If you keep doing what other people want you to do, and thinking about what other people want you to think, what do you suppose is likely to happen?

Repeating the successes of the past, preserving tradition, doing things as they are “supposed” to be done, will- at best – produce results like those had before.  Except that in this new future – our present – those results can’t possibly be as good, as productive, or as powerful as they once were.  And probably not as much fun, either.

Everyone wants to be more successful, but often, hard work seems just too hard. Some people turn to the Law of Attraction for help, so I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Hey, you know what? All hoopla aside, I like the LOA. And why not? It’s a cool idea, and if the choice is between focusing my mind on things I want versus focusing on things I don’t want, I’d rather spend my mental energy on things I want.

But here’s the question: Is “just” thinking, and emoting, and visualizing, and meditating, and yes, praying, about things I want going to bring them into my life?

There are no rules that fit all situations. (Check the Ten Commandments if you don’t believe this.) Our businesses and our lives are far too complex for any guidelines to be 100 percent appropriate in all cases. This is not meant as an inducement to break very basic rules, such as your core values. It means that when your beloved rule comes smack up against holding back progress, you should at least be willing to question whether the rule is still appropriate, or whether it’s some kind of holdover.

I just read this following passage in Gary Kasparov’s new book, “How Life Imitates Chess.” He has been writing about the phase of a chess game called “nothing to do,” and how greats such as Petrosian and Karpov used this time to eke out small positional advantages.

“In life, there is no such obligation to move. If you can’t find a useful plan, you can watch television, stick with business as usual, and believe that no news is good news. Human beings are brilliantly creative at finding ways to pass time in unconstructive ways. At these times, the true strategist shines by finding the means to make progress, to strengthen his position and prepare for the inevitable conflict. And conflict, we cannot forget, is inevitable.”

Start here: Answer the question, “What am I trying to accomplish?”

Then, “What are some of the ways that can happen?” This will give you the high order possible strategies.

Next, validate that this is, in some way, possible. Use internal and external market research.

Your research opens up the Gap Analysis, and starts to answer the question, What is needed to get THERE?

Consider, “How different is that from WHERE YOU ARE NOW?” and “What are the ways to close the gaps?”

Prioritize which gaps are most important AND most closable AND Have the biggest payoff.

It’s been a very distracting few weeks, and I keep telling myself that I have to post, otherwise the blog might get stale. Perhaps it’s a time management problem, but of course, that can be fixed. Perhaps business is just too good, and I certainly don’t want a fix for that!

In any case, I was reading Jerry West writing about… what else, blogs…

He referenced something that I feel should be pasted backwards on my forehead so that I can see it every time I look in a mirror. It’s an old Chinese proverb:

I watch a lot of movies – all sorts, but in my movie tastes I’m not that evolved. I especially like eighties and nineties action pictures.  I really like movies like the Die Hard series and Lethal Weapon, even the new version of the Bourne Ultimatum.  And what I’ve learned from watching of these kinds of movies is that the hero – the one who kills all the bad guys – does not win by hunkering down, staying in hiding and waiting for them to come to him.  He wins by running right out in front of the villains – charging towards them with everything he’s got and screaming at the top of his lungs.  He lunges towards the competition firing – as they say – with both barrels.   He puts himself at tremendous risk and doesn’t quit until it’s over.  That’s the unreasonable approach.

Yesterday I wrote that “perfection prevents progress,” and that was a mis-statement.  Just as “money” is not the root of all evil, but “love of money” may be, it is “perfectionism” that prevents progress.  Perfectionism is the love, desire and single-minded pursuit of perfection, and that is what truly slows things down. Perfection is great if you can have it.  Just don’t spend too much time going after it.

How many times have you said, “This (fill in the blank) still isn’t perfect…?”

I’m not guiltless – I find myself saying such things and try to stop myself in mid-sentence before the P-word gets out. I find that perfectionitis — as it’s called in the medical profession — is the number one impediment to my writing. I don’t mind speaking “imperfectly” but I struggle with publishing words that aren’t perf…. Argggghhhh, I can’t say it. P-P-P…

It doesn’t just slow writing, but marketing, product development, seminars, new ideas — it slows down everything.  Dedicated perfectionists would say that’s a good thing.  I say it slows down progress.

Your number one job as an extraordinary entrepreneur is to have an extraordinary vision.  Your number two task is to execute until that vision comes to life. 

If your vision is important enough you most likely can’t do it all yourself.  That’s why you build an organization in the first place. If you’re more of a lone ranger you have contractors, or outsource relationships, or joint venture partners.  Problem is, once you have these relationships, these people must be in action or you get nothing.

Key question: Does anyone do anything meaningful without someone asking him or her to, and without them promising to it in return?