"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:
It's a time of rapid-fire change for growth companies, with plenty of opportunity. The speakers at the FORTUNE Growth Summit in Phoenix offered a boatload of ideas for thriving today. Here are some highlights. |
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"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:
It's a time of rapid-fire change for growth companies, with plenty of opportunity. The speakers at the FORTUNE Growth Summit in Phoenix offered a boatload of ideas for thriving today. Here are some highlights. |
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"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: Steve Jobs Stood on the Shoulders of Dennis Ritchie -- the week after Steve Jobs died, another tech legend passed away, Dr. Dennis Ritchie, who is the "father of the C programming language" and co-creator of Unix - and brother of EO and YPO member Bill Ritchie, whom many of you know. |
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"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: Why Surgeons Need a Coach -- Nathan Gray, head of EarthTrain, pointed me to this rather lengthy October 3rd New Yorker article by one of my favorite writers, Atul Gawande (Checklist Manifesto), on why surgeons need a coach. He notes that all professionals reach a plateau and require a coach to get them to the next level.
The Bozo Explosion -- it's worth 4 minutes to peruse Guy Kawasaki's 12 lessons from Steve Jobs, worthy because he worked directly with/for Jobs. I particularly like #9 -- precisely why hiring the right people (Topgrading) is still one of the two most important leadership skills, negotiation being the other (High Stakes Negotiations):
It's then imperative to keep you're A players great, keeping the bozo explosion at bay! It's not surprising that Steve Jobs primary focus the past two years was on Apple University.
You Can't Wait -- so it drives me absolutely nuts when people say "well we're already working on several initiatives and our plates are too full to learn more right now." Instead, you need to pack ideas in as quickly as possible when first available, not knowing when you'll need them, but trusting your brain will surface them almost magically when needed - but they have to be in your brain in the first place.
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"...out-learning the competition"
HEADLINES:
May 15th Jim Collins' Four Hour Presentation -- mark your calendars now - Jim Collins is the opening four hour keynote for our 2012 FORTUNE Leadership Summit in Atlanta, May 15 - 16. And we'll beam him LIVE 15th May to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Delhi, Mexico City, Monterrey, Mumbai, and Munich. He'll also keynote our Australian Growth Summit in Sydney March 15 - 16 which we'll also beam to Perth.
Jim Collins Book Released Today! -- Jim's latest and last business book he plans to write is the culmination of another 9 year death march. Entitled Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, Collins and co-author Morten T. Hansen look at what they call "10x" companies - seven companies that beat the S&P 500 by a factor of 10 over the 30 study period of 1972 to 2002. $10,000 invested in Southwest Airlines in 1972, for instance, would have grown to $12 million by 2002, 63 times better than the general stock market. So how did they do it as they navigated the same chaos as everyone else?
Jim Collins' Exclusive Excerpt -- "be in the know" and take 7 minutes right now and read FORTUNE's exclusive excerpt entitled Jim Collins: How to manage through chaos. To quote the magazine, these 10x companies "...aren't more creative. They're not more visionary. They're not more charismatic. They're not more ambitious. They're not more blessed by luck. They're not more risk-seeking. They're not more heroic. And they're not more prone to making big, bold moves."
Jim Collins' Findings? -- What they do, first, is accept full responsibility for their own fate. "10Xers then bring this idea to life by a triad of core behaviors: fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia. And they all led their teams with a surprising method of self-control in an out-of-control world." You must read the Amundsen and Scott story in the FORTUNE excerpt to get the context for this critically important aspect of leadership, focused first on what Collins calls the 20-Mile March, one of the six key findings of his research. I'm reading the book furiously today to get to the other five.
Jim Collins Interview -- take 7 more minutes and read FORTUNE's separate interview of Jim Collins where he discusses some of the other findings like "Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs." He also discusses the important role that luck plays, good and bad. It's one of the reasons they hold "freakishly" high levels of cash and maintain a conservative balance sheet. He also names his choice for entrepreneur of the decade!
Another Critical Book -- while you're ordering Jim's new book, jump over and grab a copy of Andrew Sherman's most important book he's ever written - Harvesting Intangible Assets: Uncover Hidden Revenue in Your Company. The modern day version of the 1915 classic Acres of Diamonds, your company is likely full of valuable intellectual property (IP) waiting to be uncovered and put to work. And the failure to protect this IP properly can cost you dearly down the road. In a game where brains have replaced brawn, take your company through Sherman's book, chapter by chapter, following the lead of the top IP lawyer (and perennial lawyer for EO) working for the third largest law firm in the world, Jones Day (P&G's law firm). Sherman gets entrepreneurial firms and provides a practical guide we can all follow. Give a copy to your CFO and have them start digging!!
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"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. |
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Steve Jobs, 1955 -- 2011 |
...There is No Reason Not to Follow Your Heart -- Steve shared this same sentiment in his 1986 Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs (ACE) keynote address. We had just named him the #1 young entrepreneur under 30 for his $1.9 billion in revenue for 1985. It was his first public speech after being fired and I still remember the intensity of his eyes and the graceful movement of his hands as he shared his story of launching Apple and then having it ripped from his arms.
Additional Legacy -- His final admonition to follow our hearts, using our heads, that Friday evening in LA, immediately inspired me to launch YEO (now EO), which became a reality the following year and is now celebrating its 25th anniversary next year. Steve, who single-handedly made being young and being an entrepreneur a legitimate career path, not only changed industries through his work, but led an entrepreneurial revolution through his example. This is an important, and never mentioned, legacy for which Steve also deserves credit.
This Weekend -- I'm going to gather my four children around my wife's Mac and we're going to re-watch Steve's Stanford Commencement Address -- still the most powerful entrepreneurial speech ever given. I'll explain to my children that it was Steve's commencement address (and something Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame showed me) that directly led to our family trip around the world and subsequent move to Barcelona. I'll remind them that there is no reason not to follow your heart.
Head and Heart Tension -- curiously, there was a headline my "head" wanted me to write, but my heart told me to give it some time. Or is it my "heart" telling me to write what I really want to say, but my "head" -- external expectations, fear of embarrassment, thinking I might lose some of you as readers -- that kept me from doing it. And maybe it is just a timing issue -- possibly in a month or so I'll come clean. Anyway, this head/heart thing can be tricky at times.
Last -- Steve's passing immediately took me back almost two decades to the moment I heard that my dear friend, Jeff Anguil, had died of brain cancer at age 29. Jeff, a participant in the first MIT "Birthing of Giants" program and the first YEO forum organized by Gregg Stemm (my perennial VP in building YEO), ran a successful business that still thrives today, led by his brother and sister. Slated to be the next International President of YEO at the time (and we all thought President of the US at some point!), he left us way too soon. Jeff, I still think of you -- and it's for you, at this moment of Steve's death, that I shed a tear.
There is no reason not to follow your heart...
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"...out-learning the competition" HEADLINES:
Attention YPOers -- late notice, but one additional team spot has opened up for YPO International's offering of "Making the Rockefeller Habits Rock" 2.5 day intensive workshop with Verne Harnish - October 27 - 29, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, Chandler, AZ. Email the Day Chair Steve Sansom if interested.
Fans of Darren Hardy -- Author of my favorite "habit-changing" book, The Compound Effect, Darren, publisher of Success Magazine, impressed our Fortune Leadership Summit audience with his no-nonsense approach to making small behavior/habit changes that really stick. For some reason, when you read his book, unlike dozens of others I've read, it actually makes you develop new and better habits. He wants to give away 1000 books to young people and needs your help.
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