This week I watched the movie with Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs. I’ve read Walter Isaacson’s biography of his life a couple of times. Without question, Steve Jobs was one of the most successful CEOs in terms of building a company we’ve seen. Was he the best lied? No he wasn’t. Was he the most personable? No he wasn’t. Was he the most focused? Yes he was. This helped fuel his success at Apple. He was certainly a smart, persistent and ambitious individual. One of the things

Albert Einstein walked everywhere he went. He said that walking helped him think. Steve Jobs took walks every day. Even right up until the end of his life, Jobs walked regularly. In a recent interview, his best friend, Larry Ellison said they walked every time he visited Steve, throughout their entire friendship. The only difference was, toward the end of his life, the walks got shorter and shorter. Exercise has been shown to release Endorphins, chemicals which get released i

Being an entrepreneur or executive is not easy, especially when it comes to focusing on the important and consistently executing. Here’s a strategy you can use: Make your schedule before you start. Don’t deviate. Don’t let anxiety creep in. Don’t allow setbacks to throw you off track. Don’t check email unless it’s on your schedule. Don’t take a nap. You’ve experienced getting into this rut before. Once you deviate from your schedule the first time, you train your brain that i

Do things your future self will thank you for. We have all experienced it. The woulda-coulda-shoulda feeling of thinking how we should have made different choices than we did. Wishing we would have had a different outcome than the one we are experiencing. I should have paid more attention to my health. I could have spent more time with a certain friend.I would have done this differently if I had known more. The fact is, you can pay more attention to your health. I can spend m

The hard part is not coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is not being creative or innovative. The hard part is actually executing the idea you thought of. The problem typically is we perceive the result as the big mountain we have to climb. The big plate has so much on it, we can’t see ourselves eating it all. We totally misjudge the exponential of time and effort applied. Effort applied over time equals great amounts. If we make somethin

Several years ago, Jack Trout and Al Reis published “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind”. This quickly became the seminal work on strategy positioning for brands in businesses. Trout and Reis flipped the script from how the seller, creator and manufacturer viewed the product, service or company to the viewpoint of how it was perceived by the buyer to be of the utmost importance. Like more expertly written works, the book won’t tell you HOW but really focuses on the importa

What is average? If you listen to any media newscast or read any news article, you will notice they will more of than not communicate statistics in averages and percentages. Besides leading you to settling for less than you should, averages can be deceiving. For instance, would you attempt to walk across a river which is on average four feet deep? This river might be shallow for some stretches but it also might be 20 feet deep in the middle. Dealing in averages is a risky pro

How do we keep a sharp focus? Focus is the blade you must sharpen to help you cut through the distractions and clutter you face daily to keep yourself performing at a high performance level. Continuing to exercise your focus like you would exercise a muscle builds your ability to keep your focus sharper longer. You have probably heard the example of how the Sun’s power gently warms the Earth with it’s heat, but if you apply a magnifying glass to that energy, you can burn pape

Some people measure the success of their day by how much they get accomplished. In other words, by sheer volume. As is being super busy equals being super productive. Effective people measure the success of their day by the quality of what gets accomplished. Their measure of success is how effectively what they did moved the needle of the company or their goals forward. Research has shown multitasking results in mediocre outcomes. By putting too little attention on too many t

Every human being has a deep need for appreciation. We are at our best when we feel our work is connected to our purpose for being alive and we get an extra jolt when the results of that purposeful work is celebrated. Celebrated by others, celebrated by our organizations, even celebrated in some way by ourselves. Yet, many companies struggle with the idea of having fun at work. I think the mistake we make in this is we want to buy creatively designed trinkets with colored bla