Let’s do it tomorrow…

I read a lot of self help books.

Not because I really need help, mostly because deep down inside I’m pretty sure I’m an idiot. Just not quite sure about the extent of it. So it’s nice to have it pointed out.

I also happen to work between 12-20 hours a day. Not because I don’t have any other employees here. Not because I’m a sociopath. Not because I’m not focused and watch Youtube videos all day long. Not because I’m a control freak and can’t trust anyone round me. Not because I hate life and everyone around me. Simply because I like to make sure we do our very best.

So… let’s try to defeat everything with random objections and arguments:

If you don’t focus, you’ll never get anything done. But if you just focus you won’t take the time to consider things thoroughly and the end result will likely flop. Your career/job/company has a shelf life so you have to move quickly! But move too quickly in the wrong direction and you just might bet on the wrong horse leading you to doom. If you just got organized there would be no stopping you. But if you spend all your time organizing things and filing them properly, you’d have no time for anything else (same applies to developing procedures, measuring activities, any analytical work of any kind that doesn’t directly result in you getting paid).

Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

So, the point of this whole thing isn’t to show that cynical people never get anywhere. The idea is that the evaluation process is continuous and that you really have 3 options: 1) Settle for mediocrity / gamble / wishful thinking, 2) Work and hope that effort somehow trumps talent or 3) Try to make #1 sound a little more sophisticated.

Now, I don’t want to make it seem like option #1 isn’t successful. It is! For everyone from professional athletes to lottery winners and even curiously deformed rappers. Unfortunately, you probably don’t belong to that pile.

Yet, most people are in group #1..

How do you go from the first to second? Stock up the fridge with Mountain Dew and take up heroin? How about… try to think outside the little box you’ve got yourself stuck in? Ask questions. Ask followup questions. Share ideas. Ask for ideas that people get while listening to your ideas.

Here, I’ll get you started with something.

You work in an office. Or at least interact with clients. Right? What’s your policy on working from home? Tough you don’t have one, come up with one now. Why not? Oh, you don’t think you’re affected? Two of my close friends got taken down by the swine flu bug. One in Australia, likely chasing down a Kangaroo.. Other in Dallas, cornered by a client in a small server room and then told an hour later that he had to go visit his wife in the hospital because she is down with the flu.

Consider all the ways getting the swine flu would impact your business and career. Write down your objections. Write down your recommendations. Ask all your employees and clients to do the same. Even if it’s black and white, will never change your mind in a billion years, write it down. Come up with a strategy.

Apply above to everything you do, or should be doing. Even if you can’t have it implemented today, time has a way of helping you perfect what you really need to do.

This self help book is brought to you by me taking a moment from the crap I do to consider and share what’s on my mind because it gets me attention. Lot’s of it. And that attention constantly feeds back information and insight that fuels Own Web Now. Yes, without a single ad to it, or a fire sale, giving away a thought materially impacts the Vlad’s Ferrari Fund. But hey, you can always do something tomorrow right?