Power of One; Halftime; Do More Faster; Homeless to Harvard

HEADLINES:
 

Brad Feld, TechStars Co-Founder — Brad Feld, one of the most innovative VCs in the world, co-wrote one of my favorite "how to" books for growing a company entitled "Do More Faster." We just released a short online seminar featuring Brad and other key mentors sharing their best practices. As always, full money back guarantee if you don't find it insightful.

Strategy: Stay Focused and Open — my June "Growth Guy" syndicated column is published – and an appropriate mid-year review of how to maximize the next 6 months. The key, take a couple pages from Facebook – the power of focus and getting the MOST people on your bus! Take five minutes to scan the column.

Halftime — in a few weeks 2012 will be half over. No matter what has happened to date, good or bad, it's time to reassess and focus on the next 3 to 6 months. Two suggestions:

1. Pick just one big priority (urgent tasks aren't the same as priorities – more on this below)
2. Figure out how to get lots more people helping you for free

The Power of One — wow, at least from a personal and family perspective, having just one focus each for the year has been both liberating and effective. Everyone in the family has made significant progress on their one focus – Cameron with Chinese; Cole with building; Jade with equestrian lessons; etc. And I finished my latest book "The Greatest Decisions of All Time" (available October 2). Pick just ONE thing on which to focus and accomplish for the balance of the year and then give it several hours of focus each week.

Urgent Tasks vs. Priorities — I was in Prague last week leading a 2.5 Rockefeller Habits workshop for 20 YPO firms from around Europe. A key question came up, never really asked this way before – "what if a significant issue arises, like losing a key employee that needs replaced – doesn't that become the new priority?" Though it is a "priority" to get this person replaced, it doesn't replace the number one theme/focus/priority for the quarter or year. It's simply another urgent task for which you should have a process to complete.

Most People on the Bus — the second half of my Growth Guy column pushes firms to expand their crowdsourcing activities. Like Facebook, which has essentially 1 billion volunteers populating their site, how might you more fully tap into the wisdom of your marketplace, employees, and community to carry some of the burden of your business model? For instance, I'll be launching a weekly video where I highlight the greatest business decisions made that week. I'll be relying on you, my insight readers, to lend a hand – and more specifically, a large voluntary advisory board to aid in choosing the decisions. You've also been supplying me stories and ideas for my Fortune Venture columns – which both garners your firm publicity and helps me out.

Need Recruiting Stories — For my next column, I'm discussing talent recruiting. I'm looking for examples of how companies marketed positions to the right type of candidates. Did you place ads in unconventional places? Use guerrilla marketing techniques? Have you found that publishing a book or articles has attracted candidates? And have you found a way to bypass "middlemen" in recruiting, by for instance coming up with creative incentives for the A players on your team to refer talent they know to the company? Please let me know the type of company you run, how large it is, where it's based, exactly what you did to recruit and what positions you filled through your recruiting method. Email me at [email protected].

Strategy for Next Six Months — …so pick a single focus/priority and then figure out a way for lots more people to help you!!

Simon Cowell Gets Vitamin IVs — something I've been doing for over a decade is now going much more mainstream. Simon Cowell of American Idol fame (in the US), gets regular Vitamin C and B IVs (plus something for his liver – which I'm guessing is glutathione). Here's a link to more info.

Keynote Your Trade Association Event — Last week I beamed into John McGrath's Australian Real Estate conference (2500 in the audience) along with Donald Trump – it worked beautifully – this IS the future of keynoting, at least for me. If it's helpful to your mission, let me know if I might beam into your next trade association meeting – you get to introduce me and I'll work hard to make you look great! I have a beautiful facility in Barcelona I use and it's a whole lot less expensive than flying me in to keynote the event.

From Homeless to Harvard — … and just when you think all is wrong with the world, this amazing story will lift you up and give you the courage to do something big! It will be the topic at our family dinner this evening.