What if there was a website or tool where the community at large could vote on what tenants would do best in a particular space?  It would be great… not only would future tenants know what type of demand they might see, but it would make the space much more “sellable – or leaseable” from the landlords perspective.  Think about it… a user can sign on to a website, find a section of retail near where they live or work and make a recommendation for a tenant or vote on recommendations made by other users.

There’s probably ways you could tie the location-based services of foursquare or gowalla into this as well.  With foursquare, users “check-in” as they visit spaces and the user with the most check-ins is deemed “mayor”.  The success of these services is making a game out of ordinary and normal activities.  There might be a tool you can add to these services: the “I wish” application.  I wish there was a pizza shop to check-in at here.  Or something along those lines.

This is kind of like MyStarbucksIdea taken to another level.

That’s my thought for today.  What do you think?

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If you’ve heard those stories before, you can probably recall them; maybe not all of the details, but the general concept, theme and/or idea.

Chip and Dan Heath explore why these stories stand out better than many in their book Made to Stick.  Released in 2007, this book breaks down what makes stories or speeches memorable into six principles: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Stories; or SUCCESs.

Simple

The book offers a variety of case studies that show the importance of keeping the core simple.  One of my favorite examples was with Southwest Airlines.  Known as the low-cost carrier that excels in customer service and employee retention, Southwest Airlines internal motto and core idea is “THE low-fare airline.”  Employees are encouraged to reference this during the decision making process.  The example presented in the book was with Chicken Caesar Salad.  Customers like Chicken Caesar Salad – so should they offer this snack on particular flights.  The response from one of the company leaders: Would offering Chicken Caesar Salad on this flight make Southwest “The low-fare airline?”  No. That is the single most important thing.  I haven’t been offered a Chicken Caesar Salad on Southwest flight, have you?

Or, how about the 1992 Clinton campaign motto: “It’s the economy, stupid”?  Simple and succinct.

Unexpected

There are two approaches to generating unexpectedness.  The first is getting attention by breaking a pattern or creating a surprise.  A great example of breaking the pattern comes again from the airline industry.  In this instance, a flight attendant revised the monotonous, repetitive safety announcements we hear whenever we fly a plane.  What did she do?  She broke up the announcement into interesting pieces: “If you haven’t been in an automobile since 1965, the proper way to fasten a seatbelt is…”

While surprise gets our attention, interest keeps out attention.  One approach described is the “gap theory of curiosity.”  It’s like the often heard news teasers: “Which local restaurant received a D on a recent inspection scores? Are you eating there?”

Concrete

Tangible ideas and concepts are easier to understand than abstract ones.  What does justice or loyalty look like?  That is a lot harder to grasp than say a bicycle or avocado.  The more hooks used in the story, the better.  One approach to teaching prejudice in elementary school was described as brown eyes vs. blue eyes.  One day the blue eyes were better, the next day the brown eyes.

A second example described was setting common goals in tangible terms:  Boeing’s 727 was developed with the goal of: seat 131 passengers, fly from Miami to New York nonstop and land on runway 4-22 at LaGuardia (a runway too short for existing passenger planes).

Credible

Credible helps people believe the story or statement.  Search snopes.com for spoof emails about medicine and you will often see references to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Center for Disease Control (CDC).  References to these groups add credibility to those statements, even in the case when the statements are untrue.

The Heath’s outline two types of credibility:  External Credibility and Internal Credibility.  The above example is using external credibility.  Internal credibility is found when convincing details are used or statistics are made accessible (more visual or easier to grasp).  One test of credibility is called the Sinatra test, from the song New York, New York.  The lyrics: “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”  If you safe guard the results of the Oscars, then you can probably safeguard or company documents.

Emotional

The Mother Teresa principle is a very interesting study.  Participants at University of Pennsylvania were given five $1 bills to take a survey about technology (completely unrelated to the purpose of the study).  Along with the $5, participants received:

1. A letter detailing the statistics of starving children in Africa
2. A letter detailing the specifics about a starving child in Africa, Rokia.
3. Both of the above to letters.

Mother Teresa once said, “If I look at the mass, I will never act.  If I look at one, I will.”  Participants that received the first letter donated $1.14, participants that received the second letter donated on average $2.38 and participants who received both letters donated, surprisingly, $1.43.  The second letter pulls more on our emotions than the first.

Another approach is to appeal to a person’s identity.  Texas addressed their litter problem by implementing a “Don’t mess with Texas” campaign.

Stories

The last principle in Made to Stick deals with stories.  Stories work as simulation – talking shop with co-workers so they know what to expect or “look out for” – or as inspiration, see Chicken Soup for the Soul.  The right story can help convey the message and a great story is often retold multiple times.

SUCCESs

Those are the six principles in Made to Stick.  The outline of these principles is very high level.  If you found these concepts and ideas interesting, I suggest reading the book and related case studies for each principle I didn’t mention.  It’s quite obvious that using these principles in your communications, formal and informal, will help the listeners retain your message.

If you give speeches, talks or presentations for fun or for work, I would strongly suggest reading this book and implementing a few of the SUCCESs principles.  Your speech doesn’t need every principle in it, but I would think at least three of the six.

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• That won’t work
• You can’t do that
• Dumb idea
• Who would use that

Those are the naysayers.  Unfortunately, those types of comments often come from family or friends you have shared your ideas with.  It’s reasonable to assume that most great entrepreneurs also heard the words of naysayers: Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Aaron Patzer, Sara Blakely and others.

The difference between those people and the entrepreneurs that are still “thinking” about starting a business is they believed in themselves and they turned their belief into action.

The “I Can’t” List

If you are frustrated with lack of progress on a particular item and feel as though you are the only one that believes in it, develop an “I Can’t” list.  Write down all the things you think or someone has told you, you can’t accomplish:

• I can’t start a business
• I can’t become successful
• I can’t be an eloquent, motivating speaker
• I can’t develop passive income streams
• Etc.

Once your “I Can’t” list is complete, burn it, tear it, crumble it or simply rip it up and throw it out.  You can do those things.  As Napoleon Hill put it: “whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

Eliminate “I Can’t” From Your Vocabulary

The next time someone tells you, you can’t accomplish something, ignore them.

The next time you think you can’t do it, do it anyways.

If you believe in yourself, you can achieve it.  Eliminate “I can’t” from your vocabulary.

photo credit: Davide Rusconi

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Doctors in Texas studying the effect of arthroscopic knee surgery, assigned patients with sore, worn-out knees to one of three surgical procedures: scraping out the knee-joint, washing out the joint, or doing nothing.

During the “nothing” operation, doctors anesthetized the patient, made three incisions in the knee as if to insert their surgical instruments, and then pretended to operate.  Two years after surgery, patients who underwent the pretend surgery reported the same amount of relief from pain and swelling as those who had received the actual treatments.  The brain “expected” the surgery to work and it did.

Overtime, the brain comes to expect outcomes based on the conditions of the situation.  This is apparent in the above story as well as with other similar test in the medical field, like placebo pills.  That is why it is important to have positive expectations for the events of your life.  If you believe it’s possible, your brain will expect you to achieve that outcome.

What are you holding off on because you don’t believe it’s possible?  How would changing your frame of mind change your motivation towards pursuing that opportunity?  Is there harm in believing it is possible?

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First of all, I know the personal goals of these seven categories are addressed later.  I’ve spent time in the past defining details of goals that I hope to accomplish in my life and will update and share those later, but not at this point… just know that they are there and will require more focus than what is asked here.  Defining ideal relationships in this setting is pretty awkward and boring for the reader, so let’s skip it.  And you can probably imagine what to include in contributions to the larger community… in fact, some of such contributions were in my 30 things.

To get you thinking about your vision for each of these items, some stimulating questions follow:

Relationships

• Describe the ideal relationship with your family and friends
• What is your relationship like?
• Who are your friends?
• What is the quality of relationships with your friends?
• What do those friendships feel like?
• Are they loving, supportive, empowering?
• What kinds of things do you do together?

Personal

• Describe the personal arena of your life.
• Are you going back to school, getting training, attending workshops, seeking therapy for a past hurt or growing spiritually?
• Do you meditate or go on spiritual retreats with your church?
• Do you want to learn to play an instrument or write your autobiography?
• Do you want to run a marathon or take an art class?
• Do you want to travel to other countries?

Community

• Focus on the community you live in, the community you’ve chosen.
• What does it look like when it is operating perfectly?
• What kinds of community activities take place there?
• What about your charitable work?
• What do you do to help others make a difference?
• How often do you participate in these activities?
• Who are you helping?

Capturing Your Vision

Once you know your vision, how are you capturing it?  Where are you documenting your ideal life?  What you write down is big, important stuff… at least in your life.  Value and treasure it.  Don’t simply jot it down on a notebook.  Buy a journal and take the time to document it there.  Once you clarify your vision, you should review it often.  Keep it fresh in  your mind and use a tool that is durable for the frequent use it should receive.

I’ve found time to write about my vision on this site, but also capture it in a nice journal I picked up.  Not only to I review the items in the journal (almost) daily, I take the journal with me as I go to work or travel.  If inspiration hits and I find something to add to my 30 things, my vision or my goals, I don’t have to wait to do it.  Value the information you are capturing.  It is important.  Don’t take it for granted.

book credit: The Success Principles

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Free Time:

• What are you doing with your family and friends in the free time you’ve created for yourself?  We spend a lot of our time traveling to new and interesting locations.  Our family takes two annual trips: one to a tropical location and the second to country or location we have never been before.  When we are not traveling we spend time together reading or doing outdoor activities such as hiking or various sports.
• What hobbies are you pursuing? I participate in Ironmans, marathons and perhaps even ultra-marathons.  I have a team of friends that complete an adventure race every year or two.
• What kinds of vacations do you take? Exciting and adventurous vacations.
• What do you do for fun? Finding challenging things to accomplish.

Health:

• What is your ideal vision for your body and physical health? Great shape.  Superior condition. My physical body is able to complete long, challenging endurance races and my mental mindset does not interfere with these accomplishments.
• How long do you live? I’m alive and active into my 90’s.
• Are you open, relaxed, and in an ecstatic state of bliss all day long? You bet.
• Flexible and strong? Yes – I need to work on this.
• Do you exercise, eat good food, drink lots of water? Yes.  I’m a conscious eater and exercise frequently. 
  

Clarifying your vision is a tedious task.  It’s difficult to fully capture everything succinctly.  It’s probably best to consider this a constant work in progress.  As your ideals and visions change, you should update the different sections of your vision to reflect those changes.

Are you clarifying your vision?  Share it by posting a link in the comments.

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The Financials:

• What is your annual income?  Passive income that supports all monthly expenses and active income that is not needed, but allows for additional discretionary spending.
• What does your cash flow look like?  Continuous passive income and as much active income as I’m interested in
• How much money do you have in savings?  Enough to pay off all liabilities if needed and cover expenses for a rainy day.
• What is your total net worth?  The amount of money needed for “job free” lifestyle (and a stress free retirement)

The Home:

• What does your home look like?  An old craftsman style home that has been fully restored and modernized.  Large porch on the exterior and painted in earth tones.  The interior will have very detailed moulding, hand scraped hardwood floors, an upgraded kitchen and contemporary furnishings.  Here’s a good example:
  

• Where is it located? In an old neighborhood with homes of similar architecture and restaurants and amenities within a short walking distance.
• Does it have a view?  A view of water (ocean, lake, etc.) or urban skyline.
• What kind of yard or landscaping does it have? Highly manicured lawn and professional landscaping architecture throughout the property (both front and back).
• Does it have a pool? Yes, one that accommodates friends and family, but also works for swimming laps.

Other Items:

• List what kind of car you drive and any other possessions your finances have provided for you.  I’m not a car guy, so anything that is fuel-efficient works for me.  Other possessions: an upgraded road bicycle and kick ass laptop.

After going through this process for the second time, the first time being my vision for work and career, it definitely helps to define what your ideal world looks like.  It’s difficult to conceptualize some of these things, but taking the time to think it through will help as life progresses.

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• Visualize your ideal job or career
• Where are you working?
• What are you doing?
• With whom are you working?
• What kind of clients or customers do you have?
• What is your compensation like?
• Is it your own business?

My Vision: Work and Career

My work is location independent.  I have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.  Despite the freedom to move around, my work is still challenging and provides a lot of opportunity for creative problem solving.  In fact, I am involved in several different ventures that require different skill sets.  One project is investing in real estate.  I will travel the globe reviewing financial proformas for real estate investments, both commercial and residential.  When I’m not reviewing real estate deals, I’m working on several web-based projects and applications I’ve founded or invested in.  I virtually connect with my team and partners to review strategies for these businesses and brainstorm other opportunities that we are considering.  My most passionate venture amongst the group is supporting social entrepreneurs.  I’ve founded a forum to promote entrepreneurship in underdeveloped and underserved countries.  As my career progresses, I spend more of my time focused on developing opportunities for those that most need them.

Do to the nature of my business, I continue to write about the successes and failures we experience online and have attracted a decent following of business professionals and other entrepreneurs willing to provide comments and insight on the items I write about.

I have an ownership interest in everything that I do and my compensation is based on the performance of the real estate investments and the other projects we have launched.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think?  What did I miss?  How is your work and career vision alike or different?  Define your vision, don’t worry about how you are going to get there.

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The second part to Success Principle 3 is determining your vision. We determined what we wanted earlier with the “I want” lists; clarifying your vision expands on that with detailed descriptions of what the destination looks like.  There are seven categories to use to help clarify your vision:

• work and career
• finances
• recreation and free time
• health and fitness
• relationships
• personal goals and
• contributions to the larger community

What’s the best way to document these?  I set aside an hour several days in a row and visualized where I was going and what I wanted my life to end up looking like.  I took notes, capturing the details of my vision.  I’ve written a narrative that describes in detail my vision for the seven categories.  It would be a long a boring post for me to re-write those visions here, so I won’t do that – at least not all at once.  Canfield suggests sharing your vision however.  He writes:

You might be afraid that your friend will think your vision is too outlandsih, impossible to achieve, too idealistic, or materialistic. Almost all people have these thoughts when they think about sharing their vision. But the truth is, most people deep down in their hearts, want the very same things you want. Everyone wants financial abundance, a comfortable home, meaningful work they enjoy, good health, time to do things they love, nurturing relationships with their family and friends, and an opportunity to make a difference in the world. But too few of us readily admit it.

Over the weekend I will add my vision for the seven categories on this website.  They may come across as materialistic, idealistic, or something else.  It may not align with your life’s vision whatsoever.  As irrelevant as it may seem to you, it’s a vision, something to inspire you to write your vision for your life.

Once your vision is complete – review it everyday.  Keep it active in your conscious and subconscious mind.  Help it manifest.  How will you know when you have arrived if you don’t know where you are going?

Photo Credit: mind_scratch
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I want to do…

1. complete an Ironman
2. raise $12,000 to fund three libraries for Room To Read
3. help build the school or library we funded
4. hidden
5. learn how to speak Korean fluently
6. start and own a business
7. live internationally for a few years
8. write a book, get it published and sell 100,000 copies
9. build a successful web project that attracts 1MM visitors
10. give a motivational speech to a large crowd
11. motivate and inspire others to make change in the world
12. develop others into successful people
13. cycle across the continental United States
14. compete on a game show like the Amazing Race
15. vacation on a remote tropical island
16. play soccer and baseball with my children
17. a million dollar real estate deal
18. pay off all of our debt
19. a road trip to visit all 48 continental United States
20. watch at least one Major League Baseball game in all the stadiums in the US
21. donate a million dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries
22. build a Habitat for Humanity home
23. go skydiving
24. teach a college course
25. perform 25 pull-ups and 200 sit-ups
26. create something useful, market and sell it
27. snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef
28. meaningful work that I enjoy
29.  
30.  

I want to have…

1. a happy, healthy, passionate and loving family
2. open-minded, well-educated and successful children
3. a great relationship with God
4. a financially comfortable life
5. no debt
6. an abundance of time to pursue my passions
7. a fun and adventurous marriage
8. great opportunities
9. great health
10. a stress free life
11. happy, healthy and fun pets
12. a business – to be my own boss
13. a real estate investment portfolio
14. passive income streams that support our family
15. ability to pursue all opportunities
16. a vacation home abroad – Italy or somewhere similar
17. a nice house with a fenced backyard and mature trees
18. great friends with similar interests and passions
19. an in-home gym
20. a comfortable home – mortgage free
21. all of the best tech gadgets
22.  
23.  
24.  
25.  
26.  
27.  
28.  
29.  

I want to be…

1. an entrepreneur
2. developing creative solutions: at work and at home
3. successful in life: personally and professionally
4. environmentally conscious
5. a great listener
6. inspirational to others
7. happy and healthy all of my life
8. satisfied with what I accomplish in life
9. motivated and motivational
10. a role model for my children
11. the best dad ever
12. confident
13. fun
14. testing my comfort zones
15. making a difference
16. an advocate for equality
17. helping others
18. a real estate investor
19. a world traveler
20. satisfied spiritually
21. location independent
22.  
23.  
24.  
25.  
26.  
27.  
28.  
29.  
30.  

This is a work in progress.  How’s your list?  Need help brainstorming?

Photo Credit: sgrace

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