Yamazumi Your Life!

Done Is Better Than Perfect

"Done is better than perfect". This pithy maxim has acquired new currency in the blogosphere recently, ever since it was spotted as a slogan adorning the walls of the Facebook offices. If it's good enough for the phenomenon that is re-shaping human social relations, the implication goes, then it's good enough for us. But how does this square with the concept of Six Sigma quality? And isn't the "good" really the enemy of the "best"?

In my mind, there is no contradiction. Six Sigma, the pursuit of the standard of excellence that allows only 3.4 defects per million opportunities, is specifically designed for stable, repeatable processes. The driver here is the quality expectations of the customer. The "done is better than perfect" philosophy is ideal for innovation, bootstrapping and one-off creative endeavours. An activity is first created in its "beta" form, and then refined up to the standards of Six Sigma quality.

The "done is better than perfect" slogan is so captivating because it highlights the inner tension felt by the classic Type A achiever personality. On the one hand, there is an intense desire to accomplish things; on the other hand, this is frequently restrained by a nagging, ingrained perfectionism that can limit output.

I am no psychologist, but an awareness of the finite nature of time should be a powerful spur to action. It's worth re-reading Andrew Marvell's classic metaphysical poem "To His Coy Mistress" to remind us that delay is, in the long run, fatal. The most famous and evocative lines are surely:

But at my back I always hear

Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

This is one of the most famous carpe diem poems in English literature, and while "done" should not encompass the shoddy, the poor quality or the harmful, it does imply that a good effort, made in good faith, counts for as much as perfection.

The irony is that quite often the urgency of time and an awareness of mortality adds the drive which allows true perfection to flourish. Another example from literature is Dostoyevsky. He was an intellectual idler, flitting through life enjoying flirtations with revolutionary groups and never achieving greatness. Robert Greene, among others, gives an outstanding account of what happened next in The 33 Strategies of War. Here is my take on the famous story: 

Dostoyevsky is arrested by the Tsar's troops for sedition. He is blindfolded and put in front of a firing squad. The last view he sees is of the sun shining bright on the golden cupola of a church, and then a cloud extinguishes the  sun. And so goes my life, he thought. The soldiers raise their rifles and the order is given to fire...

Suddenly a messenger cries "Stop!" There is a last minute reprieve and the penalty is mitigated to exile in the snowy wastes of Siberia. The Tsar had deliberately staged a mock execution to humble his victims. For Dostoyevsky, that moment changes everything. 

Suddenly he writes like a man possessed, knowing that the sands of time are slipping through his fingers. He creates masterpieces - Crime and Punishment, the Brothers Karamazov. He knows the fierce urgency of now.

He realizes that "Done is better than perfect", and in so doing, he achieves perfection.

 

(c) 2012 James Rozel

"The 80/20 Principle"

Yamazumi Books presents "The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch.

Revolution In The Head 

Most people have heard of the 80/20 Principle, or Pareto’s Law – the idea that 20% of the effort delivers 80% of the results. But what if we actually applied it? How could we transform our lives and turbocharge our productivity through using this simple, revolutionary concept?

Think about it. In your own home, 20% of your carpets will get 80% of the wear.  On the streets, 20% of criminals cause 80% of the crime. In the shops, more than 20% of novels account for 80% of the sales. The revelation that the universe is predictably unbalanced was discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1897, when he realised that 80% of the land in England was owned by 20% of the people. 

Curiously, this same pattern recurred across countries and throughout history, like a secret code across time and space. 

Koch believes that our lives can be supercharged through judicious daily application of this principle. Basically, resources that have powerful effects should be used as much as possible. In Koch’s words, “the few things that work fantastically well should be identified, cultivated, nurtured and multiplied”. 

Richard Koch is a highly successful businessman who made a fortune with Filofax in the Eighties and has gone on to build up chains of hotels, restaurants and online enterprises.  This track record lends huge credibility to this book which cannot be dismissed as “just another” self-help book. In one amusing anecdote, Koch explains how he achieved a first class degree from Oxford purely by focusing on the essentials and developing profound knowledge about just a few key areas. 

Koch goes on to apply 80/20 thinking to business, investments and even relationships. He is less convincing when he strays into the last two fields. Koch’s most counter-intuitive idea is that instead of diversifying investments, people should put all their financial eggs in the most lucrative basket – and watch it like a hawk. This may be fine for entrepreneurs and risk-takers, perhaps, but it hardly worked for the loyal shareholders of Lehman Brothers.

However these flaws should not detract from this captivating, incisive and revolutionary book. The Pareto rule is no crazy notion but a confirmed mathematical rule. I have used Pareto analysis myself in statistical analysis of business processes and it can be scarily accurate in many situations.

Koch believes in constructive laziness. He quotes the von Manstein matrix, devised by a legendary German general. There are four types of officers: 

1. Hard-working intelligent ones - These make excellent staff officers.

2. Hard-working and stupid – These people are a menace. Fire them at once!

3. Lazy and stupid – Leave them alone, they do no harm.

4. Lazy and intelligent – These people are suited for the highest office.

Koch’s motto could well be ”intelligent laziness”. He calls us just to do the things that add the highest value, and keep on doing them. This in short, requires a time revolution. There are echoes here of that old Tony Robbins message – if we keep on doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep on getting the results we’ve been getting. 

The 80/20 way cuts like a knife through the irrelevant garbage that clogs up so many of our daily lives. Clarity is power, and Koch tells us to ruthlessly prune “80%” activities and just focus on the “vital few”. The final chapters provide some vital insights and strategies for living the 80/20 way.

In summary, this a challenging and exciting book, because it reveals just how much potential lies untapped in all of us. Even better, it offers practical pointers to show how we can unleash that power.

(c) WestOcean 2009

Yamazumi Books - "Unleash the Warrior Within"

Yamazumi Books presents "Unleash the Warrior Within" by Richard C. Machowicz

The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday

Anyone can rustle up a sales pitch, spout a few motivational platitudes or talk of winning battles in the boardroom or on a golf course. And we pay them well for their mantras and their war stories. For them teambuilding is a daring afternoon building Lego models, or for the more testosterone inclined, a bout of paintballing at the local activity centre.

Mack is different. “The teams” he worked in were elite Navy SEAL units, and his “missions” were life-or-death encounters of amphibious, alpine and special operations warfare.  In the teams, ordinary people achieved greatness, displaying endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice even as so many of the counterparts wallowed in ordinary, suburban lives. 

Look past the cheesy title “Unleash the Warrior Within”, which sounds like the literary progeny  of Conan the Barbarian and Anthony Robbins. Consider instead the immensely lucid and powerful insights that Richard Machowicz draws from his military career. Then apply them. It is no exaggeration to say that this single book is devastatingly powerful in its insights and has genuine potential to revolutionize the shape of our thinking. It has provided me with more practical tools for personal achievement than any other book in the genre.

Mack’s genius is to focus on the psychology that elite special forces teams deploy. The “Warrior” he speaks of in the title is nothing to do with fighting others, but rather of self-mastery, of personal achievement.  The book opens explosively. Mack pitches us straight into Hell Week, the infamous and arduous endurance test that all new recruits to the SEALS must pass.  As he is kept awake for days, dragged through rocks and surf and ripped by stones, carrying canoes so heavy they can break necks, he survives by repeating a simple mantra – “The only two ways I can be defeated are if I give up or die”. This is distilled into his core philosophy – “Not Dead, Can’t Quit” TM.  

The book is as exciting and gripping as a novel. The action never fails - from his sniper training to his HALO (high altitude low opening) jumps, from his beach landings to his days as a Hollywood celebrity bodyguard. It’s no self-indulgent memoir though. The book is jam-packed not just with wise words but actual, practical techniques such as the CARVER matrix to assess priorities, and the phase diagrams to plan goals.  The section on responding to physical threats – hint, always look at the mugger’s hands to see if they have a weapon - is worth its weight in gold.

As one of the world’s elite military forces, the Navy SEALs have no time for soundbites, or ideas that sound good but don’t deliver.  Richard Machowicz, who is now a noted TV personality in America in his own right, delivers some fascinating and highly practical ideas in this book. He has further developed this into “Bukido”, a holistic martial arts and improvement philosophy. 

Of course, you could dismiss all this as a “Full Metal Jacket”-style banter and instead your ideas from perma-tanned “road warriors” whose idea of struggle is a traffic jam on the M1 and an awkward sales meeting.  Take that line if you will. But you’d be missing out on one of the most compelling, exceptional and inspirational personal development books in print today.