Komisar’s Nest deal; Mark Cuban’s Advice; Devin Schain’s Education Week
October 16, 2014
Five not-to-be-missed books
October 30, 2014

GoPro’s Secret; Dumb Idea; Audi’s Breakthrough; Feeling Held Hostage?; See you in Vegas next week!

"…keeping you great"


HEADLINES:  

Driverless Car Reaches 140mph — in case you missed it this past weekend, watch this driverless Audi navigate a 14 turn race track in Germany at racing speed – the singularity point gets closer!! Scroll down the article to see the entire lap.

How GoPro Modelled Red Bull — take 3 minutes to read Fortune's interview of Nick Woodman, founder-CEO of GoPro. I was particularly struck by Nick's response of which company he modelled GoPro after:

"I was inspired by how Red Bull isn't about the drink, it isn't about the product or the can. Red Bull is a platform to celebrate all that humans are capable of accomplishing. They built a lifestyle movement, a brand that sold this product. And they never really talk about the product. It's just all about the lifestyle."

This lifestyle brand idea is worth discussing at your next weekly marketing meeting.

Feeling Held Hostage? — a veteran hostage negotiator for 40 years and author of two outstanding leadership books – Hostage at the Table and Care to Dare, George Kohlrieser shares his story about how he talks Sam out of killing Sheila and George in this short TedX talk. All of us, at times, feel like we're being held hostage – even by ourselves. The key is learning how to bond quickly with people, even with those who are despicable. Men have a particularly tough time doing this in general and George, IMD professor, hosts a highly touted one-week program called High Performance Leadership that helps top leaders at major firms learn how to do this with all the people they encounter. This TedX talk might save your life and your business – watch it with your people and family (and listen while doing email today).

Work-Life Balance Stupid Idea — serial entrepreneur and IESE professor Conor Neill outlines 3 reasons work-life balance is a dumb idea – and then what to do about it. The 3 reasons:

  1. It doesn't exist — Humans have 2 legs, not 3. Triangles are naturally in balance, humans are not.
  2. You wouldn't want it if you actually got it — It is the journey that is meaningful, not the seat at the end. We are journey creatures, not "sitting-on-a-sofa-at-the-end" creatures.
  3. It causes endless frustration. The search for balance is asking for frustration. It is strong foundations that allow for tall buildings to stay up, not balance.

Take 1 minute to read his short blog about what to do instead.

Drone Nation — back to the world of technology, how might you use drones in your business? Here's an interesting Fortune article on how businesses are using drones and why Silicon Valley is going crazy over the technology. Scroll down (about 2/3rds) where they summarize the five main industries that are benefiting from drones. And all of you should want an AirDrone – we can all use one of these in our business!!

See you (record crowd) in Vegas next week for the Growth Summit!

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” and WEO’s “Advanced Business” executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0); Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual Leadership and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity. He is an investor in many scale-ups. A father of four, he enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.