Steven
Key takeaways:
Inspiring, but not particularly revolutionary if you have listened to Bigger Pockets for more than five minutes.
Key Takeaways:
Many of these concepts were not new to me but sometimes they were presented in a new way that grabbed me.
- Everyone in your workplace should use the same vocabulary and concepts. This allows everyone to move in the same direction and align quickly.
- Are you providing a little value to many people or a lot of value to a few people?
- People need to want what you offer. Don't build a product you think is great then try to force people to want it. Find out what they want and build that product.
- Every business is trying to satisfy a need in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The more needs you can meet (and touching on several different levels) the more appealing you will be.
- Often when someone is buying a product, the way it makes them feel or the perceived social status is as important as it's other value. Add social status considerations into your sales pitches.
- Competition is good. It means you have a viable product. It also means you can piggyback on the hard work and innovation of other people.
- Sometimes projects that don't make a lot of money are worth pursuing for the experience or good will you gain.
- 12 Forms of Value: Product, Service, Shared Resource (gym, library, etc.), Subscription, Resale (acquire a product and resell it), Lease/Rental (temporarily grant the use of an asset for a fee), Agency (acting as an intermediary to bring together buyers and sellers), Audience Aggregation (attract a large group of people then sell access to that audience), Loan, Option, Insurance, Capital
- Customer attention is limited. Customers filter their attention, allocating more resources to things they care about. How do we get around their filters? How can we piggyback on something our customers are already paying attention to? When competing for someone's attention, you are competing against everything else in their world. To earn their attention, you need to be more interesting or more useful than all the alternatives. You only care about the attention of people who are likely to purchase from you.
- The best way to cut through the distractions and get someone's attention is to make them feel curious, surprised, or concerned.
- It's not about having the biggest customer base, it's about having the best customer base.
- What is the entry point for our potential customers? If you get to them first, any future or competing offers will have to measure up to yours. For example, Huggies sends free diapers to hospitals and expectant parents. Now, if a diaper is missing a feature that Huggies has, you'll likely prefer Huggies, even if the other diaper is better in other ways.
- How addressable is your target market? It's unlikely to see a conference for people suffering with IBS where you can set up a booth. They would be much more effectively reached through ads on internet chat boards, or services like WebMD, or directly marketing to doctors. On the flipside, if you sell software that can revolutionize customer relationship management, you would likely find success in a booth at a tradeshow where you can actually talk to people and demo it.
- When someone is considering buying something, it's often a theoretical brain exercise, not an emotional thing. When you go for a test drive in a new car, it shifts from a theoretical, fact based decision to an emotional experience. It's much harder to engage your rational brain after the test drive. You're no longer thinking about how much horsepower it has, because you have felt the horsepower. How do we allow people to test drive our products?
- Framing is emphasizing some details and leaving out others. It would take way too long to go through every facet and feature of your product. Select the aspects your prospective customer cares about most. Be conscious of which parts you are highlighting.
- Present your offer. Discuss or clarify any issues the other party has. Answer objections. Remove obstacles. Ask for the sale.
- You're not a salesperson, you're an assistant buyer. You're not pressuring them to give you their money, you're helping them find a solution to a problem.
- Reciprocity. If you do something for someone, they start to feel like they owe you–even something as small as offering them a coffee or snack when they sit in your office.
- Reactivation is often easier than finding a completely new customer. We should have a list of all members that close accounts or payout loans. We can email them every three months with an invitation to come back. Include a special offer in your email.
- Zappos offers free expediated shipping on all orders. Customers are told their order should arrive in 5 business days. It usually arrives next day. What is our equivalent? How to we go above and beyond to surprise our members with exceptional service?
- It's not enough to have a great system or process. You need to maintain that system or process and keep driving it forward.
- Don't always feel the need to ‘compete'. Find your own niche and be really good at it. Blackberry tried to keep up with iPhone, but by the time they launched, iPhone had already iterated so many times, they couldn't catch up.
- The purpose of financial analysis is to make better decisions. If your data is bad, your analysis will be wrong.
- The four ways to increase revenue: 1) Serve more people. 2) Increase value of each transaction. 3) Increase the frequency of transactions per customer. 4) Increase prices.
- What is the lifetime value of a customer? If you sell little souvenirs in a place travelers aren't likely to visit again, their lifetime value is low. If you make thousands of dollars each year on their mortgage, their lifetime value is high. Lifetime value can be used to determine how much it is worth spending to attract a new customer.
- Fixed vs. variable costs. Fixed costs (salaried employees, rent on office space, etc.) are the same each month. Variable costs (raw materials, usage based utilities, hourly workers, etc.) will change in direct proportion to the amount of business you do. Savings in fixed costs accumulate, but savings in your variable costs are amplified by volume. If you make t-shirts and you save $1 per shirt made, your saving increase as you make more shirts, compared to saving $5 on your cell phone bill each month.
- Collect 70% of available information, then make a decision.
- Why is default time for meetings one hour? Like a gas will fill a container, so will your time. If we only had 10 or 20 minutes for a meeting, often we could get the same amount done without all the fluff.
- Keep teams small, elite, and surgical. Avoid communication overhead. The bigger the team gets, more time is spent on communication, less on the work.
- When you ask someone to do something, give them a reason, even if it is small.
- Use testimonials. Celebrity endorsements work because people like, ‘know', and trust them. A celebrity endorsement transfers that trust to you. The same works with a referral from a friend.
- If you lead people and want their thoughts, be very careful sharing your opinion tell after they have shared theirs. Often they will be influenced by your thoughts and you might not get their true opinions.
- Pygmalion effect. Expect more from people and they will give you more. They will live up to your expectations, whether good or bad.
- Gaul's Law: All complex systems that work have evolved from simpler systems that worked. A complex system designed from scratch will not work. Start building the simplest system that meets your needs. Then improve it. Eventually you will have a complex system.
- As soon as you fix one constraint or bottleneck, the next slowest part will become the bottle neck. Going through the cycle of fixing a bottleneck more often and quicker will result in a rapidly improving system.
- Second order effects: Actions have consequences, and those consequences will have consequences. Make changes to complex systems extremely carefully.
- Measuring the wrong thing is worse than measuring nothing. It can distract you from what is truly important.
- If you analyze bad data, your analysis will be bad.
- Intervention bias and null hypothetical. When something happens, you will be tempted to act. This can often lead to bigger problems than just letting things ride. Act carefully.
- When optimizing a system adjust one variable at a time so you can ensure your actions are making the difference you want.
- Make something 85% good enough then move on. Driving for complete perfection will slow you down more than that last 15% is worth and that last 15% might not even be possible.
- Innovate, then slow down and take time to consolidate and maintain what you built.
Key takeaways:
- I often remind myself how fortunate I am to be alive at this time in history. I've never been more grateful than I am as I finish this book. I can't imagine watching my family starve to death, knowing that no matter what I do, I can't fix it. It's heartbreaking knowing that there are many people in this position around the globe even now.
- This book wasn't intended to teach any financial lessons, but it was a good reminder to be cautious with money, even in the good times. It is easy to forget that hard times will likely come again.
- Be kind. You don't know what others are going through. In most cases, if you are better off than someone, luck played a big role in your circumstances.
Key takeaways:
- Risk/compliance are among the most important roles in a financial institution. They should not be silenced or sidelined.
- If something is too complicated to understand, avoid it.
- Don't get suckered into the new, flashy, sexy products. If you decide to explore new areas, don't invest more than you can afford to lose.
- Even the ‘smartest' people missed a lot during this crisis. Don't pretend to be smart to fit in. If something doesn't work or doesn't make sense don't be embarrassed to ask questions.
- When moving into new areas or developing new products, look for what could go wrong. Put aside your optimism for this. Think 30 moves ahead.
- Capital requirements are not your enemy.
- Look for connections and interdependency. You can run a great organization, but you are still exposed to the errors of your counterparties.
- Don't ignore warning signs. Always consider them.
- Exercise your pessimism muscles.
- Something can ALWAYS go wrong
A bit slow moving, with a big emphasis on the research the divers did in order to identify this sunken U-boat and U-boats in general.
Interesting read, it just felt way too long. I felt like each chapter could have been a few paragraphs and I would have had the same takeaways from this book.
Key takeaways:
- I liked this book. It helped me understand my style, why I am the way I am, and how to use my personality to be successful.
- This book started out really well, then I feel like the back half lost a lot of steam. I think this is probably a consequence of publishers requiring books to be a certain length. I understand why they do this, as I would probably have a mental block against buying a book that was only 50 pages, yet it is unfortunate because this book would have been more powerful if it was only 50 pages and left out some of the other ‘fluff'.
- The plane crash game seemed really powerful. 1. You have a list of 15 or so items recovered from a plane crash. You have to rank them in order of usefulness. 2. You get into groups to rank them. 3. Compare your individual and group rankings against the ‘answer key' created by a wilderness survival expert. If any individual scores higher than the group, you lose! It helps teach the importance of getting everyone's ideas and making sure to include the quieter group members.
- Presentation skills vs ideas. It is easy to get swept up by a good presenter even if their ideas aren't good. At the same time it is easy to ignore someone has good ideas but bad presentation.
- Right Solutions is a tech company that has employees submit ideas through an online portal. This helps offset the good idea/good presenter problem.
- The bus to Abilene: If someone suggests an idea because they think it is what someone else wants, and everyone else agrees because they think it is what the first person wants, you are on the bus to Abilene. You don't want to go to Abilene.
- “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”
- When Jim Collins was writing Good to Great, he found all of the companies were led by a quiet, unassuming CEO. The people who worked with these CEOs described them as “quiet, humble modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated.” Collins says, “The lesson is clear. We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos, but the institutions they run.”
- Re-read 2:04:30 for about five minutes. Good conversation about CEOs.
- Open floor plan offices don't seem to work. They lead to lower productivity, impair memory, high staff turnover, sickness and hostility.
- Since reading Range, by David Epstein I have been a big believer in innovation and groups of people from diverse backgrounds working together to solve problems. I had always assumed doing that as a group was the answer. This book suggests that it would be far better to give people time to consider the problems ahead of time, then after they have had a chance to brainstorm privately, you should get them together in a group.
Key takeaways:
I'm struggling. I think there was a lot of good content in this book, but it was hard to see through all the self promotion.
- The COO is not responsible for doing things, rather ensuring things get done.
- Sometimes you need a COO to obey and execute, sometimes you need a COO to challenge you.
- You don't need to be an expert, you just need to hire experts, then get the best out of them. Use the Socratic method.
- Don't make decisions by yourself. Help your experts make the decisions. Empower, don't rescue.
- Momentum creates momentum. Get things done, don't worry about making them perfect. The momentum will carry the projects towards perfection.
- People don't fail, systems fail.
- Aim for systems that can be written on a post-it note that someone with an MBA and someone who has never run a lemonade stand can both execute.
- If the rate of change outside your business is faster than inside, you're out of business.
- Cameron talks about creating an operating manual for yourself that others you work with can read. What frustrates you? What are your principles? What do you expect from others? What excites you? etc. Give people a quick overview of who you are, what to expect from you, and what you will expect from them.
- Break down your plans: annual targets, quarterly plans, monthly touchpoints, weekly activities, daily actions.
- We need to give more thought to interviewing process and annual performance reviews. 3:12:32 in the audiobook.
- The COO and CEO should be friends. Spend time together away from the office once a week or so. Build trust and friendship. Read the same books and talk about them.
- Developing people is more important than getting stuff done.
- Delegating is asking “Who else could do what I'm doing now?”
- Don't speak first and squash the discourse. Encourage everyone to contribute.
Key takeaways:
- Kids are a lot more like adults than we often believe. Many of the tools we use to interact with kids work on adults. The opposite is also true
- Validate feelings. All feelings are acceptable, not all behaviours are
- Consequences and punishment are not the same
Very enjoyable read. I can see why it is a classic. I will read it again when the story becomes foggy.
Key takeaways:
- War is terrible
- As a leader, manager, general, etc., be aware of how far removed you are from the realities of your team
- Know why you are doing what you are doing. When the cost outweighs the benefit, be honest with yourself. Avoid the sunk-cost fallacy
Key takeaways:
- Find a way to be content in all circumstances.
- Live your life with your end in mind.
- If the culture doesn't work for you, don't use it.
Key takeaways:
- Saying “I think” or “I feel” is a lot different than saying “I am”. “I feel stressed” instead of “I am stressed” allows us to recognize those thoughts/feelings as activities of our brains and think about them more objectively. It allows us to reframe our experiences and have more control over our actions. We can perceive a thought, instead of just have it.
- When adults perceive and reflect back the feelings of a child, it allows the child to understand their own mind with clarity. This is the foundation of mindsight.
- The tripod of reflection: Openness, observation, and objectivity. To regain control of the mind after we have lost it we need the power of reflection that is at the heart of mindsight. Mindsight emerges as our communication with others and with ourselves, allows us to reflect on who we really are and what is going on inside us.
- Reflection requires an attunement to the self that is supportive and kind, not judgmental.
- Secure attachment means your child will miss you when you leave the room, actively greet you when you return, often with physical contact, but then quickly returns to normal and can continue to play without you. They will be easy to soothe and quick to return to their previous activities.
- The brain responds to the focus of attention. It can change, throughout the lifetime.
- Receptive vs reactive. When someone tells you how they are feeling, can you be receptive to it and try to understand, or do you react? Specifically with feedback.
- Listening to someone is not just trying to hear what they are saying, but feeling what they are feeling.
- The ‘mind' isn't just the brain. You have a nervous system that connects your whole body. A knot in your stomach, tightness in your chest, flushed cheeks, etc., are all part of your ‘mind'. Listen to those signals, they are telling you something important.
Key takeaways:
- This book felt like it never ended, perhaps because it wasn't what I expected. It focused a lot on origins of debt and debt in an abstract form, how we never had a true barter system, and not much on our current debt environment, which is what I had been expecting.
Key takeaways:
- Great job writing about a complex topic and making it accessible. Many excellent metaphors were used throughout the book that nicely demonstrated concepts in a way that was easy to understand not just what was happening, but also why and how.
- I liked the section that talked about faith, but I think for a very different reason than Mr. Dawkins intended. He argues that faith is a handicap causing people to ignore evidence, and have such strong beliefs that they are willing to kill or be killed. Of course I would argue my faith is based on evidence and that the blind faith he describes is not the way that I approach my belief system. The part I found especially compelling was where he described faith as something that causes all kinds of evil in the world. I agree that I have seen that in many people, however my faith has pushed me to be more nice, kind, honest, and selfless than I would otherwise have been. I think my faith has been a net benefit to the world, at least in recent years, as my faith has evolved greatly.
Key takeaways:
- First impressions matter, a lot!
- I really liked the chapter on Nassim Taleb's investment strategy. (Black Swan, by Nassim Taleb)
- Typical interviewing questions don't work well. People prepare their answers, based on what they think you want. “When you have an interview with someone and have an hour with them, you don't conceptualize that as taking a sample of a person's behavior, let alone a possibly biased sample, which is what it is. What you think is that you are seeing a hologram, a small and fuzzy image but still the whole person.” Give them a hypothetical: “At your weekly team meetings, your boss unexpectedly begins aggressively critiquing your performance on a current project. What do you do?” or, “You're
in a situation where you have two very important responsibilities that both have a deadline that is impossible to meet. You cannot accomplish both. How do you handle that situation?” These will tell you much more about a person.
- “If everyone needs to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing.”
- It takes more than a smart group of people, you need a smart organization.
I enjoy Friends and re-watch it every few years. Chandler was always the character I connected with the most. Seeing what Matthew Perry was suffering through while I had so much fun watching Chandler on the screen left me with a bizarre combination of emotions.
Thank you, Matthew Perry, for writing this book and giving me a new understanding of addictions.
Very interesting to read about Jennette's experiences, which are completely different from mine, and I struggle to relate to.
I'm glad I read this book.
“I'm so relatable, I'm just like you. I've grown so much and done so much work on myself.”
It felt like a long, barely interesting story to generate some public sympathy. I'm not entirely sure why I read this book. I don't care about the royal family or celebrities. I care less now, somehow.
Because of my lack of interest, I know very little about the royal family. I doubt they provide a lot of value to the world, and I'd bet they are dysfunctional. Because I don't care to read any more about them, I'll assume this book is 50% accurate and that a book written by the other side of the family would be about as reliable. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
I'm confident growing up in this environment would do weird things to a person. Your mom dying while you were young, the weird family dynamics, the public's inexplicable interest in your life, having every part of your entire life, no matter how trivial, dictated by ‘protocol', and having your actions, wardrobe, friends and romantic partners, word choice, etc. all being heavily scrutinized...You're going to be a weirdo.
What really irked me was the constant concern that he was ‘in danger' because people were taking his photo. I'm a private person, I would hate people following me around, taking my photo, and telling stories about me, but I guess I view that as the cost of having an otherwise exceedingly cushy life. Talking non-stop about wanting privacy, then leaving and seeking out a lot of publicity (books, Netflix specials, interviews with Oprah...) makes it seem as though maybe you like the attention more than you care to admit. I imagine if you leave the royal life behind, and live a completely normal life otherwise, most of the paparazzi will get bored eventually and move on.
“We want to leave the royal family. What? You're cutting us off?” That felt like a pretty obvious eventuality to me. I'm surprised he was surprised on that point.
Sorry you were dealt a bad hand. I'd hate to have had the life you did, but I thought you came across whiny in this book.
I can't imagine going through the suffering these men endured, even worse that many of them had been pressed into service against their will.
I love reading books about sea voyages gone wrong and am always surprised that under these awful circumstances people continue on. I'm quite sure I would jump overboard at the very first hardship.
Key takeaways:
- I enjoyed looking behind the curtain of the CIA.
- Perhaps I wasn't very engaged while reading this book, but I didn't feel like I had very many takeaways from this book.
- The one thing that jumped out at me most is that pride and arrogance are not appealing, especially when talking about yourself. Of course that is obvious, but reading a book like this is a good reminder to watch your tone.
Key Takeaways:
- A great overview of the evidence for evolution.
- I wasn't taught much of anything about evolution until I was already an adult. While in some ways I wish I had been, I don't think I would have found it half as fascinating as I do now.
I read this book a long time ago. Reflecting back, two things stand out to me:
- Hyper inflation and depressions are incredibly difficult to live through. Fortunately, I have not had to live through such things, but will never think about them the same way again.
- Arrogance, the belief that you have all the answers, and an unwillingness to listen to others are the cause of all sorts of problems.
