1: “In God we trust, all others bring data,” management scientist W. Edwards Deming once said.
“The best CEOs adhere to this mantra,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
“Our decision-making principles insist on evidence,” says former Intuit CEO Brad Smith. “One of the mottos is, ‘Because of (blank), … continue reading
1: Carson Holmquist was a micro-manager.
In 2012, when he was 26 years old, he co-founded Stream Logistics, a construction transportation company that provides transportation and logistics (i.e., trucks and trailers) for construction companies.
As CEO, under Carson’s leadership, from 2012 to 2017, the firm grew rapidly, going from 3 to 30 team members, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs … continue reading
“The only way to make our present better is by making our future bigger.” -Dan Sullivan
1: Marketing expert Joe Polish asked his mastermind group of entrepreneurs this question: “If you wanted to improve your profits by ten percent, how would you do it?”
Each group member spent 10 minutes writing down their best answers, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs … continue reading
1: “Culture can be a hard topic to get one’s head around,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
Perhaps the best definition comes from Marvin Bower, McKinsey & Company‘s former managing director, who said culture is “the way we do things around here.”
Which is why the world’s best … continue reading
1: “Most people reach for just a little bit more—a promotion, a little more money, a new personal record,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less.
“Going for incremental progress is a 2x mindset,” the authors observe, “which at a fundamental level means we’re continuing or maintaining what we’re already doing.”
2x is a linear mindset. … continue reading
1: It was 1968, and the executives at NASA had a problem.
“The space agency had a lot of smart people on staff, but smart and creative were different things,” Steven Kotler writes in his brilliant book The Art of Impossible.
“NASA’s lifeblood was innovation. They desperately needed their most creative engineers working their most difficult challenges,” Steven notes. ” Yet telling the Picassos from the … continue reading
1: The answer: Yes.
It’s what scientists call “flow” or the flow state.
Flow is defined as “an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best,” Steven Kotler writes in his powerful book The Art of the Impossible.
“More specifically, the term refers to those moments of rapt attention and total absorption when we get so focused on the task at hand that everything … continue reading
1: Many people are naturally “Either/or.”
“Either extroverts or introverts, competitive or cooperative, smart or naïve,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
However, people with long-term careers requiring creativity are not built this way.
Creatives are often “Both/and.”
“Creative people show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated,” psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes in his masterwork, creativity. “They contain … continue reading
1: Sir Ken Robinson had the opportunity to interview George Lucas.
“Hey, George,” he asked, “why do you keep remaking all those Star Wars movies?”
“In this particular universe,” George responded, “I’m God. And God isn’t satisfied,”
Sir Ken is one of the leading proponents for creativity. “His TED Talk on the subject remains the most watched of all time,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak … continue reading
1: “Every morning, the writer faces a blank page, the painter an empty canvas, the innovator a dozen directions to go at once,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
“There is something deeply exhausting about the year-in and year-out requirements of imagination,” he notes.
How do we overcome this daily challenge?
“The advice that has helped me solve this slog came from Nobel … continue reading
