1. Plan to make dinner. Skip.
2. Plan to make movie date. Skip.
3. Plan to contact Customer A. Skip.

Get this:

1. You give up at small things.
2. You'll give up at big things.

Read that mofoshizzle again:

1. You give up at small things.
2. You'll give up at big things.

When you habitually give up on the little things, you spill that habit over to bigger things you want accomplished; e.g.,:

• establishing your startup
• growing your business to X revenues
• getting your business acquired/going-IPO

"So what do I mother-$#@$% do?!"

Habitually, finish things.

...even the littlest-tiny-tiny ones of 'em all:

1. Finish a book
2. Finish a recipe
3. Finish a story
4. Finish a side project
5. Finish a daily goal

Consistently finishing gets your brain comfortable to the concept of chasing down your goals and beating them into submission.

• Translation: 'I have accomplished small goals, so it will be much easier for me to accomplish larger goals'

WINNER! HOORAY! HIGH-FIVE TO YOU!

Finish every freakish goal as freakishly-frickin-freaker possible.

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.

1. "Hire somebody!"
2. "No, I can't afford it!"

So, you continue doing the same ol' lame ol'.

You continue sucking like you've always sucked.

Get this: What if you hired somebody?

1. How would you change your work habits?
2. How much more productive would you be?
3. How focused would you become to bring in more business?

Think of new Teen Mom Julie:

1. Julie: "oH yOu kNo wHatZ! LoLZ!! OmGz! LoLZ!"
2. Tiffie: "omgZ!! omgz!! wHaT?! whAT?! LoLZ! oMGz!"
3. Julie: "I WaS pReGGerZ n jUsT hAd mY bAbY! oMGz~!"
4. Julie: "cAnT hAnG oUt toO mUcH =(. I gOtz 2 tAkE oF tHe bOy wHiLe bAlaNcInG sKooL n mY nEw JoB! OmGz! LoLz! LOLz! i sTiLL <3 u aLL!"

Instead of being the crazy irresponsible wild-child that she was before, she uses her frickin' bomb on her life to get her life straight and productive to care for her her kid.

She becomes more motivated to work her butt off to provide sufficiently for her new family.

Scare Your Business

Similarly, when you scare yourself, chances are, you'll frickin' work your boo-tay off to un-scare yourself.

For instance:

1. You bring on Billy.
2. You increase your productivity, amplify prospect contacts, and work freakishly smarter to ensure you can pay hard-working Billy at the end of the month.
3. You: "I got a new family member! I must feed him!"

That is, an external consequence drives you to change your behaviors to satisfy the consequence.

Winner!

Try this:

1. Horrible products? 110% satisfaction-guarantee.
2. Late on a project? Project presentation by 5 p.m.
3. Sucking at managing? Discussion of how you suck in 1 hour.

Scare yourself to rock yourself.

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.

A business needs two kinds of folks.

1. Those who bring in business.
2. Those who fulfill that business.

That is, you have a sales dude, and a task dude.

Without the ying and yang, your business: Kaput.

Now, you're thinking:

"Who in the mofosoko should I hire?!"

When you start your business, you either do it because:

• You're one talented rainmaker.
• Or, you create awesome stuff.

So, ask yourself:

• "Am I a salesperson?"
• "Or, am I an operations person?"

In other words:

• What do you prefer to do?
• What excites you?
• What motivates you to perform?

Likewise:

• What do you dread doing?
• What bores you?
• What scares you?

Choose the former; get help for the latter.

Your Todo List

Depending on who you are:

• If you're a rainmaker, get a doer.
• If you're a doer, get a salesperson.

Balance The Bizo

• A company run by two folks who are awesome at building Project XYZ will suck if it can't sufficiently generate enough sales to sustain business.

• Likewise, a company run by two people who can bring in business in droves will suck if it can't fulfill that business for their customers.

Rock both sides. Thrive.

Complement the other half.

Try this; compare how much time you're:

• Working on client projects.
• Working on your own business project.

"What in the mofo?"

• Client project: helping fix Freddy Lee's car.
• Business project: building your actual business.

You have two choices how you spend your time:

1. work on Freddy Lee's car
2. work on your own business

Do more of one, and the other suffers. Do both equally, and you get mediocrity.

"What should I do?! OH NOES!"

When you work on Freddy Lee's car:

• your business project becomes ignored
• your business becomes stale
• your business transitions into the long-lost-f.u.g.l.y.-step-child

Yet, switch it:

What happens to Freddy Lee's car when you work more on your business?

1. Yes, you ignore Freddy's car.
2. But, you can teach others to fix it.
3. You can create a little user's manual on how to service different errors.
4. You can hire potentially awesome folks to take over your master job.

BAM!

What just happened?

Magic just happened. @#$% magic in this form:

1. You rock your business project 100%.
2. Your employees rock the customer projects 100%.
3. Your business grows. You help more people

(Bonus: Your employees helps out on the business project through feedback frequently too.)

Win for all. The best of both worlds. Ta-da.

Let's mother-@#$%^ skip like we ugly children.

Ultimately, you give yourself this:

• time to build your ridiculous business only your uniquely whimsical freakish imagination knows how

Result: You build the business of your freakish dreams.

A business that:

• continuously provides value to tons
• employs passionate freaks
• generates constant innovations
• services customers like Santa @#%# Claus
• gradually becomes the pinnacle of your industry

You start creating that vision you had when you just started.

At the end of your day, ask yourself:

• How much % did I spend working on Freddy's car?
• How much % did I spend working on my own biz project?

BAM.

Focus on Your Business. Help More People.

1. Prospect once.
2. Win project.
3. Finish project.
4. "No more work! Boo!"

What happens?

No more business happens.

You banked on a referral, but the client could find nobody for you.

• You drain cash.
• You hang on for survival.

The solution:

1. Prospect every-freakish-day like tomorrow's not coming around for your shiny boo-tay.
2. Then, nurture those prospects you find.

How Streams of Clients Come

Generating customers is like this:

• You have a bag of popcorn.
• You steadily grow the sucker.
• And then Kabooooooooom! You start seeing a stream of customers explode into your laps.

That is:

1. seed
2. watch your business's potential grow with every new prospect formed
3. POP!
4. "Uh-oh. Here comes the @#$% herd of clients, y'all!"

How to Prospect

Everyday, try this:

• Initiate a new relationship.
• Seed somebody.
• Give value to somebody new.

If at the end of your work day you haven't initiated a new prospect for your business:

1. slap yo-self
2. tell yo-self: "I will message/phone/email somebody new before I can sleep."

Your company's future becomes freakishexier with every new seed planted.

How to Nurture

Once you've initiated the prospecting, start nurturing that relationship by:

• providing as much value to the prospect as you profitably can

Help the prospect live/eat/work better.

• The more value you provide, the stronger you'll build the relationship.
• (e.g., staying in contact every two weeks = good)

Hint: build your frickin' email newsletter list.

The result over time: The Herd.

Win. You.

Prospect daily. Nurture constantly.

Choose struggling client. Run struggling business.

Choose successful client. Run successful business.

Stamp that @#$% to momma's forehead.

How Bad Clients Destroy You

Struggling clients:

1. have freakishly f.u.g.l.y. budgets
2. incur vicious debt
3. are crazily tight on their finances

So, they:

• become super-demanding of your services
• micro-manage the freak out of you
• make you work exponentially harder
• drain your team's morale
• probably won't pay you on time (or at all)
• likely won't buy much more from you

Peep this gem: The clients a company chooses determines its fate.

• Bad clients: will gradually run your business to the ground.
• Successful clients: will help your company thrive.

Rock your fate by selectively choosing your clients.

The Value of Good Clients

The successful:

• are lower-maintenance
• have bigger budgets
• buy more from you
• refer you to more successful clients
• are freakish joys to service

Ultimately, they'll help your company thrive.

The more successful the client you attract, the more successful you'll become.

Collect more of them = See a more thriving business.

BOOMSHAKAH.

Seek the successful.

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.