I just had a fast lunch at Panda Express (you know, you can substitute steamed vegetables for rice or lo mien, making this almost healthful). At the end, I cracked open my fortune cookie which said:

Counting Time Is Not So Important As Making Time Count.

I had to re-read it a few times to be sure, but I find it profound. Perhaps not the first part, but Making Time Count. That’s my new time management mantra.  Make sure that the time I have available, whether it’s 4 hours a week or 60,  is well used and never squandered.

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?

I got an email this morning that asked the following question:

I read your article on Value Proposition and ROI. Your examples deal with physical products. I coach people in so-called ‘soft skills’ – presentations, speaking and listening, enhancing imagination. I can detail many positive outcomes but do not know how to quantify the results of such training. Therefore I don’t know how to use the methods you suggest. Can you help me?

Since this is such an important question, I thought I’d post my response here:

Today is the day to make Be Unreasonable a best seller.  If you haven’t gotten a copy of my book yet, today would be a great day to do so.  Just hop on over to www.unreasonablepromo.com and sign up for a number of great bonuses along with your book purchase. If you’ve already got a copy, get one – or several – for a friend.

A friend just sent me a link to Clark Mitchell’s review of my book. Totally unreasonable. Thank you, Clark

August 21, 2007

Be Unreasonable

Several weeks ago I told you I would share some thoughts from different books I read over my break this year. One of the best is a book called, “Be Unreasonable” by Paul Lemberg. God used this book to really speak to me and confirm some of the things He was saying. The greatest temptation in our life is to be reasonable or to settle for average. The problem is there is nothing average about our God!

Just got back from a trip to the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, and while en-route and in-situ, I made a little distinction about lines. Lines of people, that is. In Germany, lines are quite robust. People get on that at the rear, and they maintain their structure – in other words, the people who get on the line first, get off it first. In America, most people respect lines – but those who don’t – the line cheaters – are often the subject of vocal and occasionally martial conflict. In other words, people who cut the line get yelled at and into fights. “Hey buddy – the line starts back there!” In Croatia, I discovered that lines are simply a suggestion. Line form, and some people follow them, while many others ignore the lines completely and simply push to the front.

Just saw that Internet Marketing education pioneer Ken McCarthy is doing something I think is unreasonable. Ken pretty much invented the internet marketing how-to seminar. Now, since Ken’s first The System seminar, prices on these confabs has gone from $500 a day to $5,000, but without any significant increase in value. Following Dan Kennedy’s lead, these events have been stuffed with “air” – worthless stuff that make the package seem bigger, but no real increase in the impact of what’s being delivered. McCarthy has kept the value strong. But talk about bucking the trend – not only has Ken kept the value strong, he’s actually lowering the price. See http://www.systemintensive.com/

Anyone who has read Be Unreasonable knows how I feel about price cutting and the best response to it, so I was happy (and surprised) to read McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc felt the same way.  In 1960, one of his Knoxville franchisee was being hammered by a competitor offering five hamburgers for thirty cents. Can you imagine, thirty cents! Even so, the customers still came over to McDonald’s for the fries and shakes. So the competitor hit harder – with a hamburger, milkshake and fries for ten cents.  The reasonable response would have been to cut prices and at least match the other guy’s offer  – following him down the road to pricing ruin.