Get tactical. Everyone wants some “grand strategy” or “new initiative. But mastering tactics at the battlefield level is how 90% of us can earn money faster than the government steal it. It’s all about Tactics, not Strategy. Mastering tactics means that you are doing something towards a goal. Something, anything that’s reasonable is better than fine tuning a meticulous plan. I fell into the planning trap. Loads of people have. Doing something right now, fast, and done is the way to win.
Since making the switch from Stephen Covey to David Allen, I’ve paid off most of my IRS debt, I’ve built a business that works, and I’ve become better at living life on earth. Stephen Covey principles work, no doubt, but rejiggering some life plan isn’t meaningful until you can make the pile of paperwork on your desk your bitch. That is practical, real and doable.
When Phil said “I hate coaching,” what I really hate is some notion of a program that isn’t held accountable to specific results. Buying a marketing widget that “costs less than a closing?” Everything you do has to be held accountable to a result. When Greg talked about A/B Testing, that was the expression of an idea: observe stuff with your own eyes. Create an OODA loop.
Getting on the path to be an automatically improving being required that I go grab some knowledge.
1.) Getting Things Done, David Allen: The most important book on this list, by far. Read, pracitce, understand fully GTD principles. Make the papers and endles op
2.) On War: Von Clausewitz: Great book about going all in when you find yourself in conflict. There are no half measures, if you don’t have passion behind the stuff you’re doing, simply don’t do it.
3.) Tested advertising methods: John Caples/etc. This is about writing copy that works, that isn’t necessarily “clever” and that performs. The book is solid and you can see that people don’t follow it much. Copy that tells you what to expect and produces no “WTF” type responses is the goal. And it’s easier to write than the nuanced cleverness that people go Read more