Rules of Thumb

Here are a few of the rules from the book that I thought were important enough to remember.

1. Don't let feat undermine your chance to do that one thing you've wanted to do. Relax.

2. Ask the last question first. What is the point of the exercise?

3. Don't implement solutions. Prevent problems.

4. Change is a math formula. Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change.

c(sq) > r(c)

Are you in the game for the long haul? Learn the other side's language and know their arguments better.

Be something that is better not against something that is bad. Look for allies and woo them to your cause.

6. If you want to see with fresh eyes, reframe the picture. Customers like to do business with smart people.

7. The system si the solution, Look at your system (The sum of all parts) Learn to draw it to explain the real cause of the problem.

8. Nothing happens until money changes hands.

9. A good question beats a good answer. Questions are how we learn.

10. Learn about the crisis before it arises. Stay on top of news and make it an opportunity.

11. Learn to take No as a question. The correct response to no is thank you. Ask questions, take notes, do not take it personally.

12. You don't know if you do not go.

13. Change, connections, conversation and community.

14. Facts are facts. Stories are how we learn. Stories are about people doing things. Stories have verbs. They have lessons, a real message to convey.

15. Entrepreneurs choose serendipity over efficiency. Efficiency resists change.

16. Knowing it is not the same as doing it.

17. Speed = strategy. Use this four-step process. Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action. How we make decisions that govern all winning and losing (ware, business, life) Failure is an option but not trying in unimaginable. (a quote from Apollo 13, look it up and add to quotes in snippets)

18. Learn to see the world through the eyes of your customer. Talk less, listen more. Ask questions. Focus on feedback (not output). Buy fewer ads and collect more data.

19. What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you up at night?

20. If you want to change the game change the economics of how the game is played.

21. If you want to change the game, change customer expectations. Welcome feedback, provide good customer service. Respond quickly, genuinely and effectively. How does the customer feel after service recovery.

22. The soft stuff is the hard stuff. People are key.

23. Megan Smith (from Google) 3 rules:

     1. The customer participates

     2. The customer drives

     3. Open systems beat closed systems 

24. Great design is key. Read about it, go shopping and study it, view it by looking at art.

25. Words matter. Find the right word.

26. Look for great ideas in unlikely places.

27. Everything communicates. The Brand Called You

28. Content is not king. Context is king.

29. Simplicity is the new currency. Simple is hard. One too many are still too many. Always remember the do-nothing alternative. Complexity is an opportunity.

30. All money is not created equal.

31. If you want to think big, start small. Start with whatever is right in front of you.

32. Serious Fun is not an oxymoron, it is how you win.

33. Technology is about changing how we work. It is not about the technology but what the technology makes possible.

34. Don't confuse credentials with talent.

35. Failure is not failing. Failure is failing to try.

36. On your way up, pay attention to your strengths they will be your weaknesses on the way down.

37. Take your work seriously. Yourself, not so much.

38. There are teachers everywhere.