Posts filed under 'Inspiration'
I recently sat down with Azher Khan of Calderon Textiles to interview him about his thoughts on success, goals, and self-development.
He is one of three share holders of Calderon Textiles in Indianapolis, Indiana and has been - by any measure - very successful in both his personal and professional roles. Azher is a native of Karachi, Pakistan and credited with the original concept of importing quality linens and distributing them to the U.S. market. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the American University. He also has been a key figure in Indiana providing relief to Pakistan in the wake of the 2005 earthquake that killed 75,000 people.
JC: People seem to be drawn to success individuals and want to know their “secret” or get some “quick-fix” advice that will make them successful too. What advice do you give to people who ask you how to achieve success similar to yours?
AK: I don’t know if you would like a word to describe what I feel is needed to be successful, but in my mind several people have talked to me, including a young person who is going through college and wanting that light bulb to come on, and I say two things are needed: Logic and Action.
Now there may be better words to describe what I am about to explain, but maybe my most favorite word or concept to tie them together is balance. You have these two things that are needed, and then you create a balance in everything you do. There is nothing that one can say they do where they don’t need balance. So these two things I feel are needed.
When I say Logic, I mean you have to be able to think through to make a plan – there is no “quick fix”. The best analogy I can share is to say I need to get to Chicago for business; I start putting a plan together. In order to be there at a certain time, I need to leave at a certain time. I need to get on I-465 and take the exit to I-65 and then get on IN-294 and so on and so forth. I’ve got to take money with me, etc. There is such importance in logical thinking and planning, and you know, understanding even why you’re going there or doing something – what your objective is – all of that. So to think through everything critically and be able to put together a plan is a great ability you have to develop.
Then the second ability is action. If you don’t put your plan into action, you’ll never get there. So if you take action, it needs to be consistent with the plan. So you say, “Okay, I’ve got to go to Chicago, it’s very important.” But if you never get going, then what good is all the logic and planning and thinking through?
And if you do get out but don’t execute the plan in a timely way, then it won’t work. So you get on I-465, but never look that you need to get onto I-65…and you end up going in circles. (laughs)
You would be surprised at how many people have one or the other.
They will either dream about something, but never take the time to think through and plan their lives and goals and priorities. Or they’ll have all these grandiose plans, but don’t have the will to get going. And unfortunately a young person I know is a great example of a guy who wants to do well; he thinks all of these things, but unfortunately he doesn’t take action. I’ve told him that. What happened is he wanted to go into law, and I was very supportive of his decision. Twice now he’s not made the time to take the LSAT. So he had a plan, but no action.
In those regards, and in everything else, you’ve got to have balance.
JC: A lot of people don’t look forward to going to work each day because their major motivator isn’t congruent with what they’re doing (i.e. they work for the money, not for their enjoyment of the work). What is your major motivator? What makes you jump out of bed in the morning, ready to tackle the day?
AK: The key is people. The key is people and a sense of committment to them. There is almost nothing I wouldn’t do for them. Once I had an employee with two small children who was thrown out by her husband. She was faced with moving to Southern Indiana where she had family, but instead called me. Do you know she stayed with my for two weeks - with two small children! It wasn’t two years or two months, but I believe it says a lot that she felt comfortable enough to come to me for help. It’s the relationships I have with some people - I feel like I can’t let them down.
I think that - going back to what I was saying about man being an animal - is that we’re a social animal. And understanding people is the key part of being a leader and a successful person.
I don’t…you can’t do major things without people. Even the best-of-the-best had people to help them - look at the prophets; did Jesus spread his message by himself? (pauses) He had disciples, exactly! And look at how young He was when He died and the power of His message.
And Moses - he had a stuttering problem - and he had to convince the Pharoh - and he was from the Pharoh’s house which shows that good can come from evil. And he prayed, ‘God open my tounge’ when we was going to meet the Pharoh and tell him to release the Israleites.
Last year I had to appeal to the Customs and Border about a large fine they wanted to levey against the company and I prayed to open my tounge and share the truth. The employees at Calderon, they rely on and counted on me to win the case and we did!”
Moses’ brother - I don’t know his name, in the Qur’an we call him ‘Haroon’ - was his ’spokes person’ and even the Prophet Mohammad had people around him he relied on.
I believe there is goodness in everyone - something good - in everyone and you have to “tap” it out. You get it not by being evil and fighting but with love and kindness.”
I respect everyone and expect respect…I will not comprimise on that.
You have to let the process prevale to find the goodness in people. You try your level best to find it, don’t give up on tapping the goodness. When you do find it the reward will be sweet and you will have a permanent victory by reaching out. You build a friend for life.
Now I don’t quite believe in ‘turning the other cheek’ - if you hit me I’m going to…to hit you back, hopefully harder (laughs) but you have to go a long way before I’ll write off a relationship.
JC: How do you balance between when it’s time to stop making the plan and when it’s time to start taking action? You can plan yourself to death, and you can take all the action in the world and not have a good plan. So what do you use as a barometer to balance the two, how do you know when it’s time to stop planning and start taking action?
AK: I think it is experience and intuition that helps you create that balance. You continue to stay focused on that balance and it helps you to continue to keep planning and thinking and vice-versa. Focusing on balance doesn’t allow you to just jump to action without thinking too.
So those two, logic and action, are important – the two ends of the scale – and in the middle is balance which helps you to not tip to far toward either end.
JC: Successful people are generally well read and enjoy learning new and interesting material. What great books are you reading right now?
AK: I would say there are several; it’s hard to pick one or two. However the book I would have to say is the most important and influential book to me would have to be Tuesdays with Morrie.
I also like books about people who have been in business and biographies because the whole point is to try to get as much experience as soon as you can! (laughs)
I would say that I wish we could go through life twice, but knowing what we knew when we were here before, because you learn the first time through (laughs). So what better way is there to learn than to read biographies of people and try to learn from their experiences? You know? Jack Welsh is a good example of this and probably someone you’ve heard of.
Another good book that I really enjoyed is Good to Great by Phil Collins or Jim Collins…something Collins.
A point I want to mention is that in my mind you can never read a book without a pencil. I always say you can’t read without a pen and pencil…and highlighter!
JC: Can you finish this sentence: “A man’s destiny is…….”
AK: …is to leave to his family, community, and country a better world.
If you’ve affected the home, you’ve affected – in some way – all of those. Then your children can affect the world, their children will effect the world – so you try to impact as much as you can, but the minimum is your obligation to your family, then to your community, then to your country, and then your obligation to this world.
JC: One thing that has always impressed me is the amount of consideration that you give to other people when you talk about being with their family. When you told me to, “Go home and be with Michelle” when she was ill, that’s rare – you don’t see that much today. How do you maintain the balance between family and home with business?
AK: You know it’s a tough one because of course there is so much to do at work, with travel, and all that. The best way – I feel – is two ways:
Number one is you always look at quality rather than quantity. You give your complete devotion. When I took three or four days out of the office, my daughter and I flew to Los Angeles, rented a car, and drove on Highway 1 to San Francisco. So you try to give the best you can during that time and just focus on that person.
The second is just the fact that they know you’re available, so trust is created.
I can use the example – a short story to share this with you – It’s about my other daugher when she got her first car. I was going out of town and I needed to borrow her car to take to the airport for an early morning flight. I left home at 4:30 in the morning. She came downstairs at 8 o’clock to go to school and said, “Mom, I need my purse and it’s in my car!” and my wife said, “Did you tell your father to bring it in last night?” She said, “No, but I know him, and I’m sure he did.”
My wife said, “No, I don’t think so, I saw him leave this morning and he didn’t come back in.”
She said, “No, I’m sure he did.”
And she went out into the garage and her purse and her friend’s water bottle were sitting on the steps, and she said, “See, mom?”
The point is that she was so convinced that she could always count on her father to look after her – to be concerned about her – even as he is leaving or is busy with something. The most import thing…trust. And by leaving her purse for her, it created and reinforced that confidence.
JC: The saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20” and we’ve all made mistakes that years later we realized had a bigger impact than we thought at the time. Are there any mistakes that – if you could go back and correct – would have led you to even greater success?
AK: Yeah, yeah…there are plenty of mistakes and if I think back I would say that there were many times I’ve acted contradictory to what I’ve been saying.
My brother moved from Pakistan to America. I was going to college at the time, but I really wanted to do my duty to him. I was consumed by my obligation to family and I was not able to complete my law degree and education. So some of that compromise now I feel did not create balance, it was too much towards his needs and not as much towards mine.
And I feel that the focus has to be in the right place – I talk about family and all – but you have to break it down to your obligations and priorities and understand your priorities.
Your first obligation is to yourself and your family, and then it needs to be your extended family, and then to your bigger family, and then the community. At that time I was so concerned and focused on my extended family that I was out of balance with everything else.
JC: Most of us plateau with our quest for personal growth if we don’t have a relationship with someone who strives to keep us raising our bar and building us up. Do you have a “coach” or mentor? How did you find that person and form the relationship? Is there any invaluable piece of information they’ve given you that’s stuck out more than others?
AK: I would have to give you three names of people who’ve had a great impact on me. Not in any particular order, but all three are important:
Bob (a management consultant) would be one of them. He’s just an incredible person, his motivation…I don’t understand it…he has so many clients, but he acts like each client is his only client. You can be calling at ten o’clock at night or five o’clock in the morning and he’s patient and thinking about the company. What I’ve learned from him is very incredible; so he would be one.
The other is a person by the name of Hamid; he is a vice president at Sallie Mae and head of their I.T. department. And he’s a friend, a very nice guy; it’s been a pleasure to have him as a friend.
The third would be my religious teacher – I don’t know if you want his name or not – his title is “Sheik”. He brings a sense of balance to his teachings. If you look at all of these other people, there are a lot of extremes with religious beliefs and I don’t feel like they have the right balance you know?
One thing I can think of that I’ve learned is that – Hamid made a statement – that I rely so much on relationships. I believe in people so much, and he said, “You can rely on relationships up to a point, after that you have to have the know-how, the knowledge, and all of the other tools necessary to get the job done.”
So you’ve got to continue to have your pursuit of knowledge instead of just relying completely on relationships.
JC: In our world of ever increasing appointments, and twenty-four hour-a-day lifestyle, how do you allocate your day so you don’t get overwhelmed with commitments? How do you block-out time to spend on your own growth and development?
AK: Yes, yes, that I struggle with all the time. I’m struggling with this now actually. And I don’t know if I’ve got the answer myself! (laughs)
JC: What do you do to relax, unwind, and de-stress yourself? How do you unwind from the pressure and stress of all your commitments?
AK: Several things, but most important is the kids. I can get one hug from Soha, one phone call from Ammar or Rima; that does a tremendous amount to relax me. Just yesterday Soha saw me and said, “Dad, what’s wrong? Let’s talk.” And it was just two or three minutes with her, but it meant a lot.
And I am trying to do – but not enough – walking. And using that time to think and reflect.
I love to be able to go and spend an hour just gardening. That’s one of the most enjoyable things I do; to do physical work and gardening, to put the flowers in and take the weeds out.
JC: Goal setting is usually cited as the number-one vehicle to achieving success, but most people never go further than to “day-dream” about how they would like their life to be or what possessions they want. How do you approach goal setting? Do you write your goals down? How often do you review them?
AK: I do, and most people do it the first of January and then don’t look at it! What I do is I have it [my goals] on my desktop, and than I try to look at it periodically.
And it’s okay to re-write them, you have to constantly go back to them as things change. It’s better to change the goal than to just give it up.
I don’t know if I have a set schedule to review them, it’s not every week, but whenever I know that I’m struggling a lot, I go back to them. When you struggle you’ve got to go back and review them, and if you need to, go back to the drawing board.
JC: Getting clear on what outcome you want to achieve is crucial to goal-setting, personal growth and achieving success. How do you define – to you – what you really want out of life so you can craft a plan to achieve it? How do you get yourself crystal-clear on your goals and ambitions?
AK: I think perhaps the biggest understanding that I believe in that helps me is the capacity and understanding of what greed is. I think that my relationship, especially with my business partners would be very difficult to have sustained for years if we didn’t keep greed in check. So we don’t start thinking, “Gosh, every effort that I make, the best I can ever do is one third. So how do I get the other two thirds – the whole?” So it’s very important to keep focused.
I think that the biggest thing would be…for me it comes down to family. It comes down to what I see I want to leave behind, and there is nothing more important than that to me and it is what helps drive me and create the energy to be able to get up in the morning and come to work.
The mistake people make is they look at the means as being the end. Their financial success is for what purpose? So giving to your family, giving to your community, giving to your country is important.
If you just completely focus on the financial and the material and the greed then you’ve lost focus on what the purpose was to be to begin with! So I think that understanding that – it’s my understanding – someone else may come along and tell you its wrong, that’s okay (chuckles), but I think it’s something else…
For example, currently I don’t have a car. I had to turn in my last car when it came off lease. Then in May, my wife had to turn in her car when the lease ended. So we both were without a car! Now I think it would be unbelievable for most people to think that of running a $70 million company and not having a car!
But my son had a car – you know – a G35 Infinity. And it was such a pleasure to see that as opposed to me having a car. I don’t say we can not have a car; the truth is you cannot get by without a car, but I’m saying that’s not the focus. It was so nice for him to get into the IU Kelly School of Business, that same day I got him a car and it has taken me – what – four months to decide for myself! (laughs)
JC: Do you have a formula for personal growth and development? How do you keep your mind nourished with positive and encouraging information to promote personal development?
AK: I think it’s a combination of all that we’ve discussed. So it is a combination of all of those things; family, a sense of commitment, religious experience, and the expectation I have placed on myself for, and to, others.
I now I cannot let these people down just because it is easy to get distracted.
Do I not look at a nice car and think, “Man, would I like to have that?” Yes, but it all gets checked by the beliefs that I mentioned, so you work on these things to create a situation – a point – where it’s very difficult to go backwards.
Let me end by saying this; it is possible to go from being a person to being a saint, but you cannot go from being a saint…down. We all develop up, and climb the stairs, but you cannot climb those stairs downwards – you know, going to steal, and do something wrong – because you’ve achieved a higher status.
Your own values and, peoples’ expectation shouldn’t allow you to go from being what you are to being any less than that. Now that you’ve climbed up, there is no down button on the elevator (chuckles).
I hope this captures the essence of what I’m saying. I mean, you can go from being Satan to being a saint, but how do you go from being a saint to being Satan?
You should always try to work hard to ascend yourself to the point even where God says, “What do you want?”
That’s what we have to do…just ascend, ascend, ascend. So for personal growth, to create that love and commitment, to continue…you just have to ascend!
October 1st, 2007
I enjoy motivational quotes and things which keep me mindful of staying on-track to improve myself and develop new skills.
At my office I had some dead space on a cork board since I use whiteboards pretty exclusively.
So I thought, “Why don’t I create some quick little motivational cards I can print out to pin up on my cork board?” I had a 4″ x 6″ photo printer and a little free time, so I whipped up a batch that looked reasonably good arrainged in a 3×3 grid.
Once the cards were up people around the office commented on them. Some asked where I bought them, some asked where the quotes came from. They became a little conversation piece. Hopefully they had a positive influence on others in the office.
So I decided to share them everyone.
(click to enlarge)
There are 9 cards in total and they’re sized to print and look pretty good on 4″ x 6″ photo paper.
I hope you enjoy them and I hope they have a positive influence on the people around you!
Click to download SuccessMinders-Motivation-Cards.zip for yourself.
May 24th, 2006
Everyday as I drive to and from work I pass a small house that’s been converted into an office. There is a sign in the front yard, right by the road, with the company name and below that a place for those gas-station-style letters.
There is always a positive quote or saying on the sign. Every three or four days there is a new saying.
The company isn’t a sales-training firm, marketing firm, dot-com venture or any of the other types of businesses you might think would do something unique like this. The company is Metzler Plumbing and Heating.
For the last three years I’ve driven past this sign - twice a day - and been positively influenced by it. The owners don’t know me, I don’t have any sort of business relationship with the company - yet they’ve found a way to reach me - and in a positive way to boot!
How often do you have an influence on other people? The answer is “all the time” unless you live a hermit’s life with no human contact at all.
But how often are you not even aware of the influence you have on other people? Everything we do and say speaks to others about the quality and content of our character and our beliefs. It’s up to us to choose to be mindful of our influence.
The truly enlightened are not only mindful of their influence, they go out of their way to make sure their influence is positive, uplifting, and constructive - even when there is no direct connection. This is certainly the case with the owners of Metzler Plumbing and Heating.
As I was writing this article, I realized that it applies to me too. If I’m going to promote SuccessMinders as a resource for success-minded people, I have to be mindful of my influence on people not only at this web site, but at any other web community in which I participate.
It’s the same philosophy as being nice to everyone with whom you interact, because you never know who you’ll meet. Have you ever realized - after an introduction and your first impression has been made - who the person really was? You probably spent the next few seconds racking your brain, trying to make sure your impression and introduction was positive (i.e. you had a positive influence).
Being mindful of your influence is the first step. You should know how you reach and touch people within your sphere of influence (as big or small as it may be). The second step is making sure that in that sphere of influence you’re a positive influence!
Being a positive influence can be easy or it can be difficult. It all depends on you and whether you have people who positively influence you. There is no such thing as “winning” the game of life - there is always another obstacle to overcome or a bigger goal to achieve, or a higher notch you can set when you raise the bar.
It’s easy when you have your own positive influence network building you up. There are people in my life that don’t just make small talk or complain about their latest defeat in life. They put the question to me and ask if I’m on track with my goals, how I’m doing in school, how this web site is going. They’re encouraging and supportive and have a direct positive impact on me. When I’ve spent more time around these people, I find it much easier myself to turn around and try to encourage and build up the other people in my life.
It ends up being a big circle, where each person is pulled up and built up by those that positively influence them, and then in turn they pull up and build up others in their sphere of influence. And think how powerful it is when you can pull up and build up people en masse.
Today’s message on Metzler’s sign was a good one and one that I was able to personally take to heart, so I am sharing it here with you; “Always keep your promises — to both your friends and foes alike!”
Remember to be aware that you always influence those around you even if you’re not aware of it!
February 26th, 2006
How safe should you live life? Well, you obviously don’t want to live so close to the edge that you’re always in danger of killing yourself, but you shouldn’t live always looking for the 100% “safe” option in life.
Because here’s a secret that we all forget from time to time; there is no 100% “safe” option in life.
Did you get in your car and drive to work this morning? 49,000 people in the United States died in auto accidents in 2004. 1.1 million people world wide died in auto accidents, and 38 million were injured.
Even if you’re the most risk-averse person out there, it’s very likely you get into your car every day and drive somewhere - to work or to school. Driving can be a risky proposition, but we all still do it.
We do it because we calculate that we’re pretty likely to be safe, even while involved in a potentially risk activity. We weight the odds and roll the dice.
I love the quote director, screenwriter, and producer Robert Altman:
“To play it safe is not to play.”
–Robert Altman
The people who learn to play are those that excel in life. And when I say “play” I mean learn to take calculated risks while seizing the passion in their lives.
Have you every dreamed about staring your own business, but fear held you back? You’ve played it safe. If you did start your own business, what’s the worst that could happen? You might fail, and depending on how badly you fail you might lose your material possessions.
But you’ll still have your health. And you’ll have something more important and that’s the experience that will benefit you in your next endeavor.
Magicians Penn and Teller have a rule. They call this the rule of NPD - no permanent damage. Before undertaking a risky stunt or a tricky magic routine they ask the question, “Will this permanently cause me damage?” If the answer is yes, they don’t do it.
They are playing and not playing it safe. And they are outrageous and larger than life because they’ll undertake something that’s risky and on the edge. They’re using their rule of NPD to make them superstars - why can’t you?
Let me share a story…
Years ago I started an Internet business. It wasn’t because it was “the thing to do”, but because I really loved the potential and the possibility that the Internet represented. I knew how to make the Internet do what I wanted, but I didn’t know the first thing about running a business. I was a 20 year old college drop-out who had never taken a business class in his life.
It quickly became apparent that while I had all the necessary skills I needed technically, I didn’t have any of the necessary skills to succeed in sales and running a business. Sure, I was able to fake it for a while, but eventually my inexperience caught up to me and it all came crashing down around me. I lost everything I had at the time (which was admittedly not much at all), but I was still alive and I was still looking at things and trying to make the technology connection. I suffered no permanent damage.
So I tried again and put in place better systems to shore up my own shortcomings. And I fared much better. Bad decisions on my part (and my partners’ parts) led to us selling our business at the bottom of the “dot.com” crash rather than at the top (we go greedy). But that experience left me with more life experience and set me up for the next thing I tackled.
If I had played it safe, I probably wouldn’t have started the first company. But I also wouldn’t have had the experience to get where I am today and I certainly would have built the relationships and forged the friendships I have today.
I’m not advising you run out at take stupid risks because I said not to play life safe. I’m suggesting you look at the things you haven’t achieved and the things you haven’t undertaken and ask yourself why.
If it’s fear that’s holding you back, you have to ask if taking action would result in permanent damage. If the answer is yes, then you have to tweak your action or your desired outcome until you can confidently say that undertaking the action will not result in permanent damage.
And once you’ve tweaked and changed to this point, you need to take action! Get your risk under control and then “just do it!”
Don’t live life by playing it safe. Go and be a superstar!
February 24th, 2006
A few days ago I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, waiting on my wife. They had a TV tuned to a local station, showing the morning news. With my only other entertainment option being to read a 9 month old copy of “Good Housekeeping” - I settled in to watch the news.
There was a teaser right before a commercial block promising a must-see segment on how to protect my baby from RSV. I don’t have a baby and I wasn’t even sure what the heck “RSV” was, but the anchor sold it with such urgency that I knew I must stay tuned to learn these potentially life-saving tips.
When the commercials were over, the lead in promise me that I would soon be thanking the local news team for this vital information about saving my baby’s life from RSV; thus the segment began.
I learned that “RSV” is an acronym for respiratory syncytial virus - the news segment never really made it clear what exactly it was other than a respiratory “bug”.
The “life saving” tips amounted to a fancy on-screen graphic with the following tips (literally):
And with that, the news segment was over. There was no additional information about RSV. There was no additional information about how you could identify if the people around you had RSV so you could avoid them. The entire segment was very superficial and seemed to pander to a “lowest common denominator” viewing segment.
The rest of the time I watched the morning news program I realized that all they were doing was skimming the surface of every topic they covered.
And it made me think about my own interactions with people. Did I just skim the surface or did I dive deep? That is, did I make only a superficial effort with other people or did I really take the time and energy to get to know someone on a deeper level?
I think we make snap judgments when meeting people on whether or not we’re going to skim the surface with that person or dive deep and really get to know them, but why do we decide this? As compassionate and passionate people shouldn’t we want to get to know everyone on a deeper level?
There have been times I’ve been guilty of simply skimming the surface myself. I’ve been to parties or business mixers where I didn’t really make any real effort to get to know the people to whom I was introduced. When I’ve skimmed the surface in the past, those events have never been very meaningful for me.
Conversely when I’ve been at events where I’ve really made an effort to dive deep and put effort into really getting to know people on a personal level I find the events to be much more personally fulfilling and meaningful. And the times I’ve made an effort to dive deep in relationships with people, I’ve made friends and forged very strong relationships.
Some of these relationships have benefited me in business immensely over and over again.
Do you skim the surface in some relationships while diving deep in others? Why? Why don’t you dive deep with everyone? I realize that this is a bit of an idealistic statement - there are times where the other person is only interested in skimming the surface with you, there are times when you just don’t have the energy, etc. But think how many more fulfilling relationships you would have if you tried to dive deep with everyone!
This is where passion comes into play. If you’re passionate about success and achievement and personal development, you should be passionate about helping other people understand your success-oriented message. You can’t do this unless you dive deep and really build a meaningful relationship where trust and understanding is a key part of the foundation.
I don’t know about you, but I get excited thinking about the possibility of building deep, strong relationships like this. I might not be able to help everyone find passion and enthusiasm for personal development - some just won’t be interested - but when I can help that one person who needs help, well the feeling is just amazingly powerful!
And really, diving deep only takes a little more effort than skimming the surface. Think about a situation where you skimmed the surface with someone; what would it really have taken to go deeper? In most cases it will only take a sincere desire to really listen to and understand the person with whom your interacting. And you’ll have the added benefit of really making that other person’s day because we all feel great when we’re talking to someone who’s interested in letting us talk about ourselves!
So the next time you catch yourself skimming the surface with another person, make the effort to dive deep. Who knows, you might just end up building a long lasting relationship!
February 20th, 2006
How much weight does an idea have? How solid is an idea? It’s sometimes difficult to think about ideas as a tangible “thing” since they seem so ethereal and untouchable.
I think that ideas have a lot more “weight” than people believe. Consider this; every thing around you that is man-made started out as an idea. Nothing sprang forth into existence without first being someones dream and idea.
This web site started as a dream and then an idea. I didn’t just wake up one morning and - poof - I had a web site. It took planning and preparation and work, but it all started with an idea.
The company I work for didn’t just start in the state it’s in today. It started as an idea of one of the co-founders. His idea eventually turned into a booming business, but before there was inventory and offices, there was an idea.
I’ve read that every day, every person has at lease one “million dollar idea” - but most of us aren’t aware enough of the power of our ideas to realize it and capitalize on it. Bill Gates had an idea that he capitalized on - a computer on every desk. This idea, carried out, had made him worth almost $30 billion dollars today.
How often are you struck by an idea that sounds like a winner, but you’re not in a place where you can capture the idea? I’ve been hit with some great ideas driving in the car; I get excited because I think the idea really has merit, but by the time I’m home I’ve let myself get focused on a jerk who cut me off or I let myself get distracted by a song on the radio. Inevitably by the time I get home and am ambushed at the door by my dog and talk to my wife about her day, I’ve forgotten my great idea.
Or I’ll get a good idea for an article for this web site and I’ll think to myself, “No need to write it down, it’s such a good idea I won’t possibly forget it…” and ten minutes later I’m scratching my head, wondering what I was so excited to write about.
The trick is to not let these ideas slip out of your grasp so easily. Ideas can slip out of your head as easily as sand slips out from between your fingers. So to give yourself an advantage, you need to arm yourself with tools that you can actually integrate into your daily routine that will enhance your odds of being able to immediately capture ideas as they come to you.
1) Keep paper on you at all times
It sounds simple, but how often have you scrambled for some scrap paper to make a note, or ended up tearing up a napkin while jotting down a phone number? If you make it easy to keep paper on you at all times, you’ll never have to worry about what to write you idea on.
I like using 3″ x 5″ index cards because they’re big enough to put a lot on but still fit in your pocket easily, you can get them anywhere, and they’re cheap. To make it easy to hold them, I bought a leather index card case from Gifts For Professionals. Levenger also makes a pocket briefcase to hold index cards, but it’s $38.00 and the case from Gifts for Professionals is only $15.95.
I take blank, unlined 3″ x 5″ index cards and print them myself. I threw together a layout that works for me and includes a few nice “features” and I print them up on my laser printer by the hundred.
2) Keep a pen on you at all times
It goes without saying that if you always carry paper, you should always carry a pen, but which pen? A lot of HPDA users swear by the Fischer Space Pen - and as far as a company goes you won’t find one that does customer service better. I have one of their Bullet Pens myself. It’s a great pen, but I have to remember to put it in my pocket every day.
So I got myself a Cross ION pen. I like it because it clips onto my key chain, so if I have my keys with me I have a pen with me. It’s also a gel pen, which I find more comfortable to write with than a ballpoint pen.
3) Keep a voice recorder in the car
A couple of years ago I was given a small, digital voice recorder as a gift. I was never really sure what I should use it for, it only held 45 minutes and the quality wasn’t great. It wouldn’t be much use for recording seminars or classes and there was no way to easily download the contents to a computer, so I would only be able to fill it once before I had to convert everything to notes and delete the memory.
The one thing it had going for it was it was very small and it would keep track of individual entries, so you could scroll to the 15th recording and just play that one recording.
It quickly found a home in my car, clipped to the driver’s side sun visor. Now when an idea strikes me while driving, I just have to reach up and hit “record” to capture my idea. I then jot it on a note card when I arrive at my destination, before I leave the car. It also has the added benefit of being just good enough to record talk-radio, so if I get into an interesting story I want to relay, I can reach up and hit “record” and get up to 45 minutes of the program (music, however, is completely inaudible).
Keeping myself armed with tools to capture my ideas has - I feel - helped me tremendously. Once you understand how valuable ideas really are, you’ll know the importance of making it easy to capture them.
The next step is learning which ideas are the “million dollar” ideas, and learning how to capitalize on them. But that’s something I’m still working on myself!
February 10th, 2006
Are people born creative or do they make themselves creative? I believe that while some people have an unique way of looking at life that is interpreted as being “naturally” creative, it’s possible for anyone to learn to be creative.
What is creativity? Creativity is simply “having the quality of something created rather than imitated.” (M-W.com). I think it bears expanding to also include the unique adaptation of existing creations. Anyone can design and build a chair, it’s tough to not imitate the base function of a chair in the process of making a chair, but creativity comes in when a new or unique approach is taken. Often creativity has a “I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it” quality.
So what spurs creativity, and if it’s a learnable trait, how can you learn to become more creative?
I think that we usually go about our day with a set of “lenses” through which we filter everything. I think that for most people these lenses are pretty similar. We’ve been conditioned through society, culture and media to see the world a certain way; thus we often have common filters.
When someone comes along who has taken off these filters we tend to call them “creative.” What being creative really boils down to is breaking our normal patterns of how we interact with our environment. So, in theory, learning to be more creative mean we have to learn to look at things differently than we do presently.
That sounds easy, right? So why does it feel so hard to think of creative and new things when we’re forced to be creative? Most people say they’re more efficient, productive and creative under pressure, but that’s not true. Teresa Amabile, the head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School, has shown that creativity doesn’t increase as time-pressure increases (2002). We’re not, in fact, more creative with the pressure of a deadline upon us.
I think this is a fallacy that most people hold. Many people I know - myself included at times - hold the belief that when the pressure is on, the results will be spectacular. We hope and pray our brains will pull out an amazing “Hail-Mary” play as the clock ticks down.
I don’t know about you, but I know that when I’ve gone back and really reviewed and scrutinized the work I’ve done under a tight deadline, I’m never as happy with the result as I am when I have given myself sufficient time. The work is passable, but certainly not my best.
This is one reason I try to keep a “creative buffer” for myself. When I have a paper to write in one of my management classes or I have an article to post to SuccessMinders.com, I try to do the work far enough in advance that I’m not under tremendous pressure. This is one of the reasons I try to keep a queue of 3 or more articles ready to post any any time to this web site; if I have the breathing room to write, and not have to produce an article, I find I’m more creative and more relaxed as I write.
David Allen, of Getting Things Done fame, promotes the idea that our brains can’t truly be creative while they’re stuffed full with details. The major component of the GTD system is to get everything out of your head and onto a list. Allen says the result is a mind that doesn’t have to worry about “stuff.” He also says that once the mind is empty, it can begin to create.
I believe this is true. Have you ever tried to meditate and completely clear your mind? Every time I’ve tried I’ve settled down and worked on making my mind still. It seems that once I sweep enough of my inner voices aside and get the place reasonably empty and tidy, random thoughts - seemingly not under my conscious control - will drift by. The harder I try to stop them and the harder I try to keep my mind empty and still, the more quickly and more frequently these random thoughts invade.
When I clean my head of all the tasks, to-dos, and projects that are usually floating around in my brain I find I’m usually more creative. This is because an empty brain wants to fill itself back up. I don’t follow the GTD system, but I do believe in keeping lists of actions I have to undertake. When I don’t stay on top of keeping my actions on paper and I start to let them pile up in my head I notice a definite slip in the level of my creativity.
Another tool that is important in creativity is old-fashioned paper brain-storming; you might have also heard it called “mind mapping”. There is commercial software as well as free, open-source software available to create nice, neat brainstorm maps, but I personally prefer a pen and a blank piece of paper. When I’m working on a computer I feel like I only get my visual senses working. When I’m working on paper, I get both my visual senses and my “touch-and-feel” (kinesthetic) senses working.
I start with a large sheet of blank, white paper and I write down a central idea in the middle. From there I write down supporting ideas and connect everything together. When everything comes together the results can be very powerful. I created the idea for SuccessMinders.com using this method.
Both of the above mentioned methods are ways to stimulate your mind to produce new ideas…to be creative. In addition, I also use a method I learned about a long time ago. This method involves asking “what if” questions by combining two in-congruent ideas.
What if…peanut butter and jelly came in tubes like toothpaste? - You could make a PB&J sandwich without having to use a knife. Just put some peanut butter on one piece of bread, some jelly on the other piece of bread and presto…you have a PB&J sandwich with no dirty utensils!
Another way to kick-start your creativity is to change your perspective. Perspective is an interesting thing because it’s subjective. Have you ever been laying on the couch or in bed, looking at something nearby on a coffee table or nightstand, and not been able to figure out what you’re looking at? Your brain is wracking itself, unsuccessfully, trying to piece together just exactly what it’s seeing. When you finally change your perspective slightly you realize exactly what you’re looking at - it just snaps into perspective. Because you had been looking at that object from an unusual perspective though, your brain wasn’t able to put it into a recognized context and you couldn’t figure out what it was.
This is the basis for many optical illusions like the famous one to the right. Is it an old woman or a young lady? It all depends on your perspective. It’s extremely difficult to see the other image at first, but once your brain has learned to look at it with a slightly different perspective it’s almost impossible to not see both people!
When I am stuck and can’t think about something creatively, I try to change my perspective. I might lean back in my chair and stare at the ceiling upside down. I might sit on the floor, Indian-style, and look up at my desk. I might try working while standing up. There is no limit to the number of ways you can change your perspective, you just have to get up and do something different.
Finally, I will sometimes find that I am just not being creative. Maybe I have a paper to write for a class, maybe I have a proposal I need to write for a client, maybe I’m just stuck and feel like I can’t move on. When this happens I “sleep on it.” Sometimes its figurative, I’ll go walk around or put my problem to the side and try to get it out of my mind. Other times it’s literal; I’ll literally go to sleep and let my brain mull over an idea to try to get my creative juices flowing. This is a big reason I know I don’t do my best work under pressure. If I’m under such an extreme amount of pressure, I probably can’t walk away for any period of time.
So my five-point approach to creativity is:
1) Get your mind empty!
Make sure there is room to hold your creative ideas; make it a habit to keep your mental clutter on paper and out of your head.
2) Brainstorm and mind map!
Get into the habit of using visual and kinesthetic planning to layout your ideas. When you brainstorm on paper, you’ll sometimes be surprised at the connections - the creative connections - you’ll make.
3) Ask “what if” questions!
Take two ideas and just moosh ‘em together! Then try to imagine what or how your “what if” could be viable.
4) Change your perspective!
Get up, get down, do something to force a perspective change. Make your brain work a little to process incoming information.
5) Sleep on it!
When you’re stuck in a rut, put things aside and let your subconscious mull it over. If you’ve emptied out your head, brainstormed, what-if’ed and changed your perspective and you haven’t yet found your well of creativity don’t beat yourself up over it. Give your brain a break!
February 2nd, 2006
Are you comfortable? Can you go through your day on auto-pilot, not having to think to deeply or work to hard? Does your job seem routine, with only minor issues popping up now and again? Do you sometimes feel a little stagnant?
Everyone gets stuck in a comfort zone now and again. It’s easy to do, and it’s comfortable. We let our routines and habits become our masters. We show up at work, “zombie” through the day, and return home to spend another night the same way as the night before.
I’m not saying that any of this is bad mind you. When you’re life is going well and the status quo doesn’t seem to be all that bad, it’s easy to get trapped by daily routine in a good way. We don’t look at our job or our life and say, “Man, things could be so much better…” We look at our job and our life and say, “Man, I’m doing pretty good right now.”
Getting stuck in a comfort zone is an impediment to personal and professional growth. If you’re comfortable, you’re probably not striving quite as hard (or maybe at all) to get to that next level. You’re probably not raising the bar higher and higher because things feel pretty good right where they are.
So why should you care about breaking out of your comfort zone, and why is it so critical you do?
Success and achievement often comes from failure and being told you can’t do something. It takes energy, motivation and action to create these successes. When you’re down and out it’s a lot easier to build up massive energy and gather massive action and put it to bear on building yourself back up.
No one wants to be at the bottom; people naturally want to excel and grow and make themselves and their lives better. When a failure has set you back or an obstacle has been placed in your way it’s a challenge to build the action necessary to build yourself to that next level.
Once you’ve built yourself up a few level though, you’ll find that things are getting better. Life isn’t quite so hard, maybe not as much of a challenge. You’ve proven yourself by overcoming the obstacle that was put in your way. You start to get comfortable, and once that happens your growth and development slows to a crawl.
So if you want to take your life to the next level you have to be prepared to step outside of your comfort zone. You have to be willing to demand more for yourself, and you have to be willing to undertake tasks that may be difficult to start growing again.
There are three reasons you must break out of your comfort zone:
1) You’re not growing
If you want to grow and develop you have to keep yourself challenged.
When you’re completely comfortable with your job or your life or your relationship - with whatever in your life is totally comfortable - you won’t be growing.
It’s very difficult for us to be in a state of non-motion. When we humans aren’t growing up, we’re slipping down. Sometimes this can spur a burst of activity to get back to your comfort zone if you slip below it too much, but rarely will you bust above your comfort zone without conscious effort and action.
2) You’re not learning
Every time I’ve forced myself outside of my comfort zone I’ve learned something very interesting and useful. It’s true, I might learn what doesn’t work, but I’m still learning.
Life is one big learning opportunity. Every outcome, every success, every failure, everything has something we can learn from. If you’re comfortable and maintaining the status quo, I suspect you’re not learning anything terribly useful.
When you step outside of your comfort zone you will end up learning, and you’ll keep yourself in a state where you continue to learn as your circumstances and situation are continually changing.
3) You’re not leading and inspiring
While you’re busy pulling yourself up something interesting happens; when you move up and perform at a new level there will be people at the level you just left who are looking for leadership and inspiration to help them build themselves up as well.
No matter how high you develop your skills and talents, and no matter what exceptional achievements you have, there will always be other people that will look to you as a leader and as inspiration for achieving and growing their own abilities and successes.
Being a leader and inspiring other people is part of the job requirement when you use your unique talents to grow your life in a positive and fulfilling direction. It’s part and parcel of every development and achievement minded person’s journey.
As you achieve and succeed and develop your own life, you will eventually begin to feel a powerful desire to help others.
Once you’re comfortable it can be intimidating to step out of that zone. You have to have the perseverance and desire to take action even when your brain is telling you, “Hey, no need to change! Things are going pretty good right now, just relax and enjoy!” Once you take charge of yourself and generate the motivation and action to take the first step and move outside of your comfort zone you’ll find that it gets easier each time.
I recently decided that I needed to go back to school and get a degree. I have done pretty well for myself without a college degree, but it’s something I wanted to achieve. Having not been in school for over ten years, I can safely say that walking in to the class room last week was definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone.
As the professor was presenting the information on the syllabus I kept thinking to myself, “Are you nuts? You’ll have homework! You haven’t done homework in ten year! You won’t have any free time, you’ll have to study, you’ll have tests! What were you thinking?”
After being in classes for two weeks now I have committed myself to my goal and I’ve grown a little in the process.
Deciding to write this web site was a step outside of my comfort zone. I’ve opened myself up to public scrutiny and possible taunting and ridicule. I’ve created a site where I have to create a stream of fresh content on a regular basis, in addition to fulfilling the responsibilities I have in my professional and personal life.
But I believe that more people will find the articles on this web site information, useful and (hopefully) entertaining. I believe that I’ll help other people by providing them ideas and tools they can use to build themselves up. Again, now that I’ve moved outside of my comfort zone I feel I’ve grown and improved myself a little more.
All you have to do is keep finding comfort zones you have and making a conscious decision to step out of them. When you do you’ll feel it, but the reward and the personal growth is well worth it!
January 19th, 2006
When faced with a tough choices how do you progress and finally make a decision? Some decisions are simple to analyze while others create stress and agony for us while we ponder “what to do.”
There are books about making decisions in an instant, and when pushed into a tough spot most people go with their gut feeling.
Most of the time they’re right.
I’m a huge fan of the quiz-show Jeopardy. Often I’ll be watching - playing along at home - and when an “answer” is revealed I’ll blurt out a “question” (usually the first thing that comes to mind). Often I’ll think to myself, “No, that can’t be right…” and I’ll change my answer before the correct “question” is revealed.
Almost every time I revise my “question” to the “answer” I find I’m wrong. When I trust my gut and go with the first thing my brain called up I find I have a much higher occurrence of being correct.
I’m not right 100% of the time, no one is, but by making a snap decision - and trusting my gut and years of reading trivia to allow my brain to instantly call up the right “question” - I find that I’m right often enough to amaze my wife with the number of “answers” I “question” correctly.
If you’re the kind of person who loves (or hates) to agonize over a decision, researching and endless thinking about options and outcomes, you’ll spend a lot of time deciding and not much time acting. And it’s often the action that makes us successful in our ventures.
I have a friend who never seems to plan things out much, he really flies by the seat of his pants. He trusts his gut and is quick to make a decision - faster than just about anyone else I know. For all of his quick decision making and lack of planning and analyzing he’s remarkably successful.
He’s not successful because he’s only making the right decisions, he’s successful because he’s making a ton of decisions and quickly moving past the bad decisions. What he lacks in detailed planning he makes up for in sheer, massive action!
If you’re not making “gut” decisions because the very idea sounds intimidating the good news is that quick, “gut” decisions can be learned. I used to agonize over restaurant menus; I never knew what I wanted, I would waffle back and forth between several items and I always had to tell the server that I needed another few minutes.
One day I read a book on achievement and it said that Major League baseball hall of fame hitters only connect 3 out of every 10 times they’re at bat and that’s enough to put them in the hall of fame. They make snap decisions on when to swing and they recover quickly from their mistakes. That really sunk in with me - I needed to learn to make quicker decisions. So I started at restaurants.
The next time my wife and I were at a restaurant I started my learning process. I didn’t open the menu and I didn’t think about the options available to me. When the waiter came up to take our order I asked, “What sounds good to you tonight?” They were a little surprised and then said they were planning on getting the salmon. I said, “Gee, that does sound good. I’ll take that.” I didn’t really think it sounded good - I’m more of a steak man myself - but I wanted to force myself to make quick decisions.
It turns out that it was indeed a good meal. I’ve ordered it several times since and it’s one of my non-beef favorites.
So I slowly started making quick decisions at restaurants - trusting my gut and usually walking away full and happy. Slowly I noticed that I started feeling okay while making quick decisions on other, smaller aspects of my life; next came my career and work life and then those small decisions became a little bigger and a little bigger.
Now I feel comfortable trusting my gut in many situations. I’m not crazy - if I think a decision will significantly impact my life I will give it the time and research it’s due to make sure it’s a good decision. But for everything else I try to just reach down inside, do a gut check, and make a decision trusting that I’ll be right more often than I’ll be wrong.
Here are some additional tips to help you ease into trusting your gut when you make decisions. You don’t need to write pages and pages of detail, just enough so you can review your notes later - when you’re distanced from the decision - and see what the results were:
* When you are faced with a decision write down what you’re thinking and feeling. Be as objective as possible!
* Write down the pros of making the decision.
* Write down the cons of not making the decision.
* Write down how you will feel if you make the decision, and what you believe the impact on your life or career will be.
* Write down how you will feel if you don’t make the decision, and what you believe the impact on your life or career will be.
* Write down your “gut” decision.
* Write down your “analyzed” decision.
* Write down the decision you actually make.
After sufficient time has passed - maybe weeks, maybe months - and you’re feeling like you’re reasonable distanced from the decision pull out your notes and review them.
What was the outcome of your decision? How did it ultimately impact your life? Was your “gut” decision right - or if you didn’t make the gut decision do you believe it would have been the better decision?
Hopefully you’ll see that more often than not you’re gut feeling is correct when making a decision. You just have to learn to trust yourself and your abilities; and you have to learn that it’s okay to make decisions quickly because that gives you more chances to put action into your life.
When you have a lot of action you’ll find you make a lot more progress and achieve a lot more than you thought possible!
January 17th, 2006
Have you ever thought about what your unique talent is? There is something that you do better than anyone else - it’s your purpose for being, it’s your dharma.
If this sounds a bit “out there” please allow me to sound a little metaphysical for a moment, I promise I’ll make a point. Dharma is the law of “being”; defined broadly as the fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny. To “follow dharma” means to act in accordance with divine law.
I like the way writer Deepak Chopra puts it; “When you blend your unique talent with service to others, you experience the ecstasy and exultation of your own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals!”
So when you know you’re living and working in accordance with your dharma, you’re in harmony. I think that means that understanding what your dharma is, is an important step in growth and development.
If you don’t know what your dharma is, how do you find it?
If we use Deepak’s definition above then we need to define what our unique talent is, that we can use to be of service to others.
Here are some questions you can use to begin to outline this for yourself:
1) If you were completely financially independent - if you had ten million dollars in cash - what would you do? What would you get out of bed for in the morning? What would you pay to be able to do? Write down your answers until you start coming up with things that don’t feel “true” to yourself.
2) What hobby totally holds your attention? What do you do that causes you to completely lose track of time? Watching television doesn’t count! Write a paragraph or two about your favorite hobby or activity - detail counts here so feel free to make it as detailed as possible.
3) How could you transform what you’ve written above to be in the service of other people? List some different ways you can incorporate helping others into what you’ve already listed.
For example, one of my passions is photography - it’s one of the things I would pay other people to let me do. When I’m working on a photography project I often lose track of time. I love to help someone visualize a photo, work with them to create the picture, and then see the look on their face when I deliver the final image and it’s exactly what they wanted. I think I get a bigger charge out of seeing them happy with the final image than they do.
These are ways to know your working to your dharma. You’re easily in “the zone” and time is slipping away more quickly than it seems possible. You’re not only feeling powerful and excited and energetic for yourself, but you’re helping other people - providing a service.
You’re creating a positive energy flow around yourself. This positive energy flow creates affluence for yourself. Most people associate affluence with having money and wealth, but affluence literally means “a plentiful flow”.
When you are working to your dharma, positive energy is flowing out from you and positive energy will also begin to flow in to you. You’re creating affluence for yourself and you will eventually be rewarded for your affluence of positive energy.
It’s not an easy task to determine what your dharma is. I have thought and reflected and journaled on this very topic for years, and I still encounter new things that change my perceptions of what my dharma might be. However the struggle to answer this question for yourself will be rewarded with amazing amounts of positive energy and personal growth.
It’s well worth investing the time to answer this question for yourself; what is your dharma?
December 23rd, 2005
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