Sunday Sitar

(Photo courtesy of Google)

It's been a while since I've written one of these but here goes.  I'm inspired after reading a recent article in Inc Magazine called "The Rules" [11 nuggets of hard-earned wisdom] and today listening to Joel Osteen this morning about how God can shift us into such exponential favor that blessings come to us.  We won't have to seek them out.  When God breathes on us, it's done! That is incidentally the phrase that is on my license plate, and has been for more than a decade.

I'm going to digress for a moment to say that the reason why I've named my Sunday posts after a beautiful wooden string instrument is because I completely love the sound of the sitar AND it's easy on the eye.  Easy on the eye=beautiful, handsome, a pleasure to behold.  I liken it to fine art.  Bucket list digression: One day I'll travel to India to have the most beautiful sitar made for me by a master craftsman.

Okay back to business.  Hopefully these words of wisdom will help to jump start your week. The rules of success according to The co-founder of Blogger/Twitter, CEO of Zappos, The Huffington Post, Co-Founder of Whole Foods, and a few others are:

1. Do less
2. Embrace accidents
3. Choose your playing field
4. Fail
5. Let others lead
6. Slow down
7. Emphasize steady progress
8. No tricks
9. Stop thinking about yourself
10. Don't discount the role of luck
11. Don't be immune to new ideas

I know that initially reading this list hardly seems like a winning formula for success - but if you ponder each rule for a moment breathing in between, they each make sense.  Here are the eleven broken down by the experts:

1. DO LESS - It's true of partnerships, marketing opportunities, anything that's taking up your time.  The vast majority of things are distractions, and very few matter to your success. - Evan Williams co-founder of   Blogger & Twitter.
2. EMBRACE ACCIDENTS - The best things happen when people are running into each other and sharing ideas. It's all about maximizing collisions and accelerating serendipity. - Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos.
3. CHOOSE YOUR PLAYING FIELD - The heart of strategy is defining where you're going to play and how you're going to win.  A lot of companies don't consciously choose where not to play. - Roger Martin Dean of the Rotman School of Management.
4. FAIL - See failure as a stepping stone to success, as opposed to the opposite of success.  When you frame failure that way, it changes dramatically what you're willing to do, how you're willing to invent, and what risks you'll take. - Arianna Huffington co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post.
5. LET OTHERS LEAD - I would say resilience, the ability to come back from crisis.  Leadership is a team sport.  You need to build leadership through the ranks, by empowering people to independently make good decisions. - Michael Useem professor at The Wharton School.
6. SLOW DOWN - I always associated 'bankruptcy' with 'overexpansion.'  It took me 10 years to open my second restaurant.  I gave myself a real gift; despite whatever emotional issues led me to go slowly, I was able to take a deep dive into the skills of being a restaurateur.  - Danny Meyer founder/CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group.
7. EMPHASIZE STEADY PROGRESS - Inner work life is the combination of emotions, perceptions and motivations that people experience during their work days.  We discovered that on those days when people had positive inner work lives, they were more likely to be creative and productive. - Teresa Amabile Harvard Business School professor.
8. NO TRICKS - I refuse to play the zero-sum game anymore.  It's better to find a way to make everyone happy. - Phil Libin founder of Evernote.
9. STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF - There are all kinds of intelligence but the one that helped me most is systems intelligence that I call SyQ.  It refers to the ability to see the big picture, how different parts of a system interconnect.  With a high SyQ you can see the impact that a decision has... - John Mackey co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods.
10. DON'T DISCOUNT THE ROLE OF LUCK - The premise is, if you want to succeed in the future, you identify what made one successful in the past and look for attributes you can emulate.  But people attempt to extract lessons from a mostly random process.  We also under sample failure.  By only extracting from winners we miss the ones who copied those strategies and failed.  There is a skill-luck continuum in life...you can be optimistic but there is more accuracy in hoe pessimistic people predict the world.  Recognizing alternative outcomes - and the role of luck - keeps your mind open to other possibilities, so you can mitigate them. - Michael Mauboussin author of The Success Equation. 
11. DON'T BE IMMUNE TO NEW IDEAS - There are all kinds of innovation.  Doing old things well requires small incremental innovation - and we need a better vocabulary for talking about this.  If we want freedom and prosperity we need innovation.  That's what creates economic growth and jobs. - Bob Metcalfe founder of 3Com.

So there you have it wrap your brain around all of that and be well and good!