Unleash more success each day by simply reordering tasks

Do you ever feel like there's not enough time in a day?

This concept technically and mathematically doesn't make any sense. It's like saying the government's $4 trillion yearly allowance isn't enough money to complete its tasks and do its job. Time is the same, there’s plenty, it's an allocation and a waste issue, not a resource issue.

The answer is not to hyper-schedule every minute or diligently prioritizing projects, an easier and more effective solution is to switch the order of tasks daily.

First, let’s look closer at time. If you focus and get in the zone, you can get a lot done in an hour, we’ve all had this experience.. Then imagine, each day, you get twenty-four of those blocks. Now you get seven of those each week, followed by an incredible 52 weeks each year. Again, twenty-four hours every day, seven days per week, and 52 weeks per year. That's a lot of time to get things done! Maybe even enough. (And for the record, "hey government, $4 trillion is enough too!").

The overlooked magic is each hour in a day is not equal 

Each day has two distinct energy and productivity periods. The missing piece isn't the amount of time or time allocation per se, it’s a misuse of energy and peak productivity periods. Everyone has energy patterns or times of the day when their energy is highest, creativity is flowing, and problem-solving skills are peaking. During these periods, output and productivity are substantially higher. For most people, these times repeat or pattern and, therefore, can be anticipated and leveraged.  

For me, my peak energy is about four hours every morning. From the time I'm halfway through my second cup of coffee to about 12:00 pm, or from 8:00am to noon. I've noticed over the years during this period of the day problem-solving comes quickly, and it's when I generate all my new ideas, best business strategies, and tactics. Because I know this, I purposefully use this time to write, plan company strategies, problem-solve, and make all my most significant decisions.

Each person's daily peak times can differ. My best friend and business partner's peak-energy and focus is at night. He recently wrote a very data-heavy book that required a lot of research and deep thought. He sat down religiously from 9:00 pm to midnight daily to write and work. He wrote a 500-page best-selling book!

He and I have discussed this, and we can't imagine doing serious and high-energy things during each other's peak-energy periods. My energy hits a low by 2:00 pm each day; by 9:00 pm, I know my day is done. This is when my friend hits his stride and gets his best work done.

Hold on to the idea that we have two daily periods, "peak-energy" and "low-energy."

There are two kinds of tasks.

At a macro level, we have two kinds of tasks: high-level, high-impact things that move the needle in our businesses, life, and relationships. These tasks require substantial brain power, thoughtful due diligence, and creative thinking. These are often strategic and can impact our lives and business for years. An example would be, "Should we acquire another company?", "How can we dramatically expand our revenue?", "How can I improve my health in the long term?".

The other type of task is the menial, low-impact things that need to be done but take less thought and creativity and don't require in-depth problem-solving. Examples of these tasks are replying to ten basic emails, organizing next week's calendar, or giving the final touches on a presentation.

The magic comes when you align peak-energy times with high-impact tasks

We need to complete both high-level and low tasks. Align your peak-energy periods with your high-level, high-impact tasks. Then use your low-energy periods for more menial simple tasks. This small change will significantly impact being more effective on your essential tasks, which has a dramatic and significant impact on your overall success. It requires discipline to avoid doing the easy stuff during these peak periods, but it is worth the payoff. Answering low-level emails during peak times is like using a 50 mm sniper rifle for hunting squirrels. It’s overkill… literally. It's a big mistake many people make.

Everyone feels sluggish and unfocused sometimes, and that's ok, but doing nothing or trying to accomplish more significant, more sophisticated tasks during these times is equally a mistake. Instead, use these times to reorganize your calendar and answer twenty simple emails.

Successful and wealthy people have figured out that high performance on a small set of high-impact, high-return tasks ultimately determines one's success and wealth accomuloation. It's the classic 80/20 rule. Choosing when your mind and energy are at their highest-level and aligning your most essential tasks is a game changer.

Oil and Capitalism Fed the World

(Disclaimer) Although I agree with this article's message, I used ChatGPT to generate 98% of the content as an experiment. We are beginning a new world!

As a business person and entrepreneur, I tend to look at all problems as solvable and also tend to oversimplify complex issues.  Take world hunger and poverty.

When researching worldwide poverty and food availability, there are two clear factors that have improved these conditions, namely oil and capitalism.  It’s a little overly simplistic, but their influence on economic improvement is undeniable.  The decrease in poverty over the last 40 years is substantial and is not by chance. It’s not to say that oil and capitalism don’t cause other problems, but considering a macro net view of their impact, it is overwhelmingly positive.

What influence has oil had on world poverty?  

Oil, also known as, cheap highly available, and transportable energy,  has played a significant role in the growth and development of the global economy over the last century, particularly in the transportation and energy sectors. 

The widespread availability of inexpensive oil has helped to power the growth of industry and agriculture and has facilitated the movement of goods and people around the world. Furthermore, cheap energy has had a significant impact on reducing world poverty. Access to affordable energy is essential for economic growth, as it allows for increased industrial production, transportation, and communication. This, in turn, creates jobs and improves living standards for people.

Energy is also an essential input for agriculture, which is a primary source of livelihood for many people living in poverty. Cheap energy has allowed for the mechanization of farming, which has increased crop yields and improved food security.

In addition, access to cheap energy has also helped to improve access to education and healthcare in developing countries. For example, electricity has allowed for the operation of schools and hospitals in remote areas, which has helped to improve the overall education and health outcomes for people living in poverty.

Furthermore, cheap energy has also played a role in reducing poverty by increasing the affordability of basic necessities, such as cooking and heating. This has helped to improve living standards for people living in poverty.

Combining cheap energy and capitalistic innovation is a powerful duo

The impact of combining cheap energy and innovation on worldwide poverty is significant. Cheap energy and innovation are two key drivers of economic growth, and when they are combined, they can lead to a powerful multiplier effect.

Cheap energy allows for increased industrial production and transportation, which creates jobs and improves living standards for people. Innovation, on the other hand, enables the development of new technologies and products, which can lead to increased productivity and efficiency.

Together, cheap energy and innovation can lead to significant improvements in agriculture, healthcare, education, and other sectors that are critical for reducing poverty. For example, the combination of cheap energy and innovation in agriculture has led to the development of new technologies such as hybrid seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, and mechanization, which have increased crop yields and improved food security.

In healthcare, the combination of cheap energy and innovation has led to the development of new medical technologies and treatments, which have improved health outcomes and reduced the burden of disease.

In addition, the combination of cheap energy and innovation has also led to increased global trade and the spread of new technologies and products, which has further helped to reduce poverty by creating jobs and improving living standards for people in developing countries.

Overall, cheap energy and innovation are two powerful drivers of economic growth and development and when combined, they can help to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people around the world.

Through innovation we dramatically scaled food production

Several technologies have contributed to the increased food supply in the world over the last several decades. Some of the main technologies include:

• Hybrid seeds: Hybrid seeds are created by crossbreeding two different varieties of a plant. They have higher yields and resistance to pests and diseases, which has led to increased food production.

• Fertilizers and pesticides: Fertilizers and pesticides have helped to increase crop yields by providing plants with the necessary nutrients and by protecting them from pests and diseases.

• Irrigation: Irrigation technology has allowed farmers to grow crops in areas with limited water availability, which has increased food production.

• Mechanization: Mechanization in agriculture, such as tractors and combine harvesters, has increased efficiency and productivity in food production.

• Biotechnologay: Biotechnology has led to the development of genetically modified crops, which are resistant to pests and diseases and have increased yields.

What is the source of all these innovations?

The source of these technological innovations is the United States, Germany, and France, all highly industrialized countries where capitalism is the dominant economic system and cheap energy was a key factor in all their development.

Hybrid Seeds

Hybrid seeds were first developed in the 1920s by George Harrison Shull, a botanist, and geneticist, who was working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. But it was the companies of the United States and Europe who were primarily responsible for the commercialization and distribution of hybrid seeds.

In the United States, companies such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International (now a subsidiary of DuPont) and DeKalb Genetics Corporation (now a subsidiary of Monsanto) played a major role in the development and distribution of hybrid seed corn. Similarly, in Europe, companies such as Limagrain and Syngenta were involved in the development and distribution of hybrid seeds.

Fertilizers and pesticides

Fertilizers and pesticides are an important part of modern agriculture and have played a major role in increasing crop yields and improving food production. The countries primarily responsible for the innovation of fertilizers and pesticides are:

• United States: The United States has been a major player in the development and production of fertilizers and pesticides for many decades. Companies such as Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow Chemical have been at the forefront of innovation in this field.

• Germany: Germany has a long history of innovation in the field of fertilizers and pesticides, and companies such as BASF, Bayer and Hagedorn have been major players in this field.

• France: France is also home to several major players in the fertilizer and pesticide industry, including Yara, Rhodia, and Aventis

Mechanization in agriculture

Mechanization in agriculture has played a significant role in increasing crop yields and improving food production. The countries primarily responsible for the innovation of mechanization in agriculture are:

• United States: The United States has been a major player in the development and production of agricultural machinery for many decades. Companies such as John Deere, Case IH, and New Holland have been at the forefront of innovation in this field.

• Germany: Germany has a long history of innovation in the field of agricultural machinery, and companies such as Fendt, Claas and Lely have been major players in this field.

• France: France is also home to several major players in the agricultural machinery industry, including Renault, Massey Ferguson and Valtra..

There is a direct correlation between poverty and democratic freedom (aka a capitalistic economic system) 

The poorest countries in the world tend to be more likely to have authoritarian forms of government, characterized by a lack of democratic institutions, lack of civil liberties, lack of rule of law, lack of transparency and accountability, and lack of effective checks and balances on government power. These governments tend to prioritize maintaining political power over economic growth and development, which can lead to a lack of investment in crucial areas such as infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Additionally, corruption and mismanagement of resources are common under authoritarian governments, which can further exacerbate poverty.

On the other hand, rich countries tend to have democratic forms of government. Democratic governments tend to be more accountable and transparent, which can lead to better governance and more effective economic policies. Additionally, democratic governments tend to have more open economies, which can attract foreign investment and promote trade.

Democratic governments also tend to have more robust social safety nets, which can provide support to those who are struggling economically. Furthermore, democratic governments tend to have better institutions, such as an independent judiciary and a strong civil society, which can help to ensure that resources are distributed more equitably and that corruption is kept in check..

.Capitalism is the dominant economic system in the world today and its most developed forms are found in the United States, Western Europe, and other industrialized countries. Also the source of most food innovation. Because capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production, such as factories and land, are privately owned and operated for profit, people get rich, and it’s one of the reasons they push the innovation.

We are at a unique time in world history where the largest percentage of the world’s population have shifted from worrying about eating each day to other “important” issues. Let’s not forget how we got here!

Everyone can be a multimillionaire, here's how!

Getting rich is a choice, not a chance.

Do you want to be rich or struggle with money?

But saving money is hard! I'm not talking about putting $1,000 into your checking account. I'm talking about socking away money for long-term wealth. Curiously, it's technically not hard to save money, but for most, the difficulty is on par with exercising every day, consistently eating well, and being kind to the opposite political party.

Saving money for the future is a psychologic challenge and goes against our nature.

Google “rich people,” and you’ll notice that most are “older”. Most people are unaware that Warren Buffet built 90% of his wealth after 60. At 47 years old, he had a poultry $47 million, as of 2023, he has $112 billion

This is precisely why saving money is so complex because it's in the future or the unknown. It doesn't feel like you get anything for it. Buy a nice car, and you get to drive it. Go on a nice vacation, and your get to swim in the ocean. Spend a weekend in Vegas, and you suffer from a pounding headache in the morning. All of these experiences give real-time feedback and reward.

Saving money over an extended period of time requires much less sacrifice to lifestyle.

The key to getting wealthy is time. If you don't use time, you can't get wealthy or said another way, time is the only path to wealth. Sure, some people hit it big by inventing something, becoming famous, or selling a company, but it's a very small number of people. Very close to zero, and I recommend you consider that probability zero in your get-rich scheme. The mathematical secret to building wealth is called compound interest. The way you get to take advantage of this "secret magic math" is to save money monthly…… for an extended period of time.

The magic math is your path to wealth - What is compound interest?

Imagine you're 65 years old, and you had a similar career as most of your friends. It had its ups and downs, and you and your friends all worked hard and increased your salaries over time. But on your 65th birthday, you announce quitting work, buying a yacht, and traveling the world for the next five years. Your friends are confused. Did you get an inheritance? Did you win the lottery? No, you saved money on the side during your lifetime and used the secret magic math. They didn't and still have to work.

The secret magic math

Here's how compound interest works. Let's say you save $1,000 and make a 10% yearly return. You now have $1100. Then the following year's 10% return is calculated at $1100, not $1000, so you now have $1210. You get 10% on the 10% return or interest on the interest. This process repeats, and if it repeats for decades, congrats, you're rich! For example, if you let $100,000 grow at 10% for 30 years, you'll have $1,983,740.

We all don't have $100,000 for 30 years, so let me give you the formula for $3,000,000.

Drew's 20/20 Plan

It guarantees minimal impact on your lifestyle and gets you rich.

Assume you’ll be saving roughly 10-15% of your pretax income.

• First 20 years: Save $400 per month from 25-45 years old. That gives you $303,748.

• Second 20 years: Let the $303,748 ride and add $1,500 monthly from 45-65 years old.

• Where to keep the money? Create a Charles Schwab or Vanguard account and invest monthly money in a low-cost “all market” index fund, like VIG. (This article gives more details, read now)

• That's it, 20/20.

• Congratulations. You have $3,364,938!

Let's talk about saving money. It's hard, especially when you're younger. But getting older doesn't guarantee saving either. I know many "older" people who still struggle to save. It may feel like there's no money left to save, I get it, I've been there and had a long savings journey myself. In fact, before I was 28, I saved a lot of money twice and ended up losing it all. (thanks, early internet stocks!). But what I built was the habit of saving, and I never gave up. I did it. I'm "older" now and proved the "magic math" works.

Saving is a discipline and a habit; it can be learned, and few other things are as valuable. But the idea that you don't have enough money to save or don't have any "leftover" is flawed in two ways and is the main thing that keeps most people from becoming wealthy.

First, most people can give up something that would have minimal effect on their lives to save $250 or $500 a month. And secondly and more importantly, the premise that you don't have money left over each month to save has the flow and priority of money backward. If you save at the beginning of the month (or first), you won't have enough money to go out to eat and buy that new toy or clothes. If you reorder the flow of money, you get to be rich.

If you wait until you’re 50 to save, it's too late. If you wait until you are 40 to save, it's not too late, but it's much more challenging and requires much more sacrifice.

Two excellent resources to help you on this journey.

Compound Interest Calculator (see the money grow!)

The best book on the subject of who get's rich and who doesn't. Rich Dad Poor Dad.

You have an idea for a product or a business, what’s next?

Although I will give specific ideas and steps you should take, the MOST IMPORTANT thing you do is START. The first step in starting a business is daunting and often paralyzing. In the history of the world, 100% of all accomplishments had a start, and your only guarantee is that 100% of ideas that didn’t start, failed. This is somewhat ironic because, technically, if you never start after having an idea, it’s a failure, and the prospect of failure is what keeps many from starting.

I understand being confused about where to start, I know feeling insecure about lacking experience and skills, and I understand not wanting to fail, but I don’t care about those feelings. You need to squash them and JUST START. I’ve had failures and successes, and the successes are so sweet, it’s worth it!

I’ll give you my most recent example of how I started a business and cut through the daunting complexities often unnecessarily manufactured. It’s a lip gloss company! I didn’t even know the purpose of lip gloss, and I never started or ran a physical product business or had to manage inventory. But whatever, let’s try.

The other two founders and I spent about three months analyzing the business opportunity, finding manufacturing and logistics partners, setting up the website and e-commerce system, designing the brand, and launching the business. We invested about $12,000, and almost all was spent on product inventory. Most of the value was in the founder’s time spent designing the website, creating the products, and finding suitable partners and staff. 

The main point of “just starting” a business, or some aspect of the business, is to learn. The reality is no one knows how things will turn out until we see a result. Too much planning, speculation, and devils advocating are both annoying and a waste of time. For this business we put minimum effort into the brand, business setup and didn’t write a business plan for this business. The most diligent and time-consuming process was creating the products because no business can succeed without good products.

Another reason I’m so adamant about “just starting”, is setting up a business today is ridiculously easy compared to my first business in 1999. The million dollars I raised back then was barely enough. Now it can be done for thousands. Also, the technology is inexpensive and easy enough for anyone to use.

There you have it. All this initial setup can be done in one week, seriously ONE WEEK. Running a business is hard, lots of stuff breaks, and people will disappoint you, BUT this is about starting and learning.

Remember Apple, Airbnb, Google, and Amazon had a simple and small start (I’ve read all their great stories) then they built big, complex, and ever evolving businesses.  

After having a great business idea, I immediately become desperate and urgent to learn if a business will succeed. For me, the only way to discover this is to launch a test balloon or miniature version of the business. 

Four months ago. we launched the lipgloss business with 6,000 units of inventory. To be successful, it would need to sell at least 50,000 units a year. One of my co-founders is a celebrity, and we leveraged her social media presence, so finding customers, in this case, was easier. However, we still didn’t know if anybody would buy lip gloss in a very crowded cosmetics space, and if they did, how many would they buy.    

With $12,000 and a lot of work from the founders, we successfully started and tested the viability of the business in about 90 days. It turns out, we sold out of our inventory in the first 90 days! It worked, and it’s now time to build the business. We had a long list of crap that broke, issues with a logistics company, wasted $3,000 but all of this is fixable, and we plan on going to the next step of the business, which is advertising, new products, more inventory and building the team. The business is Formless Beauty. Check it out (formlessbeauty.com).

Here are the platforms and technologies we used, and I have used them for years. It should be pointed out that all of these businesses are worth billions, and all were just ideas at one point!

• Manufacturing or logistics/shipping partners: Google search, common sense, and many phone calls to vet the partners. $0

• Create your brand. 99designs.com. $300

• Website domain: Godaddy.com. $100

• Website and e-commerce: Shopify.com. Buy a template for $300, $80/month.

• Marketing: Reviews (Yotpo), Email marketing (Klaviyo). Both have small monthly fees.

• Communication: Google Workspace and vocal cords.

• Skilled contractors: Upwork.com

• Employees: At the beginning, always friends of friends. (better than direct friends)

4 Steps to start and test a business idea

Step One - Refining your idea and vetting the viability

Ideas that live in our heads tend to be vague and unfinished. Your first step should briefly describe the idea, problem, and solution in writing. Read it back, sleep on it and continue to refine what you read. The summary should be no longer than a page and is NOT a business plan. Our theme here is to do the minimum with each step, which dramatically increases “starting” and moving to the next step. The process of writing the idea and refining it will also develop your “elevator” pitch, which is an often-used term used to describe the spontaneous pitch you’d give to an investor you bumped into inside an elevator.  

Next is vetting the idea with a small group of people, you’ll learn a lot when asking people, and often continue to refine and organize our ideas. You want to do two things with a group of around 10 people. First, give your elevator pitch and observe if they “get it” from their questions and feedback. Their response will either be, “that’s a great idea” or “I have no idea what you’re talking about”. This pitch needs to be 30 seconds or less.  If the majority understand the idea right away, great, move forward. If you find your need to further explain the idea, you should refine your pitch or idea.

Next ask the 10 people if they have experienced the problem you are solving, and how often the problem happens. If 8 say yes and often, then move forward. If 8 say no and almost never, consider not moving forward with this idea.  

Step Two - Define your market, customer base and competitors.

This analysis can be refined and modified later, but this is an important step to determine how big the market can be and is an important to narrow and focus your efforts. Let’s say you want to launch a company that sells cakes, it’s much easier to market and brand a business that specializes in birthday parties and celebrations than cakes for everyone, all the time.  

You want your market to be big but you must narrow the market segment and focus. Someone once famously said, “if you make a product for everyone, you make it for no one”.

Your focus could be just men, or just women, or a subgroup inside those big groups. Like men that like outdoor activities and have beards. This is still a large worldwide group but will allow you to create a brand and the marketing material more suited and attractive to that group.

All product and business ideas have competitors, even new ideas. As before, this analysis should be just an overview but will help you understand your market, pricing, and how much competition you’ll face. List your main competitors from largest to smallest, and make some notes about what you like and what you’d do differently. As a side note, if you raise money for your idea, this is an important part of your presentation.  

Step Three - Conceive an MVP and estimate the amount of time and money to make and launch it.

What is the absolute “minimum viable product” you could start the company with? This is harder than you think, it’s brutal to forego your ultimate product vision for something much less with minimal features. But it’s crucial to test small at the beginning which can save you years of time and possibly your life savings developing the wrong thing.

I think was Mark Cuban that said “If the first version of your product isn’t a little embarrassing, you’ve launched it too late.” Almost all good product or business ideas have a time to market consideration, or a race to who builds it first often wins.

Then calculate how long it will take to make and the budget. Don’t worry, just like all aspects of entrepreneurship and business building, this is a guess, do your best and do it quickly.  

My buddy recently came to me with the idea of reinventing the way physical therapists and trainers test muscle strength over time. There’s no good way to do it other than the amount of weight or reps done in each session. We discussed his MVP, which took a minute to figure out. He found an amazing engineer on Upwork.com, went through a series of designs, found a local manufacturer, and figured out a budget to build the prototype. All in, I think the cost was going to be around $14,000. He will take the prototype to his friends in the space to test and then probably raise real money if it’s successful.  

Step Four - Building a team and launching

We need a team to launch a business, the size of the team wil be determined by going through the above process. How big is the market? How long and how much will the MVP take? How much can I do on my own? Most businesses have multiple “founders” or individuals from the beginning. They are famously focused, hyper energetic, unrelenting, highly under compensated and a little nutty with an undertone of annoying.  

The group of founders should be extremely compatible with each other, enjoy hanging out with each other, AND their skills should be complementary and have minimal overlap. For example, you want a technical person and a more business oriented person. No what the business is, building stuff and finding customers is a different skill-set.

This is where you’ll start using the pitch and analysis you created above, and pitch people to join you. Nobody wants to join or give their time to a terrible idea with no chance of success. Use your close network of friends and family to find these first team members and be a little careful to collaborate with your closest friends and family members, unless you know they are great.

It’s time to test if anybody cares, launch it!

With our MVP, we will launch or sell it or beta test it to a small group of people. This could be for a price or free but at least a small fee is important. The ultimate market size will determine the size of the group. In the case of my lip gloss company, we test marketed it to thousands of people because only 10 wouldn’t adequately prove the concept. However, in the case of my buddies physical therapy product, it will be tested with five people.  

The most important aspect of this step is determining if anybody cares about the idea as much as you do. There is a reason that you see the first dollar framed on the wall of restaurants and businesses, it’s because there is a huge difference between someone saying they will buy someone and trading their precious money for the product!

Finding this small launch group or beta group could be through online advertising, friends, or just through hard work. Take the incredible and creative launch story of the popular dating app Tinder. The founders had a huge chicken and egg issue when launching. If no one was registered on the app, then you couldn’t find a date, but no one wanted to join the app without a users. Their solution was to host and throw large college parties. The price of admission to the parties was to download the app. After doing this once as a test, users realized they could see the men and women they wanted to talk to at the party and hook up later from the app. Wow! They repeated this process by throwing dozens of parties until the app had a critical mass of users. Match.com bought Tinder for $3 billion.

My best friend and co-founder of the investment firm we started has a mantra he learned from launching and running his private equity company when he was 25 years old. The firm now manages more than $1 billion. These simple three phrases sum up the most important aspects of starting, running, and being successful in business.

• Get sh*t done.

• Move on.

• Don’t be a wimp. (yes, he says a different word here).

Now get out there and stop just talking about your big idea, and get started. This process is designed to vet the idea and vet whether you are cut out for entrepreneurship. If you get through the steps and build a successful business, it’s genuinely the promised land of life and riches. Good luck!

There are only two groups of people

The current trend of shoving individuals into groups and assigning them a negative stereotype is both destructive to humanity and inaccurate.  I’m trying to figure out if the interpersonal destruction or the ignorant inaccuracy is more annoying. It’s close for sure.  For fun, let’s list a few groups and align their common stereotypes.  I wonder if any of these statements feel true, and others offend you?

• Corporations need to pay their fair share and exploit their workers for profit.

• Liberals want to take our guns and spend all our money.

• The NRA doesn’t care about people enough to give up their guns and therefore is directly responsible for gun violence.

• The Catholic Church enables and supports assaults against children.

• Democrats want to take away our rights and spend all our money.

• Republicans don’t care about the little guy, women, the enviornemnt, or the LGBTQ community.

• White men are born with toxic masculinity, suppress women have the deep-seated and unearned privilege.

• Trump supporters are all racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic

• LGBTQ people are …

• Christians are …

• Muslims are …

• Unions are …

When you have children, as I do, these subjects take on a different meaning.  When your kids ask you, “Dad, am I a bad person?” because they just heard someone state a negative stereotype that includes them, it forces one to take a fundamental stance and think through the rhetoric.  

Our family has had many conversations about these topics and has worked through our philosophy towards all people.   What stands out to me about this topic is all the assumptions in the above groups are true, but at the same time also definitely not true.  Within these large swaths of humans, people fit those molds and give fodder to the stereotyping.  But isn’t it reasonable to assume that some people don’t fit the negative stereotype?

Among the world’s 7 billion people, there are only two groups, good and bad people.

This may seem overly simplistic but stick with me for a minute.  I use these two groups mainly for parenting and to provide my kids with a framework to think about people and make sense of the insanity in today’s highly charged and hostile judgy world.  It’s surprising how many people get sucked into the vortex of identity politics and grouping people based on some label.

Let’s look at an example of one of the world’s largest organizations, the Catholic Church. It is more than 2,000 years old and has had individuals within its organization who have committed heinous acts against children and have had cover-ups at the highest level.   Does this mean the entire Catholic Church is bad, and maybe all Catholics should take some responsibility for these crimes? It’s an emotionally charged topic.

My mother-in-law has had an on-and-off-again relationship with the Catholic Church.  For the past ten years, it’s been one of the more important things in her life, including her faith, her community, and a platform to help others.  Their work in our community and around the world is widespread and has helped millions of people, this is undeniable.

How does one reconcile how they feel about an organization that has both caused so much harm and has helped so many over the centuries? 

This is the ultimate question and the purpose of my article.  All of the groups listed above have a group of bad people that do horrible things. Still, based on my life experience and interaction with people from all these groups, I argue that a majority of the people in those groups are good.

Let’s try this on for size and see how it feels.  Some Christians are jerks. Some gay men are jerks.   There are Democrats AND Republicans that are jerks.  They are anti-gun activists and NRA members that are jerks.  Writing that out loud is liberating, and feels great to get that out there. 

As long as we are playing and this is a safe space, let’s keep going.  I know some amazing Christians.  I also know some amazing gay men, and while we’re at it, I know some of the most generous, caring people that are Republican and Trump supporters.  I also know this guy who’s probably the most thoughtful and balanced thinker I know, who is a Democrat. 

Back to the idea of only two groups of people in the world, good and bad.  

Good and bad are defined by people’s behavior and treatment of others, NOT the group they support or identify.

My definition is pretty straightforward and centered around the golden rule of treating others as you would like to be treated.  Our behavior, and treatment of others, determine who is good and bad, NOT the color of our skin, gender, belief system, or what football team they support.  

If you’re determined to say all Republicans/Democrats/White men/LGBTQ/Christian/Muslim people are “blah blah”, then you are being unfair, insulting, and most importantly inaccurate in your description of millions of people.  I care more about “people” and individuals, and I find identity politics and mean-spirited stereotyping reprehensible.

There is also some solid irony here, and I always like some good irony.  In my observation, many of the people making these ignorant stereotypes are themselves often in a group that feels unfairly judged because they view themself as an individual, not as the group stereotype.  However, slinging a stereotype back towards another group is the same judgment they feel themselves.

Each group listed in this article have both good people and bad people, the groups themselves cannot be, and should not be, incriminated by a small group of bad apples in their respective group. Let’s judge people on their own merits, not on a group they subscribe too.

Absolute Views are Lazy

Are you finding that now, more than ever before, people are taking absolute views—opinions that are extremely one-sided? Views from political opinions to health opinions, human behavior opinions, and spiritual opinions. Families, friends, and co-workers are now clashing over opinions that didn’t permeate relationships before.  It frankly sucks.

I recently listened to several podcasts and read a book that provided some enlightenment and helped me identify part of why absolute views are so pervasive right now. 

There are four reasons this new hyper-opinion trend is happening.  It boils down to fear, laziness, a new cultural mandate, and media becoming an opinion business rather than an information business.

Absolute Views as a Result of Fear

Let’s start with fear. The main aspect here is your own comfort/insecurity with certainty. So often we get very different perspectives thrown at us and we start to wonder, ‘who should I believe?’ You can turn on two established TV networks, or read two different well know newspapers and get different ideas or even conclusions. Most people struggle with uncertainty, and how it creates a feeling of insecurity. They want a single answer. A strong opinion.

Because feeling and living securely is one of the strongest survival instincts we have, people gravitate to absolute and simple answers. Forming an absolute and resolute opinion alleviates fear and provides a feeling of security.

Why is Taking an Absolute View Lazy?

Everyone struggles with laziness at some point in life, I mean seriously, don’t we want to find a an easier way to do everything?  It certainly applies to this subject as well. Let’s look at immigration at the border as an example. Two absolute views could be:

Everyone should be allowed to cross the border into the US, we are a nation of immigrants.

OR

No one should be allowed to cross the border into the US, because there could be dangerous people in those groups.

The reality is that the best policy is nuanced somewhere between these two absolutes—but that requires extensive research, analysis, time, and effort. The lazy option is just to grab onto the absolute view that aligns closest to our feelings about immigration.  More often than not this information comes from short tweets and headlines Heads lines and tweets are loaded with bias and salacious wording to grab attention. The actually content is often buried half way or further into an article.

For me, a better “personnel”policy is that when your knowledge is thin on a subject, try to not take a strong and definitive  opinion.  How much you know about a subject should be directly proportional to the strength of your opinion and surety of that opinion. 

How Cultural Mandates are Fueling Absolute Views

I can read five headlines from my favorite publications (headlines, not the complete article), and form an opinion. I see people doing this all the time. Or they take a tweet that’s a clip from an article and feel fully informed. I call this headline research. And then people go on to use the article as a defense of their absolute view.

In today’s culture, it seems like we’re forced to have an opinion. This is definitely a cultural shift. After all, no one wants to seem stupid and have no opinion.

It wasn’t like that for me in my 20s. Sure, we all had opinions on some subjects, but if you asked me back then about my opinion on immigration, or liberal vs conservative, on foreign policy, or what I thought about Russia or China, I’d easily and comfortably say I didn’t know and frankly didn’t care that much. I was focused on my career, my relationships, and weekend plans.  Call it self-centered if you want, but I could hang out AND enjoy anybody back then.

A lot of 20-somethings now have absolute views on almost everything. Along with everyone older than 20.

Media as an Opinion Business

Again, when I was growing up, most newspapers and news programs gave mainly information, and fewer opinions and commentary. Even though opinion pieces were filled with bias, there was much less bias on the front pages.

Media companies today have figured out that high ratings and money is in opinion shows. This is great—I’m an unapologetic capitalist. However, I think the fact that commentary and biased opinions have found their way into mainstream articles reporting events and news is a problem.

Try taking your favorite newspaper and just reading the headlines. Do they have a bias or are they presenting information? Pay attention to the adjectives, and words that push a direction.  We’re now experiencing an onslaught of commentary and opinions, not facts we can use to form an opinion.

I hope we can get back to being comfortable with not having a strong opinion when we are ill-informed or weekly informed. And if you’re only willing to read the headlines, I beg you all to please don’t use the headlines to form absolute views.

I can dream.

All Deaths Are Not Equal

All death does not seem to be equal

2,813,503 people die each year
or 7,708 per day (in the US)

How does contemplating death or danger in general influence our lives? Are we being rational? Are their external inputs influencing our judgement?

Death, like pooping, is a difficult subject to discuss and consider, which is a little strange because they are among the few things 100% guaranteed. Death is bad, and it wreaks havoc on families, changes lives and history forever. However, it seems from our behavior we don’t view all death the same.

“A man with outward courage dares to die;
a man with inner courage dares to live.”

- Lao Tzu, The Art of War

Interestingly, Mr. Tzu uses the word courage to reference both death and life. It’s well understood and respected that young soldiers demonstrate incredible courage to defend our lives with their own, but “the courage to “live”, what is that all about?

My goal is to examine life through the scrutiny of death. Fun, right? If you live your entire life in fear and worry, you cannot live your life fully. You’re unable to be fully joyful, have peace of mind or even help others to the full extent. But easier said than done.

It’s less about that last date and more about the dash in the middle.

What is the effect of fear on our lives?

For me, the best way to gauge how I’m living is to question whether I have regrets in my life. At least once a month, I do a simple exercise. I imagine I’m going to die in 30 days, then I explore how I feel about my life, and how I’ve used my time. My conclusions have varied over time, sometimes I’m satisfied, and sometimes, I’m not. But many times it has redirected both my thought process and life choices.

For example, in 2010, I was living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with my wife and two kids, ages 7 and 4. Jen and I were having a dinner date-night, and perhaps a few glasses of wine, and we did this exercise together. We discovered both of us wanted to take a life-adventure of travel for an extended period and, regretted not doing so. Fast forward 90 days (yes, we are impulsive), we sold our house, all our belongings, bought an RV and traveled the US for one year visiting 33 states and driving 11,000 miles… while homeschooling our kids. If you want to read more about that trip, we blogged along the way here.

To this day, we talk about that trip and had the time of our lives. The trip would not have happened without that simple exercise, and frankly, if we considered all the possible things that could have gone wrong or the challenges we would face.

We are not making rational decisions

First, let me speak to all control freaks out there, calm down for just a minute and read this objectively. There is a crazy concept called cognitive bias, I didn’t make it up, humanity did. It clearly demonstrates we are NOT in control as much as we think and our expectations and perceptions greatly influence our lives.

The general concept of cognitive bias is when individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the inputs around them. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, can dictate their decisions and behavior. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality. Wait, I know this person, do you?

The best book I’ve read on the subject is Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He did some crazy experiments that clearly demonstrate how a variety of inputs, or external factors influence our decisions.

Experiment #1

Ariely conducted an experiment on MIT students showing the effect of expectations on choice. They let students taste two different beers, and then gave them the option to get a free pint of one of the brews after the experiment. Brew A was Budweiser, Brew B was Budweiser, plus 2 drops of balsamic vinegar per ounce.

When students were not told about the nature of the beers, they overwhelmingly chose the balsamic beer. When students were told about the true nature of the beers, they overwhelmingly chose the Budweiser without vinegar. This experiment is a strong demonstration of the power of suggestion and how our expectation highly influences our choices.

Experiment #2

In another experiment, he demonstrates how merely changing the price of something can significantly influence a physiological reaction.

Ariely made up a fake painkiller called Veladone-Rx (VR) and hooked up students to an electric shock device to deliver different levels of pain. In the introduction, the subjects were told 92% of patients receiving VR reported significant pain relief in 10 minutes, with relief lasting up to 8 hours. Keep in mind, the painkiller was 100% fake, or a placebo.

They tested two groups, one was told the drug cost $2.50 per dose. The other group was told the drug cost $0.10 per dose. Nearly all of the subjects in the first group reported pain relief as they were shocked with higher and higher levels of electricity. Shockingly (see what I did there), only half the second group, where the price per dose was low, reported pain relief when going through the exact same electric shock treatment.

The results of this experiment dramatically show the effect of setting an expectation undeniably can change our reaction.

Are external inputs feeding our fears?

Finally, back to death. Can we agree constantly worrying about dying, or something bad happening, diminishes life?

Let’s be clear about one thing, fear is deeply embedded in our brains as a survival mechanism, without fear, many more people would die. We naturally avoid cliffs, fire and screaming knife-wielding men. BUT what I’d like to explore is controlling fear and more importantly recognizing how external inputs feed and influence our fears.

I feel very strongly many external inputs are feeding our fears, today more than ever. Primarily the media and social media. The media and social media have different incentives to perpetuate and fuel fear.

The media has a huge profit incentive to keep people watching and tuning into their programs. They figured out a long time ago emotional strings are key to viewers, ratings and clicks. And the shortest, and laziest, route to emotional strings is fear. If it “bleeds, it leads”, they like to say.

The right and left leaning media go-to fears

The right tries to convince us every day that our country is under threat from outside invaders, and if you don’t do anything, our wives and children will all die. While the left focuses on inside forces, mainly repeating that corporate america and the rich will take and kill our wives and children. Both are very effective and compel people to watch their shows out of a perceived “responsibility” to stay “informed”. Those are not real quotation marks, I’m using “air” quotes when writing those words.

There is an incredible incentive to twist or exaggerate the truth, which is done frequently. My definition of truth comes from our legal system and is worth pondering, because only by this definition is truth accurate. (it’s weird I have to use an adjective to qualify “truth”).

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

For example, during a time of crisis, like the current virus scare, when the media only gives the worst case scenario and doesn’t also provide the best case scenario, this is not the whole truth. It’s an overt strategy to sensationalize a situation, to evoke an emotional response, which in turn creates a panic, which in turn increases viewership. I’m not talking about their responsibility to keep us informed, if that was their sole agenda, don’t you think we’d be better served with the “whole truth”.

Media outlets DO NOT have your best interest in mind when deciding what programing to show and not show. They are making conscious editorial decisions what part of the truth to show and what part to omit.

A great example of how data was misrepresented or the “whole” truth was not declared is from a UK based Professor named Neil Ferguson. Early in the Corona virus scare, he published only the stats from his worst case scenario. He showed 2/3’s of the people with the corona virus would die, see article. It’s important information, but not a complete set of possible outcomes. He quickly added more of the “whole” truth because of the reaction it caused.

There are plenty of other examples. President Trump likes to repeatedly declare the total costs of illegal immigration and how much it hurts our country. But he never gives any data on the services and money immigrants provide the country that off-set his narrative. Again, not the “whole truth”.

Social Media on the other hand is still motivated to increase clicks and make more ad dollars, but tends to be more about individuals either grand-standing or self-actualizing. People wanna feel important by correcting or humiliating others, and have an intense need to be right, rather than get it right. I beckon back to a time when all those strong, uninformed, biased opinions stayed at the diner table and bar stools.

All death does not seem to be equal

Can we please get back to death.

In the US, 2,813,503 people die each year and 7,708 each day. However, the bottom line is we don’t treat all death in the same way, or at least how the possibility certain deaths affect us. We clearly worry about some death more than others, and because this is true, is it possible we can worry less about death or scary things all together?

My theory is there are two things at play here. First, how we think about and fear death is highly influenced by outside inputs. And second, much of our state of mind and actual behaviors are not rational.

let’s put death in context

Did you know this many people die each year for each category? Do all of the following cause the same level of anxiety or worry for you? How much do you change your life to avoid each potential category of death for you and your family?

The Table of Death

Cause of Death	Yearly Deaths		Cause of Death	Yearly Deaths
2009 H1N1 Swing Flu	12,270	vs	Heart disease	647,457
Choking	5,051	vs	Shark attacks	64
Cancer	599,108	vs	Diabetes	83,564
Falling	26,009	vs	Unintentional poisoning	64,796
Automobile accidents	40,231	vs	Common flu	56,000
Smoking cigarettes	480,000	vs	Liver disease	40,326
Taking selfie photos	259	vs	*HIV deaths	16.350

These statistics are all from the United States and combine stats from the years 2009 -2019, for example some yearly deaths are from 2017 and some from 2019. * Over 30 million people have died from HIV since the 80’s, that’s half as many that died in World War II.

If you don’t hear about something horrific, does it still affect you?

Let me ask you, do you think about and stress about traffic deaths daily? Do you remember the 2009 H1N1 Swing Flu scare vividly, and as a national crisis? How often do you worry about HIV these days?

The old adage holds true here, “if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it really fall”. Well, of course it did, but the difference is you didn’t think about it because you didn’t hear it. Same holds true for many atrocities in the world that occur each day that you don’t hear about. For example, a women was just murdered as you read this (400,000 people are murdered a day, or 277/minute), but you don’t know who she is and where she was murdered, therefore it doesn’t affect you. This is a brutal example, but it’s just true.

I propose this is due to the influence of outside inputs, primarily from our media, and fueled by a profit-focused, self-actualization-power-grab, with undertones of a political agenda. For the record, I’m a libertarian-compassionate-capitalist and therefore don’t mind profit driven motives. But allowing them to influence or negatively impact my life is the issue and should be yours too.

What are you willing to give up to save lives?

Turns out, much of the time, not much. At first thought, you’ll probably think, “almost anything” all lives are valuable and of course I’d give up basic conveniences and freedoms to save your life or mine. Strangely, that’s not the case in many of life’s day-to-day choices. We are willing to sacrifice lives for convenience, short-term pleasure, and economic gain.

Let’s get real and ponder these choices referring back to the Table of Death above.

• Do you swim in the ocean?

• Do you and your kids get in a car daily?

• Do you fly in an airplane?

• Do you hike?

• Do you visit older people and hug them?

• Do you exercise and eat well each day?

• And the ultimate example, would you support lowering speed limits back to 55 mph?

Farmer Insurance company found that a 5 mph increase in the maximum speed limit was associated with an 8 percent increase in the fatality rate on interstates and freeways (read more). In total, over the 25-year study period, there were 36,760 more deaths than would have been expected if maximum speed limits hadn't changed over that time. Public opinion very strongly supports higher speed limits and they easily pass in election decisions.

“Driving 70 instead of 65 saves a driver at best 6½ minutes on a 100-mile trip," Farmer says.

We are unwilling to add 6 1/2 minutes to a 100 mile drive, which would save 1,000s of lives. Because I’m a math guy, that’s 153 lives per minute.

Are we slowly dying or are we living?

Let’s have the courage to live.

All death is serious, that’s not what I’m talking about, it’s about how we deal with it and how it affects our lives while we are living. I’m interested in maximizing my time on earth and my most important role in life is husband and father. Part of my role is to keep those in my family from dying, I don’t take many things seriously, but protecting my family I do. But I also made a very conscious decision to teach my kids how to live… while taking risks

I’ve taught my kids when you’re climbing on a 20 foot wall, focus, don’t fool around, because you can die. Where as, when climbing on a 5 foot wall, have fun, you can only brake an arm.

Recently my teenagers started doing five hour mountain hikes by themselves with friends. Multiple-mile hikes can be dangerous, there are mountain lions, you can get lost, stranger-danger, and simple injuries can change a situation quickly. I’ve taught them that warmth and water is most important. They bring water (always), a lighter, have basic survival skills, they know panic is survival’s mostly significant killer. They bring pepper spray for mountain lions and bad guys. These experiences are literally a rite of passage, where kids become confident and go through trial and error moments that define who they are, and ultimately reduce their fear.

Please consider monitoring and filtering the loud noise of outside inputs and their influence on your mindset. With a little discernment, it’s possible is to be informed, and not manipulated. And be aware of irrational behavior, the force is strong in all of us.

I’m going to die one day, until then, I’m going to live.

The solution to reversing global warming

I’m fascinated by the concept of global warming, not the science, or the debate over whether it’s man-made but individuals response to a potential apocalyptic event. Let’s establish the assumptions. The world will warm to the point where 200,000,000 people will be displaced, parts of the world will be uninhabitable AND the oceans will rise enough to flood major land masses. ALL of this will happen within 12 years.

For me, if we believe these assumptions, it seems like a big deal, one that we should take seriously and be willing to make significant changes in our lives to save the world. I am still thankful to Bruce Willis for giving up his life to save the planet from an astroid back in the 90’s. Now that is real sacrifice.

The Solution

I’d like to propose a simple solution that everyone can do within 60 days, which will totally reverse the output of carbon from the incineration of fossil fuels. It was critical for me to conceive of a plan that everyone can do and is accessible to EVERYONE.

Everyone immediately sell their gas cars, install solar panels and buy an electric car.

I’m guessing you think you can’t afford these, well you’re wrong and I’ll show you.

Here is the world-saving math.

For the record, 96% of Americans have a cell phone (81% of those are smart phones) and 73% have cable or satellite TV.

1. Cancel you cell phone plan and eBay your smart phone. SAVINGS $100 per month. (you can get an old flip phone and use a prepaid plan for emergencies)

2. Cancel your cable and fast speed internet. SAVINGS $150 per month. (you can get rabbit ears to watch TV for free, yes it’s a thing…and the local library and McDonald’s have free internet)

3. Get a side-job for 10 hours a week. EARNINGS $400 per month.

4. Buy a used Nissan Leaf. COST $15,000, or $250 per month. See cars for sale

5. Install Telsa Solar panels through their loan program. COST $86 per month. See the loan program.

6. Misc costs to install solar, deposit on the new car, etc. = COSTS $100 per month (first year)

The Plan Summary

New income generated = $650 per month

Planet saving solar/electric car purchase = $436 per month

DONE, you’ve got $214 to spare (you may want to install a wind turbine for backup.)

We did it, we saved the planet, Congratulations to everyone!

Instantly, if all drivers adopt this plan, carbon emissions will be reduced to the point of reversing global warming and we save the planet. You don’t even half to sacrifice your life, like Bruce did, HOWEVER, it may be a little inconvenient. But, if life is over as we know if in the next 12 years, it feels worth it.

PS: I drive an electric car and have a solar roof with backup batteries that charge my car at night

Get More Sh*t Done, Stop Stalling At Idea.

Apply this specific process to get stuff done and watch your business boom.  

So, you’ve got a big idea -- something you’re certain will change the world and make you a lot of money. Well, so did Elizabeth Holmes at Theranos. Aside from having some serious psychological issues, Elizabeth lacked one essential element in running her business: execution. 

Getting stuff done is the key to success, not “big ideas.” Almost all company success stories are execution stories, not idea stories. Ideas are cheap and pervasive. Most people consider Apple an innovator or “idea” company -- that’s not exactly accurate. They surely innovate, but it's their incredibly high level of execution that has made them the most valuable company in the world.  

Apple and Tesla: Execution, not innovation, got them to the top.

Even before Apple shipped the first iPhone in 2007, a robust mobile market with dozens of great phones already existed. The iPhone might have been a marvel of technology, but its success had more to do with Apple’s great execution of design, quality manufacturing, and supply chain management. 

And how about electric cars? Telsa was not the first on the market. Robert Anderson designed the first electric car in 1832, and since then, many electric car companies have attempted to mainstream their success. But only Elon Musk and Telsa executed on the delivery of a mass-produced car that everyone wanted. Elon said recently in the launch of the Tesla Y: “It’s 100 times harder figuring out how to make 1,000’s of cars than inventing the car.”

Look for people who get stuff done effectively and often.

One of my best friends started and ran a billion-dollar private equity company that buys and sells companies. When I asked him how he chooses what companies to buy, he answered emphatically and simply, “I find companies with management teams that get s**t done.” I asked him about other characteristics, but he said, “Nope, that’s it, just whether they get s**t done.”

If an individual or a team consistently gets things done and overall has a high rate of productivity, you can assume they have a long list of traits required to pull it off. They must be hard working, good with people, innovative, bold, organized, and very focused. These are exactly the traits we all want in employees and co-workers.

The reality is, there is only a small group of people that really get things done in volume and efficiency. Find these people -- and much of the rest of the execution process works itself out.

The 3 stages of execution

The stages are progressively harder, and the number of people able and willing to do each phase decreases dramatically.  

1. Brainstorming Stage

2. The 80% Stage

3. The Finishing Stage  

Success is only achieved when all three are done effectively, frequently and completely. But unfortunately, often times teams and individuals get stuck and spend too much time on the first two.

The brainstorming stage:  Everyone enjoys and is willing to participate in the brainstorming stage. It’s fun and creative but more importantly, doesn’t require accountability and hard work.  It’s mostly an off-the-cuff discussion between a group about a subject.  

The 80% stage: During this stage, people are required to execute the plan and move toward finishing a project, product, or event. This stage is harder than stage one, requires daily work, some accountability for deadlines and delivery. It also requires a high level of team communication and focus.

The Finishing Stage:  Although phase one and phase two are important, the money is in completing and releasing the project or product. Think about the difference in the value of a product that is 80% done versus 100% done -- it’s not even close. Stage 3 is the most intense, has the strictest deadlines, requires the highest level of focus, requires deep compromise, and can literally make or end someone's career. Only the boldest, most decisive and risk-taking individuals can push this stage through. 

How to use the 3 stages of execution to get more done

• Limit the time and energy spent on stage 1 and 2. 

• When in stage 3, be bold. It helps to outline the worst-case scenario for making decisions. This helps you realize that the possibilities are usually not as bad as you thought.

• Create hiring practices that focus on vetting people with a focus on a history of execution. For example, ask: “Can you give me an example of how you got something done when the team was struggling and a deadline was looming?” 

• When in stage 3, stick to deadlines, prepare for a higher level of intensity and, most importantly, compromise the original vision so only the most important features or things remain.

Just recognizing these three stages will help. Defining and communicating the stages of a project up front and tracking which phase you’re in will increase project completion effectiveness. The leaders and team members will know that nothing is done until phase 3 is completed by a deadline.  

Games are won in the last quarter, races in the last mile and wars in the final battles. These are the times to suck it up and give it your all. If you understand the three stages of execution and commit to completing Stage 3, you’ll join that small group of incredible individuals that turned their big ideas into extraordinarily successful companies and great wealth.

I'm included in an Entrepreneur magazine article

Great article written by Abdo Riani, "5 Ways to Bootstrap Your Vision without Funding"

Read here

Living a Life Based On Results

We live one life.   Let’s live it on purpose and without regrets.  Saying that out loud always gets people nodding and in quick agreement.  But then life has a way of taking over and pushing us and our grand intent around.  

I consider myself a master of living life consciously and maximizing my days, weeks, months and years.  But I sometimes find myself being pulled by kids sports, theater productions, social life, work, family and maintaining life stuff.  I have a pretty specific technique I used to get back on track, and it starts with reviewing my desired results.  I’ve got my big life priorities well defined, that part is easy, but the key to achieving all the things I want is focusing only on the results.

Don’t be satisfied with just effort in life, effort alone often doesn’t lead to a result.

I live a results based life, in business, parenting, friendships and my marriage.  The result is my guide, nothing else.   Even if you have a high work ethic and put in a ton of effort and it doesn’t yield a result, it’s a waste.    Keep the efforts that end in a defined result, and stop the efforts that don’t yield results.

Start with defining a desired result, NOT with the strategy of how to accomplish your goal.  Then make a commitment to not stop until you figure out how to achieve the result.  It’s that simple. 

How I used this simple technique in business, family, and friendships.

My 50 person company runs 98% without me

In my largest company, Red Giant, early on my partner and I set a simple, yet audacious goal of being able to run the company from anywhere (we used to say beach), and ensure the company never dominates our lives.  

Sean and I started Red Giant 16 years ago, we still own it but haven’t worked in it for 4 years.  It has 50 employees, that live all over the world and the entire company can be monitored and run from any computer that has internet access.

Sure this is an extreme example, but what happens over time when you define and commit to a specific result, you make decisions that direct that outcome.  Often you need to reject big opportunities along the way, we turned down multiple lucrative deals that didn’t fit our desired result.

From day one at Red Giant, we used 100% online systems (before SAAS was a real thing), and always hired people that enjoyed and were capable of working on their own.  Our current situation is NOT by chance, it was a result we defined 16 years ago and figured out how to achieve it and stayed committed.

My teenage daughter stopped talking to me

I have a teenage daughter, she’s nearly 15.  We’ve always had a good relationship and do a lot together.  About 3 months ago she started pushing back and rejected almost everything I said, and our relationship was suffering.   My goal is to be a Dad, not a “friend” but the direction of the relationship wasn’t ok with me. The result I needed was to improve our communication and reset our relationship.

I tried spending more time in her room, which never turned out well.  I had my wife talk to her for me, which didn’t help much.  But I kept watching and thinking about the issue.  I noticed she was constantly using the phrase, “don’t judge me” when I would talk to her.  Although, I was just being a “Dad”, she took it as judgement. (Dang teens…).   I stopped all “advice” or “feedback” of any kind for one month.  

Our relationship totally swung back to normal, and she now asks me to tuck her in every night, which I’ve done for 15 years.  My point is, I didn’t know how to solve the problem, but didn’t stop until I achieve the result I defined.  I put aside my pride, the fact that “I’m the parent” and that she is only a punk kid, and focused on the result of a renewed relationship.

My friendships were waning

I value relationships more than anything in my life.  But I realized more than a year ago that I wasn’t as connected to my guy friends as I’d like to be.  I set the result of reconnecting to a small group of people on a more intimate level.

I started by cancelling Facebook and making a list of friends that I would call and text directly on a monthly basis.  That went ok, but I still didn’t reconnect on the level I wanted.  So I decided to make in person visits a higher priority, which I did for most of them on my short list.  Over the year and through several changes to my efforts, I feel great about these relationships and feel more connected that I have in a long time.

I have strong ethics, little principles.

Steve Jobs used to say he had, “strong opinions, weakly held”.  I love this and it really resonates with me.  I’m willing to put aside certain principles, pride and ego to accomplish results.  I know this is a big key to my successes.  I have a high level of ethics and moral integrity, but when it comes to getting stuff done and achieving results, my very strong opinions can change with the tide of attaining results.

Listen to a podcast interview on The Mentee covering this topic.   Listen here

Better Wealth, Health and Self Through Exponential Relationships

Achieve exponential growth through relationships, make them exponential relationships.

I view pursuing exponential growth in my business, family, and health a mandate. Developing powerful, genuine, and productive relationships around you is the best way to achieve financial success and simultaneously maintain the freedom to live a full, balanced and satisfied life.  This is what I mean by exponential relationships.

We need to redefine how we measure success. Financial success is the easiest to measure, but have we really achieved success if we are wealthy at the expense of our health, family/friends or self?

By getting individuals around you to be productive and their best self with or without your management and constant guidance is the best way to increase the productivity around you while decreasing your time managing things.

How can you increase your output while decreasing your input? How do you make more money in less time?  How do you achieve better family connections and relationships? The answers are all the same.

What is exponential growth?

Exponential means to double over and over. For example, if your business does $100,000 in the first year, then doubles each year for five years, it's now doing $3,200,000.

But achieving exponential financial success when family, friendships, and your personal health suffers does not equal success; it could be considered failure. Resetting your definition of success to achieve financial success while improving things is equally or more important.

How do relationships lead to exponential growth and a more balanced life?

The goal should be to do more with less in our business, health, and relationships. When you invest in people around you, they give more, work harder, produce more and, most importantly, do it all when you're not around.

Instincts often drive an owner or manager to be a tyrant or demand things in the short term. Although this does work in the short term, in the long term it's not only ineffective but inhumane to both the employee and manager. Both end up losing.

When an owner/manager only barks orders or requires a checklist of tasks to be done each day, people tend to slow down or outright avoid work whenever possible or when the "boss" isn't around. This causes two huge problems: one for the company and one for the owner/manager. The company suffers from low productivity and profit and the owner/manager can never leave work, take true vacations and grow his organization beyond his direct control. The company and everyone in it suffers.

When you get one person around you to increase their productivity and autonomy, it grows your business slightly. If you get five people engaged and working at their best, the profit and growth will really start. Imagine 20 or 50 people focused, caring and working for each other. You'll not only see exponential growth but the opportunity to work less and spend more time with family, friends, and be investing in your health.

5 Ways to Create Exponential Relationships.

The discipline of creating exponential relationships is both rewarding and profitable. It can be accomplished within any company or organization with a few easy steps and some mindset changes.

1. Get people to care

If a person cares about what they are doing, it not only improves the quality of work but their overall productivity. People care about themselves first, but also in people around them and in a mission.  They don't care about companies, organizations or mandates per se.

The formula for getting hard-working people begins with the golden rule or, treat others as you'd like to be treated. You must find out what's most important to individuals short term and long, find out what aspects of work they enjoy doing and try to increase those things. Have one-to-one conversations with everyone about work and goals. This creates  both a mutual sense of caring and respect. Remember, people care about themselves and people, not companies.

Also, taking a  full disclosure approach to the business helps build the company community, mutual respect and caring in the entire hierarchy. For me, this includes disclosing revenue numbers, company goals, and failures, as well as  providing a company-wide profit sharing program and a system of asking for and using everyone’s input.

2. Cultivate momentum in people

I've found people can be held back from achieving their potential by either lacking confidence or the knowledge necessary to try something new or taking on a bigger challenge. When you recognize that someone has great potential but isn't taking the initiative, it's an opportunity to move them towards higher productivity. The cool part is it generally only takes 1-3 meetings to start some momentum towards the new endeavor. The first meeting is about identifying the new challenge, setting a goal together, then discuss what is holding the person back from moving forward. It's part therapy and part career counseling but most become part of your management process. If a single meeting doesn't create momentum or move the person, have one or two more repeating the process. Building confidence in someone to take on a new challenge is done through encouragement, knowledge and, most importantly, the opportunity to have success actually doing it.

Investing in those around you will, in the long run, be recognized by the individual and those around. If you make this practice a constant in your rotation as an owner/manager, over time you elevate many of those around you and add to your exponential growth.

3. Empower individuals

There is no better way to free up your own time while continuing to make money than to empower those around you to work independently and work at their best.  Ambitious and driven people often have the hardest time empowering those around them. Ironically, ambitious people want to have success but the only way to achieve a high level of success is to empower those around you.

Empowering individuals around you is less skill and more a discipline. It takes patience, awareness, altruism, and the wiliness to sacrifice the moment for the longer term gain. When you take the time to teach something, then allow a person to cycle through some failures or learning process, the end result can be both rewarding and often surprising. When a group around you works independently, and productively, exponential growth is fueled without sacrificing your life. Also, individuals that are empowered and allowed to do their work have much higher job satisfaction levels, which fuels growth long term.

4. focus on the double bottom-line profit

All decisions in business should serve a higher purpose and serve a goal.  We make thousands of large and small decisions every month, multiply that by the number of employees and it's staggering to think about.  I want those decisions to  be guided by an overarching purpose and philosophy.  There are two purposes I focus my teams on, the mission of the company, which is more business oriented, like being number one in pencil sales in North Dakota. And more importantly what I call the Double Bottom line or how do our decisions and behavior maximize both our money profit and our human profit.  Sometimes it's best to make decisions that lead to the most money but others lead to what's best for the humans that work in the company, both should always be considered when making decisions.

The overarching philosophy I've found most effective is using Human DOS Operating System.

5. Teach using the Human DOS Operating System

Instead of always telling people what to do, coach them using the Human DOS System.  DOS stands for Diminishing Returns, Opportunity Cost, and Scalability.  These are terms that have had the biggest impact on my business life and continue to guide all my decisions and behavior.  So many decisions are made every day and if they leverage the power of DOS, they will be better, more productive and efficient decisions.  The art of decision making and behavior choices is an art, that is part instinct, part experience and part intellectual.

• Diminishing Returns -Recognizing there is a point where you should stop what you're doing on a project, conversation or meeting because you've reached the point where more effort doesn't yield any more value. Following this powerful principle keeps people from spending too much time on projects that are really done, and the additional benefit is minuscule.  So much time is wasted every day when people continue down paths that have been exhausted.
• Opportunity Cost - This is where you recognize where and how you spend you time has different values. You must identify the most important objectives in the company and make sure you spend most of your time doing them, and limit the time spent on things that seem important but have low impact on the success and double bottom line of the company.
• Scalability - To "scale" a business is simply to create a system, product or structure that enables the companies profit to grow exponentially, while maintaining relatively low expenses.  A big example is building a product in the company that can be sold at exponential scale, as opposed to linear scale, will allow massive profits while capping the time and people involved.  But as important and on a smaller scale, is getting people to build systems around tasks that repeat, like building FAQs to answer customer questions, rather than customer service just answering the same question over and over.  

Coach employees on the art and discipline of DOS, allow them to make decisions, fail and succeed, then review things through the lens of DOS to improve future decisions.  Repeat.

Attracting the best

An interesting thing happens when you and your organization get a reputation for being fair, fun and on a compelling mission. High-quality people want to join you and the group you assembled.  Word of mouth about a company, what's it's like to work at a company, moves quickly in all industries. Investing in those around you is one of the best recruiting tools I've experienced.

Limiting your exponential relationships is a sure fire way to limit your growth

I've had the pleasure of counseling dozens of businesses over the years; I consider it a hobby. While many of them are great businesses, I consistently see them limited by the lack of investment in the group of people at the company. There are two reasons to adopt an Exponential Relationship strategy in your company or division. First, it's the more humane thing to do and is truly best for everyone in the hierarchy or you can do it because it will provide the maximum profit with the least amount of effort.

People don’t wake up each day caring about and thinking how they can make a company better, they want to work for others and demonstrate their abilities. The bottom line is if you insert more human into your business, the human will insert more business into themselves.

A Founder's Guide to Hiring

When I consult with founders about their startups, the most common question or problem asked is how or when do I hire people?

It’s common that everyone in a small company wears multiple hats but even more common is the founder(s) wears all the hats.  I'm here to tell you to, "stop it". Most founders are energized, and excited but often drowning in day-to-day operations.  That’s ok at the beginning but if you want grow your business, dramatically increase your profit and ultimately take over the world, you can’t do it all yourself.  You need people. 

To hit this point home, over the years I've found that founder run companies often hit a revenue ceiling of around $1 million.  This is anecdotal but I've seen it enough where I think it's directly connected to founders unwillingness or inability (two different things) to hire the right people to help grow the business.  I've written more about this subject, here.

Who do I hire first?

Hiring people is daunting and confusing, but i've found less confusing than founders think, especially if you follow this simple formula.  It's actually more about where to start or who to hire first, then it becomes significantly easier.

There are two types of people you should hire first.  Starting with these will enble you to quickly bring in help, start growing the business and most importantly recognize how import it is to have people helping with the day-to-day stuff.   The two groups are,  the easiest to hire and replacing the stuff you hate doing most.

For me, I was willing to sacrifice some profit at the beginning to hire my first team members.  I never regretted it, and it quickly paid off through growth and increased profit.

Hire the easiest first

It’s just a fact, certain people are easier to hire than others.  For example, it’s a lot easier to hire someone for the front desk, than it is to find a CEO to run your company.  “Easy” is determined by the complexity of the position and market factors (how many candidates exist).  There are 1,000's of people that can do customer service, there are 100's that can run departments. 

Let me give you some examples that are most common and obvious, then you can use them to consider others in your specific company or industry.  

Customer service or custom interaction is one of the top positions that fits the easy hiring category.  If you’re answering all your emails, phone calls and social media posts, STOP IMMEDIATELY and hire someone to help.  Customer support, simple technical support, online forum and social media responding is very important and there are a ton of people that love doing it. 

The best part of a customer service job, is it can often have very flexible hours, because the expectation to respond to email is within 24 hours (although I recommend you respond sooner).  A little tip.  A great resource for customer service is stay-at-home Moms, they can easily work throughout the day from their homes and often have the right mindset to help people.

Other easy to hire positions are bookkeeping, personal assistants, front desk, basic project management, data entry, copywriting, and graphic design pros.  If you're not aware of sites like Upwork, check it out.

Examples of positions that are much more difficult to hire and can be done in phase two, are engineers, product managers, high level marketing, and all leadership positions like managers and directors. 

Hire out what you hate doing

This is counter intuitive to many founders because we are strong personalities, ambitious and willing to endure the pain of doing things they don’t like doing.  Almost all founders have the same tattoo, “no pain, no gain”.  Seriously, it’s a virtue but it will hurt your chances of growing a successful business.  It’s sad but I’ve heard three stories of founders I know that ended up in the hospital from overworking, and this doesn't help productivity because hospital WIFI generally sucks.

I’ve not met many, or maybe any founders, that have been good at something they hate doing, so there is a business benefit to getting yourself out of that task.   As an example, if you love engineering, or it’s your "happy place", as the founder it’s ok to continue focusing on direct engineering, you don’t need to be a product/engineering/project manager, hire someone to take that over.  

I recommend you make a list of everything you enjoy doing, and everything you hate doing.  Then outline what can fit into a full time or part time job and look to replace the tasks on the "hate" list.  The key is to be honest about evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, or what you like and don't like doing.  It's helpful to bring in a trusted friend or co-founder to assist with this exercise.  

Of course you'll never avoid doing everything you don't like but I like to keep it to a 60/40 ratio, where you're doing 60% of what you like, and 40% of what you don't like.  

For me, I am so uncomfortable and terrible at focusing on both details and linear tasks that I’m literally miserable while doing it.  It’s essential for me to have good project managers and task oriented people around me to both achieve success and to keep me  from jump off a building.  In my current business I was "doing" the bookkeeping up to recently and learned the lesson again because it wasn't getting done properly.  Now need to spend a ton of extra time with my new hire fixing it.  I hired too late.

Life on the other side of hiring

When you're a drowning in the details of every aspect of the business and spending a considerable amount of time on things you hate, you have no perspective.  You may even be angry or unhappy.  You'll  struggle to make good decisions for your business long term and not drive the business forward because you're not focusing on your strengths.   I’ve personally experienced this phenomena and when I was able to get out from under the day-to-day minutiae, I doubled my business several times over.  

Once you get through this stage of hiring, and you can breath again. Then you'll find hiring for the more sophisticated positions is easier and makes more sense.

Complaining is Lazy

Complaining is a low level contribution

I've officially been working for 25 years, holy crap how did that happen?  That means I've been in 1,000s of meetings and professional human interactions.  I actually love human beings and almost always find interacting a pleasure and mostly interesting.  Companies are made up of a team of individuals that all fill vital roles to the success of the company.  Any company I've ever run has been structured in a "soft" hierarchy, or in a way that everyone is encouraged and can contribute at any level.  But that said, it's time I say how I really feel about the true value of how people interact.

Let me just get my main point out there.  During a meeting or any human interaction, those that only complain OR devil's advocate are contributing at a very low level.  Sentiments offered in the form of complaints or the "what if" devil's advocating does contribute and are a part of the decision making process but in terms of real value, it's just above somebody saying nothing.

What is most valuable?

Because this article is me complaining about complainers, I'd like to make my point by adding real value rather than just complaining about complainers.  It's about a ratio or balancing complaining with more valuable contributions.  The most valuable contributions are new ideas, solutions and innovations.  Think about the last time you complained about something at home, or at work.   How easily it pops into your head and rolls off your tongue.  Maybe it even felt good.  Or somebody makes a point in a meeting, and you say "but what if so and so happens".  Again, this just appears in your brain and you say it.  It doesn't take any effort or time to prepare.

Here is an example of a solution, and how much thought and effort it requires.  I started a new technology company a couple years ago and as with all companies we get daily inquiries with issues using the software.  One question frequently asked was, "will your software work with my computer?".  This question was diligently answered for a year, and sometimes complaints were made about it.  iIt's impossible to know if our software works on everyone's system, someone realized this was a frequently asked question by reviewing support cases and that it was taking up a fair amount of support time.   Someone came up with a solution.  The best way to take care of this problem or question, was to encourage everyone to download and try the free version first, we put this link everywhere on the site.  This cut down and the amount that question was asked and turned out better for the customer.   This required someone to step back from day to day operations, be thoughtful, consider the problem, and come up with a solution.

Why don't people provide solutions?

Let's get real for a moment.  Can anybody do anything?  The answer is no, we all have limitations but we all can achieve more than we are today.  There are two main things holding us back from offering more solutions and ideas:  laziness and confidence.  The bad news is, everyone has these two attributes built-in at varying degrees, but individuals that rise to the top are those that battle and conquer them the most.

Don't be lazy

Let's take lazy first.  There is not much to say on this subject other than lazy is no way to go through life.  Living a full life is about relationships, and being satisfied with where you're at and what you've accomplished.  If you feel you're lacking effort in life it's time for a sit down with yourself and just get to it.  Sometimes laziness is just the result of doing something you hate, so you are not being lazy, you're just avoiding it.  In this case, it's time to make a change, and please (please) don't start this process with all the reasons you can't.  There are lots of great videos and podcasts on motivation and not being lazy, like Gary Vee.

Increase your confidence

Confidence is a tricking one and I know from personal experience coaching people through their careers that more people would "speak up" if they had more confidence.  I want to give two bits of advice that I think will help.  Prepare and knowledge.  

I had a neat experience two months ago while teaching a high school class on leadership.  I asked for a show of hands those that had a fear of public speaking, then I upped the challenge to those that had an extreme fear, several kept their hands up.  I took a chance and choose an obviously meek girl, who was barely able to make eye contact with me.   

I first confirmed she could never imagine speaking in public.  Then I asked her what she likes to do.  She liked listening to music and drawing.  I asked her more about her drawing, like what type of drawing she did, how often she did it and how it made her feel while doing it.   It was obvious she it was her "thing".  I then asked the rest of the class by a show of hands, how many people don't know how to draw.  Of the 25 kid class, 80% raised their hands.  Then I went back to the girl and asked her if she could conceive of telling one person how to get started in drawing, and a few simple techniques that would help guide a novice.  She easily said yes.  Then I asked if she could stand up in front of the class and teach the same techniques?  She struggled with the answered but ended up saying yes.

Be prepared and use Knowledge

My point is she has knowledge that others do not, and therefore I was able in 5 minutes to increase her confidence from zero to high enough where she would talk to the class.  You can do the same thing using knowledge and being prepared in a meeting that will allow you to contribute with solutions and ideas that will be viewed as higher level contributions.  When I'm in a meeting and someone is going through their "just complain" or just devil's advocating routine, it's incredibly obvious they spent no time preparing for the meeting, or didn't give any real thought to the subject.  I assume they are lazy.  

As an experiment, before your next meeting spend a considerable amount of time researching the meeting subject and set a goal of pointing out one problem and offering a solution.  The key is to fully prepare a well thought out existing and significant problem you know exists, then increase your knowledge on the subject to the point where you know more about it than anyone else in the room.  Using your preparedness and knowledge, you'll feel more confident and even be able to defend your position when the complainers and devil's advocates rear their ugly heads.  Trust me, it will be awesome and you'll want to repeat the process.

Complainers are lazy

When I hear people complain in work or in life, they are either lazy or lack confidence.  I just hope that it's more the later than the former.

Do you want to be a high or low level contributor? 

10 Things to Get Your Company to Run (better) Without You

Why did you start your own company?

Were you sick of working for idiots, or you thought you could do it better? Did you think you could make more money? Or the big one: you wanted to "be your own boss", have more control and time in your life?

My favorite author on this subject is Michael Gerber who wrote E-Myth.  He points out one of the best "entrepreneurial myths" of starting your own company. You start the company, but have a new boss, he's maniacal, with you 24/7, he can be a real bastard, is unrelenting and tough to the point of being unfair.  The new boss is, of course, yourself.  For many, this is difficult to deal with and overcome.

You're the owner, why not take advantage of it?

There are plenty of burdens to owning your own company.   You're personally responsible for the finances, its success/failure, the big clients, security issues, all the stupid government rules and regulations/taxes and of course, your employees. All of this can be both overwhelming and exhilarating.  BUT why not take take advantage of this position to create a better life for yourself?  Why don't you work less hours?  Why aren't you doing more of the things you like to do, and less of the crap you hate?    Why not travel the world, work from the beach or while skiing all day? 

All of this is possible if you institute a few small but challenging changes.  I promise if you follow my advice you'll be able to change your life and get the dream, which is to own your own business AND have a life.

My story - I never work more than 35 hours a week.

It's the same old story.  I used to run a business that dominated my life, made me unhealthy, ate into my marriage... blah, blah, blah.  Then a great thing happened, it failed, ouch!    When I started my second company I set some basic rules up front, then developed a system, that over the last 14 years that has enabled me to make great money but kept ME running my business, NOT my business running me.  If you're interested, my second company has 40 employees, sells more than 50,000 products a year in 50 countries and 80% of all employees work virtually and in 13 years not one employee quit the company. We are the most appreciated and respected brand in our industry segment.   In addition to that company, I've since started and run three more companies.   And, yes, I never work more than 35 hours a week.

Without further ado, here are the 10 things that will get your company running and thriving without you.

• Save money, personally.
• Hire Adults.
• Results based work.
• Empower and let your team operate without you.
• Flip the 80/20 to 20/80.
• Limit your hours.
• Use the Golden Rule.
• Make a commitment to be efficient using technology.
• Remove urgent/time/deadline driven tasks.
• Get Big Enough to Hire $100k Qualified Professionals.

1) Save Money, Personally

So simple, so difficult, so important. 

The only way you can have peace and make decisions that are best for yourself and your family is to save money in your bank account (not your companies').  Having money in your company bank account OR relying on the potential enterprise value of your company is NOT real money.  Saving money may feel daunting, but it's necessary and you owe it to yourself and your family to make it happen.  

At a minimum you need six months of expenses saved to feel real freedom.  Many of the things I outline below take time, and time is only an option if we have a cushion and can pay life expenses while the business is either growing or you're shifting to spending less time in the day to day operations.  For me, I will always hire someone to do things I hate or am not good at, which, not coincidentally, are usually the same thing.  I do this not from a profit motive but a lifestyle motive.  This can eat into profits in the short term, and having money saved to cover expenses in life make this possible.  But in my experience these kinds of decisions almost always lead to more profit.

But the real freedom comes when you have at least a year of expenses saved, your house is paid off, and a significant retirement account is building.  Once you achieve this, everything changes.  You look at every deal, every employee, and every situation differently, because you don't "need" any of them, every ounce of desperation is extinguished.  You start making decisions of how you spend your time based on what you want to do.  The bottom line is you make better decisions, the "right" decisions.

2) "Hire adults" - People that are Comfortable and Thrive Working on Their Own.

Imagine a 15 year old dog, hair is slightly grey, it moves slowly but when you throw a stick it fetches.  This is NOT adult behavior, it's actually puppy behavior.  This happens because a domesticated dog is 100% taken care of, and therefore never fully matures into an adult.  The same is true for humans and unfortunately there are a lot of people that frankly have not grown up, because they've been catered to their entire lives or they never took full responsibility for themselves.  They can be delightful people, just don't hire them!

Of course hiring people is extremely important but I require three things when hiring.  1) Humility:   This is most important. A person can be extremely confident and driven but yet still humble about what they don’t know, and always want their work to match their value.  This person works hard, accomplishes things, THEN asks for a raise, not before.  2) Thrives working by themselves:  The key to building an organization that does well without you, is how much everyone cares when you’re not around.  That is the key.  I ask a series of questions that target this subject. (more about getting employees to care in the "Golden Rule" section)  3) Mature enough to discuss difficult topics and, don’t take things too personally.   I always criticize someone in an interview, like the format of their resume, or anything and see how they respond.

3) Results Based Work.

Stop focusing on the amount of effort and start focusing on the result.

If you've never heard this concept before, it's a real thing.  There is a real methodology behind it.  You can read about it more here (I have not read this book, but it's the most popular on the subject), but I'll give you the basics and get you on your way.    It takes some time getting used to this management style, but once you get the hang of it, it's the ultimate way to surround yourself with productive, independent... and happy teams.

Instead of focusing on when and where someone works, like 8, 10 or 12 hour days, you sit down with each employee/manager and together work out and agree to an equation of how much each person is expected to get done and in what time frame.  It includes revenue for sales people, projects or metrics for marketing, and project deadlines for engineers.  All discussions from that point on are about either what they have accomplished, or if they are on schedule to accomplish the goals.  And much less about how long they worked, how hard they worked, or all the little things they did all day (all those things want to make me puke).

The biggest challenge is calculating how much "results" everyone should produce in certain time periods, but trust me, even in areas you lack expertise (in my case engineering) you will either figure it out over time or you can use trusted managers to help set the expectations.  

Here is my favorite example to illustrate my point.  Ultimately I'm a sales guy, I love sales and revenue and very strictly use a results based system, and can frequently be heard saying, "no A's for effort".   I simply don't care how many emails or voicemails someone sent in an attempt to close a sale,  I only care if they got the deal.   If you're focused on results or actually reaching an executive to close a sale, you won't send an email every day, or call them 5 times a day.  You'll call them before 8:00am or after 5:00pm because THAT is when they answer their phone and are NOT in a meeting.  You stop focusing on the effort, and start focusing on the result. It changes how time is spent.  It may sound harsh, but quite the opposite is true. For the right people, it's actually liberating and exhilarating only to focus on results.

4) Empower and Let Your Team Operate Without You. 

Well, of course!  But stick with me for a second.  This is actually the hardest one to accomplish, but the next two sections will help you accomplish this technique.  There are three reasons managers and owners don't do this well, and all are personality traits.  They don't think someone else can do it as well as themselves, they don't have the patience to allow someone to learn something and finally, it takes too long to train someone to do what you do and you "just do it" instead.  The best advice I can give for all these, is GET OVER IT, and start letting people do stuff.  There are so many books on the subject that I'm not even going to suggest one.

Believe me, I know it's not easy but, I promise, if you hire the right people and use a results based work system, it will pay off in time.  One of the keys to letting others do stuff is to understand that because someone does something differently, that doesn't mean it's worse.  I've learned over time that allowing someone to process and complete something differently can be really cool and educational for me.  

5) Flip the 80/20 to 20/80

This one is easy and is more of a mindset or a goal, and a way to think about moving yourself out of roles.  In all the areas of work you do 80% of the job and others do 20%, set a goal to flip that.  

Let's use the example of doing design project for an ad.  Let's say you're handling all aspects of the project directly; copy, goals, design and budget.  Instead you have a meeting at the beginning with the team and discuss everything at a higher level, but set a budget and some basic goals.  Then let the magic start.  Your team goes off and comes back a week later with three ideas.  In a short meeting you brainstorm the best one, then meet one week later to review the final work, just tweaking small things and you're done. 

The key to this rule is you're not removing yourself; you're reducing your involvement from 80% to 20%, but still making the most important decisions and staying out of the small details.  I do this all the time, but most interaction is online through an online communication or project management system.

6) Limit the Hours You Work, Create Strict Boundaries. 

This is so important and I want to punch people in the face that don't do this.  The number of hours worked is very misunderstood and often used as a badge of honor.  The only badge I give these people is a badge of stupidity.  

Being successful while living a balanced, free life is about being effective, efficient and productive, not about working long hours.  I could bore you with 14 paragraphs on this subject but instead I'm going to recommend one "classic" business book, ask that you watch a video and give you an experiment to try.  '

First the book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (note the word "effective"). Now the video, Watch this.  Funny story, I performed this skit for my company years ago, it went well and I think everyone got the point.  Several months later I was visiting an office in Portland and saw the glass tank I used for the skit full of sand and beer cans, I was amused and kind of flattered they would keep it around.  

Your experiment.  Try stopping work at 5:00PM every day for 3 weeks (you must fully commit). In your 3rd week start observing how you are spending your time during each day, I bet you're spending more time on the big things, and avoiding the little things. This is the key to working effectively.

7) The Golden Rule:  Treat people well.

Get employees to care and you'll maximize productivity.

The best way to think about motivating people or getting the most out of people is getting them to care.  That's right, just care about what they are doing.   When people care, they will do anything and will achieve the most.  Take the extreme example, parents "care" about their children and likewise put in an enormous amount of effort and resources to make them the best they can be.  

Think about what makes you care about something and what makes you NOT care about something.  It's tied into the golden rule, or treating people the way you want to be treated which includes, respect, creating a challenge, proper compensation and listening to people.   Ask anybody that is not happy at work and they will tell you the same thing.  My boss doesn't respect me or listen to me.  I'm bored at work.  They take advantage of me or they don't pay me enough. 

The one specific tip I'll give you, is to consider providing a company wide profit sharing program.  Nothing aligns everyone more, creating effectiveness at work and "caring" than employees knowing we are in this together!

8) Commit to EFFICIENCY Through Technology

You cannot build a scalable, highly profitable business that runs efficiently without implementing modern tech tools.  I started my first company in 1999 and remember getting orders online, printing those orders, putting them in the accounting Inbox for manual entry into Quickbooks.  This isn't the only reason that company failed but was representative of many inefficiencies that kept it from generating a profit.

Now I obsess about using technology or creating a better way to do everything, I automate everything!  When I come upon a task that I know is repetitive, I automatically think about a way to implement a system that will streamline or automate that task.  

Take customer service, it's the best opportunity to save time and you simultaneously help employees and customers.  A majority of product or service issues are repetitive and therefore can be fixed.  The key is your organization, not the technology.  It's imperative that a feedback loop is setup between the front line customers service team and both the product development and the backend infrastructure team.  If an issue starts to repeat, you first create an FAQ with very specific instructions on how to solve the problem (most companies end there) but more importantly the issue gets moved into a priority for the product development team or engineering team.  The issue needs to be fixed so it doesn't happen again.

This entire process is done through technology, NOT MEETINGS.  I also find it useful to set up incentives for employees to think about how to solve the issues before they happen, and reward those that come up with the best solutions.   I'm not going to get into the details of how to use technology or the specific workflow here, but if the customer service team is using Zendesk and the company is using Jira for issue tracking and Slack for communication, this all happens in a wonderful integrated loop, that creates a trail, explanations, task lists and feedback loop. 

Like anything, efficiency and the use of technology to remove repetitive tasks allow you to one day work from the beach or ski slope, but it has to be made a priority.

Here are my favorite tools (I strictly use online or SAAS based tools);

• Zendesk

• Slack

• Jira

• Shopify

• Quickbooks online

• Dropbox (less important now that I have Slack and am using Google docs more)

• Google docs and the entire Google ecosystem.

9) Detach Yourself from Urgent/time/deadline driven tasks & stuff you don't like doing.

When my company started to grow I committed early to constructing a company that worked for me and my partner, or fit certain life goals we were trying to achieve.  Most of the goals were about freedom of choice, and spending more time with family.  I was starting to hire people to handle the growth and therefore could decide what they did, and what we did not.

Make the following two lists:  Stuff you like and don't like doing & list of tasks that were associated with urgency, time requirements and deadlines. Hire people to do those tasks. 

For example customer service needed to be available every day from 8:00 - 5:00pm, so it's a "time" driven task.  That was the first to get off my plate.  

When you publically make announcements about products, you create a pretty serious deadline for product release.  The project manager lives by deadlines, like product releases, this was the next person to be hired.  And good projects managers thrive on this intensity.  

From time to time there are crisis's,  which always requires urgency. I kept an eye out for those and made sure I wasn't first line on most things that were on fire.  I created a layer between most tasks associated with urgency, time or deadlines and my own responsibilities.   

Within a couple years, my weeks were much more calm and I was able to spend more time considering larger growth opportunities and growing the company in more macro ways.  

10) Get Big Enough to Hire $100k Qualified Professionals

When we were around $2 million per year I realized two things, there's a lot more to do on a daily basis but also I couldn't afford to hire $100k per year professionals to work around me.  I use this threshold, because anybody that has a proven track record to get stuff done, is typically in this range (or higher).

I went through three stages of hiring that ultimately lead to me only working two hours per month. I consult with a number of companies that hit that $1M level but can't get beyond it, it's like a ceiling threshold.  This happens mostly because they are mostly run and driven by an individual not a group of amazing people.  There is only so much a person can do.

Hire your first $100k professional

The first stage is generating enough profit to hire your first $100k FULLTIME professional.  It can be in an area that you're weakest or an area that will have the biggest impact on company growth, like marketing or engineering.  It's tough finding the right person, and you may need to go through a few hires but once you get the right person, it changes everything.  In the first state, as profit grows, you add a few more $100k professionals in the most important areas of the company.  With each hire, more high level work is being done without you.

Get out of day-to-day operations.

In stage two, you should consider hiring someone to run day to day operations, typically a general manager.   Trust is a huge factor in hiring this person, and therefore should be someone you know, or is known by a friend.  Running a company is a 1,000 little things, it's critical you remove yourself from the first line of most of these tasks and instead spend time with your general manager guiding on a more macro basis and setting policy and philosophy, not specific micro decisions.

Having a general manager handling HR, operations, customer service, project scheduling and deadline management should elevate you to yet another level.  I was able to focus on even largest company opportunities to grow the company even more.  I ended up purchasing four companies, adding large licensing agreements and closing several significant and lucrative partnerships.  I did all these things, while my company was running well on a day to day basis and I started working on my own schedule and not many hours.

Hire the big guy (or girl).  CEO

Once we were big enough to have several $100k per year people running departments and had several years of day to day operations handled by a GM, were decided to look for a real CEO to take over everything.   This is the ultimate decision, which is certainly full of potential pitfalls but once you've seen the benefits and possibilities of the company running and growing without you, it's a natural step.  And when I say, "natural", I'm referring to my entrepreneurial spirit that isn't designed to run stuff, I'm more interested in starting and growing things.

It's been two years since I hired the CEO, and it's amazing.  He cares so much about all the little details and the staff.  And he's grown profit by nearly 40%.   I write all this to tell my story, to give people a guideline to follow but most to say it's possible and can happen.

You must start!

That was a lot but you're already doing a lot.  You just need to pivot some of that time towards these things and, in a few months, you'll see why I only work 35 hours in a week, coach all my kids sport teams, donate numerous hours to charities, have dates with my wife, take trips without a computer and counsel dozens of companies on how to achieve business success and a balanced life together.

You make of ton in investment in your company, how about making an investment in yourself!

23 Things that Unnecessarily Drain Your Brain and Time

Steve Jobs & Einstein wore the same thing everyday, what else can you standardize to free up time?

There are dozens of small moments of freedom available each day and month, find them control them.  An error we make is treating everything we do each day the same, or apply the same decision making process to them.  It wastes time.  There are big things that really matter, and a zillion small things we do every day that matter but shouldn't be given much energy.

Our capacity to perform in life is zero sum, or finite.  Our time every day is exactly finite and our energy or brain capacity is nearly finite. You can of course influence your energy capacity but I'm assuming whatever you do is pretty consistent therefore zero sum.  How we use our time and brain capacity each day is an essential factor that enables success in life.

Gain hours a week in free time

All decisions we make consume brain capacity and energy, larger more important decisions burn more and smaller decisions burn less.  But cumulatively, the number of small decisions we make each day far outnumber the larger ones.  A small decision example is deciding what you should eat in the morning, or what shoes to wear.  Whereas, examples of large decisions are what strategy I should use in my company to double revenue, or how can I help my daughter stay engaged in an activity that I know will enhance her life or how can make my marriage better.

It's the endless list of small decisions where the opportunity for more time lies.  I've identified and removed dozens small decisions I used to make, the result of time gained is shocking. I now have more time and energy to focus on the most important or bigger things in life.

You may find many of these little tricks small and silly but the cumulative effect of removing all of them has had a profound effect on my life.

Automate small things you do each day and month

About two years ago I started a life experiment to see how far I could push "life-automation".  Here is what I've learned and how many things I've removed from my brain.  I first describe how the decision making process used to work, and why they were a brain drain, then provide my new solution.  They are in no particular order or priority.

• Monthly car wash.  I live in a desert and my car is always dirty, I don’t care about my car that much and have always struggled with the value  of paying $15 to get my car washed, and I’m far too lazy to wash it myself.   About twice per month I had to make a decision whether I should wash my car.  Solution:  I got the unlimited car wash package for about $30 per month.   Now I get my car washed about 4 times per month, and always feel great about it, or I don't struggle with the value of washing the car. No more decisions.
• Parking at retail stores.  I've watched cars park in retail store parking lots for years, I've found how people choose their spots very curious but more importantly I've calculated the most efficient parking strategy.  Solution:  Instead of driving around the parking lot looking for a close spot, I immediately drive to the back, park and walk into the store.  I've compared my technique a dozens of times against those driving around and I get to the store faster most of the time, AND I get some exercise as a bonus. One more tip, park close to the exit of the store, because you are carrying stuff on the way out and it's better to be close to your car.  Most people park close to the entrance, which is short sited and dumb. No more decisions.
• No more haircuts. Truth be told, I don't have much hair but it still needs to be cut. I used to notice that my hair was getting longer, then for a couple weeks I'd thinking about getting it cut every once in a while, then finally find the time and do it, But the decision would linger in my brain.  Solution:  One year ago I bought a Wahl hair trimmer, which I use a number 4, and cut my own hair every couple of weeks in the shower. No more decisions.
• Auto razor delivery.  Once upon a time I used expensive Gillette razors and would wonder when I should use a new one?   Knowing they were expensive I ended up using them too long which led to razor burn on my face.  Each time I was in a store and walk by the razors, I'd wonder if I needed to buy some.  Solution:  Now I get my razors automatically each month, and use one razor per week.  No more decisions.
• Amazon product subscriptions.  There are products you automatically need each month, like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, paper plates, dishwasher soap, etc, etc.  I was always wondering if we needed any of this stuff when I'm out, or even text my wife if we need any.  Solution:  I signed up for Amazon Subscription Services and perfected the amount I need on the right schedule.  For example I get a big thing of toilet paper every 3 months. I continue to add products when I think about them, I'm up to about 10.  No more decisions.
• No gas price shopping.  I never did this much anyway, but it should be on the list.  Unless you consider getting the best price for gas a sport and fun, please stop shopping for the best price.  If you drive an extra few miles to get cheap gas, you are typically saving $.10 per gallon or a $2.00 per tank. This is completely irrational behavior and consumes unnecessary energy, please stop it.  No more decisions.
• No electronic warranty plans.  Today, every time you buy something you are asked if you want an extended warranty.  Solution: Instead of trying to decide in the moment whether it's a good value, I invested some time and researched whether in fact the warranties are a good value,  I decided over time, considering all things purchased they are not.  I just say no, each time asked.  No more decisions.
• Dressing each day.  Each day we make a bunch of decisions on what to wear: shoes, shirt, pants and all in what combination?  For me, I want to be comfortable, look relatively good but overall I don't care about clothes that much.  Solution:  I took a couple months and decided on a set of clothes that could be mindlessly combined each morning and would cover about 80% of what I wear all year. Once I found each item I bought several colors and now I just grab the next item on the clothes bar.  No more decisions.  Here are the clothes I wear:
  • My Jeans.  If you haven't tried jeans with stretchy spandex, you need to.  See them
  • Two types of socks (short and long) They are a mix of Polyester/Cotton/Nylon/Elastane and are magical.  Short sock, long sock.
  • Underwear.  I have to admit this is a little bit of a work in progress because of my genetically large thighs and ass, and I used Fruit of the Loom for the last 5 years until they changed the design.  Here is what I now use, Exoress
  • Short sleeve shirt.  Express V Neck.
  • Long sleeve shirt.   Eddie Bauer.
  • Shoes.  I have two pair of shoes, but wear one pair 90% of the time.  They can't have laces, need to breath, be ultra-comfortable and allow me to hike with my dog.  Pair one.  Pair two.
  • Jacket.  I've been enamored with Eddie Bauer's commitment to better products and their R&D for the last 3 or 4 years.  They are coming out with new materials and designs that are incredible.  A great example of this is my favorite jacket ever, the material is light, wind resistant and somehow keeps me warm in the fall.  See jacket.
• Body soap.  I found the best soap.  It's all natural, has amazing scents, and I actually look forward to it every day. No more decisions.  Dr. Bronner's
• I stopped washing my hair.  Granted I don't have much left, but wondered what would happen if I stopped washing my hair.  It's been over a year and all seems well up there, so I stopped. No more decisions.
• Breakfast smoothie.  Breakfast is bullshit and has always been a problem for me.  For decades I just couldn't lock in a consistent healthy breakfast.  My wife took an amazing health seminar that recommended smoothies, but I'm really dedicated to whole food or real food eating, so I've always shunned smoothies.  Solution: I finally conceded and have felt great and finally have a no maintenance breakfast option, and it's been great.  Here is what I make (water, Athletic Greens, blueberries, vegan vanilla protein mix, cod liver oil, a probiotic and a multivitamin). No more decisions.
• Lunch.  I eat out for lunch every day.  Where to eat is a decision, and for me I have pretty strict rules on what I eat and will only eat in places that vet or care about the quality of their ingredients but still want some variety. This makes the decision even more difficult.   Solution:  I researched the ingredients used by four places and I eat there 90% of the time.  No more decisions.
• Unfollow Facebook friends.  I love Facebook and enjoy staying up to date with friends around the world, I like to see their kids grow up and what they are doing in life.  Then there are those that post about everything daily, that is too much for me and wastes way too much time. Solution:  I found the magic Unfollow button (which is a small down arrow on the right side of posts), which keeps them as Friends but removes them from my wall.  This way I can occasionally go to their page and see what's up on my own schedule.  
• Parking at the airport.  This is similar to parking in retail lots.  I did some analysis on the most efficient way to find a spot, catch the shuttle and get back to my car.  I'm most interested in parking within walking distance of the returning first shuttle stop (when returning from a trip you want to get out fast), and I found an area that almost always has spots because it's in the back.  Now I always park within 50 feet, and the other benefit is I always know where my car is without much thought. No more decisions.

GENERAL PRODUCTIVITY TIPS

• No news.  I stopped watching most news years ago, I consider most of it agenda based or ideologically leaning (in both directions) and not objective news reporting.  Using my brain to consider the news that comes out is a waste of time for me.  I read the Wall Street Journal for financial insights and a variety of magazines that align with my interests. 
• Walk faster.  It's simple, but I walk at a pace about 1.5 times faster than most people.  I've found when I map something on Google Maps, my pace is twice as fast as their estimate.
• Have less. The key to staying organized in our busy lives is to just have less.  Have less clothes, less dishes, less books, less stuff around the house that needs to be cleaned, less toys, etc.  My wife and I have gone through our entire house, and I mean every room and closet and got rid of stuff that isn't essential or hasn't been used in a year.  It's incredibly liberating and makes general house upkeep much easier.
• Email.  Use Gmail shortcuts to handle all email, if you don't use Gmail, then I can't help you, it's the best email on the planet for spam and efficiency.  Also, commit to Unsubscribing to newsletters diligently.  (Tip:  use the icon at the top of Gmail that has an exclamation point in it)
• Learn to type fast.  If you don't type fast, that's just dumb.  Take a class or use online tools to start typing faster.
• Everyday house activities.  Things done every day or frequently must be organized and efficient, identify these areas and spend time decluttering, organizing and rearranging them to ensure you can do them quickly, without much thought.  Examples are:  washing clothes, eating and preparing food, home entertainment, toilet activities, getting dressed, changing clothes, showering, sleeping, and fixing things around the house. 
• Don't return stuff.  Long ago I decide to stop returning things I buy that cost less than $10.  They used to lay around the house and each time I'd look at it I'd remember I need to return it, which of course uses brain capacity.  Now when that stupid thing breaks, I just throw it away.  It's quite liberating actually.
• Don't get sick.  Since my commitment to eating properly (whole foods only), I don't get sick or only have a few times in 7 years.  Being sick is a complete time sink, and I'm not interested.  My biggest grip with modern day traditional medical professionals is their complete lack of knowledge of the gut, immunity and overall well being.  Did you know that 70% of your immunity is in your gut, and if you don't eat well you gut isn't healthy and your immunity sucks.  Read here for more info.  

The other day a friend of mine was telling me she had a dream to become rich so she could help more people. She's incredibly altruistic and spends a considerable amount of time helping people. But she is so caught up in the little things of life she can't even elevate herself out of the whirlwind to create a plan to be change her life. Therefore she stays nestled in the whirlwind and is drowned and suffocated by life.  Not to say there isn't moments of joy and fun in this kind of life, but I'm talking about living a higher life, doing more and accomplishing your dreams. Take a day to breathe and think about what you can remove and stop doing.  I've found being successful in life is actually as much about what you don't do as what you do, do.

Initially, I treated this exercise as a game but it turned into a real time savings project and taught me some interesting lessons about what I do each day of my life (and don't do).  For me it's all about living a conscious life, or being aware of what we are doing.  It's the only way we can be the director of our own life.

Email Doesn't Suck, People Suck At Using Email

I hear people say all the time, "email sucks as a communication tool, we should stop using it.".  To me that's like saying, "speaking to each other sucks, and a terrible way to communicate."  

Have you ever talked to someone that doesn't make sense, is too verbose, or maybe is so callous it's difficult to communicate with them.  They are a poor verbal communicator and aren't using the medium well, and haven't learned how to use speech.  Send them to a public speaking or debate class, and they will improve speaking.

It's the same with email!  Email is amazing, and changed the way we communicate but of course is overused and more often misused.  It's not about stopping using email, it's about when to use it, and how to use it in concert with other communication mediums.

Good Communication is an Art, Not a Science.

Knowing when to use email, the phone and IM is an art, which takes a thoughtful, proactive and common sense approach.  They are ALL great forms of communication if used properly and in concert.  I started my sales career with only phone and in-person visits, without good communication, you fail in sales.   Even back then it was an art to figure out the right ratio between visiting a customer and talking via phone.  I'd make fifty calls a day, warm up leads, get them through the process a bit, then visit the small few that were qualified in need and budget.  Imagine if I visited fifty before qualifying them?  I would of never sold anything.

Communication Characteristics

All forms of modern communication caught on or were widely adopted because they all work for specific situations. But unfortunately they are misused or used in under the wrong circumstances.  Here are some important characteristics of each that will help you decide when to use each.

Email

• Most people use their Inbox as a ToDo list
• Multi-topic
• Have a longer life, emails can sit in an inbox for a weeks
• You have very little of their attention
• People are most bold, or willing to state true emotions, create conflict and generally be more brave.
• Easily ignored

IM

• Immediate communication only, "need to know now"
• Single topic
• Has no life, dies within minutes of messaging
• You have medium their attention
• People less bold, less likely to give true feelings, avoid conflict
• NOT easily ignored

Phone

• The only way to read between the lines in communication
• Great for multi-topics
• Has no life but subjects linger longer in memory
• You have their full attention
• People are least bold or likely to create conflict, most compromising.  When I had really bad news in sales, I always visiting customers or called them. 
• Easily ignored

How To Use Each?

All three forms of communication fit perfectly together, and should ALL be used.  BUT are absolutely an art and something that needs to be thoughtfully considered and mastered over time.  They can be used separately or together but if you do not use all three and use them effectively, if will substantially stunt your career.

Examples

I need to get a hold of someone on an important subject.  You sent them an email with a brief but thorough description of the topic, problem or question.  They are not responding.  You then use IM or phone to force their attention to the email, but because the email can be written in long form and lives forever, it can be referenced and re-read.  Using phone and email together are essential in this example.

Need quick response to move forward.  IM is perfect here, you can see when someone is online, the message pops up in their face and they can continue viewing facebook while answering you.

Need to close a sale.  Email the proposal in detail, with an attachment but of course they aren't responding.  I have two techniques I've always used, I forward the same email bi-weekly, "just wanted to make sure you got this" and calling them first thing in the morning and in the last hour of the day.  I know statistically they are in meetings all day and are mostly likely at their desk during those times.  I'll make 50 phone calls, until they finally pick up.  Then I refer to the email.

Email escalation

Perhaps the most important skill is to know when an email conversation should be "escalated" to a phone call.  There are three email situations where this needs to happen.

1. Brainstorming.  I've found that brainstorming via email is a terrible idea and gets wildly out of control  Smaller subjects work but not big ones.
2. Discussion thread has exceeded 4 or 5 replies.  Most of the time it's time to conclude the discussion via phone.
3. Emotions are flaring.  Because people are most bold in email and context is not always understood, if it's getting heated, get the hell off email and on the phone. You'll save everyone a lot of anguish.

Please use common sense and be thoughtful about how all three forms of incredibly useful each form of communication can be.

The 2 main things that are making us fat

There is no mystery to what makes us fat, it’s really simple, but unfortunately difficult to accomplish.  However, because something is difficult doesn't mean it's complicated, it's a common misconception. 

The confusion about what makes us fat is a huge barrier to many for eating healthily, and keeps people from knowing where to start and muddle through all the seemingly conflicting advice.  I believe once you have a basic understanding of digestion and a simple way to make decisions, it makes the process more palatable, and will allow you to have a healthy lifestyle, not a start and stop program.

Do you wonder?  

• Why are processed foods bad?  
• Should I stop eating gluten or dairy and why?
• I know I should limit my sugar intake, but why?

After many years of researching and eating well (and not being fat), I’ve found a way to simplify the healthy eating lifestyle.  

There are TWO main reasons we get fat, that's right, just two. We eat too much sugar, and we consume foods and fake-foods that cause inflammation.

First rule

Don't not eat, this is about what you eat, not what you avoid.  The body is simple, it is designed to use what it needs then convert or store the rest into fat.  It’s not about how many calories you eat - I guarantee - and you can eat as much as you want, as long as you eat the right foods.

Eating is an addiction

Let's put eating habits into perspective.  Eating is an addiction, by definition an addiction is something our bodies require at a physiologic or chemical level. Our bodies require food, our bodies remind us when we need more, even demand it.

Addictions are all consuming, manipulative, powerful and controlling. If not controlled the addiction can wreak havoc on our lives, even kill us.  (Article on addiction).  When you're watching TV or laying in bed and a voice is encouraging you to get a snack, that's the addiction. "Just get one", "you deserve it", "you can work out tomorrow", is all the addiction talking. He's a master, and will mostly win. 

Beating the addiction is simple but hard.  Beating the addiction is simple but hard.  It takes some planning, proactivity and discipline but I don't know anything else challenging and worthwhile I've accomplished that hasn't required the same thing.  The good news is the reward comes quickly when you change your eating habits, you feel better and start to loose weight within two weeks. The body is VERY forgiving and resilient.

My history and the genesis of my strategy

I had an awakening about six years ago, and was fortunate to have some extraordinary mentors that opened my eyes to maximizing our bodies potential.

I’ve always been an athlete and extremely active and thought I was a healthy guy.  Then about six years ago my three year old son got an internal staph infection and got really sick and that same year my 46 year old cousin died six months after a stomach cancer diagnosis.  I decided to take it upon myself to research health, immunity and overall wellness.  I’d already read The Atkins Diet book but have since read In Defense of Food, The Beach Diet, Carbohydrates Addiction, The Zone, Bad Calories Good Calories, The China Study, Super Immunity, and several others.  I’ve attended a wellness seminar by the godfather of whole food eating, Dr. Weil, and spent countless hours discussing heath with a good friend, who is an MD and gut / digestive health specialist and runs a fantastic Integrative Clinic gladdmd.com.  My wife and I changed our families' diet completely.  I lost 20 Lbs, my endurance in sports nearly doubled, and in six years my family almost never gets sick, and when we do, it's only for a day or two.  

At the beginning I thought it was all very complicated, then I discovered the commonality to every book I read and nearly every discussion I’ve ever had with people smarter than myself.  It’s all about sugar and inflammation. 

As I said, there are two main reasons people get fat, eating too much sugar and inflammation substances, stop these and you won't be fat.  

Quick digestion lesson

Digestion is food broken down into small parts that the body can absorb, mainly proteins (amino acids) and glucose (sugar) both are essential to survival.  Sugar is mostly used for energy, where there are immediate and long term needs.  Our system is designed to break down food or things that are produced by nature, use what we need immediately and store the rest.  Let me repeat that, “store the rest”. I'm sure you can guess how we store the excess sugar, it's a three letter word that rhymes with "sat".  

Here is the important part, the body requires sugar for energy, BUT can only handle a small amount in the blood stream at time.  Too much sugar in your blood will lead to a coma or death, which is not good.  Fortunately, we have a hormone called insulin that comes to the rescue to remove any sugar that exceeds the threshold our body can handle.   If we control the amount of sugar in our blood stream at any one time, then there is never any excess or overflow, and if there is never any excess, then nothing is ever stored.

Why Sugar makes us fat

I have stated there are only two things that make us fat, one being sugar.  If you limit your sugar, you don’t get fat, it’s a fact of digestion.  My favorite widely propagated myth is that all calories are the same, "you can't escape science, it's just physics".  It's such non-sense, but commonly believed.  If you believe this, are you telling me that eating a 1,000 calories of chocolate cake and broccoli are the same? No way, Jose.  But why does the chocolate cake make us fat and the broccoli doesn't?   It's all about blood sugar, or how much sugar enters your blood stream at any given time.  Remember, any excess sugar is converted to fat.

Here's the deal.  If you eat spoonfuls of sugar, the body delivers it all very quickly to the blood stream, actually within minutes.  You're body can use about 5 grams at a time and converts the rest to fat.  Ok, that's an easy one to understand and generally we don't eat spoonfuls of sugar.  Did you know that white bread (buns, muffins, bagels, tortillas, etc), pasta, potatoes, soda, and juice all convert to sugar about as fast as sugar itself?  Consider yourself educated.  When you eat almost any highly processed food, or the above list, it is immediately broken down and delivered to the bloodstream as sugar, or glucose.  A huge piece of bread, bowl of pasta, or can of soda is the same as spoonfuls of sugar, which we know is a bad idea.

Here's the key to it all.  

Just control how much of those foods you eat at any one time.  I eat them all, but limited, or not together.  If I am eating a burrito, I don't have a sugary drink.  If I want to drink a juice, I don't get a burrito.   Let's use a common order at McDonalds as an example.  You eat a Coke, Big Mac, and fries (which btw I haven't eaten fast food more than 10 times in 7 years).  Once you've drank half the Coke you've already maxed out your blood sugar threshold, which means the second half of the Coke, all the fries, the and the bun are all converted to fat.  The meat, lettuce, and tomato break down slower and will be absorbed by the body later.

Watch and read these for an advanced education on sugar, they are ridiculously powerful.

• Watch video |  Read article
• What happens when you quit eating sugar? Read

The way I like to think about food is that they all have a different time-release of sugar.  White and processed foods quickly release sugar, vegetables and meats slowly release energy and fruits are in between.  

You can eat as much as you want, I promise

It's not about how much you eat, it's about what you eat.  You can eat as much vegetables, meats and beans as you want, just limit all whites and processed foods.  This is the key to not being fat long term, and is how simple the choices are.  But having the discipline to do it is hard.  But as I mentioned earlier in the article, the reward is quick, and the reward is worth it.  What is more important to you?  Eating that muffin every day, or not being fat?  The choice is that simple.  I eat muffins, just not every day, or not a whole muffin.

Part two, inflammation makes you fat too

Inflammation is a little more tricky to understand but as significant for our health.  WebMD says, "Inflammation is a process by which the body's white blood cells and chemicals protect us from infection with foreign substances, such as bacteria and viruses." We all know what inflammation looks like on the outside, think of a skinned knee but the same thing happens inside our bodies too.  

There are three main groups of stuff we put in our mouths that cause inflammation, or technically, things you put in YOUR mouth, because I no longer do.

When we consume these things our bodies go to battle to digest or pass them through the system.  But in the process the digestive track, or stomach and intestines get inflamed.  When any of the three things are eaten every day,  you're chronically inflamed.  And if you're chronically inflamed you're not digesting foods properly.  And if you're not digesting foods properly, then you're body is dysfunctional.  This makes you fat. (don't read this article on inflamation).  

As a side note, chronic inflammation is considered one of the main factors in the increases in heart disease, cancer, diabetes but let's consider that a fringe benefit of not being fat.

What three things cause inflammation?

• Allergic or digestive sensitive foods

Foods an individual has a sensitivity or allergy towards.  The top four inflammation foods are:  Wheat, dairy, corn, and soy.

• Processed foods

These foods include sugar, white breads, pastas, tortillas, sodas, and juices (yes juices!)

• Artificial ingredients

They include hydrogenated oils, food colorings, additives, and preservatives. I just think about them as all the fake stuff made by man.

All of these things will inflame your gut and cells.

How do you figure out what you're sensitive too?

Elimination diet

I highly recommend what's called an elimination/provocation diet.  It only takes about a month, then you'll know forever what your body can handle and what to avoid.  Great article and a step by step plan to do the diet, don't read this.

I put my entire family, kids were three and six at the time, through an elimination diet.  

It's pretty simple, you stop eating wheat, dairy, corn, and soy for 2-4 weeks.  Then consume a fair amount, like a glass of milk, of each food and see how you feel in the next 24 hours.  For every member of my family, we all reacted poorly to dairy, but the other three were didn't make us feel much different.  When I eat dairy I get a bloated feeling in my lower stomach, and can even see a bulge right above my bladder.  When my son eats dairy, he gets congested and you can hear him breathing at night from flem build up (FYI - flem is the reaction to an infection).  

That "bloated" feeling my friends, is inflammation, which means I was inflamed for 39 years of my life.   I will not do that to my children.

Just do this

For me, the basic understanding of the digestion of sugar and processed flour based foods was key to changing the way I eat and keeping me at my high school weight for six years.  It allowed me to focus on what I eat, NOT how much I eat.  My doctor friend told me once, you can eat as much as you want, of the right foods. I've personally challenged this absurd notion for six years, and and still weight for the fat to come.

The entire eating strategy is about making eating choices, not counting calories or even tracking how much you eat, just eat whole foods:  meats, vegetables, legumes, beans and nuts (and limited fruits).  You must be prepared and organized, and have foods eat available before you're hungry. You are eating from the fridge not the cupboard.

One unexpected thing happened to me, I've never enjoyed food more or looked forward to eating more than I do know.  Maybe it's because I know I'm eating good stuff, and never feel guilty about anything I eat.

Here is some examples of eating decisions I make every day/week.

• Eat three vegetables per day (it's really hard)
• Eat out of the refrigerator not the cupboard
• Drink black coffee
• Burrito. No rice. 
• Jars of whole raw nuts
• Snack often:  Veggies and humus, raw nuts
• Limit beer consumption, drink whiskey or vodka on the rocks
• If I have wine with diner, I don't have dessert
• Natural peanut butter
• I discovered why my smoothies sucked, I didn't have a $500 blender.  (careful, don't add too much fruit)
• If I have several days in a row of eating poorly, I don't throw away the week, I eat better for the next couple of days

If you eat this way for two weeks strictly, you'll see and feel the difference.   That's it folks.  Get rid of that fat.

Be Careful, Your Instincts Are Lying to You

"Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal" - Japanese Proverb

I spend a lot of time thinking about how things work, how people think and what motivates them. A big mystery that has been on my mind for years is why some achieve success and others do not. Sure many are born with better genes or better environmental situations but you can point to so many successes and failures from both sides of the fence, or tracks if you will. So these traits and factors do not explain all the reasons for success; they only increase or decrease your chances.

Back in college I dated several girls that lived in small Wisconsin towns. Each time I would visit these towns and hang out (mostly in bar settings) I was always struck by the high level of intelligence of some of those individuals. Most of them worked factory jobs, led a good life but didn't have any ambition beyond those jobs. I knew many of these folks were smarter than me and concluded from these experiences that pure intelligence alone does not guarantee a high level of financial or career success. Alternatively, during my 20 years as a "professional", I've met a lot of people that I would deem successful but clearly lacked genetic intelligence, or didn't have the type of mind power you'd normally associate with success. From this experience I concluded that having innate genetic intelligence isn't a requirement for success.

I've read a lot of books that break down human motivation, success methodology, and the various ways people have achieved success. I believe there are many recipes for success (see my article Freelancing Ain't So Free) but all of them miss a very important aspect of how to be successful. Many of the great thinkers I've read, like Steven Covey, Merlin Mann, Michael Gerber, Jim Collins and even Oprah Winfrey all talk about living a proactive conscious or mindful life.  Hands down, this is the key to being successful but what should we be conscious of? Mindfulness and proactively don’t just happen with most people, why is this? Why do some people  "just do it", and others "just do not"? There must be a barrier holding many of us Homo sapiens back.

Whatever type of success you're trying to achieve, I've got some news for you. If you are being honest with yourself, you probably know how to achieve it, or at least know how to move towards that goal but you just aren't. Here's the thing: it's not your fault, it's your instincts. They are lying to you. I've found that most successful people share one basic thing in common: they are hyper-aware or conscious of things they do, why they do them, and what type of behavior leads to the best results. Many don't break it down to an awareness of instincts but that is much of what they've figured out, they know how to circumvent or trump them.

in stinct (nstngkt): a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason

Don't get me wrong, our instincts are important, they keep us alive but they are mostly concerned with the short term.  Besides our opposable thumbs, our sense of reason, logic and intellect are what set us apart from our animal friends. Our instincts are the most powerful driver of our behavior and most often trump our intellect or ability to rationally make decisions. If you've never read Predictably Irrational, you should, it's shocking how we make decisions, much of it on a unconscious or subconscious level.  Most people don't realize that instincts are ruling their behavior, but if you learn to overrule those pesky instincts,  I promise you'll increase your chance for success.

Animals live by instincts alone

Of course animals live by instincts alone; all their decisions are driven purely by survival instincts. Take the squirrel, they play part of the day but most of their time is spent finding and hiding food, making a home, and watching for predators. Most of their lives are spent preparing for the future, like a cold winter. Now take lions, they are incredible animals, which work together well, protect their young and pride members but are incredibly lazy. They will kill and eat an entire wildebeest, then sleep for two days. The only thing that gets them up is hunger, which requires that they hunt again. They spend almost no time preparing for the future; they kill and eat everything when it's available.

Our instincts are screwing us

Humans on the other hand have logic and reason that help mediate between our instincts and behavior. But we are much more like lions, than squirrels. We are designed to stay alive each day, not each year or each decade. If you start paying attention you'll find that many of the decisions your mind and body make are mostly based on the moment or the day. But when it comes to our long-term well-being, our instincts just don't have our best interests in mind. Let me use three examples to demonstrate my point, three things that most of us want to elevate in our lives and be better:  our careers or financial success, saving money and being fit and healthy. In all three examples, our instincts are screwing us.

But there is hope. It starts with an awareness of why we make certain decisions. If you do what your mind tells you to do every day at work, you'll limit your opportunity to advance. If your spending habits are solely based on how you "feel" or what you want, there is a good chance you're in debt or don't have much savings. If you eat only to satisfy your taste buds or body’s immediate needs, there's a good chance you're not maximizing your fitness or health potential.

I go back to my theory that a majority of people knows how to be successful in these three areas but don't act on that knowledge. When you live unconsciously you allow your instincts to rule, which means it doesn't matter that you know how to achieve success, the only way to defeat our instincts is to be aware of them and create systems to thwart them. It's a war and, if you have a plan, you can win.  I'm not going to go into depth in this article on the systems I use to achieve success in all three areas. I plan on covering those subjects in the future in more depth.  My goal in this article is to introduce, educate and convince you of the destructive role our instincts play in our modern day lives.

Financial or Career Success

I'm curious, is this something you already know?  Let's say you want to be promoted two positions higher than your current position. Most companies want to find good people to promote and are always looking for those people. Let's give you four years to get two promotions at work. I can nearly guarantee you'd get promoted if you do the following: increase your education in your respective field by taking night classes, seminars, or reading. This could include an MBA, technical certificates, or general knowledge that leads to making great decisions or innovating in very creative ways. Next, I would spend more time with your superiors; offer to take them to coffee or lunch. During those conversations take a higher-level interest in the job, ask what else can be done or if there is anything extra you can do around the department. Lastly, I would increase your positive interaction with your peers; double your efforts to be congenial, supportive and helpful. Individuals that are liked and supported by their peers are more likely to be promoted. All sound reasonable, doable, and pretty basic right?

But your instincts aren't telling you to do these things. They would have you disregard the future, and only do what seems important in the moment or day.  If you arrive to work each day, and jump into the pile you left from the day before, answer emails, attend meetings, socialize without regard for what is most important or follow a plan for the highest level of success, you're instincts are winning and limiting your chance at success. If you follow a plan created by your logical mind and use it to trump moment-driven instinctual decisions, you'll increase your chance at career success dramatically.  The best book you'll ever read on this subject is, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Saving Money & being Healthy and Fit.

Two more examples that really tell the story are being more healthy or physically fit and saving money for the future. Both perennially end up on most peoples’ New Year resolutions to do better. Again, accomplishing both of these should be pretty easy. We know how to do both well, they are both simple math equations. We know we should eat better, get more exercise and spend less than we make.  Seriously, it's really a simple equation but why are they so difficult and how do our instincts influence these decisions?

Other than large and unlikely financial windfalls, the only way to save or accumulate real wealth is to save money each month over a period of time. This requires we don't spend as much as we make. But, when it comes to these decisions each day we buy stuff because we want it, we eat out because we're hungry, we get the new car or go on the expensive vacation because we feel we need or deserve it. All of these decisions can be traced to our instincts, which only care about the moment. The only way to win against them is to have a logical plan that overrules our short term wants. Those that are able to do this get rich and rule the world.  The logical mind, or the squirrel lobe, understands that having some money saved for emergencies and for retiring one day is a good thing.  But those who make day-to-day or in the moment decisions on money, don't save.  Score one, instincts.  I encourage you to read, Rich Dad, Poor Dad on the subject, you'll never think about money the same way again.

To be physically fit and healthy, we need to eat more vegetables, exercise regularly and reduce the amount of bad food we eat. But you know this; in my experience 9 out of 10 people you ask know this.  I've spent years studying how digestion works, I find it interesting, but mainly I was interested in hacking the system and finding the easiest way to maintain my health and the health of my family.  When discussing instincts, there is no greater way they influence our behavior than eating.   Each day our instincts are on high alert to ensure we get enough food to survive. Unfortunately they don't have our long-term health's best interest in mind.  They are designed to keep us alive each day, or really each three days because that is how long we can survive without food.  

Instincts have two main influences towards eating: the type of food we eat and how much we eat.  Our instincts want the most sugary foods, which are the most immediate form of energy. This is why we crave them so much.  And our instincts are trained to eat as much as possible because our bodies worry about where the next meal comes from.  Imagine a group of lions fighting over a carcass trying to eat as much as they can. These two forces combine to make us extremely fat as a society; we eat sugar foods often, and eat as much as we can.  

Back to digestion, I'll give you a crash course on how it works.  We eat food, which is broken down into small parts to be consumed by various parts of the body; the parts are vitamins and minerals, proteins or amino acids and sugars.  Our bodies need all this stuff to survive and maintain optimal health.  If we just eat a variety of whole food, and not too much of it, we'd all be healthy.  But if you haven't noticed, our bodies crave sugar, breads, and pasta type foods the most.  The best things we can eat are dark green veggies, bright colored fruits, thick grainy stuff, and grass fed meats.  I don't know about you, but I don't wake up craving this stuff.  Here's the deal: because our instincts are just trying to keep us alive in the moment and they know sugar is the fastest way to get energy into the body, that is what they tell you to eat.  And not a little bit, but as much as you can shove down your pie hole.  And as a matter of fact, if you didn't know it, breads, white potatoes, pasta and anything else made with flour are also sugar.  The body converts them into sugar so quickly, that minutes after you eat them your blood is flushed with glucose, so, practically speaking the body thinks of them as sugar.

Making good choices about what you eat every day starts with understanding that you can't trust your instincts, then figure out what type of foods are better for you.  If you do a little research about how digestion works, what foods digest slowly, what our brain, organs and muscles really need each day, you'll know what you should eat.  Maintaining optimal health is not hard, it's more about what you eat, not how much you eat. It's about using your logical brain, or your squirrel lobe, making a plan and using it to trump your instincts.  My favorite source of information is mercola.com and here is an overview of how digestion works (Mercola.com)

Making good food choices isn't easy at first, but you'll find two things. First, it's worth it.  You'll have more energy, more endurance, your brain will work better, and you'll look better.  And, second, you’ll find many of the foods you should be eating but are not very fond of are better than you think and extremely satisfying.

I've always felt everyone can have anything they want in life, and it only takes two things to achieve it all: a plan and time and we all have one of them.   We all have time but many don't have a plan.  I've learned that, with a plan, you can achieve an audacious amount of anything you want.  Our instincts are a gift, but much of what they do is outdated. à  This sentence is a bit obscure – maybe take out the last 100 years? Since the industrial revolution, with the abundance of food and the prosperity the world has experienced over the last 100 years, our instincts are much less useful for every day, month and year decisions.  The next time you get really hungry, think about what your body wants to eat, I'll guarantee it's not a good thing.  Being succesful in all three areas is doable and it only takes a little research, a little planning and an awareness of your instinct's dark side.

The Anti-Video Revolution

San Francisco, CA, January 15, 2011 - The year was 1985. It was a glorious year for video. My parents had a big shoulder held VHS video camera; it had this amazing feature: it recorded video by pushing a button. You could zoom in and easily capture moments. Video editing was built-in feature because you were well aware of how painful watching hours of unedited video was, and as a result you “edited” on the fly.  It was a very technical and sophisticated technique: you alternated between the record and stop button to capture only the footage you wanted. The result was a recording that was very watchable. The quality of the camera was an incredibly adequate 240 lines of resolution. The recording medium was the fabulous and nearly indestructible plastic video tape. After shooting your video, you wrote the subject of the video on it and, because the tape was about the size of a book, it fit perfectly on the book shelf. Then the magic happened. When you wanted to watch one of the videos, you quickly perused the titles on the shelf, grabbed the tape and inserted it into the same video player that was used for watching movies. I personally witnessed at least three single women, two Dads, and (I’m not kidding) one Mom execute this process and watch a video. Let’s review: insert blank tape into video recorder, masterfully record a once-in-a-lifetime event, eject tape and label, store on bookshelf, select tape, insert into daily-used tape player, and hit play.

Then it all changed with the release of the cute little Sony 8MM HandyCam analog tape and camera in 1985. The camera got smaller, the recording time increased, the quality was deliciously good, and you felt great when all the Dads approached you awestruck to see and touch your new gadget. The consumer video revolution officially began. We are just lucky live in a world with so many smart engineers; they are so committed to advancing technology and through their dedication and hard work the world will be a better place.

As a husband, friend, Dad and general video shooting enthusiast, I would like to extend a sincere “screw you”, to all those engineers and visionaries. Since the release of that stupid little 8MM tape, which was quickly followed up with a digital MiniDV tape, the amount of video I have shot has increased dramatically and the amount of video that I have watched or shared has plummeted to nearly zero since 1987. So once again, I extend a big “screw you” from the bottom of my heart.

Every time I went out to buy a new camera, I read all the reviews, and discussed my purchase with friends and my local Best Buy expert. The result was always the same: get the camera with the best resolution, the best zoom, the most storage, etc, etc. And another result was also the same. Each camera didn’t increase the amount of video that anybody ever saw but, holy crap, do I have some great video on all those little MiniDV video tapes, or at least I'm pretty sure there is videos on them.

Once, about two years ago, I got out the dedicated cable that connects the camera to my TV and I showed my family this great video of my son singing in his first stage show. It was a great moment and I wish you were there. I’d show you, but now I can’t find that dedicated camera cable. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one video I made of my daughter when she was two: it was really cool. I plugged in my 20x optical zoom, 100 feature, MiniDV camera to my fancy iMac computer and captured the video in real time (which was cool because it only took about 4 hours). The final edit had music, titles, and a few cute meaningful quotes that made my wife cry; it was special. And, as a Dad of two, running a business full-time and actively involved in sports and enjoying my life, the 20 hours I spent on the edit was time well spent. Because everyone was so moved by this final product, I've repeated it twice and therefore have a total of three videos for the seven years I've had children.

The video technology revolution is well under way but the video sharing and watching revolution has been limited to anybody that has no life and is willing to spend dozens of hours editing videos.  I wish, no I beg someone to help me share my video with family and friends. If I could watch and share my videos, I guarantee I would receive a Academy Award for "Best Video of the Year". The only criteria for the award is that only my family can vote.