Re:Focus

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.

Don't Strive To Be A Leading Company, Strive to Lead

Dell is a leading company but Apple leads.  American Airlines is a leading company but Southwest Airlines leads. Kroger's is a leading company with over 2,400 supermarkets, but with only 270 stores both in the US and UK combined, Whole Foods leads.

There is a difference between being a leading company and being a company that leads.  A leading company may have the biggest market share or have the most revenues, but they don't lead the industry.  A company that leads sets the tone for all others to follow.  Though leading companies may be bigger, companies that lead are more innovative, more profitable and command greater loyalty.  

Companies that lead always know WHY.

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What The U.S. Special Forces Know That You Should Also

Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you.  He is training with minimum food or water, in austere conditions.  He doesn’t worry about what workout to do – his rucksack weighs what it weighs and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him.  The True Believer doesn’t care “how hard it is”; he knows he either wins or he dies.  He doesn’t go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the cause.

  Now, who wants to quit?   

These are  the words that hang on a nondescript door, in a nondescript hallway, in a nondescript building on a military base somewhere in the United States.  There is a small plaque next to the door with a room number embossed and the word: SOCom – military speak for Special Operations Command.   What the leadership of SOCom understands so well is that belief is more powerful than resources. Devotion is more potent than technology. And “the cause” is what inspires people to take extraordinary risks or suffer awful conditions for no other reason than to advance the cause.  

Business is no different. 

Apple, Southwest, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Container Store and the handful of other companies that seem to have mystical powers and unbalanced success all have something in common.  They are defined by their cause, not their products or technology. More importantly, they only want to hire “True Believers,” those who believe what they believe.  And for good reason. People who believe what you believe will work for you with blood and sweat and tears.  People who don’t believe what you believe work for your money. Customers who believe what you believe will pay you a premium, suffer inconvenience and give you a lifetime of loyalty.  Customers who don’t believe what you believe will demand that you offer them a cheaper price and even if you do, they’ll still never be satisfied.

A company of True Believers will always frustrate the competition, regardless of how well resourced the competition is.  Apple frustrates Microsoft.  Lexus frustrates GM. Google frustrates pretty much everyone.  And Obama’s grassroots $5 and $10 fund raising frustrated both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

Being flush with resources does not guarantee success.  In fact, it seems the better resourced an organization is, the more its people seem to stop caring about the cause.  They become more concerned with how many hours they’ve worked, the size of their offices and the benefits they will get.  The huge advantage companies with a cause have over even much bigger competitors is that everyone who comes to work is there for the same reason - to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They have no resources.  They have no expense accounts.  They play the hand they are dealt and they will fight on for no other reason than because they believe. 

People who go to work to be a part of the cause don’t go home.  They are home.

Now - who wants to quit?

No One Has A Passion For Customer Service...So Stop Saying You Do

I love it when companies say things like, "customer service is our passion"...because it's a flat-out lie.

Our passions are formed when we're young and there is not a single person involved in customer service in any company today that dreamed of being in customer service as a child.  Not a single one was lining up their teddy bears pretending to help them fix a software issue, get their cable TV working or helping them return an item of clothing that they've clearly already worn.

The truth is no one has a passion for customer service so saying it lacks any credibility whatsoever.  It is totally inauthentic.

However...

There are lots of people out there who care about other people.  There are many people in the business world who carried their teddy bear with them where ever they went and tucked it in to bed at night.  Later in life, the teddy bear was replaced by people.  These same kids genuinely cared about other kids on the playground.  They made sure everyone got invited to the birthday party so no one would feel left out.

And as adults - those same people make the best customer facing employees - not because they have a passion for customer service, but because they genuinely care about people.

If you want to offer great customer service, then hire people who care about other people then give them the tools and the freedom to do it.

And if you want to tell people about your "passion for customer service," try saying this instead: "we only hire people who care about other people." And, if you actually do it, your customers will feel the difference.

Do You Want To Be A Leading Company or A Leader?

There's a difference between being a leading company and a leader.  Leading companies sell more than everyone else.  Those who lead set the direction for the rest of the industry.  Here's what it takes to be a company that leads.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

To read more about what it takes to lead, read Start With Why.

And to be one who leads, give your copy away to someone you want to inspire...

Start With Why

Read an excerpt - http://bit.ly/L26zk

Twitter - @simonsinek

Membership Had Its Privilages

Being a member of American Express (and “member” was indeed the term) used to mean something. To carry that green card with the Roman centurion in your wallet was a sign of success, a sign of independence, proof that you were going somewhere. But the brand built on the premise of “Membership has its privileges” seems to have forgotten its cause and become just another company selling credit-card services. In an attempt to capture all the market segments, to have something for everyone, AmEx has tarnished its brand.  And worse, it’s hurting its own business.

Anyone who has an American Express card knows that it’s not accepted everywhere—but we were okay with that. The occasional inconvenience was acceptable. As with any premium brand, there was a price to be paid because we wanted to be part of an elite group. We didn’t carry an AmEx card because of  universal acceptance, anyway; we carried it because it was a symbol of who we were.

But no more. What had once been an exclusive club has thrown wide its doors to admit everyone. Suddenly, membership doesn’t feel so special anymore. The entire concept of membership—the whole idea of premium—is that it’s exclusive. The physics of it are unavoidable: The more you appeal to the masses, the less exclusive you become, and the less value your premium possesses.

This degradation is no theoretical matter: With the loss of value inevitably comes the loss of business. Card carriers hear the phrase, “I’m sorry, we no longer accept American Express,” more frequently now than ever before. I understand a small business’s decision to stop accepting the card; the fees, they say, are too high. But for me, the real red flag started waving when my American Express card was denied at H&M. The clothing chain has 175 stores in the U.S. and 1,800 worldwide. Last year, the company rang up $14 billion in sales—and it no longer takes American Express.

Only a bit less disconcerting is to slide your AmEx card across the counter and be told by the cashier that the store “prefers” that you use Visa or MasterCard, if you have one. There was a day when “members” insisted on using their AmEx cards. We did this because the experience of using it meant something to us. These days, more people are all too happy to flip through their wallets and pluck out the alternate plastic, as requested.

And that’s a problem. When those who pay to be a member of a club—and once a year, the membership fee still pops up on their statements—no longer defend the club as though it were their own, it’s a sign that the brand is slipping. Almost every AmEx cardholder also carries Visa or MasterCard, but not all Visa or MasterCard holders carry American Express. In other words, AmEx holders have a choice—and they are becoming increasingly indifferent to that choice.

Consumers’ appreciation of their American Express membership has never had anything to do with points or air-miles. Those are tricks that lots of companies use to drive repeat business—but it’s not the same thing as loyalty. Loyalty is the willingness to pay a premium, or even to turn down a better product, in order to continue doing business with the same company. Like any couture label, the American Express’s centurion was a badge of honor, and a physical symbol of living the American Dream. “Privilege,” as AmEx should know, isn’t about perks—it’s a feeling you imbue in your loyal customers.

And what of the retailers? Retailers rarely have nice things to say about AmEx anymore. They complain that it takes AmEx forever to pay them. The retailers are just as much a constituency as the cardholder; they should be made to feel like members, too. When a company has a strong brand, its constituents either tolerate the inconveniences or rationalize them away. But when the brand is weak, the only thing people focus on is what’s wrong.  And it gets worse. AmEx used to be one of those stocks that people held onto for the long term. But it’s very different now.  Like its product, AmEx stock is becoming just another equity, and investors bail out at the slightest hint of a cloudy day.

It all boils down to a few essentials: Great companies are built on the backs of the loyal, not the masses. AmEx no longer has shareholders, it has share-squatters. AmEx no longer boasts members, it gets visitors. And retailers no longer want to be a part of a purportedly exclusive club when they can get all the same services at the YMCA. Serving the mass audience and the luxury audience is fine—but you can’t do it with the same brand. Honda has Acura. Toyota has Lexus. American Express needs another card. Call it, say, People’s Express. People’s Express can chase market segments and go head-to-head with MasterCard and Visa. Meanwhile, that proud centurion on the AmEx card needs to stand for something again.

Learn how to keep your membership exclusive.

Read a free chapter from Simon's new book Start With Why

Read Now - http://bit.ly/L26zk

Twitter - @simonsinek

Article originally featured in BrandWeek.  

The Best Thing You Can Have Is Bad Intelligence

During the Cold War, America would fly spy planes over the Soviet Union to count how many bombers they had. Knowing exactly what the Americans were doing, the Soviets laid out hundreds of fake, wooden bombers to trick the Americans into thinking that they had a much bigger capability than they actually did.  The problem was, America believed its own intelligence and built real bombers to counter the perceived Soviet threat. 

It wasn't until after the fall of the Berlin Wall did we learn that, if we ever had gone to war with the Soviet Union, we would have annihilated them because our resources vastly outnumbered theirs.  This massive unfair advantage would not have happened if it weren't for the good fortune of some bad intelligence. 

Believing that your competition is stronger and better than you will pushes you to better yourselves. Whether real or perceived, believing you have a disadvantage forces you to find new and clever ways to compete. It's always the organizations that are resourced constrained that come up with the good ideas to win.

You can save money on competitive analyses by simply pretending that whatever your competition is doing, they are doing it better than you. This works no matter if you're the leader or the challenger.  Instead of constantly trying to compare what you're doing to others, focus instead on constantly trying to improve yourself and the way you do things. You should believe, true or not, that there is always someone lurking on the horizon waiting to take advantage of you.

The greatest threat any organization can face is not its competition but its own success. With great success comes complacency - the false belief that you are the best and that you don't have to worry. The problem is, you'll only realize it's a false belief when someone else catches you by surprise. This pattern is repeated over and over and over. Wal-Mart, Microsoft and General Motors all believed that they were unbeatable...until a company who believed they were not as strong found a better way to compete with the 800lb gorilla.

Do You Know Why?

  Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over?

 People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. Their natural ability to start with why enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

 Three and a half years ago I made a discovery. I discovered that all the most inspiring and successful leaders, regardless if they are individuals or organizations, regardless of their size or industry, all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way—and it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does. I called this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit—those are always results. Why does your organization exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?

Start With Why is a book for those who want to learn to inspire others and for those who want to find someone to inspire them.  Start with Why is available now at your favorite book seller.

Special Promotion: Buy two copies, give one away and we can inspire even more people...

TED Talk - Simon Speaking at a TEDx Conference in Seattle

We make assumptions about the world.  More importantly, our behaviors are often governed by those assumptions. But what if our assumptions are incomplete or wrong? This doesn't necessarily only apply to things when they go wrong...what about when they go right? Do you know why things go right? Most people would say yes - but then why is it so hard to repeat great success?  If we know why Apple is so innovative, for example, why can't anyone else do it? Don't you want to know WHY?

This is what I talked about when I had the honor of speaking at a TEDx event in Seattle this year. It was such a privilege to share the stage with some remarkable and inspiring people. Ed Visteurs, the only American to scale the 14 highest peaks in the world without oxygen, and Erik Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh's grandson and an amazing human being in his own right, to name but two. (Click here for other TEDx talks).

The vision is that everyone knows WHY. To learn more about why you do what you do, check out Simon's new book, Start With Why. If you order a copy, order two and give one away to someone you want to inspire. The goal is to share the WHY with as many people as possible.

How To Be More Creative

The driving force behind innovation is creativity.  That's not such a profound realization.  But where does creativity come from?  I'm always fascinated when organizations have "creative sessions" to come up with ideas. Putting everyone in a room together for an hour or two with the purpose of coming up with a new idea or a new way of seeing things is not necessarily the best way to come up with new ideas.

Think about it.

How many of your best ideas happen driving to work or standing in the shower? Or watching a movie or reading a book that has nothing to do with the problem you just solved? The fact is, our brains are processing vastly more information than we're even aware of. And sometimes it's making connections between things that we weren't even looking for at the time. 

Jarbas Agnelli, for example, created music simply by seeing. "I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires," he said, "I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes." Below is what he created. There is no Photoshop edit, it is the exact picture he saw.

Creativity comes from curiosity. The more curious you are about the world, the more you experience and learn. The more you experience and learn, the more connections your brain is able to make. And with more connections, you can find new solutions to problems or just see things no one else can see.  In other words - you can be more creative.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Those who know WHY are more creative. Do you know your WHY? pre-order Start With Why and find out WHY. And if you do, please order two and give one away to someone you want to inspire.

If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur, You Have To Take The Bagel

Most Sundays throughout the year,  the New York Road Runners organizes races in Central Park. They range in distance from a mile or two to distances just shy of half-marathon length.  Though there are medals for the winners, hundreds even thousands of New Yorkers take part simply for fun or to try to beat their own times.

One  Sunday morning, a friend and I ran in a 4-mile race together.  My friend is a decent runner. He is more disciplined about keeping a regular running schedule than I am. And because of it, he's generally a little faster than I am too. Though he works for a large bank down on Wall Street, on more than one occasion he has mentioned a desire to start his own business one day.  Given his discipline, I assumed that he was well suited to be an entrepreneur. 

That was...until we got to the end of the race. 

Sometimes they give away free stuff to the runners at the finish line.  On this day - free bagels.  There were boxes of bagels sitting atop 2 or 3 of those long, brown fold-up lunch tables, like in high school. One one side of the tables were volunteers giving out the bagels. On the other side of the tables was a long line of runners waiting to get a free bagel. A long line of runners. 

I turned to my friend and said, "lets get a free bagel." He turned, looked at the line and said, "nah, forget it, line's too long."

I looked at him, puzzled. Pointed to the bagels and said, "lets just get a bagel - they're free."  He pointed to the line and said, "yeah, but I don't want to wait."

And it was at that point, I realized he could never be an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need then try to figure out a process how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.  My friend didn't want to stand in line, so he opted to abandon the bagel.  I wanted the bagel, so I opted to avoid the line.

I could see that he would rather not have a bagel than break the rules. So I pushed him, "come on, we don't need to stand in line, lets just get a bagel." He refused. He pushed me back, "come on, lets just go...the line's too long."

Realizing we saw the world differently, I walked up to the tables, leaned through the line, put my hand in one of the boxes, pulled out two bagels and walked back to him with our breakfast.  Not a single person in the line said anything to me or even seemed to care.

Entrepreneurs smile when I tell this story.  Non-entrepreneurs like to tell me that I shouldn't do things like that, because if everyone did things like that, we'd have anarchy.  And they'd be right...IF everyone had what it took to be an entrepreneur.  But everyone doesn't. Which is why most people don't start their own businesses and why most people are perfectly fine to stand in line.

And this is why the whole system works. Because the two mindsets need each other. If no one ever broke the rules, then we'd never advance. But if a few people were willing to take the bagel, to break the rules in order to find or create a better process for the majority to follow...that's called progress.

The most successful entrepreneurs all start with WHY. Do you know your WHY? Pre-order Start With Why and find out WHY. And if you do, please order two and give one away to another entrepreneur you want to inspire.

How To Become A Legend

Usain Bolt knows why he needs to win races and shatter records. Though money and fame are nice additions, what drives him is something much, much bigger. It's even bigger than winning each individual race.

The 23-year old, gold-shoe wearing Jamaican track star became a household name after he shattered multiple world records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. When asked what his secret is, he replies with surprising humility, "my secret's just hard work and dedication." Great advice, for sure, but it takes more than just hard work to become such a dominating force in sports...or in anything, for that matter. It takes a sense of purpose so big, it's  hard to measure. It may even sound like fantasy. And for Usain Bolt, he wakes up everyday to, as he puts it,  "become a legend."

It is this sense of purpose, the sense of WHY Bolt works as hard as he does that makes such a difference. Whereas other competitors train for a race or for an event, Bolt trains for something that he may not fully appreciate in his lifetime, because inherent in legend-status, is that it will outlive him.

Though each race he wins and each record he breaks matter, they are not the end goals. They represent the milestones he needs to pass to achieve his very big dream.

In our careers and in our businesses we often limit our ability to succeed because we set goals with relatively short time lines.  We work hard to achieve these goals, then set new goals the following year. But quarterly or annual goals are just too short. How many people or organizations are planning to achieve something that will be fully realized after they die?

A strategy of setting a goal, reaching it and working to achieve the next goal does not inherently prevent progress or success, but it limits the ability to make massive leaps. It also begs the question, why are those short-term goals important? "To be successful" or "to grow a business" are insufficient as answers. Everyone who races against Bolt is running to win races, but few, if any, are running to become legends.

Quarterly or annual goals should not be the goals, they should serve to mark the measurable progress we make on our way to something much grander.  The Wright brothers didn't set out to simply make a flying machine, they set out to change the world.  Steve Jobs didn't just want to build a successful computer company, he set out to, as he put it, "make a dent in the universe." That ability to see beyond the year, to see beyond the money and the profit, to see how the world will change because of what you achieve, is what makes legends.

Consider this analogy: If your goal is to drive 350 miles in one day, you may achieve your goal, you may even drive a little further. You'll be elated that you reached your goal or surpassed it.  Your victory may even encourage you to attempt to drive 400 miles the next day. But to become a legend, you need a lofty, almost unrealistic and quite bombastic vision of the final destination...not just one of the way points.  It's not about getting 350 miles in a day, it's about seeing yourself laying on the beach on an island in the South Pacific. In one single swoop, you see the 350-mile achievement as small and slow. You are instantly able  to see opportunities that others miss.  Where others see the need to drive faster, you see the need to jump on an airplane.

Usain Bolt doesn't run each race because he wants to win. He wins each race because he wants something so much grander. And it is this ability, to understand why each race matters towards achieving the grand plan, that he will indeed become a legend.

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What Companies Can Learn From The Homeless

"I'm homeless. I'm hungry. I've got 6 kids.  I've got AIDS. Pleas help. God bless," reads the handwritten cardboard sign sitting in front of the homeless man. Sometimes we are drawn to give and sometimes we're not.  Regardless of what you may think is happening that sign he are holding is in fact a piece of marketing.  The question is, is it an effective piece of marketing?

As much as we like to think we are giving selflessly, the fact is, every time we drop some spare change into the cup of a homeless person we are completing a perfectly legitimate business transaction.  What the homeless are selling is the feeling of goodwill...and sometimes we buy it.  More importantly, our decision to buy goodwill from one homeless person or another is based on all the same decision-making principles as any other purchase decision we make everyday. And, like most businesses, the homeless use marketing to help drive the transaction. In their case, billboards.

 If the principles of communication work the same way for a company as they do for a homeless person, I decided to do a little experiment to prove it.

We found a homeless woman in New York who was willing to help. Sitting on the corner of 23rd St and Park Ave, she told us that she makes between $20 and $30 over the course of an 8-10 hour day ($30 constituting a good day).  Her sign was similar to the norm - I'm homeless, I'm hungry, please help, etc.  She agreed to use our sign the next day and with it, she earned $40 in 2 hours.

So what did the new sign say?

For starters, it didn't talk about her. Like so much bad marketing out there, her original sign tried to sell based on facts and details about her  without considering why anyone would give to her in the first place. We don't know if any or all of their claims she presents are true and, like companies, she has also experimented with which claims work better than others.

Companies are no different. They offer features and benefits, facts and figures, everything they think we need to know about their product or service to encourage us to buy. A computer company, for example, tries touts the superior memory and the processor speed or other bells and whistles.  A law firm tells us they are one of the biggest firms with all Ivy League attorneys.  A cereal company tells us their product is packed with vitamins and minerals and is part of a well-balanced diet.   But why should we care? They've spent most of their time and energy telling us about them without saying a single word about us.

Claims or no claims, what if the whole marketing approach was completely flawed?  What if effective marketing had nothing to do with features and benefits at all?

Good, effective marketing is that which talks about the buyer not the seller.  We don't care about the seller, we care what we can get from the seller, and I don't mean the product attributes . We want things that reflect our own values and beliefs, things that fit into how we live our lives.

So what can companies learn from the homeless?  Stop talking about yourselves and start talking about why anyone should care.  Talk about our lives and simply place yourself and your products comfortably into our lives.  That's exactly what we did with that homeless person's billboard.

And what about that sign?  What did the new sign say that was able to double revenues in a quarter of the time?

It said simply: "If you only give once a month, please think of me next time."

Click here to download a PDF version of this article

This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post