Seeping Matter

Not long ago I had an assignment to prepare a slide deck for work.  It was really only work related in the sense that I was asked to do it at work, so I took some liberties with it.  One of my slides featured a large picture of the moon, with the phrase “TANSTAAFL, but TISTAAFD!” followed, in smaller letters, by the statement “Heinlein was wrong!”  The significance of this was lost on almost everyone.

After the meeting I had to explain the following:

• TANSTAAFL stands for “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch,” a phrase we all understand which was popularized by Robert Heinlein in his book “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”
• TISTAAFD is something I made up, namely, an acronym for “There Is Such Thing As A Free Dinner,” a reference to the multiple times that Microsoft bought us dinner when we were crunching to deliver MED-V v2
• Sci-fi is probably the best form of fiction there is, and Heinlein is probably the most notable sci-fi author of all time

Subsequent discussion led to a request for a list of what I consider the most important books to read.  I pointed out that, in truth, I mostly read non-fiction, but they were not to be denied!

So I put them off.  Until now, anyway.

In order to make this list, the book must be more than just good.  A good, entertaining story or presentation of interesting information isn’t enough.  If it were, there would be many, many more books on this list.

No, to make this list, the book must be truly influential.  It must have a permanent effect on the way that I see the world and/or the way that I approach life to make my list.

So I now present, in no particular order, a list of books that I consider most influential thusfar in my life.

• “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. Outside of scripture, possibly the most important book I’ve ever read, and also unfortunately blamed (inappropriately) for a lot of corporate-speak like “Proactivity” and “Synergy.”  ”Seven Habits” is often ridiculed, but almost never by people who have read it.
  • Key Takeaway: This book is full of valuable lessons, on proactivity, on leadership, on stewardship, on prioritization.  But one of my favorite nuggets from the book is, “Be efficient with things, but effective, never efficient, with people.”
  • Other great books by Covey:  ”The 8th Habit”
• “1984″ by George Orwell. The concept of an all-seeing “Big Brother” comes from 1984, including the name itself.  Orwell paints a bleak and somber picture of a dystopian future in this book written in 1949.  This is not a happy book.  It is disturbing, frightening, and powerful.  But I don’t know how you could tell the message any other way, and I consider the message absolutely essential.  Everyone should read this book.
  • Key Takeaway: Freedom to choose is of utmost importance to happiness, more than fulfillment, security, or prosperity.  Once you start to trade freedom to your government for those other things, you may not be able to stop it, including giving up the freedom to choose who you love.
  • Other great books by Orwell:  ”Animal Farm”
• “Buffettology” by Mary Buffett and David Clark. “Buffettology” is primarily a financial book, wherein Warren Buffett’s ex-daughter-in-law Mary Buffett describes the investing techniques that Warren Buffett has used for decades to become the world’s wealthiest investor.  As a financial book, it is not bad, although I doubt this book alone will make you rich.  But it will teach you to think like an investor, and that will change the way you think about a lot of things.
  • Key Takeaway: Regardless of whether you trade stocks, you are an investor.  You invest your time and your money — in your career, in your family, in your friendships, in your hobbies.  Thinking about things from an investing point of view has had a significant impact on how I view business decisions, family decisions, and personal decisions.
• “The Code Book” by Simon Singh. You might be surprised at just how entertaining and valuable a book on the history of cryptography can be.  And you might be surprised at how much it enriches your life.
  • Key Takeaway: There is an ongoing race between the creation of cryptographic forms and the creation of techniques to crack those cryptographic forms.  For centuries, the two sides have traded the lead back and forth countless times.  All of which makes modern legislative efforts around cryptography seem pretty stupid.  This further erodes my confidence in all the other things they are trying to “fix” also.
• “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric S. Raymond. You might think you have a pretty good grasp on the software industry and how all of that should work.  You might think all those open-source wackos are beyond comprehension by normal, capitalism-minded folks.  You might think all of that until you read “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.”  Until you read it, you won’t understand open source.  And afterward, you will start to wonder whether there really is a better way.
  • Key Takeaway: Open source software may not cost anything to obtain, but it is not free.  How do you pay for open source software?  Businesses that do not  understand this will never be successful in open source, no matter how much noise they make about it.
• “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” by John Gray. It isn’t too popular, especially among men, to read books on relationships.  So I do realize that most men would make fun of me for admitting that I’ve read this book.  Of course, most men don’t have as great a marriage as I have either, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
  • Key Takeaway: Men and women feel love differently from each other and are therefore differently motivated and differently rewarded.  To have fulfilling relationships, each must learn to show love in ways that will make the other feel loved, not necessarily in ways that would cause the person expressing the love to feel loved themselves.
  • Other great books by Gray:  ”Mars And Venus Together Forever”
  • Note:  Despite me having read this book, I do give my wife most of the credit for our fabulous marriage.
• “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. In this classic novel, Defoe tells the tale of the fictional hero Robinson Crusoe who lived some 28 years marooned on a tropical island at sea before finally being rescued.  It is still an epic story today full of countless life lessons.
  • Key Takeaway: What would be your outlook on life if you were in his situation?  How likely would you be to make of your life what Robinson Crusoe did in such difficult circumstances?
• “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas J. Stanley. While Stanley is probably better known for another title, my favorite of his is “The Millionaire Mind.”  Through extensive surveys and university research, Stanley gathered the information presented in this book to expose many surprising traits about the truly wealthy in America, and what they do — and do not — spend their money on.
  • Key Takeaway: Being wealthy can be defined as having some quantity of money (usually enough to never need to work again), but it can also be defined as a state of mind, an attitude towards money.  Regardless of where you currently are financially, you can start thinking of yourself as wealthy.  Then when faced with a financial decision, you can use this frame of reference:  ”I’m a wealthy person, and that is not the sort of thing a wealthy person spends money on.”  Over time, conducting your life as a wealthy person will eventually lead you to actual financial wealth.
  • Other great books by Stanley:  ”The Millionaire Next Door”
• “The Universe In A Nutshell” by Stephen Hawking. When it requires the effort to type that it must for Stephen Hawking, you can expect that he would pine over every word before writing it out.  The result is an elegantly written and easily understood explanation of modern theoretical physics that is truly enriching.  And whether he meant it or not, Hawking’s writing strengthened my belief in God and his plan for us.
  • Key Takeaway: You can think of our universe as walnut-shaped, where the size of the universe follows roughly the shape of the nut as time moves along the axis of the nut from top to bottom.  If true, how many of these might there be?  Might not God create one of these periodically as a timed test environment in which his billions of spirit children can prove to themselves whether they choose good or evil?  Does this explain how God can know the beginning from the end and yet still allow individual agency?
  • Other great books by Hawking:  I haven’t actually read it, but I’m sure “A Brief History of Time” is excellent and is definitely on my must-read list.
• “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. This story of a young boy, a child prodigy of military strategy and tactics, is more than just a story about aliens and war.  It will make you think about international relations, the philosophy of preemptive strike, the place of diplomacy, submitting to a higher will, the right to destroy something (or someone) for the greater good, and more.
  • Key Takeaway: Do your very best work, give your very best effort, always.  You never know just how important it might be that you give the very best of yourself.
  • Other great books by Card:  ”Speaker for the Dead” and many others.
• “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s actually not his best-received book, but probably my favorite.  While he eventually provides some counterpoints to the argument, the central premise of “Blink” is that our initial analysis of a situation is usually the best.
  • Key Takeaway: You know all those times you said, “I should’ve followed my gut?”  Yep, you were right.  Pay more attention to the gut next time.
  • Other great books by Gladwell:  ”The Tipping Point” and “Outliers”
• “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein. Not every Heinlein book is that great, and some of them are either too edgy or too over the top.  But not “Starship Troopers.”  This is a great book with a smattering of philosophical and societal concepts that will really make you think.  And the way he predicts, in 1959, the consequences that would come from juvenile delinquency and leniency are pretty freaky.
  • Key Takeaway: I can’t stick with just one here.  One of my favorites is the need for balance between authority and responsibility, a principle that is so blindingly obvious when you examine it, yet so appallingly absent in nearly every social structure today, especially government entities and corporate environments.  Another is his reasoning behind why, in the future world of “Starship Troopers,” military service is a prerequisite for citizenship and, thus, for voting rights:  Before you let people vote on public policy, they should learn how to put the needs of the whole ahead of their own personal desires.
  • Other great books by Heinlein:  Be warned, these are progressively more edgy, but still pretty amazing:  ”The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress,” “Farnham’s Freehold,” and “Stranger In A Strange Land”
• “Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. “Freakonomics” claims to explore “the hidden side of everything,” which is a lie (one that both authors admit to in the follow-up book).  But they do explore the hidden side of many things, which makes the book interesting.  In my world, however, interesting doesn’t mean great.  What makes it great is, well, the key takeaway below.
  • Key Takeaway: No matter how confusing the problem or how perplexing the situation, there is probably a fairly simple and logical explanation, if you just can obtain the right information.  This learning is key in a number of ways.  In politics, for example, whatever confusing story you’re being sold is probably not the whole story.  At work, your boss’s erratic behavior probably makes perfect sense if you just understand his motives.  So question everything, and seek for the hidden side of everything.
  • Other great books by Levitt and Dubner:  ”SuperFreakonomics”
• “Linchpin” by Seth Godin. I wrote before about Linchpin and how meaningful it was to me.  Godin does a masterful job of encouraging you to be more than you are today, and while he doesn’t tell you exactly what to do, he gives you a framework to work within to achieve it.
  • Key Takeaway: No matter what career you are in, you have a choice.  You can either become a Linchpin, wherein you make yourself indispensable and therefore worth increasingly more, or you can participate in the race to the bottom, wherein you become worth increasingly less.
  • Other great books by Godin:  ”The Dip”
• “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. Funny, interesting, insightful, and influential, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” is a must-read for everyone, especially people in technology.  Once you read this book, you will understand where fjords come from, why “42″ is the answer to any question, why Altavista named their language translator “Babelfish,” and why towels are so important.
  • Key Takeaway: Perspective.  Among all the other greatnesses of this book, the one thing I come away with every time I read it is a better ability to see things from a different perspective.
  • Other great books by Adams:  ”Life, the Universe, and Everything” and “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” are great too.  Actually, I’d recommend just buying the leather-bound “Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide” which contains all of the books in the series in a beautiful package.
• “The Cashflow Quadrant” by Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki isn’t exactly a fantastic writer, but the concepts in Cashflow Quadrant are excellent.  Even if, like me, you don’t actually get around to putting them into practice for a while, the Cashflow Quadrant provides a great frame of reference for understanding how money is made and how the business world works with respect to you personally, and it helps you know where you are trying to go.
  • Key Takeaway: If you want to make more money, you have to be willing to take more risk.  You might not be willing to take more risk — that’s perfectly fine.  Just don’t be too upset when, after shunning risk, you find money shunning you.
  • Other great books by Kiyosaki:  ”Rich Dad Poor Dad”
• “The Book of Mormon” (Scripture). On one hand, it seems weird to discuss scripture in a post that has otherwise discussed secular books; on the other hand, no set of books has influenced my thinking more than my scriptures, and no scriptural book has done this more than the Book of Mormon.  Compared to the Bible, the messages are comparable and complimentary, but the writing style is clearer and the lessons more obviously relevant to us today.  If you have not read it, give it a good old college try.  You might be surprised.
  • Key Takeaway: There are a number.  The most important is that Jesus Christ is the Savior and did truly atone for the sins of all mankind.  But there’s a couple of others that I like.  One is that a society cannot exist forever by choosing to condone only some sin.  All sinful behavior eventually leads away from peace toward war and destruction.  Another is that, aside from life itself and the atonement of His son, God’s greatest gift to us is our freedom to choose what we will do with the life we are given and the time we have to live.  Specifically, freedom to choose is more important than personal safety.  How are we honoring that gift, both individually and as a society?
  • Other great scripture:  Obviously, the Bible, the original testament of Jesus Christ, to which the Book of Mormon is a companion.

So I’m riding in the Seattle Airport Shuttle back from the Hyatt Olive 8 to SeaTac yesterday afternoon.  It’s just me and the shuttle driver who appears to be maybe in his early to mid 50s.  The conversation leads to careers, and he happens to mention, “Yeah, I used to do computer work for Boeing.”

“What kind of computer work did you do?” I asked.

He replied, “Oh, I worked for Boeing for 24 years writing COBOL software.  Then they laid me off, and I couldn’t find another job.  So now I drive an airport shuttle for minimum wage plus tips.”

I’ll be 16 years into my career this  year.

To say that was a bit of a wake up call is an understatement.  It said to me, “Matt, you are 2/3 of the way to irrelevancy.”  Time to get things into gear before it is too late.

Let’s just start out by saying that I’m really glad 2010 is in the past.

I started off 2010 with some enthusiasm and even determination, you might recall.  My intentions were good, but apparently karma didn’t like it.  Maybe I came across too arrogant, I don’t know.

All I know is that in 2010 it seemed like the blows just kept coming, one right after another.  You know in those Rocky movies (just pick one, they are pretty much all the same after Rocky 1) where, at some point during the fight, he just stands there and keeps getting hit over and over and over again?  Yeah, like that.  $12000 of car repairs in a single year alone can do that to you, even if you aren’t trying to do the Dave Ramsey dance.  If you ARE trying to do the dance, that makes it worse, because it compounds the feeling of failure.  Combine with that a major misunderstanding at work plus missing a coding deadline right around the same time my daughter came down with a serious life-threatening illness causing me to miss a week of work with her in the hospital right at the time year-end evaluations were due…

It was not a very good year.

So it was early last fall when a friend of mine suggested I read Seth Godin’s book “The Dip,” which I immediately followed with “Linchpin.”  Reading these two books in that sequence changed my entire outlook on my career.

The premise of “The Dip” is very simple.  Think of a time when it has seemed to you like things just aren’t working out, when they seem harder than they should be and not nearly as fun or fulfilling as you had hoped when you began.  Maybe it is in a job or a career.  Maybe you are trying to learn to play an instrument or you are training for a marathon.  ”The Dip” that Godin is speaking of is this time — the time past the beginning, when things were new and exciting, but before the time when it becomes fun again because you are really good.  In “The Dip” he explains how to tell whether the low point is really a dip or just the beginning of the end.

To me, however, the biggest lesson was this:  If you try hard enough, you can envision what the dip will be like for any new endeavor you think of starting, and you can decide early whether you think you are interested in going through the dip.

I think it is a natural law that anything worth doing or having has a dip associated with it, where the size of the dip is proportional in depth to the value of the thing worth doing or having.  Learning Spanish was like this for me.  At first, it was interesting and novel (“Hey, check me out!  I can say an entire sentence in Spanish!”).  But then there was the long arduous time period where it just was not happening.  I’d hear people speak in Spanish but I couldn’t translate what they were saying fast enough to understand them; I’d try to reply but I couldn’t translate my thoughts to Spanish fast enough to keep their interest.  But I pushed and pushed, and suddenly one day it happened:  I was suddenly thinking in Spanish.  I could understand and speak without any problem.  I was truly bilingual, and it was fun again.

Learning to write computer software was like that.  So was learning to play the piano, and a host of other things.

Since I know that anything worth doing has a dip, and since I also believe that the size of the dip is proportional to the pursuit, I should be able to objectively analyze a new endeavor at the beginning.  I should be able to imagine how it will be to achieve excellence in this endeavor, and I should be able to envision at least some of that which will constitute the dip.  Then I can analyze up front whether I think it is worth the effort.  Then, if I so choose, I can move forward with a bit more awareness and less surprise when the dip hits.

However, there’s another perfectly good alternative:  I might be honest with myself and realize that I’m not willing to see it through.  In this case, I’m better off to focus my energy in other areas where I AM willing to make the investment.

(There is a point to all of this, really.  I’m getting there.)

For a good 15 years of my career, almost since my career began, I’ve thought about starting my own software company.  I’ve had numerous ideas for products that might be monetizable over that timeframe and have conducted various levels of research for many of them.  Eventually, every one of these ideas got shelved or abandoned.  And suddenly, after having first read “The Dip” and then “Linchpin,” with the context of the Money Flow Principle, I knew what I had been doing wrong.

See, all this time one main reason I’ve wanted to have my own company was because I’ve wanted to work on what I wanted the way I want to do it.  So I’ve had all these ideas for possible software companies.  And every time I’ve had an idea, one of the first things I start to think about is, “How can I make a business out of this?  How can this idea make money?”

It is at this point where I start exploring financial models and business plans.  I spend time thinking about how to deliver the product and how much to charge, whether it is a rich client or a web application, whether it is a product or a service, whether it is a subscription model or a license model.  I think about the customer I want to target.  I run the numbers to see if it can make money.

And I either can’t figure out how to make any money, or I simply get bored and quit.

When I read “The Dip” and thought about my career, I had a major epiphany:  I’m not sure I am actually willing to see my business through the dip.  I think I understand a little about what needs to be done.  While I don’t claim that I’ve thought of everything, I think I’ve got a fairly representative picture.  And I’m not convinced that I am interested in seeing it through.

However, I AM still interested in working on what I want to do, the way I want to do it.  But now that I realize that I may not be interested in doing it as a business, I feel relieved.  Suddenly I’m not compelled to monetize whatever I choose to do, because I’m not sure that is really what I want.  I’m free instead to just pursue something interesting and try to give society a valuable gift, and trust that if I do, the money will eventually flow in my direction.

I don’t think I can clearly express how liberating this was to me.  At a time where I was feeling somewhat trapped and beaten down, I realized I could start creating fulfillment for myself, with no obligations other than just those I make to myself, to create something that is enjoyable and satisfying and interesting to me, the way I want to do it.

So I did.  I created an open source software project, called Zoomulus.  I’ve been working on it ever since, and it has been great.  There’s not much there yet, and I’m not even sure yet what it will actually be.  But it is mine, interesting to me, done my way, and it is making a big difference in my life.

For some time now I’ve been telling friends about this concept I have which I refer to as “The Money Flow Principle.”  Despite the risk of it sounding a lot like hero-worship, I’ll let you in on the secret.

It was in 2003, when I was at Novell and was vigorously championing an open source strategy, that Novell acquired Ximian.  Since I worked in Developer Services it wasn’t long before we engaged in conversations with Miguel de Icaza, one of the founders of Ximian and the driving force behind the Mono project, the premier open-source C#/.NET implementation.  Since that time Miguel and I have kept somewhat in touch, or at least we have some vague awareness of each other.  It isn’t like we hang out or anything, but we have a friendlike relationship.

Since that time when we first met, I’ve given a lot of thought to Miguel and the career he’s created for himself.  I noticed, for example, that when Novell acquired Ximian (or sometime thereafter), Miguel was given a vice-president role — specifically, a role that did not exist within Novell at all prior to the acquisition.  I marveled how, due to his affiliation with Mono, Miguel was virtually un-fireable.  Even if he were to get “fired,” he would continue to be affiliated with Mono, would continue to lead the project, and would without doubt soon find employment elsewhere, still leading the Mono project.  I’ve found it interesting to think that, if Miguel and I were to both attend Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference, he would be having lunch with Microsoft executive VPs (I know this because I know he has done so in the past), while I would be sitting anonymously at some table in the cafeteria.  Yet I’m the one who works for Microsoft, not Miguel.

This is all the more interesting since it appears that Miguel didn’t strategically set out to put himself into this position.  Rather, it seems that he simply set out to do interesting and valuable work and trusted to karma to see what would come of it.  It seemed that, over time, the effort he made to create value caused money and opportunity to naturally gravitate toward him.

This leads us to the “Money Flow Principle,” which is simply this:  Money eventually flows toward he who creates value.

The premise is sound and seems to hint of truth, and Miguel’s example of this principle in action is noteworthy.  Perhaps you, like me, have come up with any of a number of ways that you could contribute to society, but you’ve withheld your contributions because you couldn’t figure out how you would be fairly compensated for what you might choose to contribute.  Perhaps you, and I, need to internalize this concept a bit more.

This, by the way, is one of the messages of “Linchpin”, the book by Seth Godin which I wrote about previously.  What gifts do you have to give?  What talents do you have to share?  What contributions do you have to make?  What if you knew you would be well compensated for offering your gift to the world?

Maybe it’s time you stop worrying about whether you will get paid and start worrying about making contributions that are highly valuable, contributions that give you intrinsic fulfillment and help you feel pleased with your place in life.  If my so-called Money Flow Principle holds true, eventually the money will flow towards you.

(By the way, I previously contacted Miguel to let him know I was thinking of writing this blog post.  He was quite gracious and seemed pleased that I would consider it.  Miguel, if you should happen to read this, I simply wish to express thanks for your friendship and example, and I hope the post doesn’t embarrass you.)

I read a lot.  A LOT.  To give you an idea, I usually start out a new year by going through my book collection and picking out a bunch of books that I’d like to re-read, you know, to get myself headed in a good direction for the new year.  This is usually a stack of some five or six books.  In addition to this I’ll add another 10-15 books or so a year.  I bet in a given year I’m reading somewhere around 20 books, somewhere between one and two a month.  Usually, these are non-fiction books.  I mostly read for information, not entertainment.  I might only read a couple of novels a year.

Given that I read so much, you’d think that I’d be finding lots of books that I rate really highly, but that isn’t the case.  I’ve read a number that are “interesting” or “valuable,” but it is rare that I find one that is really super impactful or life changing.

“Linchpin” by Seth Godin is one of those rare books.

As I’ve expressed my recommendation of Linchpin to others, they’ve asked me what it is about, so I tell this little anecdote.  It might come from Linchpin, I really can’t remember.  If it does, Mr. Godin please accept my apologies.

Imagine Bob.  It’s 1975 and Bob is a young entrepreneur in a smallish town.  He just opened his own grocery store, named Bob’s Groceries.  It’s a decently sized store that serves the needs of the people in the town.  Bob sets prices that are fair and pays a fair wage to his employees, and is still able to make a good living for himself.  It’s not a bad life.

Skip ahead 10 years.  Now it is 1985 and a statewide grocery chain (for the sake of argument, let’s call it “Macey’s”) has just opened up a new store in town.  They are a larger company, spread over dozens of local economies, allowing them to tolerate economic fluctuations more easily.  Their larger size enables them to get good deals on many grocery items.  Because of these and other reasons, they can price their groceries slightly lower than Bob’s Groceries while still paying a competitive wage.

This is a problem for Bob because they can outcompete him on price.  How will he cope?  Bob decides that, in order to remain competitive, he will have to try to match the competition both in prices and in employee compensation.  The only way he can see to do this is to cut his own salary.

Skip ahead another 10 years.  The story repeats itself, this time with a much larger regional chain (again, for discussion’s sake let’s call this one “Safeway”).  The problem is exacerbated.  What is Bob to do?  He tries to match prices again, but cutting his own employees’ salaries is not a sustainable plan.  Bob cuts his own takehome pay again.

Skip ahead another 10 years.  The story repeats itself again, this time with an enormous new store built by a national chain (call it, oh, “SuperTarget”).  The prices they can charge are so low Bob almost cannot compete.

By this time, Bob must be wondering if it was just a huge mistake, clear back in 1975, to even open the store in the first place.  He’s now been in business over 30 years but he’s working more than ever in order to avoid paying extra help.  While his costs of paying employees has gone up, he’s been trying to compete with sales prices, and thus he almost can’t even afford to stay in business anymore.  Instead of retiring rich, he wonders if he’ll ever retire at all.

This is what Seth Godin refers to as “the race to the bottom” and almost all of us are doing it.  Our business environment and economy may be different than Bob’s, but we are doing the same things:  We are all trying to survive by being willing to accept more responsibility, work more hours, and endure more stress for relatively lower and lower compensation, just trying to outcompete others who are willing to do it for even less and/or who have completely different environments or economies.

In my life, for example, this plays itself out in several ways.  I compete against software engineers from India and China, very capable and qualified software engineers, who can live like kings for less than half of my annual salary.  I compete against other local software engineers who have made tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, on stock option grants, and therefore are willing to take the really rewarding and interesting software engineering jobs for less pay.  And I compete against other software engineers who are only one-half of a dual income household and are therefore less sensitive to their income level, not to mention much more risk tolerant.

So what is Bob to do?

This is the crux of Linchpin.  The book doesn’t give you the answer, but it helps you to start asking the right question.  What Bob needs to ask himself is, what value can I offer that “Macey’s” or “Safeway” or “SuperTarget” cannot?  What unique value can I bring to my town that people would be willing to pay for — even at a premium price?  If Bob can answer that question, he has the key to not only saving his business, but to open doors to the successes he dreamed of in the beginning.

Can’t be done?  Are you sure?  Whole Foods did it, didn’t they?

So what could Bob do?  Well, what if Bob always had someone there to help you take your groceries to your car?  What if the people in the store knew you by name?  What if, when you couldn’t find something, they would take you directly to that item instead of just telling you where it was?  What if only Bob carried certain items that people in the town needed but nobody else carried?  What if Bob would accept orders over the phone or shop for you in advance, and let you come pick it up?  What if Bob provided each customer with a recliner on a platform and people who would push them around the store shopping for them?

Would any of these ideas work?  I don’t know.  Maybe they wouldn’t but another idea would.

This, friends, is the essence of Linchpin.  I read it and started asking myself the question on the front cover:  Am I indispensable?  If not, how can I become indispensable?  What can I do so that my employer, or my community, or my industry, simply cannot stand the idea that I might not be contributing to their success?

I give this book my highest recommendation.

More on this later.