Could You Use An Extra Helping Of....Time?

Could you use a little more... time?  I've never bumped into a small business owner who said, "My biggest problem is that I have too much leisure time." 

I'm currently reading the book Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud.  It was a kind gift from a friend who thought it might be helpful in my work advising owners of family owned small businesses.  The premise is that we sometimes struggle or just plain get stuck, in life and in business, with "endings" - - stopping or bringing an end to activities, relationships and businesses.  We pursue good things but not the best, try to rehabilitate people and enterprises that are never going to succeed, or try to revive situations that are long, long dead and gone.  Essentially, we waste time in areas that rob us from pursuing our very best.  

How productive and effective could you be if you spent most of your time on the very best things in life, both personally and professionally?  To focus there, you have to decisively choose to bring some things to a necessary end.

One of my all time favorite books, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey explores the principle of "First Things First".  Dr. Covey urges leaders (as well as business owners and all individuals) to focus on the "not urgent and important" things in life.  Don't you sometimes get the feeling that you are spinning your wheels addressing urgent situations throughout the day, only to reflect back in your exhaustion to realize that the things you pursued really weren't that important in the long run?  Stephen Covey would encourage you to spend less and less time on urgent situations, which will allow you more and more time to address important aspects of life and business.

Perhaps the way to "make more time" is to consciously choose to stop doing some of the things you currently do.  Wisdom says to the weary, to those who dream of a 30 hour day, stop doing the urgent and unimportant, bring these things to a necessary end.

Quick quiz:  What will you stop doing TODAY to allow more time for the very best in your life?

Thanks for sharing 117 seconds of your day,
Smitty

Steve Jobs Died This Week; So...

Steve Jobs died this week; so did the parent of three different friends of mine.

Three friends of mine lost a parent this week.  No, the world won't pause to reflect on the lives of my friends' parents.   Others across the planet won't post on Facebook or write a blog about these three.   The public won't share videos and quotes of my friends' parents.

In one video I viewed, Mr. Jobs said: "Those people who think they are crazy enough to think they can change the world, those are the people who actually do."   My friends' parents changed the world, my world, simply by making the lives of my friends possible.

Like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life, we all leave our imprint on this world.  Yes, when you're gone, "they" will talk about you in the funeral home.  What would you like them to say?  Perhaps this is the most valuable thing the passing of a celebrity like Steve Jobs provides:  it causes us to pause from all our "busyness" to reflect upon the meaning of our lives.

What would you like them to say about you at the funeral home?

For me, it's simple.  I'd like to be remembered as a man who knew God well, because my belief and faith in Jesus Christ is really the most important element of my life.  I heard a sermon about "The Rest of Your Life" last Sunday.  My plan is to spend the rest of my life on that.  I know that I won't change the world, but I'd like to make a difference for a few dear people.

How about you?  I hope you're crazy enough to think you can change the world.  Get busy, the world is waiting for you.

(enjoy the brief video)

Thanks for sharing 77 seconds of your day,
Smitty

Scary or Just Another Trillion Dollar Company?

I ended my post on September 30th with:

I'm running out of time for today, but I wonder how valuable a company would be if they were the major player worldwide in music, movie entertainment, TV, news media and book offerings and distribution. And how influential. One thread of 145 comments that I read about the Facebook changes contained three comments from German individuals. Essentially, they said we witnessed about 80 years ago what can happen when the control of media and information is willingly relinquished to a single source.

Luckily, today we still have a Congress that sits under a Constitution and Bill of Rights that require our government to protect freedom of speech. We do, don't we? Not even a trillion dollar company can change that. Can it?

A trillion dollar company that is the major player worldwide in music, movie entertainment, TV, news media, and book offerings and distribution?  In the video below, the last person interviewed, Co-Founder/CEO of Friend.ly Ed Baker, thinks Facebook "has the best shot at being a trillion dollar market cap company in the next few years".

Clara Shih, Founder of Hearsay Labs who is recorded on the video below prior to Mr. Baker, thinks that the new Timeline Facebook format (not yet available to individuals - yes, there's a ton more changes coming) will be helpful for small businesses.  Small businesses and their owners will "really be able to connect at a much deeper level with their customers" and enjoy "a new level of authenticity and customer loyalty that will result".   

Ed Baker also says that "users always have mixed feelings about change....in the long run people are going to love this a lot more than what they did before".  Facebook users have noticed that the News Feed of information is no longer chronological, and they aren't seeing the information that they used to see.  This is because the artificial intelligence running Facebook, called Graph Rank, is making decisions about content and filtering the information that Facebook users see.  According to Bret Taylor, Facebook's CTO, Graph Rank looks for patterns and its main job is to figure out what's most interesting to the individual user. 

Why would the individuals from Germany be concerned about the influence of a trillion dollar company deeply engaged in the music, film and TV media, print, news, and journalism industries, with control through artificial intelligence over what 800 million people see?  I don't get it, do you?

Thanks for sharing 117 seconds of your day,
Smitty