, ironically, some of the employees in your company who are wasting time mindlessly browsing all day are the ones who think they have to wait for the project pieces to fall in place. The solution? Productive people just do whatever they can now on any tasks that need to be done. They don't wait for the perfect timing.

5. I'll wait for the boss to tell me what to do.

For any employee in a small business, a lack of independence is a true productivity killer. While someone is waiting to be told what to do, a project will spin out of control. We all know the "get it done" crowd just figures out the problem and starts working on a task. Besides, if the boss has to explain every little detail, that's using up valuable time anyway.

6. I don't understand all of the variables.

Really? Is there an employee who won't act until he or she has all of the answers? That is a sign of someone who will be waiting a long time because no one ever has all of the answers. The folks who started Airbnb and Uber didn't wait for all of the regulatory issues to be ironed out. And Google didn't wait to test driverless cars until every state allowed them.

7. I don't see the benefit for me.

We are living in a world of narcissists who take selfies every 30 minutes and post about their inner feelings on Twitter. The underlying problem? They're slowing down a project because they only care about their own rewards. Productive people see the greater reward of a successful company and want to play a part in building something cool. The selfies can wait until the weekend.

8. I might not get the credit.

Related to that problem is another productivity destroyer: the need to take credit for the task. The process of hyping up your work, demanding crediting, and pestering people to notice your actions all contribute to an unproductive day. The employees who are slowing things down the most are spending too much time trying to get the attention of the boss.

9. I'm worried about my quality of work.

Productive people know how to slam out good work in a constant flow of creativity and skill. They care about quality, but they also understand that being productive requires a push to finish. When the goal is to always create perfection, unproductive people create a serious slowdown. Praise quality, expect proficiency, but encourage productivity.

10. I might fail.

The hallmark of every unproductive person at work is being worried about failure. It's a time-tested truth. If employees don't ever start a project, they don't have to worry about failure, right? I've written about total failure before, but letting a few tasks fail is okay. It means you are trying new things and staying busy. Holding back because you want every task to succeed? It just means completing fewer tasks.

6 Quick Ways to Be Happier at Work

I've written about workplace happiness in the past, but many of my suggestions require consistent effort. Here are five sure-fire, incredibly easy actions that will immediately improve your workplace experience:

1. Take a "quiet minute" each morning.

Within your morning routine, carve out a minute--60 seconds--to be silent, by yourself. Don't think about work. Read a poem or say a prayer. Or just rest your brain. You'll be amazed at how much extra energy it will create for the rest of your day.

2. Smile more frequently.

Smiling accomplishes two things. First, it tells your brain to be more happy. (Try being depressed with a huge grin stuck on your face.)  Second, when you smile it tends to make other people smile, too. It's contagious, in a good way.

3. Give yourself more credit.

Take a second to give yourself a mental and emotional pat on the back every time you complete a project, even if it's only a small part of a larger effort.  This creates a sense of accomplishment that keeps you from feeling overwhelmed.

4. Celebrate when you learn something.

If you're alive, you can't help learning something new every day. The trick here is to recognize when you've learned something new and potentially important.  That's a victory and worth a quiet, inner "hooray!"

5. Enjoy human nature.

Let's face it: people do really strange things. You have a choice when confronted with these foibles: 1) be irritated or 2) be amused.  Being irritated makes you miserable but being amused helps you find creative ways to work around the limitations of others.

6. Say thanks to those who do thankless tasks.

You probably already know that you should thank co-workers and customers on a regular basis.  But what about the janitors, the facilities people, the call center staff? They've got really tough jobs and seldom hear that their contributions are valued.