Malcom Gladwell develops complex concepts within his simple and clear stories. This is the second book I’ve read from Gladwell, and it was a good read. The Tipping Point discussed three characteristics that cause epidemics: contagiousness/stickiness, how little causes have big effects, and how change happens in one dramatic moment. And this is the the tipping point.

Law of the Few
Within the spread of viral, social epidemics, the 80/20 rule grows to an even smaller fraction. Only select people initiate and spread epidemics. For example, a handful of sexual deviants who go home with someone new nightly spread disease among many people. On the social side, people with many connections can help generate buzz around a product.

Gladwell broke these people into three types:

Connectors: These are the people that seem to have connections with everyone. There was an experiment that asked people from Omaha to send a postal mail as close as they could to an address in Boston. If people didn’t know anyone from that address, they’d send to the closest nearby (e.g. their aunt in Connecticut). They found that the mail took about five or six sends to get to the specific address (Six degrees of Kevin Bacon). Connectors bring our world together. They are people who like people, and they have many diverse groups that they are part of. Connectors connect our world with other people.

Mavens: Mavens are people who accumulate knowledge. They care deeply about the products they invest in, and they can give you the details to a Consumer Report level. A mavens opinion is very influential. In this world of mass information, we generally will go to the mavens we know to get their opinion to ensure we are making the right decision. In marketing, we need to make sure the mavens are happy. They are the ones that dispute the finest detail, but once they’re on your side, you have a powerful tool to spread the word.

Salesman: These people have the ability to persuade. Good ones enjoy helping people. And they have quality answers to a person’s common objections. People enjoy salesman who have energy, enthusiasm, charm. It’s likability and their positive people even before speaking with them. Being positive and being confident go a long way in sales. Emotion is contagious.

Gladwell then brings up stories about the positive approach on influence. People who nod their heads in an argument will side with the person. On the other side, people who shake their heads while listening to an argument (despite their initial thoughts) will disagree. Our subliminal thought go a long way. For news anchors who favor a certain politician, this subliminal affects their views and persuades them to also like that politician. Interesting stories.

Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue. They spread it. And salesman have the ability to persuade the unconvinced.

RULE: There are exceptional people out there capable of starting epidemics.

Stickiness Factor

Disease is sticky; memorable advertising is sticky. The package must be sticky to be transferred.

Here, Gladwell uses the example of the success of Sesame Street. Reaching the audience isn’t the challenge. It’s making the content stick that’s the real challenge. Interactive is the best way. And slight changes make a big difference. Adding a campus map to get a tetanus shot greatly increased adoption. This connects the dots.

Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch greatly increases kids attention to Sesame Street. Blues Clues took the basics of Sesame Street and increased the attention span once again. This simplified the show even greater for children. It removed humor (humor is confusing for children; they stuck to one story, and kids loved it. They also didn’t have budget for many shows, so a Blues Clues’ show  had to be played for the entire week. This played well with the kids. They like watching shows over and over.

RULE: There’s a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, will make it irresistible. The content needs to be memorable and move us to action.

Power of Context

In 1968, 38 people watched from their apartment as Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death. No one called the police. When these people were interviewed to why they didn’t take action, they didn’t necessarily have an answer to why they didn’t take action. They just thought it was cold New York.   This spurred a social experiment where a person would be having an epileptic seizure. What’s interesting… is if only one person was around, they would help 85% of the time. However, if there were three other people around to help, the person only received help 31% of the time. People assume others will be taking care of this person. No one wants responsibility unless they have to take it on. Our environment guides our actions.

Broken Window Theory: Crime is the result of disorder. If a window is broken and unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares; no one is in charge. More windows will be broken and the anarchy will spread. If you fix the window, clean up the graffiti – crime can be avoided. Minor crimes tip major crimes. This theory was the start of cleaning up New York. They started with the little things: cleaning graffiti and repairing windows, and then crime started to disappear. Minor crimes lead into major crims.

Much of our environment dictates on how we act at that moment. For example, a study was done to see what factors contribute to children cheating on tests. What they found was that many variables contribute to cheating: older children cheat more than younger children, happy homes cheat less than unstable homes. And these same children when confronted with different circumstances – whether at home or at school, the complexity of the material, or the time to finish the exam- changed. No certain person or factor seemed to decide on the cheating. Rather, it was the environment that dictated this.

On top of this, a social experiment was done with students entering the ministry. The students were given the task to prepare a speech about being a good samaritan. However, once the student arrived to class, the professor would tell them they either had a few minutes to relax or that they were ten minutes late. The speech was to be given at another place nearby, and the student would briskly walk to this meeting place, but on the way, they’d run into someone needing help.

If the student was running late, they’d only help this person in need 10% of the time. However, if they had a few minutes, 63 percent stopped. Time was the deciding factor on whether or not they helped, despite being a student in the ministry and giving a speech on good samaritism.

Then we take the law of 150. In a social group, 150 generally is the max number to run this group effectively. At this number, orders can be implemented and unruly behavior controlled. In the villages of Australia to the Amish, 150 has been that magic number where if the group reaches it, the group splits to form another village. The rule of 150 is a subtle contextual factor that makes a big difference in the success or failure of a group.

RULE: The conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur have a major effect on the outcome.

Conclusion: 

“We are powerfully influenced by our surroundings, our immediate context, and the personalities that surround us.”

This book attempts to understand the external factors that grow certain epidemics. For Airwalk in the 90s, skateboarders adopted this brand because it was for them; it was a different shoe only sold for them. Then Airwalk grew in popularity and started to sell their product in malls and eventually became mainstream. Trendsetters hated this. They want to be different. And this ultimate, saw Airwalk’s loss of success. They lost their specialized shoe.

Our external environment changes our mind. In 1999, 42 children in Belgium had to be hospitalized. They reported headaches and nausea. They found that the issue came from drinking a batch of Coke. The company did its research and found that contaminated carbon dioxide had been used. What’s interesting though is that this contaminated carbon dioxide should have only imparted a bad smell; no sickness at all. It may have affected a few kids, but not 42. And some of these children didn’t even drink coke that day. Mass hysteria such as this is easily spread through children. It’s the same thing when someone says they may have eaten something bad, and you were at that same restaurant. Then you begin to play mind games with yourself. These types of factors boil into a tipping point of epidemics. Our mind them believes were sick, and the epidemic grows.

Many factors contribute to this. On game shows, contestants rate the questioners being a lot smarter than themselves.  Many of our friends are built by proximity, rather than similar interests.

Gladwell does a great job to show his philosophy on the growth of epidemics. The little things in our world cause them. When we see this, it’s important to not go after the major crimes. It won’t be effective. Rather, go after the minor details to solve the issue. Kill the root; don’t go after the tree.

“Are you a snake-oil salesman or a scientist?” This short read takes the scientific approach of social media. It points to the best-practices and asks them to show proof why things are shared. And then it goes deeper into the research-driven results.

Just because an idea is viral, doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Tons of good ideas go nowhere, so what makes for a viral equation. It becomes a matter of the ability to reproduce. Three components make something viral.

1. Exposure: A person must be exposed to your content to even see it. (They have to follow you on Twitter, fan on facebook, email list, etc.). And the larger you’re following, the more likely you’ll lead to success.

• - The larger your network, the more likely that your item will be viral. Size matters!
• - People follow “authorities” and “gurus”, so don’t be modest in your Twitter descriptions. People don’t follow amateurs.
• - Content: Don’t be a negative Nancy. And don’t talk about yourself. ALso, the largest influencers on Twitter don’t have many conversations.
• As we saw in the OMMA awards: Social marketing is expensive (ad buys, write-ups, etc. Exposure is exensive)

2. Attention: You have to somehow put eyes on the content. Create attention-grabbing content.

• - People like content that is original and familiar. e.g. Gnomeo. Romeo/Juliet spun in a Gnome fashion. It’s original, but familiar. The most popular content follow this.
• - Pesonalization still wins.
• - Push out content in the times that it’s the most quiet within the network. e.g. Weekend emails don’t compete with the Tuesday rush. Facebook sharing is higher on the weekends.
• - People want to share valuable information to network, so they can build reputation of being someone that is interesting to interact with.
• - People don’t want to regurgitate the same content to their network. They value originality.
• - Be simple. Be clear. Be positive, and never be complicated.
• - Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives an adverbs. The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.

3. Motivation: There has to be reason to share it with their network. Have a powerful call-to-action.

• - People only care about themselves. They want your content that helps them become better. 10 top way to do this… improve your marketing by this… et.c  The most retweetable word is “you”. People want you to talk about them.

“If you’re not measuring it, you’re doing something very, very wrong”

So, have a large audience, have good content, and give people reason to share it.

  New Beginnings
When I returned from Arizona, One to One called me and told me they’d like to see other people. Long distance relationships never work out. Our Reno office started strong with 30 people; it had dwindled down to four, and now after my cut, two. It was a good experience; it wasn’t a messy break-up, and I’m glad we can stay friends. And I’m even more excited to build a new relationship with someone else. Cheers to 2011. ]]> http://www.adventuresofus.com/the-daily-grind/nine-great-things-from-2011/awalden/2012-01/feed 0 http://www.adventuresofus.com/the-daily-grind/northwest-house-crawl-year-3/awalden/2012-01 http://www.adventuresofus.com/the-daily-grind/northwest-house-crawl-year-3/awalden/2012-01#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:16:30 +0000 awalden http://www.adventuresofus.com/?p=2091 2011 marked the year that TJ moved into our neighborhood, a few houses down from Rob and me. Well, we knew we had to act quickly for our Northwest house crawl.

This year was going to be a bit more intimate, and we decided to run a theme. So, we crawled just like Mad Men  would do. We only crawled to our three houses, and each house had a Mad Men drink and appetizer. Our house consisted of chex mix, stuffed olives, and Maker’s Mark on ice.

And yes, that would carry out as a theme to the other houses. We ended at TJ’s where Tyler created a drink from the bartender gods where he used the smoke from a burning vanilla stick to hint the glasses. He then used a blue corn mash with some fruit concoction to make a very memorable drink.

Either way, it was a good time.

Well, we might as well give a first-hand experience of Ron’s iron man experience. Take it over, Ron:

My Road to an Ironman

By Ron Weaver

 

For years, my friend George Maldonado tried to get me to go on a bike ride with him, yet I probably said no a hundred times. Finally in a moment of weakness, I said yes, really just to shut him up. I loved riding and bought a steel frame road bike a month later.

By May of 2007, I could still only barely stay afloat in water and my longest run ever had been the 5 mile Reno Journal Jog. My daughter Bridget, however, convinced me to enter a half marathon in Vancouver, but I wasn’t convinced I could finish. Amazingly, I performed pretty well there, so I began running and riding a little more.

Somewhat intrigued by triathlons after watching friends perform and seeing the World Championship in Hawaii. I wanted to give it a try, especially since I had the bike/run thing going on. The fact that I really couldn’t swim was a major roadblock . I even still swam with my head up out of the water when practicing at Moana Pool. Nonetheless, I signed up for the Pyramid Lake Triathlon. When I saw the pylons way out in the water and realized how far 800 yards was, I chickened out and ended up only doing the bike/run. Not swimming was very embarrassing.

My first goal was finding someone to teach me to swim. That wasn’t easy, but I finally found Katie. (Her last name shouldn’t escape me, but it does.) Though not convinced I could be taught to swim properly, after only one hour, I was swimming with my face in the water and breathing, left and right. I was very excited at the end of that lesson.

Now my goal was to find a super easy triathlon which I did. It was in Moraga, CA. A pool swim of 400 yards, a 13 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile run. My son Jason competed with me, even though this triathlon was beneath his skill level. I remember Chuck Hosselkus phoning to ask how I did. This competition was nothing as I look back on that tri, but it gave me the confidence to move on. Chuck was a great influence in my earlier triathlons. I even came within 60 seconds of beating him at Pyramid, though could never do so. I added more sprints, a couple at Olympic distance, and finally signed up for what I thought would be the ultimate: A half Ironman. Jason entered with me, and we had fun training together. Training alone can get to be a real grind.
I remember standing in the cold water of Lake Berryessa for the half and saying to myself, “What the hell were you thinking?”

I finally got to the run and I remember talking with someone about my age who said he was training also for Iron Man Arizona. I remember thinking he must be crazy. I told him, “There is no way I’d ever consider a full IM.” I truly felt completely at peace with being a half IM.

I then started running with NSET (Northern Sierra Endurance Training) running group because that’s where Bridget and her husband Andy were running. She again convinced me to enter a marathon. I guess my confidence was building a little now. What’s 4 hours running when I spent 6 ½ hours competing in a triathlon? It’s all about perspective.

I ran a second marathon because I wanted to qualify for Boston but missed it a 2nd time. That was now my goal. Along the way, 3 or 4 people including Nicole Vaillant at NSET said, “You should enter an IM.” I responded every time saying, “No way!” Nicole was looking for a training partner for IM Arizona and she was very persistent. I kept saying, “I’m too old and I can’t do it.” She would disagree. I started losing sleep wondering if I really could do it. I didn’t want to not try and then regret it for the rest of my life. I seriously lost a lot of sleep over it. After over 6 months of worrying a lot about it, I decided to give it a shot. Very reluctantly I might add.
You might think it would be easy to enter an event that allows 3,000 entrants, especially if you have to swim, bike and run 140.6 miles. Well, that’s just not the case. Chris and I were on our way to Egypt on November 20, 2010 which was also the first day to sign up for IM Arizona. Nicole signed up for both of us right at 11:00. The event sold out in 10 minutes. Chris and I were in New York City at the free cocktail hour for that trip to Egypt when I got a text from Nicole that we were entered. I was both happy and scared. I think the alcohol helped to ease the reality of what I had just read.

In January, Nicole and I sat down to start planning. As it turned out, she planned and I listened. She had a book with 3 training plans: just finish, intermediate or competitive. I was going to stretch a little and enter the intermediate. That level didn’t work for her, so we ended up entering the competitive. It’s very easy to say now that it was the right decision.

I was very concerned that training with someone 30 years younger and already an IM wouldn’t work and expressed that before being signed up. The swimming was never an issue because it would be in a pool. My bike times improved greatly as I racked up the mileage. A lot of the running was done with NSET and on our bike/run brick, where Nicole just ran at a lower heart rate to allow me to keep up. That worked out pretty well.

We officially started our 30 week “competitive” program on April 25th. I think the first week was 6 hours total, no problem. I also took yoga classes 2 days a week for the first 14 weeks, and I think that was very beneficial.

At the end of week 12, I did the Vineman half IM. I wasn’t nervous at all like I had been on the first half. It was a lot of fun, and I think I improved my personal record by 30 minutes. The energy that triathletes give off is just infectious.

There were a few rest days on week 13 to recover from the half IM and then back to 13 hours on week 14.

 

That week was going well until Saturday, July 30th when I broke my fibula, while trail running with Bridget and Andy. We were in about 2 miles, so the walk out was a very painful. Luckily, Chris came along with her hiking poles, and that gave me a boost. I was very concerned but didn’t think I had broken anything.

So I’m sitting in the ER when the doctor comes in and gives me the bad news. I told him I have the IM event on November 20th and he said, “No you’re not.” I can honestly say I never believed him for a second. For the next 3 weeks, I was in quite a bit of pain and pretty depressed, but training becomes addictive.

Dr. Dolan, my orthopedic doctor, gave me the okay to take off my boot and start swimming at 4 weeks. That didn’t go very well. The left leg had atrophied and was just not working as it should. At week 5, he let me take of my boot, get on my trainer and take a spinning class. At the end of week 5, Jason, Nicole and I did a 56 mile ride. It was like finding Jesus. One of the more memorable days of my life. I was back.

Quite a few people said, “I guess your IM is over,” including my personal trainer that I had for 8 sessions. I’m pretty sure that comment motivated me.

The last week of training was only 5 hours. Three days before the race, I tripped and separated a rib. Major panic set in. I was supposed to run 40 minutes that day and could only do 20 due to the pain. I thought my race might be over. Now this, along with the fact that my longest run of the year had been only 13 miles due to the broken leg. Although concerned, I went to a local pool to get my 30 minute swim in and the rib pain didn’t seem too bad.

Finally, the day of the race is here. Up at 4:30 to get parked and to the event by 5:30. The nerves weren’t too bad and my breakfast consisted of a Zone bar, waffle cookie and my miracle fruit of choice, the banana. It was very hard to eat anything. I got my bike set up with water, Gu, Zone bars and Hammer drink mix. When I met up with Nicole, she helped me with my wetsuit; because of my injured ribs, I needed a little help. We then headed over to the swim with 2,900 other somewhat crazy people. I was a little nervous about the swim, but felt this sort of calmness being with others doing the same thing. Misery loves company.
At about 6:45, some guys started yelling through a loud speaker like drill sergeants, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” We jumped off a 4 foot high platform into the 61 degree water and it just took my breath away for a few moments. I was surprised at how fast I adjusted to the cold temperature and even with a sleeveless wetsuit somehow only my feet were cold. With every stroke, my ribs hurt but it wasn’t too bad. The swim seemed to last forever and was chaotic. I found it very hard to find swim lanes without getting kicked. Even with all that, I was enjoying the fact that I was finally doing it. The bridge we had to swim under (that was over a mile away) never seemed to get much closer. Eventually, I came out of the water and my legs buckled. Volunteers grabbed me and got me over to where 2 others yanked off my wetsuit. Every bit of me was shaking and freezing as we ran into the heated transition tent. I took my time in transition (not like most) changing into biking clothes. I did put clean socks on over my muddy feet.

I came out of the changing tent for the bike leg and women wiped sunblock all over my body. Pretty cool. My bike was waiting at the far end near the exit with those of the pros. When I heard my number yelled, someone had my bike ready for me when I got to the positiion. Pretty cool again. My legs felt a little weak, but after 100 yards on the bike I was fine. Finally I was on my favorite part of any tri, the bike. It consisted of three 37 mile loops with a hill at every turnaround. I was really happy to be on the bike. Each lap took me a little over 2 hours. As I came down the last mile or so, there would be thousands of people cheering. Friggin’ awesome. Chris, Jason, Bridget, Andy and Nagisa were there at the turnaround cheering me on. That was a tremendous help. I really looked forward to seeing them. I saw Nicole coming back as I was going out on all 3 bike legs.
As you come down the chute for the bike/run transition, people cheer from both sides. Someone is there to grab my bike and say “Go!” Then I’m off to the changing tent for the run. The run start was a little rocky with my legs not working very well. Not unusual for any bike/run transition. I still felt knives stabbing at my ribs, but somehow adjusted by barely picking up my feet and shuffling. I now started realizing how tired I was and my previous longest run had been 13 miles. My mind started playing games with me. Doing the math, I knew I had over 8 hours to finish the marathon but I was still doubting myself. The run was 3 laps and the gang was there at different points to cheer me on. Tremendous help. It was not unusual to see people with cramps and/or puking. I kept thinking, “Please not me.” It was now dark and a long time had passé since that 7a.m. start. I was finally beginnning to think that I might finish this. The last 8 mile loop was painful, but I kept thinking about going through the chute at the finish line with hundreds of people cheering while they announced “Ron Weaver, you are an Ironman!”

I heard someone calling my name late into my 2nd lap and I was thinking, “Who knows me?” Duh! It was Nicole. As she ran past me, asked how I was doing and said, “I’m not going to break 12 hours!” and then she was gone. Turns out she finished 12 hours, 30 seconds. Very impressive and an hour faster than her first IM.

Jason and Andy ran the last 5 or 6 miles with me. It was more of a walk run and against the rules, but no one seemed to care. It helped a lot because I was more than just hurting at that point.

My time was 14:05. Right in the middle of my age group with 40 or so “old” guys. Perfectly happy being average in this group of overachievers.

To become an Iron Man, I logged in 91 miles swimming, about 2,400 miles biking and over 500 miles running. Time well spent.

A book about understanding the people you manage, this takes the approach that there’s no processed way to become a productive manager. As many know, the relationship people have with their direct manager affects how long they stay at the company and their overall happiness. Talented managers retain talented people.

A manager’s job is not to manage, but to help their employees. “How can I be of assistance to you today?” The employee is the star, and the manager is the agent, working for their employees. However, a coach/manager means nothing, if he’s not surrounded by talented people. You can only get so far if you don’t have the right people.

The  main challenge is working with people’s strengths to get the best out of them. Every person is different, is motivated different, and has their own quirkiness.

One of the really interesting metaphors this book uses though is the development of the brain in our childhood years. Each part of our brain uses connections to stimulate brain activity. It’s like a highway system of cars. If we are more creative in our younger years, these connections grow larger. So, the highway is expanded to a six-lane highway so it can hold more traffic. However, the math skills that have never been used, are still there, but they are left to be stranded as a lonely highway. It can still be used, but the connection isn’t as complex. So, work with the six-lane highways, and quit trying to force a complex highway system on a person that can only manage their single lane. The large highways are the person’s talents.

The other metaphor they use refers to the mountain. Once we start at a new company or a duanting project, it’s similar to looking up at a mountain before the climb. We’re scared. We know there will be danger; it will be cold; and it will be a test of will. But you push forward for the adventure. And the reason we do this? We want to conquer that mountain. We want to stand on top of it and say I was here. That is why we make our climb and move past the intimidation.

The overall insight:

People don’t change that much
Don’t waste time trying to put what was left out.;
Try to draw out what was left in.
That’s hard enough.

Each person is different and needs to be managed differently. Play favorites. Reward some, while not others. A manager is a catalyst trying to find the right chemistry to build this for his employees.

Each person has a select talents: Talents are only recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior.

“They define a talent as ‘a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied. ‘ The emphasis here is the word recurring. Your talents , they say, are the behaviors you find yourself doing often. Your instinctive ability to remember names, rather than just faces is a talent. Your need to alphabetize your spice rack and color code your wardrobe is a talent. So is your love of crossword puzzles, or your fascination with risk, or your impatience. Any recurring patterns of behavoir that can be productively applied are talents. The key to excellent performance of course is finding the match between your talents and your role.”

I can relate to achievers:

“Similarly, some people have a four-lane highway for constant achievement… They may not have to win, but they do feel a burning need to achieve something tangible every single day. And these kind of people mean “every single day.” For them, everyday -workday, weekend, vacation- every day starts at zero. They have to rack up some numbers by the end of the day to feel good about themselves. The burning flame may dwindle as evening comes, but the next morning it rekindles itself.

Define the right outcomes. And then let each person find his own route toward those outcomes. Guide them to the goal. How they achieve it, is up to them. Building boundaries is good. Be creative within boundaries.

I have no idea how this book found it’s way into our library. I may have picked it up for free at some point. But it stared at me in our closet, asking me if today it was to fulfill it’s purpose. So, I grabbed it.

The majority of this book is centered around the principles of Asian culture living. The author believes that disease and disappointment occur when our physiological state becomes blocked. Having an imbalance of Ki (life energy) results in disease.

He maintains that breathing exercises help keep us in a perfect state where we have our cool mind, relaxed heart, and warm belly. Deep breathing, belly breathing helps focus and positive energy. It gives us a relaxed state of mind.

He also endorses acupuncture as a way of healing. This helps release these blockages and created better Ki.

Meditation is key to listening to our soul. Meditation builds focus and quiets the mind. It lets us connect.

That’s it… for the most part. He confronts the issue that everything is changing around us. Everything we love will soon whither and die.  Nothing is constant. “I” is ego, so be more about other people.

“We are what we do”
“We cannot change the past because it no longer exists”

This isn’t a bad book, but one that was a bit too, uhm, maybe corny for me. He seems to write at his audience, not to them. Either way, interesting to hear more about the Asian culture, but glad this was a short read.

This book  was staring at me in my bookcase. I had read this for a class in college, and at the time, I felt that it was a good read. So, I decided to run through it once again:

• - 1+1 = 3
  Consuming insight + Brand Insight = Sweet spot
• - 5th P of Marketing is Personalization
  Every sale is a personal sale
• - People don’t buy 4 inch drill bits. They buy 4 inch holes.
• - You don’t persuade people. They persuade themselves.
• - When an idea or proposal doesn’t get adopted, it’s not always because it wasn’t good enough.More often, the author failed to understand the “client” who needed to buy it.
• - Sales vs. Order Taking. Sales requires insight to be successful. “Salesman” though is a perceivedperson who has only self-interest. Good insight.

Good to Great explores the concept of what characteristics of how companies become great. The author studied many corporations who have experienced sustainable growth and success over decades. It’s not a manner of a growing industry, a competitive advantage in information, or one specific leader that sets these companies apart. No, they uncovered a handful of concepts and patterns between these differing organizations.

Below I’ve listed some of the big ideas:

- The best students are those who never quite believe their professors. Never follow blind acceptance.

Leaders:

• - Leadership: Many of the great company leaders never cultivated hero status or celebrity status.
• - “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job”
• - Leaders can blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will.
• - Their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. They put the company ahead of themselves, always asking “What’s best for the company?” They don’t look for fame or riches. Always want to produce results. Show horse vs. a plow horse.
• - Challenges and opposition are natural for a company. It’s how you deal with it that matters. These challenges are opportunities. But, in the other companies, they were boundaries. Can’t blame poor results on the people, external factors or luck. In the end, they blame themselves.
• - Characteristics: quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe in his own clippings.

People

• -Get the right people on the bus. Get the wrong people off the bus. Then figure out where to drive it.
• -Right people do not need to be motivated. They are already passionate about what they do.
• -The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, regardless of incentive system.
• -Compensation should be used to motivate the wrong people. It should be used to attract the right people in the first place. ]
• -If the bus changes direction, the right people will be there to help to support. That’s why it’s important to have them first.
• -If you have to make cuts, just do it once.
• -When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking.
• -Good people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led – yes. But not tightly managed.
• -Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.

Confront the  Brutal Facts

• -Lead with questions, not answers (Golden Rule)
• - Role as a mediator to have healthy arguments
• -Ability to confront issues, instead of overlook them.
• -Never need to motivate people. Manage to not to de-motivate.
• -Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end regardless of difficulties. And confront those brutal facts with the current reality.
  People who put timelines to new fortunes and are optimistic die of a broken heart when it doesn’t happen.

• Grammy – The English/Irish/Scotch side
  • Grammy was raised in Point of Pines, MA, near a gorgeous Beach
    • Her mother passed away at an early age.
    • Father eventually remarried to a witch of a woman
  • Moved in front of Sluice Pond, MA
    • Brother, Charles, took care of my Grammy. They had a close relationship.
      • Each week, her brother and her would get $.25, which allowed for $.05 train, $.05 popcorn, $.05 the movie. The witch gave them a quarter to make them away. 
      • Grammy followed her brother everywhere. He often took care of my grammy.
      • At Sluice Pond, they’d cut the ice from the pond to ship to businesses when it froze over. My grammy would get ice shavings from these ice blocks.
        • Then the ice was transported on a horse carriage down the street
    • Charles went to Navy when Grammy was 13
    • Grammy left alone… finished school
    • Turned her education into a career of nursing
• Grandpa – Hungarian Side
  • Grandpa was raised in Revere, MA with five brothers and two sisters
    • Father was not part of the picture from an early age
  • Went to WWII as a Pilot in the Army Air Corps
  • Owned a roofing and sheet metal business with his brothers to help pay for their mother to have a nice house
  • Introduced to my Grammy from another nurse Janet. Janet had to decide between my grandpa and another brother. She chose the other brother, and then introduced my grandpa and grandma.
  • My grandparents then got married
• Grandparents
  • Grandpa realized doctors made good money. So he stepped away from his business to become a doctor.
    • Enrolled in Tufts University
    • Graduated from San Diego State (Mom was born around this time)
    • Then went to USC to get doctorate
      • While studying, he developed tuberculosis, and had to take six months off.
    • Got residency in Long Beach working at the VA
    • Moved to Rochester, Minnesota to work for his specialty at the Mayo Clinic
      • Grandpa at one time froze the backyard by flooding the yard with a hose and letting it freeze over, so my mom and her sister could ice skate.
      • My mom and my Grandpa’s mom, Sophie, had a close relationship. She was 100% Hungarian, and my mom used to have a Hungarian accent (despite not knowing any Hungarian)
    • Moved back to Long Beach as Chief of Non-Tuberculous Pulmonary Disease
    • Transferred to Reno, to work at Veterans Hospital as Chief of Medicine.
      • He also was a clinical instructor at UCLA, Utah, and Nevada.
    • Moved to Iron Mountain in 1977 and became Chief of Staff where he worked until he retired.
    • He passed away in 2007.