1: It was the summer of 1985.
One of Silicon Valley’s most legendary meetings was about to happen.
“I was in my office with Intel’s chairman and CEO, Gordon Moore, and we were discussing our quandary,” Andy Grove writes in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
“Our mood was downbeat,” Andy recalls.
“I looked out the window at … continue reading
1: “Screw them. We could run a better convenience store than these folks!”
Twenty-one-year-old college student Ron Shaich was mad. He and his friends had been “escorted” out of the Store 24 convenience store directly across from Clark University, which they attended.
The “beefy security guard . . . had taken one look at the trio of scruffy kids lingering over the ice-cream freezer and decided we were intent on … continue reading
1: “To create anything of value—whether it’s a product, a company, a society, or a life,” Ron Shaich writes in his powerful book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations, “we must push through our default settings.”
How do we do that?
“By living consciously and deliberately, by making the hard choices, and by using tools … to discover what will really matter, again and again.”… continue reading
This week we’ve been exploring how to be more productive.
At the heart of these efforts is (#1) defining our key priorities, and then (#2) planning our days to get these things done, says Google productivity expert Laura Mae Martin in her book Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing.
Pretty simple, right?
Not so much. We say: “Well, this is great, and I’ve set my … continue reading
1: The minister said, “It’s now time to say something nice about the deceased,” Charlie Munger told the 2007 USC School of Law graduates.
“And nobody came forward, and nobody came forward, and nobody came forward,” he recounts in Poor Charlie’s Almanack.
“And finally, one man came up and said, ‘Well, his brother was worse.'”
That’s one way to live our lives.
“Occasionally, you will find a perfect … continue reading
1: The executive team had gathered to make three investment decisions.
“First, they discussed the investment for a £10 million nuclear power plant,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence, citing C. Northcote Parkinson’s 1958 book The Pursuit of Progress.
Total time spent to make the decision: Two and a half minutes.
Next up? What color should they paint their … continue reading
1: Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.
Searching for a bit of wisdom as we push to end 2024 on a solid note and start 2025 with a bang? Read on!
Imagine we adopt a new puppy from the pet shop, suggests Peter D. Kaufman, CEO … continue reading
1: Imagine our goal is to raise $10 million.
Which is a better approach? Would we rather solve 100 problems at $100,000 each?
Or, attempt to solve a single $30 million problem?
Dr. Alan Barnard, one of the world’s leading experts on constraint theory and decision-making, believes the second approach is a far better strategy.
Why? “For multiple reasons,” Alan believes, as quoted by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy… continue reading
1: It was the 1990s. DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta was working at Citibank and was halfway through a three-year assignment within the bank.
One afternoon, he sat down with his executive coach, who asked him to identify the A, B, and C players on the team he was leading.
Piyush had some A players. But many of those on his team were B and C players.
“The coach bluntly … continue reading
1: The 80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle tells us that 80 percent of our results come from 20 percent of our effort.
“Bluntly, 20 percent of our focus is producing 80 percent of our best and most desired results,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x.
And, “80 percent of our focus is producing a mere 20 percent or less of our best results, … continue reading
