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1. Be a creator. Learn how to be a maker, thinker, producer, and generator. Are you consuming resources but producing no value or output? Are you making things? Create wealth: Consider starting or joining a startup. Improve something. The smartest, happiest, wealthiest people that I know are always doing something or making something. The generate more than they consume in all aspects of their lives.
2. Act, don’t plan. This doesn’t mean you should ignore planning. Instead, it simply means that actions move you forward. There is a good reason why the blitzkrieg was so effective. More recently, this has been characterized as ready, fire, aim.
3. Share until it hurts. What goes around comes around, usually with significantly greater force. Open up. Helping people is a wonderful social act, but it is also practical. There are plenty of ways to help people. You learn as you help others, in much the same way that teachers learn from students. Bonus: Give it away and you’ll gain mind share.
4. Be your own empire. Hiring is obsolete. You are a one-person empire. You must learn to adapt to the marketplace and to your customers in light of your own personal corporation. You have skills, tools, knowledge, and resources that are extremely personal. No one else is you.
5. Failure is acceptable, even desired. Failure is progress. Knowing with certainty that something doesn’t work is far more valuable than not knowing if something might work. Bird in hand = two in the bush. Consider the pile of failures under your feet to be an excellent platform for success. Failures are lessons.
6. Learn how to communicate effectively. You don’t need to be a presentation wizard, but you do need to know how to speak and write so that others clearly understand you. Communication magnifies your presence in the world, or, at a minimum, it helps others understand what you are doing and thinking. Communication is akin to alcohol: It is social lubrication.
7. Shortcuts are smartcuts. The smartest folks I know use ingenious shortcuts. They cut corners but they don’t violate core principles, personal or universal. They all have complete and total command of their tools. Master tools, methods, and processes. They also utilize the same methods and processes over and over again to cut through the red tape and get to the hard problems. One guy I know can do just about anything with Visio. Another is an Excel and PowerPoint guru.
8. Spend time with people you like. The smarter, the better. Most of my friends are really nice people. I’m also lucky to have a great family. Good people seem to have good ideas. They share more and I learn more from them. They lend intellectual support but also emotional support. Along these lines, do you really wish you spent more time at work? Success does not mean working more. Soak up family time.
9. Find a mentor. There are plenty of experts and mentors out there. Tap into their knowledge. Tap into their enthusiasm. Here’s a little trick: Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you are. By the way, surrogate mentors work too (Note: Snopes rocks). They include great books, snappy newsletters, and blogs. Even children can be mentors if you have an open mind.
10. Learn to manage your time. No matter how hard you work, you can only get a certain amount of work done in a certain time. Learn to prioritize and attack the stuff that matters. Balance work and fun or you’ll end up an unhappy stiff. One guy I know follows David Allen’s advice in Getting Things Done and he is a monster. He is a star destroyer. I’ve tried and it only kind of works for me. Different people have different systems. Find your groove and control your use of time. PocketMod anyone?
11. Kill personal debt. If you are having money issues, you cannot be focused on real success, your career, or your family. My advice, which some people completely reject, is that you need to get rid of your financial chains. Understand debt before it kills you. Credit card debt is a particularly bad thing to have month after month. Wipe it out.
12. Manufacture happiness. Happy people are productive, adjusted, and successful. They resist negative vibes. They are infectious and pleasant to be around. Happiness is healthy. Spend time with happy people. And, in case you didn’t know, you can make yourself happy. Smile, dammit! ;-)
13. Exercise. Find time for aerobics. Or weight lifting, running, biking, walking, or hiking. Take up a sport. Find ways to be physical. It is best if you have a goal to focus on, such as a triathlon, a bikini to fit into, or a weight range you want to reach or maintain. Spend more time in meatspace. Being practical, it make you feel better which makes you work better. Exercise is good for your brain.
14. Think BIG. Your ideas shape you. They confine you or expand you. Think big and you’ll be an executive. Most limitations in life are self-imposed. Expand your thinking. Learn new, challenging things and break barriers: 06-May-1954, 3:59.4
15. Bonus! Have an edge. Always add a little something extra. Inject your own special flair. Break boundaries, challenge assumptions, ask more questions. Give something away for free, no questions asked. Beat others to the punch.
16. Bonus! Offer your guarantee in blood. If you truly believe in what you are doing, hang it all out. Give your word and stick to it. Aim for complete and utter satisfaction. If you are going to do something with 100% full force, and you trust yourself to get the job done, back it up with a fully invested, personal guarantee. Guarantees reduce risk and show everyone you have faith in what you are doing or what you are offering. Learn to reverse risk!
17. Bonus! Focus. If you can truly immerse yourself, you’ll feel better and be more successful. While “flow” is normally associated with programming, it actually applies to just about anyone who can ultra focus.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 9:50 am and is filed under Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.