Randy Cantrell

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Mastermind groups. Think tanks. Peer groups. Support groups.

It doesn’t matter what you call them…they’re opportunities for us to surround ourselves with like-minded people who are peers. Peers are people who are in the same boat we’re in. In the case of THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network, they’re all business owners! Folks who share many common issues, challenges, and opportunities. 

Years of coaching CEO’s and top-level leaders has shown me the importance of mental health in effective leadership. People don’t like to talk about it…until something very bad happens. Then, everybody seems to chatter about it. Until interest dies back down. 

Sitting down with business owners, CEO’s and other leaders has proven to me the unquestioned need for every business owner to avail themselves of being surrounded by other business owners yearning for personal, professional and business growth. It’s obvious when the CEO quickly jumps to some personal problem that is preoccupying her mind. Sometimes it’s a crisis like caring for a sick, aging parent. Or a struggling marriage. CEO’s aren’t robots immune from struggling through life’s issues. Instead, the pressures of high expectations are ever present. Decision making can’t be put off or canceled. Instead, the show must go on!

THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network is intentionally designed to help you go on with the show. Shared experiences, shared expertise and insights – these are the priceless assets of a highly functioning peer advantage group. The power isn’t only inside you, or me. It’s in the collective. The power is in the room. In this case, a virtual room that conveniently meets every other week.

I guarantee it’ll be the most powerful room you’ll ever enter. Powerful in the sense of being valuable to you. Check out the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com. Apply today and let’s talk about this opportunity. Together we’ll figure out if it’s right for both of us.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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The benefits of physical fasting are widely researched and documented. The benefits of social media fasting might not as widely researched or documented, but I think they’re valuable, too. 

Which is why I’m doing both. And it’s why I do it every now and again.

I do this a couple of times a year — go on a social media fast. I probably fast physically close to half a dozen times or more a year. You may benefit from figuring out ways you can employ fasting in helping reach new heights of physical, mental and spiritual fitness. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great! I’ll see you when I decide to break this fast. 

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Intentions matter. 

Senator John McCain will lie in state at the Capitol in Washington today. However you may have felt about him, or his politics, you have to tip your hat to the man’s intentions. By almost all accounts, he was a man of principles and integrity. Maybe the biggest proof was when he was captured in Viet Nam as a young Navy pilot and refused to be set free because he wanted to honor the code of first captured, first freed. 

McCain wrote a farewell letter that you should read. It reveals the man’s heart and the intentions of his life. True confession. I’ve not been diagnosed with any dreaded disease, but thoughts of death compelled me to write my own farewell letter about a decade ago. I update it every whip stitch. It’s in a DropBox that my wife and I share. She gets a notification every time I update it. Sometimes my intentions change a bit.

“My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for 60 years, and especially my fellow Arizonans, 

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life of service in uniform and service in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I’ve often observed that I’m the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I’ve loved my life, all of it. I’ve had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 satisfying lives, and I am so thankful.  Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anybody else’s.

I owe this satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

Fellow Americans, that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest Republic, a nation of ideals — not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history, and we have acquired great wealth and great power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they’ve always been. We are 325 million opinionated vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I feel it powerfully still. Do not despair of our present difficulties. We believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you and God bless America.”

We judge people by their intentions and actions. McCain had honorable intentions. So much so that even his critics are mostly able to judge his actions as honorable. 

I know the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but so is the road to Heaven. The difference is, the road to Heaven is paved with good intentions that were acted upon. 

Cason is my 3-year-old grandson. He’s bold. Mostly fearless. But he can be easily embarrassed. We attend worship services at church three times a week. Twice on Sundays and once on Wednesday evenings. He sits with my wife and me Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights. This past Wednesday night, while my son was up preaching (Cason’s dad), Cason was misbehaving. I got onto him and he immediately hung his head in shame as I plopped him onto my lap. I let him be embarrassed for a few minutes before distracting him with the watch on my wrist. He’s only 3, but you can tell by his facial expression and body language…he knows my intentions are for his welfare. 

Little kids know. Our pets know. Everybody knows. Or thinks they do.

Your intentions matter.

Make them honorable. Be well-intended. Pursue the best outcome for the people you serve, the people you love. Pursue the best outcome for the causes you care about most. Seek the welfare of others, even if it costs you something. And it will. But it’s worth the investment.

Your judgment of the intentions of others matters.

What if you think the worst of somebody else…and you’re wrong? What if you think the best of somebody else…and you’re wrong?

It’s like the choice between pessimism and optimism. There’s just no downside to optimism. So choose optimism. Choose to think the best. Give others the benefit of the doubt when you’re judging their intentions. There’s no downside. And if you find a downside, it won’t negate all the upside. 

John McCain’s critics may not have agreed with his conclusions, his specific goals, his approach or a host of other actions. People – reasonable people who are well-intended – can still disagree without being disagreeable. 

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

We can all do a much better job of letting the people who surround us know how much we care about them. Even if we do sometimes disagree.

It’s Labor Day Weekend. Monday is a holiday. I’m thinking of starting my “every-so-often” social media fast, but I’m not sure. If you don’t hear from me next week, you’ll know why. And you’ll know my intentions are to return and keep doing my best to help you out, even if it is just a few minutes every day. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Small businesses have many advantages. Being highly maneuverable is chief among them. Speed kills competition and wins in the market. Not recklessness. Speed. Not impulsiveness. Speed.

As an operator, my mantra has long been to make sure the company was highly maneuverable and viciously competitive. 

Both involve the factor we all care most about, TIME. 

Frenzy isn’t profitable. Motion doesn’t equal action. Let’s not confuse these things. 

My grandmother had a little wooden sign in her kitchen from Alice In Wonderland that read…

Some business owners operate in a frenzy thinking that speed of motion equals profitable activity. Rarely does that work out. Instead, it most often elevates stress and strain. I’ve never seen panic pay off. It will put you further behind, not further ahead.

Speed is impacted by the mindset behind it. Let me explain. Some entrepreneurs love chaos and frenzy. A hyper approach to everything. These are the folks who have another question before the previous question has had time to be answered. They’re easily distracted. Antsy. Always on the move. 

While it may not be thoughtless speed, they may be the only ones who know the thought behind it. Others are frustrated by it. It looks like zaniness and a lot of squirrel chasing. And maybe mostly it is. It may be an addiction to motion. Speed. Moving, moving, moving. Never stand still. 

Owners who lead with that frantic pace mostly grow increasingly frustrated with the slowness around them. They also grow increasingly impatient. 

Your organization can likely thrive more with a calmer, more deliberate approach. An approach that gives people time to gather their thoughts, express their concerns and ideas and to ask questions required for clarification. None of those activities slow things down. Quite the contrary, they make speed more advantageous. 

Are you an impulsive leader?

Do you give a directive, then completely change directions before that directive ever has a chance to be completed? 

Do you ask a question, only to “on the fly” figure out you’ve got a different question – and one you ask right on top of the first one? And one that has nothing to do with the first question?

Do you issue some edict, then hours later forget all about it, and deem it unimportant – even though a number of your staff members have been working all morning on it?

Impulsive behavior has nothing to do with effective speed. Instead, it has everything to do with a thoughtless lack of self-discipline. No self-restraint. No self-control. An unsettled mind will result in unsettled leadership and unsettled business activity. 

I see it often, which is why I’m talking about it today. Over a year ago I did a video (without audio) that demonstrates the problem of having too many irons in the fire, and not allowing any of them to get hot enough to work with. It’s the “from start to profit” mindset I find myself talking about quite a bit with business owners who find it difficult to focus. 

Reckless speed is still speed. But it’s dangerous. Thoughtful speed is still speed. But it’s effective, efficient and wins races. 

Sometimes owners benefit by thinking about short-term versus longer-term. Execution of an idea – any idea – is easy to consider. Let’s say you’ve got an idea, some innovation you’d like to implement inside your company. You toss the idea out there, but due to your scattershot approach, you’re like a hummingbird who won’t light. You fidget. That idea is still something you’d like to get going, but a week goes by and nobody is working on it. They’re unsure what they’re supposed to be working on. So like my video illustrates, they take a few steps toward executing it, then you change direction so they follow your lead. They’re now moving on something completely different. 

Weeks and months pass. Still no execution of your idea. 

Compare that with an approach where you quieten things down as you explain your idea. The staff asked questions. Provide input. An hour later the meeting ends and everybody knows what needs to be done at this stage of the game. You’ve got a million other ideas floating around, but you temper yourself. You’re making notes and keeping track, but you’re not about to distract your team from the work at hand. You know that by the end of the week they’ll be ready to launch the first iteration of your original idea. Four days from you telling them about it until it’s some form of reality. Four days! 

Versus it never happens. You never get it off the back of the napkin to figure out if it would even work. So you never have the opportunity to iterate it and perfect it. It’s the classic, ready, ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…oh wait a minute, here’s what we should do. Ready, ready, ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim…hey, no…you know what we should do?

Funny thing. Owners ruled by thoughtless impulse mostly have no idea how bad it is. They usually know they’re “all over the board,” but they have no concept of how disruptive they are. Frenetic activity begets more frenetic behavior, amplifying stress and anxiety. Even if it makes the boss feel better!

Intentional. Purposeful.

Two words that creep into almost every business building conversation I have. Today, I’m summarizing both into a single term, thoughtful. 

Thoughtful.

Here’s why I like it. It signifies a component of caring, compassion and being considerate. Thinking of others.

That’s why I’ve incorporated it into this conversation about speed. At bats count. Shots at the target. Pick the metaphor you like most. They all refer to the number of opportunities we take. That’s where speed has an impact. The more opportunities we take, the more we learn, the more we’re able to grow and improve. And the faster we’re able to figure out if we want to keep going in that direction. Or if we want to quit and try something else. 

Tap the brakes on the frenzy. Slow down enough to be thoughtful. Go as fast as you want, but keep a check on your thoughtfulness. When it starts to slip, you may be moving too fast surrendering to your impulses instead of your thoughtfulness.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Some people think you just sell your way out of every problem. More sales equal more money. More money means less trouble. Fewer problems. It doesn’t always work that way though.

You know if you’re more driven by the top line (revenue) or by the bottom line (profits). You can be top line driven and still care about controlling costs. They’re not mutually exclusive. It’s largely determined by what you believe in most, and what you enjoy doing most. CEOs and business owners who have a gift of selling tend to focus on that. It’s fine. You don’t need me to tell you it’s okay. But I just did. CEOs and business owners who lean more toward details and efficiencies likely pay closer attention to the bottom line. This isn’t about making a judgment on the rightness or wrongness of either focus. 

Balance. Every business needs balance. A proper focus on the revenues or sales while maintaining focus on the bottom line profits, which must take into account all those expenses. Costs. 

In personal finances, you can save your way toward wealth. I’m sitting in an Economics 101 class in my freshman year of college. There are a few hundred kids in this class. Big auditorium, stadium type seating. The professor had teased the class, telling us he would be informing us how we could all become millionaires. Many of us who regularly cut the class attended. How can you cut a class when it’s going to be about how to become a millionaire? 

Here was the formula he taught us that day. Don’t get married. Get any job earning any reasonable amount of money. Don’t fret about getting a high paying job. Live in the most austere way possible. Don’t buy stuff. Just have a modest lifestyle, living as bare bones as you can. Save at least $20,000 a year. Earn $40,000, then you save 50%. Earn more, save more. At least that’s what he encouraged us to do. Work 50 years and you’ll have $1,000,000. 

Needless to say, it wasn’t the formula we were looking for. We were sorely disappointed in this wealth building strategy. By the way, we cut his class much more frequently after that lecture. To say we were hacked off would be to mildly understate how angry we were at being dupped into attending class that day. But it stuck with me. You can save your way to wealth in your personal life. 

Makes sense that you should be able to save your way to business prosperity, too. But you can’t. And for good reason. Revenue (the equivalent of personal income) isn’t predictable. If you get a job earning $40,000 a year you know you’ve got $40,000 coming in each year. You can implement the strategy our professor told us about. But in our businesses, we have fluctuating revenue. And we lack the discipline to not let our expenses or costs fluctuate with it. When sales are strong, we spend more readily. When sales are tight, we reach for our belts to tighten things down. 

Discipline is the key to personal wealth building success and to our corporate success. 

Returns. As you man the helm of your business you must focus on generating revenues, cash, and customers. Cash is king. Always has been, always will be. Cash flow is the fuel you need to stay aloft. Run out of cash and you’ll crash. Customers? Well, try getting revenues and cash without them. Sales. Cash. Customers. They’re all tied together.

Some costs have a fairly easy ROI (return on investment) to calculate. Customer acquisition costs, for example. How much does it cost your company to acquire a customer? I know service-based businesses, including trade-type businesses, who have a very low customer acquisition cost. Maybe they’ve been operating so long they’ve got a strong book of business, with tons of referrals. They market, but they don’t buy advertising or spend any significant money to get business. Other businesses have high dollar real estate investments in a physical location designed to be attractive to would-be customers. They spend thousands of dollars each month to attract customers. Their customer acquisition costs are significant. 

I’m picking on this particular expense for good reason. You need customers. You’ve got to get them some way, somehow. You can’t just spend your way to success. You can’t save your way to success either. The math has to work to your favor or you’ll soon be out of business. 

You could drive down the expenses of acquiring customers. For example, you could eliminate all advertising. If you’re spending $30,000 monthly in advertising you could be lulled into thinking, “Great, that’s $30,000 I can add to the profits.” That’d be true if sales could be maintained (like our example of $40,000 personal income). But we both know if we eliminate all our advertising our sales will likely plummet. So that’s not a sound approach.

Getting costs down while maintaining or growing sales. That’s the key. Easier said than done, but it can be done. WalMart has led the way for decades. 

In our example, the key is to drive down our customer acquisition costs. We can do it in 2 ways. We find ways to gain more customers while not increasing our costs. And, or, we find ways to maintain the rate of customer acquisition without spending as much. Maybe you focus on your closing ratio (how many prospects you’re able to convert into customers). If your current customer acquisition costs are based on closing 4 out of 10 prospects, then you can focus on finding ways to get 5 or more out of 10 while spending the same amount. 

Making your dollars go further. Business success depends on this investment/expense activity. Sometimes it’s getting costs lower. Other times it’s getting more out of the costs. 

Advertising that garners more prospects – dollar for dollar – is more valuable than advertising that brings in fewer prospects. But we can be tempted to avoid the math. We fall in love with things. We get sentimental. What once worked stops working, but we don’t adjust. The retailer who has historically spent advertising dollars on newspaper, radio or TV continue to spend money there, even though the dollar value is awful. The math is the math. It’s not just about the math, but we can’t avoid looking at the math either.

“I can’t afford it,” is a common refrain. You hear it from your prospects. You say it to your suppliers. We all use it even though it’s not always (or even often) true. What will the money spent get us? Returns. It’s about our discipline to manage the real returns we get. If you spend $35 to get a customer and one customer is worth $50, then you’ve got a math problem. The remaining $15 of profit have to be enough to cover all the other expenses and leave you a sustainable net profit. That’s not likely going to happen. But if you spend $35 to get a customer who will spend $3,000 then you’ve got the math working to your favor. 

Basic. Fundamental. But quickly forgotten by too many business owners who let costs grow out of control. Expenses have a way of creeping up, and up and up. You can’t afford to ignore the math of the return you’re getting on those expenses. Every expense has a return. Yes, those health insurance premiums you hate to pay garner a return. Unless you offer those benefits the quality of your team falls. Can you drive that down if you focus on it? Yes. Everything can be driven down with a bit of attention. I’ve never seen it fail. When we pay close attention to something, we’re able to accomplish magical things. 

Miles per gallon. Attack your expenses line by line with an MPG mindset. Make the dollars take your further. Make your advertising foster more sales. Make your insurance premiums garner bigger benefit, greater peace of mind. You know my attitude about expenses…put every expense on trial for its life. Make it earn its spot on the books. If it can’t, then adjust it so it can. 

My personal objective with all my clients is to provide a 10x return. While I can’t guarantee it, because I can’t guarantee the effort clients put into the work…I am determined to do everything possible on my end to help clients generate at least $10 for every dollar they invest in my help. I’m happier if we can get it closer to $20. That math is important. For me and my clients. I want to earn sufficient profits so I can render the best service possible. And so I can operate a sustainable business. And I want it to be a no-brainer, drop-dead easy decision for my clients. If I’m able to deliver a ten dollar bill for every dollar bill they give me, then it’s an easy decision for them, an investment they’re anxious to make. 

Take the time to figure out if the line item expenditure is earning its keep. What kind of return are you getting? Calculate it. 

Now figure out how you can elevate that return. If you can’t, then figure out if you can get an equal or better return by lowering that expense. 

As you go through your P&L line by line you’re going to discover some things that are completely worthless. Costs that can be completely eliminated. 

You’ll find others that are so much higher than necessary, you’ll be angry at yourself for not looking at it more closely. Regularly. 

I’ve seen business owners operating large multi-million dollar businesses neglect to pay close enough attention only to find gaping holes where profits were just pouring out onto the ground. I’ve seen owners unearth some horrible internal thefts, too. Your business isn’t too small or too large to benefit from a closer examination of costs with the intention of making every dollar go further to propel your company to new heights of success.

Tracking is important, but not if you’re failing to pay attention. Ignorance is not bliss. It’s deadly. Know the numbers. Know what they mean and how important they are to your operational success. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Is it really daring to innovate? Absolutely. 

Proof was apparent here in Dallas Sunday night during a pre-season NFL game between the Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals. Late Sunday night Yahoo sports writer Jason Owens wrote a piece entitled, Viewers not impressed with NBC’s ‘green zone’ innovation for ‘Sunday Night Football.’

He wrote…

The yellow line is a Hall of Fame level sports broadcasting innovation.

The digitally imposed first-down marker developed by Sportvision and launched on ESPN in 1998 changed the way fans watch football and has inspired a host of digital enhancements to improve the home viewing experience.

NBC launches redundant technology

In the tradition of the yellow line, NBC launched the “green zone” during its “Sunday Night Football” broadcast featuring the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals.

This did not go over well.

The issue here is that the green zone is pointless. NBC digitally alters the field a darker shade of green between the line of scrimmage and first-down marker, showing fans how far the ball needs advanced to achieve a first down.

It’s a cool idea if the yellow line didn’t already do that exact job, only better.

Fans show no mercy for “green zone”

Twitter users were quick to point this out and mocked the “green zone” without mercy. (the article showed many Tweets by critical viewers)

Networks are constantly looking to find new innovations to improve the viewer experience. This attempt seems bound for the trash heap.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why quite a few business owners don’t innovate. Fear they’ll fail. And be mocked. Ridiculed. Embarrassed. 

No, I’ve never had a CEO or business owner (except those in the public relations arena or some other strategic communication’s space) admit it, but we all know it’s true. 

We’re not a major network like NBC. Our small business may lack a reach beyond our local market or region. No matter. We’re all afraid. 

Daring is defined as “adventurous courage.” 

Innovate is defined as “make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.”

You might think all innovation requires a degree of daring, but I don’t think so. Some industries foster innovation. They’re unabashed in their quest for it. Computer science comes to mind. 

Is there any phrase more trite than “outside the box?” As much as we say it, or hear it, you’d think it’d be easier. 

Years ago I seem to remember a cartoon, maybe a Far Side cartoon. I miss the Far Side! It depicted some cavemen walking on all fours, but one of them stood up, presumably man’s first attempt to walk upright. The others mocked him and told him to stop it, he’d hurt himself. So it goes with innovation. We risk ridicule from our peers. Or in the case of NBC, the viewing audience. The world. 

And we sometimes wonder why people and companies hesitate to try to grow, improve, transform…or innovate. Those same folks jumping on NBC for trying the “green zone” may likely also Tweet about the importance of creativity and innovation. But hypocrisy is a good topic for another day. 

Daring innovation first requires the daring component. And I intentionally made today’s title incorporate a word – daring – that can be understood as an adjective…as in “daring innovation.” The innovation can be daring, or adventurous. Or as a verb, “daring innovation.” We can dare to innovate. I mean both. I encourage both. I applaud both.

Daring is fun. And contagious. 

Much has been written about innovation. Much less has been written about fun. Especially at work. It’s too bad, too, because it’s fun to be daring.

Routine is hum-drum. Complacency is, too. “Hey, let’s don’t ever improve, OK?” Hardly the battle cry of the highest achievers. It may well be the mindset of CEOs, business owners and companies who are stuck. Too fearful about all sorts of things, and more willing to stay comfortable…so many people don’t achieve more when it could be so easy to do it. 

I co-host a podcast with Leo Bottary called WHAT ANYONE CAN DO. The podcast is themed after Leo’s book, being released next week, “What Anyone Can Do: How Surrounding Yourself with the Right People Will Drive Change, Opportunity, and Personal Growth.” Leo took the title from a running coach who once observed that high achievers mostly do what anyone could do. The difference is, they’re willing to do things most people won’t. Don’t we all intuitively know that’s true, even if we don’t behave like it? The word is COURAGE. Most of us lack courage. Particularly the courage to stand out, show off, be different, achieve more. 

Courage begets more courage. Just another benefit of having a daring culture. 

Something tells me that last night some executive at NBC (probably a few of them) hit the panic button after seeing the negative Twitter comments on the “green zone” innovation. Text messages and emails were likely firing left and right while the game was still being televised. Monday morning there were likely many meetings about it. It’ll be interesting to see what NBC decides to do. Let’s see how much courage they have to see if their daring innovation has legs or not. Is a single telecast a good enough sample size? What would you do if you were NBC?

Innovation is fun. It’s also contagious. 

Environments and cultures that foster creativity, innovation, and daring have a bravery that can withstand criticism. Part of the problem may stem from the constant barrage of business advice that tells us to ask our customers what they want, then give it to them. It sounds wise, but is it? 

Most everything we enjoy every day wouldn’t exist if the companies we support had followed that advice. Daring to innovate. Daring innovation. They’re not restricted by merely considering what people are asking for. Before that yellow first down line innovation on televised football games, I never remember hearing people say, “I wish we could see where the first down line is.” Somebody would have likely said, “Yeah, that’s what that first down marker is for, you idiot.” 

The Sony Walkman was an innovative gamechanger. Nobody was asking for it, but when Sony delivered, boy were we happy about it! Same with the CD, the DVD, the Apple iPod, seatbelts, car headrests and thousands (maybe millions) of other things. 

In decades of operating businesses, I’ve never seen a group of people fail to be fired up to think about what might be. Every time I’ve seen people energized to do the best work of their lives, it was when they were challenged to do something that hadn’t been done.

In 1986 Charles A. Garfield published a book entitled, Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business. I was a big fan of his work and leaned on it heavily at the time. It helped form some of my foundational philosophies in helping people achieve higher performance. Garfield talked about the early NASA years and President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade of the 60’s ended. The NASA engineers were quite young. Nobody had ever gone to the moon before, much less put a man there. And returned him home again. It continues to be a bar setting daring innovation even today in 2018. Many of those people have held to the declarations they made as young people, “It was the best work of their lives.” 

I know. You’re thinking, “Well, of course. They put a man on the moon.” But look at your own daring innovations. What stands out for you? 

It’s not going to be anything ordinary. It’s going to be the remarkable, extraordinary things. The things that were anything, but mundane. You may even be drawn to think of things you attempted, but failed at. Big things you tried and even if they didn’t work, you learned things you’d have never learned otherwise. 

What do you remember about your childhood? Think about it. 

You certainly remember doing ordinary things. They’re not specific memories necessarily, but you remember playing baseball, hanging out with friends, and whatever else you did as a kid. 

Now, think about the specific memories you have. What are they?

I remember the time a bunch of us built a cart to ride down a big hill. I remember us going into the piney woods, building a fort that took a week. I remember us climbing up in a tree and building a treehouse. I remember saving my money to buy my first 10-speed bicycle. These weren’t daily, ordinary things. They were memorable because they were special, if not spectacular. 

It’s true for kids. It’s true for CEOs and business owners. It’s true for the people who work with us, too. We’re all chasing dreams of doing something extraordinary. Yet, we’re too frequently paralyzed to try for fear we’ll fail. I’m not sure the failure is the thing we dread. It’s what comes with failure. Or better yet, it’s what we THINK may come with failure. Ridicule. Embarrassment. 

Here’s the fact. In spite of the fact that millions may have been watching NBC’s game on Sunday night, and seeing the curtain unveiled on that “green zone” innovation…today is Tuesday and it’s been largely forgotten already. And it’s not going to cause people to not watch if their favorite team is playing. What about the Tweets and ridicule? What about the criticism? So what? 

You’re not NBC. People aren’t paying attention to everything you may try. Your daring innovation may go unnoticed to the outside world until they take notice. But the fuel provided to you and your organization, and the ultimate benefit to your business is undeniable. 

If chronic courage is the only outcome, that alone is worth the price. Be bold. Be courageous. Two lines from one of my favorite quotes, often attributed to Goethe, but it’s widely debated. I don’t need to know who wrote it or said it to know how valuable it is. It’s likely an amalgamation of a number of quotes by various authors, but I still like it.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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