Many of the successes I’ve had in my life have been due in part to my ability to “see” things that others could not see. And likewise, many of the opportunities that I’ve missed in life have been missed due to my lack of ability to “see” things that others could see.
My situation is far from unique. In fact, many of the world’s great success stories are grounded in someone having had the ability to “see” huge opportunities that nearly everyone else missed. Examples from the business world include: George Soros and the impending devaluation of the English Pound that he capitalized on; Bill Gates and the future strategic importance (and value) of operating systems that he capitalized on; Google’s founders and the importance of organizing the internet which they continue to capitalize on.
I’ll share two (smaller scale) stories with you from my own business career about this phenomenon:
A time that I saw something: In late 2007, I was able to “see” the impending stock market collapse quite clearly. In particular, the (now widely appreciated) unsustainable private sector debt bubble that was building and about to pop, along with its implications, were both somehow clearly visible to me. Now, the truth is that, having been regularly informed by many experienced investors that I didn’t know what I was talking about, it would probably be more accurate to say that, at year-end 2007 I was more “fearful” of a stock market collapse than confident. As such, rather than actively betting on the stock market collapse (which I now wish I had done), instead I just bought gold and cash equivalents – thus generating a modest profit for my family in 2008 while the financial gurus who thought I was stupid lost their shirts. Needless to say, this one thing I saw saved me a lot of money in 2008.
A time that I missed something: About 8 months ago I was presented with an investment opportunity in a company that sells a very cool product to health insurance companies. (I can’t tell you more about this company because I signed a confidentiality agreement with them.) During his fund-raising presentation to me, the CEO of the company mentioned that he thought his product might be sellable in the hospital sector. I decided to pass on the investment opportunity, with almost no consideration, because: (a) I believed the selling price for stock in the company was too high, and (b) I and my partners would not have been able to take a controlling position in the company (which was a deal breaker for us). Four months later a friend of mine (another seasoned entrepreneur) called me up to tell me about this deal (which I, of course, recognized). My friend, having heard the same presentation as I also declined to make the investment – but instead of walking away, he offered the CEO a proposition where they would do a joint venture in which my friend would get an exclusive right to distribute the company’s product to hospitals in exchange for a percentage of the sales he generated. When I heard this idea my immediate thought was “Oh Shit,” because (understanding the product’s strong marketability to hospitals) I could immediately see that my friend was likely about to make millions of dollars with essentially no work or capital investment (because he will be outsourcing the hospital sales function to others) – and that I could have easily done the same thing four months earlier had I simply been able to see the opportunity in front of me.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this phenomenon of “seeing” lately and, in particular, I’ve been wondering how you and I can train ourselves to enhance our seeing ability. Regrettably I don’t have a good answer to this question (and if you do, I’d love it if you could write to me or post a comment.) With this said, let me please direct you to a terrific (now ancient) blog entry from Phillip Eby called “A Spooky Mind Hack” in which my sense is that there might be a very good clue available to us, addressing this very important question, if we can only “see” it.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
How to walk on ice – as a metaphor for living
There is sheer ice on the sidewalk outside my house today. I love walking on that ice – especially when I’m able to really glide.
Other people in my neighborhood are terrified when they walk on the ice – and thus approach it fearfully, with tension in their bodies.
I grew up in Wisconsin where we had a lot of snow and ice. So, as a child, I spent many hours walking and running on ice without much fear. What I learned then (and remember to this day) is that you can’t fight the ice when you’re walking or running on it; you need to pay attention to your feet, but also understand that you’re in a dance with the ice and that it’s going to make you slip, whether you like it or not.
I also learned as a child is that it’s a lot of fun to enjoy (rather than resist) the ride on the ice, and that, as long as I go with the flow, it’s not that hard to navigate.
Many branches of Eastern philosophy (including the martial arts) describe an idealized mind-state characterized by relaxed attention. Here, for example, is a quote from the Buddhist Kindred Sayings in which the Buddha describes, in characteristically cryptic language, how he crossed a flood:
“When tarrying, friend, I sank, and when struggling, I was swept away. So, friend, it is by not tarrying and not struggling that I have crossed the flood.”
By virtue of my snow-filled childhood, I’ve learned how to achieve a joyful and effective state of relaxed attention when walking on ice. I continue trying to learn to do that same thing when navigating my way through the rest of my daily life. It’s not a bad way to live.
Other people in my neighborhood are terrified when they walk on the ice – and thus approach it fearfully, with tension in their bodies.
I grew up in Wisconsin where we had a lot of snow and ice. So, as a child, I spent many hours walking and running on ice without much fear. What I learned then (and remember to this day) is that you can’t fight the ice when you’re walking or running on it; you need to pay attention to your feet, but also understand that you’re in a dance with the ice and that it’s going to make you slip, whether you like it or not.
I also learned as a child is that it’s a lot of fun to enjoy (rather than resist) the ride on the ice, and that, as long as I go with the flow, it’s not that hard to navigate.
Many branches of Eastern philosophy (including the martial arts) describe an idealized mind-state characterized by relaxed attention. Here, for example, is a quote from the Buddhist Kindred Sayings in which the Buddha describes, in characteristically cryptic language, how he crossed a flood:
“When tarrying, friend, I sank, and when struggling, I was swept away. So, friend, it is by not tarrying and not struggling that I have crossed the flood.”
By virtue of my snow-filled childhood, I’ve learned how to achieve a joyful and effective state of relaxed attention when walking on ice. I continue trying to learn to do that same thing when navigating my way through the rest of my daily life. It’s not a bad way to live.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The puppy and the jaundiced woman: a parable
Our family got a new puppy yesterday afternoon. We call him Simba. Isn't he cute? I got up with Simba at 5 this morning, and played with him. While we played, I disappeared into the experience, completely let go, had a great time, and felt like a kid again. And, as a result of our play, I felt quite connected to Simba, as if I, too, were a puppy.
It’s completely understandable that this happened to me with Simba. He’s adorable, filled with positive puppy energy, and completely loving and engaging.
Yesterday, when walking along the street in my neighborhood, I passed by an elderly, hunched, deeply jaundiced woman whom I had never seen before. My immediate thoughts, when noticing her, were of death and decay. I felt repulsed and averted my eyes when we passed one another.
Oddly enough, I passed by that same woman this afternoon. However, when I saw her this time, instead of seeing death and decay in her face, I somehow saw her humanity – and maybe even a little of my puppy in her face. So I looked right at her and smiled … and then she smiled back, quite warmly. I felt connected to her, and nourished by the encounter.
I far preferred today’s interaction with this woman today to the one I had yesterday. I’m grateful to my new puppy for reminding me about the connectedness we all share, and how much nicer life is when I can be aware of that connectedness.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Leveraging the 80/20 rule; the power of focus
We all know about the “80/20” rule. This rule – also known as the “Pareto Principle” (named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto), and the “Law of the Vital Few” says that, for many life situations, 80% of the value is generated from 20% of the effort.
In organization after organization, I’ve witnessed this easily measurable phenomenon, even in well-managed places … i.e., where 80% (or more) of the profits (or sales, or whatever) was generated by: 20% of the customers; or 20% of the employees; or 20% of the operating divisions; or 20% of the products; or 20% of the effort; or whatever.
Similarly I’ve seen this math apply (vividly and equally strongly) in my own life and that of a number of my friends and colleagues – where 80% or more of the “good stuff” in our lives (whether measured in dollars, or pleasure, or relationships) is a product of no more than 20% of our productive efforts.
Think about this rule for a second. It offers a huge clue about how to become happy and productive. Here’s a mathematical corollary to the Pareto Principle:
If you and I were to double our focus on the 20% of activities that generate value in our lives … and substantially reduce our focus on the other 80%, we’d work a lot less, and generate a lot more value in our lives.
I have dozens stories to share about mind-blowing business and life situations I’ve witnessed where the obvious “answer” to a business or personal struggle was simply that the person (or organization) had to re-focus their efforts on the vital 20%. My guess is that you have as well.
The amazing thing here is that, when presented with tangible evidence of the Pareto Principle at work, it’s somehow nearly impossible for most of us to internalize the obvious implications of what we’re seeing and focus our attention on the vital few. Rather, we all seem to gravitate toward focusing our efforts on problem areas that are time-consuming and useless. And for the several people I know who live their lives feeling overwhelmed, this situation seems to compound itself, amplifying their sense of being overwhelmed.
I’ll share several life examples with you:
In organization after organization, I’ve witnessed this easily measurable phenomenon, even in well-managed places … i.e., where 80% (or more) of the profits (or sales, or whatever) was generated by: 20% of the customers; or 20% of the employees; or 20% of the operating divisions; or 20% of the products; or 20% of the effort; or whatever.
Similarly I’ve seen this math apply (vividly and equally strongly) in my own life and that of a number of my friends and colleagues – where 80% or more of the “good stuff” in our lives (whether measured in dollars, or pleasure, or relationships) is a product of no more than 20% of our productive efforts.
Think about this rule for a second. It offers a huge clue about how to become happy and productive. Here’s a mathematical corollary to the Pareto Principle:
If you and I were to double our focus on the 20% of activities that generate value in our lives … and substantially reduce our focus on the other 80%, we’d work a lot less, and generate a lot more value in our lives.
I have dozens stories to share about mind-blowing business and life situations I’ve witnessed where the obvious “answer” to a business or personal struggle was simply that the person (or organization) had to re-focus their efforts on the vital 20%. My guess is that you have as well.
The amazing thing here is that, when presented with tangible evidence of the Pareto Principle at work, it’s somehow nearly impossible for most of us to internalize the obvious implications of what we’re seeing and focus our attention on the vital few. Rather, we all seem to gravitate toward focusing our efforts on problem areas that are time-consuming and useless. And for the several people I know who live their lives feeling overwhelmed, this situation seems to compound itself, amplifying their sense of being overwhelmed.
I’ll share several life examples with you:
- A venture capitalist, who has a portfolio of 10 companies where two of the companies are clear winners and two have serious problems is devoting most of his time to putting out fires for the two loser companies. He “doesn’t have time” to focus on the winners right now, but if he “weren’t so busy,” there would be several things he could do to fuel the growth of the winner companies.
- A non-profit organization which is having fundraising challenges in today’s economy, has a list of 50 activities they are theoretically pursuing to raise money, but 3/4ths of their efforts are being directed toward three financially useless activities (e.g., an auction that has never generated meaningful dollars), and meanwhile, the two things they should clearly be working on (including Board development) are getting no attention right now because their staff is “too busy.”
- Hospitals (which are having financial difficulties right now) have been laying off collection agents in their finance departments lately due to budget constraints despite the fact that the average collection agent collects 5x their salary in incremental revenues for the hospitals per year.
- For the past six months, I’ve had it on my “to do” list that I should get Google Voice to transcribe my voicemails. I haven’t gotten around to this 5 minute task (so I can read my voicemails on my blackberry), and meanwhile, I bet I’ve lost 20 hours going through the painful and unnecessary voicemail-checking process that my phone requires.
- My son devotes 3 times as much of his time to resisting homework as he does to doing the homework.
- An ASP I know provider generates $5 in sales for every dollar they spend on telemarketing, but they don’t have the budget to increase the size of their telemarketing efforts.
- And I have so many more examples…
When training as a doctor in emergency rooms, one of the mantras they taught us was: “when 6 people in life-threatening situations arrive all at once, the first thing to do is to take your pulse.” Basically the message here was that, when you feel overwhelmed and panicked, take a breath, think through the 80/20 rule, and then focus on the vital 20%. When I’ve been able to remember this lesson, it has served me quite well.
So … here are my words of wisdom for the day – directed (as usual) to me as well as you.
David’s words of wisdom for the day:
Please respond intelligently to the Pareto principle’s impact on your life.
To be specific, let's all take 5 minutes to ask ourselves:
- What are the “vital few” activities I’m doing in my life right now that generate most of the value even though they don’t take much time?
- And what are the few time sink activities I’m pursuing right now that generate no value for me, but take a lot of effort?
Then, let's all try to avoid our normal human impulse to focus on the fires in our lives, and see if, instead, we might be able to double our time or effort devoted to the vital few and halve our time on the useless many. This little change will make a huge impact; I promise.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Ohm
I just had a delicious dinner with a lovely glass of wine … after having had a really productive and engaging day … and now, I feel happy, content and peaceful. Sitting at this computer, as I attempt to figure out what I should blog about, the only thing that comes up in my mind (when I try to think up a topic) is an enveloping sense of peace, openness and connection with the universe.
I’ve worked for many years to learn how to be happy and successful, and sometimes, like right now, as a result of my years of effort, I just get overtaken by bliss. This state doesn’t happen to me that often, but when it does occur (like right now), it definitely doesn’t suck.
My hope, with this blog, is that by sharing my journey with you, I will be able to help you accelerate your own path toward continually expanding bliss and power. To that end, in future blog entries, I’ll go into detail about what, specifically, has helped me traverse the distance between pretty intense and continuous unhappiness (and a sense of powerlessness) ten years ago to the blissful place I often inhabit today. In the meantime, though, I think I’d like to return to my “ohm,” at least for now.
I’ve worked for many years to learn how to be happy and successful, and sometimes, like right now, as a result of my years of effort, I just get overtaken by bliss. This state doesn’t happen to me that often, but when it does occur (like right now), it definitely doesn’t suck.
My hope, with this blog, is that by sharing my journey with you, I will be able to help you accelerate your own path toward continually expanding bliss and power. To that end, in future blog entries, I’ll go into detail about what, specifically, has helped me traverse the distance between pretty intense and continuous unhappiness (and a sense of powerlessness) ten years ago to the blissful place I often inhabit today. In the meantime, though, I think I’d like to return to my “ohm,” at least for now.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Acting “as if”
A couple weekends ago, I was speaking at a seminar designed to help entrepreneurs.
At the beginning of the seminar (well before my speech was scheduled), I had the opportunity to participate in an “icebreaker” exercise led by a different speaker, which exercise the speaker credited to Tony Robbins. In this exercise, we were instructed to go up to strangers in the room and introduce ourselves three times in succession but in accordance with changing instructions. The first time, we were told to introduce ourselves to people normally. The second time, we were asked to walk up to people as if we already knew them. And by the third go-around, we were told to approach people as if they were long-lost friends.
The results of this exercise amazed me. The way that I felt and the intensity of connections that I formed in these three situations were extraordinarily different. The first time, I felt “OK,” and formed no connections whatsoever. The third experience, by contrast, energized me (a lot) and, more importantly, generated a fairly intense, instantaneous connection with the people with whom I spoke.
Since that weekend, having been blown away by the effectiveness of the exercise I learned at the seminar, I have been toying with the question of whether or not I can train myself to apply the technique I learned during that exercise more broadly in my day-to-day life. My goal here is not only to learn to connect more intensely with other people (although that’s a worthwhile goal in itself), but also, to learn how to use the technique I learned there to become happier and more effective in general.
To accomplish this goal, I’ve been trying to follow a three step process:
At the beginning of the seminar (well before my speech was scheduled), I had the opportunity to participate in an “icebreaker” exercise led by a different speaker, which exercise the speaker credited to Tony Robbins. In this exercise, we were instructed to go up to strangers in the room and introduce ourselves three times in succession but in accordance with changing instructions. The first time, we were told to introduce ourselves to people normally. The second time, we were asked to walk up to people as if we already knew them. And by the third go-around, we were told to approach people as if they were long-lost friends.
The results of this exercise amazed me. The way that I felt and the intensity of connections that I formed in these three situations were extraordinarily different. The first time, I felt “OK,” and formed no connections whatsoever. The third experience, by contrast, energized me (a lot) and, more importantly, generated a fairly intense, instantaneous connection with the people with whom I spoke.
Since that weekend, having been blown away by the effectiveness of the exercise I learned at the seminar, I have been toying with the question of whether or not I can train myself to apply the technique I learned during that exercise more broadly in my day-to-day life. My goal here is not only to learn to connect more intensely with other people (although that’s a worthwhile goal in itself), but also, to learn how to use the technique I learned there to become happier and more effective in general.
To accomplish this goal, I’ve been trying to follow a three step process:
- Train myself to identify and characterize, in detail, what I specifically do and feel, e.g., what I’m thinking, how I breathe, how I hold my body, etc. when I am happy and effective (let’s call this my “optimal state”) vs. unhappy and ineffective (my “sub-optimal state”)
- Train myself to reproduce my optimal state at will – basically by having my body and mind reproduce the actions that I’ve memorized during step 1 above
- When I notice myself being in my sub-optimal state, consciously attempt to shift myself over to my optimal state by: (a) acting “as if” I’m already in my optimal state, and (b) simultaneously attempting to reproduce my optimal state based on what I’d been learning during steps 1 and 2 above.
To date, I’ve had a few, small successes with this strategy, but the going has been slow. Nonetheless, my sense (based on my experience during the seminar as well as success stories I’ve heard from others using this technique) is that I’m on to something here and that, with practice, this strategy will prove to be a valuable addition to my self-improvement arsenal.
If anyone reading this blog has had experience trying this technique on their own, I’d love to hear about it.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Being there while getting there
After a very long day of work today, I finally got home (around 10:30), and then I took my dog out for a walk.
During the first half of my walk with the dog, my mind was buzzing with dozens of thoughts and feelings … residue from the day … things I felt excited or disappointment about … thoughts about what on earth I would write about in this blog … and much much more.
About halfway into the walk, something snapped. Perhaps my fatigue got the better of me, or perhaps I just learned a lesson by watching how my dog was conducting the walk. In any case, at that point, I suddenly became aware of my experience of the present moment … how beautiful the sky looked … how fresh the cold air tasted … how much I enjoyed being with my dog … and even how nice it felt to just walk. And that experience in the second half of my walk, in turn, reminded me of something I “know” but usually forget (e.g., during the first half of my walk), namely that to really feel alive and joyful, I need to be out of my head enough to notice what I’m experiencing in the moment. True to form, the second half of my walk was far more enjoyable and rewarding than the first half.
Perhaps like you, I am a very goal-oriented person. Goal-orientation has served me well in life in many ways. In fact, one of my goals has been to learn how to be happy, and, with diligent effort over the past several years, I’ve even been quite successful at achieving that goal. With this said, one of the down-sides of my goal-oriented personality is that it’s very easy for me to become so consumed by thoughts (as I did during the first half of my walk) that I miss my life as it is passing me by; as such, some of my “efforts” to be happy actually end up being counter-productive.
The Zen guys talk about the notion of “being there while getting there,” which basically means living deeply in the moment (and understanding that there is nothing more than the moment available to us), even while working toward future-based goals.
This blog is devoted to helping you and me become deeply joyful, healthy and successful and we’ll continue to work together to learn how to achieve this goal. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our effort to get somewhere together, as long as we remember during this process that there’s really nowhere to for us to get to besides this moment. If we miss out on our moments (e.g., this moment) while working together toward future-based happiness - for example, when we become consumed by our thoughts - we miss out on the whole ball of wax.
During the first half of my walk with the dog, my mind was buzzing with dozens of thoughts and feelings … residue from the day … things I felt excited or disappointment about … thoughts about what on earth I would write about in this blog … and much much more.
About halfway into the walk, something snapped. Perhaps my fatigue got the better of me, or perhaps I just learned a lesson by watching how my dog was conducting the walk. In any case, at that point, I suddenly became aware of my experience of the present moment … how beautiful the sky looked … how fresh the cold air tasted … how much I enjoyed being with my dog … and even how nice it felt to just walk. And that experience in the second half of my walk, in turn, reminded me of something I “know” but usually forget (e.g., during the first half of my walk), namely that to really feel alive and joyful, I need to be out of my head enough to notice what I’m experiencing in the moment. True to form, the second half of my walk was far more enjoyable and rewarding than the first half.
Perhaps like you, I am a very goal-oriented person. Goal-orientation has served me well in life in many ways. In fact, one of my goals has been to learn how to be happy, and, with diligent effort over the past several years, I’ve even been quite successful at achieving that goal. With this said, one of the down-sides of my goal-oriented personality is that it’s very easy for me to become so consumed by thoughts (as I did during the first half of my walk) that I miss my life as it is passing me by; as such, some of my “efforts” to be happy actually end up being counter-productive.
The Zen guys talk about the notion of “being there while getting there,” which basically means living deeply in the moment (and understanding that there is nothing more than the moment available to us), even while working toward future-based goals.
This blog is devoted to helping you and me become deeply joyful, healthy and successful and we’ll continue to work together to learn how to achieve this goal. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our effort to get somewhere together, as long as we remember during this process that there’s really nowhere to for us to get to besides this moment. If we miss out on our moments (e.g., this moment) while working together toward future-based happiness - for example, when we become consumed by our thoughts - we miss out on the whole ball of wax.
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