Build your life around systems not goals.

Goals have two inherent flaws, so build systems instead

1. ​They’re in the future. To get an outcome on an unknown day far out, you have to put in work today. That’s depressing.
2. They’re specific. Unless you get exactly what you set out to get, you’ll be disappointed, even if you end up with something that’s pretty close or even better
       
   Systems, however, leave room to adjust your plans and make timing irrelevant. They provide a way where goals are automatic outputs, not the objective.

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.

Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you—not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to

​Autonomy — Our desire to be self directed. It increases engagement over compliance. Mastery — The urge to get better skills.

Purpose — The desire to do something that has meaning and is important.

Businesses that only focus on profits without valuing purpose will end up with poor customer service and unhappy employees

​Using a person’s name is crucial, especially when meeting those we don’t see very often. Respect and acceptance stem from simple acts such as remembering a person’s name and using it whenever appropriate.”

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​That’s why Carnegie came up with an easy strategy for remembering names.

The LIRA formula.

1.      Look and Listen: Try as hard as you can to focus on the person speaking, and make sure you understand very clearly, what their name is.

2.      Impression: Create an impression in your head of what the person looks like. This includes physical features or the surroundings /situation in the moment.

3.      Repetition: Repeat the person’s name as many times as possible in conversation. Use it when it is appropriate. Use it when you are saying goodbye to that person. Afterward, repeat it in your head as much as possible.

4.      Association: Make associations of physical characteristics, names of landmarks, objects, buildings, companies, etc. Use color nouns and similar words to help you remember the name. We as humans remember things better in pictures

Start with a clear understanding of your destination.

​1. Know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.  Even when you get off course (which will happen), having a true north is paramount.

After all if you do not know where you are going then 

1. ​Any path can get you there
   
2. How do you know when you get there.
   

Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone. —MARGARET WHEATLEY

I’ve come to believe that connecting is one of the most important business—and life—skill sets you’ll ever learn. Why? Because, flat out, people do business with people they know and like. Careers—in every imaginable field—work the same

Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years.

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Put in 10,000 hours of hard practice in any field and you will be great

In deliberate practice, you need to be fully tuned in to learning the skill you are working on, and minimize distractions as much as possible (put away your phone). Because focusing intently takes so much energy, you can really only sustain that level of practice for 60 to 90 minutes at a time, perhaps two hours at most.

Even when doing deliberate practice, reaching the top levels in a field is long road. Deliberate practice is still your best bet for mastering a skill to the extent your personal ability allows. So the next time you're trying to learn a new skill, worry more about the quality of your focus than the hours you log.

Value innovation is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. ​They call it value innovation because instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.

Blue ocean strategy is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand. It is about creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant

The Antifragile. The central theme of the book is “antifragility,” which Taleb defines in the Prologue: “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. (VUCA)

VUCA is a concept that originated with students at the U.S. Army War College to describe the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of the world after the Cold War. And now, the concept is gaining new relevance to characterize the current environment and the leadership required to navigate it successfully.

Note: When we talk about complex problems that cannot be solved, only responded to.  We mean VUCA.