Lawrence Fine

First MySpace, then Facebook. What is the NEXT Social Network?

I certainly don’t know the answer but hopefully it will involve people sitting together talking.

When we get back to real human interaction, with people actually dealing with each other as opposed to calling, emailing, texting, tweeting, posting on walls etc, then we will have a social network that is truly effective.

Til then, we just have technology talking to technology and people using technology to prevent them from actually dealing with real people.

It’s easier to text each other or to email each other or to post to each others wall but if you want to have real interaction with real people, get together, sit down and actually talk. You might be surprised with how much you can accomplish

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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In business, and in life we have to make quick decisions. If we wait to long we miss out on many opportunities.

The fine line is we want to act quickly but don’t want to rush. If we rush we don’t make informed decisions but rather make hasty decisions.

There is no set procedure to act quickly but not rush. Rather the key is to be aware of the differences. If you notice you are losing out on many opportunities because you waited too long this means you didn’t act quickly enough. If you notice you are making a lot of bad decisions it probably means you are rushing and don’t have enough information.

Concentrate on acting quickly but not rushing and see how many opportunities you can take advantage of.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Frequently people must make sacrifices in their lives in order to achieve their goals.

In order to lose weight they might have to give up some of their favorite fatty foods
In order to buy a house, they might have to give up some other things in their lives in order to save up enough money for the down payment.
In order to go to graduate school they might have to give up time in order to study and prepare.

How much are you willing to give up to be successful?

We tend to live in a “now” world where we want things and we want them now but frequently these sacrifices take time. Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary now in order to get what you want later?

One problem many people have is they see others with success or others with money or others fulfilling their dreams and they don’t see all the time and hard work that it took to accomplish their goals. It’s easy to see the benefits and think “I want that” but they don’t see everything that was given up in order to get them.

How much are you willing to give up to succeed?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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In poker when you go “all in” it means you have enough belief in your cards (or in your ability to bluff) that you are willing to lose everything on that one hand.

In business do you go all in or do you hold something back?

There is a trapeze school in various cities around the US (NYC, Boston, Chicago, DC, Los Angeles) that allows you to go on a trapeze with virtually no training. The reason they are able to do this is it’s very safe with a net below. It gives the feeling of danger with very little actual danger.

A person can learn to walk on a balance beam with just a little bit of practice if it’s only a few inches off the ground. On the other hand, put that balance beam over Niagara Falls and it changes things dramatically..

Recently Google dropped a few of their offerings because after a few months or years, they didn’t work out as hoped. How different would this have been if they were completely dependent upon these offerings for their survival? Would they have tried some new options or features? Would they have given it more time? We will never know.

If you want something to really work and truly have the belief in it, be willing to go all in. A safety net is nice but for all of the advantages there are some major disadvantages as well.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many people look at top leaders as the ones who can thrive under crisis. When all others around them are panicking these leaders are the ones who prevail.

While these type of leaders are important there is another type of leadership that is even more important. These are the leaders who are able to effective manage the work flow. When these leaders are doing their jobs properly there tends to be a lot less crisis due to effective time management, project management and forecasting.

These type of leaders frequently don’t get the recognition as those who thrive in crisis situations but for long term success effective work flow managers are incredibly important.

Work Flow planning requires vision, planning, forecasting, understanding personnel, understanding limitations and much more. If you find a great work flow manager, do everything you can to keep them happy because you probably wont know how vital they are until you lose them.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s common when someone asks a question to simply answer the question that was asked. The problem is people don’t necessarily know the right questions to ask so your answer might have dealt with the question but not with what they really wanted to know.

As an example, if a person asks “do you know where City Hall is located?” if you respond with “yes” and walk away, it doesn’t do them much good. When they ask where City Hall is located they are really asking for directions to City Hall.

The example above is an extreme case but if we spend more time helping people find the information they really are wanting and not just answering the question, it makes life easier for everyone (providing an answer that doesn’t solve the problem will frustrate the person asking and will most likely result in follow up questions which could be avoided.

Don’t just answer the question, provide the information that is actually wanted. It might take a bit longer in the short term but in the long term it’s much more efficient.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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A couple of months ago I was at a BBQ place and they had live entertainment. It was a local duo performing a combination of bluegrass and country and they were wonderful. Great musicians, excellent voices, outstanding overall performers. The thing that kept going through my mind is “why were they playing in a BBQ restaurant in a town of 800 people?”

A few days later I was at a friends house and they had American Idol on the TV. While I certainly am not a music person, I’m not sure the final 10 performers on American Idol were any better (or even as good) as either of these two performers I heard live.

One thing that might hold this duo back is they might be content to perform near home. If that is the case, that is fine but again the question is what makes something or someone great?

The reason I started thinking about this is with the recent death of Clarence Clemons I watched a few Bruce Springsteen videos last night. If Bruce Springsteen were to appear on American Idol he most likely wouldn’t last very long. He would be called “pitchy”, they would say he couldn’t carry a tune, they would question his ability to perform other types of music etc. In short, they would question whether a performer like him could make a living in music (he seems to have done OK for himself) The same could be said for other ultra successful performers such as Bob Dylan.

If you think about the biggest fashion designers, the designs they use for their models on the runways rarely are designs one would ever seen actually worn in the real world.

The most famous architectural designs aren’t seen in most peoples local communities.

Those that are considered “great” are frequently so outside the mainstream that they might fail by normal standards.

Many people would like to be great but are so unwilling to step outside the lines that they will never give themselves the chance.

One can be very successful without being great and there are some great performers and designers who have died penniless so it’s not about money or fame, it’s really about what you want to accomplish.

This is one of the few posts I have written where I didn’t know where I was going with the post as I was writing it. I do believe the study of what makes some people great vs why most people are within the bell curve would be a fascinating one and would also be one that would be equally frustrating.

Just something to think about

Have a great day!

Lawrence
PS The recently deceased Clarence Clemons was one of the true greats on the saxophone. If you haven’t heard him, do a simple search on youtube.com, it’s an experience.

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Asking a young child to multiply 58467 x 278914 might be asking a lot. However, if you start with the simple multiplication tables and work from 1 x 1 up to 12 x 12 and then work on other smaller steps, in time, the young child will be able to do this type of math.

In business it’s also important to look at incremental steps for ourselves as well as our employees.

Start with the fundamentals, build on those and you will find many things can be accomplished.

Start big, hope they understand the process and become very frustrated.

It’s your choice.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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We want success and we want it now!

If we can’t get it now than at the very least, we want AND EXPECT it tomorrow.

I was thinking about this while speaking with a friend recently who talked about his father who started the infrastructure for a new business around 30 years ago even though he knew it would take around 20 years for it to start generating revenue.

This business is now profitable but how many people have the vision and the patience to do something today that might take 20 years to start generating revenue?

Are you willing to start something today that might take 20 years (or even 2 years) to pay off?

It takes patience and vision to do something like this and while most of us don’t what it takes to do this, those who do tend to be successful in the long run.

Work on increasing your patience and vision

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Things are going well. Business is profitable. Your “team” is winning.

You have two options. You can bask in the “glory”, hope it lasts forever and try to react when things do finally change (and inevitably, things will change).

The second option is to be constantly look toward what is next, invest in “research and development” and anticipate changes and stay ahead of the curve.

The choice is yours. You can be reactionary or proactive. Personally, I would rather be looking toward the future and keep figuring out what is next than being content with the present (realizing the present becomes the past VERY QUICKLY).

So what is next for you?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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