“It better be worth it.” – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs lifts us.  He leads by example and challenges us to see a better world and lead a better life.

He has an aura and a way of engaging you in an inspiring way.  Whether it’s on the stage or in the halls of Apple, people feel Steve Job’s presence.

Through a blend of beauty and engineering, Steve Jobs changes the way technology changes our lives.

In a relentless pursuit of simplicity, excellence, and passion, Steve Jobs is Arete in action.   He lives his values, and he lives life on his terms, and he challenges us to do the same.

When it comes to innovation and excellence, Steve Jobs raises the bar for himself and for others, while pushing the envelope of what’s possible.  He moves the ball forward by asking the tough questions,  exercising extreme focus, and baking brilliance and beauty into a way of living and leading.

Steve Jobs has continuously blurred the lines between work and life, just the same way he’s blurred the line between art and engineering.

25 Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs
Jobs has paved a powerful path of innovation, excellence, passion, and prosperity and has modeled a way of leadership that’s all his own.  Here are some of the key lessons we learn from his journey:

1. Beginners don’t have baggage. The lightness of a beginner frees up creativity.  Steve says, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
2. Be bold. Life’s brief, then you’re gone.  Steve says, “Life is brief, and then you die, you know?”
3. Be what’s next.  Don’t chase after what you missed.  Instead, figure out what the next big thing.  Steve says, “If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”
4. Design by committee doesn’t work.   You can’t arbitrate your way into a great design.  Take it from Jobs, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
5. Design is more than veneer. Design is a multi-layered thing.  It’s a lot more than just veneer.  Steve says, “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
6. Don’t live someone else’s life. Live YOUR life.  Steve says, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
7. Drive to do great things.  It’s your ambition, passion, and drive that will take you places you never dreamed possible.  Don’t worry about impressing others.  Impress yourself.
8. Excellence is a way of life Steve finds the art in life and the beauty in engineering.  He sets a higher bar.  Steve says, “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”  Jobs also says, “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.”
9. Get out of the way for the moving force. The ones doing the work are the moving force. Steve says, “The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”
10. If they fall in love with the company, everything else takes care of itself.  The real secret to taking care of the company is hiring people that fall in love with the company.  Steve says, “When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”
11. It better be worth it. If you’re going to put your life force into it, then the journey has to be worth it.  Steve says, “And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
12. It’s not the money.  It’s the impact.   Make people’s lives better.  Leave the world a better place.  Steve says, “I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”  Jobs also says, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
13. It’s the crazy ones who change the world. Think differently.  Don’t be afraid to be different. It’s the crazy ones who change the world.  The crazy ones change the world. The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world, are the ones who do it. It’ not crazy, it’s genius.
14. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.  You don’t buy your way through innovation.  Innovation is a by-product of leading great people.  Steve says, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
15. Make people great.  It’s tough love.  Steve says, “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”
16. Perseverance pays off.   Steve says, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
17. Put your heart and soul into it.  Don’t just go through the motions.  If it’s really worth doing, then it’s worth doing really well.  Steve says, “I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time. I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.”
18. Pick your priorities carefully.   Say no to the hundred other good ideas.  Steve says, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
19. Simplicity wins. It’s about power and simplicity.  Steve says, ““We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.”
20. Talent is a huge multiplier. In the book, The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation , Jay Elliot and William Simon write that Steve Jobs would say, “great engineers are a huge multiplier.” They also write that a lesson they learned from Steve is, “One of the greatest things about finding good people is that they become your best recruiters. They are the people most likely to know others who have the same values and sense of style that you and they themselves do.”
21. Take responsibility for the complete user experience. Don’t take a piecemeal approach to user experience.  It’s not about a bunch of beautiful parts …it’s about the end-to-end experience.  Steve says, “Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.”
22. What you don’t do defines you as much as what you do. Steve says, “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”  In the article, “Think Different”: The Ad Campaign that Restored Apple’s Reputation, Tom Hormby writes, “Amelio had reduced 350 projects to 50, and Jobs cut that number down to 10. He turned Apple’s convoluted (and often overlapping) product line into a simple product matrix.”
23. You have nothing to lose. Follow your heart.   Avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  Steve says, “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.”
24. You just might be right, even if nobody listens to you. Just because nobody listens to you doesn’t mean you’re wrong.  Steve says, “You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”
25. Your brand is your most valuable asset.  It’s what you stand for.  It’s the attributes that people think of or feel when they think of you.  It’s the perception and the aura.  Steve says, “Our brand is the most – or at least one of the most – valuable things we have going for us now.”

The “Think Different” Ad Campaign
Steve Jobs is often associated with quotes from the free-verse poem, Heres’ to the Crazy Ones, by Craig Tanimoto.  The poem was narrated by Richard Dreyfus as part of an ad campaign to revive Apple’s reputation.  It starts off …

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently …”

For a great story about this ad campaign, see “Think Different”: The Ad Campaign that Restored Apple’s Reputation.

Resources and Additional Information

My Related Posts

• Lessons Learned from Guy Kawasaki

Photo by Tom Coates.

“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” — Robert H. Schuller

Editor’s note:  This is a guest post from Neil Senturia on his lessons learned as an entrepreneur.  Neil is the current CEO of Blackbird Ventures and the author of I’m There For You, Baby; The Entrepreneur s Guide to the Galaxy . As an entrepreneur with more than 25 years of diverse entrepreneurial experience, Neil has re-invented himself several times in his relentless pursuit of entrepreneurial success.  Without further ado, here’s Neil …

To be successful at your start-up, you need to get the first 10 things right. In other words, you need to bat .1000 on the first 10 decisions. After that, you can bat .400, and in the aggregate, you can still make a strong company and a lot of money.

So, when I teach this concept to students at UC San Diego and San Diego State, they always raise their hands and ask politely, “OK, so what are they?”

My answer infuriates them: “They are different every time. But you still need to bat .1000. The first 10 are the most important, they cannot be finessed or nuanced, they need to be dead on, rock solid, concrete and correct.”

Embrace Ambiguity

So here is one rule that is constant. The entrepreneur must not only tolerate ambiguity but in fact they should embrace it. The willingness to not know what you need to know informs the decision- making effort—for example, the effort to define the business model and the product.

You would think that product and business model are what you have before you start the company but in fact, what you have is a quarter-baked idea, based on some half-baked assumptions that rely on some raw opinions.

Step One is Taking the Effort to Find Out What You Don’t Know

The concept of ambiguity implies that you are not sure what the business really looks like. Only 20% of companies actually end up doing what they think they set out to do on day one– the day they finished writing the business plan or the infamous 13 slide power point with its attendant hockey stick and the verb “we will.”

“Will” is a powerful word. You think the venture capitalist wants you to make a presentation with answers, and what I now strongly believe is that presentation should mostly have questions. I am not being cute. What I am suggesting is that step one of the start-up is the effort to find out what you don’t know.

This is the embrace of ambiguity. This is the willingness to change your mind, your plan, and yes, your underwear.

Changing Your Mind and Your Plan is a Good Thing

Currently, I am the CEO of a start-up in the alternative energy space (www.oberonfuels.com), and I recently was speaking with one of our key investors. I told him that we were going to make DME instead of gasoline. The various twists and spins and reasons are not relevant.

What is interesting is that one of our key investors was happy with the switch. Another one said, “You have changed your plan. You told us one thing, and now you are telling us another.”

Now I viewed changing my mind and our plan as a good thing. It might save you guys $25 million while some of our investors thought that changing your mind indicated weakness, vacillation, uncertainty, confusion.

The entrepreneurial spirit demands that you be willing to tack and jibe and then tack back (I race sailboats) because things change, and you are always looking for the right wind on the right side of the course with the right pressure. If you fear reprisal when you change your mind or your course, then you will not get one of the first 10 things right and you will not bat .1000.

When You Make a Big Mistake, Fix It

Here is another example. Recently I built a new house, and the day before they were going to pour the footings for the house, I realized that I had made a mistake– a big one. I had miscalculated the dimensions. I had two choices– pour anyway since the concrete trucks were in front of the house or stop the presses and send everyone home and fix it.

I picked the second option. It cost me seven months and some serious money. But I have been living in this house for five years, and immodestly I would say it is quite lovely. The proportions are now correct.

Wade Through the Ambiguity

It is mandatory to seek the correct answer and to be willing to wade through the ambiguity of indecision and the fog of revenue calculations and the mist of customer adoption.

Because once the footings are poured, the damn thing is cast in concrete.

Ambiguity is your friend. Love it and embrace it.

Editor’s note:  This is a guest post from Jonathan Figaro on lessons learned in life.  Jonathan is the author of the blog, TheDropOutKid.com.  If there’s one thing we all have in common, it’s that we each have to figure out the game of life.  Without further ado, here’s Jonathan on lessons learned in life …

Lesson 1 – Live your own life.

So many people are told how to live their lives. Every book in self help, self improvement or personal advancement seems to be about how to make you think and act differently. With aspects such as this combined with all the advertisements telling you who to be and how to act, it’s no wonder why so many people are confused. I was confused also and here is what I did. I asked myself what life I wanted to live. It became very detailed and evolved during the past few years. I then asked myself, whether I was willing to pay the price for what I want.  Yes, I was willing to pay the price, and then I started to work towards it even though I didn’t know exactly how to go about it.  Along the way, I learned that the how doesn’t matter when your desire to achieve is greater than your doubt.

Lesson 2 – Believe in yourself.

We all have heard this cliché. None the less, this is the starting point of all successes. One of the hardest things for me to overcome was to believe that I could become a New York Times Best Selling author (e-book on the way guys).  I’ve pushed my doubt aside and focused on what I want to achieve. I’m still learning and growing but success starts with a  belief.  Start to believe in yours.

Lesson 3 – Love yourself and all that mushy stuff.

This is not something I enjoy talking about. I guess I’m too * manly for this* but the premise is, if you don’t love yourself no one else will. In my younger days (I’m only 22 now…LOL) I sought appreciation in all those around me.  I learned you have to love yourself if you want to give it away.

Lesson 4. Time is precious.

While I was writing my e-book, I did one thing which I kind of regret now.  I isolated myself from the rest of the world for long periods of time, at a clip. All I wanted to do was create my masterpiece.  I regret all the times that I skipped the chances for get-togethers and events. My lesson here is, enjoy the moment, balance out your life, and spend your time where it’s precious.  There are some things money just can’t buy.

Lesson 5. Don’t lose the one that cares about you the most.

We all have stories of the one that got away.  I had my chance and I lost it.  She would call me even when I didn’t have a dime to my name.  I hear she’s married now and doing very well for herself.   My lesson here is, don’t get so involved in your dreams that you forget about those who care about you the most.

Lesson 6. Family first.

I didn’t always have friends and family high on my priorities.  I used my business as a scape goat and I spend my time in a forest of self-deceit.  Eventually I learned that money, cars, and fame mean nothing, compared to friends and family. My first priority now is to take care of my family. It’s all too easy to fall for the trap of chasing desires and obsessions. only to look back and ask, where did all your precious time go?   Then the next thing you know, you lose somebody close to you and life starts to hit you a bit harder than just corporate documents and copy righting expenses. I learned success is about being happy and successful, but also keeping close ties with your friends and family. No matter how hard you work or how big you get,  keep your friends close, and family closer.

Lesson 7. Close yourself off from the world.

We all need time to reflect. I used to run around looking for peace and seeking happiness in the lips of my girlfriend, or hanging with my homies. Then I started to meditate and my world began to change. My thoughts began to flow in a better way.  I was no longer stressed.   My writing was liberated and I felt like a Zen master, in control of my destiny, but rolling with the punches. I found another route to peace and self-mastery, from the inside out.

Lesson 8. Live every day like it’s your last.

I remember there was this girl I liked a lot.  It felt almost too good to be true.  When I had the chance to kiss her, fear held me back.  After that, she didn’t talk to me anymore.  She ended up thinking I didn’t like her.  To this day, I’ve regretted how I let fear of rejection hold me back.

I’ve played these questions over in my mind …

1. What if she was the one for me? And now she’s gone forever?
2. What if she passed away and I never got to tell her how much I still love her?
3. What if she could be my wife?

Life is short.  We have to take our chances.  You know the saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Well it’s true.  My lesson here is … Live everyday like it is your last.  Take hold of every opportunity and make it count.  Sure you’ll make mistakes along the way, but it’s the chances that you let slip through your fingers that you’ll regret the most.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Marie Forleo on her lessons learned in life. Marie is a best-selling author, speaker, online-entrepreneur, Nike Athlete and Master Trainer, fitness personality, dancer, and choreographer. Her style is a compelling combo of humor, wit and wisdom, and she delivers her insight in a down to earth way. In fact, Tony Robbins interviewed Marie as part of his DVD series on the world’s leading internet marketing experts.

Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs live rich, happy, and hot. She’s all about empowering women with tools to create financial, spiritual, and emotional wealth through entrepreneurship.

What I like about Marie is that her approach is more holistic. It’s about getting results across the board, and living with zest.  She’s a modern day Renaissance Man (… er, Renaissance Woman), and pushes the bounds of life possibilities.

While we all have to figure out our own recipes for winning in life, we can draw from the lessons of others.  Without further ado, here is Marie …

Here are the top eight lessons I’ve learned.

Lesson #1. Everything is figure-outable.
Do you ever find yourself with a genius idea, but paralyzed by thought “Yeah, but I don’t know how to do that…” Here’s the deal. 99% of what you need to do to grow your business or grow your life requires you do something you’ve never done before. It’s the beautiful common denominator of self-evolution.

That’s why everything is figure-outable is my default mantra. If I don’t know how to do something, I’m pretty sure there’s someone else on the planet who does. I Google. I pick up the phone. I ask for help from everyone I know.

Never before has such vast knowledge and deep know-how been so readily available, 24/7 and largely, for free. Trust me when I say if you can dream it, you can make it happen.

Lesson #2. Build at your own pace.
Don’t get seduced by the “overnight” success stories. Most of them are total B.S. My financial and business success has grown slowly, steadily and organically over time. I’m not willing to sacrifice my quality of life to impress people I’ll never meet with “how fast” I can go. Discover your own rhythm.

Lessons #3. Never do anything ‘just for the money.’
Do it to make a difference. Do it because your soul says so. Do it because you love it so much that you’d do it for free if you could.

Either love what you do whole-heartedly or don’t do it all. Anything else is madness. Trust me when I say nothing will cost you more in terms of spiritual and financial wealth than saying yes to sh*t you really don’t want to do.

The exception here is when you’re first starting to build your business. Like me, you may need anywhere between 1-4 jobs to pay your bills while you get your business up and running. But love the bejesus out of your job/s every single second you’re there. Why? Because it’s funding your dreams and more importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

Lesson #4. Go pro or go home.
This idea is from Steven Pressfield’s insanely inspiring book, The War of Art. In any given moment, you’re either either operating like an amateur or a pro.

An amateur does things half-assed. She treats her business like a hobby. She doesn’t suit up and show up every day – no matter what. She lets her bullshit (albeit very seductive) thoughts like, “This will never work….no one cares what I have to say anyway. It’s all been done before…” stop her dead in her tracks for days, weeks and months.

A pro, on the other hand, does everything with excellence. She treats her business with dedication and respect. She’s playing to win: financially, spiritually and emotionally. She, of course, hears the same fear-based, BS thoughts in her head but says, “Thanks for sharing,” and then gets back to work.

Unlike many things in life, going pro is something completely within our control. It’s an attitude. A way of being. A daily and sacred soul practice. And when you practice long enough, it becomes a way of life.

Lesson #5. There is no one-size fits all system.
I once heard Seth Godin say, “The only thing successful people have in common is that they’re successful.” Too many of us get lost in someone else’s blueprint or system. Leverage the experience and wisdom of others, but chart your own course.

Lesson #6. More sex = more success.
I don’t have research to back this up. I speak from my experience and those of hundreds of women I’ve worked with. When the sex is regular, success flows.

Sadly, many of us high achieving women are getting this sex thing all wrong. The busier and more stressed we get, the less we want to have sex and consequently the more off balance, burned-out and disconnected from our genius we become.

Regular sex unleashes your full creative power. It syncs you up with your personal wellspring of inspiration, insight and pure money-making magic.

Lesson #7. Comparison kills.
Comparison is creative kryptonite and a huge time-suck. If you really want to ensure you accomplish nothing and simultaneously, feel like utter crap for days, spend most of your time looking around at other people’s stuff.

No other person ever has, or ever will, have the unique blend of talents, strengths and perspective that YOU have. Like a snowflake, you are utterly unique. Don’t spend time comparing yourself to others. Stay in your own game.

Lesson #8. Marketing is love.
Love = connection, compassion, honesty, understanding and generosity. When you love your clients, marketing becomes a vehicle to express that love in such a way that you inspire them to action. Action that ultimately, is in their best interest. Great marketing leads us. It show us the way to change, grow and become who we ultimately want to be.

“Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.” – Bill Gates

Passion, intensity, and tenacity.   That’s one way to describe Bill Gates.

When I think back to why I joined Microsoft, a very big reason was Bill Gates.  Here was a guy with all the money in the world, yet he showed up every day to change the world.  Rather than just retire and play with his money, he focuses his time, energy, and resources on making a better world.

He fights the good fight to leave the world a better place than he found it, and he’s a world-wide giver of epic proportions.  In fact, he and Warren Buffet joined forces to drive  a campaign to encourage the wealthiest people to give most of their money to philanthropic causes (see The Giving Pledge.)

It’s one thing to be smart.  It’s another thing to be resourceful.  It’s yet another thing to get results.  Bill Gates is a visionary that makes things happen by creating systems bigger than himself and inspiring people to join him on epic adventures to change the world.  He’s not a seeker of fame or a seeker of fortune, although he has both.  He’s a maker of impact.   Technology is his way, and reducing inequities in the world is his game.

Who better to learn some lessons for life, than from a master of the game of life?  With that in mind, let’s see what lessons we can borrow from Bill Gates’ playbook.

25 Lessons Learned from Bill Gates
Bill is full of lessons and insights.  Here are 25 plays we can take from the pages of his playbook:

1. Change the world, or go home. There is a little sign on many doors at Microsoft.  It features the blue monster and it reads:  “Change the world, or go home.”  Not only does that phrase capture the spirit of thousands of Softies … it speaks to the way Bill Gates drives his life.  He lives to build a better world, whether it’s one version, one platform, one system, one idea, one cause, one innovation at a time.  The beauty is, he knows how to scale and amplify his impact in powerful ways – he’s on top of his game.
2. Blaze the trail.  The path isn’t always there.  Sometimes you have to make it.  Sometimes people will think you’re crazy.   Sometimes you are just ahead of the curve.  it’s a dream for a reason, and sometimes making your dreams happen takes going out on a limb and giving your all for what you believe in.  Bill Gates believed that the personal computer was the future and that there should be one on every desktop and in the living room and it would change the way we work and how we live in unimaginable ways.
3. Make an impact.   Drive from impact.  Bill Gates makes choices based on impact.  Whether it’s following his passion or investing in a cause, he drives from making impact.  He doesn’t just do things because he can.  He does things because they matter and he can make them scale.
4. Humanities greatest advances are the ones that level the playing field.  Bill Gates has a strong belief that “All lives have equal value.” Help those that can’t help themselves.   Everybody deserves a chance at their best life.  Lift the underdogs of the world up.  In his speech at Harvard, Bill says, “Taking a look back, one big reqret is, I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world.  The appalling disparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemned millions of people to the lives of despair.  I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas and economics, and politics.  I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.  But humanities greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.”
5. A sense of urgency. The world changes fast.  The market changes faster.  Bill says, “In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.”
6. The market doesn’t always drive the right things.  In one of his powerful TED talks, Bill says, “There are some very important problems that don’t get worked on naturally.  That is the market does not drive the scientists, the communicators, the thinkers, the government to do the right things.  And only by paying attention to these things, and having brilliant people who care and draw other people in, can we make as much progress as we need to.” Watch TED – Bill Gates on Mosquitos, Malaria, and Education.
7. Live your values.  When you let the world know what you’re about, you become a lightening rod and you attract people with the same values.  At Microsoft, Bill Gates attracted people with a passion for changing the world and joining him on a journey to help create better lives through technology and innovation.  On the philanthropy side, Gates connects with U2’s Bono beyond the music when it comes to sharing their global mission to end poverty, disease, and indifference.  In 2005, TIME named Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates, “Persons of the Year” for their humanitarian work.  On Bill Gate’s 54′th birthday, Bono had this to say before leading the crowd in Happy Birthday:  “Without him, and without his business, we just wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s his birthday today. Bill Gates is in the house.” Watch Bono Wishes Bill Gates a Happy Birthday.
8. Your best gets better with the right people.  Don’t go it alone.   You’re better when you’ve got the right people around you.  Bill Gates built a culture of the best and brightest and was good at convincing his friends, such as Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer to join him on his adventures.  By surrounding himself with smart people, Bill was able to scale.  He also had a sounding board for ideas.  More importantly, ideas could get better from the combined smarts and perspectives.  Bill also knows how to complement his strengths by having the right people around that make up for his weaknesses.
9. Innovation is the heart and soul of a business.   It’s about bringing ideas to market and applying research.  If you don’t innovate you die.  The world keeps changing.  To stay ahead of the game, or even to stay in the game, you have to keep innovating: innovate in your products, innovate in your process, innovate in the markets, etc.  Bill Gates uses innovation as a way to drive impact whether it’s shaping software or saving the planet.
10. Be the platform.  Be the platform people can build on.  See the role that you play in building something that let’s other people build on what you do best.
11. Build a better system.  Don’t just solve a one-off problem.  Make the solution systematic and make it repeatable.  Find, create, or leverage systems.  There is always a system, whether it’s at the micro-level or the macro level.  The system has inputs and outputs, cycles, and levers.  Whether you’re creating the system or leveraging the system, you’re more effective when you realize that there is a system.
12. Build an ecosystem.  There are systems and ecosystems all around us.  Bill says, “Personal computing today is a rich ecosystem encompassing massive PC-based data centers, notebook and Tablet PCs, handheld devices, and smart cell phones. It has expanded from the desktop and the data center to wherever people need it — at their desks, in a meeting, on the road or even in the air.”  On creating partners for your ecosystem, Bill says, “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.”
13. Know how to turn the crank.  Take action.  Execute.  The problem isn’t a shortage of ideas, it’s execution.  Lots of people have ideas.  There is an overload of ideas.  The real gap is bringing ideas to market in a way that matters.  The secret sauce is ruthless prioritization of the ideas that make the most impact.
14. Take Care of Your People. Bill Gates says, “Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.” He set a powerful example of taking care of employees, from private offices for developers to creating a workplace of extreme empowerment, engagement, and passion.
15. Divide and conquer the problem.   There is always a way to chunk up the problem and prioritize more effectively.  Whether it’s slicing the problem into versions over time, or simply taking the most meaningful or highest ROI (Return On Investment) pieces of the problem and tackling them first, you can make progress on the worst of problems or the best of opportunities.  No problem withstands sustained, focused effort that learns and improves over time.
16. Improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.  One of Bill’s stories during his speech at Harvard is how he learned this lesson: “Radcliff was a great place to live.  There were more women up there and most of the guys were mad science types.  The combination offered me the best odds if you know what I mean.”
17. You don’t have to be first to win.  Bill says, “Microsoft has had its success by doing low-cost products and constantly improving those products and we’ve really redefined the IT industry to be something that’s about a tool for individuals.”
18. The toughest feedback to hear, is the feedback you need the most.  You get better by listening to your toughest critics.  Your greatest source of growth can come from the people that will tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear.  Bill says, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill also says, “You’ve got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you’re doing wrong.”
19. Business and technology go hand in hand.  Bill says, “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” We’re truly living a knowledge worker world, where information technology is front and center.  Bill says, “It’s pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We’re finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle.”
20. Frame the problem.   Bill says, “I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.” Framing a problem is simply how you look at a problem, just like how you frame a picture.  It’s about choosing what to focus on, what’s in and what’s out.  When you frame the problem, you bound it.  Framing also helps you get a better perspective on the problem, as well as share the problem more effectively with others.  Some questions to help frame a problem include: Who’s the customer? What are their needs and priorities? What’s happening in the market? What are competitors doing? What are our options for responding?  How do we differentiate? How is technology changing and what possibilities does it offer our customers? What are the priorities for our business?   See How To Think Like Bill Gates.
21. Celebrate success, but learn from failure.  Don’t repeat the same mistakes and don’t wallow in your wins.  Bill says, ““It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
22. Technology is just a tool.  Don’t lose sight of the end in mind or the difference that makes the difference.  Bill says, “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”
23. Don’t automate inefficiency.  Make sure something actually makes sense to automate, otherwise you compound the problem.  Bill says, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
24. Empower people.  Put the right information into the hands of the people that can make the most of it.  Bill says, ““The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what’s going on so they can do a lot more than they’ve done in the past.”
25. Go digital.  Connect people, process, and technology.  Create a digital landscape or a virtual world to reduce friction and to create new possibilities.  Bill says, ““One of the wonderful things about the information highway is that virtual equity is far easier to achieve than real-world equity…We are all created equal in the virtual world and we can use this equality to help address some of the sociological problems that society has yet to solve in the physical world.”

Top 10 Bill Gates’ Quotes
Here are my top 10 favorite Bill Gates’ quotes:

1. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.“
2. “If you give people tools, and they use their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”
3. “If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions they will be moved to act.”
4. “In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen.”
5. “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”
6. “Often you have to rely on intuition.”
7. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
8. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
9. “You’ve got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you’re doing wrong.”
10. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Quotes by Bill Gates
Here is an extended list of useful or interesting quotes by Bill Gates:

1. “Analytical software enables you to shift human resources from rote data collection to value-added customer service and support where the human touch makes a profound difference.”
2. “At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top – I’m afraid that’s not quite right.”
3. “Capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it’s really let us down.”
4. “Every day we’re saying, ‘How can we keep this customer happy?’ How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this’, because if we don’t, somebody else will.”
5. “Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.”
6. “I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.”
7. “I do think this next century, hopefully, will be about a more global view. Where you don’t just think, yes my country is doing well, but you think about the world at large.”
8. “I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact.”
9. “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”
10. “I think it`s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we`ve ever created. They`re tools of communication, they`re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.”
11. “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.”
12. “If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”
13. “If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”
14. “I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.”
15. “In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.”
16. “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.”
17. “Instead of buying airplanes and playing around like some of our competitors, we’ve rolled almost everything back into the company.”
18. “Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.”
19. “It’s pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We’re finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle.”
20. “Microsoft has had its success by doing low-cost products and constantly improving those products and we’ve really redefined the IT industry to be something that’s about a tool for individuals.“
21. “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”
22. “One of the wonderful things about the information highway is that virtual equity is far easier to achieve than real-world equity…We are all created equal in the virtual world and we can use this equality to help address some of the sociological problems that society has yet to solve in the physical world.”
23. “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.”
24. “Patience is a key element of success.”
25. “Personal computing today is a rich ecosystem encompassing massive PC-based data centers, notebook and Tablet PCs, handheld devices, and smart cell phones. It has expanded from the desktop and the data center to wherever people need it  — at their desks, in a meeting, on the road or even in the air.”
26. “Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering. When you finally get done and get to appreciate what you have done it is like a part of yourself that you`ve put together. I think a lot of the people here feel that way.”
27. “Smart is an elusive concept. There’s a certain sharpness, an ability to absorb new facts. To ask an insightful question. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective.”
28. “Step back, build a better system, make sure that the government money gets to the people who deserve it.”
29. “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”
30. “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
31. “The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn`t get bigger or heavier.”
32. “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”
33. “The Internet will help achieve “friction free capitalism” by putting buyer and seller in direct contact and providing more information to both about each other.”
34. “The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what’s going on so they can do a lot more than they’ve done in the past.”
35. “This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.”
36. “This is a very exciting time in the world of information. It`s not just that the personal computer has come along as a great tool. The whole pace of business is moving faster. Globalization is forcing companies to do things in new ways.”
37. “Until we’re educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.”
38. “Virtually every company will be going out and empowering their workers with a certain set of tools, and the big difference in how much value is received from that will be how much the company steps back and really thinks through their business processes … thinking through how their business can change, how their project management, their customer feedback, and their planning cycles can be quite different than they ever were before.”
39. “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
40. “We are always saying to ourself, ‘We have to innovate. We got to come up with that breakthrough.’ In fact, the way software works, so long as you are using your existing software, you don’t pay us anything at all. So we’re only paid for breakthroughs.”
41. “We don’t have the user centricity, until we understand context, which is way beyond presence.  Presence is the most trivial notion, just, ‘am I on this device or not’ — it doesn’t say ‘am I meeting with something, am I focused on writing something.”
42. “We’re only at the beginning of what we have to do here.”
43. “When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.”

The Opportunity Bill Gave Us at Microsoft
On Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer reminded us of the opportunity Bill gave us:

“Every one of us has had an opportunity to realize our own potential: we’ve had a chance to contribute to society … we’ve had a chance to develop and grow as professionals … we’ve had a chance to work with the best and the brightest in the world … we’ve had a chance to prosper personally … we’ve been given an enormous, enormous opportunity … and Bill gave us that opportunity.”

Watch the video, Bill Gates’ Last Day at Microsoft.

Values
You can learn a lot about someone or a company by their values.  The values of a company reflect the leadership.  Here are the values and guiding principles that can help you see a little more about Bill.

Microsoft Values

• Integrity and honesty.
• Passion for customers, partners, and technology.
• Open and respectful with others and dedicated to making them better.
• Willingness to take on big challenges and see them through.
• Self-critical, questioning, and committed to personal excellence and self-improvement.
• Accountable for commitments, results, and quality to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees.

Guiding Principles of the Gates Foundation

• Guiding Principle #1: This is a family foundation driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family.
• Guiding Principle #2: Philanthropy plays an important but limited role.
• Guiding Principle #3: Science and technology have great potential to improve lives around the world.
• Guiding Principle #4: We are funders and shapers—we rely on others to act and implement.
• Guiding Principle #5: Our focus is clear—and limited—and prioritizes some of the most neglected issues.
• Guiding Principle #6: We identify a specific point of intervention and apply our efforts against a theory of change.
• Guiding Principle #7: We take risks, make big bets, and move with urgency. We are in it for the long haul.
• Guiding Principle #8: We advocate—vigorously but responsibly—in our areas of focus.
• Guiding Principle #9: We must be humble and mindful in our actions and words. We seek and heed the counsel of outside voices.
• Guiding Principle #10: We treat our grantees as valued partners, and we treat the ultimate beneficiaries of our work with respect.
• Guiding Principle #11: Delivering results with the resources we have been given is of the utmost importance—and we seek and share information about those results.
• Guiding Principle #12: We demand ethical behavior of ourselves.
• Guiding Principle #13: We treat each other as valued colleagues.
• Guiding Principle #14: Meeting our mission—to increase opportunity and equity for those most in need—requires great stewardship of the money we have available.
• Guiding Principle #15: We leave room for growth and change.

Bill Gates 12 Rules
Bill Gates identified 12 rules for managers to master the digital universe:

1. Insist that communication flow through e-mail
2. Study sales data online to share insights easily
   3. Shift knowledge workers into high-level thinking
3. Use digital tools to create virtual teams
4. Convert every paper process to a digital process
5. Use digital tools to eliminate single-task jobs
6. Create a digital feedback loop
7. Use digital systems to route customer complaints immediately
8. Use digital communication to redefine boundaries
9. Transform every business process into just-in-time delivery
10. Use digital delivery to eliminate the middle man
11. Use digital tools to help customers solve problems for themselves

You can read about each of these rules at Bill Gate’s New Rules (Time.com)

Bill Gates’ 11 Rules of Life
There is a list of rules for life that you don’t learn in school that often gets attributed to Bill Gates:

• Rule 1: Life is not fair
• Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem.
• Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
• Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
• Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
• Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
• Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now.
• Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.
• Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters.
• Rule 10: Television is NOT real life.
• Rule 11: Be nice to nerds.

I think it’s worth clearing up that this list of life rules is not actually by Bill Gates.  The rules are actually a pared-down version from an article by Charles J. Sykes, that appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on September 19, 1996.  You can read about this at Bill Gates’ 11 Rules of Life.

Resources at a Glance
Here is a quick reference table for more information on Bill Gates:

Photo by Gobierno de Chile.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.com.  Here’s what I like about Pat — he goes above and beyond and he keeps things real.   I first stumbled across Pat while doing some research about really making a passive income online.  I think it’s a skill more people will need as the world we know changes under our feet.  As I read through Pat’s posts, it was clear that Pat lives and breathes his passion and he genuinely wants to help people succeed.  I like that … I like that a lot.

I also like Pat’s bio …  “I didn’t win the lottery, I don’t drive a fancy car, and I’m not a millionaire. What I do have is a beautiful wife, an awesome baby boy, a loving family, awesome friends, and a line of work that allows me to spend all of my time with them.” … Pat is leading an extraordinary life and loving it along the way and that is success in action.

I have to say, this is truly one of the most amazing posts I’ve read on how to make a living on the Web.  I’m blown away.  Rather than a step-by-step approach, it’s a set of timeless principles and patterns.  Pat has distilled an incredible set of insights that he’s learned from actually making money online and walking his talk.  Without further ado, here’s Pat on how to make a living on the Internet …

This post is not intended to be a step-by-step guide on how to make a living on the Internet. Think of it as a compendium of the lessons I’ve learned since starting a number of online businesses – lessons that I hope will be far more useful to you than any “system” I could possibly teach. The fact is that there are thousands of different business models one could choose from if you do want to make a living online, but it’s the core principles and motivations behind them that determine whether or not it will be successful and long-lasting, or just a waste of your time.

Lesson 1: Internet Business is Not For Everyone

This might seem like a weird first lesson to you, but it’s absolutely true – Internet business is not for everyone. Although I feel very fortunate to be living how I am today, working from home for yourself does have its drawbacks:

• You Make ALL of the Decisions: Yes, this is the very reason why many people begin to work for themselves – to become their own boss and not answer to anyone else, but people fail to realize that this involves making business decisions that before (working 9 to 5) you would never even have to expend energy to figure out. With things like taxes, legal matters and healthcare, it can be too overwhelming for some to handle.
• Your Schedule Isn’t Set in Stone: Again, this is exactly what you want, right? A flexible schedule with the ability to work when you want? Yes, but a lot of discipline needs to come along with it in order for this to work. One problem that many Internet entrepreneurs have, including myself at times, is having the discipline to stop working and enjoy life. There is always more work that can be done, and it’s really easy to just step into the home office or open up the laptop and continue working.
• It’s Harder to Get Into Work Mode: Along the same lines, there are many distractions at home and online that can stop an Internet entrepreneur from doing work that needs to be done. I’m sure you can think of a few yourself.
• No Co-Workers: Having co-workers to talk to and become friends with is probably what I miss most about working 9 to 5. Luckily, there are things like Twitter, Facebook and Skype that help me stay connected with people while working from home, but talking about Monday night’s football game isn’t quite the same anymore.

I do love working from home, don’t get me wrong, but its not exactly all fun and games. It may or may not be the right thing for you.

Lesson 2: Strive to Make the Internet a Better Place

With whatever you want to do online, if you’re not doing something that makes the Internet a better place – if you’re not creating something of value that people can appreciate and say, “This makes my life better”, then you’re not going to see any long-term success. I’ve experimented with a number of various methods to make money online, and what has always given me the best results and the most ROI for my time and money (not to mention what gives me the most fulfillment) are those projects and websites that actually help people – businesses that if for any reason were to disappear tomorrow, people would notice. My website at greenexamacademy.com, for example, helps people study for a small exam in the building and design industry. One day in 2009, my servers went down and my website was unavailable. That day, I remember receiving over 50 emails from people who were using my website asking me when it was going to be back up. This just shows the kind of value I was providing, which is a good reason why this particular business has consistently earned thousands of dollars for me each and every month for over two years.

Lesson 3: The Passive Income Business Model

As I mentioned before, there are several ways to make money online, but the business model that I’m about to share with you is the one that I use because of how much work is needed by me in order to make things run.

Here’s a flow chart of how things basically work, starting from the top: The driving force behind all of this is automation. As you can see, the only part of the equation that YOU are involved in is at the receiving end of a payment. Things can happen without you having to do anything, as long as it’s setup properly.

People can arrive to your website, purchase a product and have it automatically delivered to them without having to lift a finger. What’s nice about doing business online, especially today, is that there are so many different tools, services and resources available that make this passive income model possible. And, if there are tasks in your business that do need the human touch, you can easily find someone else to do those things for you, on the cheap. On my site at greenexamacademy.com, I sell eBook and audio study guides that I created to help people pass the LEED exam. I purposely choose to only sell digital products because I can use a service like e-junkie.com to accept payments and automatically deliver these electronic goods without having to take the time and worry about going to the post office or shipping and handling. Furthermore, because my business is online, my “store” is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and is open to the entire world. Just to give you an idea of what passive income can do for you, in March of 2009 I had worked a total of 8 hours the entire month. Most of my time was spent in Hawaii with my wife on our honeymoon and just settling into a new apartment. This month happened to also be my most profitable month ever, grossing $30,328.48. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you have businesses setup working for you, instead of the other way around. Obviously, however, you can’t take yourself totally out of the equation (since you may need to answer emails and deal with customer service), but you can get really close. As Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week says, “I am not a tollbooth through which anything needs to pass. I am more like a police officer on the side of the road who can step in if need be…” What’s nice about this business model is that it’s something that you can setup in your spare time and continue to have while working a 9 to 5 job if you want. Also, since things are mostly run on autopilot, you can use that extra time to do the things that you want, whether it’s travel the world, stay at home with the family, or even work on setting up new passive income streams.

Lesson 4: Take Action

In other words – just do it.

We all have business ideas (or ideas that will improve our existing businesses), but ideas mean nothing unless they are put into action. We can plan as much as we want, but planning is just that – a plan. It’s the doing that actually gets you somewhere. I consider myself pretty lucky that I was laid off. It wasn’t a good feeling, that’s for sure, but looking back, my lay off (and the terrible economy which made it virtually impossible to land another job in the architecture industry) is what forced me to take that action. I really had no choice, which is why I think I’m where I’m at today. It can be tough to take action when it’s not totally necessary, which is why I use the following “mind hacks” to make sure I get things done:

1. I always set a deadline. I find that I’m more focused when I work under pressure, and if I know something has to be done by a certain time, I’ll make sure that it happens. This goes for items both big and small.
2. I get others to hold me accountable. Sometimes, all this requires is announcing or telling people what I want to do. This forces me to take action because I don’t want to say I’ll do something and not follow through.

Lesson 5: Take BOLD Actions

To expand on lesson #4, not only should you take action, but you should take bold actions that will make a big difference. It’s like in golf. When you’re putting, if you swing your club and hit the ball but it never even reaches the hole, you’re not giving yourself a chance to sink the putt. It’s impossible. If you take a strong stroke and your ball rolls past the hole, then at least you gave yourself a chance to sink the putt. Another way to look at bold actions is to compare it to some advice I learned from Ramit Sethi of iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He says that in the personal finance game, it’s always better to go for “the big wins”. He explains that being frugal and saving money by brown bagging your lunch or cutting down the number of non-fat grande white chocolate mochas you drink is virtually pointless. Although you will save money little by little, you can have more money in your life by going for the “big wins” like finding the lowest interest rate, negotiating down the price of your next car, or even starting your own business, and you can even still enjoy your non-fat mocha whatsits. When I first started doing business online, I was making money through advertisements on my blog, but it was after spending two months writing my first eBook study guide that I saw my income skyrocket from $250 a month, to over $8,000.00 a month. Then, instead of working on small things for my business, I took another bold action and added an audio guide to my product line. $1400 for a voice talent and another month later I took that product live and I began to see upwards of $15,000 to $20,000 a month. Bold actions = big results.

Lesson 6: Stop Worrying About Being Perfect

I have worked with so many people who are starting online businesses who take forever to get things rolling because they want things to be perfect, and what happens is they end up missing out on valuable opportunities or chances to really make some good money online. Like I said before – just do it! As long as your product, website or whatever it is you’re doing online has value and the message comes across clearly, all of that perfection stuff doesn’t even matter. Many people use perfection as an excuse. “I want things to be perfect” is just another way of saying “I’m too scared to really do this.” You don’t have to be perfect to be profitable! Get something out there now and you can worry about perfecting it later. It takes time for things to happen, so the longer you keep “making things perfect”, the longer it will take for you to see results.

Lesson 7: The King and Queen of Online Business

Content is King. Content, or what you write or publish online and in your products, is the driving factor behind any successful online business. Not only because original and desirable content matters to people, but because it matters to the search engines and their algorithms for what pages rank higher than others as well. You will hear many Internet marketers preach the phrase “Content is King” quite often. Not many of them, however, have taken on the idea that Design is just as important, but it is. Design is the Queen, and as we all know (especially if you’re married), sometimes the Queen has more of a say. This is why companies like Apple go over-the-top on the design of their products, because they know that there are people out there who really care about what something looks like, sometimes even more than what the product actually does. If you’re going to sell an eBook or audio product online, you should always include a high-qualty digital representation of the product on your sales page. There are companies out there (like coveractionpro) that are dedicated to doing just that – creating high-quality eBook and CD covers – because they know that design matters too.

Lesson 8: Specialize

When I ask people who their target audience is, the worst thing they can respond with is “everybody”. If you try to cater to everyone, you’re going to sell to no one. At most of the malls here in San Diego, there are at least 5 or 6 different types of shoe stores. There’s a store for athletic shoes, casual shoes, dressy shoes, walking shoes, and even one that sells only sandals. So why isn’t there one “all-kinds of shoes” store at the mall which could just tear the little competitors apart? Because it wouldn’t. Businesses know that the more you can cater to a specific type of person, the more likely it is that that person will buy from you. If someone is shopping for some serious basketball shoes, which store do you think they would visit: All Shoes Company, the shoe store that has all different kinds of shoes, or The Athletic Foot Company, a store that specializes in shoes for athletes. Of course, the Athletic Foot Company, since they would probably know more about basketball shoes and have a better selection than All Shoes Company. This “specialization” is even more important online, which is why you must really narrow down your niche and figure out exactly who your target audience is. There are over 6 billion people in this world, and you don’t need to build a business for all of them. In fact, you shouldn’t. Even a small, tiny niche like the LEED exam can be very profitable, and it’s even at your advantage to stay narrow, because you’ll run into less competition, both in terms of number of competing companies, and ranking in the search engines.

Lesson 9: Join a Mastermind Group

One of the smartest things I’ve ever done is join a mastermind group. For those of you who don’t know, a mastermind group is just a fancy term for a group of people with a common goal that meet (in person, on the phone, via Skype, chatrooms, meeting software, etc.) to share and learn to improve what they do. Think of it as a show and tell (and ask) for highly motivated individuals who want to get things done. In these meetings, members of the group share their ideas, questions, triumphs and downfalls. Members with questions get immediate feedback from the others, while everyone learns from everyone else’s experience and wisdom. I’m involved in two separate mastermind groups, both made up of other Internet entrepreneurs and business people who are all looking to improve what they do online. I’ve learned so much from these groups that I am confident in saying that if it were not for them, I would not be living like I am today. It’s not one single person, but rather the group as a whole that provide the advice and encouragement I need to get results. And, at the same time, I can give back a little bit of the knowledge that I know to help other people and their businesses succeed as well. You may know a group of people with similar interests who you may be able to get together with and start a mastermind group already, but if you don’t, and you’re interested, you might be able to find a group of people through Meetup.com or other online communities.

Lesson 10: Don’t Give Up

If you do decide to want to start something online, please understand that it will not be easy, and results don’t happen right away. There is no such thing as “get rich quick”, so don’t expect that. You will struggle and you will fail. That is what you can expect, and instead of giving up, learn from your mistakes and failures and just keep going. I’ve failed a number of times and I’m not afraid to admit that, but each failure brings me one step closer to a success. In all of my online businesses, I’ve wanted to give up at one point or another, but I’m really glad that I didn’t. Remember what your goals are, and take things one step at a time on your way there. And lastly, know that I’m not anyone special. I don’t consider myself an expert, and I only attribute my success to working hard, working smart and being confident that I could really make it happen.

BONUS Lesson 11: Always Over Deliver

To get even more results and leave a long lasting impression with your audience, one that will keep them coming back for more, you should always overdeliver on your promise. Always. Seth Godin simply describes this as “the free prize inside”. With my free eBook that you can get at ebooksthesmartway.com, I made sure to really go over the top with it. I’ve had people email me saying that I’m crazy for not selling it, and that it’s one of the best eBooks they have ever read (both paid and free). I did go crazy with it. I spent 2 months writing (and designing!) it to make sure that anyone who wants to publish, market and automate their own eBook could do it too. I went all out with it because I knew I was going to give it away for free, and that if I did that, people would be happy to pass it along and I’d be able to reach more people in the long run.

Thank You!

Before I go, I just wanted to say thanks to J.D. for allowing me to share a little bit of what I know and a bit of my story too. If you have any specific questions about my businesses or what I do online, you can leave a comment here and I will respond, or you can find me on my blog, Facebook or Twitter if you’d prefer that instead. I wish you nothing less than success. Cheers!

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Craig Shoemaker on his top 10 lessons learned from comedy.

I figured who better to get some great lessons and perspective on life than from a professional comedian, and Craig happens to be one of my favorite comedians.  Why? … because he makes me laugh.

He’s got his own special blend of comedy from his “Lovemaster” routine to his dead-on impressions of Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show.   He does more impressions than just Barney, including Aunt Bee, and you can’t help but wonder how such a range of voices comes out of the same person. In addition to stand-up, Craig has radio, TV, and film under his belt.  His movie roles include Scream 2, Safe House, and Dark Honeymoon.  In Dark Honeymoon, he played opposite Daryl Hannah as her love interest.

Craig is also a winner of the American Comedy Award for funniest male stand-up comic.  He’s not just an award-winning funny guy … he’s also a comedian with heart.  Craig started the Laughter Heals Foundation where the mission is to provide an easily accessible supply of “laughter therapy” materials for patients, residents and care givers in hospitals, cancer recovery facilities, children’s hospitals, nursing homes, etc.

Without further ado, here’s Craig …

The following are ten lessons I have learned while working in comedy.

Lesson 1- We are not victims.

Many of us have been conditioned to believe that disease and illness comes along like an attacker in a dark alley, when in fact we need to look at how we were the ones who put us in that position to begin with. We attract what we focus on, and this is very much the case with sickness. If we ignore signs that tell us something in our mind/body/soul we need to pay attention to, then an illness of greater significance will result. The polar opposite is true…if we look for ways to enjoy our lives, then good health and wellness will manifest. Personally, I am on a news fast for 10 years now, and I’ve never been healthier. I replace that “information,” that the media outlets choose (to garner better ratings), with “lighter” fare that causes me to smile. It has led to far more creative output, due to the artistic spirit being able to flow, unimpeded by the fear, doubt and worry the media and government promote. In this case, ignorance is indeed bliss.

Lesson 2- Old thoughts should be discouraged.

We have been bombarded with messages that prevent us from laughing more, due to accepting messages that we’ve been given since we were children. “Wipe that smile off your face.” “What are YOU laughing at?” “You look so silly.” “You must take this seriously or you’ll fail.” “Laugh like a fool.” “Grow up!”……These are but a few nuggets that our brains were filled with when we were growing up. It’s no shock that people have difficulty letting go to have a good time with such negative words frequently rattling in their heads. When I let go of the false belief that I look like an idiot if I laugh, then my entire being feels uplifted.

Lesson 3- Children laugh a hundred times more a day than an adult.

Due to the illusion of stress and pressure, most adults do not laugh anywhere near the amount of times a child does. When a young boy or girl relates to their friends, they bond through laughter and sharing of joy, while adults have a propensity to bond by way of gossip and angry thoughts. Parents watch negative programs that demean and deflate, and their kids see shows based on fun and silliness. When I’m around my own kids, we constantly crack up, and that takes away thoughts of lack or worry. When we are joking and clowning, I’ve never once stopped and said: “Whoa… the economy is in the toilet today.”

Lesson 4- The places that put focus on happiness are the most pleasant to live in.

Denmark was named the happiest country in the world, with surrounding countries like the Netherlands rounding out the top five happy countries. What do these areas have in common? An emphasis on leisure and fun, and very little focus on war and destruction. Scandinavian countries are not known for their war machines, and are contrarily people of peace and happiness. The quality of life for the people of these lands is at a higher level than the depressed, dark and gloomy vibration so many in this country live by. I choose to see the goodness and light in the majority of people and circumstances, and the results of this choice are profound.

Lesson 5- People who laugh more live longer.

A tribe in the Himalayas called “The Happy Hunzas” have long been known for their laughter based conditioning. The average Hunzakut – as they called themselves – live to be well over 100 years of age and typically die in good health and with every tooth still intact and cavity-free. When I say they died healthy, what I mean is that their physically strong and able bodies simply gave out from so many years of living a good, natural life. They rarely ever died from glandular, organ or system failure, as is so common in our modern world.

Lesson 6- Simply By Being Around Laughter Can Lead to Better Health.

There is a long list of standup comedians who lived long and enriched lives, even performing right up until their death. Milton Berle, George Burns, Bob Hope are three legendary comedians who passed away in their late 90s. Don Rickles, Phyillis Diller and Joan Rivers are still going strong after 80, and are energized by the energy of roomfuls of laughter. Laughter is indeed contagious, and simply by being around it, the benefits will be felt. The opposite is true as well, for if you are in a room of angry people, it will be a tall task to rise above that pervasive and invasive energy.

Lesson 7- Laughter lowers stress hormones, increases our heart rate, helps us breathe more deeply, and stretches many different muscles in our face and upper body.

A positive attitude will not only help us feel better, it also has a general beneficial effect on our health. Laughter lowers stress hormones, increases our heart rate, helps us breathe more deeply, and stretches many different muscles in our face and upper body. Laughter really is good for you, and scientists have now begun to prove what everyone else takes for granted.

Lesson 8- Laughter changes our condition, and therefore changes our perception that something is wrong or heart breaking.

As Elle Woods from Legally Blond said, “Exercising (or in this case, laughing) gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people just don’t kill their husbands!”

Yes, a fictitious character from a goofy movie should not be given as evidence to further a cause, but the message is clear, concise and simple – the chances of violence diminishes once we laugh.

Lesson 9- Living joyful is a choice and ANYONE can transform from making that choice.

Finding humor and fun in a lot of things can help you keep your mind and body healthy. Laughter lightens your mood and your burdens. Whether you believe it or not, laughter and humor have some health benefits that could enhance your immune system, give you added energy, and lessen the damage that stress brings into your daily life.

When you laugh, your body releases the body’s feel-good chemical, which in turn can give you a mood booster and relieves you from pain in the process.  It also improves the oxygen’s flow from your heart and brain. It strengthens your immune system since it can cause cell regeneration, and keeping the active cells healthy. Since stress causes your healthy cells to die out, laughter can prevent such occurrence. It also relaxes your mind and body, relieving you from tension and pain.

Lesson 10- Search for more ways to laugh, and discover new parts of our consciousness.

Even without listing down all the scientifically proven benefits of laughter and humor, laughing is without a doubt one of the best things in life.  It helps you focus on the more positive things in life rather than dwelling on everything that seems to go wrong. It allows you to feel good about yourself, around your surroundings, and about your circumstances. Laughter is even better when shared with someone else, since laughter is meant to be contagious. Laughter strengthens people’s connection with each other and thus, can bring people together.  The bond that is formed between individuals who share humor, laughter or even a simple smile will help the individuals involved to cope better with emotional or mental stress. It may also be therapeutic for painful conditions such as arthritis or joint inflammation. It opens up new and previously unexplored aspects of our journey and enriches our soul.

Early documents speak of laughter being the best medicine, so just open up and say “haa-haaa!”

Additional Resources

• Craig Shoemaker’s Blog
• Craig Shoemaker.com (Site)
• Laughter Heals Foundation
• Craig Shoemaker on IMDB

"If you have to be right, you’re doing it wrong." — Dr. Rick Kirschner

When it comes to people skills, Dr. Rick Kirschner (Dr.K) sets the bar.  He’s co-author of the best-selling book, Dealing with People You Can’t Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst , and for three decades he’s helped advance the field of personal and organizational development.

Dr. K’s super skill is interpersonal communication, and he specializes in persuasion and influence.  As an author, speaker, and coach, Dr. K has helped thousands of people turn conflict into cooperation, improve their personal influence and impact, and deal with unwanted communication patterns in their personal and professional lives.

If you haven’t seen Dr. K’s work before, prepare to be amazed.  You’ll wonder where he’s been all your life.  The beauty is that not only has he mastered the domain of interpersonal skills, he’s blazed a trail and has shared his work through many blog posts, and through his information products.  As you explore Dr. K’s work, one thing to keep in mind is that the time you invest improving your communication skills will pay you back on a daily basis.  It’s one of the simplest, but most effective ways to improve the quality of your life.

As you read his work, you’ll realize not only is Dr. K the real deal, but he’s a nice guy, and he genuinely likes to see people succeed.

25 Lessons Learned from Dr. Kirschner
Here are 25 lessons learned from Dr. K you can instantly use to improve your communication skills:

1. Persuasion is like magic.  When you don’t know how it’s done, it creates a sense of wonder.   It’s like magic.  Once you know how it’s done, it loses some of the wonder.  However, you can shift focus to mastering the techniques and enjoying the process.
2. Know the three steps to persuasion.  According to Dr. K, there are three steps to persuasion:  1) Meet people where they are, 2) First understand them, and 3) Then speak to their needs, interests and motivations. 
3. Focus on behavior over personality types.  Rather than focus on personality types or personality profiling, focus on context and behaviors, and remember that people change their behaviors based on the situation or context they are in.  Dr. K says, “My approach is behavior based rather than personality based, in that it is based on the useful assumption that a person’s needs (and thus, style of communicating) change depending on the context (time of day, location, who they are interacting with, what they want or don’t want, etc.) Sometimes more extroverted, sometimes more introverted. Sometimes more direct, sometimes more indirect.”
4. Recognize a person’s needs-style: “task focus” vs. “people focus.” You can improve your ability to influence if you blend your behavior with a person’s needs-style.  To understand a person’s needs-style, you need to listen to what a person talks about and how directly they talk about it.   When a person is “task-focused,” they talk about what they are doing.   When a person is “people focused”, they will talk more about the people around them or their feelings about the situation.  Dr. K says, “A person focused more on a task than on people may pay more attention to the end result of the task than the details they encounter along the way. … A person focused more on people than on a task may express more interest in the opinions and feelings of others, or in their own opinions and feelings.”  
5. Recognize the four communication needs: action, accuracy, approval and appreciation.  According to Dr. K, there are four basic intents or communication needs: 1) action, 2) accuracy, 3) approval, and 4) appreciation.   You’ll recognize the need for action when a person is focused on the end result of an interaction or an idea.  You’ll recognize a person has a need for accuracy when a person is indirect and focused on the details of an interaction or an idea.  You’ll recognize the need for approval when a person speaks indirectly and expresses concern for the opinions and feelings of others.  You’ll recognize a need for appreciation when a person is focused more on her own thoughts and feelings than the thoughts and feelings of others.  Remember that behavior keeps changing so you’ll need to keep paying attention in order to notice the change. 
6. Speak to the four communication needs.   Once you recognize which of the four communication needs somebody is speaking with (action, accuracy, approval, or appreciation), you can speak to the need.  To speak to action, get to the point (“cut to the chase”.)  This might include being commanding or authoritative.  To speak to accuracy, speak indirectly and give the details (go “step-by-step”)   This might include asking questions or making long statements to establish facts or stimulate thinking.  To speak to approval, speak in a friendly, indirect, and considerate way (use relationship language, like ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘you and me’, and ‘the team’.)  To speak to appreciation, speak directly, with energy and enthusiasm (create a spotlight effect.) 
7. Blend your behavior to improve rapport.    Blending is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your communication effectiveness.  Dr. K recommends blending your behavior to reduce differences and send signals of similarity.  You can blend with your body by matching body posture and facial expressions or you can blend with your voice by matching tone, volume, tempo, etc.  You can also blend by matching somebody’s communication needs.
8. Know what you want.   There are multiple ways to achieve what you want.  In order to stay flexible in your approach, you need to first figure out what you want to accomplish.  This is especially true when it comes to communication and persuasion.  Dr. K says, "That’s why the challenge in life, and in communication specifically, is to define a direction, and organize yourself around that outcome.  You need to know what you are aiming towards, what you intend to achieve, and why you intend to achieve it, or you just keep cycling back to the easy stuff, the complaints, problems, and obstacles that you can’t seem to avoid."
9. Assumptions create self-fulfilling prophecies.   When you make assumptions, it’s usually easy to find evidence that supports you assumption because the blinders are on.  The key is to recognize that you have assumptions and test them.  Dr. K says, “Once you make an assumption (about yourself, about others, about situations, etc.) you inevitably will act as if your assumption is true.  And your actions will have effects, in that you will find evidence in order to have the experience that your assumption is true.“
10. Make useful assumptions rather than limiting ones.  Assumptions help us deal with overload and help us avoid being overwhelmed.  Knowing that we make and use assumptions every day, make useful assumptions over limiting ones.  According to Dr. K, “A useful assumption gives you enough informed perspective on your own behavior and the behavior of others that you can engage in behaviors that lead to worthwhile outcomes.  A limiting assumption holds you back, ties you down, and traps you into self-defeating and counterproductive behavior.”
11. Assume positive intent.  One useful assumption is assuming positive intent.  If you assume the worst in people, you’ll bring out the worst.  If you treat somebody like a jerk, chances are they’ll act like a jerk.  Instead, expect the best and improve the chances that you’ll get their best behavior, at least when dealing with you.  Dr. K says, “…people do what they do for a good reason.  Even the worst behaviors serve a purpose the person considers a good one.  People engage in behaviors based on their intent, and do what they do based on what seems to be most important in any given moment.” 
12. Start with your points then find supporting data.  When you need to persuade, don’t throw a bunch of numbers at people.  Make your point, then back it up with data.  Don’t  make people fish through the numbers to try and figure out what your point might be.
13. Appeal to logical listeners using facts and figures.  When you’re persuading logical listeners, facts, data, and statistics can be effective.   It’s effective because they are making decisions based on reason and they are making sense of the data you present to support your argument.  To be effective, make sure your facts and figures are easy to understand.
14. Appeal to emotional listeners using vivid language.  When you’re persuading emotional listeners, they will likely tune out facts and figures unless it’s interesting or shocking insight.  For emotional listeners, use examples, metaphors, and vivid imagery to be more effective.
15. Add persuasion signals to increase your persuasive power.  Persuasion Signals are “signals” or short-cuts for the listener on how to act.   While a logical thinker will be looking for facts and details, an emotional thinker is looking for shortcuts and signals about the worth and meaning of an idea.  According to Dr. K, there are seven persuasion signals to draw from:   1) The Signal of Affinity, 2) The Signal of Comparison, 3) The Signal of Conformity, 4)  The Signal of Reciprocity, 5) The Signal of Authority, 6) The Signal of Consistency, 7) The Signal of Scarcity.
16. Know the ten types of difficult people.    Dr. K and team identify 10 types of difficult people in the Dealing with People You Can’t Stand.  The ten types of difficult people are: 1) Grenade Person, 2) Know-It-All, 3) Maybe Person, 4) No Person, 5) Nothing Person, 6) Sniper, 7) Tank, Think-They-Know-It-All, 9) Whiners, 10) Yes Person.  The types are actually names of behaviors and you can use the types as a lens to understand both yourself and the behavior of other people.
17. Shared values hold you together.   "I believe the most powerful common ground in relationships is that of shared values. If you and another person believe or think the same kinds of things and experiences are important, you’ll be able to work together to problem solve and share the positive results after. If you deem the same things to be the important things, when divisions arise, your shared values will hold you together." 
18. Build relationships on common ground.    According to Dr. K, the key to long-term relationships is building on common ground.  Dr. K says, “Couples who build their relationships on the common ground of values can survive all kinds of life cycle events, even thrive, in spite of the differences that inevitably arise. But couples that lack shared values are likely doomed, regardless of how much else they have in common, to fight over and eventually move away from each other because of the lack of this basic bond.”
19. Blend with behavior when values are different. When you’re faced with a conflict of values, one of the best ways to stay connected is to blend with behavior, since clearly you aren’t connecting at the values.  Dr. K says,“That’s where we send signals to others that we are on the same side. Since we people are more alike than different anyway, finding common ground ought to be a fairly simple proposition. Yet most people find it incredibly hard to do when their attention is on the differences that divide us one from another. That’s why the idea of blending is to move to common ground as quickly as possible.” 
20. When somebody decides not to help, find somebody else.   Sometimes in customer service, you might find somebody who has already decided not to help.  In those cases, see if you can escalate or find somebody else to talk to that might empathize with you.
21. Focus on logical consequences over punitive responses. Rather than punish people after the fact, give them a way to succeed up front, by setting expectations up front.   Make the path and consequences as clear as you can.  According to Dr.K, “Logical consequences, on the other hand, are imposed results.  If you do X, I’ll do Y.  If you do A, I’ll do B.  When you tell a child, or a person acting like a child, what they can expect as a result of their actions, you are telling them about a consequence of their action.  If you then do what you say you will do, they learn to respect your word about those consequences.  This is very different than a punitive response to something you don’t like, which has the form of, “Because you did X, I’m going to do Y.”  The problem with punitive reactions is they don’t provide people with an opportunity to change.  They do, however, give people a reason to resent you, rebel against you, and polarize the situation against you further.” 
22. Free up your inner-change artist with “What if?” and “What, then?” questions.   Dr. K says, “What matters is, where do you want to go, and what is one small step forward that you can take in order to get there.  To create positive change.  And the beauty of life is there is always a next step.   How is it possible to find that small step forward?  Well, change artists do it by asking themselves ‘What if? and ‘What, then?’ questions.”
23. Backtrack before asking questions.   Backtracking is simply echoing back what you heard.  This shows that you’re listening and that you care.  Backtracking helps you build trust and it helps the other person feel heard.  By backtracking before you ask questions, it shows that you are fully engaged and attempting to clarify and understand.   This also gives the other person a chance to correct you to make sure you’ve heard something the way they intend.  This sets the stage for asking more effective questions, while staying connected.
24. Ask what behavior would you replace it with? Rather than focus on what you don’t want somebody to do, focus on what you would like them to do instead.  Dr. K says, “Remember, nature hates a vacuum and you cannot replace something with nothing. That makes it more difficult to create positive change for you and for your organization.  If you don’t want him to do what he’s doing, what behavior would you him to replace it with?.”
25. Expand the scope of your input.  If you only listen or watch or pay attention to what you already know, then you limit your world.   Expand your horizons by taking in input from a variety sources outside yoru comfort zone.  Dr. K says, “Change the stations, read watch or listen to something that you disagree with. Challenge your views in order to gain access to information that exists outside of your comfort zone. This way you can expand the scope of your input. You can bring into your awareness other options, other interpretations and possibilities. These other possibilities provide you with what you need to better understand your world and give you sufficient information to influence it for the better.” 

These lessons are just a tip of the iceberg.  Dr. K is a true wealth of pragmatic insight you can apply in work and life.

Kirschner’s Motivational Model
One of the ways to make sense of what you see is to use a lens.  Dr. K has a lens for understanding people’s drivers and motivations.  It’s Kirschner’s Motivational Model:

Dr. K’s motivational model is a set of six motivational sets.  Each set is a spectrum of what we move toward, and what we move away from.   According to Dr. K, our drivers are a blend of the motivational sets above, and our motivations are ultimately contextual and depend on what we’re doing and who we’re with.

Quotes
Dr. K has a great way of sharing insight in the form of pithy prose.  Here is a handful of some of his quotable quotes:

• “A good model allows us to do things, try things, organize our perceptions to find out useful and interesting things. And the cool thing about a model is that it doesn’t have to be true, it just has to work.”
• “Change artists start with the really big What If’s, and work their way back to the details of their own lives.”
• “Change is inevitable, but progress is not.”
• “Change your mind. Change your life. Change your world.”
• “Don’t get mad. Get smart!”
• “Every question, every statement, has a consequence and in this way you can and do shape the thoughts of others. You always have an impact!”
• “Every time you ask a question or make a statement to someone, you are participating in his or her thought process.”
• “First, change your attitude, and then change your behavior.  To change your attitude, and thus stop suffering, you must learn to look, think and feel differently about difficult behavior.”
• “Flexibility means having more than one choice, and getting feedback instead of failure.”
• “How are you going to change what you’re doing in the present in order to get that different outcome in the future?”
• "I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, ‘Think outside the box.” Here’s my version of that. ‘Don’t get in the box in the first place.’"
• “If all you know is what you don’t want, you will get more of it.”
• “If there’s going to be a future worth living in, I think you will find more than enough agreement from most everybody that much needs to change.”
• “If you don’t want ‘that’, what do you want?”
• “In your life, think of the opportunities squandered, the resources wasted, and the money and income lost because the right person at the right time lacked the persuasive skill to persuade the key people to take the necessary actions.”
• “It’s based on my observation that  people do what they do for a good reason.  Even the worst behaviors serve a purpose the person considers a good one.”
• “Just as people choose what to wear from a variety of clothing styles (such as formal-wear, office-wear, or weekend-wear), so people choose from a variety of behaviors that are situational dependent.”
• “Not all situations are resolvable.  And some are just not worth it.  Cutting your losses remains a viable option when dealing with difficult behavior.”
• “Persuasion finds it’s power in meeting people where they are and then engaging them in such a way that they move with you when you move forward.”
• “Recognize that fear is as irrational as it is necessary, and perhaps wisdom is learning the difference  about when to act on it versus when to act in spite of it.”
• “Sometimes, that means you must accept the unacceptable, in order to move with it and take charge over it. Only then can you redirect whatever is aimed at you towards your desired result.”
• “What if anything is possible, and all that’s required of any of us is to be true to ourselves and find our next small step forward?”
• “Why more than one choice?  Because if you only know one way to do something, you’ll always have to do it, even if it doesn’t work!”
• “You cannot not influence people.”
• “You’ve got to know how to protect yourself from unscrupulous people with hidden agendas who use ignorance and emotion to bring about negative ends.”

Catalog of Dr. K’s Resources (Sites, Books, Videos)
Dr. K has a wide range of resources, from blog posts to books.  For simple scanning, I organized Dr. K’s collection of resources into the following buckets: key links, audio, books, eBooks, ten-minute tune ups, videos, and popular posts.

If you happen to have a story or lesson on how Dr. K made an impact on you, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

My Related Posts

• Lessons Learned from Guy Kawasaki
• Lessons Learned  from Seth Godin
• Lessons Learned from Tony Robbins

“It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” — Johann Schiller

For this Father’s Day, I thought one of the best things I could do is distill some of the lessons I’ve learned from my Dad.

I didn’t always know which plays I would need from my Dad’s playbook growing up.  Some plays make more sense to me now that I have more experience under my belt and I’m still learning.  Maybe some day  I can even snatch the pebble from his hand.

Before we dive into the playbook, let me first step back and paint the broad strokes.  In terms of guiding principles, my Dad’s guidance is simple and sound – follow your purpose, drive from happiness, and be who you want to be, while creating the experiences and quality of life you want.   That’s the frame I come back to, whenever I get lost in the details of life.

Lessons Learned from Dad
Here is my collection of lessons from my Dad.  It continues to evolve and unfold, just the way life does:

1. Aim past your target.   If you want to hit your mark, aim past your target.  If you fall short, you’ll land closer.  My Dad is a Bruce Lee fan so if you’re a fellow Bruce Lee fan you might recognize the point.
2. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.   Whenever my Dad got into a new hobby, he jumped in with both feet and it became an obsession.  This helped feed the passion, but also quickly find his limits or potential.  As you can imagine, this lead to a lot of adventures, but the thing I really learned was to dive in to something over just dabble.
3. Avoid toxic environments.  Don’t let the wrong people or the wrong environment bring you down.  When a place becomes toxic, it spreads.  Don’t stay.
4. Be able to count on yourself.  Sometimes it’s all you.  The more you can help yourself, the more others will help you.
5. Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.   Don’t fall for it.  The trick is to be a healthy skeptic without becoming a callous cynic.
6. Bet on skill.   Whether it was archery, martial arts, music, or business, my Dad always showed me how skill made the difference.  Creativity or sheer will power only went so far, and it was skills that either leveled the playing field or won the game.
7. Bottom line it.    “Results talk, while B.S. walks.”  So simple, but so true.  Find a way to cut through jargon and get to what’s really on the line, or what’s really promised, or what something really means.  Don’t get snake-oiled into situations or things that you could cut through by getting to the bottom line.
8. Collect the things that count for you.  My Dad is a collector.  From coins to baseball cards to guitars to motorcycles to tools, he’s had lots of collections.  I learned to collect and take care of things when I was younger.  At this point, I don’t really collect anything other than insight.  I’m way more into experiences and people, but I will say I enjoyed the journeys of the various collections I’ve had.  I guess I’m a collector of experiences now.
9. Do the things you don’t want to, so you can do the things you want to.  This is a way to look at discipline and duty with a healthy respect.
10. Don’t focus your attention too much on the future things and the long shot moves.   The future is unpredictable and always will be.  While we can plan for it, we have to live for right here and now and make the most of what we’ve got.  My Dad says, “Don’t focus your attention too much on the future things and the long shot moves.   Make frugal changes that can easily be accomplished right around you.  If you are going out to eat often, get your kitchen and dining room in order and make your meals at home.  … If you buy lunch at work, make something and bring it.  Not only are these things cheaper to do, but they also give you an opportunity to consume a cleaner, healthier diet.”
11. Don’t let the means get in the way of the goal.  I remember one day when my brother told my Dad why he wanted to make a lot of money.  He said he wanted to make a lot of money so he could drive a Ferrari, my Dad challenged him.  If he really just wanted to drive a Ferrari, then maybe he could be a parking lot attendant at the country club, and not need a lot of money after all.   Knowing why you want to do something is often more revealing than simply knowing what you want to do.
12. Don’t bet on faith, luck, or magic, but don’t rule them out.   Science and engineering have a strong say … but so do the things we have yet to explain or understand.
13. Don’t just see what’s in front of you.  See what’s all around you.   This comes in handy in a lot of scenarios, especially when you’re in unfamiliar territory or in a dangerous place.  My Dad has good peripheral vision and I’ve developed mine.   This is especially important on the road too.  For example, don’t just watch the car in front of you.  Watch the cars way ahead and look for signs.  If the cars ahead are slamming their breaks, chances are the car in front of you will too.  Looking ahead has saved me from many accidents.
14. Don’t wear clip-ons.  Learn how to tie a tie.  My Dad made it a point that I learn how to tie a tie.  It felt sort of like a rite of passage, and was a big step up from my former clip-on ties.
15. Dress the part.  When you’re a biker, dress like a biker.  When you’re in the office, look sharp.
16. Earn it.   Don’t expect hand outs.  Work for what you want.  I learned how to be a work-horse and how not to be afraid to roll up my sleeves and get to work.  I’ve also learned to deal with the fact that lots of things in life don’t come easy, and that if something is really worth it, then work for it.
17. Find your all consuming passion.   My Dad’s passion is music.  It always has been.  Whether it’s playing in bands or collecting guitars or hanging with musicians – it’s a part of his life.  As a part of that life, we had Magic Slim and the Tear Drops at our Fourth of July parties on the lake.   One of our big road trips growing up was the Chicago Blues Festival.  One of my Dad’s guitars, a Flying V, was sold to G.E. Smith of Saturday Night Live.
18. Focus on what you control and let the rest go.   Don’t stew on the stuff that’s beyond your control.  If you want to make things happen, focus on what you control.
19. Fight back.  The easiest target is one that doesn’t fight back.  Fight back with skill and make any bully think twice.
20. Find a way.  There’s always a way and there’s more than one way to skin the cat.   Never get stuck.  If you really want it, you’ll find a way.
21. Have a navy blue blazer.  A navy blue blazer always look sharp and it’s perfect for lots of occasions.
22. Have your heroes.   My Dad has a lot of heroes and he learns from them.   He studied the science of batting from Ted Williams.   He learned the fighting strategies and philosophy of Bruce Lee.  He learned the musical ways of Jimi Hendrix and other legends.  One of the most amazing heroes I learned about from my Dad was Mas Oyama.  Apparently, Mas Oyama was able to kill a bull with his bare hands.    Just when I thought I knew the limits of human possibility, my Dad would find another person who pushed the limits of what’s possible.
23. If your house can be your home, work for it.   “If your house can be your home, work for it.  If your house will never be anything more than what you were hoping was a good investment, figure out how to maximize your investment as quickly as possible and get out.”
24. It’s all how you look at things.  My Dad says, “While you cannot escape reality, perception does rule.”
25. Judge a person by their character, not their color.   This might just sound so obvious, and of course, since I grew up that way, it is for me.  My Dad taught us to care what somebody makes of their self and who they are, over their lot in life or the color of their skin.
26. Know what you’re getting yourself into.  While it’s great to jump in to things, my Dad always encouraged me to figure out what I was getting myself into.   A lot of problems are easier to avoid in the first place, than they are to get out  of once you are in them.
27. Lead a purpose-driven life.  When you know what really drives you, your priorities float to the top.  When you’re on your mission, you have more energy and staying power to go the distance.  When you don’t know your purpose, then priorities, focus, and clarity are really tough to sort through.  It’s easy to get clouded by all the things that come your way.   When you know your purpose, you can carve out your own path through the fog.
28. Make your money work for you.  My Dad always encouraged me to buy things that would go up in value over buying things that immediately depreciate.  I find that just knowing how quickly something will go down in value helps me make a more informed decision.
29. Marketing is a valuable skill for life.   I was not a fan of marketing growing up since my main experience was used car salesman and guys selling vacuum cleaners.  My Dad’s point was don’t let the foul taste of bad marketers ruin the value of marketing.  Accept that marketing is an important part of life.  Be able to sell yourself and your ideas.  Know what’s relevant and know what people really value.  Be able to match your skills, service, or product to a person’s genuine needs.  I learned this lesson time and again and I get why marketing really is so valuable.
30. Nothing beats the open road.  Growing up with a biker Dad meant I got an early taste for the open road and the simple life.  I’m at my best when I’m on the road.
31. Oak Breaks, but willow bends.  Flexibility is one of the most important ways to survive in the world.  My Dad drew from Chinese philosophy, among others, and this was a timeless piece of advice.
32. Plan for it. There are many situations in life where having a plan will serve you way better than winging it or making up things on the fly, especially when it counts.  One of my Dad’s super skills is planning for things.
33. Push past your limits.  Never give up.  You don’t really know what you’re capable of until you’ve really given all you’ve got.   Even when you think you’ve given all you’ve got, you’ve still got more.
34. Stay true to you, but blend in with skill.  Sometimes you have to be a chameleon and blend in.   The rules of conduct can change based on where you are or who you hang with.  For example, for my Dad, the construction scene was different than the biker seen, was different than the office scene.
35. Surround yourself with smart people.   Smart people raise you up and help you grow to your potential.
36. Survival changes the rules.  When you’re in an organized sport, you follow the rules.  When you’re fighting for your life, the rules go out the window.  This was consistent with Bruce Lee’s point that when it’s about survival, you play to your strengths and you do what works.
37. The day goes on with or without you.  My Dad says, “and yet the day was born anew with all its grand and graceful beauty; your trials and tribulations cannot keep it from its duty.”
38. The things that don’t contribute to your happiness have to go.   My Dad says, “There are a lot of challenges ahead of us all right now, and many may require sacrifices that we did not think would be necessary, but the most important thing to remember is that this is your life.  Be happy! The things that don’t contribute to your happiness have to go.   Happiness is not fun, it’s a complete sense of spiritual fulfillment.   So, if you’re looking at a problem and you can see a solution that leads to peace and happiness, work for that.  If on the other hand you can see that it’s just one more thing that needs to be done and when it’s done all it is is done, look for the most logical exit and get away from it.”
39. Think before you speak.  This was my Dad’s advice to help avoid the scenario where, “When you open your mouth, stupid comes out.”   Not everything should be stream of conscious.
40. Use the right tool for the job.  My Dad has an extensive set of tools and every tool has a specific purpose.  Having the right tool for the job often makes all the difference for success.
41. Use your mirrors.  It’s such a simple thing, but incredibly effective.  My Dad taught me to quickly and correctly line up the side mirrors on my car by making sure that I can just barely see the tail end of my vehicle in the mirrors.  Whenever I get a rental car, or if somebody bumps into my side mirrors, I can quickly fix the mirrors using this simple rule.  I also used to have to use my mirrors a lot when I backed up before I got my Jeep, so I learned to trust my mirrors.  With my Jeep though, I don’t really need my mirrors much when I backup since it’s so easy to see out of the Jeep.
42. Walk through the scenario.  To create an effective plan and test his plan, my Dad would walk through the scenario in his mind in detail.  By painstakingly walking through, he would catch mistakes or think of things beforehand instead of regret them later.  As I learned to practice this skill, I found it improves with time and it gets easier to walk the scenario as well as come up with “what if” possibilities and create fallback plans.   What’s nice is that when things go wrong, you can draw from a plan versus make things up from scratch.
43. Write with skill.   You don’t have to be a Twain or a Shakespeare, but be able to write with clarity and make a point.
44. You can do without it.  Whenever we would ask for something, my Dad would ask us if we really needed it.  Short of the basics like water, air, food, shelter, and health, the answer would usually be no.  There’s a lot you can do without.  The key is to distinguish between whether you really need something or just want something.  Everything comes with a  price, so this helps you make more effective trade-offs.
45. You have to be smarter than the paper bag.   There’s an expression that goes “you can’t fight your way out of a paper bag.”   My Dad always encouraged me to outsmart the situation over get beat by it.   When you’re in a situation and it feels like you’re failing or flailing, stop, take a step back and try to come up with a smarter play for the scenario.
46. Your living environment sets the stage for your living experience.  My Dad says, “Realize that your living environment sets the stage for your living experience so nurture it.   You really can make a cave look like home and if you do, going home to the cave can be a heartwarming experience.”

Happy Father’s Day, Dad– Love, JD

“Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable.” – John Wooden

John Wooden was a living legend.  He was also one of the most successful basketball coaches of all time and he lived a simple life focusing on personal excellence, personal integrity, love, and balance.

When I first heard John Wooden during an interview, what struck me was the simple rules he lived by that helped him make meaning and find happiness.   It was the first time I heard somebody say that success is “peace of mind.”  His way to achieve it was simple too  – give your best where you can.

What I liked most about his approach is his pattern of focusing on what you control, and realizing that the rest is a by-product that may or may not go your way.   For example, you can play your best game, but still lose.  You can build your character, but your reputation may not match.  You can make your best plays, but that doesn’t mean the score will show it.  Rather than chase or focus on the by-products, focus on the “getting there” and playing your best game, from the inside out.

If you want to start with the personal side of Wooden, I recommend watching John Wooden’s Love Letter (4:35).

25 Lessons Learned from John Wooden
Here is my collection of lessons learned from John Wooden:

1. A doer makes mistakes.  If you’re not doing, you’re not learning.   Everybody makes mistakes.  It’s what you do with them that counts.
2. Academics are enduring.  Getting an education is a #1 priority.  Wooden made it a point to his players that they were first and foremost a student (the student part of “student athlete”).  Wooden said, “If you let social activity take precedence over the other two (education and sports), then you’re not going to have any for very long.”   Wooden also said, “Sports are kind of like passion and that’s temporary in many cases, but academics — that’s like true love and that’s enduring.”
3. Agree to disagree, but don’t be disagreeable.  According to Wooden, “We can agree to disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable.”
4. Be on time, no profanity, and don’t criticize.  Wooden learned this from his Dad.  He had three rules for the students he coached: 1) never be late (start on time and close on time), 2) not one word of profanity, and 3) never criticize a teammate.
5. It’s not whether you won or lost, it’s if you played your best game.   If you won, but didn’t play your best, then you didn’t really win.  If you lost, but you played your best, then you didn’t really lose.  Wooden said, “Never mention winning.  My idea is that you can lose when you outscore somebody in a game, and you can win when you’re outscored.”
6. Coach for life, not just the game.   Wooden promoted the idea of a “teacher coach.”  Wooden said that as a coach, you “teach” sports.  However, according to Wooden, a coach has to be more concerned about the overall learning, than just the sport or just winning the game.  Wooden said, “It can be done in a way that’s also helping them develop in other ways that will be meaningful forever.”  It’s about building habits and practices that support students for life.   Wooden credits the fact he was a teacher before he became a coach, helped him organize his time better and learn that he has to work with each individual a little differently.
7. Don’t let your limits limit you.   Don’t let limits get in the way.  Wooden — “Don’t let what you cannot do, interfere with what you can do.”
8. Don’t whine, don’t complain, and don’t make excuses.  This is another trio of rules Wooden learned from his Dad — “Don’t whine, don’t complain, and don’t make excuses — you get out there and whatever you’re doing do it to the best of your ability.  No one can do more than that.”
9. Everybody is unique.  As a teacher, Wooden learned early on the importance of paying attention to each individual.  He learned that he had to work with each individual a little differently, and that no two are identical.  They can be alike in many respects, but they aren’t identical.  He learned that each student or player would have different strengths and weaknesses and that he would have to vary his approach to help them unleash their best.
10. Failure is not fatal.  Keep going.  Don’t let setbacks stop you.  Carry your lessons forward, and change your approach.  Wooden said, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
11. Focus on character over reputation.  Your reputation may vary.  It’s your character that counts and it’s what you can control.  Wooden said, “If you make the effort to do the best of which you’re capable, trying to improve the situation that exists for you, I think that’s success and I don’t think others can judge that, and I think that’s like character and reputation.  Your reputation is what you are perceived to be, and your character is what you actually are, and I think the character is much more important than what you are perceived to be.”
12. It’s the company you keep.   Wooden enjoyed being a teacher and a coach because he felt he was in great company and he was shaping the future.  Wooden would say, “those under your supervision are the future.”  According to Wooden, “A coach is like the teacher who once was asked why she taught; they asked me why I teach and I replied, where could I find such splendid company …”  They aren’t just students or players, they are future doctors, etc.
13. It’s the journey.  It’s the getting there that’s fun.  Wooden said, “Cervantes said, ‘The journey is better than the end.’ And I like that. I think that is — it’s getting there. Sometimes when you get there, there’s almost a letdown, but it’s the getting there that’s fun.”  Wooden would say, ““I liked our practices to be the journey, and the game would be the end … the end result.”
14. Journal for reflection and growth.   According to Wooden, he journaled for all his players, and this is a difference that made the difference.   The journal is how he could focus on little distinctions and really fine tune the practices and drills to be more specific and relevant for each player.  It’s how he personalized the practices.  It’s this personalization and paying attention to strengths and weaknesses that really helped him bring out the best in each player.
15. It’s courage that counts.  Courage is what keeps you going.  Wooden said, “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
16. Keep your emotions in check.   Wooden was strict about keeping his players’ emotions in check.  He didn’t want anybody to be able to tell whether his team had won or lost, just by looking at them.  He didn’t want his team to get overly emotional about their wins, or overly emotional about their losses.  Instead, he wanted a focus on whether they played their best and that only each person would know whether they really gave their best for the situation.
17. Make each day your masterpiece.  Wooden made the most of each day, by design.  Wooden – “Make everyday your masterpiece.”
18. Make the effort to be the best you can on a regular basis.  According to Wooden, “If you make your effort to do the best you can regularly, the results will be about what they should be, not necessarily what you’d want them to be, but they’ll be about what they should, and only you will know whether you could do that … and that’s what I wanted from them more than anything else.”
19. Never try to be better than someone else.  This is another lesson Wooden learned from his Dad – “You should never try to be better than someone else.  Always learn from others and never cease trying to be the best you can be.  That’s under your control.  If you get too engrossed and involved and concerned in regard to things over which you have no control, it will adversely affect the things over which you have control.”
20. Patience is a part of progress.   Success comes slowly.  Expect change to happen slowly and to have patience along the way.  Wooden said, “Whatever you’re doing, you must have patience” and “there is no progress without change, so you must have patience.”
21. The score is a by-product.  The score is hopefully a by-product of doing the right things.  Don’t focus on the score, focus on what you’re doing and give your best.  Wooden said, “I wanted the score of a game to be a by-product of these other things, and not the end itself.”
22. The best player is the one who gets closest to reaching their full potential.  According to Wooden, whoever gets the closest to reaching their full potential is the best player.
23. Success is “peace of mind.” Wooden had a simple measure of success – peace of mind.  According to Wooden, “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
24. Lead by example.  Wooden said that way back, during his early years of teaching, a specific saying made a great impression on him – “No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be, nor all the books on all the shelves, it’s what the teachers are themselves.”
25. You’re part of a team.    Wooden truly believed that the sum of the whole is more than the parts.  Wooden would say, “A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player.”

Success Defined
Some people define success in a way that’s perpetually beyond reach.  Wooden defined success in a way that’s within your grasp:

Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable.

Pyramid of Success
John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success consists of a set of philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball and winning at life.

The building blocks of the pyramid are as follows:

• COMPETITIVE GREATNESS
• POISE, CONFIDENCE
• CONDITION, SKILL, TEAM SPIRIT
• SELF-CONTROL, ALERTNESS, INITIATIVE, INTENTNESS
• INDUSTRIOUSNESS, FRIENDSHIP, LOYALTY, COOPERATION, ENTHUSIASM

12 Lessons in Leadership
Here are John Wooden’s 12 lessons in leadership:

• Lesson #1: Good Values Attract Good People
• Lesson #2: Love Is The Most Powerful Four-Letter Word
• Lesson #3: Call Yourself A Teacher
• Lesson #4: Emotion Is Your Enemy
• Lesson #5: It Takes 10 Hands To Make A Basket
• Lesson #6: Little Things Make Big Things Happen
• Lesson #7: Make Each Day Your Masterpiece
• Lesson #8: The Carrot Is Mightier Than A Stick
• Lesson #9: Make Greatness Attainable By All
• Lesson #10: Seek Significant Change
• Lesson #11: Don’t Look At The Scoreboard
• Lesson #12: Adversity Is Your Asset

For more information on Wooden’s 12 lessons in leadership, see his book, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization.

Top 3 Quotes
Here are my top three John Wooden quotes:

1. “Make everyday your masterpiece.”
2. “Be quick but don’t hurry.”
3. “The most important word in our language is love.  The second is balance — keeping things in perspective.”

More Quotes by John Wooden
Here are additional quotes by John Wooden organized by A-Z:

1. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.“
2. “A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player.”
3. “Ability is a poor man’s wealth.”
4. “Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”
5. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
6. “Be prepared and be honest.”
7. “Be quick but don’t hurry.”
8. “Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
9. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
10. “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
11. “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
12. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
13. “Flexibility is the key to stability.”
14. “I liked our practices to be the journey, and the game would be the end … the end result.”
15. “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”
16. “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
17. “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
18. “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
19. “It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”
20. “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
21. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
22. “Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.”
23. “Never mistake activity for achievement.”
24. “Our tendency is to hope that things will turn out the way we want them to, so much of the time, but we don’t do the things that are necessary to make those things become reality.”
25. “Sports are kind of like passion and that’s temporary in many cases, but academics — that’s like true love and that’s enduring.”
26. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
27. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
28. “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”
29. “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”
30. “The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
31. “The most important word in our language is love.  The second is balance — keeping things in perspective.”
32. “The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”
33. “There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.”
34. “There is no progress without change, so you must have patience.”
35. “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
36. “What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.”
37. “Whatever you’re doing, you must have patience.”
38. “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.”
39. “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
40. “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.“

Catalog of John Wooden’s Resources
Wooden has a large collection of books and videos to draw from.  For simple scanning, I organized Wooden’s collection of resources into the following buckets: Sites, Books, and Videos..

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