Nicholas Bate

Blast from the Past 3

first posted September 2007

Read to your children.
It's increasingly a lost art: reading to our children. Start it in your family. Re-start it if the tradition has been lost. Why?
Children love it.

It's bonding.

It develops a child's imagination.

It develops vocabulary.

It's a nice thing to do before falling asleep.

It's a ritual in an otherwise busy day.

It completes the day on a high spot whatever has happened.

It creates discussion points.

Choosing some of the classics (e.g. Rudyard Kipling) not only 'rounds' an education but establishes fundamental ways of looking at the world.

It broadens the mind by reading about other jobs/people/parts of the world.
Yep, read to your children.

So You Are Starting an MBA? Think 3 by 3!

Congratulations. You have been told 'well done' by family and friends and told 'it'll be tough' by colleagues who have done one/are doing one. Perhaps these points will help:

Three Questions
Keep asking these three questions:
1. This is an exhaustive reading list for which I thank you. Which are the essential two books on it?
2. And how is that principle applied to a small - say 1- 15 people - business?
3. What differentiates those students from previous years who have got the best jobs quickly from those who didn't or haven't?

Three Actions
Take these three actions:
1. Find two good people to make your study team. To split the work-load, help with reading and share notes.
2. Join and go to the campus gym; it'll balance out the extreme mental demands.
3. Learn how to learn. It's a long time since you took notes, studied hard and wrote essays.

Adopt these Mindsets
Think differently
1. An MBA doesn't get me a great new job: I get me a great new job.
2. Lectures are 99% knowledge and 1% action. I need to reverse those stats to offer value to organisations.
3. I can get out of my comfort zone and sit on the front row, ask questions and learn to get on with that guy from the other side of the world.

Have fun: it's going to be a great year!

Peter Drucker's Five Questions

were apparently:
-What is our mission?
-Who is our customer?
-What does the customer value?
-What are our results?
-What is our plan?
More here.

You Will Feel Better For (29 of 30)...

...doing all your software up-dates. It's getting increasingly annoying that you are 'not on the latest version'. Bite the bullet and get it done. You will feel better for it...

Tuesday Eight

1. Go wild for the new range of red moleskines. And patent leather, too. Don't strecth the brand too far, guys. Please! You know it will end in tears...
2. New ChangeThis.Com manifestos are out. This one from John Kotter is great: the essence of his new book.
3. At long last, a shift in productivity from just 'executing stuff' to thinking what it's really about. Here's a blogger who's really making the change.
4. Matt's been on the case for some time.
5. Here's a serious book launch from Tim Sanders.
6. Meanwhile my Instant MBA is fully shipping. Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered it.
7. Finally read How Starbucks Saved My Life on the flight back from LA. A lot of reviewers have given it a hard time, but in essence it's a light read with an up-lifting message and buried within its pages are plenty of good reminders for us. One key one of course is how in the 'mentally active' world in which many of us live, physical labour can be very grounding and in fact essential for our sanity.
8. Love the pink shoed bride.

PersonalCompass101

1. There’s IN time; that’s important and urgent. You are in the task, up against the clock. We all get regularly sucked into IN time. E.g. the client is chasing you. The book writing has a deadline. Your daughter has tooth-ache. You are up against the clock.
2. Then there’s ON time; that’s important and non-urgent or more helpfully important and investing. You are working on something, choosing which way to go. Planning strategy, reading to your children. Preparing the garden. You are setting or following your Personal Compass.
3. Personal Compass is a term I use for deciding priorities at the definitive, highest level.
4. Don’t choose (not solely, anyway) by urgency, by who is shouting loudest or by what is simply the easiest. Although all of these potential criteria may make a component of the decision, they do tend to only encourage a short time perspective, with short-term results and the consequence of neglecting the long-term. Make regular reference to your Personal Compass.
5. Let’s review the concepts behind the Compass.
6. He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci.
7. Compass Point 1 is Career
8. A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart. Robert Townsend.
9. Most of spend a lot of time trying to head in the direction of a ‘good career’; it’s a great place to start, therefore.
10. What do you want to be doing in three year’s time? Write it down!
11. Write down three bullets for three actions that you can take over the next six months to be on target for that overall goal.
12. Do you know? Are you unsure? Stick with us!
13. Decide to regularly consider and manage your career; nobody else will and we live in a world where few careers will last a lifetime.
14. Stay alert; keep investing in yourself. Ask yourself: what is my knowledge half-life? How long before my value is degrading?
15. Think Dharma, a Sanskrit word with a range of meanings, but in this context it is Life Purpose.
16. You are a complex mix of nature + nurture, genes + up-bringing which make you who you are. You will be at your best, you will fulfil your dharma when you are able to use that mix.
17. So: follow your passion.
18. Or: Follow your Bliss. Joseph Campbell.
19. Be wary of the good advice of others: parents, career advisers and others are well-meaning. They have good ideas. So often they are trying to offer you security (What about, law, medicine or IT?, they say). But ultimately you must decide..
20. And the best security is not necessarily a ‘secure’ job but a ‘secure’, fully-released passion. So: We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell.
21. We know that money isn’t everything, but actual money is nothing if we are not getting fulfilment from what we are doing.
22. How do find your dharma? By doing stuff, exploring and noticing when you feel ‘at one’ with what you do. Sure, there are bad days and weeks in any, but generally speaking this is so good, it’s amazing you’re paid to do it. That’s the feeling you are seeking.
23. The way to find out about happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy — not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call "following your bliss". Joseph Campbell.
24. So: do it with passion or pack it in.
25. See also Productivity101
26. And TTD101
27. And Writing101. Writing is a tremendous route to self-discovery.
28. And BTW, the Beatles101 followed their dharma.
29. Compass Point 2 is Mind/Body.
30. He who has health has hope. And he who has hope has everything. Arabic proverb.
31. It’s all we’ve got. Our health, that is.
32. Choose wellness, not just fitness.
33. Wellness come from simple balance. Physical and Psychological.
34. Try MEDS implemented via Pareto.
35. It’s holistic, it’s balanced, it’s carefree. It’s realistic.
36. Address a little (the Pareto 20%) of each element, each day. And get the pareto return (80%).
37. M is mediation. Take time out, every day.
38. E is exercise. The CV kind. Walk, every day.
39. D is diet. Eat for health, not just for calories. Eat only when eating! Then over-eating is difficult. Over-eating in front of the TV is easy.
40. S is sleep. Return the bed-room to a sanctuary not a home cinema nor home study. Return to good practices such as no business e-mail before bed.
41. It’s in the balance: M-E-D-S
42. There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry. Mark Twain.
43. See also Wellness101 for more thinking.
44. Also How To Think Like for serious, silly and downright surreal elements of thinking.
45. And boost your creativity with Creativity101.
46. Compass Point 3 Personal Finance
47. The Basics:
48. Save then spend.
49. Wealth is not salary.
50. Wealth is firstly the intangibles such health and relationships.
51. Wealth is secondly our personal balance sheet. I.e. our assets less our liabilities.
52. There is a difference between standard of living and quality of life
53. Standard of Living is stuff. All well and good.
54. ‘keeping up with the Jones’, too.
55. But funnily enough one bit of stuff seems to encourage more stuff.
56. Maybe chase a state, a way of being.
57. Quality of life is exactly that.
58. It’s time to be, to be our best.
59. Realising our potential,
60. Feeling fulfilled.
61. Oh and get a handle on the number.
62. The number is what you need for financial independence. It is dependent upon (1) dharma. The more you enjoy your job, the more it is you, the less you will wish to ‘retire’ (2) how much money you need to live upon if you have no further income (3) increasing longevity. It’s tricky to assess but it’s worth (1) thinking about (2) sooner, rather than later.
63. Money can’t make you friends, but you get a better class of enemy. Spike Milligan.
64. Sex is like money, only too much is enough. John Updike.
65. Compass Point 4 Relationships
66. You cannot be efficient with people.
67. Use the Five A’s to be effective with them.
68. Attention. Spend time understanding them.
69. The deepest human desire is to be understood.
70. Be aware of difference. We’re all different. And that’s OK. It doesn’t excuse poor behaviours such as being late to your meeting nor contributing to the meal preparation. But different perspectives are vital to the team.
71. Appreciate difference and contribution brought,
72. And have affection for those closest to us.
73. Act first, when a relationship isn’t working.
74. Compass Point 5 Fun.
75. Stop and think: what is the point if you are not having fun?
76. And how much fun can you have without spending money?
77. What is fun for you?
78. Get back to cooking, playing the guitar, clubbing - whatever is fun for you.
79. Compass Point 6 is Contribution
80. Life is a field of unlimited possibilities. Deepak Chopra.
81. Contribution is giving back without necessary expectation.
82. Why? Why not! Make the world a better place in a small way. And in the end, your effort does tend to be returned. Whether it is Newton’s Third Principle of Mechanics kicking in or karma.
83. People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to...rather than detracts from...our lives. Stephen Covey.
84. Emotional Intelligence or the ability to relate to people and allow our self-development is highly accelerated though practising abundance.
85. Abundance thinking: help, support, encourage, withhold unhelpful overly critical judgement.
86. Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life. Wayne Dyer
87. When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears. Tony Robbins.
88. What is work/life balance? When your Personal Compass is in balance. Your compass is unique.
89. So: what’s the Personal Compass strategy?
90. Once a month: review the six compass points, just as we have done above. Do this in a quiet place, with a reflective frame of mind.
91. This process will generate adjustments or actions. Capture these on your Master List.
92. Your Master List is your definitive list of actions, not just have to do but also very, very importantly want to do.
93. Notice how the compass and master list get you out of pure IN time into ON time, too.
94. Each day, review your Master List and work the actions.
95. Remember: if a compass action is big or daunting e.g. write book, develop strategic plan with team, then break it down and break it down and break it down.
96. Follow your compass.
97. Manage your Master List.
98. You’ll face new terrain. New country. But you’ll be OK: you have your compass with you at all times.
99. You’ll have new horizons. That’s OK, too. Your compass can be re-calibrated.
100. Travel more. Travel101. It’s good for the mind and good for the soul.
101. Have Personal Compass, will travel. Physically sure. But mentally, too.

100th Monkey Effect

I always wanted to believe in The 100th Monkey Effect; it's such a great story. But: it ain't true, as you will read if you follow the link. But whatever, here's one I've noted. In Starbucks green straws are provided for cold drinks (in fact the wrappers actually say: not suitable for hot drinks), but first in Tokyo last year and then occassionally in London and now in one or two spots in LA, I notice people using them in their hot drinks. At what point will critical mass be reached and Starbucks notice the phenomenon and launch a special and suitable straw for hot drinks?
And which monkey started it all?
Have a great Saturday.

Baby Names?

No-don't rush away. I think you'll enjoy this.

How To Think Like: The Financial Pundit

1. This is the biggest financial crisis since, well, the last biggest financial crisis.
2. Some are comparing this global economic seismic meltdown to The Great Depression.
3. Others are not.
4. A range of factors are believed to be involved including the presidential elections, over-expansion in the housing market, price of oil, over-fishing in cod areas, global warming and too-full in boxes.
5. Few predicted this although only last week this station did make reference to the economy.
6. Beware!
7. If one thing is certain, as far as the markets are concerned, nothing is certain!

The 5 Cs of more Impactful Interviews

In tough times, interviews can be rarer, so when they do happen, make them really happen:
1. Get comfortable. Sit in the chair properly. Get rid of the coffee cup. Let go of tension.
2. Connect. Aim to get a conversation going, rather than just a Q and A.
3. Clarify your strengths to the interviewer. Know your USPs (unique selling points) and get them across.
4. Get closure. Ask what happens next. When will I hear more?
5. Chase. Seriously consider following-up if you don't hear by the promised date. There is a careful balance between annoying someone, appearing desperate and simply showing you really want the job. It may help to know that the second job I got was over and above a lot of very experienced professionals. I wa s staggered to get it and when I did start my boss told me that I got the job as I was the one person who really seemed to want it. It's a careful balance, but you know what that is.

Good luck! 5Cs. Make every C count.

Bonus: stacks of valuable job-hunting guidance from the career guru Rowan Manahan. I've been put on his 'hit-list'. The last person that happened to, I believe, was top blogger, astute commentator/observer and definite link-man Michael Wade. Michael now has to wear dark glasses at all times.