Tuesday and The Right Investments
May 13, 2008
Another week and another Tuesday is upon us, and that means another Tuesday blog. This Tuesday I started off my day at Starbucks, talk about customer loyalty. Planet Starbucks the cult of Apple, these companies owe a lot of their ascent to this very concept, (and a superior product their customers would say, thus proving my point). At any rate, Starbucks seemed like an appropriate place to get the wheels turning concerning customer loyalty.
Truth be told, I rarely ever go to Starbucks, and as a matter of fact don’t have a Mac but I see where their success lies. I digress though. The reason that I was at Starbucks on this beautiful May morning was to meet Jill Morrison from The United Way. She was outlining certain activities and going over the capabilities of the United Way, what they had to offer to the community, and more importantly how LUCRUM could get involved.
Many of us might think that charitable work is not related to customer loyalty at first but I assure it is. In the modern era of Globalization, the flat world if you will, this “think globally and act locally” mantra is very pertinent concept. Companies cannot and do not operate in a vacuum outside their communities, and if they do, the community will suffer and inevitably the company will too. No, organizations are living entities that operate within a community, the community draws from the company and vice versa, it’ a symbiotic relationship, or at least it should be.
Investing in the community around us indirectly benefits the company. Like the old saying, “the rising tide raises all the ships” well, if our community is doing better, it can only help a business. Moreover, those in the community will take notice and see that the company is not just trying to sell them something. Then they will realize that the company is just as invested in the community future as they are, and thus they will invest back into the company. It all comes back down to the Tuesday Model really. This part gets to the backbone of every relationship, which if you remember is trust. Beyond the good feeling we all get from helping others out, charitable works foster trust. Our customers will understand then that we are invested in their community, because we are meeting their expectations of giving back. Everything is integrated, the Milton Friedman concept that business sole responsibility is to maximize shareholder value is outdated and too simplistic. If we dehumanize ourselves then our customers won’t be able to relate. You can’t be loyal to what you can’t relate to. Investing back in the community feels right because it is right. It makes economic and social sense, and I am glad to see LUCRUM committing to such causes.
Treat the Customer Like a Prince…
May 6, 2008
Is it better to be loved or to be feared? The ends justify the means. One must be a fox as well as a lion etc. AH The Prince, great book, a lot of interesting concepts, but why am I writing about a book most people were forced to read in college? Well for one, I like it. But the real reason why I am thinking about Niccolo Machiavelli, is because of work.
Recently, I wrote a blog post on a project that I was working on for my supervisior. It was concerning Tuesdays, and customer loyalty. Customer Loyalty, seems pretty important no? If your customers aren’t loyal, it’s probably because of something you did, or perhaps didn’t do. Referrals are one the best forms of marketing or advertisement, you only refer who you enjoyed working with in one capacity or another. Also we tend to work and or buy things from people we like. This is why networking is so vital. That’s all I ever heard about at the Williams College of Business at Xavier- “networking-networking-networking.” Given the aforementioned, I think that customer service, and to be more precise, customer loyalty is paramount. So then, why The Prince as a preamble.
As the first line of my rant goes, is it better to be feared or loved? According to Niccolo Machiavelli, it is best be both, but seeing how this is rarely accomplished, it is better that you are feared than loved. There is no real concise way to put his explanation on why, but he does give his reasons. Again, why am I writing this? I tend to read a lot of philosophy and I find that it inspires me. Not that I think that our customers should be loyal due to fear of retribution. Personally, I say neither answer is right. I say that, better than being feared or loved is being respected. If people fear you, they will due only what is necessary to not be punished, which will render you moderate at best results. Love on the other hand can, at times, skew people’s judgment, which can lead to a lack of necessary constructive criticism. If I was starting a business, the last thing that I would want is a bunch of “yes men” to back me up or take point. R-E-S-P-E-C-T is king, people want to do good for those they admire, they want to work with those they admire, they are loyal to those they admire. This is why Fortune, ranks the “most admired companies.”
Now considering my recent project, in my humble opinion, customer loyalty comes down to respect. Given to and received from customer to business. It’s a two-way street. Respect comes down to relationships, and relationships come down to the Tuesday Model or The Tuesday(superscript C) Model. It’s linear. If the customer is simply a means to an end, then the relationship will end quicker than you think. We must remember that ultimately the customer is our “boss” and not vice versa.
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The Tuesday Model
April 29, 2008
Tuesday, not as bad as Monday, and not as good as Wednesday. Its a forgotten day to most people. If you have an average and dull life, then you could say that your life is a bunch of Tuesdays I guess. Is there any way that Tuesday could mean…a little more…here’s something that I use to get me through the Tuesdays of my life.
I have been at LÛCRUM now for about three weeks, and one of the first projects I have been asked to participate in is concerning customer loyalty. So I thought to myself, customer loyalty, how to get it, and obviously how to retain it, when it hit me….Tuesday!
What does Tuesday have to do with customer loyalty, and what is the Tuesday model, you ask? The Tuesday model is a little bit of advice that was given to me by my mentor in College. A successful venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, a man that I respect. Anyways, one day we were out at dinner and I was picking his brain about business, life, etc. when he told me this. “Andrew, all relationships, business or personal, are based on three criteria. Expectations, understanding and trust.” E.U.T or T.U.E the prefix of Tuesday as a way to remember it. “These are the building blocks of relationships” he explained. His logic was that, once expectations are not met, then understanding becomes clouded and thus, trust falls apart. Naturally he concluded “that trust is the backbone or all relationships.” I listened to my mentor and it made sense, moreover, this was a man that I respected and I could see he was great a forging strong ties in every aspect of his life and this was the secret ingredient behind his success.
Since that day I have implemented the Tuesday Model into everything relationship I in my life; family, friends, work and girlfriends. It helps you empathize, which fosters understanding and clarity. I have also amended the model itself. Trust, Understanding and Expectations is how it was originally conceived, but a sub note to expectations is communication. Only if communication is clear can expectations be derived and met. Of course this screws up the acronym but it’s worth it.
So now that I have acquainted you with my philosophy (something that I will do a lot if you let me), it is time to implement the Tuesday Model with my tasks here at LÛCRUM. Going along with the theme of Tuesday, you can find further “rants” if you so desire every Tuesday from here on out. If you agree with me great, if you have anything to add, I’m all ears, or perhaps you think I’m insane, either way, discourse is always welcome.
Sphere: Related ContentBusiness Intelligence, Country Music, Peter Drucker and You!
April 27, 2008
I get a lot of emails every day! I got this one that I didn’t delete and then felt strong enough to comment on it.
“In a recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), nearly 80% of executives said that a Business Intelligence strategy would improve their company’s ability to enhance customer service and react quickly to market changes. However, fewer than 15% felt their organization has applied best practices to its use of business data.”
I love music. I love all types of music. I am not a Country Music fan though. I am a fan of Country Music Song Titles. There’s a title to a country music song (no music yet!) that I made up about the business problem that is one of the biggest problems in the entire economy. Here’s what it is: Companies go to great lengths to hire top notch people. Then they give them business responsibilities and the authority to act on the business responsibilities. Then, they don’t give them the complete tools to get the right analysis to get to the “right decision.” So, here’s my song title:
“You don’t know what you have done by the time you’ve already done it”
Is that right out of Nashville or what? Decision-makers and categorically speaking, Knowledge Workers” are nowadays tasked with making a lot of very timely and important decisions. After we have them on-board with what famous business professor, Dr. Peter Drucker, says is the 20% unique aspects of the business (he professed that 80% of all businesses are the same)…once they really gain expertise and experience in the business, we don’t necessarily give them the right tools to analyze their data and the general performance of the business. Perhaps another song title goes like this:
“I know she knows, but I can’t get it out of her”
Certainly, what we mean here is that the data is in the system. The person just doesn’t know how to get it out!” Conceptual thinking skills are not the norm in the Information technology world. Operating software systems, running networks, ensuring security, closing double-entry book keeping systems, and the normal “run the business” part of IT constitutes a majority of the activity. How’s this for another song:
“His left brain won’t talk to his right brain, so he won’t answer the door.”
OK, perhaps that one didn’t work….
The lack of relevant facts or real understanding in the decision making process is so apparent to person trying to sort through all of the data that surrounds them. Recently, I read 2 more statistics:
• More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000
• Corporate data is doubling every 3 years
I am myself, “what happens to all of this data?” Another song title?
“I spent too much time looking for my data when the decision timeframe has come and gone”
Gartner calls it the “Fact Gap.” It’s kind of a “decision gridlock” which even with gas at $ 4.00 per gallon or higher is what we are going to see this summer on the construction-laden highways!
So, how do you figure out whether there is a Fact Gap in your organization or business? Perhaps there’s truly is a Fact Gap in your business? Here are some potential symptoms for this:
Excessive discounting
• Expensive marketing programs that do not result in revenue enhancement
• New product introductions are less successful than expected
• Low inventory turns per year
From a knowledge worker viewpoint, you can start to see symptoms where decision making that is unscientific resulting in …
• Inefficiency in production
• Missed opportunities
• Inability to react proactively
• Lost market share
• Excessive expense
• Lost revenue and profits
• Customer dissatisfaction
Perhaps one last song title will provide a summary of my topic:
“She turned data into information and he didn’t even know he had the answers!”
If we can turn data into information and empower business decision makers with the information they need to run the enterprise, there’s certainly a true opportunity to gain competitive advantage.
Sphere: Related ContentWe Win When We Talk About Them
April 17, 2008
I never thought I would pick up sales tips from James Carville, but sure enough it has happened. Over the past weekend I was watching one of the Sunday morning political shows, and Carville, joined by his wife Mary Matalin, was discussing the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Specifically he discussed one of the tenets of running a great campaign he learned from former President Clinton, who love him or hate him, was a great campaigner. The idea he put forth was so simple but so correct. “If we are talking about them, we are winning.” “If we are talking about us, we are losing.” Now, the idea behind his comment is perhaps a little different in the context of a political campaign as opposed to a sales call, but how incredibly insightful is that. The best sales calls often involve very little “selling.” If the person across the table from you is talking, and you are discussing them - not you - you are winning. I have experienced sales calls where you trot out every feature, function, advantage, benefit, company history, past clients, and on and on, only to walk away saying to myself, “I just don’t think we will win that one.” By the same token, many of the best calls I have ever made, involve asking questions, and then listening to someone else talk about themselves. Yes I can tell people LUCRUM is Cincinnati’s best provider of Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, (all of which I believe) until I am blue in the face, but if I don’t understand them first, I am losing.
I observed this first hand today while on a sales call with two of my colleagues. We had a great meeting that lasted well over an hour, very little of which was spent discussing LUCRUM. In doing so, we identified numerous business problems LUCRUM can solve through our understanding of technology. More importantly we took the first steps toward building a new relationship with them based on understanding of their unique business needs. No pushy sales pitch. No dog and pony show. Just having a real and meaningful conversation about them When we are talking about them… we win.
Sphere: Related ContentLUCRUM, Meatballs, and Marketing
April 10, 2008
Yesterday I, along with the LUCRUM business development team, got the opportunity to listen in on a live conference call with author Seth Godin, courtesy of SFEntrepreneur.com. It was excellent and extremely relevant to the future of business.
Seth discussed his latest book, Meatball Sundae, which is about the revolution that is taking place in business thanks in large part to the growth and expansion of the web and other associated technologies. Seth claims that the old model for business, and thus Marketing, is broken and dying.
The old way is: big media, big advertising budgets, limited communication channels, top down, interrupt people with average, sanitized messages about average stuff made for the masses. This is the Meatball part of the Meatball Sundae and represents the old way of doing things - classical marketing and advertising.
The new way is: infinite communication through infinite channels in all directions, constantly evolving conversations, consumer oriented, niche focused, web enabled, search driven, and completely at odds with what used to work. This involves employee development, R&D, a commitment to making something remarkable, listening, problem solving, blogs, wikis, social media, word of mouth, and other emerging forms of technology in marketing. It is the Sundae - the whipped cream with a cherry that everyone wants to put on top.
The problem many companies face is that they try to keep the old (Meatballs) and then combine the new (the sundae). What you get in the end is not something great, but rather something that just does not work. A Meatball Sundae - Gross. You can’t just take the old way of doing things, slap some “new marketing” on top and expect it to work. What is needed is a whole new mindset. One that is about empowerment, accountability, open communication, transparency, honesty, and creativity.
I believe that Seth is absolutely correct in his analysis of the current state of business, and that what he says can be applied to what we are doing here at LUCRUM. When I started here at LUCRUM a few months ago, I had just read this book for the first time. I am now re-reading it. We are trying to make the leap from yesterday into the future, and as a result we are making fundamental changes to who we are as a company. It is a new mindset. A mindset that is focused on how we can make our organization one that thrives in the world of new marketing, and not how to we use the new “cool tools” to support our old structure. Our cultural and structural changes have been a widely discussed topic as of late - even making the paper (meatball). Many of these challenges are not unique to LUCRUM, but rather represent the changing world around us. Further, our recent struggles merely validate the ineffectiveness of the old way of doing things and serve as an impetus for change.
We are striving to be the best in the world at using technology to solve the business problems of our Clients. I believe that our leadership team is committed to achieving this goal. Our blog represents this change on some level, but what I hope to ensure is that I am not the architect of a giant, disgusting meatball sundae of my own. I am very encourage by the fact that I see people here embracing a mindset centered on delivering incredible results for Clients. I see a company transforming into something amazing - something far bigger than “hey we have a blog now.” Yes, the blog is amazing. Yes I am very proud of it. Yes I am fascinated by the contributions of my colleagues to this experiment in marketing. But more importantly, I am fascinated and amazed by what it represents. Our people care - all of our people. Our people have a voice - all of our people. We are focusing on giving our clients and customers a voice too - all of our customer and clients. More importantly, we want to listen to that voice. No more of the highly sanitized corporate speak that plagues IT consulting firms. Just real, honest communication. We are on a journey. We have a long way to go. Still, look how far we have already come.
Back to the book… In it, Seth does a great job of identifying 14 of the trends that are shaping the future of business. They are as follows:
- Direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers
- Amplification of the voice of the consumer and independent authorities
- Need for an authentic story as the number of sources increases
- Extremely short attention spans due to clutter
- The Long Tail
- Outsourcing
- Google and the dicing of everything
- Infinite channels of communication
- Direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers
- The shifts in scarcity and abundance
- The triumph of big ideas
- The shift from “how many” to “who”
- The wealthy are like us
- New Gatekeepers, No Gatekeeper
If you want to know what is driving the thought process of our Marketing, simply study these trends (or just read Seth’s blog). We will look to embrace these ideas wherever and whenever possible as we shape the future of LUCRUM. Everything we do is marketing, and thus everyone gets the opportunity to take part.
Thanks to Seth Godin and SFentrepreneur.com for putting the call together.
Sphere: Related ContentOpening Day in Cincinnati
March 31, 2008
Today is opening day for Major League Baseball. Here in Cincinnati, it is pretty close to a formal holiday. There are people everywhere, prepared for parades, celebrations and baseball. The city is buzzing this morning; as yet another baseball season begins.
This will mark the first opening day in decades without the presence of Joe Nuxhall, the fabled Reds pitcher and broadcaster who passed last year. It will be odd to not hear or see the Old Lefthander, but I would be willing to bet that he will be well remembered today. I hope Cooperstown pays attention to the outpouring of love for Joe that will be on display in Cincinnati today. He had a huge impact on this city and on baseball. He belongs in the Hall of Fame.
The Reds used to play the actual first game of the season, which is no longer true. The Marketing Machine within MLB decided a few years back that the season would start with overseas games and promotional events designed to spread the game abroad. Still, in my mind baseball does not really start until that first pitch has been thrown out in Cincinnati. Coinciding with the emergence of springtime, opening day is a welcoming of possibility and potential, a celebration of sport and history, and a time when for at least one day, we are tied for first. (At the very worst, the Reds will only be one game out of first by the end of the day.) There is energy and excitement. It is like this every year. This is my first year working in downtown Cincinnati on an opening day. Here at LUCRUM, several employees are dressed in Red, ready to root, root, root, for the home team. While I will be hard at work today, I am going to make an effort to take a lunchtime walk up the street to see the festivities. It’s all part of the fun of working downtown. Hopefully, 162 games from now, we will still be talking about the Reds, but in the context of post-season play. For now, there is opening day, the beginning of a new journey with a new manager, a new team, and new possibility for greatness.
Business does not have the luxury of an offseason. It would be great if it did. You could take time to retool, retrain, and relax. Time to reflect on the past, live in the present, and prepare for the future. Time to develop strategies for success. Time to put together just the right team, and to figure out just how to win with that team. Alas, there is no off-season. With no off-season, decisions must be made in real time. Not only do the teams change, often the rules of the game itself change overnight. Every day is potentially opening day. Much of the value that a consulting firm creates is through helping Clients to understand these changes and to successfully adapt to them in real time. If today were your opening day, would you be celebrating? Are passion, energy, and potential alive and well in your firm? Are you ready to take the field and prepared to win?
On behalf of everyone here at LUCRUM, I wish 2008 Reds good luck. May this opening day mark the first step towards a season of greatness for this team.
Follow the Leader?
March 25, 2008
More and more in today’s spin zones, trade magazines, training classes, and blogs, a focus on leadership continues to grow - a trait that many feel everyone must be good at. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, there’s becoming a more and more noticeable lack of focus on what it takes to be a good follower. After all, if no one’s following, why lead?
Leadership demands great capacity for learning, communication, discipline, humility, vision, execution, initiative, and host of other characteristics and traits bantered about by today’s leadership “gurus”. All of which are good and essential, to one degree or another. Interestingly enough, these same traits are essential to good followership as well. Think about it. As a leader, don’t you look for people to be a part of your team that have these traits? I certainly do!
Another way to look at leaders and followers is to consider that our leaders today are actually followers too. Think about it for minute, the VP’s unto the SVP’s, unto the C-level, unto the board of directors, unto the people (public company example). So while the SVP for business development is certainly in a leadership role, they’re following someone higher up on the corporate ladder.
Is there a difference between leaders and followers? Absolutely. Is everyone in a leadership position, absolutely not. Is everyone in a state of followership, absolutely.
I believe that in order to be a great leader, one must be a great follower. And since we’re all followers to one degree or another, who better to place responsibility on for the development of followers than on ourselves! Confusing? Not really. It’s a state of reality that we too often choose to ignore, especially if we’re already in a “leadership” position.
So what then can be said about good followership? Well in today’s media, the hyper-competitive market, Wall Street, you name it, not very much is said about being a good follower. Why is this? I’ll argue that much of it stems from humanity’s inner will to appear stronger, smarter, “better” than the next person. Our own egos. Admit it, we’re all afraid of embarrassment. Maybe we think that we won’t make enough money simply being a good follower (…don’t forget the SVP example above). The list goes on…..
How then can we make a difference? By becoming better examples to others in our current follower roles. Some spin this as “Managing up” or “Leading your boss”. Call it anything you want, bottom line is most of us have as much room for improvement as we have to offer others. Without attempting to pull together an exhaustive step-by-step recipe for success, let me suggest a few principles to guide us.
Start by recognizing that everyone’s (including you) following something/someone. There’s our (your) baseline.
Next, place yourselves in the position, for example, of wanting to get a promotion, a raise, etc. (this shouldn’t be hard to do) How would you go about getting that? Would supporting your boss be a good start? I would think so. What can you do better, different, more of, less of? Sorry, no hints here, you all know these answers.
Next… put your ego on the shelf. Pride cometh before the fall.
The Journey. We must ask ourselves what is the true purpose of being a good follower or leader. The Whats, the Whys, the Where To’s…. To what do we aspire? Is there an end? Is it just money? Hopefully not. I say it’s a journey…one on which we’re all traveling. Becoming an effective follower or leader is a journey….the journey is about people working together in many different roles to achieve a worthy ideal. To cultivate others, to learn, to live, to perform, to decide, to take risks, to laugh. When we focus our time talents and energies here, leaders will emerge, followers will rise up, and there”ll be no end to the possibilities that we can achieve. This is the paradigm shift we all can help make happen.
Go and make a difference,
John
Sphere: Related ContentMove Forward One Step…
March 16, 2008
As we continue to experience the global economic correction in the US economy, we hear about the perfect storm: inflation, recession, credit markets becoming unbelievably tight, and the general struggle with the value of the dollar. Day after day, this is all we hear, and yet, if you read a lot of financial performance news, you understand that many companies are at or ahead of their forecasts and the economy is more sound. Who’s right?
What you can’t do is bury yourself in the sand. “No action” tends to be the less-than-optimal solution, for sure. “Back to the basics” theory historically says, “one step at a time” and you’ll have a lot of progress in anything you try to accomplish.
It is the same way for the world of Fine Arts. Cincinnati, Ohio, has historically made an economic name for itself as a predominant manufacturing economy. It is more likely that a person outside of this area knows Cincinnati as a sports town with the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, Cincinnati is really a “Fine Arts” town. At the center of the Fine Arts is the Cincinnati “Fine Arts Fund.” It is distinguished by having the oldest arts fund in the United States. Founded by the esteemed Charles Taft in 1923, the fund has continued to grow and prosper supporting hundreds of fine arts organizations and programs over the years.
Did you know that a lot of IT professionals are also artists? I know several that are musicians and still play in bands. Others are artists using paint and other medium. We once even had a former ballet dancer as a client-server developer! I’m a brass guy (trumpet) that now is constantly playing jazz on my Gibson Les Paul guitar. On this last week’s business trip to New York, I crashed in on Stanley Jordan at the Iridium Jazz Club, one of my favorite hideouts in New York. Stanley is still young looking and fresh. In fact, he told me afterwards that he’s 48 and playing as well as ever. I purchased a CD from him that I have never heard of before: “Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations.” It’s a 60-minute jazz guitar solo. Perhaps we play it for our economy!!!
LÛCRUM continues to be a great supporter of philanthropic causes in the greater Cincinnati community. This year, LÛCRUM is proud to participate in our first Fine Arts Fund Campaign. As you may or may not know, the Fine Arts Organization is also one of our clients. In addition to being a client of LÛCRUM, the Fine Arts Fund (FAF) does wonderful work within the Cincinnati community and throughout the region supporting more than 95 arts organizations, promoting the arts, and developing outreach programs to thousands of area schoolchildren.
Recently, LÛCRUM and the Fine Arts Fund co-hosted an “IT Entrepreneur Leadership Networking Event” late last month with Chris Hjelm, CIO, of Kroger, as the guest speaker. Chris’ talent outside of being an IT executive, is that he’s a weekend chef. Cherry pies, chili, and other delights can be found at the Hjelm residence.
LÛCRUM put a lot of time and effort into making this year’s campaign as well as making a modest monetary commitment. From a time and effort contribution, I am committed to doing as much as possible to support the FAF in their efforts to reach the $12 million goal set for the 2008 Campaign.
Did you know that if you give a personal gift this year of $75 or more, you get to receive the “Fine Arts Fun Card.” This discount card allows you to enjoy the arts and save money at the same time! There are even more benefits for donors at the $150 and $500 levels in 2008. Please go to
Breathe deep and keep taking “another step!”
Sphere: Related ContentApplying Exponential Principles to Personal Growth
March 14, 2008
I recently had an opportunity to listen in as our CEO, John Bostick, spoke to and fielded questions from Xavier Professor Tim Kloppenborg’s project management class. John captures an audience’s attention with his wisdom and propensity for great story telling. And he’s not afraid to share the hard lessons of his experience founding and running multiple multi-million-dollar businesses. This talk, although about project management and the trade offs of time, scope, and budget, hit so many inherently valuable life principles.
John reads voraciously. I’ve known this. Over my four years at LUCRUM I’ve listened to John apply lessons to his life and our business taken from content that he’s read and shared with us. Today I found the source of his motivation.
John described a very simple principle that he called the principle of exponents. I’m not sure that’s the clearest title, but the concept became as clear as day as he explained it. In essence, the principle is that if you spend 15 minutes each day improving yourself you will become exponentially stronger in character, will, knowledge, and understanding than the average person over time. Not that your goal is to be better than the next guy, but to become a generally stronger person with more to give.
John broke it down like this. If the average person can read, say, a bit less than a page a minute, then in 15 minutes that person can read about 12 pages. If the average book is about 350 pages long, then a person can read about a book a month. That is 12 books a year. Read three books purely for entertainment purposes (because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy). Read three personal growth books, like Covey’s 7 Habits, or Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. And then read 6 books about the business and profession you’ve built your career on. 12 books a year, every year, and you will have come a long, long way in a relatively short amount of time.
Then John graphed the principle on the chalkboard, and it looked something like this:
At point 1, both person A and person B graduate from college and enter the workforce. The graphs measure personal growth over time as the two people apply growth principles and life lessons learned. Person A out of the gate begins reading about his business and profession, networking into relationships that will help forward his career, takes entrepreneurial chances and learns some great lessons. Person B doesn’t.
Clearly, with the passage of time, person A experiences personal growth at a rate that far exceeds person B. 10 or 15 years down the line we might look at person A (point 2) and talk about how lucky that person has been in his life and career because we’re looking at a point in time. If we look at history, though, person A established a pattern on day-1 that guaranteed the trajectory of personal growth if it didn’t all but guarantee personal success.
And all that from just 15 minutes a day.
Tell us: how much do you read? How do you apply habits to guarantee personal growth? We’d love to hear about them.
- Andy
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