Sunday, February 28, 2010

Virgin - Sir RIchard Branson - Live

I am at a YPO event in Barcelona, Spain. Lots of interesting seminars. Lots of stats. EG 40% of the world bandwidth is used by Youtube. I have not yet done anything on Youtube although I have done most other social medias like this blog, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and even a Tumblr. Sounds time intensive but I automated it. The updates for Twitter are the same ones I use for all the others. I even save those updates under Motivational Business Quotations and the same thing under Jim Estill's Quotes and Article Picks.

The keynote speaker yesterday was Richard Branson. More impressive stats - 250 companies. Has never let one fail because reputation is everything. He is the branding king. He understands consumer behavior and branding.

He comes across as humble, real and "normal". I even saw him jogging along the beach after the session.

He used his Dyslexia and ADD to his advantage.

The big take away I got from his session was I should delegate more. He spends 4-8 weeks immersing himself in a business then he hires a leader and lets that person run it.

I had just read his autobiography - Losing My Virginity (thanks to Russ Salo - GPS to go). The book elaborated more on his struggles to get Virgin Atlantic up and running in the face of unethical competitive practices by British Airways. And the cash crisis of his early business that lead to him selling Virgin Music. He is now worth $2.5B according to Forbes so he did manage to do fine anyways.

He did speak of the responsibility of wealth. He also spoke of the value of being a good listener.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Success Habits and Why we do Time Management

I am always perplexed when I hear someone say they are not interested in Time Management. The reasons they cite usually has to do with the fact that they do not want to work that hard and are more interest in having fun, relaxing, or having leisure.


If this is truly the case, then they have missed the whole point in Time Management. Many of the efficiency tips (and management has more to do with efficiency than anything) allow people to be more productive and get more done.


It seems to me if someone were interested in spending more time on leisure, relaxing or anything else, they would want to get through their other tasks and chores in an efficient manner so they can go on about relaxing better.


I know I tend to be fairly driven and perhaps that sends the wrong message to people who think that if they start some time management tricks they will just start working too hard.


Time management is not about working harder, it’s all about working smarter so you can do what you actually want to do.


My success habits of the day are:


1. Do the worst thing first thing. I choose to do this both first thing in the morning and first thing after lunch. This has been the best thing for getting items off my plate, breaking through procrastination and not having the stress of having things hang over me.


2. Know you goals and link the action items to your goals. If something is not important enough to be on your goals, should you really be doing it?


3. Leave the room a little bit neater than you left it. I don't spending a lot of time cleaning out my car or any other room for that matter and the simple habit of leaving the room a little neater than I came into it allows me to keep the clutter and the paper a little bit neater (of course sometimes I have to go in and out of a room a few times to get things neat).


4. Be healthy. In reality this one is because a lot of time management has to do with energy, not so much time and being healthy gives you energy. If you are not healthy it sure creates a huge elephant in the room that needs to be dealt with first.


Good luck on your time management.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Business Book Review - Contagious Leadership

I recently read John Hersey's great book called Creating Contagious Leadership - 9 Habits that Inspire a Leadership Culture.

I love the concept of contagious leadership and I figure even if someone doesn't deliberately go about trying to be contagious, the leader definitely will be. I have seen in organizations where the leaders is slow and lack a customer service ethic and this tends to permeate throughout the organization. I've also seen cases where the leader is quick, responsive, has a high work ethic and that tends to also translate through the organization.

The gist of Hersey's message is that by deliberately trying to be contagious, the leader can multiply their efforts. The book has a number of practical ideas on how to do this.

Some of these habits include:
1. Spotlighting (This is shining the spotlight in areas that are good)
2. Vibrant Communication (Communication is always a big deal in any organization)
3. Permission Mentoring (one of my favorites). I've always been a believer in coach, training and mentoring people and have often said I want people who are coachable, but what I guess what I was really was looking for was permission mentoring, where people actually give permission to be mentored.

The book is short and to the point, well written and easy to read. I would recommend it to any leader.

Another short book I read last night was Positively Quit! Manual by Cassius Cheong. It is about quitting smoking (fortunately I never started so have never had to quit). Why would I read it? He sent it to me, curiosity and it was short. It was a fast read. It covered all the usual stuff you would expect - the reasons, other methods, tricks etc. Smoking is a terrible habit - read this book if you smoke.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Purity Products

I started doing a project for Purity Products to help them with their SEO.

Purity Products sells evidence-based nutritional supplements. They even wrote a book called The Best Kept Secrets to Healthy Aging - Your Guide to Better Health and Longevity.


I'm about as passionate about health and longevity as I am on business and marketing, so the project seemed like it was right down my alley. That said, I generally do not take supplements and believe that my best route to health is eating right. So I was somewhat skeptical when I picked up the book.

I was pleased that the book talks not only about the various supplements that could be used to supplement health like Vitamin D and CoQ10 but it talked about general health. They also talked about a product that is good for runners called ha joint.

There was a whole chapter on Dietary Choices - Establishing a Foundation For Health, which is how I choose to do it. I was also pleased to see a chapter on "Exercise, health and longevity" as I have longed believe that exercise is a critical part.

There's a chapter on "Sleep - Vital to Health and Healing". This is one that I was hoping they would develop a pill so that we wouldn't need.

It was an interesting book and gave me more insights into nutritional supplements and also reinforced a lot of what I knew about being healthy.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Why Time Management

I’m always perplexed when I hear someone say they are not interested in Time Management. The reasons they cite usually has to do with the fact that they don’t want to work that hard and are more interest in having fun, relaxing, or having leisure.

If this is truly the case, then they’ve missed the whole point in Time Management. Many of the efficiency tips (and management has more to do with efficiency than anything) allow people to be more productive and get more done.

It seems to me if someone were interested in spending more time on leisure, relaxing or anything else, they’d want to get through their other tasks and chores in an efficient manner so they can go on about relaxing better.

I know I tend to be fairly driven and perhaps that sends the wrong message to people who think that if they start some time management tricks they’ll just start working too hard.

Time management is not about working harder, it’s all about working smarter.

My success habits of the day are:

1. Do the worst thing first thing. I choose to do this both first thing in the morning and first thing after lunch. This has been the best thing for getting items off my plate, breaking through procrastination and not having the stress of having things hang over me.

2. Know you goals and link the action items to your goals. If something is not important enough to be on your goals, should you really be doing it?

3. Leave the room a little bit neater than you left it. I don't spending a lot of time cleaning out my car or any other room for that matter and the simple habit of leaving the room a little neater than I came into it allows me to keep the clutter and the paper a little bit neater (of course sometimes I have to go in and out of a room a few times to get things neat).

4. Be healthy. In reality this one is because a lot of time management has to do with energy, not so much time and being healthy gives you energy and if you're not healthy it sure creates a huge elephant in the room that needs to be dealt with first.

Good luck on your time management.

Changing topics. I love marketing and SEO so I read Daniel Scocco's eBook on making money from blogging. Scocco is one the leaders in internet marketing and SEO. His eBook was a fast and interesting (for me) read. Much of it I knew but some I did not.

Most of it I agreed with - some I did not (like do not use your name as the URL of the blog and of course I use www.jimestill.com).

His big points included being focussed on one topic(I definitely agree with owning a niche). Passion - definite must to make a blog go. Focus on only one blog (don't spread yourself too broadly). And his other totally valid point - focus on quality. Good content is what it is all about.


Lead Your Boss

I recently read Lead Your Boss by John Baldoni, The Subtle Art of Managing Up. He was the author of Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders and Lead By Example.

As most of my readers know, I did not really have a boss (unless you count the Board of Directors) for most of my working career. Then for five years I worked for Synnex, although I was CEO of the Canadian entity, I did have a direct reporting relationship to the CEO in the States.

At some point I may again have a boss.

The title itself makes me think, how do you manage up. After I sold my business to Synnex for the first six months I was depressed thinking it was the worst mistake I had ever made, mostly because I hadn't learned how to manage up. A good friend of mine took me aside when I was complaining about not being able to do what needed to be done and said that I needed to treat it like a sale.

That switch in my head, that reframing caused me to love the five years that I worked at Synnex. They were challenging but I viewed my job as simply selling head office to do the right thing and for some reason I don't get depressed when I don't make a sale, I simply go out and figure out what is a better way to make the sale.

From the book: “Leading up requires great courage and determination, writes Michael Useem, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of an eponymously named book that popularized the concept. “We might fear how your superior will respond, we might doubt our right to lead up, but we all carry a responsibility to do what we can when it will make a difference.

Individuals who lead up are those who demonstrate that they are aware of the bigger picture and are ready, willing, and able to do what needs to be done for the good of the team.

He suggests in order to do well you need to think like a boss. I guess because I've always been a boss that doesn't take much. His suggestions are to be around, be seen, and be curious.

The obvious is ask what you can do to help.

I found my time at Synnex was made somewhat easier by me doing a weekly report and I turned this into a process I call rollup weekly reports. I would have the people who reported to me do a weekly report, then cut and paste snippets of things I thought should be known by California into a weekly report. Also as my week progressed, if I thought there was something relevant they might not have heard or seen that I would simply put it in a file. When it came time to do my weekly report, I could fairly easily generate it. The weekly report of course always had some of my opinions of what was happening, which was one way for me to subtly sell my points.

Over time, I've modified the weekly report to even include things like having 3 or 4 organizational goals and asking everyone when they do the weekly report to report what they've done on these goals. This is a great way to get a company focused.

Another line which I like to add is what do you need from me. The reason for adding this in, is it makes sure I'm not the stumbling block, although no one can use waiting for something from me as an excuse.

With so many books written about leaders, I'm surprised there aren't more written about how to be a good follower leader (or a good senior person on the team), because there's many more of those positions than there are of the true leaders.

If I ever take another position where I have a boss, I will simply treat it as an additional challenge to the job. And I will study it.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Green Recovery

Last night I read Andrew S. Winston's new book Green Recovery - Get Lean, Get Smart, And Emerge From the Downturn on Top.

The book was awesome and obvious. The gist of the message is it's smart business to be green and that many of the things which companies do to save money are actually environmentally friendly.

One of my tenants in business has always been to try to get 100% utilization of resources, so if I happen to have a board room that wasn't being used, if I get someone to use it (and pay something for that), it was a good way to cover my overheads. It also happens to be good for the environment because I was already going to pay to heat that part of the building.

For some reason, there is a lot of 'Green' in my family. My parents must have raised us right. One brother owns a biodiesel refinery and has written a book on biodiesel. My other brother Glen runs a wind farm and my son has started a business selling solar installations.

The book talks about:
  • Get lean by revving up your energy and resource efficiency to survive the downturn.
  • Get smart by using environmental data about products and value chains to save money, innovate, and generate competitive advantage.
  • Get creative and rejuvenate your innovation efforts by asking heretical questions such as "Can we run our business with no fossil fuels?"
  • Get your people engaged and excited by asking employees to solve their own, the company's, and even the world's environmental challenges.
Winston had written a previous book called Green to Gold, which described how Green is good for business.

Any business that invests money is always looking for a positive ROI and some parts of ROI are tough to measure. I would argue that Green projects should be given a longer ROI than other projects because it's probable the cost of energy is going to increase also because it's good to good in the world and being green is likely to inspire some loyalty in both staff and in customers.

He talks about the obvious savings.
  1. Replacing ordinary incandescent bulbs with energy efficient lights, etc.
  2. Shut off your technology (computers can draw a lot of power). I toured a company called Chromis Fiberoptic in Connecticut Monday that makes plastic fiber optic cables. Very interesting company with potentially disruptive technology but that is another story. One advantage of fiber over copper is it uses less than 1/10 of the energy which in a datacenter environment results in huge savings because you not only save on the power in the first place, but you save on the power to cool it.
  3. Fill the trucks, drive fewer miles, redesign distribution.
  4. Travel less - telecommute and teleconference. I had spoken earlier about one of the companies I invested in called Calliflower , teleconferencing / WebEx software.
It's a short book, it's an easy read. Anyone in business can benefit by going green.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I am a Busy-holic

We had another dusting of snow in Long Island.


I was speaking recently to a friend, Warren Spitzwho said he was a busy-holic.

I've noted that in myself when I have little to do, I tend to find lots to do so as a result I tend to be busy almost regardless of what's going on in my life. Recognizing that in myself is great, because it means I can then choose what I want to be busy on.

I've always been very big on accomplishment and achievement so I figure if I'm going to be busy I might as well be busy accomplishing something big.

Just an interesting observation.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class

I recently read The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith.

The book is so bang on I could have written most of it myself. It espouses many of the same principles that I've said repeatedly on this blog.

One of the distinctions is Millionaires think long term. I've blogged about the value of long term thinking in my Secrets of Self Discipline post.

Millionaires embraces change and of course I've often said that change is opportunity and one of my mantras is change change change, embrace change, welcome change, make change, create change.

Millionaires take calculated risks. One of my favorite sayings is Fail Often. Fail Fast. Fail Cheap. Clearly I wouldn't be an entrepreneur if I didn't take risks.

Millionaires are constant learners. One of my repeated refrains is I love to learn and I am a constant learner.

Millionaires ask themselves empowering questions. I've longed believed that there is great power in the questions we ask.

The book is fast, easy to read and highly recommended for anyone who is trying to get on the right track.

The book inspired me to write the How To Become a Millionaire - 8 Truths article on ezine.com on how to become a millionaire and although I used most of his ideas, I added or modified some.

I also read some of his other books. From those books, I can see that he is a good person (the only reason for saying that is I believe the pursuit of money itself is a very hollow goal and anyone who simply pursues that will not be successful, they have to be a fundamental good person)

His other books include:
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Entrepreneurs and Employees
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Winners and Whiners
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Dream Fulfillers and Dream Killers
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Relationship and Religion

All of the books are short, easy, fast reads and similar in style to John C. Maxwell and as you can see by the titles, they're all along a similar theme.

Changing topics, interesting brand value article at Tech Crunch.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The AMA Handbook of Leadership

I recently read the The AMA Handbook of Leadership by Marshall Goldsmith which is a collection of articles, similar to the one I recently reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell (although these are each by different authors).

The book has five parts.

1 - Forging ahead - The Global Picture
2 - Developing People - The Key to the Future.
3 - Engaging People - Force of Change.
4 - Facilitating Change - The Leaders Role.
5 - Taking the Lead.

The articles are thoughtful, well chosen, well edited and for the most part interesting and thoughtful.

There was an article by R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. on Leadership and Diversity which tied into the book review I recently did on The Loudest Duck. The gist of the article is similar to the book, diversity is good business and its the role of leadership to make sure that diversity is embraced.

There was an article on Asian and Western Executive lifestyles. This was of high interest to me since I have done a lot of business in Asia and since I am in the computer industry. This has been something that I have studied and any leader of a global business should understand different executive styles in different cultures.

There's an article by Marshall Goldsmith - Passing the Baton : Developing Your Successor. One of the toughest things for a leader to do is prepare to move on from an organization. I've done a lot of thinking about that lately since some people have talked to me about how SYNNEX has changed since I've left. I've come to the conclusion that when leadership leaves an organization, some of the leader remains on in the culture and some of it changes.

The article is a good reminder that succession plans do need to be done. I know for many leaders, this goes against their sense of immortality.

There are other articles on leadership, change, how to be an effective leader and situational intelligence.

I liked the short article format because I could read one article in its entirety in a few minutes and then come back and read another one. One Time Management Success Habit I use is keeping reading readily accessible for any spare minutes I might have. This book is perfect for that - sort of like a magazine.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Performance : Your Guide To Personal & Professional Excellence

I recently read Diane Matyas Book - Performance : Your Guide To Personal & Professional Excellence. It's summarizes most of what most great self-help books contain. One thing that resonated with me is her first few chapters involve talking about energy - spiritual, mental and physical. One thing I've increasingly been emphasizing in my time management systems is that it's not about time management it's about energy management. So figuring out how to gain more energy, what gives you energy what takes your energy is an absolute must.

She then goes into a section on imagination and this would be similar to my goal setting. Essentially if you can imagine and envision it, then you can create it.

She talks about creating a mastermind and mastering yourself. She has a section on relaxation (that's good for other people).

I like that she has a couple of chapters on fitness and nutrition. Ties into the section on energy.

The book covers all the basics of what people need to be high performance.

Diane certainly understands about Success Habits. People say I am a time management guru but I still love to learn.


Monday, February 01, 2010

The Imposter

I read a great book on the weekend called The Imposter - How a Juvenile Criminal Succeeded in Business and in Life , a transformation memoir by Kip Kreiling.


The reason I say it was a great book is I founded a gripping and didn't put it down.

Although it's just a bit longer than most normal business books that I'm reading (285 pages), the font size is large so I had suspected its even less words.

As the title suggests, Kip is concerned that he is an impostor when he becomes a success in life. I think many people who are successful have that fear that perhaps they'll be found out someday.

I don't see this as all bad, perhaps it helps drive us. Kip had a horrific childhood and originally took that to drive into the world of drugs, juvenile and adult delinquency, but eventually he kicked his habits. Ultimately he became highly successful in life.

The gist of his message is if someone with his disadvantages can be successful, then anyone can and the main concept is that everyone can change if they want to. This sort of goes with "today's the first day of the rest of your life".

It's interesting that he talks about Success Habits.

"Another path to success is to start small. For example, if you have challenges keeping commitments to yourself, learn to get up in the morning the very second your alarm clock goes off. Do not use the snooze button. This simple act, repeated daily, will build personal discipline and provide strength for larger changes. Action like this will retrain your brain.

Something else to try: Pick one new good habit or virtue that you want to master and that you know will transform your life. For instance, you may want to learn how to control your anger or learn to listen more than you talk. Focus on that habit for six weeks and you will find that new, ennobling behaviors will replace old, limiting ones."


He also talks about Benjamin Franklin tracking progress in a journal in order to help master the 13 virtues.

It's a good book.