"14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin About Getting What You Want In Life"

Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Here are 14 action-inducing lessons from him: 

• Less Talk, More Action 
  
  
  “Well done is better than well said.”
  Talk is cheap. Talking about a project won't get it completed. We all know people who constantly talk about the things they are going to do but rarely ever take that first step. Eventually people begin to question their credibility. Taking action and seeing the task through to completion is the only way to get the job done.

• Don’t Procrastinate 
  
  
  “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
  This is probably one of the first quotes I remember hearing as a teenager. With an impressive list of achievements to his credit, Benjamin Franklin was not a man hung up on procrastination. He was a man with clear measurable goals who worked hard to turn his vision into reality. What are you putting off till tomorrow that could make a difference in your life today?

• Be Prepared 
  
  
  “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
  You need a plan to accomplish your goals. Charging in without giving any thought to the end result and how to achieve it, is a sure way to fall flat on your face. Think like a boy scout. Have a realistic plan of attack and a systematic approach for getting where you need to be.

• Don’t Fight Change 
  
  
  “When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
  Whilst many of us don’t like change, others thrive on it. Either way change is inevitable. The stronger we fight against it, the more time and energy it consumes. Give up the fight. Focus on proactively making positive changes, instead of having change merely thrust upon you. Wherever possible, try to view change as a positive instead of a negative.

• Get Moving 
  
  
  “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
  There’s a reason we use the expression, movers and shakers. Movers are the ones who take action, the people who get things done, while the immovable are sitting around scratching their heads wondering how others could possibly be so successful. Which group do you want to belong to?

• Avoid Busywork 
  
  
  “Never confuse motion with action.”
  We are always running around doing things. We rush from one meeting or event to the next, sometimes without achieving a great deal. At the end of the day, how much of our busywork are we proud of? How much of that running around improves anyone’s life (including ours) for the better? Make your motion mean something.

• Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes 
  
  
  “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
  If we fear making mistakes, we become scared to try new things. Fear leaves us nestled in our comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone rarely leads to greatness. Taking risks and giving yourself permission to make mistakes, will ultimately lead you to whatever your version of success may be.

• Act Quickly on Opportunities 
  
  
  “To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
  Opportunities are everywhere. The trick is being quick enough and smart enough to seize them when they arise. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that something won’t work or can’t be done, allow yourself the freedom to ask what if?

• Continue to Grow 
  
  
  “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
  We all have vices of some description. The key is to keep them under control or preferably eradicate them entirely. Be kind to those around you, whether they are neighbors, family, co-workers or friends. Never accept that you have finished growing as a person.

• Keep Going 
  
  
  “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
  Have you ever looked at a successful entrepreneur or business person and thought how lucky they are? Most of the time, luck has nothing to do with it. Hard work and sacrifice on the other hand have everything to do with it. Successful people deal with failure. They tackle their demons head on. They pick themselves up and keep going.

• Know Yourself 
  
  
  “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
  Understanding ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we just don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s much easier to hold onto a romanticized version of ourselves or to simply view ourselves through other people’s eyes. Start by being brutally honest with yourself. Follow through with understanding, compassion and acceptance.

• Don’t Self-Sabotage 
  
  
  “Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
  We spend so much time worrying about other people hurting us, yet fail to comprehend the damage we inflict on ourselves. If you are using negative self-talk, lying to yourself or indulging in addictive behavior you are self-sabotaging. Life can dish up enough challenges without us adding to the mix. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself like you would a best friend.

• Don’t Give Up 
  
  
  “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
  Achieving our goals can be downright exhausting. There will be days when you want to give up. There will be times when your energy levels flatline and you wonder why you bother getting out of bed. Yet you push forward, day after day because you believe in yourself and you have the determination and strength to back up that belief.

• Wise Up 
  
  
  “Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
  Benjamin was definitely onto something with this one. Who hasn’t had the thought - I wish I could know then, what I know now? Unfortunately there is no time machine; there is no going back. The key is to wise up as early as you can to start forging a life of purpose, achievement and happiness.

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"Why Bossy Is Better for Rookie Managers"

Nobody likes to be bossed around. Numerous studies, including my own, have shown that a collaborative management style is usually best.

But there’s an important exception. New leaders who are perceived as having low status—because of their age, education, experience, or other factors—face different rules. They get better ratings and results from their teams when they take charge, set the course, and tell subordinates what to do. For those bosses, it pays to be bossy.

This conclusion is based on two experiments. In the first, 68 current and former business school students watched video clips of people portraying team leaders and rated their effectiveness on a scale from one to seven. An inexperienced leader who was just 32 years old and had graduated from a second-tier school got an average rating of 4.25 when he told team members what to do, compared with only 3.55 when he solicited their opinions.

In the second experiment, 216 people, most of them undergraduates, were placed on four-person teams working on a complex computer-based task and were instructed to solve problems with the fewest possible clicks of the mouse. Team leaders played either high- or low-status roles and used either directive or participative styles. Low-status leaders who took a directive approach received higher ratings from their teams in terms of both confidence and effectiveness (their scores on these measures averaged 4.76 and 4.52, respectively) than low-status leaders who took a participative approach (their scores averaged 4.01 and 4.19). And teams with low-status directive leaders performed better (108 clicks to solve a problem) than those with low-status participative leaders (126 clicks).

If these results seem counterintuitive, imagine this: You’re on an experienced team that gets an unfamiliar leader. You look for clues about his status—How old is he? How does he dress? Where did he train?—and form an assessment accordingly. If he seems to be a lightweight, you’ll probably resist his attempts to influence you. And if he asks for your input, chances are even greater that you’ll view him as lacking in competence. But if he’s directive and assertive, you’ll take that as confidence, and you’ll come to see him as more able than you first thought. His perceived capabilities will rise.

It should come as no surprise that the leaders who were viewed as the most confident and effective—and whose teams performed the best—were the high-status participative leaders. That finding is in line with everything we’ve heard for decades about collaborative management. As long as a leader is viewed as experienced and knowledgeable, team members prefer and perform better under a participative style. High-status leaders who give orders are viewed as less confident and less effective, and the performance of their teams suffers.

New managers should gauge team members’ perceptions. If you sense that you’re viewed as experienced and competent, it’s best to give subordinates a say. But if you sense that you’re seen as a low-status boss, you’re better off setting the agenda, establishing a clear direction, and putting people to work on what you think needs to be done. Only after your status has risen should you introduce a more collaborative style.

"Email Tips: 5 Ways to Get Action"

Does your email get action--or get ignored? Here's how to craft a message that's relevant, timely, and easy-to-digest.

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1. Make the subject line relevant to the recipient.Even if you're emailing somebody who generally reads your emails (like your assistant), the subject line "pre-frames" the email so that the decision-maker sorts it into the "something worth paying attention to" bucket or the "nice to know but not important" bucket. (Even worse: the "Why did this idiot send me this?" bucket.)Email is now the medium of choice for most business decisions. Unfortunately, most people have only the vaguest idea of how to write an email that actually persuades somebody to make a favorable decision. Here are the five key rules:

2. Frame the problem/solution with timeliness. Every decision is a solution to a problem, and some problems are automatically more important than others. To give your problem (and solution) priority, communicate it within the context of what's likely to be on the decision-maker's mind.

Has your firm just lost a big customer? Build your message around preventing further defections. A competitor just launched winning product? Build it around leapfrogging the competition.

3. Communicate in language the decision-maker values. Decision-makers inevitably see any idea from their own perspective and experience. Because of this, your problem/solution is more likely to be accepted if it's expressed in terms that address the practical business concerns of the individual decision-maker.

For example: If you're talking to a CIO, you emphasize the technical bells and whistles. If you're talking to a CFO, you emphasize cost control.

4. Reduce or eliminate downside risks. Even the boldest decision-makers want their bottoms covered, so anticipate possible problems and objections--and be ready with a response. Think through possible weaknesses or objections and answer the most important of those objections in the email itself. This creates momentum that allows you to move to the all-important close (which comes next).

5. Ask for the next step. If you've done all of the above, it's time to clinch the deal. Ask a final question or request that propels the decision forward.

Need an example? No problem.

First, here's the wrong way to do it:

To: Fred CEO

From: Joe HR

Subject: Fitness and Productivity [1]

Fred:

I recently read the national "Fitness & Productivity Report" based on a survey that our company, and many others, participated in, and it included lots of interesting information. Many companies cited work group physical fitness as extremely important, but very few said their employees actually demonstrate this! In fact, they identify physical fitness as an undervalued competitive asset, but they didn't have a plan for improvement in this area.[2] I agree with the report's point that physical fitness is strongly linked to corporate and individual economic and personal success, in short, our success as a nation. [3] I feel that if we do not address the issue of physical fitness as it enhances workplace productivity, we will be left behind. Therefore, I'm thinking that we should consider converting the secondary conference room (which as you know is seldom used) into a gym. [4] Your leadership on this issue would be much appreciated.[5]

The problems:

[1] Irrelevant. Unless the decision-maker is a fitness buff, he'll probably just hit the delete key.

[2] Meaningless. The decision-maker has no idea why he should care about any of this.

[3] Irrelevant. The decision-maker doesn't care about your opinions. And this is a business memo, not a political stump speech.

[4] Ineffective. Finally, here's the purpose of the email, buried where the decision-maker is unlikely to find it.

[5] Annoying. Just what every CEO needs: another action item. You want a decision, not to upwardly delegate the execution of your solution.

I might also note that the entire email above is presented as sold block of wordy sentences and biz-blab.

By contrast, here's the right way:

To: Fred CEO

From: Joe HR

Subject: How we can easily decrease absenteeism.[1]

Fred:

As you know, sick days are clobbering our productivity. During flu season, for example, we're often so short-handed that we can't answer customer calls! [2] We could hire to backfill, but there's a most cost-effective solution: convert the secondary conference room to an in-house gym. [3]

We recently participated in a national survey entitled "Fitness & Business Productivity Report." The final report, which I have on my desk, points out that:

— Employee physical fitness is an undervalued competitive asset.

— Corporate physical fitness programs can decrease absenteeism by 30%.

According to the report, an in-house gym will encourage employees and help them spend more time at the office. (Google, for example, has in-house gyms.) [4]

I've attached an estimate from a building contractor that we've used in the past. [5] Since employees can use the nearby restrooms to change, the cost is considerably less than hiring a new employee. [6]

Shall I go ahead and submit the contractor's invoice? [7] If not, when can we discuss the idea further? [8]

What this gets right:

[1] Subject is relevant to the decision-maker and appropriate to the sender's job role.

[2] States the problem immediately and leads the decision-maker to "feel the pain" that the idea will cure.

[3] Communicates quickly what's being proposed.

[4] Shows that sender has done his homework and provides a proof point for the idea's validity.

[5] Sender has done the groundwork and minimized risk by going with a known contractor.

[6] Anticipates and answers two likely objections (the lack of changing facilities and the overall cost.)

[7] Moves to close the deal. Note that all that the decision-maker need do at this point is say "OK."

[8] Lays the groundwork for more selling, just in case the decision-maker isn't yet convinced.

"The Most Challenging Leadership Job"

If I had to single out the leadership job that's hardest to do, I'd say head of sales. And not just because sales brings in the revenue and tends to feel the friction from the external environment first, though both are certainly true. But because in addition, sales organizations are unique in ways that create singular challenges.

First of all, in most cases, its members are spread out physically all over the place, since sellers tend to stay close to customers, not to headquarters. Not being all together makes substantive interactions among members and between staff and leader difficult.

Second, there's no standard educational path, or shared body of knowledge, for sales professionals. Accounting leaders can look to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Manufacturing leaders can look to Six Sigma and other well-defined processes. Human Resource practice is bound by regulations and case law stipulating what is acceptable and what is not. But sales professionals have, well, the experience of other sales professionals and a lot of books to choose from in the marketplace. Few of them have university degrees in sales, since so few institutions of higher learning even offer one. They come to the job with backgrounds in everything from philosophy to physics, each with its own outlook and ways of thinking. That makes training part art, part science, and all on the job.

Finally sales professionals tend to be prima donnas. I'm not saying that's bad, particularly (I've spent a large part of my career leading sales organizations), but if you've worked with sales professionals, you'll recognize the pattern of their typical strengths. They have a tendency to challenge authority. They're very driven toward results, and they have strong preferences for how those results are achieved. And of course more often than not, they have extravert personalities.

I've had the luxury during the last decade to work with many great sales leaders, and the best of them tend to share a common set of traits and practices. In no particular order, this is what marks them out:

• They lead with metrics. Everyone knows that the ultimate measures of success in sales are revenue and profit. But while critical, they are lagging indicators. The best sales leaders focus on leading indicators, as well — metrics like "key milestones in a long sales process" and "increases in the value of a pipeline," which are predictive of success or failure while there's still time to adjust. When your interactions with your staff are limited, few things are more powerful than having the right balance of both of these kinds of metrics.
• They coach and develop talent. Coaching has been in vogue for a number of years, but it's particularly critical for people learning most of their job on the job. That means that sales leaders need to put a premium on developing the capabilities of their staff. Gallup research indicates that having the right manager can improve a seller's performance by 20%. Too many sales leaders are promoted because they were great at selling but then fail to devote enough attention to teaching their staffs to do what they (used to) do. But the best sales leaders make coaching a priority. After all, even prima donnas want to improve their craft, be more successful, and earn more.
• They provide strategic guidance. I have rarely seen a competitive strategy that did not look terrific in a PowerPoint presentation in a boardroom or conference center. But I've also rarely seen such strategies translated into specific actions for the members of a sales team. It is up to the sales leader to make it clear how their teams are expected to implement those plans so that the strategy is carried out effectively.
• They keep the focus on value creation. I'm not talking about the value of the company's offerings; I'm talking about the value created by sellers in the selling process. Sales leaders must continually draw the focus of their teams away from simply discussing features and functions and toward the value they can create by helping clients define their needs, establish success measures, and meet their objectives with the company's products and services. When a sales staff guides customers to see needs they hadn't considered, helps them understand the impact of those needs, and introduces them to solutions or configurations they were unaware of, the chances for differentiation are far greater. And so is the likelihood that your company will earn the clients' business.

I don't want to imply, of course, that just because leading sales is hard other leadership jobs are easy. I doubt there's an easy leadership job anywhere. But if there are few schools that teach sales, there are even fewer (are there any?) that teach sales leadership — it's entirely learned as you go along, while the top line of the company is resting on your organization. But, no pressure....

"Stop Documenting, Start Experiencing"

The unthinkable happened at a friend's wedding last month. As the groom was asked to confirm his desire to accept the bride as his lawfully wedded wife, he held up his hand, as if to say "wait a minute." The audible gasps among the attendees turned to relieved chuckles as he pulled out his iPhone in the middle of the vows. He was tweeting, "I Do," to his hundred or so followers.

At a coffee catch-up yesterday, the person I met with was too busy typing meeting minutes in Google Docs to actually have a face-to-face conversation with me. Even after I received his play-by-play account of our meeting via email, I left feeling as if we wasted time and never went deep enough to discuss specific, critical issues.

On New Year's Eve last year, as thousands of people counted down from ten to one, I looked across the Sydney Harbor foreshore. I was shocked that most revelers were taking photos of the fireworks instead of actually watching them.

Are we entering an age where capturing the highlights of our lives has taken precedence over actually enjoying those very same moments? A quick survey of the social web suggests so. On Facebook today, roughly 200 million photos will be uploaded. We'll also turn to a myriad of other social networks, such as Instagram (15 photos per second) and Path (1.5 million items of content per day) to build deep reservoirs of the experiences we've painstakingly captured. And with the surge in U.S. smartphone penetration, these platforms will only become more firmly embedded in our daily routines. Said one Instagram addict about cataloging the highlights of her day, "I don't have a problem or anything...I feel I need to grab it before it's gone." Thus, the new behavior on social networks is to develop, as one venture capitalist quipped, "a precious journal of moments to look at in the future."

The problem is, we must choose between capturing these moments or viscerally experiencing them as they unfold. That we can't do both simultaneously seems obvious — we aren't reallyenjoying the live concert if we're busy taking photos of the band. Recent research hammers this home, showing that our performance drops when we try to perform both encoding tasks (experiencing what's around you) and response selection tasks (capturing stimuli) at the same time. So next time you have a big meeting, ask yourself whether you're better off 1) as an active, fully engaged participant; or 2) frantically scribbling down comprehensive notes for later use, while ignoring critical room dynamics that can turn meetings on a dime — non-verbal cues, power postures, and nuanced changes in tones of voice.

Here's why we're so obsessed with saving moments instead of savoring them:

1. We're wired to hoard. Psychologists have long understood the power of psychological hoarding. Humans are competitive. We like to count our victories, and most of all, we love saying that we've "been there, done that." Social media platforms create hooks such as follower counts and virtual photo albums that make our experiences seem more tangible, giving us a false feeling of accumulation. It's as if our most important experiences are now collectible.

2. We crave acceptance from our peers. Not only do we need to create a bank of experiences, we need people to notice and acknowledge our balances. After our basic human needs (such as food and shelter) are met, famed psychologist Abraham Maslow says that our esteem needs — social recognition, personal worth, and accomplishment — become critical to our perceptions of happiness. What better way to feel wanted than to log on and see scores of new likes, uplifting comments, and notifications? Over 700 million comments and likes per day are made on Facebook alone, creating a virtual hive of feedback.

3. It's now easier than ever. Recent platform updates, such as Instagram's simplified uploading process and Facebook's new timeline profiles, are nudging us to capture even more of our daily lives. With the explosion in smartphone and tablet sales, we'll be doing this from more devices than ever before.

In today's world, it's easy to think of your daily personal and professional experiences as notches in a belt, with the aim of creating a sense of appreciation at some future point. But why not let that time be now? At your next client meeting, push that iPad aside and impress through live, personal interaction. And outside the office, don't confuse capturing your life with enjoying it. Next time you find yourself in the middle of a moment, live it, and leave your phone in your pocket.

"10 must-have health & fitness apps"

Between trying to track your calorie intake and staying on top of your fitness goals, healthy living can sometimes be tricky. Luckily, there are many mobile phone apps to make the process easier. For the best tools to keep you motivated and on track, check out these 10 must-have health and fitness apps.

Training calendar

To help keep track of your training and schedule fitness activities into a busy week, a training calendar is essential.  Not only will your calendar help you remember to make time for exercise and keep on top of fitness appointments, but it will give an overview of how much (or how little) you are training so that you can track your progress and up your game if necessary.

Alcohol unit calculator

Alcohol is part of many people’s lives but, as we all know, it needs to be enjoyed in moderation. Handy apps which explain your alcohol limits according to your BMI and lifestyle as well as calculating your consumption of alcohol units can be your best friend if you’re dieting, keeping track of your health or want to know your bounds. Often, people don’t realise the extent of their alcohol consumption so apps like this should be an essential.

Pedometer

Research suggests that walking 10,000 steps a day can significantly improve your wellbeing by burning calories, improving energy levels and maintaining a healthy heart. However, many of us fall short of this mark. A pedometer can help track how many steps you are taking, your speed and the approximate number of calories burned. It can also help motivate you to walk more as you see the steps clocking up.

Goal-tracking tools

Setting goals is great for your mental health and happiness and, depending on your objectives, can be great for your fitness levels too. To help you manage and achieve your goals, make sure you download a goal-tracking app where you can list and be reminded of your goals, share them with others for some moral support, analyse your progress and ultimately cross things off your list. These apps are great for increasing motivation and boosting your sense of achievement.

Sleep app

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for good health, with research suggesting that sleep can help you live longer, boost your memory and reduce stress. However, many people struggle to switch off after a stressful day and find that their sleep patterns suffer. Luckily, there are a variety of apps available to help you prepare for a restful night, including meditation apps, apps to help you customise a sleeping soundtrack and tools for analysing your sleep habits.

Calorie calculator

It can be tricky to keep track of your calorie consumption when you’re aiming to lose weight, but with a handy calorie counting app you’ll be in the know about how much you’ve consumed, where you can cut back and which foods are taking you over your limit. By totting up the calories contained in the foods you eat you can adopt improved eating habits and maintain a healthy weight. A useful app like this may be simple but is a must-have.

Exercise instructor

With so many different ways to exercise it can sometimes get a bit overwhelming and confusing. Questions like ‘how can I properly stretch my hamstrings?’ and ‘what is the most effective way to tone my stomach?’ can be answered with your own virtual personal trainer app. Images or videos explaining how to carry out certain exercises or stretches will enable you to get the most out of your gym or home workout safely and with confidence.

Heart rate monitor

Achieving an optimum heart rate when you are exercising is a great way to maximise the benefits of your workout, so being able to easily measure it using your phone is a big help. This clever kind of app allows you to place your finger over the phone’s camera, which will then measure your pulse. Simply subtract your age from 220 to find your maximum heart rate, and then aim for 60-80% of this heart rate when you are working out to reach the optimum level.

Run tracker

Run tracker apps use the GPS in your phone to keep a record of a whole host of running stats, including distance, route, average speed and elevation. You can then upload this data to a computer, so you can keep a record of your running progress over time and store the maps of your favourite routes.

Food scanner

Next time you’re out shopping and want to find out the nutritional information of a product, rather than struggling to read the small print on the back of the packet simply use a food scanner app. With this handy piece of tech you can scan a barcode and instantly find out the amount of calories, fat, protein, and much more in a product. Some of these apps will even take the information and suggest healthier alternatives to what you have just scanned. 

"Stress Is Not Your Enemy"

How often do you intentionally push yourself to discomfort?

I know that sounds a little nutty, but here's why I ask: Subjecting yourself to stress is the only way to systematically get stronger — physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And you'll get weaker if you don't.

We live by the myth that stress is the enemy in our lives. The real enemy is our failure to balance stress with intermittent rest. Push the body too hard for too long — chronic stress — and the result will indeed be burnout and breakdown. But subject the body to insufficient stress, and it will weaken and atrophy.

Few of us push ourselves nearly hard enough to realize our potential, nor do we rest, sleep, and renew nearly as deeply or for as long as we should.

This is easiest to see at the physical level. In the absence of regular cardiovascular exercise — a form of stress — the heart's ability to efficiently pump blood drops an average of 1 percent a year between the ages of 30 and 70, and faster after that. Likewise, in the absence of strength training — literally pushing weight against resistance — we lose an average of 1 percent of lean muscle mass every year after age 30.

But those effects can be dramatically reversed, even very late in life. In one of a series of studies, a group of nursing home residents with an average age of 87 were put on a strength training program 3 times a week for 45 minutes a session. They were given plenty of time to rest between sets and to recover between sessions. On average, they more than doubled their strength in just ten weeks.

The principle is simple, but not entirely intuitive. The harder you push yourself, the more you signal your body to grow. It's called supercompensation, and the growth actually occurs during recovery. The limiting factor is mostly your tolerance for discomfort.

Think for a moment about attention. Absorbed focused lies at the heart of great performance. Unfortunately, our minds have minds of their own — they flit from thought to thought. It's also more difficult than ever to stay focused in this digital age. Never before have we had to deal with so many seductive distractions.

Training your mind operates by the same principle as training your body. By focusing on one thing for a defined period of time — say by counting your breath, or working at a demanding task, or even reading a difficult book — you're subjecting your attention to stress.

As your mind wanders, the challenge is to return your focus to the breath, or the task, or the book. Effectively, you're training control of your attention. The more intensely you practice, even for short increments of time, the stronger you'll get.

The alternative is shallowness. So much of what we do all day long requires little real effort, but yields only the most fleeting gratification.

For me, writing this blog is one way I intentionally push myself to discomfort for several hours every week. I don't relish pain any more than the next guy, and so to get past my resistance, I write at a set time, for 90 minutes at a stretch before taking a break. Working at a piece of writing forces me to think hard and searchingly, about a subject that matters to me, and then try to compose sentences that are lean, crisp, and clear, and say exactly what I mean them to say.

It can be frustrating and uncomfortable to think hard — especially early in the process. I often feel compelled to get up from my desk and eat something, or check my email, or do anything but keep writing.

Occasionally I succumb, but mostly I've learned to put off these indulgences, comforted by the knowledge that staying the course will ultimately make me feel more alive, more productive, and better about myself than I ever will by flitting between the day's more trivial tasks.

Completing a challenging piece of work, or a tough workout, or an intellectually demanding book, frees us to truly savor and enjoy the period afterwards — to experience time off not as slacking but as a fully earned opportunity for restoration.

Most of us instinctively run from discomfort, but struggle equally to value rest and renewal. We operate instead in a gray zone, rarely fully engaged and rarely deeply relaxed.

What practice could you add to your life to regularly push beyond your comfort zone — and then deliberately renew? Increasing the amplitude of your wave — from intense effort to deep renewal — is the surest path to a more fully realized life.

"How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage"

The information revolution is sweeping through our economy. No company can escape its effects. Dramatic reductions in the cost of obtaining, processing, and transmitting information are changing the way we do business.

Most general managers know that the revolution is under way, and few dispute its importance. As more and more of their time and investment capital is absorbed in information technology and its effects, executives have a growing awareness that the technology can no longer be the exclusive territory of EDP or IS departments. As they see their rivals use information for competitive advantage, these executives recognize the need to become directly involved in the management of the new technology. In the face of rapid change, however, they don’t know how.

This article aims to help general managers respond to the challenges of the information revolution. How will advances in information technology affect competition and the sources of competitive advantage? What strategies should a company pursue to exploit the technology? What are the implications of actions that competitors may already have taken? Of the many opportunities for investment in information technology, which are the most urgent?

To answer these questions, managers must first understand that information technology is more than just computers. Today, information technology must be conceived of broadly to encompass the information that businesses create and use as well as a wide spectrum of increasingly convergent and linked technologies that process the information. In addition to computers, then, data recognition equipment, communications technologies, factory automation, and other hardware and services are involved.

The information revolution is affecting competition in three vital ways:

It changes industry structure and, in so doing, alters the rules of competition.

It creates competitive advantage by giving companies new ways to outperform their rivals.

It spawns whole new businesses, often from within a company’s existing operations.

We discuss the reasons why information technology has acquired strategic significance and how it is affecting all businesses. We then describe how the new technology changes the nature of competition and how astute companies have exploited this. Finally, we outline a procedure managers can use to assess the role of information technology in their business and to help define investment priorities to turn the technology to their competitive advantage.

Strategic Significance

Information technology is changing the way companies operate. It is affecting the entire process by which companies create their products. Furthermore, it is reshaping the product itself: the entire package of physical goods, services, and information companies provide to create value for their buyers.

An important concept that highlights the role of information technology in competition is the “value chain.”¹ This concept divides a company’s activities into the technologically and economically distinct activities it performs to do business. We call these “value activities.” The value a company creates is measured by the amount that buyers are willing to pay for a product or service. A business is profitable if the value it creates exceeds the cost of performing the value activities. To gain competitive advantage over its rivals, a company must either perform these activities at a lower cost or perform them in a way that leads to differentiation and a premium price (more value).²

Mr. Porter is professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. He is the author of the new best-seller Competitive Advantage (Free Press, 1985) and Competitive Strategy (Free Press, 1980), and he recently served on the Presidential Commission on Industrial Competitiveness.

Mr. Millar is the managing partner for practice of Arthur Andersen & Co. and is responsible for the professional practices of the firm worldwide. He has worked extensively with executives to increase their understanding of information in the management function.