“If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed, and that increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”

- Michael Goldhaber of Wired Magazine

“In retail, it’s location, location, location. In business it’s differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.”

- the late Robert Goizueta of Coca-Cola

Employers always create the job descriptions for employees. What if it was the other way around? What if you could create your boss’s job description, what would it be?

Try this one:

GET OUT OF THE WAY AND LET THOSE WITH THE COOLEST IDEAS BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY.

What a great work environment that could be. Ideas reign. Not seniority. Not education. Not pedigree.

I think bosses really should only do two things:

1. Bet on COOL PEOPLE and
2. Bet on COOL IDEAS

How about one more… I almost forgot:

IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE… NERVE… TO LET ME REDRAW THE MAP (or even create a brand new map), THEN… YOU SHOULD NOT BE LEADING.

You hired me for a reason and it wasn’t to “follow orders.” So I’ll figure it out. I may even make it up as I go along, but I won’t come home empty-handed.

Just a few thoughts on the ideal boss.

“Tastes like chicken is not a compliment.”

-Seth Godin from Purple Cow

“I’m uncomfortable when I’m comfortable.”

-Jay Chiat

“Great leaders don’t ‘want to’ win. Great leaders ‘have to’ win.”

“I would rather vote for Obama’s crack dealer than Hillary.”

-gapingvoid

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

-David Kelley, founder of IDEO,

“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

-Mario Andretti

Junky Car Club is a new project by Mike Foster and the team over at Ethur.

I love the idea.

In fact, I was just thinking about how I need to get a junky car.

Not because I’m spiritual like these guys and want to give more money… just because I need another car to get to work.

Know of any?

I watched a great video this morning on my way into work on ending oil dependance. Amory Lovins does a great job of putting a plan together to decrease our dependancy and create jobs, with complete independence by 2040. Tons of stuff I have never thought about or heard of before.

At 18 mins, it’s worth watching. Check it out here at TED.com.

And he’s made his book available for free here.

And by the way, you should be watching TED videos… lots of them.

It’s been a busy week.

Joanna and I got home around 9:00 pm on Tuesday from California.

Seth and I drove over to Indianapolis at 5:30 am yesterday for a presentation to the nation’s largest dental financial services firm.

Now I’m back at CMH headed to Baltimore for a one day conference tomorrow.

By the way, two random thoughts.

It’s hard to find coffee in Napa Valley. There is one real Starbucks in Sonoma (the grocery store ones do not count… ever) and one in Napa. I missed my French Press desperately.

The Google Maps feature on the iPhone is one of its best features. That was all I used on our trip. No physical maps at all. And with the new software release, it is going to get even better.

So knowing you grew up close to Compton puts a little swagger in your step. I started walking around our office yesterday saying,

“You better back up mother &$@#!, I’m from COMPTON!”

One of the guys in the office then said,

“You know, that’s where they filmed Boyz In Tha Hood. You oughta go and check that out and take some pictures.”

….. I think I might do that.

I’ve had a chance to make some new friends lately. One of them is Jamal, who is a thirty-something, former pastor who is now running a non-profit called Illuminate.

We sat down for coffee a few weeks ago just to get to know each other a bit. He later emailed me a draft of a book he has written on the American church. I quickly read it and marked it up in red with all the great stuff that stood out to me. Here is a quote that made me put the manuscript down and think.

“Most leaders resist outside leadership. The reason they resist is because their identity is found in their leadership… and when they aren’t in control, they have no identity.”

Most leaders resist leadership. Why? They’re competitive.

We are too busy staying alive to figure out how to live.

After you’ve spent a career saying things just to make people go away, I wonder if you lose track of the texture of what you’re saying.
-from Seth Godin

by Jim Rubart

Of course she’ll be back. What are you thinking?…. They just take a long time when they go there.

It’s going well. I think it’s going well. It feels like it’s going well.

She laughed at the one about Kentucky. But I’m not sure the laughter reached her eyes.

I don’t know. But it feels like it’s going good. I think it’s going good.

It’s going good, isn’t it?

Two days from now will be the largest determining factor of the overall health of our economy this year.

Black Friday.
The profitability of retail business and the American economy is in the hands of consumers who are hopefully giving generously.

It’s a real easy equation and a perfect indicator of the financial health of the country. It goes like this:

More money = More gifts

If I made more money this year, I will feel more generous and buy more gifts and therefore stores will make more money. It’s actually very straight forward and simple. You can base the fiscal health of an entire year off of this forumla with a fair amount of certainty.

Here’s another thought.

Starbucks actually transformed their stores over to the Holiday decor and promo items five days early this year. The logic? 25% of their sales come from this time of year. So why not back it up five days and push that percentage to 28?

Makes sense to me. Christmas has always been about profitability, hasn’t it?

So, on game day, when it’s time to show up and score, it amazes me how many guys (and I’ve seen this a lot) miss their alarms and oversleep.

It’s real easy to me.

On game day… you show up early and you’re prepared.

I set two alarms, I eat light the night before and I go to bed early.

Because it doesn’t matter if you were on time EVERY DAY THAT WEEK.

If you oversleep on game day… you don’t deserve to play.

I got to see a private screening of the movie “Bella” last April in Atlanta. It was really, really good.

Bella is a real Cinderella Story. The filmmakers left lucrative careers to make movies that make a positive impact in people’s lives. As a result, Bella won the Toronto Film Festival and pre-sold hundreds of theaters, thousands of tickets and became the #1 top rated movie in theaters through the grass roots support of audiences across the country. (Bella is rated #1 by fans on Yahoo, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and the New York Times Readers Poll).

Find the theater in your area and check it out during this Holiday weekend.