The Obvious: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed. James Dale

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СКАЧАТЬ wisdom? Your investment client – single mother of two, manager of women’s boutique, facing private school tuition, a car payment, and full-time nanny – inherits $150,000 from her uncle. How do you recommend she invest it? Conventional wisdom says a diversified portfolio of growth stocks, mutual funds, and high-rated bonds. But if you’d have been listening, you’d know she needs income more than growth. Fewer stocks and mutual funds, more high-yield bonds, throwing off cash for expenses.

      The early boss. Your supervisor gets in early every morning, walks the office to see who’s there. Even if you’re a high-producing sales rep, he’s giving you a message: Get in early. His message may be silent, but it’s loud and clear … if you’re listening.

      When you go to work tomorrow, you can be sure you’ll be hit with a problem or two. Before you open your mouth, open your ears. The person with the problem is trying to give you the solution. Listen to the problem. Hear the answer.

       You can learn a lot from great listeners. And bad ones.

      Look at the marketplace and you can tell who’s been listening to the solutions within the problems and who hasn’t.

      Target heard Wal-Mart customers saying they liked the prices, not the style, or lack thereof. So Target signed up designers like Michael Graves (home appliances and kitchenware), Isaac Mizrahi (fashion and furniture), Mossimo (beach and casualwear), and Thomas O’Brien (vintage/modern combinations for home décor).

      Car rental companies heard travelers say, when the plane lands, they want to get in a car and go, not stand in line, fill out forms, show their license, swipe their credit card, accept or decline insurance, fill up or return empty, etc, etc. So they created Number One Clubs, Preferreds, and Emerald Aisles to preregister data, so members can get off the plane, get in a car and … go! They even pay extra to belong, which shows that listening pays.

      Cable companies still don’t hear. Customers can’t wait at home between 8 and 12 or 1 and 5 for an installer who may or may not show up.

      Online universities heard the problem and the solution. Lots of students can’t go to an ivy-covered institution paid for by mom and dad. Some have to work, raise families, or take care of a parent. They get online degrees without leaving home or the office.

      Banks used to only see customers during “bankers’ hours.” Then they found they could handle more customers with ATMs and online banking, 24/7, for less than keeping the branches staffed even a few hours a day. Cable companies, take note.

      Most newspapers still haven’t heard. They sit unread on front porches and in vending boxes, barely changing format or content, creating virtually no synergy between their paper and online versions, while the world turns to CNN, Bloomberg, C-Span, The Daily Show, satellite radio, MSN, dotcoms, and blogs.

      Consumers honked through heavy traffic until we got HOV lanes and EZ Passes, complained about unsanitary bathrooms until we got automatic flushes, demanded and got free wireless internet thanks to Starbucks and others. Now we want parking meters that don’t need exact change, humans instead of phone prompts, and cars that don’t dent … in case someone is listening.

      Listen. You will look brilliant when all you’re doing is giving people what they’re asking for.

       It’s okay to be ignorant. It’s not okay to stay that way

      Humans have a fear of appearing stupid. So we try to act like we know what we’re doing, especially at work, even when we don’t have a clue. The problem isn’t appearing stupid. It’s being stupid. Albert Einstein, who knew a thing or two, said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

      Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. It can be fixed. Stupidity, on the other hand, is not even knowing what you don’t know. Go get some knowledge, fill the void, and the problem is solved. Research. Read. Find a mentor. Imitate. Absorb. Test. Validate.

      If you’re ignorant, as the Wright Brothers were, you don’t understand why birds can fly and humans cannot. So, you study the elements of aerodynamics – wind resistance, acceleration, lift, drag, etc. – and fill the void with knowledge. The result? The development of the airplane, from props to jets, airlines from the first airline, TWA, to the latest no frills flyer, to airports, runways, towers, flight attendants, baggage handlers, ticket machines, metal detectors, reclining seats, air sickness bags, and miniature liquor bottles – one of the largest industries in the history of the world. But if you’re stupid, you flap your arms and crash to earth, with luck only breaking a leg.

      Ignorance is temporary. It can be cured with knowledge. Stupidity, on the other hand, is forever.

       Ask. It’s a great way to find out what you don’t know.

      Animals learn by experiences only, especially bad experiences. Big animals eat little animals. Lesson: Avoid big animals. It’s getting cold out and there’s no food. Lesson: Store nuts for winter.

      But we humans have an advantage over other animals. We don’t have to wait for bad experiences in order to learn. We don’t have to lose an account, a customer, an order, or our job, to learn. We have a shortcut.

      When we don’t understand, we can ask. But we rarely do. We refuse to ask the very questions that would have informed us and prevented or fixed the problem we face.

      All we had to do was ask. What time is the audit committee meeting? Do fair trade laws apply in California? How do you get from the Denver Airport to the client’s office? Is it plugged in? Will the boss be there? Can I wear jeans? What was the stock’s closing price? Can we amend our offer? Do we have a contingency plan? How does that work?

      Journalists live by who, what, where, when, and how. Ask.com is an entire website devoted to answering questions. Today, virtually every business offers us FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions. Why? Because they’re really FNAQs – Frequently Not Asked Questions (we’re too embarrassed to ask) that once answered, can save us a lot of trouble.

      Asking not only provides and clarifies information, prepares us for what may come, assures that we can execute as promised, avoids embarrassment, covers our tails … but it also gives rise to new ideas.

      What if Fred Smith had never wondered why it took the U.S. Post Office so long to get packages from one place to another? He might never have created Federal Express.

      What if no one had ever asked the furniture questions: How come it costs so much? Why do you have to order it and wait so long? Why can’t you take it home and put it together? Ikea might never have come into existence and introduced the Björkudden dining table or the Leksvik dresser, which we can’t pronounce but which we can take home, assemble in a few minutes with the small tool provided, and even afford to replace when we move or our tastes change.

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