You have a task due.

1. If it's due in a year, you'll get it done by a year.
2. If it's due in a month, you'll get it done in a month.
3. If it's due this week, you'll get it done by this week.
4. If it's due tomorrow, you'll get it done by tomorrow.

Remember that semester-long term paper in school that you waited until the last week to do?

Give yourself X days to do a job, you'll get it done in X days.

So Why Put Off Tasks?

You think:

• "I know a year from now, I have to do X."
• "So, let's get started on X today!"

So what happens?

1. You spend the entire year trying to accomplish X.
2. You take away (read: waste) time to do X.
3. Other important things that would rock your company's bottom-line much more get overlooked.

Because you gave yourself a year to accomplish it, you wasted freakish time to do it (i.e., freakish time throughout the entire year).

How would Superbusinessbadasses accomplish X?

Peep:

1. A week before X is due, accomplish X.
2. Spend the rest of the time on something else.

That leaves you a ridiculous bunches of more time to do things that affect your company's bottom line tomorrow.

WIN.

Delay long-term tasks.

Finish.

Worry about the details later.

You + Building a Car

You can beautify the car all you want for Customer A, but it's NO FREAKING GOOD if it can't run.

1. Get it to run.
2. Worry about the details later.

Details drain time.

Yet, we usually spend ridiculous amounts of time (e.g., 80% of our allotted time) working on something that only provides 20% importance to the totality of the project.

Distracting ourselves is a reason why:

1. Projects = late.
2. Goals = squandered.
3. Dreams = never started.

Think of Fat Guy + Running

Fat guy screams he'll run this year:

• "I need to get the nicest shoes!"
• "I have to read the latest running magazines!"
• "I need the latest gear!"
• "I need the most awesome running trail!"

Yet, details eventually get him:

• Instead of just frickin' running, his immersion into details prevents him from achieving that goal.

Likewise:

1. We Business
2. People
3. Suck
4. Like
5. Fat Guy
6. Because
7. We're So
8. @#%#^
9. Obsessed with
   1. The Details

We want X to be oh-so-fricko-perfecto that we forget the most important part:

• Accomplishing the @#$%, even if we're the ugliest @#$% finisher in the world.

Finish.

The Oakland A's went out of their college-picking-realm and recruited a 16-year-old 6'7" Latin American pitching talent.

• "It's crazy what they're doing!" the critics say.
• "They're not following sabermetric principles! SABERMETRIC PRINCIPLES!"
• "Boo!"

But get this:

1. The A's had recruited college players because no one else did, helping them exploit market inaccuracies to get talent at bargain-basement prices.
2. Now, since frickin' Moneyball exposed what they did, every team and its mother starts to recruit college players -- increasing prices for college talent.
3. With the herd running to college talent, that creates a market inefficiency for overlooked Latin players, lowering their prices -- producing an inefficient market.
4. A's go bargain-hunting in Latin America.

Kaboom!

The Lesson

You'll command higher premiums by going where the masses overlook.

For instance, take programming + India:

1. Everybody's recruiting programmers from India.
2. That raises the prices for Indian programmers.
3. In the meantime, programmers from Latin America = ignored.
4. That'd mean you'll get more bang for your buck if you recruit from Latin America.

Or get this lesson from the 1960s:

1. Everybody's selling hamburgers.
2. "Let's sell some frickin' tacos! BOOYAH!"

3. Kabam: Taco Bell, son.

Capitalize where nobody else is going.

1. Save costs.
2. Generate more revenues.
3. Command higher premiums.

Buy more Cheetos.

But before you get too happy...

Eventually, the market will realize what a secretive punk you are, and they'll go gold-hunting in your area -- lowering your premiums.

For instance:

1. Folks discover your Latin American talent.
2. More demand + unchanging supply = higher prices for the talent.

"So, I'll go discover another inefficient market -- like Indochina -- to capitalize on the inefficiencies of the market!" you tell yourself.

And, you'd win like a superstar who dances the Kazatzka while drinking your juice in the hood.

Because you can.

You're badass.

Capitalize on market inefficiencies.

You're gonna build your industry's greatest business.

1. You anticipate the rewards and accolades.
2. You imagine your grand future with people basking in your presence.

But, you never get there. You fail.

• Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, and horribly fail.

"Am I a failure?" you thoughtfully ask yourself.

"If I look deep down inside my heart of hearts, am I a failure?"

Of Course You're a Failure!

You big frickin' failure.

You suck.

Hooray!

The moment you try to impress others:

• the moment you fail.

Rules:

1. You don't live in others' shoes.
2. You don't know what impresses people.
3. So, you can't possibly super-duper-rifically understand what will impress people.

You can only do this:

Impress yourself.

Understand that millions of others like you exist, and will too be impressed.

Winner: You + Millions of Others.

Ask:

• "Am I happy with myself?"
• "Am I happy with my work?"
• "Am I happy how I manage?"
• "Am I happy with our products?"
• "Am I happy with my business?"

Make masterpieces as defined by YOU, Inc.

Impress yourself.

• "What should I spend on that new computer?!"
• "What salary should I give pay the new secretary?!"
• "What should I invest in that new product?!"

Don't fret; here's one solution:

1. Define your expected return on the investment.
2. Divide that return with your current profitability margin.
3. You now have a budget for the investment! YAY!

Peep Example

If your company has a profitability margin of 25%, an investment should return at least a specific amount so that it won't drain that margin.

That is:

• Investment's Expected Return / 25% = Budget amount!

YAY!

For instance:

• A computer that costs $2000 should generate an additional $8000 in sales to maintain your profitability margin.
• A secretary that costs $50,000 should return an additional $200,000 in sales.
• A new product that costs $100,000 in R&D should generate at least an additional $400,000 in sales.

And if you suck...

Generating anything less than your current profit margin tells you this:

1. "We could've used that money to put it in something else!"
2. "We just left money on the table by throwing good money after bad!"
3. "We would've made so much more $$$! OH NOES!"

You expect your dollars to at least produce the same return as before; otherwise, you drain $$$ down the tubes by weakening your position.

Say NO! to the Outlandish

Financially unoptimized-sucky-suck business folks think:

1. "Hey! we have so much new money!"
2. "Let's spend! Spend! Spend!"
3. "Let's buy frickin' chairs for $1,000 each!"

Would that chair return $4,000+ compared to a cheaper one?

It might make you and your team feel a little more comfortable; and, if you're working with big purchases, it might just be worth it.

But for most folks, spending $1000 on a chair = bad!

Remember:

1. Invest your dollars according to expected returns.
2. Invest your dollars according to expected returns.
3. Invest your dollars according to expected returns.
4. Invest your dollars according to expected returns.
5. Invest your dollars according to expected returns.

If you haven't defined an expected return before you make a purchase, sense TROUBLE!! OH NOES!!

The Good Model

Before you spend chunks of cash on something, ask yourself:

1. What's the potential return I see on the investment? (>90% confidence)
2. Budget accordingly (i.e., Multiply the potential return by your profitability margin %).

You'll see yourself budgeting where your dollars can achieve the most bang for your buck.

Some More Examples

Here's one:

1. "I expect an additional $5,000 return on an upgraded computer."
2. "So, I should spend no more than $1250 on a new computer."

Or another sex-ay one:

1. "I expect an additional $100,000 return on a new assistant."
2. "So, I should spend no more than $25,000 on the assistant's new salary."

Or one more:

1. "I expect an additional $40,000 return on a new software system."
2. "So, I should spend no more than $10,000 on the software system."

Freakish win.

And:

"What if I don't return what I expected?!!!!!"

1. Slap yourself.
2. Tell yourself: "It's okay!"
3. Then, repeat: "I will not make the same mistake by investing that much in that piece of @#$% again! FREAK."

You'll gradually make smarter and smarter investment decisions until you're like super smart. Hooray for you.

For every item your company buys for the rest of eternity:

Budget based on expected return.

1. You want to close a freakish sales deal.
2. You escape at the first sign of stress.
3. You end up staying stagnant.

Every positive change in your life won't happen unless you experience some struggle.

1. Want to sell to a big client? Prepare for the nerves/unknown/fears/chaos.
2. Want to become the best in your industry? Prepare for the grueling practices.
3. Want to win over your crush? Prepare for the anxieties/jitters/angst.

The Rule: You will not change your life/business unless you struggle through something.

Think of Sports Movies

The typical sports movie:

1. Start with a sucky sports team.
2. End with a championship-winning team.

Between the first step and the last step, what happens?

• A dramatic change happens.
• People dramatically change their ways of living/talking/eating.
• Peeps experience the exhaustive hours of reprogramming the way they work.
• They stress their abilities -- as if they're stacking a ton more weights on their lifts.

But, how does Typical Businessperson Billy B attempt to change?

1. Try X for the first day.
2. See no dramatic results.
3. Quit. Then, blame "the system" for making him suck.

It's as if Billy B want to go from sucky to glory without going through that vital intermediary vicious struggle.

Boo!

Don't be Billy B.

Be freakish Rudy Ruttiger.

How to Revolutionize Yourself/Your-Fab-Company

Remember, dramatic change happens only through dramatic struggles.

The magnitude of how much improvement happens with your business correlates with how much struggle you experience with your business.

Every struggle makes you stronger -- growing your skills, confidence, and rockability.

How Change Happens

For instance:

1. You have only experience working with X-size clients.
2. You push yourself to the core to work with your first Y-size client -- changing the way you work, changing how you approach and serve clients, and changing how you manage your team to rock clients' goals.
3. You gradually become more confident/skilled/content working with Y-size clients.

Woo-frickin-hoo!

Prepare for freakish struggles before you can dance the funky chicken at your company's $10 MM revenue milestone par-tay.

The Template

"Before I can experience this milestone _ , I will have to struggle through this _ ."

Struggle before glory.

The more your experiment, the more you'll succeed in business.

1. Great products aren't formed by one magical idea.
2. Magnificent designs aren't conceived by one magical spark.
3. Thriving businesses don't thrive on one magical business plan.

Instead, to succeed in business, it takes:

1. Experimenting.
2. Experimenting.
3. Experimenting.

Every experiment gets you more:

1. knowledge of what the market wants
2. understanding of what influences human peeps
3. insight into what you can exploit to rock the world

How Something Becomes Great

The process to making anything great:

1. You start with something totally sucky.
2. You make it suck less.
3. Then less.

...until you're gradually releasing/selling/developing/building something totally coooooooooool! Hooray!

But, when do you know specifically how to make something suck less?

You'll know after:

• Experimenting.
• Experimenting.
• Experimenting.

Every experiment gradually gets you closer to your ultimate goal.

Why Can't You Plan These Things?

If it's possible to tell the future, fortune-tellers would be rich and we'd all be their little b@#ches.

But the fact is:

1. Amazon still fails.
2. Google still fails.
3. Steve Jobs still fails.
4. Sequoia Capital still fails.
5. Your momma still fails.

We can't tell the future. We can't really know what works.

But, we can have a clearer insight of what works.

How?

• Experimenting.
• Experimenting.
• Experimenting.

Every experiment gets you a better insight of what will work.

Result: You make freakish progress to your ultimate goal.

Yay! Hooray! High-five!

The Steppers

1. Choose your ultimate goal.
2. Experiment like a mofokoko to discover the best path to get there.
3. Win!

Experiment like a drug-induced ostrich who just discovered he can't fly.

1. You display a product.
2. You explain its features.
3. You sit back, and relax.

Will people remember your products?

They might -- but, you'd be super-rifically-ka-duper better off if you highlight the potential rewards of using your product instead.

Why?

Here's how your brain works:

1. "I see potential reward."
2. "I open my learning basket wider to dump more info inside."
3. "I remember more of the info later!"

Research from Stanford's Alison Adcock and research buddies showed peeps immediately tap their brain's reward and learning areas (mesolimbic and hippocampus regions) when they saw potential rewards.

It's like an ugly-looking child opening his mouth wide when he sees unwrapped candy because no one has ever fed him candy because he was so ugly-looking.

That is:

1. see potential goodness
2. prepare wide in-basket

The To-Do

To get prospects/customers/people to remember more about your products, start ridiculously highlighting the potential rewards of using your product.

1. You'll build better brand recognition.
2. You'll increase word-of-mouth.
3. You'll boost repeat visitors.

And ultimately, you'll increase familiarity (which breeds attraction) -- boosting sales.

Highlight the goodness.

1. Tamika does something that's freakishly unprofitable.
2. "Things will turn around!", she tells herself.
3. She continually sucks.

How We Humans Suck

• We peeps continually leave our options open.
• We keep piling on a million things to our to-do lists.
• Everything and its mother is important to us.

That leaves us sucking each and everyday.

Instead of focusing our minds on only the very-berry-super-duper important stuff, we stress our minds to cover a billion things.

Result: S.U.C.K.

Our Human Tricks

Psychologically, we hate surrendering something.

We won't:

• dump a TV show that used to be good but now sucks more than a Donnie and Marie sitcom.
• dump a website we visit daily, which we know serves no positive benefit to our lives
• dump some project that's draining cash like a mofo on a drug-induced ostrich that has a thing for pink elephants

Psychologists call it "loss aversion."

That is, we strongly prefer avoiding loss over acquiring gain.

So, we continue to:

1. fattening our to-do lists
2. watch bad sitcoms
3. visit websites with masturbating bears

BOO!

Your brain tricks you to do incredulous things that ultimately harm your progress.

Here's how to combat it.

Combat Yo-Self

Do this:

1. Today: Stop doing one thing.
2. Tomorrow: Stop one more thing.
3. The day after tomorrow: Stop another thing.
4. Etcetera that mofosoko.

You'll gradually sharpen your focus to do the most beneficial things that will help you rock this world like David Mother-@!#$#@% Hasselhoff.

HIGH-FIVE!

"Today, I will stop: __."

1. Mr. Shabambizzle builds Product A.
2. He releases his first innovation.
3. He then builds Product B using Product A's "heart".
4. Quickly and efficiently, he releases his second innovation -- with little cost.
5. He soon builds Product C using the aforementioned heart.
6. (1) Third product, (2) with little financial strain, and (3) high efficiency: CHECK.
7. etc.

Mr. Shabambizzle wins like a mother-fruckin hero.

To win like Mr. Shabambizzle:

1. Build "bitch" products -- products that can act as "hearts" to various other end-user products.
2. That helps you release newer innovations quickly, efficiently, at low cost.
3. You'll soon provide ridiculously-accelerated value to your customers with newer offerings.

Winner: You.

The Value of B*tch

Think of it like this:

• A motor is a car's bitch.

It can also be:

1. an airplane's bitch.
2. a motorcycle's bitch.
3. a lawnmower's bitch.

You don't just end up with a "car" -- OH NO! -- you can also end up with:

• a frickin' airplaine.
• a frickin' motorcycle.
• and, a frickin' lawnmower.

You exploit the "bitch" (i.e., the motor) to produce an array of new offerings for your customers.

(Harvard Business Review's C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel coins that hub your "core competenticies".)

That is:

1. You extract a framework from an existing product (e.g., the motor from a car).
2. You use that framework to build new products (e.g., airplane, motorcycle, lawnmower).

The motor starts becoming sexier, sexier, and oh-so-much sexier.

See The Gold

Ridiculously-innovative companies like P&G, Google, and 3M don't just build discrete user products.

Instead, they primarily focus on core/heart/bitch products that can pave a kabillion new product offerings for their end-users.

That massively saves them time, resources, and a lot of $$$.

The key to your innovative treasures:

1. Focus on core/heart/bitch products.
2. Increase how quickly you release new products.
3. Generate 98978987695785968707676 new offerings for your customers.

WIN!

Think Bitch.