Biz Person of the Year; Think Bigger; $1.4 Billion Score

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

Think Big — it's always easier to do bigger deals than smaller ones – to add a few zeroes to your thinking. This is the time of the year to start reflecting on your future and set your personal and biz goals for 2015 and beyond – maybe this weekend! The two stories below, to read at your leisure over the next few days or weeks, will get you thinking big (and focused!).

…in the meantime — grab the new One-Page Personal Plan (OPPP or O3P) and the instructions and complete one for you and your family over this weekend (takes about 20 minutes). You can download the O3P and excerpt from the new book for free at www.scalingup.com. My EO forum members completed one and we shared our personal goals for 2015 and beyond with each other (and I just coached a YPO forum to do the same) – a powerful way to learn about and support each other.

To Summarize (then the articles)…:

1. Fill out the One-Page Personal Plan – like the One-Page Strategic Plan for companies
2. Support with a 15 minute personal daily routine (more below) – like the daily huddle does for the business
3. Get a Peer Coach to support implementation of the plan and routine – like a coach does for the business

A peer coach is just that – a peer. Not a mentor, but a friend. Pick five behaviors/routines you're going to do more or less of each day based on your personal and biz one-page plans and then report progress each day in an email to your peer coach (takes me 20 seconds) – then try and meet once per week – Sebastian and I meet Fridays at 11:15am for an hour.

15 Minute Personal Daily Routine — everyone can carve out 15 minutes. Based on my own reading and experimentation:

1. 5 Minute Meditation — read ABC News anchor Dan Harris's book 10% Happier – five minutes of just focusing on your breathing works miracles
2. 5 Minute Tabata exercise — download a Tabata app on your phone and watch this 2 minute video by Ari Meisel. You don't need more than 4 minutes of exercise.
3. 5 Minute Gratification — use the time to reflect on what you're grateful for and respond to your peer coach

That's it – like the 15 minute daily huddle powers a company, this 15 minutes will power you.

The Most Ambitious CEO in the Universe — Fortune's annual Biz Person of the Year list is out. Surprise – Mark Zuckerberg came in #13 just ahead of 30 year old Elizabeth Holmes. Topping the list is Larry Page, CEO of Google. Take 20 seconds to read the opening paragraph which shares the joke about Page making rounds at Google X – then take 4 more minutes to read the rest of the article – it will inspire you to think bigger. One interesting management routine – Page addresses the entire company weekly at what is called a TGIF meeting (now held on Thursdays instead of Fridays). The entire article is rich with ideas – read it and prepare for 2015.

Inside Elon Musk's $1.4 Billion Score — and dropping from #1 in 2013 to #18 on the list of the top 50 biz leaders of the year is Elon Musk. Nevertheless, read how he "dazzled, seduced, squeezed, bluffed, manipulated, and prodded" his way to an epic state incentive to build a battery factory in Nevada. Influence and negotiations – two of the three most important executive skills we all must possess – and Musk pegs the scale on both capabilities. Take 6 minutes to read how Musk pitted 7 states against each other (one key – he called them ALL to the same secret meeting. Most of us fail to do this one simple thing) to win one of the largest concessions in history – lots of lessons for all of us aiming for the fences and seeking to do audacious things.

15 Minutes of Reading — there you have it – a couple stories that will take you less than 15 minutes to read but will fuel you with ideas and techniques you can use for a lifetime if you'll study, not just read, these articles.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?