Plato reminds us that ‘character is habit long continued.’

The Jesuits caution, ‘give me the boy until he’s 7, I’ll give you the man.’

and Dr. Stephen Covey gave us 7 habits of successful people.

It seems… It’s the habits we acquire that determine the patterns we engage in.

Just Disconnect

photo credit: Kevin

Habits are held together by patterns.

• Emotional patterns
• Spiritual patterns
• Intellectual patterns
• Instinctive patterns

Most are established very early. The Jesuits were confident that before the age of 7, the future man was crystallized within the young child.

Yet, most book focus on creating good patterns.

• Better time-keeping
• Multi-tasking skills
• Faster typing skills

New Business Patterns

One way to examine how your business works, and your role within the business, is to define new patterns. New human patterns. New business patterns.

Not revise, change, or remove existing ones.

But, create new patterns that connect the synapses together in ways you hadn’t thought of before.

It’s like thinking of a new color.

It was an accident. I started to write while standing up. We’d moved back from China and most all our belongings were still at sea. Somewhere.  So I placed my laptop on the bookshelf and started to type. It was a bit improvised but I soon got the hang of it and managed to adjust to the correct height. Then something clicked. It felt right. I knew I ‘d never go back to a ‘normal’ desk again.

Benefits of Using a Standing Desk

Here’s more background info. After twenty years of sitting at a PC, I needed a change.

photo credit: kelly cree
My back had given out. I mean it was in real pain.

Bending was close to impossible. I shuffled around the house like an old man. At first it was funny – well for those watching, anyway – but soon the novelty wore off.

Things changed after I used the standing desk. After all, I still had to work. Note that the desk didn’t heal my lower back pain but I’m sure it helped reduce the stress of sitting down all day at the PC.

Humans are designed for standing, not sitting.

So, after experimenting for a few weeks with the standing desk, the benefits I feel are:

• I surf the web less, but write more.
• I don’t slouch over the PC. Try to slouch standing up!
• I feel more alert.
• I no longer drift off in the afternoons. Hard to doze when standing.
• There is less, if any, lower back pain.
• My eyes hurt less. This may be as I’m squinting less at the PC and/or the light is better where I work now.
• I feel sharper, more energized.

Tips For Using a Standing Desk

While there are no serious risks or issues:

• Try to stand straight. Learn to stand in a comfortable position and one that feels natural. Avoid poor standing positions.
• If you create a DIY standing desk, make sure it is sturdy enough to hold your PC and things. I’ve seen some on the web and would be concerned that they may topple over, possibly hurting others and/or spilling hot coffee. Best to avoid. Invest in the best equipment you can afford.
• Balance your standing and sitting time. You can’t stand all day long (well, I can’t) so keep the desk and chair. As always, balance is the key.
• Make sure your wrists are in a comfortable position to avoid stress on the joints.

Getting Started

Some find it difficult to use the desk at first. I didn’t feel it that hard though I’ve always like to walk, so maybe I had a slight head start. Not sure, tbh.

Jamis at 37 Signals says on TreeHugger that, ‘I noticed an immediate increase in my ability to focus on a problem for longer, and with greater clarity. When I was blocked by some problem, I was able to just walk away from the desk, whereas before the effort of getting up from my chair often made me prefer to just sit and stew in my frustration.”

So, if you’ve been chained to a desk for many years, take is slowly.

Give yourself two weeks to really get into it. Pains in your lower back will start to melt and your legs will get stronger.

I also found that I was more focussed. I got down to work faster. Surfing was fine, for example, but I didn’t enjoy it as much.

Famous People Who Use Standing Desks

Some of these include:

• Benjamin Franklin
• Donald Rumsfeld
• Ernest Hemingway
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Thomas Jefferson
• Vladimir Nabokov
• Winston Churchill

Where to get a Standing Desk?

Here in Europe, you can get them in IKEA. Not sure if you have those in the US.

Other options are to modify your current desk or get one made by a local carpenter. One compromise is to get him to use your existing desk and add sliders that let you move the desk up and down.

That way you can stand for a few hours and then, when tired, sit down again. Folks on the web have done this for about $150, some for much less.

Let me know if you try it and how you get on.

When should I start my business? When will I have all the information I need to begin? Answer? Never. You have to start with what you have. In this video, I share a very smart observation that Rajesh Setty made about getting started in business. You don’t always need to have 4 legs to make a table; sometimes 3 will do. Confused? Watch the video.

Getting Things Done Now: How To Find A Second Reason To Do Anything Important

Getting Things Done: How To Find A Second Reason To Do Anything Important

Rajesh Setty gets it. To find a second reason to do anything important:

1. Remove the legs (reasons) for NOT pursuing your dreams. The more legs (reasons) you remove, easier it is to break the resistance (topple the table) to pursue the dream.

2. Start finding legs (reasons) for pursuing your passion. The more legs (reasons) you find, the stronger the conviction (table) to pursue the dream.
Taking up his point, my religious teacher once said to us, ‘it’s not the hand you’ve been dealt that matters, but how you play your hand.’

It’s your attitude towards setbacks, circumstances, friction and conflicts that matters. Approach these in the right way and you can see how to overcome these obstacles and get closer to your true goals.

Taking up his point, my religious teacher once said to us, ‘it’s not the hand you’ve been dealt that matters, but how you play your hand.’

It’s your attitude towards setbacks, circumstances, friction and conflicts that matters. Approach these in the right way and you can see how to overcome these obstacles and get closer to your true goals.

What do you think?

How do you work past your obstacles? What reasons do you use? What justifications do you see in your own thinking? Please share below.

Did you ever wish you could speak French and read all those great novels? Or maybe Spanish, so you could travel to South America and have more than Buenos Dias? Or Arabic, Chinese, or Japanese.  Most of us never start. It’s too hard. But, if I told you that all you need is 100 words and then you can get by – would you give it at try.

100 Words You Need To Speak Any Language

Here are the 100 words. Try to learn 5 a day. By the end of the month, you’ll have 150.

Give yourself every opportunity to practice. For example, go to an Italian restaurants and practice with the waiter. Tell him you’re learning – most everyone will help.

1. A/an  2. After 3. Again 4. All 5. Almost

6. Also  7. Always  8. And  9. Because  10. Before

11. Big  12. But  13. (I) can  14. (I) come  15. Either/or

16. (I) find  17. First  18. For  19. Friend  20. From

21. (I) go  22. Good  23. Good-bye  24. Happy  25. (I) have

26. He  27. Hello  28. Here  29. How  30. I

31. (I) am  32. If  33. In  34. (I) know  35. Last

36. (I) like  37. Little  38. (I) love  39. (I) make  40. Many

41. One  42. More  43. Most  44. Much  45. My

46. New  47. No  48. Not  49. Now  50. Of

51. Often  52. On  53. One  54. Only  55. Or

56. Other  57. Our  58. Out  59. Over  60. People

61. Place  62. Please  63. Same  64. (I) see  65. She

66. So  67. Some  68. Sometimes  69. Still  70. Such

71. (I) tell  72. Thank you  73. That  74. The  75. Their

76. Them  77. Then  78. There is  79. They  80. Thing

81. (I) think  82. This  83. Time  84. To  85. Under

86. Up  87. Us  88. (I) use  89. Very  90. We

91. What  92. When  93. Where  94. Which  95. Who

96. Why  97. With  98. Yes  99. You  100. Your

There are many reasons to start learning aside from the business opportunities and personal gratification. I’ve started Chinese here in Beijing and am now… about 75% of the way there.

I can order a beer (critical), find a toilet (helpful) and get a taxi. All the small little things. Give it a try. See how far you get. You’d be surprised how easy it is once you start.

What language do you most want to learn?

And after that?

April Dunford gives five great tips on how to market your web product to early adopters. She asks how can you blend marketing and product development to increase adoption, in particular by those who are likely to champion your product before it goes main-stream. Geoffrey Moore covered this in Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. Has anything changed since then?

5 Considerations when Marketing to Early Adopters

April highlights the key drivers that impact the adoption of a new product. Here are the five points she highlights:

1. Complexity – you need to make it simple to understand. In one sentence. Think elevator pitch. Complex new products don’t get adopted. Marketing can’t define it, sales can’t sell it. Clarify what it does and who wants it. Make product descriptions short. Avoid buzzwords, clichés and waffle. What does it do!
2. Compatibility – how does it fit in with the target customers’ product line? Support this with case studies, use cases and scenarios. Paint a picture. Help them see how it will work for them.
3. Advantage – how much does the new product improve upon existing offering (or doing nothing).  Express benefits in quantifiable terms. She advices not to say ‘your product is “faster” doesn’t mean as much as saying you can “improve production output by 200%.”’
4. Trialability – make it easy to take for a test run. Her suggestion is to make it easy for customers to sign up and get started – you can talk about payments later. Besides downloads, you can offer screencasts, flash demos and video.
5. Observability – develop outposts on Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr where ‘fans’ can discuss your product and give their verdict. Be prepared these are not here to flatter you. But if you engage in the dialogue, you can discuss how your product is better value than rivals by going thru the pain points that get raised.

Others Considerations when Marketing to Early Adopters

What have we missed here? How do you get your products to market? What mistakes do people make when launching a new product?

Fire away below.

What’s the one thing you enjoyed most in Avatar? For my Project Management friend it was the video logging. Did you notice that the team kept their reports not in Microsoft Word (i.e. on paper) but as video logs.

When trying it out, the protagonist in the movie couldn’t get a handle on it. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it’, was the reply.  Well, it worked for them, could it work for you? Here are some of the reasons you might want to consider using video for project management activities.

What Avatar Can Teach You About Project Management

Advantages of video logging

• Capture Emotions— Capture human elements missing from electronic reports, such as emotions or subtle suggestions made in the video logs that would not otherwise be noticed.
• Speed — Videos are faster to make. You just open your mouth and talk! Consider the effort in using Microsoft Word, applying styles, finding the right template, typing, fixing grammar horrors etc.
• Convenience — you can record videos almost anywhere. The recording device is smaller and easier to transport.
• Faster — For me, using a flip camera is now as easy as a telephone – just start talking! Consider this against the effort in using Microsoft Word, applying styles, finding the right template, typing in, fixing grammar horrors etc.

Disadvantages of video logging

• Structure — you need to train people how to deliver video reports, otherwise they’ll ramble defeating the purpose.
• Search — while you can search Word files on the network by keyword (i.e. metadata), how would you do this with video? Is it possible to tag/keyword videos as we do with Word docs and online reports?
• Edits — while videos are faster to make, if they need to be edited, then you lose the upside.
• Convenience — while you can record videos almost anywhere, this can be abused as employees file in reports pretending to be onsite with the client.
• Compliance – the number of laptops stolen each year (holding confidential data) continues to rise. This raises issues with unauthorized user video apps to submit, retrieve, share confidential data. Of course, this also applies to PC, iPhones etc.
• Storage — maybe this is no longer as problem as the cost of server space continues to fall and compression technologies improve. But would terabytes of data get expensive in the end? Not sure.

Should Project Manager use video for status reports?

It’s early days yet but I can see the attraction of using video to file in reports.  The difficulty may be in getting people to make the change. As it often the case, the problem is not in the processes or technological benefits, but the human issues that underpin these decisions.

What do you think?

Could it work? What do you think is the main barrier to using video more frequently in the work place?

How do you define innovation? Graham Horton has translated BMW’s definition of innovation for those who don’t speak German. I (used to) speak a little German and hope to get the original translation from Graham.

How to Re-Define an Innovation Philosophy

Here is the BMW’s innovation philosophy:

“It is our job to give customers something they want, but they didn’t know they were looking for, and which they say they always wanted when they get it.”

http://grahamhorton.posterous.com/how-bmw-defines-innovation

While this is a bit wordy, you get the drift.

1. Give customers something they want
2. An experience they didn’t know they were looking for
3. Something they value when they get it

These three statements drive BMW’s vision. How would you distill these into something snappier and a little easier to remember?

I’ll kick it off.

“We build the dreams you haven’t dreamt of yet.”

A bit lame, but it’s a start.

Fire away below.

How would you define BMW’s innovation philosophy?