Steve Jobs: How to Live Before You Die (Stanford Commencement 2005)

Act Like the Position You Want

Coaching is a long path – I was only on that path for 3 years.  I started as a part-time assistant, then a Graduate Assistant (GA), then full-time.  My approach to this was as a part-time coach, I approached my job as though I was the GA.  Same went for when I was a GA, I approached it as though I was full-time.  You can’t negate the responsibilities you have at each level, but I always approached things – demeanor, professionalism, mental approach, doing more than was expected or in the job description as though I was in the position just above mine.

Same can be said is you’re an assistant or associate or junior-level at any job.  The same can be said if you want to be the best at what you do… start by acting like the best.

When Your Best Isn’t Good Enough

When your best isn’t good enough, your best has to get better.

Trying your best is admirable.  It probably even helps most folks sleep at night.  But when your best is just plain not good enough, you don’t get consolation prizes for not closing the deal or losing a football game.  When your best continually frustrates you because it is not yielding the desired results leaves you with three options and what you decide says a lot about you.

1. Keep giving it your best in the same manner you always have: This is a lot like hitting your head against a wall.  You will lose a lot of blood and either the wall will come down or you’ll go down… How long can you keep hitting it with your head?

2. Quit giving it your best: This will be hard at first, but eventually you’ll be OK with it… and there in lies the problem.

3. Make your best better: This approach, this attitude on life will define you.  That wall mentioned in #1?  You’ll figure out how to go in, around, over or through.  As Randy Pausch said, “Brick walls are there for a reason.”  You may lose some blood.  Figuring out how or digging down deep enough wanting to make your best better may take a long time.  But ultimately because successful people continue to be successful people, their best will become better.

Good is the Enemy of Great

From Jim Collins’ book from Good to Great (granted a lot of the companies in there are out of business)…

Good is the Enemy of Great.  You’ll do well to remember that.

Anything worth Working for is worth Waiting for…

Think about that.   I believe it was Colt McCoy, now QB for the Cleveland Browns and former University of Texas standout who said that in an ESPN interview about a month back.

Anything worth working for is worth waiting for.  Whether it’s great software – that doesn’t necessarily mean waiting to release before you have the perfect product, but it takes time and work to get to awesome software.  Or winning a championship – you have to build that team and that does not happen in one or even two years.  Or even get a promotion or another job.  Patience does not come easy.  Especially in today’s instant gratification society.  But if you’re willing to work for something and by work, it is a top priority whether in your professional or personal life – you should be willing to endure it and wait for it to ripen… and when it does, then you can pick it and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Changing of the Seasons

I woke up this morning to 39 degrees in Michigan.  It’s Fall.  I love the smell of Fall.  It’s crisp.  It’s Productivity.  I’m hardwired to get up earlier in the Fall and stay later at work.  Fall is when football coaches work over 150 straight days, over 80 hour weeks and their weekends consist of Thursday after practice until Friday around 11am or noon.  Summer is the time to recharge one’s battery – now it’s time to get after it.  My attitude changes in the Fall.  Right, wrong or indifferent – I’m hungrier to get things done, to move things forward.  Golf season is over.  Football season is here.

Welcome back Fall.  Time to Win.

What Gets You Up in the Morning?

College football kicks off tonight.  The teams that are going out there this weekend have been preparing for this anywhere from 8 to 6 months.  So much goes into a football team between the end of one season and the start of the next, then it is a constant tweaking to stay competitive week in and week out.

College football coaches stay up at night worrying about this player or that scheme and then get up before the crack of dawn at the thought of coaching football and improving.  Some people get out of bed out of fear of losing money or their jobs… some do not have any drive at all save they just have bills to pay.  Others drive out of bed not because of what today holds, but because of the possibility of tomorrow, for others it’s stress or pride – or a combination of the two.

Whatever the reasons, hopefully yours is because you strive to make something (you, a team member, your company, at product, etc.) better and simply not because you just need to keep it the same.

Inspiration vs Motivation

These two are different.  Motivation are external factors that help you want to achieve a goal.  Inspiration comes from inside oneself.  Motivation can be compensation, better working hours, heck even fear of failure.  Inspiration is a driving force that pushes people to succeed no matter what.  Inspiration is inherently more powerful than motivation.  Entrepreneurs and Start-ups are inspired.  More established companies have to find a way to motive employees.  Entrepreneurs and Start-ups should consider this a strategic advantage.

Team

There is a lot that goes into building a team.  There are a lot of different dynamics, some that can be defined and checked off, others that are more of an X factor.  But to have a team, you have to have a singular purpose with a defined goal.  If too many people are scattered across too many efforts, the team concept falls apart.  If there are too many or poorly defined goals, the team concept falls apart.  Single purpose, defined rolls, clear goal.  Everyone wants to win, as long as the definition of winning is clear.

Focus

Focus is having a singular purpose and working towards that purpose.  That Focus has to be approached from the customer’s standpoint.  There’s a lot of merging going in the telecommunications industry between hardware and software, or what is the Apple model (Microsoft-Nokia, Google-Motorola Mobile, AT&T – Tmobile… ongoing).  It is a reversal of just Focusing on your core competency.  Because from a customer experience standpoint, a seamless end-to-end experience is seen as Focusing on the customer and putting the customer first.

You can still Focus on the customer by executing at a high-level and being driven by your core competencies.  But know that your product or service, if specialized will not be the only product or service your customer interacts with while trying to solve their problem.  So, you need to be the best at solving a particular issue and work with the other tools that are solving other aspects of the customer’s problem.  Let’s face it, most businesses can’t pull-off mega-mergers.  So, the way to beat the big boys is to Focus and use that Focus and energy  to be highly-specialized and deliver at the highest level to solve their problems the best for your Focused slice of competencies.