Re:Focus

There's No Such Thing As Good or Bad

Are you having a good day or a bad day, today?  How do you know?

There is no such thing as good or bad.  They are comparisons to our expectations. They are not grounded in any objective standards and they are always relative - sometimes just in time. 

Is it bad, then, to get laid off? What if you hate your job but the fear of the unknown compels you to stay put.  If you get laid off you may feel a weight off your back and be given the opportunity to explore new things. Is it good to get a job, then? Not if you end up working for people you don't like, doing work that you don't find fulfilling.  I understand the realities of the world require us to make practical decisions, like making a living, but let us not judge the decisions we make or the experiences we have as good or bad.  Lets just consider them all good.

Try it.

If you have a colleague who you think is doing bad work, before you go tell them what is bad, think of one thing that you GENUINELY think is good.  Now consider everything else an opportunity to improve.  And then help them improve.

If you think you're having a bad day, think of one good thing about that day - maybe it's a lesson.  Maybe it's an opportunity to look forward to tomorrow. Or maybe it's just good that you're having a bad day at work when others somewhere else are having a much worse day.  Relatively speaking...to them...you're having a good day. This is what events like the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami, bombs in Baghdad or September 11th do - they remind us that our lives are relative, and our problems are not so bad. Maybe our problems are good.

The people who achieve the most, -the ones who lead, the ones who invent things or the ones who simply wake up every day and love their lives - all share this relative sense of the world.

Thomas Edison, for example, said of things that didn't go right, "I have not failed. I've just found ways that won't work." To perceive failure, you have to have a preconceived and subjective notion of success to make the comparison. Edison had no concept of failure; only lessons of things that didn't work.

My dear friend Keith Hayman understands this better than anyone I know. Not only is he very successful (by conventional Western standards) but he is also one of the happiest people you'll ever meet. He believes there that is no failure, there are only opportunities to try again or try differently.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com

Inside Personal Growth

 

I recently did an interview with Inside Personal Growth, an organization devoted to giving people the ideas and the tools to help them make improvements in their life.  We talked about about Start With Why and what it means to know your Why.

  Here's the link to listen to the interview:Podcast 153: Start With Why with Simon Sinek.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com

A Warning To Kraft: If You Eat Cadbury You'll Get Indigestion

Kraft Foods desire to build a "global powerhouse" as a reason to merge with Cadbury provides a telling glimpse into the future of the combined companies. Completely ignoring the diverse cultures at the two companies can result in one thing and one thing only: failure.

50% of all corporate mergers flat out fail. An additional 25% never make the promised return on investment. In other words, 75% of all corporate mergers aren't worth it. Imagine walking into a CEO's office and saying, "I've got an idea for you with a 75% chance of failure." You'd be laughed out of the room.

But merger's do happen. Companies naively believe that simply because two companies are in the same business, a merger makes perfect sense. But the first line in the Wall Street Journal announcing the failure a few weeks later is always the same, "the cultures didn't mix."

Cadbury was founded on Quaker ethics and built on the philosophy of doing good for others. This permeates their culture as well as their products. Their Why, their cause, has been so clear and so powerful that Cadbury has built a very loyal following of customers and employees. This is what made Cadbury what it is today.

Kraft, in contrast, is a Wall Street driven company that sees the merger as a "logical next step in our transformation toward a high-growth, higher-margin company," as their CEO puts it.

Just because two companies are in the same category, doesn't mean the companies belong together. And the reason is simple: people.

100% of customers are people. 100% of employees are people. Focusing on the "market opportunity" alone and ignoring the people component demonstrates a total lack of understanding of what makes companies run well...and more importantly, what makes two companies run well together.

The rationale that Kraft Foods offers for the hostile takeover of Cadbury demonstrates a total lack of consideration for what makes these kinds of mergers succeed or fail.

In a video statement by Kraft Chairman and CEO, Irene Rosenfeld (click here for transcript), she justifies the merger in order to build a "global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals." In other words, "market opportunity."

It gets worse.

Not only does she use the word, "synergies," to further explain the "value" of this combined company - a word that I thought had all been removed from collective business vocabularies, but those synergies have nothing to do with a collective view of the world, a common Why or even common values. Nope. "Substantial pre-tax synergies as a result of operational efficiencies...and equally important...excellent revenue synergies that come from increased investment in distribution," is how she sees the value of the combination.

Mergers are like marriages. They are the bringing together of two individuals. If you wouldn't marry someone for the "operational efficiencies" they offer in the running of a household, then why would you combine two companies with unique cultures and identities for that reason? Of course, both parties bring specific talents and capabilities that are important to a relationship, but at the end of the day, the people in that relationship have to love each other. They have to want to be together. They have to look at each other and believe this is right. Simply sweetening the dowry will not make the marriage any more successful. It will only make the divorce more expensive.

Sadly, there is a way for a marriage of two such different cultures to succeed. Attrition. If Kraft fires everyone that belongs at Cadbury and completely destroys the "other" culture, replacing it with their own, then the merger will succeed. The question is, do we want to kill Cadbury?

To understand more about how to create successful mergers, read Start With Why.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com

The Best Entrepreneurs Are Like Children

They have to learn to sit up, walk, talk, go to the bathroom, get dressed...everything!

It seems children learn much faster than adults because they have to.

But do kids really learn more or faster than adults?  Aside from the things they have to learn to survive (like eating and walking), kids take in more than adults not because their brains are more developed, but because they have a remarkable innate curiosity. And they ask one question that, for some reason, we stop asking as adults.  They ask why.

Children want to know why things work and why they are not allowed to do something.  For some reason, we become more comfortable as adults settling for the way things are or the way things have to be.  Most don't think to ask why and even fewer think to ask why not.  With one noticeable exception: entrepreneurs.

The best entrepreneurs are like children.  They ask why and they ask why not. They are confounded why someone doesn't change something that can work better.  They don't understand why people say, "that can't be done."  And they have a curiosity that just can't be satisfied.  "Why?" "Why not?" "What if...?"As a population, if something doesn't work or if something can work better, an entrepreneur asks the questions and take the steps to see something is done about it.

There's a huge difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur.  Small business owners own small businesses.  Entrepreneurs ask questions, wonder, explore and solve problems.  They have childlike qualities - they seem to love life like a child, they often have a child like sense of mischief and they have a naivete to believe they can change the world...which is the reason so many of them do.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com

Give Back To Those Who Give

For the past two weeks I toured three Air Bases in Europe - Ramstein and Spangdahlem in Germany and Aviano in Italy.  I spoke to many different audiences, from an audience of nearly 1,000 enlisted men and women to the leadership of US Air Forces in Europe. It was a great honor to serve, just for a few days, those who serve us everyday. And for all the fun of visiting a base and seeing all the military aircraft flying around, the most valuable part of the trip was meeting some of the wounded warriors.

As part of my tour at Ramstein, I was taken to observe the loading of wounded soldiers onto a C-17 transport to take them back to the United States for further treatment.  There is an intensity of seeing these young soldiers on stretchers being stacked on racks in the belly of what looks like a flying warehouse (I didn't take the picture here, but it is exactly what I saw).  I couldn't just stand there and watch, so I walked the cargo hold and thanked every soldier personally and handed them a Token of Inspiration.  I said the same thing to everyone, "I'm a civilian from back home and I'm visiting the base. I want to say thank you to you for all you do for us. Thank you."

What I didn't expect was how valuable simply saying thank you was. These brave Soldiers and Marines shook my hand and took the token and held it tight. The look in their eyes, the gratitude was so powerful. I learned that doing something small, like saying thank you, for example, has a huge impact on those who volunteer to sacrifice.

We can all say thank you. It's simple. I went to the USO office on the base, the group of volunteers that looks after the our men and women in uniform while they are away, and asked what they needed from back home.  Here is the list they gave me.

Please join me in saying thank you, do something small that will have a huge impact.

There is an immediate need for:

• Backpacks
• Duffle bags 
• Jackets - S-XL
• Scarves, gloves, beanies
• DVDs - new releases (NO war related or overly violent movies)
• Microwavable food

Please do not send used clothing.  New only.

Though not an immediate need, they are also always in need of:

• Nintendo Wii Games
• PS3 or PS2 Games
• XBox 360 Games
• DO NOT send first person shooting games, war games, etc. 
• Shower shoes
• Travel sized shaving cream
• Toothpaste - travel size only
• Toothbrushes
• Men's and Women's Pajama/workout pants/sweatpants/sweatshirts  S-XL (NO USED ITEMS)
• Power Bars (or any other protein/nutrition bars)
• iTunes gift cards
• Cookies (any kind)
• Snacks (rice crispy treats, candy bars, popcorn, fruit snacks, etc)

Please send your donations to:

USO Kasierslautern

Attn: CASF USO

CMR 488

APO, AE  09088

There is one other thing that I saw on the tour that is not on the list. On every bed of every wounded soldier sits a card from a child from back home. These handmade cards are on their pillows, waiting for them, when they are assigned a temporary bed. If you have kids, perhaps they can make some cards to say thank you also. 

Though you won't see the impact of theses gifts you give - take it from me - it matters.  It all matters.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com

Two Types of Experts

There are two kinds of experts, academic experts and practical experts. One is not better than the other, but they are very different and each offers very different value. 

As its name conveys, the academic expert is just that - academic.  To become an academic expert takes years of studying. Academic experts are experts in how and what others have done. They use case studies and observation to understand a subject. Regardless if their expertise comes from quantitative or qualitative research, whenever they comment on a question they will reply with words like, "I have observed that..." or "in many cases..." or "the data shows."

The second type of expert is the practical expert. The practical expert gains his or her understanding for a subject by actually doing it. They didn't study what they did...they just did it.  When they answer questions, they often reply with words like "in my experience."

Academic experts may not be good at doing what they are experts in themselves, but they are good at explaining the subject matter to others. They write books,  teach courses and offer lessons and give steps others can follow.

Practical experts may be good at doing what they they know about, but they are not always good at explaining how or what they did in clear enough terms that others can can learn from or follow their lead. Listen to an interview with Richard Branson or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and see if you can build a business based on the instructions they offer - it's damn near impossible.

Unlike academic experts, practical experts didn't set out to become experts, they set out to solve a problem and gained expertise in the process. Ironically,  most practical experts started with a total lack of experience in whatever they became an expert.   Just the three examples I offered - Branson, Jobs and Gates...as well as many other highly successful entrepreneurs...started their businesses when they were in their early 20's and knew very little about building a business let alone a huge corporation.  And that was their advantage.  Practical experts are unencumbered by what others have done or "the right way to do things." They were forced to figure things out themselves which is how they gained their practical expertise.

Constant observation is how an academic expert gains his or her expertise. They study those who have succeeded or failed. Practical experts, in contrast, try and fail more than they succeed, but their drive to never quit until they solve a problem is the defining factor that earns them their expert status.  Anyone else would simply be someone who tried and trying alone doesn't make you an expert.

The academic expert is not better than the practical expert, we need both.  The practical experts do the things that the academic experts can observe and translate into actionable lessons for others. But never has their been someone who was able to achieve great success by precisely following all the steps of any academic expert.  It just wouldn't be practical. The practical experts are driven by their gut. They trust their feelings and they "read" the situation and are driven by finding a solution. And whether they like to admit it or not, the work of the academic experts gives the practical expert lots of information to assimilate and adapt where they deem fit.  The difference is, the practical expert, as their name conveys, only takes or uses the parts that make sense them them.

Entrepreneurs must be practical experts. They needn't set out to be subject matter experts in what they do,  they must set out to solve a problem or pursue some cause or purpose greater than themselves. With a clear understanding of Why they are setting out they will take the practical steps to blaze new paths that others, with some academic help, may follow suit.

Find out Why at StartWithWhy.com