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DECIDE – the book – let’s make better decisions, together.

February 17, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Family, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 31 Comments

When is the last time you made a really big decision, or even a small one for that matter? Did you have access to all the input, feedback and expertise that you wish you had? Recently, it seems that many friends and others I know have been making life changing decisions. Many have asked for my advice which I happily give, yet, in many cases I don’t necessarily have the experience to provide the best guidance or insight. In fact, this type of input or advice isn’t often readily available. While considering how I could more effectively provide guidance, I decided to write a book about decision making. The book concept was very well received at TED, with a dozen leading authorities agreeing to an interview for the book.

This will not be a technical reference about how or why we make the decisions we do, rather, will be a compilation of interviews of leaders in a variety of industries that I believe many will want to hear from. The individuals I interview will include business and industry leaders, the greatest philanthropists on the planet, chiefs of fire and police, artists, musicians, actors, homeless, entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, teachers, military leaders, politicians and more. The goal is to deliver a compelling compilation of real-life stories about decision making, told through interviews.

I decided to invest in this project because I believe that higher quality decisions will make the world a better place. If we can learn how those whom we respect have made their decisions, perhaps our decisions will be better and we will share the goodness. Worse-case, you may make a better decision that can change your own life for the better – which isn’t such a bad worse-case.

I want your help – I want your participation. If you would like to hear from a specific individual or a type of individual please share it here. If your suggested individual is interviewed then you will be credited in the book. If you have an idea or suggestion, please comment here. No suggestion is too outlandish for me to consider. I want this to be an adventure; something unique, creative and compelling. Along the way, I will post interviews, podcasts and videos to document the progress of the book. I expect this project to last throughout the year. If this sounds interesting, please subscribe to comments and you will be updated with new comments and posts.

Let’s make the world a better place by making better decisions – thank for your generous contribution and time.

Mike

You were born to be a Rockstar

February 5, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Family, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 10 Comments

Rockstars have the best jobs on the planet. Let’s face it – everyone wants to be a rockstar.

You were born to be a rockstar – we all were.

At Rockstar Group, it is our goal to pull the rockstar out of individuals and companies. I’m a huge fan of Hugh MacLoud so it was natural for me to invite Hugh to help us convey our values and objectives through his brilliant illustration. I conveyed the company mission to Hugh and the feeling that I wanted the audience to have when seeing the message and this is where we ended up. I think Hugh did a great job – please let us know what you think.

In a Noisy World – Create like a Kid

February 4, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Life with 0 Comments

Everyone is born with immense creativity. We create games, characters and inventions and then we become tentative. This slideshare presentation addresses the need to filter out the noise to let our creativity shine through. I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to your comments!

What Matters Now

December 16, 2009 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Family, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 2 Comments

Have a look at this inspiring and educational eBook by Seth Godin and his friends and colleagues. Click through and within 15 minutes you will change your approach to something, your viewpoint on something, or maybe even your direction or your life. It is worth the 15 minute view.

The message by Howard Mann, on page 12, is among my favorites – log off, observe, be aware, live, be present – spend less time in the echo chamber.

I also love the slide by Tony Hsieh and his analogy between poker and business, which can be found on page 26.

Enjoy!

Here is Seth’s post about the eBook

What Matters Now

Be Remarkable

December 15, 2009 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 0 Comments

From the viewpoint of Seth Godin and Rockstar Group, being remarkable is about capturing the attention and emotion of the audience. This slideshare presentation highlights 60 remarkable people and organizations. As you will see, they exude different characteristics of remarkability. With a range from Eminem, Crocs to Mother Theresa, they possess remarkable traits.

Why be remarkable? Be remarkable because it makes you successful, drives competitive advantage, allows people to talk about you in an emotional way and will make you happy.

What does it mean to be remarkable? I am using the definition of remarkable in the way that Seth Godin defined it and describes it in Purple Cow. Seth’s idea is pretty simple – find a small group that cares, give them something remarkable and make it easy to tell their friends. Remarkability yields competitive differentiation and is found at the edges. Being remarkable won’t yield the majority, at least at first. Rather, it will yield a very loyal niche of raving fans whom will share your story. Think about people like Eminem and Dennis Rodman. The have both been remarkable during their careers – Eminem remains remarkable, whereas Rodman does not. Andre Agassi was and is remarkable. He played and dressed at the edges. He continues to deliver at the edge with his foundation.

Remarkability does not last forever – you need to iterate. In the case of Eminem, he has iterated and is the top selling artist of the decade – yes, the decade. In the case of Dennis Rodman, not so much or at least not so well.

The good news is that it isn’t very difficult to be remarkable since most companies and people are not. Most play it safe so they don’t offend or place themselves in a state of perceived risk. Being remarkable can be risky, but I will suggest that being boring is actually a greater risk. Remarkable people and companies will always have an audience, customer base or job – that is not always the case for me-too people and companies. Who do you find to be remarkable? Don’t you want to be remarkable too?

See a slideshare about being remarkable here.