What does it take to become an genius?

                        Bill Gates                                                                  The Beatles

Malcolm Gladwell, in his interesting new book Outliers: The Story of Success put forth the formula is a lot less complicated than you would think.  If it was written as a mathematical equation it would look something like this:

         Genius = 10,000 hours x Practice

Or more simply stated, it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice (assuming you are within an acceptable minimum range of characteristics for the area of expertise you desire — for example if you're 5'0" you likely don't have the minimum height required for professional basketball) to become expert at something....and it doesn't seem to matter much whether the task at hand is programming a computer, photography or playing the piano.

You see, most "geniuses" aren't geniuses at all. They're "grinders". People who put in hour after hour, day after day, practicing their craft until they became extremely proficient at it.  Bill Gates & The Beatles are examples of what Gladwell calls the "10,000 Hour Rule."

Bill Gates was obsessed with computer programming. He did it near round the clock starting in 8th grade....this included working on the University of Washington computers when he was in high school, when they weren't being used between 3:00-6:00 a.m. (His parents always wondered why it was so hard to get him up in the morning.)

The Beatles, unlike most new bands that would only get to play a 1-2 hour "gig" once every week or two, started out working at a club in Hamburg, Germany that required them to perform 8 hours a night, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.  They got more stage time in one night than most bands got in a month. Playing that much put them in crucible where they were able to hone their musical writing and performing skills to legendary status. John Lennon said that the band that first left England for Germany in 1960 was in virtually no way similar to the band that returned back home in 1962.

Let's take this concept and make it applicable to the rest of us in the real world. At 10,000 hours to become a "genius" here's what that amounts to in real time, based on how much practice time you put in:

Practice (Hours/Day)      "Genius" in How Long

1                              27 Years & 5 Months
2                              13 Years & 8 Months
3                                9 Years & 2 Months
4                                6 Years & 10 Months
5                                5 Years & 5 Months
6                                4 Years & 7 Months
7                                3 Years & 11 Months
8                                3 Years & 5 Months  

Most people will look at this chart and be scared away because they know they don't have the willpower to work for years on end to become truly great. This is why most of us are average.

So, what made Bill Gates, The Beatles, and other "geniuses" like them,  able to put in this extraordinary effort? I'd put forth that it's because for them it wasn't really  "work" at all. It was their love. It was their passion. It was a burning desire that made them hop out of bed in the morning and not want to go asleep at night.  And, while undoubtedly at times they suffered and had challenges, for them it was a labor of love. They wouldn't have rather been doing anything else.

What chance do those who chose their profession because it's what their parents did (or what they felt was expected of them) have at reaching genius status in their field? Somewhere between slim and none....and "Slim" just got up and is heading for the door.

Maybe following your dreams isn't bad career advice after all?

        

Sometimes my regret eats away at me for not helping a man whose life I believe I could have made better. Here's what happened...



Once when I was on vacation I would see this man walking up and down the beach, all day - everyday, trying to sell sea shells. He would just walk quietly between the vacationers holding up his shells hoping someone would stop him and buy one. 

In the week I was away I counted just 3 shells sold.

He put in an unbelievable amount of effort, for what had to be a miniscule income. As I watched him work in the hot sun, trudging back and forth across the sand, I started thinking what could he do to sell more shells.

One idea that came to mind was instead of just walking around holding up his big pretty shells, he could gather up hundreds of little shells that were on the beach. He could varnish them or paint them a color as a way of distinguishing them from all the other little shells on the beach.  Then when he walked on the beach he could stop to approach each vacationer and welcome them to the island. He could tell them that he wishes them a brilliant vacation full of fun and love and offer them a "gift" of good luck for them and their loved ones. Then hand them the small varnished or colored shell.

I think a few things would have happened:

• Some people would inquire and buy his bigger, pretty shells on the spot (certainly he'd give a lot more "sales" presentations than he was currently giving)
  
• Some wouldn't buy on the spot, but after watching him day in and day out walk along the beach, working so hard and spreading good cheer, they would buy later on
• Many would talk about him and spread pleasant stories about the shell salesman's lovely gift. This would also lead to more sales.

When we are given something, we have an intrinsic pull to return the favor, to re-balance the scales. For example if someone invites you over to their home for dinner, most people feel the pull to invite them back. Dr. Robert Cialdini in his powerful book "Influence" calls this the "reciprocity" principle.  By giving first, you can get (much more) later.

This is all moot because I never approached the man to make this suggestion. Instead I'd lower my eyes into my book every time he walked by. I regret doing that. I'll never know if he would have followed my suggestion, or if it would have worked or been worth the effort, but I can tell you I feel crummy for not sharing what I was thinking. For all I know it could have changed his whole standard of living.

Martial arts grand master Jhoon Rhee once said, "discipline ways ounces, regret weighs tons." He was right.  When you feel that inner "nudge", listen to it, it's there for a reason. I'm going to next time.

        

(Full Disclosure: I grew up in Philadelphia and though I now live in the suburbs of DC, I still bleed 'Iggle' green).

In the 10th game of this NFL football season, the 5-4 Philadelphia Eagles eeked out a tie of the lowly 1-8 Cincinnati Bengals. Most fans and pundits believed this spelled the end of Philly's playoff chances — maybe not mathematically, yet — but surely their ineffective play against a pathetic opponent was an indicator of the '08 teams ability.


Through plucky tenacity (that all Philadelphian's possess) as of the last game of the season, the Eagles were still not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs...though they did need a miracle to make it in. Specifically here's the confluence of events they needed to break their way:

- The 4-11 Raiders needed to somehow beat the superior 9-6 Buccaneers (who were extremely motivated because they needed to win the game to get in the playoffs themselves), AND
- Either the 9-6 Vikings or 9-6 Bears to lose, AND
- The Eagles had to BEAT the 9-6 Cowboys (who just needed to beat the Eagles to make it in the playoffs on their own accord).

A Trifecta of Epic Proportions.

Well, this Sunday the world will still be able to watch the Eagles play, because the miracle trifecta did indeed happen and they are playing against the Vikings in the first round of the playoffs. While this was truly an amazing, unlikely feat, I just got a behind the curtain peak as to what makes this Eagles team "tick" and an understanding of potentially WHY this miracle was "manifested."

One of my best friends in the world (who is even more of a homer and die hard Eagle fan than I am) is friends with one of the Eagle coaches. After last Sunday's miracle, he wrote his coach friend this email note:

Subject: Greetings from Aruba

What a fantastic game and holiday present!  Max and I watched the game 
in our hotel and I'm sure annoyed the entire place with our cheering.  
One day you'll have to explain how a team could so under achieve one 
week, and so excel the next.

Great luck in the playoff.  We'll be cheering for you.

DA

Here's the coaches response:

It's very simple.
We are all humans.
When some people fall down or have failure.
They stay down. We refused to stay down or worry about
What people write or say about our falling down or failures.
We got back up; got some help along the way and here we are.

Take care,

Is it any wonder that with coaching leadership like this (and this isn't even coming from the head coach) that the Eagle players persevered and eventually triumphed?

It's not how far you fall, it's how high you bounce.

        

Most people couldn't. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, isn't most people.

At the time, the hit Apple II computer was running out of gas and Jobs was passionately pursuing a pet project that would eventually become the Apple Macintosh. While he pursued the Macintosh with mesianic zeal, he needed a more orthodox chief executive to

run the company. A respectable face who could sell Apple to the investment community and corporate America. He wanted John Sculley.

But Sculley, who had joined PepsiCo as a trainee and became the company's youngest ever VP of Marketing in 1970, had little incentive to make a change. ...<< MORE >>

World-class doctors use "belief" as a powerful medicinal. What's good enough to use for issues of life and death should be good enough for us to use in the world of business too.

Physicians refer to the curative powers of "belief" as "the placebo effect." This describes the phenomena of curing a patient by giving that patient an inert substance (ex. a sugar pill) by having an accepted authority figure (i.e. doctor) tell them that the pill contains medicine that will cure their ailment. Patients given a placebo are healed at levels equal to or greater than those patients who receive actual medicine.

The religious and new agers amongst us will clearly see similarities between their world view and the placebo effect. The religious explain the phenomena as the power of faith. New agers call it the "law of attraction." Regardless of what name you attach to it, it does appear that when an individual truly believes 100% in something, without hesitation or doubt, that something transforms itself from a concept to reality.

And it doesn't seem to matter whether what you truly believe is "good" or "bad", that which you believe is what gets manifested.

It doesn't surprise us that people like Warren Buffet get wealthier during an economic downturn, because we know he 100% EXPECTS to get wealthier, because he KNOWS (a word for absolute belief) that economic downturns will produce acquisition bargains that he'll uniquely be able to identify and take advantage of, further growing his Berkshire Hathaway empire.

It also doesn't surprise us when our "know it all" neighbor, who is obsessed with reading news of the economic disaster and never misses an opportunity to tell anyone who will listen how terrible it is out there, takes a financial hit during these times. Why is it never these "doom and gloomers" who get a fortunitous break during these times? I believe it's because it goes against the laws of how the universe works. They expect to take a hit, that creates them taking a hit. Buffet expects to find a hidden gem (as he did in his recent partial acquisition of Gold man Sachs), so he finds the hidden gem.

So what do you believe is going to happen in your business in the upcoming year?

Your answer to that question is likely the most important determinant as to whether you're going to be successful or unsuccessful in these times.

If you're not happy with your answer, you need to stop what you're doing and consciously work to find the evidence necessary to change what you believe. I know you can find lots of evidence to back up your answer. That's precisely the problem. Do you want to be right or do you want to be successful?

If you own a business or manage others, you need to start providing your team with lots of evidence as to how they can believe (or hopefully get to the point of absolute knowing) that your organization is going to thrive and be successful.

It's very simple, what happens in the world is one thing. What happens in YOUR world is another.

        

In this difficult market a big question every business executive is asking is “How can I find qualified buyers.”  No doubt this is an important question. However, if you find yourself asking this question your mind is 100% focused on the wrong thing. The question you should be asking yourself is not how you can find qualified buyers, but rather — How can I get qualified buyers to find me?

This will seem like a small, nit-picky difference. It's not. Here’s why:

Finding a qualified buyer, doesn’t mean that the buyer will work with you. Far from it. Identifying that qualified prospect is just the start of your “battle” to win their business. To end up closing the sale you still need to pass through the buyers five “litmus” tests. They are:

• Buyers Litmus Test #1: Is the company's product/service good enough to do my specific job?
• Buyers Litmus Test #2: Has the company's product/service been used by people like me in the past?
• Buyers Litmus Test #3: Will it not be a terrible experience working with this company?
• Buyers Litmus Test #4: Can the company demonstrate that they understand my needs, desires, restrictions and limitations?
• Buyers Litmus Test #5: Can I afford the price tag?
  

If you pass these “litmus tests” then you make it to the next step – the “consideration set.” This is the group of companies from where the “winner” will be selected. Passing these litmus test screens takes work and while it brings you somewhat closer to getting the business, you’re still far from victory.

The problem with most companies is that they spend large chunks of their available time each week sifting through the general populous trying to identify qualified buyers. This is a huge waste of time, as you usually won’t win the business when you’re trying to pass these litmus tests as an unknown. Instead of selecting you (an unproven and unknown quantity) they’ll usually opt to work with someone they’re already connected to in some way.

But, what if you could pass these litmus tests with flying colors, BEFORE a qualified buyer has ever interacted with you or your company in person? And, even better, what if you could become their “preferred” vendor of choice without even having had a first meeting?

Impossible? Actually quite the contrary.

This is exactly what is happening every day of the week to market leaders in every industry. They have qualified buyers calling them, out of the blue, requesting to work with them. It is possible to create a dynamic where you have a steady stream of qualified, interested buyers in both good economies as well as bad.

When companies like IBM or Microsoft implement my Thought Leadership Marketing Methodology I show them how to short circuit this process by getting qualified buyers selling THEM to work with them. For now let me show you 3 powerful techniques that can make you the preferred vendor in the eyes of unknown buyers within a very short period of time.

#1 — Become a Published Author: Authors in our society are put on a pedestal. They are seen as the best and brightest amongst us. If you want to quickly separate yourself from the competitors in your market, become a published author. The trick is to do this in a way that doesn’t take a lot of your time, and gets qualified buyers seeking you out. So, instead of doing a full book like IBM, start by publishing (electronically, so it’s cheap and can be distributed easily over the Internet) “Special Reports” on topics of interest to home buyers. Here are a couple of sample titles, to get your mind working:

• (Real Estate Agent) How to Negotiate a 15% Discount Off a Home Sellers Best Offer
• (Financial Advisor) Sector Rotation Investing: The Scientific Case Against Asset Allocation
• (Identity Theft Software) Defending the Digital You: How to Fight Online Identity Theft

Only those who are qualified prospects will have any kind of interest in these report titles. And it gives you a powerful forum to demonstrate your skill, expertise and competence. It only needs to be a few pages long, but write it well and provide your contact info in the document and I guarantee you that you will get calls from people ready to work with you.
 
#2 — Offer a Free “Alert” Service: Offer potential customers the ability to stay on top of breaking developments in your industry. Have them provide you with all of the vital details of what they’re interested in, then send them information as news breaks (Google Alerts are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.

#3 — Create “Facebook” for Your Sector: One of the hottest trends in marketing is social networks. This is illustrated by the ubiquity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. You can put yourself in an extraordinarily powerful position by creating the social network, the “Facebook”, for the communities you serve. Buyers are always searching for information, by owning this portal you can be one of the first people to know of their potential purchasing plans. Best of all, a lot of the editorial will come from the community itself, drastically reducing the amount of work you need to do. And, there are tremendous (and free) software services that power these networks. Check out www.Ning.com and www.Kickapps.com.

No question these strategies require some effort to implement. But, do any one of them and you will shortly find yourself with customers knocking on your door (sometimes even begging) for you to work with them.  are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.

        

Imagine how cool (or good for business) it would be if people driving down the highway at 60 mph could turn on their radio and listen to you.



Thanks to a few amazing technological developments, you won't even need to have a deal with XM/Sirrius, Clear Channel or a local AM station to make it happen.

Internet media platform provider, miRoamer, has inked a deal with a world leading multinational OEM, to show off the ‘World first Internet Car Radio” at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada (Jan 8-11th). This continues to usher in the Internet radio era, as consumers are increasingly able to listen to audio content, delivered over the Internet, without needing to be tethered to a computer.

Already today, people with iPhones (and an adapter to plug into their car stereo) can listen to Internet radio and podcasts streamed while they drive. And, Sanyo is one company that has introduced an affordable Internet radio device for the home, where you can listen to thousands of podcasts and Internet broadcasts from any room within your home.



Here's what all this means:

• Anybody with an Internet conncection, microphone and something to say can have their own radio show, broadcast worldwide, virtually for free;
• The barrier to entry in the radio industry (FCC licenses, millions of dollars for broadcast towers and equipment etc.) vanishes;
• Local radio stations will need to compete with audio programs coming from every corner of the globe;
• Clear Channel, XM/Sirrius and other radio conglomerates are in a heap load of trouble. Much like AOL was when their user base started to realize there was a lot more content outside the AOL "walled garden" and it was not that difficult to access.

If you want to take advantage of this, the time is now to start podcasting and building your fan base. (My magazine, Blogger & Podcaster, will be a great and free resource to you.) First, blogging gave everyone the opportunity to be their own "columnist", now the combination of podcasting and Internet radio gives everyone the opportunity to broadcast their own radio show worldwide.

        

When you seriously examine Wayne Gretzky's hockey achievements you start to realize that his nickname, "The Great One," is a vast understatement.


He retired in 1999, but nearly a decade later he still holds 61 hockey records, many by huge margins. I wouldn't have guessed that there were even 61statistical categories in hockey.

One day during an interview Gretzky made a very revealing comment related to his approach to his sport. Ironically, the wisdom behind Gretzky's statement is profoundly applicable beyond hockey, to business as well. Here's what he said...

" A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."
         ~ Wayne Gretzky

Businesses rise and fall based on their adherence to "Gretzky's Principle." For example:

• Railroads were extraordinarily wealthy and powerful in the early part of the 20th century. However, rather swiftly, they got left in the dust as consumers opted for travel by airplanes and automobiles. What would have happened to the railroads if they would have viewed themselves as being in the "transportation" business, instead of just the "railroad" business?
• Venerable publisher The Tribune Company declared bankruptcy this week. While, in an ironic twist of fate, during the same week venture capitalists shower news blog The Huffington Post with $25 Million in new funding. Why does one news organizations have investors throwing money at them and the other news organization find themselves in a situation where their creditors won't event work with them to restructure their deals? The reason: One company has a dying business model that bleeds red ink and the other has developed a huge following with a mere fraction of the expenses and infrastructure costs.
  
• CompUSA was forced to sell becasuse they failed to see that the "puck" in software sales was moving from cd's to Internet downloads. While they've only got 29 stores left they're finally starting to make the right moves...
• In the early days of the Internet the big boys were trying to figure out how to "own" it. Conventional wisdom was that the browser was the "on-ramp" to the user experience and the company that controlled the browser could dominate the Internet. That initiated the browser wars between Netscape and Microsoft. One problem...they didn't think far enough ahead as to where the Internet "puck" was going. Turns out the browser was just a utilitarian commodity, the real choke point was Search. Had Microsoft realized the importance of Search back in 1995, they would be Google.
  

So, while the economy sucks in general right now, it doesn't suck for everyone. Today, some of your peers are becoming phenomenally successful and wealthy because they've anticipated, correctly, as to where the "puck" in their market was headed. The same will be true tomorrow, so step back and survey your "rink" today. Good business people react. Great ones anticipate.

        

If you've ever dreamed of being a media mogul on the scale of Ted Turner or Rupert Murdoch, you may never have a better opportunity than this exact moment in time.

A "perfect storm" of technology is conspiring to create the greatest media opportunity for the average person since the cable revolution over 30 years ago. It was a technological "disruption" that enabled Turner & Murdoch's fortunes, and today it's deja vu all over again.

The watershed moment of the television media revolution was back in 1976 when Ted Turner figured out that he could take his little, low powered Atlanta UHF station signal (WTCG-TV-Channel 17 — later WTBS), and, by beaming it to a satellite, could broadcast his signal (and sell advertising) nationwide to homes and businesses all across the U.S.

In 1975, when I was in grade school, if you would have asked me to name a TV network  I would have answered you "ABC, NBC, CBS." If you asked me the same question a few years later when I was in high school, my answer would have changed a little bit. I would have said something like "ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, MTV, HBO and Prism (those from Philly will understand)..." including the newly created cable networks that I then found myself watching a lot of.

3 years from now, if you were to ask any high school student to name a media network, they're going to answer you  "ABC.com, HBO.com, AmericanIdol.com, RapMusik.net and Gamers.tv."

Here's why...

In the 70's most tv's received their signals from antennas that picked up the over the air broadcast signals. Today very few people get their TV signals directly from broadcast, instead their signal comes from either coaxial cable (i.e. Comcast), satellite dish (i.e. DirecTV) or fiber-optic cable (i.e. Verizon FiOS).

In 2009 there will be televisions, like this one from GE, on the market (not in a lab but actually on store shelves) that come "Internet Ready." These TV's will be able to access  video from any website in the world, without needing to go through middlemen like Comcast, DirecTV or Verizon (though you will still need an Internet service provider.) This is a similar kind of technological leap forward as in the 1980's when new televisions enabled consumers to "cut the cord" from their rabbit ears, antenas and set top boxes and started coming "cable ready." This Internet Ready development means that soon anyone with a video camera, Internet connection and something to say can have their content broadcast to TV's worldwide, virtually for free.

While today the TV market is closed to the average person (since you have virtually zero chance of getting your channel picked up by Comcast or DirecTV), that's all about to change. You won't need Comcast or DirecTV because you'll be able to take your channel directly to the people. Anyone with an Internet Ready TV (or today has a set top box device like Apple TV or SlingBox) will be able to access and watch your slate of programming on any TV in their home or office. (Not to mention computers, iPhones, Blackberry Storm's etc.)

No longer will network carriage be the barrier between tomorrows TV programmers (called podcasters and video bloggers today) and their media mogul aspirations.

That barrier will now shift to marketing. Because unless you can effectively market your channel to drive viewership, you'll be no better off than you were without the distribution in the first place. This is where the critical mass that is coalescing behind The Blogger & Podcaster Media Network (disclosure - I'm the CEO) gets so interesting. Here you have a media network that was started on a shoestring, and is comprised of thousands and thousands of "little guys" (small and medium sized bloggers and podcasters) who, by working together, can own their own media network and have it massively promoted, without it costing them one plum nickle. If you do the math, when The Blogger & Podcaster Media Network reaches 100,000 members (of the over 112 Million bloggers and podcasters worldwide and growing by 172,000 daily according to Technorati) it will have an audience that far exceeds every U.S. cable channel, and will be neck and neck with the biggest broadcast networks - CBS, ABC, NBC, and old school media conglomerates like The New York Times. 

No longer do you need tens of millions of dollars to be a "broadcaster." Those that have the ability to put together appealing content, and market it ,will find themselves in the enviable position of being the Turner's and Murdoch's of the upcoming "post-cable" generation.

        

For the last two months the headlines have been full of stories about one government Bailout after another. First it was Wall Street, then the Banking industry, then the Insurance industry and now the automakers. Did you ever think they were going to get around to creating a Bailout program that would benefit you and me? Well they did!  These government Bailout programs have created an opportunity for you to make millions of dollars without investing one dollar of your own money.

How would you like to make millions of dollars in the next couple of years? Sound outlandish?

It is ...<< MORE >>