The Way Back Machine, and There is hope for us all…

I might be late to the game, but I just found out about this “Way Back Machine” thing that is going on. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, like I hadn’t until last week, it is essentially a website that will show you the history of any website in its existence. You can see anything from Google’s first website or remind yourself of your website when it first launched.

Here is the lesson that I learned from it. If apple’s website once looked like this but now can look like this, then there is hope for us all. We all HAVE to keep refining what we do; growing, learning, and changing. If you don’t change, you will be left behind.

Also, Google’s website then and now. Really not that different… Pretty amazing the level of focus, foresight, and consistency that they have been able to show to stay on top of their game, and yet still be so true to who they were from the beginning.

Free Prize Inside – A Book Review

by: Seth Godin

10/10

Elevator Pitch: how to take a product and make it a purple cow, or make it remarkable

Favorite Quotes:

-”If you had unlimited time it would be easy… being hard headed about time is the single best way to make the innovation happen.”

Overview:

This is a great, “get you out of a rut” book. It will make you think. This book, like most of Seth’s stuff, will make you dream of what you can do to your product to make it better. My favorite thing about it though is all the talk about the “Champion” that you should be in your company. Here is what that means…

The owner of the idea becomes the Champion, but the merit of the idea itself doesn’t really matter in wether or not it will be implemented. No, it only matters if you are the type of Champion to get it done. You have to become the type of person in your company that can get the permission, trust, and authority to make your idea happen.

If you want to give it a try, and more importantly if you want to become a champion, check it out…

Launching A Leadership Revolution – A Book Review

7/10

Elevator Summary: One of the most straight forward systems to becoming a successful leader.

Favorite Quotes:

“Often the gap between self-realization and reality is enormous.”

“The difference between leaders and followers is perspective. The difference between leaders and effective leaders is better perspective. Effective leaders have better perspective.”- J. Robert Clinton

“Recognition: babies cry for it and grown men die for it.”

Thoughts:

One of the best books on leadership I have ever read. I really like all of the references to other authors, and thoughts on leadership from the greats. (John Maxwell, John Wooden, etc…) But it did seem a little long, and it was a book on leadership… So…

I will give Kudos to Chris Brady and Orin Woodward, the five stages of leadership that they lay out help you clearly see where you are as a leader, and where you can/should be.

Check it out on Amazon

The One Minute Entrepreneur – (a book review)

by Ken Blanchard

Overall Rating : 9 out of 10

Elevator Summary: This book contains secrets and tips for anyone starting, running or working in a small business. It is a must read for those people. Quick, full of insight, and pretty entertaining.

Favorite quotes:

“Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.”

“4 things you need to remember to be an entrepreneur:

1. Your sales have to exceed your expenses.
2. Collect your bills
3. Take care of your customers
4. Take care of your people (employees)”

If you still aren’t convinced to read this book, then you are just crazy. If you have a passion in life, and want to achieve it, this book in a no brainer. Easy weekend read, and will dramatically simplify your thought process of most important “swings” of your day. The author is the famous Ken Blanchard of “Creating Raving Fans” as well as many other great books.

Please buy this book and read it. It will change your business…

Why you should live in a great story… – (A Book Review)

Live a remarkable life. Live a life with epic and amazing scenes. Live a life that people would want to make a movie about… That is the main thought of this Donald Miller book – “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.”

BUT, don’t do it to have some great small talk at a bar or your next interview. Don’t do it to impress a girl, and most of all, don’t do it so that you feel better about yourself.

Live a beautiful life so that you don’t miss out on the story that God is writing with your life. Don’t sit on the couch and miss the conversation he wants you to have with that certain someone. Don’t just watch a great movie but try to live it out.

In true Donald form, this book is inspiring, but I would hate for people to read it and miss the reason to live a great story. It is to Honor and Glorify God that we should read more and watch less TV; and travel more and sit at home less; invest in people more and play less video games.

If you do it for yourself, then it isn’t honorable. Just selfish…

*Thanks to Jordan Lloyd for the copy of this book, his friendship, and for his investment in my life… Check him out on twitter…

Quotes from the Last Month

I have been to a lot of meetings, and even a conference, and I have a whole notebook full of great quotes from the last month… Here are the highlights:

• You can’t do the courageous thing, unless you truly feel fear.
• Our marriage should be defined by what we do, not what we don’t do.
• Defense destroys – Offense creates
• Nothing is insignificant
• Pull Everyone into the Story
• Ours was Mint M&Ms

Sorry that last one was a quote from a very heated game of Christmas Scategories at a Christmas Party…

Reading a lot

I have 12 books that are unopened, unread, books that I purchased or was given to read. I was trying to set a pace for myself to finish these in a reasonable amount of time when I realized that IF I read one book a week, I won’t finish until sometime in March.

I need to get busy.

You are invited…

To Blog or Not To Blog… That isn’t the question…

The real question is why do you blog. The trick is to find your people. This is something that I think I am still doing. I hope that this blog is a diary of things I learning, AND HOPEFULLY, a resource to those of you that are coming along the way with me. I would love for it to be a dialogue. (that is why i have comments open). So, push and pull. Don’t let me get away with incomplete thoughts. Tell me when I am wrong, or an idiot.

So there you go. You are invited. I don’t make money off of this. I don’t have a secret plan. I just want learn, share, and help others. Lets do it…

Rethink – Book Review

Cutting cost and boosting innovation… Sounds like an interesting title right? I thought so. I also have to admit that I am a sucker for a good book cover. I like the simplicity and thought of this one. But alas, you can’t really judge a book by its cover.

While this book was a little long, (Really this whole book could have summarized as a blog post) it was interesting and had some good insight.  I love the overall thought process, when innovating, you can’t take the WHY you do something for granted when you are redesigning the HOW. You must think about why you do things, and what you are really doing when coming up new ways to figure out how to innovate. Especially when making cost saving changes.

If major change happens everyday as much as it does in the company that I work for then go ahead and pick this one up, and make sure that you don’t get hung up on the length!

Enjoy…

Thank You

To all who check in from time to time to check out this blog, I want to say thank you. This has largely been a place for me to share what I am learning as a twenty something in the working world. I am very aware that I don’t have it all together, and can’t say thank you enough for those that take the time to read.

That is all for today. Thank You!