No Substitute for Time in - But Perfect Time in

I love the early mornings.  So many things I love to do in these hours.  Cannot say I am a great fan of the darkness at 6 AM now though.

One of my favourite thought leaders and authors, Malcolm Gladwell,  studied what made people experts in their field.   Through his studies, he found that people who put more time in became more proficient and more expert.  His magic number was 10,000 hours makes a person expert.  Want to become a piano master?  Practice for 10,000 hours.  Want to become a great artist? Practice for 10,000 hours.

I took karate for about a decade.  My karate instructor said "perfect practice makes perfect - practice alone does not".  There is validity in that - spending the time practicing wrong just makes you perfect at doing things wrong.

I also know this from playing internet chess mindlessly.  I can put the hours in but get no better.  To improve requires focus, study and perfect practice.

I know there is no substitute for time in.  I have an organic vegetable garden.  If I spend time, it has few weeds and few pests.  Interestingly, in this case, mindless puttering gets the job done - no perfection required.

But it is not all about time - it is about energy.  I know when I am high energy (like early mornings), I have the focus to do "perfect".  When I am tired, I tend to do mindless.  So from an efficiency view - anything I can do to increase the amount of energy or high energy hours, the more effective I will be.  And if I spend my high energy hours on high perfection task, I will accomplish more.

And the puttering time can still add value to the things that can be accomplished with puttering.

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A good friend of mine's daughter did her movie debut in a Jennifer Anniston movie  - Life of Crime.  I am looking forward to watching it.

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And a quote for the day:

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that.

George Carlin

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I am thinking I need to do a songbook.  Just like IBM did in 1937.  Check it out.

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To provoke thought, there is a good article in the Atlantic on the new editors of the internet.

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The grandkids - Victoria and Josh.  Puttering or perfect practice?  Or perhaps just enjoying being.

Leading Surveys and the Power of Asking the Right Questions

When we ask questions - we get answers.

This is why I like the How question.  Often when you ask why - you come up with reasons and excuses for why something happens or is not happening.  Why are sales down this year?  Competition is higher and we lost XYZ account.  And of course the exchange rate.

I think of things we cannot change as "conditions".  My exCOO used that all the time.  Conditions are simply things which are.  And anything that needs to be done needs doing "in spite of the condition".

But ask the How question.  How can we increase sales.  We can market more, we can sell other products, we can approach ABC customer etc.  How questions inspire action.

Good leading questions get even better answers - eg being highly specific.  How can we increase sales by 12% by December?

This is why my modification of the 5 Why's is to add the How.

So how can this be used in surveys?

Ask - what are the 3 things you like about us?  Do you buy from us because our prices are competitive or because our service is great?  Do you mostly buy from us because we sell ABC product or XYZ product?  (so the customer says "I did not know you sold XYZ).  As a customer, what is most important to you about us - that we sell more ABC than all other companies combined or because we ship faster than other companies?

The more customers say good things about you - even in a survey, the better they think of you.

Don't ask what is wrong with us?  (that will always come out - especially if you have a section for "any other comments")

Surveys can be a great marketing tool and can help reinforce things in your customers' or prospects' mind.  They can also educate your customer.

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Texting and driving.  Good video to share with all.  Watch it through to the point where they show how long 5 seconds is.

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And Victoria taking me for a walk.

The Goal - Reducing Stuff Quotient

I recently moved from a large home in Long Island to large home in Guelph - but a home that is half the size.    So now, everything is a mess with too much stuff.  So I am committed to a negative Stuff Quotient.  I commit to get rid of more stuff than I bring into the house every day.  And to add to it, I would like to get rid of one more thing per day - this will add up to 1000 less things in 3 years which might put the house into an equilibrium.

Stuff has a great cost - the worst of which is stress - usually caused by time.  Stuff takes time.  Time spent on stuff can far outweigh the value of the stuff.

Storage costs.  Many people spend thousands of dollars storing hundreds of dollars of stuff.

Stuff has no value if it cannot be found easily.   And storing it a retrieving it takes time.  Good organization systems help of course but there is a time factor to set those up.

And most Stuff degrades or has obsolescence as it is stored.  EG - I just threw out an awesome maglight because the batteries had corroded.  And then in looking at flashlights, I realize it was obsolete anyways.  New ones are LED - better light and longer life.

Part of what makes it difficult to get rid of stuff is frugality.  I hate waste.  To help this feeling, I give things to friends (is this mean?), or goodwill/Salvation Army.  But some things just need to be tossed.

Stuff can be security but it can also be stress.

Consider making the Negative Stuff Quotient Pledge.

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I thought this was a very interesting KPMG report on the tax efficiency of various jurisdictions.  Canada and Ontario rank very well.  Especially for tech companies using SRED credits.  See report.

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A friend emailed me an online miniseries his brother is directing.  The phenomenon of anyone being able to be a producer/director is interesting.  This is just like blogging allows anyone to own a publisher.  Media empires have been broken.

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And a plug for one of my investee companies:

LaunchSpot is a solution that:

1. Enables people in your organization to save time by making it really easy to find expertise wherever it is across your company’s network - in both critical situations and in normal daily work.

2. Enables your people to setup a profile in seconds because we use existing information to pre-populate profiles.  The on-boarding process is very simple and fast.

3. Helps you gain insight into your organization (skills breakdown across the organization, etc.)

4. Enables you to integrate with other systems via our API.

Why:

Information is available now more than ever but information is only useful when applied with the needs of your current context.  A google search alone can not provide that context but the people in your organization with expertise can.  We believe that information alone does not contain the answers, people do and to that end we make it easier for your people to find the expertise in your organization.

ROI:

The average knowledge worker spends 20% of their time looking for answers to do their jobs. Help each of your people turn those hours into minutes.

http://LaunchSpot.io

99% of Marketing Spending is Wasted

John Wannamaker is credited with saying "50% of the advertising spending is wasted - the problem is I do not know which half".  But he was wrong.  99% or even more of the advertising $ that are spent are wasted but the 1% more than pays for the advertising.

The Atlantic printed an article that basically says internet advertising does not work.  See the article here.  They used examples of people searching for a product who already had decided what to buy.  I agree, this is a high % of the people.  What they did not use as examples of people who had non-buying intent but were good targets.

For example, if I type buy Nike shoes - I have likely decided to buy Nike's.  If I Google good running shoes, I am open to suggestions.  Or if I Google 10K races, I am also likely a buyer.  And advertisers use retargeting so I may get a running shoe ad the next day when I am searching something completely different.

I wrote an article a while ago on "The Fallacy of ROI on Marketing" and reused the concept in my book "Zero to $2 Billion - The Marketing and Branding Story Behind the Growth".  The gist of it is - consumers buy for a variety of reasons.  It might be because they saw the billboard or the truck or the Superbowl ad or the internet ad.  It is rarely just one impression - it is the "accumulation" effect.

Marketing success really is about math but you never know some of the variables.  In its simplest.  Spend $1,000 that is viewed (or presented) to 1,000 people and get 100 leads that turn into 3 buyers that generate $500 in margin each and you have a profitable business that can scale.   In this example, only 3 people in the 1,000 bought so it could be argued that 99.7% of the advertising spend was wasted.

Marketing is a bit like sales as far as success rates goes.   Great sales people have abysmal closing rates.  Many sales people can make good money for themselves and their companies by only closing 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 prospects.  It is about numbers.

And speaking of advertising, there is an interesting blog post on deception in advertising that has a cute infographic (now you see why I try to avoid fast food)

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There is another interesting article in the Atlantic that says that people lie about what they read.  They do not really want hard news.  What they really watch is sports and entertainment.  I can sort of see this.  People want to be thought of as being thoughtful and informed and would not want everyone to know they follow more shallow topics mostly.

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And in keeping with the Time Management theme.  This is an article on 40 ways to stop procrastinating.   I am concerned that posting the link will reduce my blog readership though.

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And a shout out for one of my investments that made Profit Magazines fastest growing companies (#54) - Iotum (they do freeconference.com)

Simplicity

“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra  

He wrote an all time classic book on programming called "A Discipline of Programming".

I have not done much programming for a long time but most of the same principles apply today as applied when Dijkstra wrote his book.  In his book he emphasizes common sense.

Programming is one area that complexity kills.  The greater the complexity, the greater the chance of error, the more difficulty to make changes and the less scalable things become.

The biggest mistake most companies and programmers make that I see is programming before planning.  I have a huge sense of urgency and want to get things done.  But in product development, it is best to plan more and better and program less.

I also see a failure of many companies to sell.  Many tech start ups are lead by founders who are strong on tech and product management but lack sales interest.  Nothing like sales to real customers to keep a product relevant.

I can see some of the programming principles can apply to my life organization.  Simplify to live easier.

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I saw an interesting TED talk on athletic performance.  People are not getting faster and stronger but technology is improving.

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And my new favorite website for marketing and startup tips is growthhackers.com.

Accomplishment Guilt

I suffer from accomplishment guilt - or perhaps better said - lack of accomplishment guilt.  I feel bad if I do not get enough done.  Some of this is good - it can drive great things.  It helps my self discipline.  It helps my productivity and efficiency since I know I need to be efficient to accomplish things.

Part of it is bad - it can lead to feeling unsettled and stressed.

One of my favourite sayings is "people tend to over estimate what they can accomplish in a day and underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade".  I have seen this to be true.

One way to be more zen or at peace is to list your blessing.  And list what has been accomplished (as opposed to listing what has not been which I often seem to do.

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For serious stats driven chess geeks - I found this article interesting.

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One of the Canrock investments - Pumpup seems to be getting great traction.  Their tweet:

PumpUp passes 1M users and introduces health & fitness social network. Join the community and download @PumpUp today! http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/21/pumpup-exits-beta/

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One of the things I love about Canada is the weather.  I took this today driving to the Calgary airport from Canmore.  Yes - that is snow.  And the northern latitude means it is light late and early.  This was taken about 5:30 AM.

With Love and Quiches

I read an awesome and inspirational book by Susan Axelrod - With Love and Quiches - A Long Island Housewife's Surprising Journey from Kitchen to Boardroom.  

Susan calls herself and "accidental success".  She simply had some time on her hands and started reading recipe books and gourmet magazine.  And she cooked and baked.  And she shared some of what she made with friends who complimented her.  So she baked some more.

She joined a gourmet cooking club.   She started to teach some cooking as a volunteer and then paid.

The book starts with her childhood and works all through her life from there.  It tells of her marriage.  Where she lived and the life she lead.

She had a friend, Jill, who she talked to and they decided "lets start a food business".  So they did.  They started making quiches and quickly moved to desserts like cheesecake.  Her company name - Love and Quiches.

Part of what makes the book interesting are the many of the stories tell of early selling  and baking catastrophes.  The naivety that made for interesting times.  The huge order she got then trying to fill the order.

Susan is obviously a determined sales person.  She would successfully call on restaurants and pedal her wares.  And she also started selling to airlines.

All was going well and business was growing bit by bit.  Then 9/11.  People stopped eating out.  Airlines did not fly.  Economic hard times hit and most of what she sold was "optional".  So the business almost went bankrupt.  It tells of her fighting through that and re-establishing and growing again.  Exciting.

I am always inspired by people who build great businesses from scratch.  I am doubly inspired that Susan built her business in a time when few other women were doing this.   I like stories of success against odds.

The book reminded me that business plans are good but often just listening to customers also works.

I know Susan and have toured her company and heard her speak.  She is modest and even slightly shy about her success.  For example, when I was moderating a panel at a Golden Seeds event, I asked her in front of the audience if she could share some statistics like "how much flour do you buy or how many cheesecakes do you make".  Her response was "we are a private company and do not share our details".  I thought the audience would have liked to know she buys by the train car and stores it in silos etc.

Great read.  Exciting, entertaining and inspirational.