When I look back at my engineering days a couple of decades ago, I remember a few teachers that made a huge difference in my life—even today. One of them was the late Dr. Sudhakar Samuel. Dr. Samuel was special. Very special. I still remember the sixth semester where he taught us Digital Electronics. Long story short—every single student in the class became an expert on the topic by the end of the semester.

I had an opportunity to thank Dr. Samuel at the end of the class. I don't know whether I did justice to what he had given to all of us. My appreciation for what and how he taught me in those days grew over these years. A few years ago, I thought I should go back and thank him again for the difference he made in my life. For some or the other reason, that time did not come. One day, all of a sudden, I got an email from an old friend that Dr. Samuel had passed away. There were tears in my eyes instantly, but there was also a feeling of guilt that I had left something incomplete.

Intentions do count. But, not much in such situations. Actions are what matter most.

Continued reading Share Your Love (and, Do So Before It's Too Late)...

Posted by Raj Setty |

I was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result:

Rules For Living Life to the Hilt

Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would.

There is no bigger waste of time than making plans.

Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it carries you.

The greatest long term satisfaction comes from having behaved at all times with common decency.

(Above: School starts next week in New Zealand. A bit of holiday cricket on the sandy Tasman Sea beach in front of our cottage.)

You can find the video in the right-hand column of this page or watch it at YouTube (time: 1 minute 49 seconds). Or, get a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: Three-Minute Apologies.

Private Johnson tells Private Gonzales: "Hey my wife called and told me she got a great job on post."

Active constructive response: "That's great. What's the new job? When does she start? What did she say about how she got it and why she deserved it?"

Passive constructive: "That's nice."

Passive destructive: "I got a funny email from my son. Listen to this ..."

Active destructive: "So who's going to be looking after your son? I wouldn't trust a babysitter. There are so many horror stories you hear about babysitters abusing kids."

I shall offer no commentary—but if this little vignette does not trigger a blockbuster bout of introspection, solo or with spouse or colleagues, and especially for males, I don't know what the hell would.

(I, for one, will not look at the world quite the same way I did before happening upon this.)

You can find the video in the right-hand column of our front page, or watch it here (Time: 2 minutes 27 seconds). Also available, a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: To-Don't List.

Forget Overnight Success and Learn to Be Persistent

Overnight success is one of the most widely held beliefs in the business world. It's also hugely misleading, and adopting this idea that you can easily become an overnight success could actually be quite damaging for your career and life. The truth is simple. There are very few—if any—genuine cases of overnight success. The majority of successful people have dedicated themselves to a goal and persevered for a long time before reaching a high level of achievement that is finally noticed and talked about by others.

Perseverance is defined as remaining constant to a purpose, idea, or task in spite of obstacles. Some people are born with the tendency to persevere. In fact, I can already see it in my young son. He likes to push his wagon around our backyard, but he doesn't always have enough strength and control to move it where he wants it to go. However, instead of giving up and crying, he faithfully pushes at the wagon from different angles until it's free of the tree or fence.

Pick up any one of Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches stories, and you'll be virtually hit over the head with the lesson that earlier generations didn't expect instant gratification the way we do today. If they had, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to evolve as fully as a society, with the most critical cultural and technological advances marinating over decades. We've become a society of now, now, now, but the truth is that most things worth having take a little bit of process and a lot of time. You shouldn't assume that if something doesn't manifest overnight that it won't happen at all, and, in fact, you will do wonders for your personal development if you can learn to be patient, maintain faith in your own potential, and increase your perseverance in driving important aspects of your career forward.

While it admittedly sounds a bit corny, the first step in this journey is to believe in yourself and what you want to do. If you try for a goal, but in the back of your mind you don't actually think you can accomplish it, you will wreck havoc on and sabotage your motivation. You will probably give up more easily, which will result in even poorer self-esteem. If you're like me and believing in yourself is sometimes challenging, you might talk to family members, friends, a psychologist, or a coach to address your doubts and insecurities head on.

Self-awareness is a critical part of developing perseverance. Admitting that you're the type to give up on a goal before you've completed it is the first step in changing that pattern. Then, practice keeping promises to yourself by setting small goals and refusing to quit until you've achieved them.

Another component is self-control. And how do you improve that? As John Tierney reported in the New York Times in 2008, research from University of Miami psychologists Michael McCullough and David Willoughby concludes that finding your religion may be the right move, since religiosity is correlated with higher self-control. Brain scans show that when people pray, the parts of the brain responsible for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion get a major workout. If you tend toward the agnostic, you can still get the self-control benefit by meditating privately or by getting involved with an organization that shares your values.

The final component in enhancing your perseverance is to think positively. Because you're human and not a cartoon character, it is difficult to have a positive attitude 100 percent of the time. When something unfortunate occurs, it's natural to feel negative emotions like anger, frustration, and sadness at first. But holding on to these until they result in constant depression and anxiety will make it all that much harder to persevere at a difficult goal.

(Read more about the book Blind Spots at
Penguin.ca and see Alexandra's blog at alexandralevit.typepad.com.)

It's the holy grail for every business, whether you're a freelancer, a start-up, or an established brand. How the heck do you stand out in a crowded market? Awesome product functionality or a niche specialty may only get you so far as a differentiator. So instead of marketing your product benefits, try communicating what you're thinking: your personality, your ideas, your attitude. Communicating your thinking—thought leadership marketing—can be really effective in resonating and engaging with your target audience.

Of course this is nothing new. We've always made brand choices based on what businesses think. That's why we fly Virgin, drink Starbucks, ride a Harley. We get what a brand stands for and we either line up behind it, or we run a mile.

Here's the opportunity. There's a long tail of small businesses right down to the one-person work-at-home enterprises that spring up by the hundreds every waking hour. This is where the marketplace is at its most abundant: similarly qualified, similarly positioned, similarly priced, smart boutique businesses. Creative agencies, digital companies, copywriters, web developers. Who do you pick if there's only a cigarette paper between their offerings? You pick the woman who demonstrates her expertise via her weekly blog; the business that provides a monthly video update of industry news; even the business owner who posts a daily picture of her products on Instagram. In sharing their expertise they're also giving an insight into their personality. So let's redefine the genre here: "thought leadership marketing" doesn't just have to be about publishing academic papers or writing posts for the Harvard Business Review. It's whatever content works for you, your business, and your audience. A blog post, a tweet, a newsletter, a video sharing your business tips, even a blackboard out on the street communicating your "Thought For The Day."

Back in 2008, Tom told the audience at the Inc. 5000 conference "If you're not blogging, you're an idiot". He was right. And he'd probably say the same today about Twitter. Because together with LinkedIn, Google+, (and whatever next month's hot new platform is) we have a bunch of tools available that provide a free platform for thought leadership.

The good news is that communicating your thinking does not discriminate on size: instead of s/he with the biggest budget wins, it's who can demonstrate the original ideas or the fresh thinking. So if you're a freelancer or small business, why aren't you blogging? Why don't you put your thoughts out there, why aren't you shining a spotlight on your DNA? Don't assume it doesn't matter—customers want to deal with experts and they need to see evidence of that. There's no point making claims about how innovative your business is if you can't back it up, if you can't prove you're living and breathing it.

King Of Shaves is a shaving brand that's become a success in the UK and is now entering the US market. Founder Will King may not have Gillette's ad spend but he plays out a David vs Goliath tale, competing with the big guys via Twitter and social media. Will is doing more than selling razors and shaving foam; he's engaging with his audience 1-to-1 through storytelling and giving advice to the entrepreneurial community. That's how he—and his business—stand out.

Don't miss out on the thought leadership marketing opportunity. Remember, you don't have to be the biggest or the best to stand out; you just need to have something interesting to say.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute 56 seconds] And, of course, a transcript of the video's content is also available as a PDF: Brand You: You Are the Company You Keep. Enjoy!

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes 12 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: 2 Decisions a Year Define You.

In any event, I want to use this space to say that "To do" lists are not enough—not nearly enough. In fact I want to urge three other daily "must" lists be added to your morning cogitations.

#2. "To be" list. If you went to a play, and someone appeared on stage and proceeded to read the play—with no acting—you'd say they missed the point of theater. Well, management of any sort is, pure and simple, theater with the acting. Who are you going to "be" this morning? How are you going to project yourself upon the scene? What is your tactical interpersonal approach to each and every one of those items on your "to do" list? A manager by definition can't do it all—or maybe can't do any of it. Hence her/his job is to "engage" others—and engagement is 100% about emotion—whereas the "to do" list is 100% engineering. So think through your "leaderhip" approach—and the unabashed "theater" you will use with each of the folks-teams you are attempting to engage re that particular "to do" item.

#3. "Relationship management/development" list. Life, including business life, is all about relationships. With allies. With doubters. With friends. With foes. Inside the organization—"above" you and "below" you. Outsiders as well as insiders. What is the extant "State of the Union" this morning? Come hell and high water, what relationships are in need of repair? What allies desperately need bucking up? Are you plugged in enough two levels "down"? Are you plugged in two levels "down" in a customer's or vendor's organization? Along with "to do" and "to be," we need a considered tactical plan to pro-actively manage our ongoing and prospective relationships.

#4. Strategic "To dos." Presumably you have some sort of more or less defined "strategic objectives" for the year (never more than three), or even for your expected 3-year tenure in your current assignment—or during the 4-month life of your project team. Amidst the hurdy gurdy of daily affairs (proceeding through the three prior lists, for example), are you visibly inching forward with your #1 or #2 priority—or are they silently lost in the shuffle? Maybe it's just a small gesture or two, but your gang should realize that in parsing any issue, that top strategic priority must be moved forward at least a millimeter or two.

You could readily argue that, even if you got up at 4AM, you'd still be constructing the lists per se at 4PM. My answer: Sure you could. Nonetheless, at some level, I'll go down swinging concerning each of these four ideas—and insist that each of the four, in a discrete and palpable fashion, must be top of mind as you navigate the day or week.

Four lists:

1. To do—gotta get done.


2. To be—how you play 'em.


3. Discrete relationship management tasks.


4. Activities directly or indirectly moving/nudging Strategic Priority #1/#2 forward.

Have at it!
Don't be a wimp!
(So get up at 3AM.)

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minutes, 59 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: Read These Books.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 59 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: Shut Up.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: Thank You Notes.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#34 Curiosity
#35 Learning

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

In the aforementioned D.O., I found the fuller version of RWE's wisdom:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds. Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today."

To be sure, the idea remains the idea of acceptable, in fact admirable inconsistency. But the emphasis is startling. Not only is inconsistency "okay," but inconsistency delivered in the most forceful terms is to be desired: "hard as cannonballs," "hard words." Moreover a rapid shift is acceptable as well: "today," "tomorrow"—though the latter doubtless is of a metaphorical character. At any rate, a significant change, and as one regularly accused of "[hard-word] inconsistency," most welcome.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#26 Passion
#27 Presence

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 16 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Courtesy Matters.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#20 Yes
#21 No

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 18 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: TDY Finance.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#17 Networking
#18 Lunch

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#15 Leadership
#16 Words

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#13 Work
#14 Initiative

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.