By Roy H. Williams (go to MondayMorningMemo.com to listen to this memo.)
I’ve never seen a business fail due to reaching the wrong people. But if you listen to advertising sales reps, “reaching the right people” will solve all your problems.
And guess who has exactly the right people for you?
Two weeks ago, Roy Williams sent out Part I of a series on Archetypal Patterns.
Last week was Part II. Today, comes Part III. For small business owners, these are mandatory reading.
I'm going to send you on an adventure. Read them both, but read them on his site. Be sure to follow the rabbit down the hole by clicking on the images in the memo. Keep clicking on images until you get to the bottom of the hole.
Warning: Don't follow the rabbit hole unless you have a few spare minutes to play in the woods.
Do athletic kids read Wheaties boxes, or do the readers of Wheaties boxes become athletes?
In part one of this series, Roy H. Williams helps us see how our brains strive to conform our lives to the patterns we pay attention to.
In today's P.S. on the memo, he mentions a seminar being hosted by our U.K. Partner, John Cassidy-Rice on May 13. Peter Nevland will be there. I've got travel plans elsewhere that week or I'd jump across the pond. If you can make it, you should. Hanging out with Peter is always a good time.
I think you'll like today's memo...
Continue reading "Monday Morning Memo: Archetypal Patterns" »
By Roy H. Williams
TIGER ONE:
Are you trying to Grow a business, Build a career, Overcome an obstacle?
"Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history." – Joan Wallach Scott
Ferocity is a wondrous tool.
STOP. Read no further
1. if you are proud of your passivity,
2. if you are offended by reading a vulgar word (as opposed to
seeing it represented by a first letter and a series of dashes,)
3. if you are angered by your own mortality.
TIGER TWO:
"When the stars threw down their spears and watered heaven with their
tears, did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make
thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright in the forests of the night, what
immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?" – William Blake,
(1757-1827)
Yes, Blake was right. He who gently made the lamb made the tiger also.
Ah, ferocity is a wondrous tool.
Pursue your goals with ferocity and singularity of purpose.
[There's a lot more...continue reading at MondayMorningMemo.com]
If you're considering a name change for your company (or a name for a new company) in the coming year, you should definitely have a look at Roy H. William's latest Monday Morning Memo. It may also convince you to attend your first Wizard Academy.
You'll want to read the entire memo, but here's a quote:
Here's a general overview:
Open Big. Close Big. FMI-LMI
Make us see it clearly. "Memorable" is more important than "Accurate." Be accurate if you can. But above all, be memorable.
Verbs have magnetism. The most vivid order is Verb First, Object Last. But this is not a likely construct for a place name. "We train champions" is an example of verb first, object last.
Modifiers are a mark of weakness. Delete them at every opportunity. Mark Twain said it this way, "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will edit it and the writing will be just as it should be."
The Cashier Con is the Monday Morning Memo from Roy Williams today. He's talking about a trend where businesses show their disdain for their customers by taking advantage of them through sneaky offers at the cash register. You'll recognize them. You'll nod your head in agreement.
I've also noticed a trend toward simply assuming your customers are stupid. Unfortunately, this is often (wrongly) justified by the acts of a few of your customers who really are stupid. For example, it just takes a few out of the hundreds of people on a 747 to act like knuckleheads and a flight crew starts treating everyone like babies for the rest of their careers.
I had a 6-hour layover in Los Angeles last month before flying to Australia. I opted to get a day-rate room at a hotel near LAX to freshen up, wash some laundry (I'd already been on the road 4 days) and rest a bit. This sign was actually in the bathroom. My guess is that some years ago, some poor soul clogged the toilet with too much paper and the manager or the maintenance guy had a hissy-fit resulting in these signs. They now insult the intelligence of every customer for the mistake, misfortune or even prank of one person. Guess what? I wasn't that person. Why are you yelling at me with your sign?
Do you have any signs, policies or procedures in your business that could be insulting to your customers? How would you know? The best course of action is to hire an outsider to come in and have a look around. We call it uncovery. It's the only way to see yourself real.
We were gathered in Austin from Australia, Canada and all over the U.S. for our annual partner meeting when Roy got the news about Alberto Mendieta. In today's memo he remembers Alberto for what he helped accomplish. You can read it at Wizard Academy, but I suggest instead that you read it at the Chapel Dulcinea site and then look at Alberto's beautiful accomplishment.
In this week’s Momday Morning Memo, Roy Williams shares a thought that’s been “tumbling around” in his head lately. Democracy, Socialism and Communism and how they relate to the American Dream and a business economy. I suggest you read the entire memo.
The nugget of advice is to never introduce democratic principles into a business environment.
The business should be a dictatorship. I agree. There must be one person who takes ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of the company. This works ideally in a small company where a bad dictator/owner will be financially crushed by poor dictatorship. In a publicly traded company the dictator is usually removed from any personal harm by the nefarious democratic control of a board of directors and their compensation committee. Go ahead, name a CEO of a large publicly traded company who has ever been harmed by poor dictator skills.
Now…the day after Roy’s memo…into my in-box this morning comes an email from Despair Inc. with their new video podcasts. The perfect example of a malignant company dictator. The videos are hilarious and a little sad, but mainly hilarious.
Sure you need to be a dictator, but there’s no good reason to be an ass about it.
Remember, your subjects can always find another dictator, or stake their claim in the economy and start their own. No need to stick it to “the man” when you can become “the man.”
Monday Morning Memo for December 12, 2005
[I just hate it when Roy gives out our top-secret breakthrough methods. As silly as this may sound to some of you tightly-bound analyticals, this really works! -Dave]
By Roy H. Williams
People tell me they want to learn to think outside the box.
No problemo. The secret is to stay out of the box to begin with.
You crawl into the box when you think about your problem and wrap its known obstacles around you. So quit. Focus instead on an interesting saying, quote, or phrase unrelated to your problem. Crawl inside that bit of wisdom and look at your problem from this cozy new perspective. Don't be surprised if your chosen phrase works like Ali Baba's "Open Sesame," and throws open the door to innovation, wealth, and recognition.
The secret to conjuring powerful strategy – also known as coming up with The Big Idea – is to free your beagle. Abandon the linear, sequential logic of your brain's left hemisphere and engage the pattern recognition of the right.
Last week I wrote to you about commitment, persistence. I had a reason.
"Just as a dog guards a bone safely between its paws when not actively chewing it, creative people nurture an idea even when not actively thinking about it… Creativity does not result from mysterious visions that come in dreams, or from fortuitous circumstances. Creativity and persistence are synonymous. Constantly thinking about the problem, consciously and unconsciously, maximizes the possibility that a chance occurrence is likely to be useful in solving it." – Dr. Richard Cytowic, neurologist
Pick a problem that's had you handcuffed. Now let's create a "chance occurrence" like the one mentioned by Cytowic. We're going to...
Monday Morning Memo for December 05, 2005
By Roy H. Williams
Determination is emotional, a moment of intense focus with clenched jaw and the visualization of a mission accomplished.
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.
I've known men like Casey, haven't you? All hat, no cattle? Big bravado, little substance? An alligator mouth with a baboon butt?
I'm sorry, but "merely determined" people seem shallow to me. Like Casey at the Bat, they get themselves all worked up, then just as quickly get unworked and wander off to do something else. Determination is transient.
But commitment is irrevocable, a decision that never looks back.
Ask someone you admire how they accomplished what they did, and they'll likely tell you a story of despair and the strong temptation to chuck it all, throw in the towel and quit. But they didn't. They hung on a little longer. And then one more day. And another…
Big things happen for the truly committed on the far side of the breaking point, long after the merely determined have quit and gone home. Does this sound unreasonable to you? Consider the words of George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
George Bernard Shaw understood commitment.
So did Margaret Mead. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has."
Commitment steps up to pay the price when mere Determination runs for cover.
I speak of marriage, faith, and business.
In chapter 19 of the first book of Kings, Elijah, in a dark mood, runs to a cave in the wilderness and pours out his complaints to God, who instructs him to go and find Elisha, son of Shaphat, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Elijah found him and draped his cloak around Elisha's shoulders. Recognizing that he'd been chosen to finish the job begun by Elijah, Elisha immediately slaughtered his oxen and cooked their meat over the fires of his plowing equipment. Elisha gave the meat to his co-workers and family, then set out to follow Elijah and become his attendant.
Elisha, a farmer, killed his oxen and burned his plow, leaving himself nothing to fall back on.
That, my friend, is commitment.
Is there anything to which you are truly and deeply committed? Is there anything for which you would kill your ox and burn your plow?
On the day you can answer yes, you will have learned what it means to be genuinely happy.
Roy H. Williams
PS – Commitment. Are you beginning to understand why Chapel Dulcinea, a wedding chapel, was the first building to be constructed on the campus of Wizard Academy?
PPS – Our first Christmas Gift for you is a free, MP3 music download of an instrumental guitar solo by the renowned Phil Sheeran. Mother of Sorrows is an introspective melody that will slow your heart rate and change your mood. Phil created this probing, haunting melody, then gave it as a gift to Chapel Dulcinea at Wizard Academy. And now we're sharing it with you. Enjoy. We'll have another gift for you next week.
