The author illustrates a good way of creating a framework for how to find the work you love to do. This idea itself isn’t inherently groundbreaking, but I thought the author’s thoughtful approach was clearly communicated and resonated with me. My take is that the author is essentially saying: put in the hard work now to have better options later.
My Takeaways:
Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion.
Steve Jobs actually didn’t know what his passion was.
Focus on becoming better – Steve Martin
Being better takes more time than people think.
“The tape doesn’t lie” Nashville studio musician quote.
Adopt a “craftsmen mindset” that takes an output-centric approach to work.
Craftsman mindset: what you can offer the world vs the traditional “passion mindset” what the world can offer you.
Adopt a mindset shift of approaching your job like a performer.
Traits that define great work: Creativity, impact and control
Focus on developing skills that are rare and valuable, as this will give you the career capital to have a job with all great work traits. (Supply and Demand)
The traits that define great work are rare and valuable.
The craftsmen mindset of becoming so good they can’t ignore you is a strategy to acquire startup capital. This trumps the passion mindset if the goal is to create work you love.
Serious study that puts you out of your comfort zone and appropriately challenging as well as a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice will get you to mastery level as well as immediate feedback. (Chess example. Also see similar thoughts for my book review on ‘Outliers: The Story of Success”)
Deliberate practice focused on carefully chosen difficult activities that stretch your ability and comfort will lead to mastery and to becoming so good they can’t ignite you.
Everyone in any type job hits a plateau.
Dedication to deliberate practice at our jobs is the way to successfully adopt a craftsmen mindset that blows past our peers.
Feedback is extremely important to get better.
5 Habits of a Craftsman:
Decide what capital market you are in.
Winner take all market vs auction market
Identify your capital type.
Define Good
Stretch and destroy. Get out of your comfort zone and get direct feedback.
Be patient.
Giving people more control over what they do and how they do it increases happiness, engagement and a sense of fulfillment.
Rule 1: You need career capital to have control in your work and lifestyle.
Avoid the trap of “courage culture” by doing what people are willing to pay for.
Rule 2: Traits that define great work are rare and valuable, and if you want these, you need to first build up rare and valuable skills to offer in return.
Rule 3: leverage your career capital by gaining control over what you do and how you do it. Since control is the trait that shows up often in the lives of people who love what they do.
Have a mission in your working life.
Place little bets to get feedback to maximize chances of success.
Have a mission-driven project that is remarkable and launched in a venue that supports remarkable projects. (Open source example)
The best ideas for missions are just beyond, on the cutting edge or “adjacent possible”
A classic business book that everyone should read regardless of where they are in their career. This book is full time-tested approaches to being an effective leader.
My Takeaways
Up until recently, the problem of an organization was efficiency in the performance of a manual worker who did what he was told. Knowledge workers were not predominant in an organization.
Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective.
Knowledge work is defined by its results.
No matter what position you are in a knowledge work position, you must act as an executive within your sphere to achieve results for the organization.
Executives in corporations have to cooperate with the inevitable. These realities pressure executives towards non-results.
The flow of events determines what an executive is focused on unless he or she deliberately changes this.
Events don’t tell the executive anything unlike a patient visiting a doctor.
If executives lets the flow of events dictate what they do, then they will simply be “operating” and be wasting his knowledge.
Executives need criteria that enable them to work on what is truly important to get results, even though the criteria are not found in the flow of events.
Executives’ perceptions of the real world can be distorted and filtered through the lens of the organization they are within.
The higher up in the organization, the more inside focused the executive becomes.
The truly important events on the outside of an organization are not trends. They are changes in the trends.
Effective executives differ widely in abilities, what they do, personalities, knowledge and interests – all they have in common is the ability to get the right things done.
5 habits of the mind that have to be acquired by effective executives:
Know where your time goes. Systematically manage time to bring under their control.
Focus on outward contribution. Gear efforts towards results rather than work. Start out asking “what results are expected of me?” How can I contribute?
Build on their own strengths and the strengths of coworkers. Build on the strengths of what they can do in a situation. Do not start out with building on weakness.
Concentrate on a few major areas where performance will produce outstanding results. Set priorities and stick with them.
Make effective decisions by designing a system of the right steps in the right sequence. Effective decision making is based on dissenting options and not consensus of facts. The right strategy vs razzle dazzle tactics.
Focus time in chunks to be more productive.
The larger the organization, the less actual time the executive will have. This means it’s more important for him/her to know where time goes and manage the little time he/she does have at their disposal.
The best way to manage your time is to record where it goes. We do this for manual labor type of work but not for knowledge work.
Effective executives systematically manage time by identifying and eliminating things that do not need to be done at all. These things are not tied to results.
Ask yourself which activities can be done by someone better?
Don’t be afraid to ask others if the executive is wasting their time.
Mitigate recurring “crises”.
Time spent in too many meetings is a sign of misorganization and should be re-examined.
Focusing efforts on downward is a subordinate no matter the title.
Focus on the contribution and hold yourself accountable for the performance as a whole.
Performance of an organization is direct results, building of values, reaffirmation and developing people for tomorrow.
Knowledge workers that are specialists should relate their narrow knowledge to the whole.
Effective human relations:
Communication
Teamwork
Self development
Development of others.
Focus on hiring based on strengths, not to minimize weakness.
Look for excellence in one major area and not for performance that gets by all around.
Effective executives are objective about filling jobs with people that meet the objective requirements.
Organizations need diversity to make better decisions.
Building teams of strength requires having a non/friend relationship.
Don’t be afraid to redesign job requirements
When designing a job, it should be big in scope for someone to grow into and evaluate performance.
Remove people quickly if they are not performing.
Staff a position based on strengths. Ask what this person can do instead of focusing on weaknesses. (General Marshall example.)
Help make the strengths of your superiors productive.
Build on strength to make weaknesses irrelevant.
Effective executives themselves should know what they are good at.
Don’t change human beings, but multiply the performance capacity by putting strength to use in people.
Executives concentrate the time they have on leveraging their strengths to focus on one thing at a time.
Effective execs do not race or rush important tasks. They put in the time necessary to complete each task effectively – for themselves and their organization.
Programs and processes in an organization often outlive their usefulness. It is important for the executive to constantly evaluate and remove yesterday’s programs that are no longer productive.
Move people into new positions within an organization that have a proven strength rather than hire a new person.
Execs bring in people just below the level off top leadership into an activity that is already defined and reasonably understood
Do not let the pressure dictate the important tasks an exec should concentrate on, because the pressure always favors yesterday. Do not favor urgent vs. relevant.
The reason why it’s hard to concentrate is because it’s hard to set “posteriorities” – what tasks not to tackle and sticking to that decision. (See similar takeaways from my book review on ‘Steve Jobs’)
How to identify priorities:
Pick the future against the past.
Focus on opportunity rather than on problem.
Choose your own direction, rather than climb on the bandwagon.
Aim high for something that will make a difference instead of something safe and easy to do.
It is just as risky to do something small that is new, as it is to do something big that is new.
Execs focus on making a few strategic decisions on the highest level, rather than simply solving problems.
Effective decision making criteria:
Is the problem generic (can it be solved by applying a rule/principle) or specific (treated as a one-off)
Think through the “boundary decisions” of what is right vs. what is acceptable and what the decision has to satisfy.
Convert decisions into action with specific steps and identify people with the right behaviors and strengths to carry out and “operationalize” the new decision.
Feedback has to be built into the decision to provide continue testing against actual events of the expectations that underlie the decision.
Most people start out decisions with opinions – untested hypotheses and then find the fact to support their opinion.
The effective executive asks “what do we have to know to test the validity of this hypothesis?”
The effective decision maker assumes that the traditional measurements are not the right measurement. Otherwise there would generally be no need for a decision; a simple adjustment would be acceptable (yesterday’s decision) (Beginner’s mind)
Effective executives insist on alternatives of measurement so they can choose the one appropriate one.
Effective decision making comes from dissension and conflicting views. One does not make a decision unless there is disagreement. (Similar views as Ray Dalio in his book ‘Principals’)
Think through the alternatives and have a backup plan. This stimulates imagination.
The effective exec organizes disagreement, it gives him the alternatives to choose from
Execs use conflict of opinion as a tool to make sure all major aspects of important matter are looked at carefully.
One should evaluate if a decision even needs to be made at all.
Everyone in an organization should be an effective decision maker.
Summary:
An executive’s job is to be effective
Effectiveness can be learned
The needs of a large-scale organization have to be satisfied by common people achieving uncommon performance
Organizations need to feed opportunities and starve problems.
Organizations need to set priorities instead of trying to do a bit of everything
Insightful book that deconstructs how world-class performers across different industries and professions are able to achieve success. I skipped around this book and read the chapters that seemed most interesting to me.
My Takeaways
Raise prices. (Marc Andressen)
Stress test ideas with a red team. Bash the sh*t out of an idea and if you still believe it, then commit to that idea. (Marc Andressen)
“Be so good, they can’t ignore you.” (Marc Andressen)
Wear something unique so people remember you. (Chris Sacca)
Try to trade the short term gain for the long term upside. (Arnold Schwarzenegger)
It’s often the tiny detailed things that grow your business rather than the large things. (i.e. Derek Sivers’ funny CDbaby email.)
Give lots of damns. (i.e. Alexis Ohanian’s example of making the copy on Reddit’s error page funny.)
Being busy is a form of laziness and often used as a guise for avoiding the few critical important but uncomfortable actions. (Tim Ferris)
On commonalities of famous investors interviewed by Tony Robbins:
Always cap the downside.
Find investing opportunities that have asymmetric risk and reward.
Daily vlogging leads to massive growth. (Casey Neistat)
“Tell me something that’s true that few people agree with you on.“ (Peter Theil)
First Ten Principal:. Tell ten people, show ten people and share with ten people who already trust and like you. (Seth Godin)
Generate a list of 10 bad ideas as a daily exercise to refine the creativity muscle. (James Altucher)
If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in when launching products.
Think categories, not brands when marketing a product or service.
Everyone wants what’s new, not better.
When you’re first in a new category, promote the category. In essence you have no competition. Tim applied this concept by coining the term “Lifestyle Design” in his book ‘The 4 Hour Workweek’.
Don’t be afraid to do something you’re not qualified to do.
Rainy Sethi sends simple text emails to make a more personal connection.
Focus on acquiring 1,000 true fans (super fans) who will pay you directly for anything and everything you sell. 1,000 true fans are your direct source of income and chief marketing force for ordinary fans.
Take “the coffee challenge” by asking for 10% off your cup of coffee at a coffee shop. This gets you in the habit of asking for what you want in life.
Amazing book that sheds light into the hidden aspects of how people blame successful across all industries and professions.
My Takeaways
There is a strong correlation between a person’s culture and how they behave.
Being born in the right place at the right time is a more likely explanation of a person’s success than simply just hard work. It’s a combo.
Slowing down allows teachers to cover more in the NYC public school example. Not feeling rushed for time allows more “practice reps”.
Putting in 10,000 hours of work is the magic number to be considered a master in a specific skill.
Successful people had more opportunities to practice and get better at what they were doing. (i.e. Bill Gates, Bill Joy and The Beatles) to get to the magic 10,000 hours of practice.
Our societal structure has systems and process in place (and has been for years) that don’t give equal opportunities for all people to reach a successful level and prosper.
Successful people are very much the products of particular environments and circumstances that occur throughout history – as well as the culture that was handed down to them.
Overall, I felt this book to be an interesting exploration into Marc Benioff’s thought process on how he set out to create such a largely influential company. He argues that the growth of Salesforce is tied to how well a company creates and executes on its core values. He also argues that the business rules have changed where companies need to “go good” by serving the greater world and not just their customers and shareholders.
Marc and Salesforce believe that companies today have a responsibility to look beyond profits by impacting positive change on society. Data suggests that consumers and customers now expect this in today’s business climate.
My Takeaways
A company with values creates value.
Company values should not only be the guiding principles for a business, but that CEOs should actively try to operationalize values into every aspect of their businesses.
High stakes business initiatives are a stress test that often lead to insights that only drill values deeper into your culture.
Trust is the most important value a company can instill within its culture. Salesforce was one of the first companies to have a trust site and open line if communication with customers.
Salesforce acts as a trusted partner to customers. The success of the customer is embedded within Salesforce core value of “Customer Success”.
Data shows that a culture of safety and trust as well as speaking up, results in better risk taking and problem solving within an organization.
Studies also suggest that companies that commit to doing good for society have stronger customer loyalty – especially with Millennials and that this translates to an increased willingness for customers to pay more for products and services.
Marc places a strong emphasis on not only treating customers well, but also the employees within Salesforce.
Company culture should be continually cultivated and that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Marc enabled outside innovation via App Exchange, which was a new method of innovating as opposed to the old way where businesses would hire more scientists and employees to develop new products internally.
Giving back to the communities Salesforce serves is purposefully woven into the company culture at Salesforce via the 1-1-1 model. (1% Equity, 1% volunteer time and 1% product)
Giving back has been linked with improved productivity and employee satisfaction.
An “Activist CEO” is becoming the norm within business today. Gone are the days of leaving other beliefs outside of business. Employees as well as customers demand business leaders to take a stand on issues that affect the broader community.
Although this book was a bit preachy, I found that there were worthwhile tips and tricks that one can adopt to develop a wealth mindset. This book is the kick in the pants you need in order to start transforming your thoughts and habits around money.
My Takeaways
People’s past experiences subconsciously influence money decisions
People who blame others and act as victims self sabotage themselves.
Choose to think and play big. Thinking small will get you a comfortable living. Thinking big will help you get wealthy.
Wealthy entrepreneurs solve people’s problems on a large scale.
Don’t be afraid of self promotion. If you’re confident that your product can help people, then share it.
Rich people focus on solutions, poor people focus on problems.
Wealthy people should be open to receive in order to give to others.
Get paid based on business results. Not hourly wages.
Take advantage of tax write incentives as a business owner
Rich people think in terms of abundance instead of scarcity.
Learn how to manage money by properly saving and investing.
Have a “spend” account to balance the savings account.
Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Rich people learn from other rich people who have real world results.
Rich people are constantly learning to grow and don’t think they know everything.
Self-help book written by someone who experienced a near death experience and improved his life through a morning ritual that he refined over time. This book was a bit preachy for me and the author could have cut out about half the book to convey his key points. Nevertheless, the ‘The Miracle Morning’ does have some great practical tips for developing morning habits that lead to more productivity.
My Takeaways
The last thought at night is the first thought in the morning
Keep the alarm clock across the room. Movement creates energy.
Brush your teeth and use mouthwash.
Drink a full glass of water.
Get dressed or take a shower
Bedtime affirmations are important. Set intentions.
Set timer for bedroom lights.
Set timer for bedroom heater – warm for waking up.
Set motivational alarm clock messages that are positive.
Follow the SAVERS ritual in the morning to be more productive throughout the day.:
Silence: Be silent in a separate room for clarity. Practice meditation by silencing the mind. This has scientific health benefits.
Affirmations: Affirmations are crucial for framing your thoughts and bringing positivity into your mind. Update affirmations regularly.
Visualization. Have a clear picture of the end result.
Exercise: Practice exercising by doing activities such as yoga.
Powerful and practical advise from a former U..S Navy SEAL on how to be a great leader.
My Takeaways
On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame.
The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.
If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual.
If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.
Total responsibility for failure is a difficult thing to accept, and taking ownership when things go wrong requires extraordinary humility and courage. But doing just that is an absolute necessity to learning, growing as a leader, and improving a team’s performance.
Navy Seal training example in BUDS: boat leader 2 had a realistic assessment, acknowledgment of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win. Most important of all, he believed winning was possible. In a boat crew where winning seemed so far beyond reach, the belief that the team actually could improve and win was essential.
Extreme Ownership is contagious and gets instilled in teams.
One of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.
Everyone must believe in the mission and it’s a leader’s job to explain why the mission exists and is important. In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.
Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. They must impart this understanding to their teams down to the tactical-level operators on the ground. Far more important than training or equipment, a resolute belief in the mission is critical for any team or organization to win and achieve big results.
It’s important to ask questions and understand the “Why” behind the mission or decision. This will help you convince others in the mission which will increase the likelihood of success.
Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.
Ego can prevent a leader from conducting an honest, realistic assessment of his or her own performance and the performance of the team.
The SEAL concept “Cover and Move” means teamwork. All elements within the greater team are crucial and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting one another for that singular purpose. Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.
A very interesting peak into the world of Google and how one of the world’s most successful companies operates.
My Takeaways
Google hires “smart creatives” that love to learn.
Product excellence is essential in today’s world because the cost of experimentation and failure has dropped significantly.
The basis for continual product success is speed.
Google employees are encouraged to try new things and fail.
According to Google, the primary objective of any business must be to increase the speed of the product development process and the quality of output.
Let data decide deductions, but don’t let it take over.
Google sets a collaborative company culture. Who do we want to be? What do we believe?
Decide your company culture before you get started.
Offices should be designed to maximize energy and interactions. Not for isolation and status.
Quality of the idea matters.
Flat organizations are better for communication.
Focus on great products.
Small teams using the “two pizza rule.”
Most of Google’s successful products have been based on strong technological insights. Google asks what are the technological insights upon which new features products and platforms will be built? Technological insight is something that either decreases the cost or increases the function and usability by a significant factor.
Another source of technology insights is to start with a solution with a narrow problem and look for ways to broaden its scope.
Build platforms that focus on growth.
Open platforms trades control for scale and innovation.
Don’t follow competition. If you follow competition, you will never deliver something that is truly innovative.
Strategy Session: Ask what will be true in 5 years and work backward. Carefully examine the things you can assert will change quickly. Especially areas of production where technology is exponentially driving down the cost curves or platforms that could emerge.
Identify the disrupters over a 5-year period.
Spend the vast majority thinking about product and platform.
Don’t use market research. Slides kill discussion.
Hiring is the single most important thing you can do.
Favoring specialization over intelligence is exactly the wrong approach in the technology industry.
Every employee should recruit great people, so make it part of performance reviews and grading.
Google creates new positions within the company to keep employees happy. They also pay well for outstanding employees who contribute.
Google encourages job movement within the organization.
Google relies heavily on data to drive presentations and visions.
Google encourages dissent and different view points at meetings.
Google has a bias for action that incorporates patience, information and alternatives.
Every year, Google shares critical company info with all it’s employees at every level (slide presentations) that was presented to the board of directors
Every entry-level employee understands the details of each person’s job. Not a hands off approach.
Tell the truth.
Google does a postmortem after product releases to go over what went right and wrong. Opens up honest communication and then posts it on the company’s private intranet.
Press interviews are conversations not scripted answers.
For something to be innovative, it needs to be new, surprising, and radically useful.
Think big and 10x your ideas.
Constantly ship and iterate your product.
Pour resources into the winning products, not the losers.
