It Takes A Learner To Learn – Consider Matt Damon

Quoted without comment (but with a lot of admiration!)

For all his star power, though, Damon is more than just the pretty face of Water.org. He has turned himself into a development expert. This would seem like an obvious and necessary first step for someone embracing the global water crisis as a personal mission. But, in fact, it’s highly unusual for a celebrity to dive this deep into a problem this daunting.

Please make the time to read this article from Fast Company:  Can Matt Damon Bring Clean Water To Africa? - The inside story of Matt Damon’s bold yet sane plan to use his celebrity and smarts to help attack one of the globe’s great crises by Ellen McGirt.

Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Words: How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes

Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords: How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes, 2nd Edition
Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd
Entrepreneur Press (2010)

How to pursue business opportunities available at “THE benchmark for advertisers and information providers”

Although this book’s subtitle specifies a worthy objective (i.e. “How to Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes”) and will no doubt help to sell copies, the fact remains that the journey to achieve that objective will require the necessary investment of resources (especially time, hopes, and effort) and the focus must be on the primary process – one that Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd cover thoroughly in the book -but also on supplementary processes suggested by chapter titles. For example, those of Chapters 1-10 in which Marshall and Todd explain how to

• Attract prospects and close on purchases
• Build “your own autopilot marketing machine”
• Build a Google campaign from scratch – the RIGHT way
• Spend less and get more clicks: lay a foundation of properly organized campaigns
• Develop high-quality keyword lusts to craft “killer headlines”
• Write copy for Google ads that attract eyeballs, get clicks, and earn you money
• Triple your CTR (i.e. clickthrough rate) and cut your bid prices by two thirds – no genius required
• Triple your traffic with placement targeting and Google image ads
• Create Google ads: banner ads are here to stay, and finally
• Develop and use local advertising on Google (“Mostly Virgin Territory: Retailers, Restaurants, and Service Businesses Can Beat the Yellow Pages”)

I strongly recommend checking out the titles of Chapters 11-29 to complete your briefing on what Marshall and Todd cover, step-by-step-by-step-by-step. Then, and this is VERY important, visit the website identified on Page xi (http://www.perrymarshall.com/bookbonus/), register, obtain a password, and then gain access to a membership area with updates to the book. Be sure to obtain Google Adwords $25 coupon code for new advertisers. The supplementary resources are too numerous to mention here. Suffice to say that, together, they offer substantial value-added benefits and thereby increase exponentially the total value of the book.

Marshall and Todd realize that many of those who purchase this book will need tutorial assistance. For that reason, they immediately establish and then sustain a direct and personal rapport with their reader and then continue it when providing additional counsel and resources at the aforementioned website. The only other advice I presume to offer are these three suggestions: (Highlight key passages (I prefer an optic yellow Sharpie ACCENT pen); (2) re-read one chapter or at least the highlighted passages in it before proceeding to the next chapter; and (3) be both persistent and patient.

Know the 6 Steps in Cost/Benefit Analysis

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

We all know we should make an investment when the benefits outweigh the costs, but few people understand what really goes into the analysis.

Here are the six steps:

1. Understand the cost of status quo. You need this to measure the relative merit of an investment against the “do nothing” option.

2. Identify costs. Consider up-front costs as well as any in future years.

3. Identify benefits. Ascertain what additional revenue will come in from the investment.

4. Determine the cost savings. What can you stop doing if you make this investment?

5. Create a timeline for expected costs and revenue. Map out when the costs and benefits will occur and how much they will be.

6. Evaluate non-quantifiable benefits and costs. Assess whether there are intangible benefits such as strengthening your firm’s position with distributors, or costs such as creating unnecessary complexity.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from HBR‘s “Guide to Finance Basics for Managers.”

To check out that guide and join the discussion, please click here.

Lifelong Learning – Thinking About Why College, and Lifelong, Ongoing Learning, Really Matter

From Wikipedia:
Lifelong learning is the continuous building of skills and knowledge throughout the life of an individual. It occurs through experiences encountered in the course of a lifetime. These experiences could be formal (training, counseling, tutoring, mentorship, apprenticeship, higher education, etc.) or informal (experiences, situations, etc.)[1] Lifelong learning, also known as LLL, is the “lifelong, voluntary, and self-motivated”[2] pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. As such, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability.

(Hey – somebody needs to add “It comes through disciplined, lifelong reading”)…

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On our blog (and on the other sites for which he writes), Bob Morris is always helping us learn to ask the right questions.  Why?  Because, learning is about finding, and then pursuing, such questions and their answers.

From a terrific, substantive article in the New Yorker, about the current and ongoing debate about “Is a college degree worth it?” (the answer is yes!), we can learn a lot about learning.  The article is Live and Learn:  Why we have college by Louis Menand.  In the article, he draws much from two provocative books, Academically Adrift:  Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, and In the Basement of the Ivory Tower:  Confessions of an Accidental Academic by Professor X  (I’ve posted about this anonymous, adjunct professor/author before).

Here, from the article, is a simple yet challenging moment from a college classroom:

Soon after I started teaching there, someone raised his hand and asked, about a text I had assigned, “Why did we have to buy this book?”

I got the question in that form only once, but I heard it a number of times in the unmonetized form of “Why did we have to read this book?” I could see that this was not only a perfectly legitimate question; it was a very interesting question. The students were asking me to justify the return on investment in a college education. I just had never been called upon to think about this before. It wasn’t part of my training. We took the value of the business we were in for granted.

I could have said, “You are reading these books because you’re in college, and these are the kinds of books that people in college read.” If you hold a certain theory of education, that answer is not as circular as it sounds. The theory goes like this: In any group of people, it’s easy to determine who is the fastest or the strongest or even the best-looking. But picking out the most intelligent person is difficult, because intelligence involves many attributes that can’t be captured in a one-time assessment, like an I.Q. test. There is no intellectual equivalent of the hundred-yard dash. An intelligent person is open-minded, an outside-the-box thinker, an effective communicator, is prudent, self-critical, consistent, and so on. These are not qualities readily subject to measurement…

College was a gate through which, once, only the favored could pass. Suddenly, the door was open: to vets; to children of Depression-era parents who could not afford college; to women, who had been excluded from many of the top schools; to nonwhites, who had been segregated or under-represented; to the children of people who came to the United States precisely so that their children could go to college. For these groups, college was central to the experience of making it—not only financially but socially and personally. They were finally getting a bite at the apple. College was supposed to be hard. Its difficulty was a token of its transformational powers.

This is why “Why did we have to buy this book?” was such a great question. The student who asked it was not complaining. He was trying to understand how the magic worked. I (a Theory 2 person) wonder whether students at that college are still asking it.

You’ll have  to read the article to understand the two theories (“I am a Theory 2 person,” Menand writes).  But the article will help you better understand just why a college education can be, should, and could be so valuable; and when it is done well, definitely provides such very great value to the individual student and to our entire society.

It will also challenge you to genuinely become, and remain, that lifelong learner we hear so much about.  It’s a great read!

What would your choice be?

Josh Linkner

Here is a recent post by Josh Linkner at his website. He is the author of one of two books to be discussed at FFBS’s  July session, Disciplined Dreaming.

To check out his website, please click here.

To read my interview of him, please click here.

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A recent employer asked job seekers the following riddle:

“You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your two-seat car?”

Take a minute to think before you continue reading….

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200+ applicants) demonstrated his creativity: “I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would then stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams.”

Boom!

Now more than ever, we must stand out in order to win.  Accordingly, creativity has become the critical ingredient.  It is the difference-maker on challenges big and small; the deciding factor in landing the job, winning the client, and even getting the girl.

We all struggle through a series of decisions and dilemmas, the solutions of which become the measure of our success.  Sure, you can follow the herd and go with conventional wisdom but that’s just a surefire path to mediocrity.

To seize the lion’s share in both business and life, you must unleash your imagination.  Inventing the never-been-done-before will capture the hearts of your customers and team members, while the me-too players shrug their shoulders with frustration and despair.

Forgo the bland vanilla stew of the masses in order to savor a feast of originality.  Break free from the pressures to fit in, knowing that your dreams will only be reached by standing boldly for your own passionate and unique ideas.

Stop conforming and start creating.  It’s time to stand up and stand out.

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Josh Linkner is the New York Times bestselling author of Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, named one of the top 30 business books of 2011. He is the CEO and Managing Partner of Detroit Venture Partners, a venture capital firm rebuilding urban areas through technology and entrepreneurship. Josh is also an Adjunct Professor of Applied Creativity at the University of Michigan. He is the Founder, Chairman and former CEO of ePrize, the largest interactive promotion agency in the world providing digital marketing services for 74 of the top 100 brands.

10 YouTube Videos Every Entrepreneur Should Watch

Actually, I think these are ten YouTube videos that anyone should watch who has an interest in the business world.

Here is an excerpt from an article that is featured by Inc.com that provides the introduction to the first of ten YouTube videos that you can check out.

Developing the CEO Within You

Professor Joseph Bower from the Harvard Business School, on right

This YouTube video seeks to help aspiring executives prepare themselves to be strong CEO candidates in the future. Professor Joseph Bower from the Harvard Business School believes anyone hoping to hold a corner office someday should be able to ask serious questions—and answer them objectively—about their own work and the work produced by the company. Becoming a CEO is all about constantly learning and improving oneself—and later, others—to establish a true role within a company, instead of merely being a placeholder. Bower also recommends that CEOs-in-training take an interdisciplinary approach to networking, thus promoting innovation within the company.

The other nine are:

2. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
3. Muhammad Yunus: The Social Business Model
4. Can a “Green” Business Also Be a Profitable One?
5. Seth Godin: Ideas That Spread, Win
6. The Best Business Advice on Donny Deutsch Show From the CEO
7. Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
8. Energizing Office Yoga
9. How to Craft Your 300-Second Elevator Pitch or Networking Introduction
10. Entrepreneurial Advice From Billionaires [Koch, Gates, Branson, and Buffett]

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To watch any/all of the ten YouTube videos, please click here.