My Summer Reading

I recently finished:

1. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  How to cope with The Resistance (i.e. procrastination, default to the status quo, etc.) whenever you attempt something creative or self-improvement.

2. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  Very interesting book about why ideas become popular. It provides lessons from fables, proverbs, and urban myths to improve education and business communication.

3.  The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.  The first murder mystery with Nick and Nora Charles.

4.  Return of the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.  Two more novellas with Nick and Nora Charles.  Based on scripts from two of the movies from the film series that starred William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Notes From Reading "The War of Art" By Steven Pressfield

Yesterday, I attended the quarterly business book club run by the Naperville Chamber of Commerce.

We discussed the book "The Art of War" by Steven Pressfield (Author of "The Legend of Bagger Vance").

Here are my notes:

1. The Resistance = Procrastination, unhappiness.

2. Self-doubt is an ally: "The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death."

3. Fear = good.  Fear tells us what we have to do. If it's good for growth, we will feel resistance and fear.  The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch.  He's scared, petrified.

Conversely, the professional turns down roles he's done before.  No longer afraid.  Why waster his time?

4. Support from others is monopoly money.  We have to face Resistance alone.

5. Healing - A form of resistance.  Warrior just does the work.  When Pressfield down, he sat and wrote junk, but doing the work was enough - he then washed dishes while whistling.

6. If feel resistance, then you are doing what you love.  Opposite of love is indifference.

7. Need isolation to do best work - the muse takes over and we lose track of time.
8. Combat Resistance by turning pro = learn to be miserable.

9. Pro really does it for love, but attitude is he does it for pay: working stiff, lunch pail, hard hat, no mystery or drama, day in and day out.

10. Artistic professional like 9-5 job: do it every day, but not defined by it.

11. Professionals, no excuses. if give in to Resistance once, then twice as easy next time.

12. Love the work, but its not you.  Don't take success or failure personally.

13. Pros: self-validate, play it as it lays.

14. Pros establish professional order.

15. Professional is patient.  Resistance uses enthusiasm against you.  Long haul.  Success takes twice as long as you think.

16. professional demystifies: Amateur = must conquer fear.  Pro = Can't overcome fear, live with it and keep plugging away.

17. Order from chaos.  Tap into creativity, muse.  Ideas just come to us if we plug away long enough.

18 hierchy vs. territorial. Schools / work hierarchies.
    Pros are territorial (i.e. Swartzenegger gym).  Territory gives what you put in.
   
19. Motivation hierarchy or territory?
       1. if anxious, what do you do?  (Shwartzeneggar would go to gym)
       2. If last person on earth, would you still do it?

The Global Economy: Panama Canal and South Carolina

The Panama Canal is almost 2,000 miles away from South Carolina yet, as an illustration of how globally connected world economies are today, the upgrades to the Canal are having a profound affect on Greenville, SC.

The widening of the Canal means larger ships can pass through which, in turn, mean that it's now cost-effective to ship cargo directly from Asia to the East Coast.  Warehouses and transportation networks (plus jobs) need to be created, and South Carolina has a edge over other Eastern cities, in terms of cheap labor and real estate.

My Breakfast Talk: Turning A Potential Negative into a Positive

This morning, I gave a breakfast talk at my local chamber of commerce. 

It went great, but it could have been in crisis before it started!

Last night, they sent an email saying that the normal conference room they use for talks (which was large, and had an overhead projector / screen for Powerpoint) was severely damaged by a water leak, so they had to move the event to a much smaller conference room.

It meant no projector and, instead of everyone seated comfortably in a large room, they were crammed tightly around a table that took up most of a tiny room.

Instead of panicking, I turned the situation into a strength. I didn't use Powerpoint. Instead, I just talking with them.

I had access to the backgrounds of the business owners, so I used them in my examples. They stopped and paid attention.

It also started a discussion. I ended up only talking for 1/2 the time, and they talked with each other, on my topic (strategic innovation), the info I gave, and their situations.

At the end, they were energized, and I had at least one person interested in doing business with me. A lawyer with an independent practice said he had a corporation as a client who could use my help.

Info World Article: 7 deadly career mistakes developers make

I was quoted in a recent Info World Article:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3069558/application-development/7-deadly-career-mistakes-developers-make.html

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) For Innovation

Most of the common KPIs that executives typically look at are good for measuring the financial performance of their organizations.

But, what are some useful KPIs for measuring innovation?

Here are 2 of them:

1. What percentage (%) of revenue / profits are derived from products / services that are less than X years old?

2. Your average sales price (per unit)?

You want both of these metrics to be increasing.

The first KPI helps you track how successful your organization is at creating new products and services that your customers actually value and want to buy.

The second KPI will tell you if your pricing power is increasing (By making it per unit, you discount the effects of customers buying in greater volume).  An increasing average unit price indicates that your customers are receiving (and paying for) increased value, and don't regard your products  / services as a commodity.

The Joker's Tattoos: Innovative Content Marketing For "Suicide Squad"

To promote this summer's "Suicide Squad" movie (based on the D.C. Comics series where the government uses villains to complete dangerous missions), the producers went beyond trailers.

As an example of synergy between content marketing the film, and the film itself,  the movie is giving the Joker tattoos for the first time.  Now, to publicize the film, the producers are revealing that the tattoos contain meanings and hidden "Easter Eggs" based on the long comics history of the joker.

There are two lessons for business:

1. Are there any neat stories behind your products and services that can "edutain" prospects and draw attention to your business?

2. Can you build interesting content into your business that you can later use for marketing?

© 2016 Praveen Puri