1: The year was 1993.  GE CEO Jack Welch was in Japan when he heard a story about the country’s railway system.

After World War II, Japan’s economy had been decimated.

“A large portion of the country’s population lived in or between the cities of Tokyo and Osaka, which were separated by just 320 miles of train track,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real … continue reading

1: Question: What’s the first thing you do when you wake up each morning?

For many people, the answer is, “I check my email.”

“Do you catch yourself needing to ‘catch up on the day’ really fast before getting in the shower or getting dressed?”  Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram ask in their book The 5 Gears.

If this is you, “do you know what you are doing … continue reading

1: “There’s wind and then there’s a typhoon, there are waves and then there’s a tsunami,” Andy Grove writes in Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.

The same is true in business.

“There are competitive forces and then there are supercompetitive forces,” he notes.

Andy calls it a “10X” change.

2: Harvard Professor Michael Porter identified the various forces that determine … continue reading

1: “What are we not doing?”

That was the question Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz added to the agenda of his weekly staff meeting.

After several near-death experiences during the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, the company began to show signs of life.

“Now that we’d improved our competitive position, we went on the offensive,” Ben writes in his wonderful book The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business … continue reading

1: “I can’t afford it.”  That’s what many entrepreneurs tell themselves.

“Far too many entrepreneurs,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time, “spend their time grinding because they erroneously believe that they’re the only person for the job, they can’t afford any help, or they feel guilty not doing certain work.”

What gets in their way?  As their business grows, they hire wrong.  They hire to … continue reading

Yesterday, we looked at how  Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Tom Clancy, and Andy Warhol spent their time.

How can we apply the lessons from this diverse group of incredibly successful people?  Dan Martell asks in his book  Buy Back Your Time.

We begin by creating a 2×2 matrix where we analyze how valuable each task we are doing in terms of (1) money and (2) … continue reading

1: If we “see AI as just another Google or a tool for writing better emails, we’re selling ourselves short,” Geoff Woods writes in The AI-Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions.

Instead, AI is “a strategic Thought Partner,” Geoff notes, “ready 24/7 to help us make faster, smarter decisions.

“When we recognize AI’s potential this way we gain an edge in a fast-changing world.”

Geoff defines … continue reading

1: The year was 2008. Dr. Benjamin Hardy had barely graduated from high school. He hadn’t taken his grades seriously and let his friends dictate the direction of his life.

Then, he made a decision that would change his life.  He decided to commit to serving a two-year church mission.

Doing so allowed him to confront “the trauma and pain of my past,” Ben recounts in 10x Is Easier Than … continue reading

1: The year was 1990. Jim Carrey was a struggling young comic.

Sitting in his car high up in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the lights of Los Angeles, he took out his checkbook and wrote himself a check for $10 million. He dated it five years in the future: November 1995. In the notation, he wrote, “For acting services rendered.”  

Five years later, just before Thanksgiving of 1995, he … continue reading

When we are learning to drive, we pay close attention to every aspect of what we are doing.  When we change lanes, we think through every step.

As we gain experience, we begin to group together many of these tasks and internalize them in our subconscious.

“When viewing a particular situation—such as a car accident—the experienced driver has a better understanding of what may have occurred than a newbie driver … continue reading