Book Review: The Spirit to Serve

-MANAGING BY WALKING AROUND

-Figure out how to do something right, then write it down

-By nailing the basics into place, systems allow employees to provide more customized customer service

-Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers

-Listen to the family problems of your associates

-One, most people will do anything to avoid being the bearer of bad news, and two, thank goodness there are a hardy few who won't

-To say the right thing at the right time, keep still most of the time.

-"What do you think?"

-No grunt work=no growth. No growth=no future.

-Change is to business what oxygen is to life - vital.

-Companies that don't risk anything will inevitably find themselves falling behind those that do. You can lead change or it can lead you.

-No tree grows to the sky

-There's a price to be paid for thinking too well of yourself

-Competitors are often your best motivators and, consequently, a key factor in your success

-Part of what gets us out of bed in the morning is the search for new ways to keep customers happy, earn their loyalty, and win more customers.

-The success of our service innovations grows out of two of our most fundamental corporate values: attention to detail and good listening skills.

-The first and most important rule is: Be willing to make a decision.

Book Review: The Little Big Things

Key Points

-It's all about the restroom.

-Boring is Beautiful

-Reward excellent failures. Punish Mediocre Successes.

-Kindness is Free

-Be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle

-Commit acts of deliberate relationship enhancement

-Hire people who's "eyes sparkle"

-Pleasant. Caring. Engaged

-It's showtime all the time

-Make that Three Minute Call right now

-Make an insane public effort

-To Lead is to Measurably help others succeed

-Leaders exist to serve their people. Period.

-"What do you think?"

-"Thank You"

-"I'm Sorry"

-Just say Yes

-"Trying it out" is the most important attribute to winning

-"We have a 'strategic plan'. It's called doing things." - Herb Kelleher

-MANAGING BY WANDERING AROUND

-Cherish the Last Two-Percenters

-Always refer to the generic customer as "She"

-All innovation comes from fury

-He who tries the most stuff wins

-QUIT BLOODY INTERRUPTING

"It was much later that I realized Dad's secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth grade kid in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say."

-Everybody has a valuable story, desperate to escape. Extract a story, make a friend-devotee.

"The difference [between 'worthy' ambition and 'mere' ambition] is well illustrated in the contrast between the person who says he 'wishes to be a writer' and the person who says he 'wishes to write'. The former desires to be pointed out at cocktail parties, the latter is prepared for the long, solitary hours at a desk; the former desires status, the latter a process; the former desires to be, the latter to do."

-Ask

-"So what have you learned since I last saw you"

-If you are constantly on your blackberry, it is mostly because of an...arrogant, consuming sense of self importance totally divorced from reality.

-There's but one question to ask: If I were walking in here as a customer or prospect or new hire, what would I take in - in the first .4 seconds? Where would it score on the 1 to 10 "We care scale"?

-Ask your customers how you are doing

-Every person who makes it into the history books is by definition...insanely disobedient. He or she doesn't "buy the act." He or she has contempt for his-her "betters." And yet we tell our kids in school to "sit still, follow the rules, and behave." (And if they don't, we put them on a polyester or Ritalin or metaphorical leash)

-Incremental solutions in discontinuous times seldom, if ever, work

-Set aggressive targets - forget "incrementalism," go after a 95% reduction in the time it takes to do project X

-The ultimate aim of a business organization, an artist, an athlete, or a stockbroker may be to explode in a dramatic frenzy of value creation during a short space of time, rather than live forever.

-You have to treat your employees like customers

The Power of a Story

I'm presuming this to be the first in a series of entries that will examine the power and influence telling a story can have on someone.

I think I should begin by saying, we suck at telling the fuzzy peach story. We are absolutely horrible at it. I have told the story to no less than 10 different groups. To me, its the 10 or 11 or 12 time I have told it and I have totally lost enthusiasm for telling it. WRONG! What a failure that has been. Every time I tell our story, I need to deliver it with enthusiasm, with charisma, make people think that the fuzzy peach story is the best story they have ever heard.

Whats more important, a brand or a story? Is a brand a brand or is it a great story? Was Steve Jobs and Apple that much better than their competition or was it Steve Jobs' story that propelled Apple? The more I think about it, I think your story makes your brand. If you can deliver a compelling story, (see Toms) people will rally behind your brand. The Fuzzy Peach has a cool story, if we tell it correctly, we should be able to get people to rally behind our brand.

Excellence

Excellence. Always.

If not Excellence, What?

If not Excellence Now, When?

-Tom Peters

How many days in your life do you remember? Today, I rolled out of bed at around 9:30 after staying up until 2:00am. I meandered around the internet, did a little reading, did a little work. I went for a bike ride at about 12:30 then went to the office around 2. We did a little work there then I went to meet one of my reps at 5:00. She was an hour and a half late so I just hung out. Then I came home and watched Jeopardy, rode my bike a little more, then watched a little tv with a babe and read some more. And here I am.

Why did I just tell a tale of my whole day? Because it was incredibly boring. I did nothing Excellent and there is no way I will remember this day or probably 99% of the other days in one's lifetime. Why is that? Do we enjoy the mundane? Are we just naturally lazy? If you don't take a vow to do something Excellent every single day, that day will never matter to you the rest of your life. Do something Excellent now, always, any chance you get. We only get to live once so why waste it with normalcy.

When Success is your Enemy.

As I read Blake Mycoskie's "Start Something that Matters" I began to to compare his journey to success with The Fuzzy Peach journey to success. We made a lot of the same steps, influenced by a lot of the same people including Branson, Godin, and Turner. We both started our business with extreme bootstrapping, neither of us really had any assets to invest except time and a willingness to learn. We both enjoyed early success, not having the problem of "having to get our name out there". But then it dawned on me that maybe success was our enemy. We were so successful so quickly that we felt we were invincible. There's no doubt we still had a lot to learn - I am still learning everyday. So maybe money should have been used wiser. We certainly have not spent money in excess (we own a '92 ford pickup) but we did get out of the stores as quickly as we could. Whereas last summer and fall, I was legitimately devoting 70-80 hours a week to the business, we got away from that this spring. Not working in the stores gave us the freedom to work on the stores, or so we thought. I wonder if we spent too much time working on the stores and not enough in them. I'm thinking we enjoyed our successes too soon and maybe we have since missed out on opportunities by not continuing to boot strap. Of course, if we didn't decide to franchise, we would have $75,000 more in our pockets right now but that was a strategic decision and we need to see it through. I guess my ultimate takeaway from this post is to not enjoy success too soon. Continue to work hard, work lean and instill in your company the values that got you to where you are no matter how fat your bank account might grow.

What does Howard Know?

"One thing about Starbucks is obvious - the coffee is really and truly delicious. The reason is simple. Howard Shultz loves coffee. He refers to everyone who hasn't had their first cup of the day as "precaffeinated." He spent months in Italy, drinking and learning. He has a coffee otaku. Where does remarkable come from? Often it comes from passionate people who are making something for themselves. Are you obsessed or just making a living?"

I've been thinking up this blog for a long time but didn't know where to start it. The above excerpt is from Seth Godin's "Purple Cow". I chose this as the initial post because I think it sets the standard for what our lives, personal and professional, should be all about. It sets the tone for where my life is going and how this blog is going to follow my journey there. If you are not 100% committed, totally obsessed, and in love with what you are doing, why are you doing it?