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What Leaders Can Learn From Inception

July 30, 2010 in Business, Linchpin with 4 Comments

Last week I saw Inception. What a fantastic film! I highly recommend seeing it.

Without spoiling anything, here’s a general look at the plot:

Dom Cobb, played by DiCaprio, is a professional extractor. He has the ability to go inside people’s dreams and extract (or steal) information.

Of course, since Cobb is basically a thief, he’s on the run from the law.

Cobb is offered a chance to have his record cleared so he can return to the USA and see his children. He’s offered this provided he’ll take on one last job. The job, however, is a bit different than the types of jobs he’s used to doing. Instead of stealing information by using extraction, he’s asked to plant an idea/story/information inside someone’s mind using inception.

It’s a tail of corporate espionage.

Get it?

OK. Here’s what I believe leaders and those in a leadership role can learn from Inception.

A big part of a leadership role is preparing those around you for the future. Of course, the future is unknown.

So how does a leader/boss/manager prepare those around him for an unknown and unpredictable future?

If you guessed, “Inception,” you’re right. You get a gum ball.

Leaders use stories to paint pictures of the future. It’s the same as setting goals. It’s the same as positive thinking. Leaders paint pictures of what’s to come.

The idea is to create a story for those you lead and plant it inside their heads.

A word of caution. Stories need to be told in much the same way as they are in the film Inception. They have to be believable. Therefore, the leader knows he must paint a positive picture. Our minds will fill in the rest of the details. The leaders goal is to prepare us for the unknown future by using a positive story.

Steve Jobs might tell the story about the life-changing possibilities the iPhone 4 will bring to Apple’s customers. It’s THAT story that inspires those working at Apple to go beyond the edge and create a remarkable product.

If Steve’s story fails to convince the employees that the iPhone 4 will change lives, and instead his story is, “we’ll increase revenue by 20% in this quarter,” or in other words, his words and story do not inspire them. He fails.

And here’s the worst part of it. If there’s no Inception – everyone of your employees is left in limbo. And limbo is forever.

Wake up!

Let’s be realistic.

July 28, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Life, Linchpin with 0 Comments

Over the past few months, I’ve been going off on a little bit of a tangent. (the blue highlighted words in this post are links to some of those past posts)

This has led to me spewing off my own optimistic ideas of the life you could live.

I believe you can do work that matters.

I believe you can create your own map.

I believe you can follow your own rules.

I believe you can reach your goals.

I believe you can do whatever you want for a living.

I believe ALL of this boils down to the choices you make.

But I need to bring myself back to reality for a minute.

This type of advice isn’t for everyone. After all, to accomplish any part of what I’ve said over the past few months, you’re going to have to get down and dirty with the lizard. You’re going to have to face your biggest fears, one after another.

And every step of the way, your very own brain will be telling you to turn around and get back to reality. Every step of the way, people will be telling you you’re acting nuts and being foolish. The people closest to you will urge you to stop with the wishy-washy dreaming. They’ll say, “shut up, put your head down, and get back to work.” What’s the big deal with giving away 30 years of your life in the bigger scheme of things?

Sheesh.

But seriously:

It’s easy for me to write about all the goodness that can come from being an optimistic person and viewing your glass has half-full.

It’s easy for me to tell you to “follow your passion” or “get rich of worms.”

It’s even easier for me to tell you that if you don’t set out to do what you were destined to do, you might end up in a lot of pain.

But here’s the thing I’ve realized. If you’ve been reading ANY of what I’ve been saying, and somewhere deep-down inside you there’s even a smidgen of something saying, “Yeah I could totally do that,” perhaps there’s a smidgen of a voice inside you telling you that you DO have enough ambition to actually light the fire.

Then maybe I’m not too far out-to-lunch.

Every single one of us has that smidgen somewhere. It may be hiding right now. It may not show itself very often, but you can be damn sure it’s there.

One of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield, has written an amazing post on “Ambition” that inspired me to write this post and look back at my own posts over the past few months.

And he hits the nail right on the head.

An oak litters the earth with ten thousand acorns, and inside every one is the drive to grow to be as mighty as its daddy. Every lion cub, every fledging eagle carries in its DNA the will to be king of beasts and lord of the air. That’s nature’s law. Why should we humans expect to be different? ~ Steven Pressfield

That’s reality.

Unremarkable, Lackluster, Middle-Of-The-Road, Unexciting, Boring

July 5, 2010 in Art, Creativity, Linchpin with 3 Comments

The words used in the title of this post are all words that came from my thesaurus for the word “mediocre.”

mediocre |ˌmēdēˈōkər|
adjective
of only moderate quality; not very good: a mediocre actor

It makes me wonder if this is the way my English teachers would have explained my skills to my parents during my early years of school.

Mom: How’s Noah doing in creative writing this year?

Teacher: Noah’s only writing at a moderate level of quality. If I was to be perfectly honest with you, he’s just not that good at it.

Looking back now at my blog, specifically between the years of 2006-2009, and questioning the reasons I chose not to blog more often, I may have been mistaken in the reasons why I never actually wrote more.

I usually attributed the lack of posting to “no time.” But now I’m wondering if I was simply scared of mediocrity. The fear of mediocrity is just as strong as the dreaded, and evil, fear of failure. How can we overcome such an opponent?

I read hundreds and hundreds of blogs on a weekly basis. Many of the writers are simply brilliant. The creators of the content inspire me daily.

Bloggers like; Derek Sivers, Ben Coe, Quoteflections, Seth Godin, Hugh MacLeod, Caitlin McCabe , Jason Seiden, Liz Danzico, Chris Guillebeau. Jonathan Fields, to name just a few.

The fear of mediocrity bubbles up from within. It’s easier to do nothing, than it is to appear mediocre to others, or so we think. We allow that fear to debilitate us and then nothing happens. Fear of this kind can cause our blogs to sit empty and dormant for years.

It’s been pounded into us for years that perfection is the ultimate goal. Is it really worth doing if you can’t do it right?

I mean, if you can’t write as well as the millions of other great bloggers out there, is it really worth the time and effort to spend every day putting fingers to the keyboard? (That’s our internal fear talking, or lizard brain, or the resistance, or whatever we want to call it….)

Here’s the thing, It’s worth it.

The task doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether the task is writing a blog post, or starting a new business, or finishing an essay, or writing an outrageous advertisement, or creating a piece of art, or building a piece of furniture, or developing a website, or rewriting your resume, or telling a story at a campfire, or calling an old friend, or drawing a cartoon, or recording some music in your basement, or expressing your intention to start a diet and exercise.

It will never be “perfect.”

This form of resistance will rear its ugly head to try to convince you it’s not worth it at every step of the way. It will get stronger, and stronger, and stronger until the very last moment when you get close to the end. Close to the moment of actually finishing it, it will make one last-ditch effort to try to stop you. It will do it’s best to convince you that what you’ve created is nothing more than a big steamy pile of mediocrity.

For me, that moment is right now.

And then I hit publish.

You might just need to listen carefully….

July 2, 2010 in Books, Career & Work, Life, Linchpin with 2 Comments

This is for the passion seekers. I was in the middle of writing another post, and then I read this. This is for those of us still asking the questions or wondering:

How do I know if this is really my passion?

Where do I look for my passion?

I’m not sure what I’m really passionate about.

Check this out.

“You might be thinking, “How do I know what I’m good at?” All you have to do is listen and learn. Listen to the environment and other people. Pay attention, because they’re trying to tell you what you’re good at all the time. It’s in you, but there’s also feedback—the world is trying to tell you who you are. There are signals. It’s all a big mirror of your own soul. If you feel wonderful when you read a sentence in a book and somehow get goose bumps, that’s the world trying to say, “That’s you!”

The Hands-Off Manager – Steve Chandler & Duane Black

The weird thing is, this entire book is giving me goose bumps.

Enjoy the weekend.

The Success Measuring Tape

June 23, 2010 in Life, Linchpin, Success with 3 Comments

Last night I was driving down the road and passed a lawn sign advertising a local business. The sign read, “come watch the World Cup on our 50″ Plasma screen!!!”

I guess they missed the memo. Is the “50 inch television” really a draw, considering most people have similar sized TV’s, if not bigger, in their own homes? My friend Gavin said it best, “maybe the sign was left over from the last world cup.”

There was a time, when a big TV was a material possession that showed your friends you were actually making some money.

Today, anyone with a credit card can whip over to Best Buy and pick up a 60″ 3D-Ready TV, and pay the $27 bucks a month until that sucker is paid for. The instant facade of success. Instant gratification.

There was a time when the car you drove was seen as a symbol of your success.

There was a time when the size of your house was seen as a symbol of your success.

There was a time when the type of clothes you wore were seen as a symbol of your success.

Success was once largely measured by the total value and number of material possessions you could acquire and stuff into your home or garage. Many people still view success this way.

My view of success has changed. Here’s how I view success now. I use a combination of four simple questions.

1) How happy are you?

I don’t mean dance around like a fool happy. I mean the type of happy where you wake up each morning energized and ready for the day. The type of happy where you don’t dread Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, for that matter.

You love what you do, and you do what you love.

The type of happy where you can look one or three, or five years down the road and picture yourself doing the exact same thing you’re doing now.

If you can’t, you need to quit.

2) How much debt do you have?

There’s nothing worse, in my opinion, than debt. Good debt and bad debt aside, I’m referring to debt incurred to buy things you can’t afford.

Debt is so tempting. I remember a recent trip to Bass Pro Sporting Goods Store. I could have walked away with a gorgeous fishing boat for only $175 bucks a month. Nobody needs to know how I’m paying for it, right?

3) How healthy are you?

I’m talking about physical health here. I’m talking about the successful person who has the personal drive and motivation to take care of his/her most valuable possession – oneself.

And I don’t mean freakish, or obsessive physical health. That can actually be unhealthy.

Oh, but he drives an 2010 Escalade and owns the giant house on the lake…His job is stressful… He’ll start exercising someday……

Sigh.

Finally…

4) What are you doing to make the world a better place?

My wife and I were driving in our car last week, and the guy in front of us tossed his McDonald’s garbage out the window. No shame. Fries and Big Mac containers spread across the road as he sped off. He gets a failing grade in this regard, even if he does tend to sick puppies at night.

It doesn’t mean you have to be dressed as Santa collecting donations at Christmas, or wiping oil off pelicans, but how are you personally contributing to making the world a better place?

Something tells me it’s not just me who’s trading in my old measuring tape for a new one. Everyone’s measuring tape is different.

What’s yours look like?

I’ll Out-Ship you.

June 16, 2010 in A Typical Wednesday, Linchpin with 5 Comments

I’m in a mood today. I’m not sure why or what sparked it, but I’m going with it. It must be a Wednesday thing, because the same thing happened last Wednesday.

You might not like it. It might make you uncomfortable. It might make you a little uneasy with me.

I’m apologizing in advance. I don’t know what brought it on. This seems to happen only on the occasions that the lizard is just as fired up as I am.

Perhaps my idea of blogging everyday is silly. I mean, who am I to think I might have something even slightly meaningful to say each and every single day….geeez…

Who am I kidding?

But you know what? I’m going to do it. I’m going to hit the publish button every single day.

You keep virtually plowing through your pretend farm, tending to your virtual crops, and I’ll keep shipping.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll eventually get good at it. Blogging is something that has interested me for years. And for years, I could never get around to doing it consistently. I had excuses galore. And when I did blog, my grammar and spelling was atrocious. I can imagine my elementary school teachers cringing from ear to ear.

But I’m the one laughing now. Because I know I’ll prevail.

I think it’s like anything else in life. If you’re not willing to put in the time and practice on a consistent basis, you’re not going to get good at it. It’s really that simple.

Whatever your skill is, you’ve got to be willing to practice it and do it even on the days every bone in your body is telling you to skip it.

Remember – art isn’t just about drawing, painting, or sculpting. Your art is what you do, and everything you put into it.

If your art is owning and operating your ice cream shop, so be it.

If your art is operating a hot dog joint, so be it.

Daily regimented practice is the key.

Who knows? A year from now, I might get really good at this. You keep harvesting your digital crop, and I’ll keep seeding mine.

P.S. Here’s something new and a simple request for you.

If you like this post, or know someone who might benefit from reading what I’m saying, please pass it along. You can do this easily by the buttons below.

If you use Twitter, consider ‘re-tweeting’ this post.

If you use Facebook, consider clicking the “like” button.

If you use eMail, consider sending this to a friend.

If you agree, disagree, or have something to say about this post, please leave a comment.

Thanks,
Noah

What exactly is the Lizard Brain?

May 31, 2010 in Linchpin with 9 Comments

I’m pretty zonked today. We had a really busy and fun-filled weekend that consisted of a lot of traveling. We were constantly on the go from Friday afternoon until last night around 8pm when we finally got home.

I think my Lizard Brain pumped some iron during that time, because he’s strong today.

I talk about my Lizard Brain enough that I wanted to share this video explaining exactly what the Lizard Brain is.

I’ve got one. You’ve got one. The question is, how big and how strong is your Lizard Brain?

Thanks to Paul Durban for creating this video.

Does it sound familiar?

You’re not even in the game.

May 19, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Life, Linchpin, Success with 3 Comments

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” ~ Grantland Rice

Remember that quote? I hate it. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s how we play the game. Hmm….

The reason I don’t like the quote is that most of the time we’re not even in the game to begin with.

When we skip a workout or we have the extra pizza, even though we’re trying to lose weight or get healthier, we’re not in the game.

When we say we want to start a blog, but don’t make the effort to write a few words, we’re not in the game.

When we talk about being unhappy in our current situation and make statements like “someday, I’m going to do things my way,” we’re not really in the game.

The list goes on and on…. We might say we’re in a lull. Perhaps we’d compare it to the seventh inning stretch. Wrong. You’re still outside the stadium looking for a ticket.

SO here’s how you play the game.

You jump right in and play to win. You put on your best equipment and give it all you’ve got.

Even if you’re writing a blog post about the game, at least you’re competing.

When you start the workout, even though it hurts like hell and there’s an extreme amount of short term pain, congrats – we’ve got a game.

Sticking to your diet and fighting the temptations, or avoiding the smoke when you’re trying to quit; howdy, glad you showed up to the game.

I’m fascinated by the idea of the resistance and the lizard brain, because that’s the competition. They know that half the time you won’t even show up, but when you do, it’s game time!

And now what? Half the time the resistance wins! For some of us, the resistance is kicking our asses every single game. But you know what, we never just throw the game and let them win. It’s all about how we play it.

Get in the game.

Edit:

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s if you show up and play.” ~ Noah Fleming

This is your job.

May 12, 2010 in Life, Linchpin with 2 Comments

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it”.

The above quote comes from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art.

I love that quote.

I’m sure you’ve heard the old stories about Michelangelo and his sculptures.

Michelangelo was known to approach a solid block of marble and instead of creating a sculpture, he would merely chip away pieces to find the sculpture already waiting inside.

Have you ever heard the story about the lawyer who left a career, earning a few hundred grand a year, to become a blacksmith earning 5% of his original income?

How about the advertising executive leaving New York City and moving to the mountains to start a career as a fishing guide?

Or the numerous people who leave the perceived safety of unions and retirement pensions to start their own risky, and zero-guarantee ventures.

The stories are abundant, and we often hear variations of them.

The reason we hear of these stories are twofold.

First, the stories resonate with us because they scare us. We’re scared when people challenge the status quo. Sometimes we’ll criticize. We’ll talk about how nuts they are, or what a poor decision they’re making.

The thing to realize about criticism is that we’re criticizing out of fear. It’s our own internal resistance making excuses so we feel better about our own situation. It’s hard for people to accept, but true.

Second, the stories resonate with us because they also intrigue us. They offer us a glimpse into those who followed the same path we took, but somewhere along the way, they veered off track.

Originally, they shaped themselves into an imagined ideal. Perhaps the ideal was brought about by their parents, or school, or society in general, and the need to fit in.

But when we hear about people like this, we’re hearing about people who started looking for the sculpture again. Something was off. Occasionally, people don’t even start chiseling the marble until later in life.

If Michelangelo had quit half way through, he never would have found David inside that block of marble.

Your job is NOT to try to shape and mold yourself into something you are not. It’s hard to shape and mold a solid block of marble. It rarely works.

Your job is to keep on chipping until you find out what’s already inside.

Bury it Alive

May 7, 2010 in Business, Career & Work, Creativity, Getting Things Done, Linchpin with 3 Comments

I had this idea for a local mashup of an offline/online web business a few years ago. It was a killer idea. I had seen startups in bigger cities offering a similar type of service with amazing success.

I dumped a ton of sweat, tears, and money into this business.

I spent days working on the code and modifying things until they were perfect. Everyday, I’d pay a coder to work with me and make all the desired little tweaks and changes that were required.

Every month I paid expensive hosting bills to keep the pending service a float.

I had business cards designed and printed.

I created window stickers and had them printed at the local print shop. When I arrived, weeks later to pick them up, the colors were all messed up and they looked like crap. So, I called a bigger and much more expensive company in Toronto and had them done right.

I worked with some very talented and pricey copywriters who helped me tweak the copy and helped me with sales information to promote the service.

I worked endlessly on developing a targeted list of potential contacts and businesses that could use the service.

I paid a boat load of money to print and prepare all the letters and sales information I would mail to the businesses.

I hand delivered the letters to the post office and paid the postal fees.

I had dreams of grandeur that my phone would ring off the hook for the next two weeks.

I Shipped.

The phone never rang. Actually, it rang a couple of times, but people either didn’t get what I was offering or they simply weren’t interested.

I followed up with many and explained that I didn’t want their money. They could use the service for FREE. They still didn’t get it. Many claimed that their customers didn’t use the Internet…

None of the businesses knew how hard I had worked or how much money I’d spent preparing this service.

None of them knew how many late nights were spent slaving over this idea.

Nobody cared.

I was in a state of denial for a few months afterward.
I kept pushing the service and trying new things. I believed my idea would work and could help businesses grow.

Maybe my offer was no good. Maybe I used the wrong type of font in my sales letters. Maybe I needed an army of sales gurus.

But then one day, something clicked.

I realized that I had shipped.

It was a total flop. The letters were mailed. The site was finished. The work was done.

My next move was easy.

I went to my closet and tossed out 1000 business cards.

I threw away 5000 expensive double sided stickers.

I emptied over 500 glossy brochures into our recycling bin.

I allowed the website hosting bill to come and go without being paid.

I buried that sucker alive while it was still gasping for air. After that I went for a long walk outside and enjoyed the fresh air.

As Stephen Pressfield says in The War of Art, Rest in peace, mother&#^er.

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