Book Excerpts: Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up

Excerpts from the book: Is my series where I share some highlights and notes I made while reading some book that I think is good, thought provoking and worth sharing.

Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room
The political strategists who directed the Clinton campaign's War Room reveal the lessons and secrets from their hard-fought battles -- and how to use these highly effective strategies for success in business and everyday life. 

• The bottom line is that if you’re faster, smarter and more aggressive than the other guy (or gal), you’re going to win more often than not.
• So we don’t believe that brains or personality or good fortune are the most important attributes in a winner. Perseverance. Toughness. Tenacity. Those are the qualities that make the difference.
• You won’t believe how far you can go if you simply refuse to quit.
• One of the reasons that people who persevere often succeed in the end is that they put themselves in a position to win.
• The easiest way to be undefeated is to never compete. But folks who don’t try, who don’t fight, who don’t compete are losers already.
• But you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
• Knowing what to do is not that hard. What separates the successful from the mediocre is the ability to get other people to do what you need them to do.
• But the purpose of leadership is to get adults—smart, competent adults—to stay with you and to follow you. You’ve got to create a culture, a philosophy that makes people feel as if they’re part of something important—and that they themselves are important.
• the more forward momentum you have, the harder it is to knock you over. But if you’re just barely moving, or trying to stand still, even the slightest push will make you tumble.
• Planning is important. Strategy is vital. Thinking through the consequences of both victory and defeat is crucial. Training and preparation are essential. But at some point you gotta pull the damn trigger. And when you do pull the trigger, you can’t hesitate.
• Do something … now. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, do something else. But do something—quickly.
• The objective is the broad goal. Strategy is the plan of action for achieving the goal. And tactics are the various steps you take to get there.
• So much of the energy of a campaign—or of any other enterprise—goes into the small questions, the “how” questions. Not nearly enough goes into the big, existential questions like “What are we doing?” and “Why are we doing it?” Those questions seem simple. And they are. But simplicity and importance are not mutually exclusive. It’s been our experience that those simple questions are the hardest to answer and the easiest to avoid.
• If There’s Something Bad to Be Said About You, Say It Yourself
• You show up. You do your job. You strive for a level of perfection. Then you get up in the morning and do it all over again
• Hard work can make up for a lot—lack of innate genius, grating interpersonal skills, even ugly scars and tattoos. But without a strong work ethic, even the geniuses, the charmers and the folks with flawless skin wind up losers.
• Remember: Once you’ve won, the goal is not to gloat; it’s to win another one. Do everything you can to set your-self up for another victory. Do nothing that will make your next effort more difficult.
• Only pick battles that are: a) winnable; b) important; c) battles for which you’re fully prepared to pay the price to win; and d) battles that you’re damn sure you can afford to win.

Are you chasing mice or hunting an antelope?

Found this analogy very powerful:

Here's a brilliant illustration to explain the need to focus on the big things and let the little stuff slide: the analogy of the field mice and the antelope. A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important. Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice? In the short term it might give you a nice, rewarding feeling. But in the long run you’re going to die.

So ask yourself at the end of each day "Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope"

(taken from the book: Buck up, Suck Up ...... and Come back when you Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets From The War Room)

What RamP's Reading: Jul'19

Trillion Dollar Coach: Bill Campbell was a behind-the-scene, publicity shy but an uber coach who played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players. This book co-authored by Eric Schmidt, tries to capture the insights of Bill (Thanks to Ajay Gupta for recommending this book)

How to Fail..: In an informal chat, Prabhat Pal brought to my notice the concept of creating  a "System" as opposed to having Goals. Think of System as a set of habits when followed will take you to your goals (and beyond). Lately, I seem to have moved out from goals and have been following a pattern of daily routines, that seems like a system. In this book, Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) brilliantly explain the topic and many other things. 

Buck Up....:  Chanced upon a reference to this in one of Tim Ferris's blog.

How do you contribute?

Leaders as servant of their followers is a powerful and proven concept (The book Servant Leadershipemphasizes this concept very well). Many leaders at NI has embodied this principle very well (Kevin Schultz repeatedly tells “remember, I work for you”). While it is easy to grasp this concept intellectually, putting into practice might need some actions that are not straight forward. 

The picture below shows many different ways one can contribute (in general). It is important to know how to apply our strengths and how we can contribute to a person/team/situation.