I just finished reading The Great Train Robbery ( Book| Video) this past weekend. It was a far better read than I was anticipating and in fact I came away with a few lessons for my current business goals. I thought I would share a few of them.

The book is a “based on fact” retelling of the famous Great Train Robbery of 1855 written by Michael Crichton in 1975. It centers around the mysterious Edward Pierce (or Simms as he is sometimes known) and his year long efforts to put together the perfect robbery on the then booming rail industry.

While I deplore criminal behavior there were a number of things that I gained as take aways from the book. While trying to build my career and businesses, the following things are good to remember …

1. Careful and patient planning is the “secret sauce” of success. Pierce literally spent a year putting the pieces of a meticulously thought out plan in place. There is no mention or guess at how long he thought about and created this plan before actually directing the events, but it must have been a considerable amount of time. In the end, he had even planned his own escape from prison should he be captured and arrested. Everything was in place.
   Lesson: Be careful and patient when planning business launches, campaigns or projects. Learn all you can, try to make contigencies where needed.
2. Even the best plans can “blow up”, stay focused and creative.In the last few months and weeks before the plan was to come off, just about everything that could go wrong … did. His co-conspirators begged him to give up the plan when everything started to go wrong. Pierce kept his wits and remained focused on problem solving. Some of his solutions made absolutely no sense to others involved in the scheme, but they worked … probably because Pierce had such intimate knowledge with the original plan and potential uncontrollable variables.
   Lesson: Don’t lose your head when things go wrong or not as planned … an inevitability. Stay calm, focused and center your thinking on solutions.
3. There is a need to walk on both sides of the line. Pierce was adept at being comfortable with the most respected of the “upper crust” and also with the lower elements of society. Both groups had resources, skills and knowledge that he needed to accomplish his ends.
   Lesson: Learn to be comfortable in all kinds of social situations, it will not only make life more enjoyable, but it will also afford more opportunities. Also, even the “whitest hat” must sometimes dabble in the “black arts” in internet marketing.
4. Be genuine and develop true and loyal friendships/partnerships. In the end, some of Pierce’s troubles in the lead up to the actual crime came as a result of his manipulations of other people. On the other hand, he had developed lasting bonds with others and in the end, those saved him.
   Lesson: Be genuine in seeking partnerships or contacts with others in and out of the industry. Not only will they be more satisfying and fruitful, you will eliminate a number of problems associated with false pretenses.
5. Be willing to pay for good information or resources. Pierce knew the value of quality services, resources and information and was willing to pay fairly for it. He gathered the best people around him as well as spending plenty of money “greasing the machines” of society necessary to meet his means.
   Lesson: Sometimes you need to spend money to make money, be willing and able to take the risk.
6. The impossible is never. The likelihood of such a robbery was considered impossible, both by the bankers, railroad executives and Pierce’s fellow criminals. He did it anyway.
   Lesson: Just do it.

As a side note, even though the movie was adapted and directed by Michael Crichton, the author of the book, it still doesn’t hold a candle to the book. So much was cut out and changed for the movie that some of the most incredible and enlightening stories are completely missing. As usual, don’t waste time on the movie, just read the book.

I’m sure there are more ideas that will occur to me as a few days pass, but I wanted to get these down as they strike as important. Now, don’t go robbing any trains!

Well, I finally launched a new website I have been wanting to get out there for over a year … HighImpactChanges.com. It’s a site designed around the idea of “30 Day Changes” in our lives. In other words, committing to a behavioral/habitual change for 30 days and seeing if it’s worth continuing with or not (an idea I first discovered over at Steve Pavlina’s site).

It’s fun to push something like this. I am personally excited about the project if it really took off from a growth standpoint. The basic idea of the site is a group of people working on a change together, supporting each other. At the end of the trial period, everybody rates the change as to how much benefit they derived from it. I think it would be great if a year down the road we had a solid database of changes and ratings that pointed the way to the most effective changes you should make in your life.

Now I just need to figure out a way to get other people to know about it, understand how to use it, etc. We are currently working on trying to simplify the site so that anybody would know fairly intuitively how to use it. We also need to find a way to get some people talking about it. Maybe an inspiring YouTube Video? I’ve tried emailing a couple of bloggers, they say they like the site and idea, but haven’t talked about it. My guess is that they want the site to “age” a bit more before talking about it? Or maybe they are just being nice? I don’t want nice, I want honesty, that way I could figure out ways to make it better.

This whole trying to change my life thing is turning into a very long road, a very difficult target. Some things have progressed quite well, one project in particular should launch at the end of the month. I am excited about this one and can’t wait to see what it can do.

One of the reasons I’m excited about this project is because it is different. Most of what I have done for the last five or six years has been VERY traditional (read: boring) and not really a move from business as usual. Not that it is earth shattering, it’s just a new type of project and idea for me. I am looking forward to the lessons learned on this one. I am tired of the same lessons over and over with my “9 to 5″.

Another thing that is exciting about this one for me is the work structure of it. I have made it my goal to spend no more than 10 hours a week on it (I’ve held to that, pretty much) and to do it “off hours”. It’s working well and giving me a bit of the juice I need to do my standard stuff during the day. One of my long term goals has become to make this my pattern going forward, no more ten hours per week on any given “business” or “project”. It probably sounds lazy to some, but it keeps my interest engaged. Working 40 to 60 hours a week on one thing/business definitely makes me a dull boy. Not exactly the advice you read in the standard business books, but I no longer have the goals outlined in those books.

Anyway, I started this post on a bit of a down note. I feel that way right now. One of the benefits mentioned above was that I have more juice to work on my “9 to 5″. That’s been good and I have been far more focused and way more productive. But at the same time, I find my mind working on other “new” projects I would love to get to, but simply lack the time. I wish I didn’t have my current obligations holding me back from going full bore into this new stuff I am enjoying so much.

Ouch, so almost three months later I come back to the blog. A bit sad. This summer has been one for the books. I came back from the vacation facing MAJOR technical problems with my business. My primary money making server was crashing at least once a day and everything else was seemingly crumbling before my eyes. On top of that, there were plenty of other things to deal with, including some family outings to see extended family and some business trips.

Long and short, 90% of the technical problems are now resolved (100% of the critical ones). I definitely broke all the rules of Life/Work balance and some of my own resolutions this summer. For about six weeks I worked about 14 hours a day, attended to family and church duties a couple of hours, ate and then finally slept about 5 hours a day. Oh well.

I am even more resolved than ever to change the way I do things. This is going to be a process of goal setting and accomplishment though, not a one and done decision that easily leads to better times. I have not “designed” my life such that I can just fall away from the responsibilities I have right now. But I know that I can slowly get there with some creativity and hard/smart work.

I have some projects that are progressing, far more slowly than I want, but given recent distractions, I’m just happing they are still going. I will try to do better on this blog to keep my mind focused on the important stuff.

I started my life as an entrepreneur/web worker back in 1995. Back then, I was probably on the cutting edge of online development skills. I created some small to mid-size online, database driven applications for myself and others. Back then it was all pretty cool, and I was “the guy” that everybody knew if you needed a website built. Not only was it fun, but I was learning a ton and growing my skill set … every day.

The last five to six years have been a different story. I’ve become so busy with my busyness - oh, I mean business - that I have not really spent the time to learn anything new. I’ve just applied whatever duct tape solution I could find quickly and easily so I could get back to the “day to day” of the business.

I HATE IT!

Not only do I feel like my “hard skills” are waning, but I miss the learning/growing rush that I used to get daily. Well, about a week ago I started on a brand new “side” project that I am really excited about. But I did not want to build it the way I’ve been building/maintaining current projects. Instead I decided to learn something completely new to me that I also believe will be beneficial to my current as well as future projects. I’ve taken on learning CakePHP to build this new app. I may not stick with it, but it is forcing me to learn new concepts (eg: MVC) and encouraging me to learn new technologies (eg: AJAX). And I can already tell I am going to love these models in application development.

I have written a few web services in .NET before, but they were small and I don’t love the Microsoft platform (too expensive to create, host and maintain). I have recently fallen in love with PHP and am excited about taking my skills there to the next level.

Plus it’s just fun to learn something new. I’ve missed this and it is so worth doing. I think I’ll plan on spending at least two weeks a year doing nothing but learning a new language/tool/framework/technology. This should have multiple benefits as described above and also keep me marketable if the whole “biz on the side” thing doesn’t work out.

This post was spawned by reading this article from Web Worker Daily about professional development for the web worker set. Great site, by the way, Web Worker Daily is!

I read my first Drucker book over a decade ago (it was The Effective Executive) and it was really my first taste of business management theory and writing.

I loved it and became hooked on business writings as a result of that book. Lately I’ve tried to temper my thirst for such writing because it has become inconsistent with my current goals and desired mindset. While I still enjoy reading it, I have found other, more fundamental writing (scripture, philosophy, and some history) more beneficial in this stage of my life.

That said, I still have great respect for Drucker and just about anything he says. With that in mind, I read an article pointed to by some now forgotten blog post (sorry to whomever brought it to my attention) that needs summarizing for my future use. If you care nothing for Drucker, ignore this post, it is for me … I think it holds great insight and advice.

The last paragraph grabbed and convinced me that I should pay attention to this article, if he (who had WAY more experience and brains than I have) sees these ideas as fundamental, I should at least pay attention. It is …

I am telling this long story for a simple reason. All the people I know who have managed to remain effective during a long life have learned pretty much the same things I learned. That applies to effective business executives and to scholars, to top-ranking military people and to first-rate physicians, to teachers and to artists. Whenever I work with a person, I try to find out to what the individual attributes his or her success. I am invariably told stories that are remarkably like mine.

With that in mind, here are the lessons as I read and understand them …

1. Strive for perfection. It will always elude me, but that only obligates me take one more try at it.
2. Strive for perfection even if only God notices. He uses “the gods”, I use God, but the idea is the same. There are some things we do that nobody else sees, they are often the fundamental activities or attitudes that only show themselves in the shadows of our daily work. They will, in the end though, either lead to true success and happiness or inevitable shame and disintegration of life and more importantly, the soul.
3. Continue to learn and stretch yourself intellectually. Drucker would spend three to four year periods studying something new. He did this to broaden his horizons, which in turn helped him develop new methodologies and understand different assumptions. I think this practice would both be a continuous source of interest as well as very grounding. What should I start with?
4. Spend extended time each year in self-evaluation. Drucker would spend two weeks each summer looking back on the successes and failures of the year … what did I do well? what did I not do well? what did I not do at all? Using these answers, project forward the next year with … what things should I concentrate on? what things should I seek to improve on? what things do I need to learn? what should I stop doing? This practice is really a natural outgrowth of 1-3, but if used well and honestly could change life within two years (I believe).
5. Ask myself: What do I need to do in this (new or old) thing to be truly effective? Drucker pins this specifically to NEW pursuits, jobs, tasks, etc. But honestly, he probably could because he had a high degree of faith in his ability in old or ongoing activities. I don’t have that confidence, I almost certainly could improve dramatically in many of the things I’ve done for years. This will hopefully change as I practice items 1-4, but for now, might as well reevaluate it all.
6. Anticipate results and track actual outcomes. I’ve read about this in a few different places, but never tried it, I think I will. The basic idea is that as you are making a big decision or starting a large strategic effort, write down what you plan to do and what you think will happen as a result. Then revisit these thoughts down the road a month or a year or whatever is appropriate. You should learn quite a bit during this process, of which a few things would be … what did I not anticipate, and why? what habits need to change? what did I do well in the process? what did I do poorly? what are my strengths? what are my weaknesses?
7. What do I want to be remembered for? Drucker points out that what we want to be remembered for will most likely change as we age and mature, but that in the end, we should strive to make a positive difference in the lives of other people. This mindset not only has the most lasting impact, but is also the most worthy and of the most worth.

So there are some points of action that I can start to use. I think I’ll start a log of decision making. I’ll plan on spending a day or two in self-evaluation. I’ll come up with a study item for the next few years (I’m actually really excited about this one). And I’ll start striving more faithfully for perfection in completing projects and “doing the right things right”!

So putting aside the possibility that I have a slight man crush on Tiger Woods, he is in my opinion in the top three examples of the “ultimate athlete”. Some might argue about a golfer being termed an athlete, but I don’t in his case. In fact, I think that his athleticism and “sport ethic” is THE THING that sets him apart from his competitors (I say “sport ethic” as a substitute for “work ethic”). I personally feel that golf is the single most difficult sport to dominate, because of the format of competition and also because of the heavy reliance on the “mental side” that golf requires on each and every shot. And yet, Tiger has dominated the sport in ways that almost seem like the results of typos, not actual game play. Anyway, I am fascinated with the way Tiger Woods does what he does, and yes, I think how he does it relates to my own goals.

One thing that strikes me about most of what you hear about Tiger is the absolute focus he brings to everything he does. Apparently, he became an accomplished black diamond skier in a ridiculously short time (if you haven’t ever skied, trust me, it’s impressive) and tackles pretty much anything he does with undeviating energy. A recent post from Businesspundit (a blog well worth visiting, Rob is razor sharp in dissecting true value from true fluff) shares an anectdote about seeing Tiger on the practice range. Needless to say, he was practicing in a way that most don’t, certainly not the way I do. He spent at least four hours hitting with just one club … a 7-iron. I think that speaks to his focus and ability to seek improvement where others would say “good enough”. I think the results he has achieved also speak to his ability to focus on the right things for his desired accomplishments. My guess is that there are a number of other professional golfers that spend just as much time as Tiger does on their game (if not more), but he dominates them why? Talent? Sure. But that only gets you so far and is often a barrier to true success (think Maurice Clarett and Ohio State) even in “talent driven” pursuits. I think the “something more” is his ability to see what activities hold the greatest potential benefit for HIM.

My goals are not the same as Tiger’s, which is why I won’t be spending 4 hours+ on a practice range with my entire bag, let alone one club, but I believe the lesson is in the commitment to “getting it right”. The key is the mindset of constant and consistent improvement, whether that is for the perfect 7-iron shot, or the ideally balanced day of family and work time. The ability to not “settle” and continue to pursue my unique (just as everybody’s own is to them) concept of perfection is critical to my happiness and ability to live on terms I am comfortable with and even excited about. The secret is not in the doing, but in the “doing right things right”.