The only thing we have equal in all of humanity is time. – Anthony Robbins

Take a moment and think about that quote.  Very Powerful.  It does not matter who you are, where you live, what car you drive or how big your bank account is, we all have 168 hours each week.  How do you choose to spend your time?  How do you allocate the 168 hours?  Here is my stab at an allocation:

56 hours to use. More work, more sleep, more exercise, parenting time, marital time, spiritual time, personal development, golf, television, whatever you want to do you have 56 hours available.  Does that seem like a lot of time?  If I work another 28 hours in a week (which I usually do) then I only have 28 hours for family and every other activity (surely my family deserves 3 hours per day or 12.5% of my time) which leaves me with 7 hours for everything else I want to do in a given week.

Wow.  I may need to reevaluate my time allocation.  Or I may need to become more efficient with the hours that I have available for work.  Maybe technology can help?  Maybe I can become more efficient?   All I know is that I need to become better and my team needs to become better.  Time is an area where the playing field is equal.  It is the use of that time that separates the winners from the losers.

Best Practices is an interesting term. We often provide Best Practices to clients and prospective clients. Our definition of Best Practices is a little different than most. I think the term Best Practices has become synonymous with saying we have a “good idea”. Best practices require analysis, understanding, effort and hard work. They require understanding processes and identifying how to improve those processes in an actionable manner. A good idea is like the picture in a magazine of a newly remodeled bathroom. Best Practices are the planning, demolition, and reconstruction of the bathroom. The good idea is the outcome not the hard work to get there.

The key to Best Practices are the Next Practices. What is the way your organization will look after implementing Best Practices? What are the Next Practices of your business? There is a difference and your competition may be working on Next Practices while you are thinking about the good idea that you just had. Next time someone tells you they have Best Practices make sure it just is not a gaggle of good ideas but are truly Best Practices that will result in Next Practices. Good ideas are everywhere. Don’t be fooled.

Recently I was reading an Op-Ed Column in the NY Times from Thomas Friedman. The article was on the education system in the United States but he had several points that I think are relevant to business today and the state of our industry. He is speaking of the education system but I am applying the same concept to individuals and organizations on how best to succeed now and in the future. I have paraphrased and slightly altered one of his paragraphs from this article to drive home the point.

According to Friedman, those people and companies that were used to just showing up and having business handed to them were the first to go because with the downturn in the economy, that flow of business just isn’t there or isn’t the same. But those who have the ability to imagine: new services, new opportunities, new ways to be more efficient and new ways to sell more are retaining business and opportunities. They are the new Untouchables.   The new Untouchables will soon move themselves and their organizations forward at a ten fold pace and if you are not an Untouchable already,  you will have one heck of a job trying to catch-up.

With his “Back to Basics” style, my father used to tell me that my ability to get up, leave the cave and kill something —  is my ability to survive. Never let someone else control your ability to survive. The world has changed and continues to change. The pace of our world has quickened.

As you read the above and let it soak in, ask your self this question: Are you an Untouchable or are you still doing things the same way your boss did them seven years ago?  Being critical and answering this self-assessing question is important. The answer will determine if you already are or if you are going to be an Untouchable. Catching-up with an Untouchable is lots harder than you think.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. ~George Bernard Shaw

Susan Lott, Fugent’s Training Expert, recently included that quote in our internal news letter. That is a great quote. We need to share more ideas. Everyone. Not just my team, my family, and your team but everyone. What is the best way to share ideas? Email, voice mail, conference call, Fugent meeting, billboard, airplane banner, megaphone, Facebook, Twitter or a blog? I have no clue. I guess it doesn’t really matter how you share an idea but that you just share ideas. We tend to keep our ideas inside, especially the good ones. We find ourselves saying things like, “if I tell Bob my idea he may go out and steal it.” Really? Bob has 65 things on his mind and 25 things that he needs to do yesterday.

We are really giving Bob too much credit. The ideas are not the hard part but executing on the ideas is. Sometimes it just helps to share and collaborate. Bob doesn’t want your idea but I am sure he wouldn’t mind talking to you about it. Bob may be just the person to help you try and figure your challenge/idea out. Bob could change your life. I guess I didn’t learn as much in kindergarten as I should have because I really need to share more ideas.

I recently read a book by Chris Anderson called FREE. The audio was free at Audible.com and the electronic version of the book was free at Amazon.com. Chris is smart and the book is thought provoking. I enjoyed both the electronic version and the audio version but I wanted more. I needed the hardback book. I needed the ability to reference, tag, tab and highlight the book. I paid $26.00 for a book I already had for free (in both the electronic and auditory formats). Chris created buzz about FREE and gave the book away for a month. Guess what? He got a premium from me. I paid more for his book then any other books on Amazon. No Super Saver option on that book but I didn’t care. I wanted it.

Sometimes free works but sometimes it doesn’t. Given a choice to pay $1.49 for a loaf of Aunt Millie’s bread or get a free moldy loaf, I chose $1.49 over the mental and stomach issues of free. Given the opportunity to have technology that I don’t use for free or something I pay for and generate millions from, I chose the paid version.

Sometimes Free technology is dangerous. It creates disincentives, is not as user friendly, does not do everything you want it to and sucks up time and energy. The next time your organization offers you free technology and zero support from the internal team or the vendor, you need to think about the lost productivity and revenue. You could be wasting millions by getting free. That is the most expensive Freebie I have ever heard of. Free still has a price.

Do you have a case of the Somedays? I hear the phrase Someday a lot. I hear it in my personal life, I hear it in my professional life and it always makes me laugh. I say it as well. I think we all do this to some extent. It caught me off guard today when my oldest son said “I’ll do that when I get bigger someday”. Really? The five year old has already started with the case of the Somedays. I hope that I am able to teach him that Someday is a curse. It is a bad way to approach our family, our business and our life.

It reminds me of the sign at the bar that reads “Free Beer Tomorrow”. The sign never changes and tomorrow never comes. Someday is a bad deal and like the Free Beer, it probably won’t come. Take a look at today and prioritize. Call the prospect. Research the competition. Learn the new technology that can help improve your business. Take a walk with the family. Call a loved one and let them know what they mean to you. Someday is a bad deal and today is the cure.

It is noon on a Tuesday afternoon and I just got around to driving back to Borders Book Store to find and buy my friend that book I wanted. I finally get to the store, park and walk in. Five people in the store, the store is well lit and the smell of coffee and new books are in the air. I think to myself, “this is an experience that Amazon will have a hard time replicating”. Now, where is the Business Section? Food, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Cooking, Bargain, Religion, History, Poetry, Travel, Wine, Children’s, Music and every other crazy category available. Hmmm, Business is not easy to find. After my fourth lap around the store, I realize that the great big sign marked “Children’s” is really only a word not meant to serve any direction to a single shopper. Business is in the Children’s section…great. Exactly my impression of Borders at this point – Children.

Now I begin to look for Seth Godin’s book, Tribes (a great, quick read). Ok. Seth is a marketing guy. Let’s find marketing, got it. There is exactly one book from Seth that was originally released in 2005. Good book but not Tribes. Interesting that the marketing guru has one book in the Marketing section? Ok. Small Business, let’s try that. Good, two more books from Seth but none of them are Tribes. How about Management, let’s try that. One more book from Seth that is not Tribes. At this point I begin to panic, I have now driven, parked, walked, done laps around the store, invested my valuable time and there is no sign of Tribes. Wait! One last hope – LEADERSHIP! Yes, I find Tribes in the LEADERSHIP section. To the register I go with my gift card and Tribes in hand. Ugh, no one is there. Ah, there is the tee shirt wearing cashier hiding behind the 600 calendar choices…it is half way through the year…who needs a calendar at this point anyways? He rings me up and $21.94 is the total. Crud, my gift card is for $20.00. I pay the extra and I am on my way. 58 minutes later I am back at my desk. That was an experience, one that I will not repeat anytime soon. Amazon time to order, 47 seconds and $8.37 cheaper.

Here is the point. Amazon is a Leader. They have a better experience (sans the coffee and book smell). They are open 24×7. They are cheaper. They are faster. How long do you have before your competition becomes the Leader? Are you becoming faster? Are you always open? How is the experience of doing business with you? You may be the leader today but what about tomorrow? Are you innovating and challenging the status quo? Borders is status quo and will be out of business in 10 years. We need leaders.

It is 830am on a Thursday morning and I just drove to a Borders Book Store to buy a book. I am a self-proclaimed Amazon junkie. I have not purchased a book in a book store for years. Everything gets sent to my doorstep with no shipping fees in two days or less by the post-office via my Amazon Prime membership. I order from Amazon at 5am, 10pm, it doesn’t matter. I received a Borders gift card as a Christmas present years ago and recently discovered this unused prize in an old envelope. I love found money. There is a book I wanted to buy for a friend so I decided to use my new found wealth today. Unfortunately, the store opens at 10am. Wow. 10am. Do they sell coffee? Or Newspapers? Or Books? Apparently only between 10am and 9pm and people that drink coffee, read the paper and buy books don’t do so until 10am.

It made me think. The world is changing. At 830 am, my expectation was that I could buy my book without even the thought of a time issue existing. It had been so long since trying to buy something from the book store that hours never occurred to me as being an issue. In the day of Amazon, 24×7 stores and very cool technology advancements, Borders is doomed to failure. How do you communicate with your customers? What are your office hours? Will you suffer the same fate that Borders eventually will?