Doing is the new black.
Kevin Kelly
Came across Kevin Kelly with “DO! The pursuit of xceptional execution”. Then realised he was Irish and I had seen him speak at an SFA conference a few years ago. I remember that day vividly. Not only because of Kevin’s talk but because of another speaker that day, Gerry Duffy, who talked about his 10 marathons in 10 days. The summary of the talk; You live only once, why be mediocre?
Xceptional businesses
Which fits exactly with Kevin’s book. He talks about the Xceptionalists. About the importance of doing. Not business planning. Not vision. Not ideas. Doing! Like Seth Godin’s instigation capital or the importance of movement in “The obstacle is the way”. About the importance of self-awareness of doing things well and with full attention.
Full attention
Full attention is very interesting. He gives you a number. 341005003056555641289. Daily we consume 34 Gigabyte of information. That is 100500 words every day. Every 3mins 5 secs you start a job and are interrupted, 65% of 55-64 surf, text while watching TV – the average attention span is 8 secs down from 12. The attention span of a goldfish is 9 secs. In a 24/7 always-on world, inundated with advertising and social media, smartphone pings and text messages, distraction is the new normal.
Straight from “The Shallows”.
DGA
The DGAs, ‘Do Give Attention’ people, have the potential to achieve cult status. People crave genuine, authentic, undivided attention. Make your customers your friends, not just customers. With as a result: loyalty, engagement and positive word-of-mouth promotion. Heart share, not market share.
About being self-aware
Stanford has identified self-awareness as a key success factor. One of the tools that can help awareness and unearth your subconscious truths is learning how to calm your mind. The ability to quieten and still your noisy overactive mind can help in highlighting and eliminating viruses as well as enhancing your creativity, clarity and decision-making. Straight from “Coherence”
About fear and failure
Failures are not fatal or final. Failure is feedback. Fear is a teacher. Without it you become complacent. Life happens to you. You always get to choose what you are going to do about it. Mastery in this context is interesting. Overcome fear by testing your competency. Fear as a teacher. Fear as Part of the 10,000 hours. It also stops you from doing stupid things. And here is an interesting observation. Flow kills fear. The more you love what you do, the less afraid you will be.
About creativity
A Study of Genius by George Land and Beth Jarmin published in 1993 in their book Breakpoint and Beyond found that 98 per cent of 2-5-year-olds, 32 per cent of all 8-10-year-olds, and 10 per cent of all 13-15-year-olds from the group of 1,600 children tested were in the creative genius category. Of 200,000 adults surveyed, just 2 per cent of those over 25 could be considered creative geniuses. The magic doesn’t have to stop when you pass childhood. That is Ken Robinson speaking on TED.com or straight from “The element” and “Out of our minds”.
The Secret
Your subconscious has an efficient filtering system that will help you see what you want to see and attract what you need to attract. For instance, as soon as you decide to change that car, a sequence of events appear to occur that prove you have this magnetic ability to attract the information you require. We are all hardwired for success. The programming is in place. You just need to re-activate it. It can be used for all your personal and business goals, from attempts to develop your domestic market to developing an international presence.
15 rules
1. Commit
2. Look for teachers everywhere
3. Activate your subconscious powers. Meditate.
4. Identify your core beliefs, finish the following sentences (there is no right or wrong)
- Life is
- I am
- What I want most is
- Failure is
5. Analyse your actions
- Are you doing or talking
- Are you positive
- What language do you use
- Are you confident in your product or service
6. Be your mind’s guardian (read “The Monk who sold his Ferrari)
7. Trust your intuition
8. Aim for Zen living (breathe)
9. Know your values (they are your filter)
10. Understand your power to change
11. Seize the moment of a complaint
12. Host idea sessions
13. Manage the client moments. Map out all the contact clients points and but a continues improvement system
14. The art of sales is win-win. There is no closing strategy
15. Delay your vision. Replace the word ‘visionary’ with ‘potterer’ and you have a more realistic view. When you execute the magic happens.
My favourite quote; “There is no private and business life. It’s only life”
It is another passionate plea for entrepreneurship. Very much along the lines of the work we did on career perspective. Everyone should go for it. You have no choice.
Case studies
Kevin finishes the book with a number of case studies. Asthma care, Balsamiq, Blo Blow, Dwolla, Business Model You, Outfit 7, Unislim, WeDemand. From Italy to Ireland. From Canada to Brazil. All Xceptionalists.
