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.