William Wu Personal Blog

Like many people, I make New Year resolutions at the beginning of the year.  This year is no exception.  However, when I review my own record of fulfilling my own promise to do better each year, I am no better than most people.  Why do I keep making New Year resolutions year after year?  Because it gives me a sense of renewal and it does not cost me a lot.  No wonder people said, “Promises are like babies; easy to make, hard to delivery.”

If we practice what Mother Teresa’s teaching, “Life is a promise, fulfill it!” then we would strive to deliver on promises to ourselves and to others no matter how big or small they are.  This is part of our inner integrity and external credibility.

And speaking of integrity, it is often quoted as one of the most important leadership attributes people look for from their leaders.  Unfortunately, studies indicate that the majority of leaders don’t always act with the kind of integrity they request from others by keeping their promises.   

It ultimately boils down to 2 basic rules for everyone:

• Rule 1 – don’t make any promises you can’t keep.
• Rule 2 – keep every promise that you make.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner in the Leadership Challenges said it best: DWYSYWD.  Dwi-zee-wid.  Do What You Say You Will Do.  This is the essence of promise.  Leaders who walk t he talk and practice what they preach put their money where their mouth is.  They make sure that their actions and behaviors live up to and reflect the words and ideas, promises and commitments that come out of their mouth.   This is exactly what a popular Chinese proverb illustrates: “Once a word enters the public domain, nine horses cannot drag it back.”  Leaders must have the integrity of keeping their promises to others.

However, there are always exceptions to the rules.  One such exception, as illustrated by Aesop’s Fable “The Farmer and the Nightingale”, shows that sometimes out of desperation, a promise is best not kept:

“The Farmer and the Nightingale“

A farmer lay listening to a Nightingale’s song throughout the summer night.  So pleased was he with it that the next night he set a trap and captured it.
“Now that I have caught you,” he cried, “you shall always sing to me.”
“Nightingales never sing in a cage,” said the bird.
“Then I’ll eat you,” said the farmer.
“I have always heard that a nightingale on toast is dainty morsel.”
“Do not kill me,” said the nightingale; “But let me free, and I’ll tell you three things far better worth than my poor body.”
The farmer let him loose, and he flew up to a branch on a tree.
The bird said, “Never believe a captive’s promise, keep what you have and sorrow not over what is lost forever.” Then the nightingale flew away.

Essentially, you don’t play rules if your enemy broke the rules at the first place.  This is the extreme exception, of course.

Confucius’ teaching advised ancient Chinese emperors and nobles to follow the order of self-improvement, care-for-family before they can govern their country well.  The focus on personal leadership first is to develop credibility that is the foundation of leadership.  It all starts from having the discipline of making good on keeping the promises we made to ourselves. So why not use New Year Resolution as a starting point to make a contract with ourselves?  If you haven’t made up yours yet, here is one video that I found on YouTube that may just be the one for you to start thinking about it.

Peace… inner peace
Love… true love
Happiness… true happiness
Self-respect
Patience
Forgiveness
Be graceful
Be positive
Be motivated
Be confident
Be healthy
Friendship
Family… more ’family time’
Time… more ‘me’ time
Be generous…give more
Gratitude… count your blessing
Hope
Life… live it to the fullest
Be the best ‘me’ ever”

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It is Thanksgiving time again.  Last year’s blog about gratitude is still fresh in my mind (see my previous blog).  Thanksgiving time serves as a reminder for us to be thankful and to focus not on what’s missing from our lives but be grateful for the abundance that’s present. I am thankful to the mess that I have to clean up after the Thanksgiving party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.  And to the clothes that fits a little too snug because it means I have enough (and more than enough) to eat.

Every day can be a Thanksgiving Day if we choice to make it so.  Choose to be thankful allows us to have a positive life outlook and to feel connected with others. 

A thankful attitude is only one of the choices that we can make to bring positive changes to our life.   There are many more choices that can have the same profound effects.

Jeff Bezos’ choice to follow his instinct and to start Amazon.com shaped who he is today.  In his 2010 Baccalaureate speech to Princeton University’s graduates, he outlined many choices that we face and many different paths that can lead us into the future.

“What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.”

“How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?”

Mother Teresa is another person that made tough choices that changed her life and many others’. Born in Roman Catholic Albania in 1910, she immigrated to Ireland at the age of 18 to enter the convent of the Sisters of Loreto.  They sent her to Calcutta in 1929 as a teacher.  Soon she wanted to leave teaching and start a mission in the slums. She had to choose between teaching and starting a mission for the destitute.  Starting the mission with no funds called for complete faith to be able to proceed.  She had to depend on prayers and faith to raise money.  She was able to overcome many difficulties and get the initial financial support she needed.  By her choices and persistence, she was able to engage many volunteer helpers and many of them, to her surprise, are doctors.  This success allowed her work to begin expanding gradually. By 1990, she has over 1 million workers globally that volunteer to care for the homeless, shut-ins and AIDS victims. Mother Teresa was made strong by the difficult choices she faced, not by those she evaded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” In the same way, adversity and making tough choices put people in touch with themselves. 

BJ Gallagher, in her book whose title was inspired by Vivian Green “Life’s not about waiting for the storms to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” elegantly prescribes a way to  make a positive choice for what life has brought to us.

WEATHER REPORT
~BJ Gallagher

“Any day I’m vertical
 is a good day”
…that’s what I always say.

If you ask me,
“How are you?”
I’ll answer, “GREAT!”
because in saying so,
I make it so.

When Life gives me dark clouds and rain,
I appreciate the moisture
that brings a soft curl to my hair.

When Life gives me sunshine,
I gratefully turn my face up
to feel its warmth on my cheeks.

When Life brings fog,
I hug my sweater around me
and give thanks for the cool shroud of mystery
that makes the familiar seem different and intriguing.

When Life brings snow,
I dash outside to catch the first flakes on my tongue,
relishing the icy miracle that is a snowflake.

Life’s events and experiences
are like the weather -
they come and go,
no matter what my preference.

So, what the heck?!
I might as well decide to enjoy them.

For indeed,
there IS a time for every purpose
under Heaven.

And each season brings its own unique blessings.” 

Albert Camus taught us that “Life is the sum of all your choices.” Jeff Bezos echoed this opinion at the conclusion of his Baccalaureate speech, “When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made.”

Life, as many people have defined it, is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you choose to respond to it. Our feeling toward life is unmistakably a proactive choice: accept those things that we can’t control, while focus our efforts on the things we can. Your success in life depends upon how you approach the millions of opportunities before you. So follow your heart, do what you can with what you have and be no regrets of your choice.

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An inspiring YouTube story uses coffee to illustrate the essence of life. 

Life Is Like a Cup of Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

One of the key messages in this story points out our tendency to pursue happiness in the modern society that is often associated with greed and materialism.  There is nothing wrong with ambition and money itself.  It is the greed and love of materialism at the expense of what make us forgot the true pleasure of life that is the root of all evils.

The true pleasure of life as described by scientific researchers is the following 4 things: 

• Progress. A sense of progress in our individual growth.
• Control. Perceived Control for our own destiny.
• Purpose. Being part of something bigger than ourselves.
• Connectedness. Well connected with people that we know and care.

A great book The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Hansen & Lee Hewitt defines Life’s Fundamentals as follows:

Know what you want
Know why you want it

Discover your talents
Use them daily

Work hard
Work smart

Give unconditionally
Love unconditionally

Find your purpose
Live your purpose

German poet Rainer Maria Rilke painted a great picture as how we should go about our life, “If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.” The wise ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus taught us, “First, say to yourself what you would be. Then do what you have to do.”

Hope your cup of coffee in the morning is not just a means to get by one more day, but a true daily inspiration to enjoy your life to its fullness.

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Inch-by-inch, this is how football is won.  In the movie Any Given Sunday (1999), Al Pacino (as Head Coach Tony D’Amato) delivers this powerful message to his team at their biggest professional game of their lives:

“… As we get older, some things are taken away… well, that’s part of life, but you only learn that when you lose something.  You find out that life is this game of inches!  So is  football.  Because the margin for error in either football game or life is so small… so small, guys.  One half-step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it.  One half-second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it ‘cause it’s half a fingertip away.  The inches we need are everywhere around us, they’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second… there are no shortcuts… we fight for that inch! We tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch! We claw with our fingernails for that inch ‘cause when you add up all those inches, that is what make the difference between winning and losing – between living and dying… in any fight I can tell you this, it’s the guy who’s willing to die who’s going to win that inch.”

Entrepreneurs must succeed in the same way.  Like the All-Pro wide receiver that stretches the football toward the goal line, any entrepreneur aspires to be a superstar needs to compete for inches to gain ground and to move toward his/her goal every day.

There are countless ways to compete for inches, in How to Become Marketing Superstar, author Jeffrey J. Fox gave a few examples on how to compete for inches for a marketer:

• Make one additional sales call a week.
• Interview one more customer.
• Open the store earlier
• Ask for a commitment on every sales call
• Get product placement in one more store.
• Get product placement on one more shelf.
• Train one more distributor salesperson to sell for you on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or any day of the week.
• Ask somebody in your organization to tell you what they are doing, will do, or did today to get a customer.
• Don’t waste time.
• Never let up.
• Start all over again every morning.

Mr. Fox also makes a point that winning inch-by-inch means don’t let the perfect be the enemy of better.

“When Procter & Gamble first introduced Pampers disposable diapers as an alternative to cloth diapers, the product was not perfect.  Pampers came in one size.  There were no plastic tabs to secure the product.  The customer needed safety pins.  Pampers gradually gained market share against cloth diapers and added improvement, new features and a variety of sizes.  To enough customers, the first version of Pampers was better than diapers.  Depends, for adults, is another product category made possible only by the success of Pampers.

If P&G had waited until Pampers was perfect, babies might still be wearing cloth diapers, and moms and dads would still be stabbing themselves (and their babies!) with safety pins.”

Business won’t grow automatically and it needs to grow inch-by-inch by your effort. 

Paul Harvey said it best: “You can tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.” You can’t coast uphill. Growth doesn’t happen by itself; it requires an active investment of time.  Earl Nightengale also said, “If you’ll spend one hour a day, every day for five years on a given subject, within five years you’ll become an expert on that subject.”

Sometimes, you have to grow that additional inch ahead to know what to do next.  That is, the more we grow, the more we know we need to grow. Serendipity is truly the best way to ensure luck.

The bottom line, an inch gained is an inch closer to the goal and don’t let the victory and business success be inch away.  As Vince Lombardi put it, “… Any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

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Before I started my own company, one seasoned entrepreneur friend gave me a sincere advice that “Startup is harder than you imagine. And if you are lucky enough, your company may get acquired which means that you are back at working for a big company.”

He has a point, but my mid-life crisis was too big to overcome. I ignored the advice and joined the start up world anyway.  Why do people like me who want to try a “riskier” path instead of being content at a stable and reputable company?  Fundamentally, this comes down to some simple reasons as one can expect:

• Be personally challenged
• Building something to be proud of or leave a mark in a greater world, if you will
• Freedom & control of one’s destiny
• Creating a fun & compatible team
• Financial rewards

It has been several years post my mid-life crisis period.  My journey has been fun and challenging, to say the least. My company is still thriving and enjoys a healthy growth. But like raising a child, there are challenges in every stage. Raising a teenager is no easier than raising a toddler.  It seems like, by its nature, success is always a work in progress and one can never be too content.

Irving Berlin, an American composer said, “The toughest thing about success is that you have to keep on being a success.”  Bill Gates also pointed out, “Success is a lousy teacher.  It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

A book by Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There goes over 20 bad habits, of which Mr. Goldsmith believes most entrepreneurs could exhibit one or few of them that hinder startup’s next stage growth. 

I grouped the 20 habits from the book into the following buckets:

Over-competitive: The competitive survival of the fittest instinct that successful entrepreneurs posses is one of the many reasons that got a startup to survive at the early stage. However, as company gets bigger, the over competitive nature can start alienate the employees as it prevents empowerment and delegation that is necessary for a company to scale up.  The bad habits include:

• Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations. 
• Telling the world how smart we are:  The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
• Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty.
• Starting with NO, BUT, HOWEVER:  The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone that I’m right and you’re wrong.
• Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.  
• Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.

Egotism: There is always a danger to fool oneself to believe that the reason of startup’s success is due to founder’s brilliant vision or execution. They overvalue their contribution to the early success.  The reality is that it is never a single person that can make the company.  Most often than not, successful founders attract people that help them become successful.  It takes a very talented team to fine tune the original idea, to prototype, to engineering and to service some early set of customers. Founders and key early employees must remain humble.  Some of the bad habits that entrepreneurs could exhibits include:

• Claiming credit that that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
• An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are. 
• Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.
• Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.
• Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to give praise and reward.

Prejudiced: Entrepreneurs must recognize that to grow into the next stage of the company, some changes must be made.  New set of talents must be brought in and early employees must be re-recruited.  The key is to grow the team without losing the startup spirit that made the company successful at the first place.  Some of the bad habits by entrepreneurs could be:

• Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
• Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it. 
• Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them.
• Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty.
• Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
• Negativity or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked. 
• Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
• Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
• Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us.

The common theme of these 20 bad habits is really about people.  It is people that make the vision a reality. People are the key to the continued success.  The ongoing transformation of a growing organization needs to enable the growth of the people who make up the organization.

 “Every day, people will tell you how to be successful.  All you have to do is listen.  And then – act.” – David Carter, How to Become an Overachiever

The past success may not guarantee the future success, but the present choices can certainly affect its chance.  By being aware of our own personality weakness and interpersonal behavioral habits, we have a better chance to avoid the success trap.

“Being more successful means becoming more of who you are capable of being.  Each of us defines for ourselves what it means to be more successful.” – Spencer Johnson, the Present

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Have you compared running a company to grow a garden or sell fish?  Recently I read a couple of books that did exactly that.  Both books brought interesting perspectives that are worth sharing.  

First book is from Jeffrey J. Fox’s book How to Be a Fierce Competitor.

In this book, Mr. Fox describes if a garden were a company, then management that strive to be a master gardener would:

• Be certain of the garden’s purpose (why the company exists).
• Plan the garden (the business and marketing plan).
• Invent in the best seeds and plants. (Hire the best people).
• Use the finest fertilizer. (Nurture the people).
• Make the garden environmentally attractive (a productive workplace).
• Manage the garden with the earth in mind (a friendly, green company).
• Train the beans to grow on poles. (Train the people.)
• Rotate the crops from bed to bed each season. (Cross-train the people.)
• Be vigilant in monitoring progress. (You get what you inspect, not what you expect).
• Prune deadwood. (Get rid of nonproductive employees.)
• Weed. (Weed out the unwanted.)
• Stake the tomatoes. (Support the people.)
• Thin the carrots. (Thin management layers and bureaucracy.)
• Build fences. (Defend against competitions and predicators.)
• Encourage butterflies and bees. (Always welcome outside ideas and pollinators).
• Kill parasites and destructive insects. (Get rid of agents provocateurs.)
• Let the random sunflower grow and bloom wherever. (Serendipity is welcome.  Rigidity restricts.)
• Be aware that every plant is different.  Some requires lots of care and attention; others are wild.  Some are glorious in the morning; others bloom at night. Some are colorful; others are thorny, prickly.  Some blossom early, others bear harvest in the fall.  They are tall, short, attractive, forbidding, slender, round, give shades, need shade.  The Master Gardener knows and appreciates the differences.  (Be open minded, tolerant, understanding of groups and individuals.)
• Live with the weather.  (Control what you can control.  Roll with everything else.)
• Walk around the garden. (Walk around the company.)
• Stop and smell the basil.

Another book is Fish! by Dr. Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen.

This book uses Seattle’s very real Pike Place Fish as its management philosophy inspirations.  Everyone has ever visited this world renowned place in Seattle’s Pike Place Market would know that it is fun and energizing to watch the fish guys toss fishes as part of the sales closing process.

The fish guys, by interacting with their customers, managed to create a place that is fun, friendly, bustling and, joyful for their customers and themselves.   The 4 simple lessons ingeniously illustrated in the book are:

• Choose Your Attitude – The fish guys are aware that they choose their attitude each day.  One of the fish guys said, “When you are doing what you are doing, who are you being? Are you being impatient and bored, or are you being world famous? You are going to act differently if you are being world famous.”  Who do we want to be while we do our work? Your attitude is your reaction to what life hands you, and only you can choose that reaction.
• Play – The fish guys have fun while they work, and fun is energizing.  How could we have more fun and create more energy?  Play is not a specific game or activity.  It is a state of mind that brings new energy to the tasks at hand and sparks creative solutions.
• Make Their Day – The fish guys include the customers in their good time.  They engage their customers in ways which create energy and good will.  Who are our customers and how can we engage them in a way that will make their day? How could we make each other’s day? If you find your energy lapsing, find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support, or a good year – and make their day.
• Be Present – The fish guys are fully present at work.  What can they teach us about being present for each other and our customers?  Become engaged with all your heart in what you do – and thrive.

Key takeaways for me are:

1. Like gardening, company is not built in one day.  It takes patient, care, feeding and lots of hard labor to grow a great company.  And don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.  As Greek proverb said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. “
2. You learn something every day if you pay enough attention.  As Martin H. Fischer said, “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”  And “When the student is ready, the master appears.” as Buddhist Proverb puts it.
3. Find something that you can be truly passionate; choose to enter your work place with a great attitude.  You can make a huge difference to yourself and to others.  As Herm Albright said, “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worthwhile.”

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Over the weekend, I visited Reno, Nevada for a quick family trip and picked up a book from a local author G. Brian Benson.  Brian wrote his book Brian’s List (http://www.brianslistbook.com/) that presents 26 ½ easy to use ideas on how to live a fun, balanced, and healthy life!  The list is long, but nonetheless a good reminder to help bring peace and balance back to life for most people.  The opening quotes of each chapter are good references which I summarized below.

From Brian’s List

“Be who you are and what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

1. Take a moment for yourself
   “Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” – Saint Francis de Sales
2. Have an open mind
   “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
3. Clean house
   “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” – John Wesley
4. Make amends
   “The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” – Anthony Robbins
   “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” – Alexander Pope
5. Drink more water
   “To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of nature and life itself.” – Masaru Emoto
6. Give thanks
   “Of all the attitudes that we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is by far the most important and by far the most life-changing.” – Zig Ziglar
7. Go for a walk
   “In every walk with nature, one receives for more than he seeks.” – John Muir
8. Listen to music
   “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” – Victor Hugo
9. Clear out any unwanted or unused items
   “It’s easier traveling the road of life when I don’t have so much to carry on my back.” – Silas Weir Mitchell
10. Read a book
    “A library is a hospital for the mind.” – Anonymous
11. Watch an inspirational show or movie
    “Only as high as I reach can I grow,
    only as far as I seek can I go,
    only as deep as I look can I see,
    only as much as I dream can I be.” – Karen Rayn
12. Treat yourself with respect
    “Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” – Benjamin Disraeli
13. Get more sleep
    “Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” – Thomas Dekker
14. Go exercise
    “We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
15. Write down your thoughts
    “Worry is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but won’t get you anywhere.” – Unknown Author
16. Hang out with positive people
    “Where there are friends, there is wealth.” – Titus Muccius Plautus
17. Set a goal and follow through with  it
    “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.” – H. Jackson Brown
18. Try something new, take a chance
    “Our deepest fears are like dragons, guardig our deepest treasure.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
19. Give
    “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
    If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
    If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
    If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.” – Chinese Proverb
20. Meditate
    “Seek truth in meditation, not in moldy books.  Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.” – Persian Proverb
21. Listen to your heart
    “One sees clearly only with the heart.  Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
22. Do what you love
    “There’s no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love.  There is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer
23. Live in the moment – be present
    “If you surrender completely to the moment as they pass, you live more richly those moments.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
    “Time consists of both future and past, neither of which can ever be in the now.  The past holds memory, is emotionally based, and is dominated by the emotion labeled guilt.  The future holds imagination, is also emotionally based, and is dominated by the emotion labeled fear.  The loving essence of your true spirit is spaceless and timless presence.” – The Breakthrough Experience, John Demartini
24. Eat better, eat less
    “You must begin to think of yourself as the person you want to be.” – David Viscott
25. Leave 10 minutes early
    “A first rate organizer is never in a hurry.  He is never late.  He always keeps up his sleeve a margin for the unexpected.” – Arnold Bennett
26. Laugh
    “Laughter is instant sunshine.” – G. Brian Benson
    “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” – E. E. Cummings.

26.5. Other ideas… this is up to your imagination…

Brian’s List concluded, “We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”  – Ray Bradbury

It is difficult to have a balanced life all the time and, after all, a true life is about balancing and not about balanced (see my blog on improvisation).  Balancing life involves personal choices (see my blog on work life balance vs. choice).  For me, Dalai Lama’s Instructions for Life  is always a good reminder in addition to the following:

• Excellence is a habit.
• Life is a journey.  The journey is the reward.
• Be zen, the shortest distance between 2 points is not necessarily a straight line.
• Be disciplined and focused, the ability to speed depends on the ability to stop.

What about yours?

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During the holiday travel, I ran into a fascinating book Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson.  It highlights a lot of what I consider essential for building up a great culture of a young company.

The book argues that human beings are improvisers by nature.  All conversation – indeed, all natural speech, if you think about it – is an improvisation.   Improvisation “is a way of doing things that emphasizes a flexible mind and a sense of humor; it is not a scientific method.”  Observing from her teaching experience as a Stanford drama faculty and head of the Stanford Improvisers, Ms. Madson describes her improvising group, ”everyone seems to say ‘thank you’ often, and ‘I’m sorry’ slips naturally off the tongue.  We smile and laugh a lot. . . . We make mistakes, sometimes whoppers. We correct them or we capitalize on them.  We notice how much others are doing for us.  We have fun. We screw up; we apologize. We get on one another’s nerves sometimes. We move on. We create life and art together.” Image how a wonderful esprit de corps that a young company can learn from!

13 maxims, as presented in the book, summarize how the principles learned from improvisers can be applied to entrepreneurs as well:

First Maxim: say yes

Saying yes is an act of courage and optimism; it allows you to share control instead of saying no to attempt to control the future.  This yes calls upon our capacity to envision, to create new and positive images.  

• Become a “can-do” person.
• Look for the positive spin, for what is right.
• Substitute “Yes and” for Yes but.” 
• Add something to build the conversation.

Second Maxim: don’t prepare

The point is to let go of our ego involvement in the process. Sometimes the habit of excessive planning impedes our ability to see what is actually in front of us. The mind that is occupied is missing the present.

• Attend carefully to what is happening right now. 
• Allow yourself to be surprised. 
• Trust your imagination. 
• Fear is a matter of misplaced attention. 

Third Maxim: just show up

So often it is our presence alone, rather than some special ability, that makes the difference.

• Motivation is not a prerequisite for showing up. 
• Use rituals to get things going. 
• Change your vantage point and refresh your mind. 
• Be on time for the sake of others.

Fourth Maxim: start anywhere

When you don’t know where to start, begin with the most obvious thing, whatever is in front of you because all starting points are equally valid. They begin where they are, often in the middle.

• All starting points are equally valid.
• Begin with what seems obvious.
• Talk to you audience. Don’t give a lecture.
• Trust your mind.

Fifth Maxim: be average

When you try to be perfect, the result is often to jinx it.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of good.

• Close enough is perfect.
• Dare to be dull.
• Think “inside” the box.
• Celebrate the obvious.

Sixth Maxim: pay attention

What we notice becomes our world.  Enjoy those moments when your attention is aligned with your actions.

• Shift your attention from yourself to others.
• Keep on waking up.
• This moment happens only once. Treasure it.
• Avoid multitasking. Attend to one thing at a time.

Seventh Maxim: face the facts

Life is about balancing, not about being balanced.

• Accept other people as they are. 
• Work with what you have been given. 
• Insecurity is normal. Count on it.

Eighth Maxim: stay on course 

Use the litmus of purpose when overwhelmed with feelings or confused about a decision.

• Every improvisation has a point.
• Keep an eye on where you are going.
• Ask often: “What is my purpose?”

Ninth Maxim: wake up to the gifts 

Our natural sense of entitlement can be an obstacle. If we experience something as ours, we won’t see it as a gift.  We need to see the contributions of others in bold relief and to recognize our interdependence. 

• Who or what is helping your right now?
• Make a point of thanking those with thankless jobs.
• What are you doing to give back?

Tenth Maxim: make mistakes, please

Do something risky and challenging, something out of your comfort zone, where mistakes are possible (and likely), and to proceed boldly.  Knowing that mistakes are inevitable, and admitting them freely, demonstrates courage and character.

• When you screw up, say “Ta-dah!” and take a bow.
• Mistake? Focus on what comes next.
• Become a confident mistake maker. Lighten up.
• Admitting a mistake shows character.

Eleventh Maxim: act now

What we do gives us more information about how to proceed. The doing itself becomes the teacher and guide.  The goal is always doing appropriate action, occasionally this can mean no action while being watchful for others to act before proceeding.

• The essence of improvising is action.
• Act in order to discover what comes next.
• You don’t need to feel like doing something to do it.
• Sometimes not doing is what is needed.

Twelfth Maxim: take care of each other

Give up criticizing. Listen attentively. Pay attention to your partner’s story. Look for ways that you can advance collective dreams and interests.

• Make your partner look good.
• Kindness is essential during chaos or a crisis.
• Always put positive thoughts into words and action.
• Deliver more than you promise. 

Thirteenth Maxim: enjoy the ride

Enjoy your life, seriously.  We need to be reminded of our capacity for delight and pleasure. Finding wonder, remembering how to play, . . . these are the things we all yearn for.

• Find joy in whatever you are doing, including ordinary tasks. 
• Look for ways to play. Play is essential to human growth. 
• Learning is enhanced when we lighten up.

Planning is necessary (see my other blog on planning), but over planning is no guarantee that things will turn out error-free.  As the book concludes, “Improv points to ways of being more and better alive, ways of cutting through our patterns of procrastination and doubt. It is up to each of us, however, to make the move. . . . a life of meaning and value is achieved through purposeful action. Risk is involved. Feeling insecure is natural, expected – part of the territory“.

Although improvising is not a magic pill for success, it, in a way, reflects the spirit of Zen that teaches how to be in harmony with the nature flow now, to work together moment by moment without a known formula, and to have fun!  To re-quote Charles Darwin’s famous saying,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives…In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

You can read a free chapter of this wonderful book here.  There are also videos from youtube available and here is a shorter video for your reference.

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It is Thanksgiving break – a few days to eat, reflect and be thankful. 

I am thankful for what life has given me so far.  I will always be thankful to my parents, my wife, my business partner and a few of my long-time close friends.  They helped shape who I am and how I view the world.  They provided needed boosts when I was down and they cheered for me when I hit my stride.   I owe to my brother and sister for their caring and connections.  I am also grateful that I have had many great teachers and mentors at school and work.  They taught me the knowledge and skills needed to survive and to perform my best.  And I owe many people whom I can’t even remember who have touched my life and provided great help when I needed it.

There is a Chinese saying, “Those who know how to be content with what they have are the ones with lasting happiness.”  In other words, the secret of happiness really lies on how you perceive your world. 

In the book, If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, author Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott suggests a few ways to cultivate gratitude that certainly apply here:

• “Imagine what your life would be like if you lost all that you had.  Like George Bailey in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, this will most surely remind you of how much you do appreciate it.”
• “Make a list each day of all that you are grateful for, so that you can stay conscious daily of your blessings.  Do this especially when you are felling as though you have nothing to feel grateful for. Or spend a few minutes before you go to sleep giving thanks for all that you have.”
• “Spend time offering assistance to those who are less fortunate than you, so that you may gain perspective.”
• “Look for the gift in each challenging incident.”

One of the chapters in the book has a nice summary: “However you choose to learn gratitude is irrelevant.  What really matters are that you create a space in your consciousness for appreciation for all that you have right now, so that you may live more joyously in your present moment.”

As an Estonian Proverb puts it, “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.”  Charles E. Jefferson also said, “Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.”  In our desire of owning more and achieving more, we tend to forget what we already own.  

The bottom line is, count our blessings!

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An entrepreneur’s initial challenge is to do two things: first, to envision the future and enroll people to make that future become reality, and second, to engage people in the business so that they see the organization’s success as the platform for their success.

To enroll people means that you need to recruit those who believe in your endeavor and can help you realize the dream. Anyone who has done a lot of recruiting knows that recruiting is really more of an art than a science; there is no hiring process that is going to be perfect all the time.  You have to develop your own ability and instinct by observing the success and failure of your past hires.  Some of your hires will be highly successful, but a few will not do that well. The goal is to consistent refine your effectiveness in screening candidates so you can continuously improve your hit rate.

Over the years, I have had many opportunities in hiring and recruiting people.  My early years at Microsoft gave me lots of practice about how to conduct good interviews and assess a person’s core skills.  Later when I became an “As Appropriate” (a term referring to the last hiring manager in the Microsoft Interview loop), I learned how to assess a candidate’s overall fitness for the company.

Recruiting at Microsoft, however, was very different from recruiting at a startup. At Microsoft, we had no shortage of people wanting to join.  Microsoft was and still is a top-rated, well-established company filled with exceptionally bright people and wonderful benefits. My success criterion as a Microsoft hiring manager was to hire only exceptionally qualified “A” players for the company.  My hiring philosophy is basically the classical “A + A = A.  Only Hire A’s” strategy.  Here, the first A is for “ability” and the second A is for “attitude.”  The right ability plus the right attitude adds up to an “A” player.  “A” players are smart, savvy, motivated, and hardworking, and, most importantly, they get the job done.   

David Ogilvy describes this type of hiring elegantly. “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.  But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”

Later, when I started recruiting for our startup company, the simple “A + A = A” formula became necessary but not sufficient.  We cannot pretend that “A” players will naturally gravitate toward our little-known company, nor could we afford to hire all those “A” players at all cost.  Many A players don’t want to bet their careers on a small young company with lots of uncertainties and lesser benefits if job safety and the chance to work in a thousand-person team are at the top of their mind. We quickly realized that the people who will work for us are those like-minded people wanting to pursue an entrepreneurial career.  These people are confident in their own ability to succeed and are willing to take some risks for personal growth, financial upside and an environment where their efforts directly impact the success of the company. 

This realization has led me to come up with my own hiring philosophy now, one that caters more to the startup world.  I call this “the HAPPY Recruiting Principles”:

William Wu’s H.A.P.P.Y. Recruiting Principles

Here is a quick explanation of what the H.A.P.P.Y. stand for:

• “H” stands for “Hunger”.  This is the first thing that I look for to see if the candidate has an appetite for an entrepreneurial endeavor.  When animals go hunting together, those that are hungry tend to be in front of the pack.  Startups are all about hunting for new grounds, so we need those people who are willing to go all out to make things happen.  Our best employees are often those who have tried the hardest to convince us that they can do their jobs better than anyone else.  Their hunger and determination to join of our team often got me energized as well. 

Like Napolean Hill said, “The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire brings a small amount of heat.” We look for those with a lot of fires and desires.  Simply put, “No fire.  No hire!”

• “A” stands for candidate’s “Applicability”.  The applicability refers to the transferrable skills and knowledge possessed by a candidate that can be directly applied to the new job. Skills are the how-to’s of a role.  They are capabilities that can be transferred from one person to another. The knowledge is simply what a candidate is aware of.  There are 2 kinds of knowledge: factual – things a candidate knows; and experiential knowledge – a candidate past work experience.  Skills and knowledge can easily be taught. More applicability means less ramp-up time and easier adjustment into the role.   

• The first “P” is about a candidate’s natural talent which includes “Personality, Problem-solving and People Management”.
  • Personality reflects in a candidate’s striving talent. Some people are competitive in nature; others like to go with the flows.  Different roles require different types of personality to succeed.  Each personality comes with its strength and weakness. 
  • Problem solving reflects in a candidate’s thinking talent and the ability to navigate through tough technical challenges or business trade-offs daily.
  • People management reflects in a candidate’s ability to connect with other people and to work effectively with customers or other team members. 

These 3 P’s are neither trainable nor changeable. Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman’s excellent book First, Break All the Rules stressed on the importance of matching every role with the talents required to succeed. 

To quote from the book,
 “Great managers know:
People don’t change that much.
Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough.”

As is often said by a basketball coach to his players, “I can teach you how to play great basketball, but I cannot make you taller.” 

What separates an “A” player from an ordinary player is that the player not only has the skills and knowledge, but also has the talent.  They are the Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to their sports.  

• The 2nd “P” stands for “Passion”.  A truly outstanding candidate must love and be proud of his/her own profession. For example, great testers must enjoy the problem solving aspect of exercise that challenges them to break the system and find bugs before their target customers.

To quote E. M. Forster, “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” Ralph Waldo Emerson also said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  Passionate people are infectious people.  They raise the bar of excellence and lift the spirit of the entire organization.

• The final “Y” is about “YOU”, the candidate.  Yes, no one in the world can help a candidate to decide if he or she should join any company.  A candidate needs to ask himself or herself honestly:
  • “What’s unique requirement of the job that can stretch my ability and challenge me to grow out of my comfortable zone?”
  • “What is the culture of the organization and the key people that I will work with and can I learn from them?”
  • “Do I fundamentally believe in this company’s vision and where it is going?  Do I understand the marketing forces in this company’s industry, including competitions, eco-systems and trends?”
  • “Does this job uniquely reflect my interests, skills, talents, capacities and match my true passion?”
  • “Do I have the support of my loved ones to pursue this career path?”
  • “Does my conscience tell me this is a career pursuit worthy of being committed to?”

Only the candidate can truly answer these questions.

Like Andre Gide said, “Do you think your truth can be found by anyone else?”

The HAPPY framework allows a candidate and me to discuss frankly about the mutual interests and possibilities.  When we both feel right, it creates a win-win situation for everyone. 

HAPPY recruiting!

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