Sean Johnson :: Intentionally – Live on Purpose

My buddy David Kadavy called me out and asked me for my eight life hacks – the eight things that make me feel like I’m “cheating the system.” I usually ignore this kind of stuff, but this one was actually an interesting thought exercise.

1. Read constantly.

   Pek beat me to it. But whenever colleagues, interns at the office or anyone else ask me what I do to get ahead, the first thing I say is to read. I was taught early on that people succeed or fail during their non-work times. While most people stop reading after school (or while still in school), people who get ahead are constantly seeking out new information.

   They say that creativity is nothing more than taking old ideas and combining them in new ways. In order to do that, you need a large supply of “old ideas” at your disposal.

   If you have an aversion to lugging around books, grab the Kindle (the device itself, or the iPhone app). I was able to tear through 14 books in 90 days after putting the Kindle app on my phone – the reading experience is fantastic, and it saves a ton of space. The only downside is you can’t share your books once you’ve read them.

   Reading also makes you more interesting at dinner parties.

2. Show up an hour early.

   I mentioned this in my previous post on recession-proofing yourself, but it bears repeating. Early in the morning (or late at night) is a great time to tackle work without all distractions – the world is quiet, your mind is more calm and focused. You end up feeling energized for the rest of the day knowing you have a head start on everyone else.

3. Get one important thing done each day.

   This came from Zen Habits, but has been super successful for me since I started doing it. I try to set one goal to accomplish each day that, no matter how effective or ineffective the rest of my days goes, would lead me to consider that day a successful one. It focuses your intention like a laser on the most important things, and helps you avoid being efficient but ineffective.

4. Reframe everything.

   Every project you are given, no matter how small and inconsequential, is an opportunity to do something amazing. Starting in college, I got in the habit of spending time thinking about how to make a project better. A lot of the things I’m most proud of were simple projects that were transformed by asking this simple question at the outset, including:

   • Laying out every class report in InDesign or Illustrator, and often getting them printed at Kinkos.
   • Creating a stand-up comedy contest and a non-profit ad agency for my marketing student group.
   • Creating a custom website as my cover letter and resume to get my job in New York.
   • Making a series of wedding invitation “booklets”.
   • Buying jerseys and renting the high school field for a flag football game the morning of the wedding.

   It’s a self-reinforcing habit as well – by practicing on smaller things you’re more effectively able to reframe larger projects, and your tendency becomes to ask this instinctively at the beginning of something new.

5. Unnetwork:

   A large percentage of my closest friendships these days started at networking functions, and I attribute that to the concept of unnetworking. I never go into an event expecting to grab a bunch of cards and shake a bunch of hands. Instead, I set the goal to meet one super interesting person, try to genuinely connect with them, and then become their friend. I almost never ask for things from them, I try to help them out whenever I can. The goal isn’t to get business from them, but to have a relationship with them, which has way more upside (although it’s often intangible).

   Of course, business opportunities often come up eventually, but they’re for the right reasons – because you have a mutual relationship based on trust and friendship, not elevator pitches and systematic follow-up.

6. Have an inner circle.

   While I have a fair number of friends, I have a much smaller number of folks (as in 4) that I consider my inner circle. The most important criteria has been that they know and largely be in alignment with my values, and are willing to give me honest feedback and keep me accountable.

   Most people think I have a tendency to be too hard on myself. They think that my focus on character development and insistence on trying to become the “right” kind of person is misguided, or a waste of time. Aspiring to a certain standard and being willing to admit that you aren’t living up to it makes most people uncomfortable – they tell you to just be happy and live your life, and that everything is a process, and what’s important is to live in the moment and just… be.

   Which is fine if that’s your perspective, but it isn’t mine. Mine is that I have one life on this earth, that I have certain talents and abilities, and certain weaknesses and vices. And that all of this is for a reason and my job is to use all of that in the best way possible, according to a set of standards that are not ultimately defined by me.

   And in order for me to be successful on my path, I need people who are on the same page, and who are willing to push and be pushed, not who want to convince me that I’m wrong.

   Regardless of your beliefs about who you are, why you’re here and where you’re going, I’d argue an inner circle is vitally important. They help you maintain your sanity when things aren’t going well, they celebrate with you when things are going well, and they keep you focused on the right things. You only need a couple – it would actually be difficult to maintain that level of intimacy with more than a few people. But finding your inner circle is an exercise that’s very much worth the time.

7. Keep a budget, and make your financial goals automatic.

   Three years ago, I returned from my honeymoon with nothing in savings and 8 credit cards that were maxed out. Today my wife and I have no credit card debt and save or invest 40% of what we make. And the secret to that transition was a Google Spreadsheet.

   We started keeping a monthly budget, accounting for every dollar that came and went from our accounts. Having a visual document that you both look at keeps you accountable and honest. And we quickly found that there was a direct correlation between how often we look at it and how diligent we are in implementing it. To this day, if we go a few days without looking at it we resort to our old habits. Which is fun, but ultimately destructive.

   It was important that we set gradual goals each month – cut back $50 here, $100 here. Doing it in increments instead of all at once allowed us to break our old habits and develop new ones.

   In order to knock out debt and accelerate savings, we set aggressive goals for both and made the transfers automatic. Once we took it out of our control, the system ran itself. Of course, every month following a big readjustment we’d screw up and overspend. We gave ourselves an “idiot fund” to accommodate this, and we allowed ourselves a lot of grace. We didn’t let the short term missteps get in the way of the longer term strategy, and that made a huge difference.

8. Whenever you think something bad about someone else, never say it. Whenever you think something great about someone else, always say it.

   The seeds of discord are almost always sown with something trivial. You think something critical, sarcastic or downright mean about someone else, and you decide to say it. Because it feels good – there’s a bizarre joy in it.

   But once it’s out there, it’s in the world. It’s permanent. It causes a small cut in the fabric of a relationship. Enough cuts, and the fabric begins to fray, starts to come apart.

   I get in trouble sometimes for this one, but I believe it wholeheartedly. It staggers me how many people struggle to keep friendships, romances, or family ties together. Close friends of mine talk often of relationship troubles, wishing they could do something about it, but when I offer up this bit of advice, they often reply with “You and Michelle are different. It doesn’t work that way in normal couples.”

   But it can. My wife and I, if we’re honest, get that same temporary high from the sarcastic comment as anyone else. We make a conscious choice not to. Instead, our language with each other is constantly and unceasingly positive.

   Does this make us naive? I don’t think so – we both know that the other isn’t always happy with us. We both know that sometimes we do something stupid, or look silly. We both know that the other knows that guy or girl who just walked by is extremely attractive. But that doesn’t mean you have to say it.

   What everyone wonders, perpetually, is whether they’re good enough. Whether the other person thinks they’re valuable, lovable, beautiful, worthy of their time. Our entire lives are lived with this subtext – am I really worthy of someone’s love? Saying the nice thing every time you think it doesn’t remove this, but it definitely provides assurance. And there’s no downside.

It seems as though everywhere you go people are looking for work. Sending out resumes to anyone who even hints at a potential opportunity. There are literally thousands of candidates competing for very few positions.

While most people are aware that things are bad, it seems to me that very few people understand that things are different. This isn’t your typical downturn – when investment bankers are becoming baristas and engineers are child care technicians, you know things are different.

I believe that the next few years will be increasingly hard on an increasingly larger group of people. There will be more unemployment, not less.

And unlike any downturn before it, you’re not just competing with your peers. You’re competing with the guy with 30 years experience who is looking at a much more distant retirement. You’re competing with the former Vice President who’s willing to take a big pay cut and your job. And you’re competing with the billions of people in India, Asia and Latin America who are now an instant message away and a third of the cost.

The good news is that there is still work to get done, and the need for smart, capable people to do it. But you have to stand out – being good enough is no longer enough. You have to transform yourself into a superstar – someone who generates so much value, someone so indispensable that your organization would be crazy to let you go.

What follows is the first in a series of discussions on recession-proofing yourself. My hope is to equip you with the skills you need to become one of those superstars.

It’s important to remember that nothing in here is meant to be a blanket set of rules. There are many people who don’t work in hyper-competitive organizations, or companies that aren’t facing stiff cutbacks. Similarly, there are people who would honestly welcome the change if they were let go. And there are folks who feel as though they’d rather not change their habits and are willing to risk facing the consequences. This isn’t written for you.

It’s written for folks who are worried they might not have a job in six months, who love what they do, and want to prepare themselves for the increasingly competitive world we’re entering into. I hope those who fit this description find this useful in some way.

Part One – Work Harder

I’m sometimes asked by new colleagues how I was able to rise from Account Manager to Creative Director in a year, and to Vice President in three. And while I’d chalk the majority of it up to simply being in the right place at the right time, I also worked harder than most people who were in the organization at the time.

While there are no foolproof strategies to survive and thrive in a recession, the closest “sure thing” I know of is to simply work harder.

You might be saying to yourself, “but I already work hard.” Notice I’m not saying work hard – I’m saying work harder.

Work harder than you usually do. Work harder than anyone else in your company. Become known as the guy or girl who hustles the most and you create for yourself not just protection but opportunity.

Show up early

It’s very difficult to get things done in a typical office environment. A typical worker is bombarded with meetings and other interruptions throughout the day, each of which takes you away from the truly high-value work that will make your company succeed.

Our company was no different – finding even 20 minutes of uninterrupted time was always a challenge. I wanted to make sure I got the things done I needed to get done, and knew that would be tough during the day.

So I started getting up early and heading to the local Starbucks. A few days a week, from 6am to 9am I was sending out emails, planning my day, getting a head start on the week. It was the most productive time during my week.

You don’t have to show up at 6am – even an hour early is great. By focusing on the most important thing you need to do that day, free of distraction, you’re able to start your day off on the right foot.

Leave late

Similarly, the end of the day is a good time to tackle the meaty, important work. Most people start to check out around 5 and is out the door by 6.

If you’re willing to stay an hour later you’ll be amazed how much you can get done. You can take your notes from the day’s meetings and ruminate on them, turning scribbles into coherent, potentially game-changing ideas. That’s a nearly impossible undertaking when you’re running back and forth between meetings and conference calls.

Be fully present during meetings

By tackling your most important work earlier and later in the day, you’re actually able to embrace the chaos of the bits in the middle. You can sit in a meeting with your laptop closed and your notebook open, taking notes and offering ideas, knowing that your work isn’t piling up with every passing minute.

You’re able to work on the more mundane things during in-between times (expense reports, etc.) and eliminate the clutter, since you’ve cleared your deck of your most critical tasks that day.

Embrace the natural current

Ultimately, these things are all helping you do the same thing – using the inherent cycles of a typical work day to be as effective as possible.

By leveraging the times when you don’t have distractions to get your most important work done, you’re able to make progress where previously there was inertia. Which frees you up to tackle administrative details and be truly creative in meetings, since the most important work is being handled when it can realistically be tackled.

And people who consistently get the most important things done, who don’t constantly appear frazzled and out of control go a long way towards recession-proofing themselves.

This one took me years to figure out.

There is very little difference between a residential real estate agent and a commercial real estate agent. They both show properties. They both depend on word of mouth to grow their businesses. They’re both in hyper-competitive industries. They both work the same amount of hours. But on average, successful commercial brokers make more than residential brokers do.

I know a bunch of SEO consultants. They all do the same things – they write content, they optimize title tags and meta tags, they work aggressively on link-building campaigns. Most of them have moderate success. But in a year, one of my buddies has built a multi-million dollar SEO business, working only with attorneys who are willing to pay a premium to be first.

You could offer two clients the exact same service, the exact same amount of work, the exact same results. But the value of the service is worth considerably more for some customers than for others.

Now, there are certainly other factors to consider when drafting a marketing plan or defining your target market. Would you enjoy talking to attorneys all day? Perhaps not.

But it’s important to remember that in just about any industry, there are segments of the market that are more attractive than others based on their temperament and their pocketbooks. My buddy, for example, has found that attorneys are actually great to deal with. They are bottom-line focused, don’t get wrapped up in details, and will generally leave you alone as long as you’re getting them results. And they pay on time, which is always a plus.

Contrast that to a venture I worked on in a former life that went after bed & breakfasts. The price point had to be low because they didn’t have a lot of money. Because it was their baby, they were extremely hands on with all aspects of the process.

In the years since, I’ve worked on projects with major universities that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, had giant committees, etc. And in comparison, the university clients are a walk in the park relative to the clients we had in the B&B industry (this isn’t to say that they all are, but enough of them were to convince us in fairly short order to get out of the industry.)

The point is that there is a segment of the world who will love what you do, will pay you well, and will offer a minimum of headaches. And there’s a segment that will cost you significantly more in time, money and energy, with less upside. Same amount of effort, dramatic differences in revenue and general well-being.

The choice is yours.

Many companies think they understand the concept of positioning, but when it comes time to execute on their positioning strategy they find the results to be lacking. And I think that’s because they violate the number one rule of having an effective position.

You have to be willing to turn some people off. You have to be willing to step out on a ledge and say “I’m sorry, we don’t do that.”

Unfortunately, a lot of companies (and freelancers) seem unwilling to do that, particularly in the tech and design communities. They’ll reach for any opportunity they can get, whether or not they have an ability to execute on it.

Even though the economy is in poor shape, chasing money in areas outside your expertise is often a recipe for bad things – you do a mediocre (or terrible) job on it, and it takes you away from what you’re best at.

It’s tempting to be known as a graphic designer or programmer or consultant or whatever.

But I think it’d be better to focus and leave a lot of money on the table. Become the best display advertising designer in the world. Or logo designer. Or environmental designer. Or “peat moss packaging” designer.

Become known for that – charge a premium for being the best. Pursue only the projects that you’ll knock out of the park consistently. And send any other requests for work to your network of people who are the best at what they do, taking a small cut for sending them the work.

You’ll be walking away from lower margin, higher risk projects and taking a much smaller piece of the pie on work you refer out. But you’ll build goodwill with your partners (and your prospects), receive some revenue without losing your focus on what you do best, and will likely find the favor returned.

Be willing to say “I don’t do that.”

Reading through old notebooks this weekend, I stumbled on some notes from my old mentor. Notes about how to do business – how to carry oneself, how to set priorities, etc.

I roll in young, tech-savvy circles, and I’ve noticed that a lot of those things my mentor told me about business aren’t present in folks my age (myself included). In the hurry to put everything online, I worry that we’ve abandoned some of the old-school ways of doing business in the interest of progress.

Below are some of the things my mentor told me – most of them might sound obvious at first, but I’d challenge you to seriously consider whether you do these things consistently.

Show up on time

A lot of folks my age schedule meetings or appointments, only to show up late (or not at all, leaving a voicemail at the last second.) Respect other people’s time and attention by showing up when you say you will.

Do what you say you’ll do

It’s shocking how often people make commitments lightly, without considering their other demands (I’d definitely put myself in this category unfortunately.)

Don’t skip out on commitments you’ve made, don’t leave people in a jam, don’t come up with excuses for why you didn’t do something. Just do it, or don’t commit in the first place.

Work hard

A lot of folks my age work hard, as long as it’s something they think is “fun.” But the second their interest wanes, they decide to procrastinate, or try to get out of doing what they promised they’d do. And in the interest of “Four Hour Work Weeking” everything, they’ve tried to come up with clever ways of getting out of doing stuff.

We’re created to work. The natural state of man is to build, create, organize, do. When it’s time to rest, by all means rest. But when you’re supposed to be working, work as hard as you can.

Say please and thank you

One of my big problems with traditional networking has always been the ungratefulness of it all. People ask for something immediately, often rudely, and very often without having a genuine relationship in place first. And rarely, if ever, do you receive a thank you.

In the history of my company (to my knowledge, but I know most of what happens), there have been exactly two people who’ve sent a hand-written thank you card after a job interview. Both of them got the job. One of them became the Creative Director a year later :)

Saying please and thank you pay tremendous dividends in your professional career.

Dress the part

I get a hard time when I go into the office these days, because I tend to try and dress it up a bit. Part of that might be because I work from home most of the time and wear sweatpants and my “John Tesh rules” headband.

But part of it is because dressing up makes people think of you differently. It demonstrates that you respect them, that their opinion is important to you, that you took the time to actually get out an iron and clean your slobby self up before meeting with them.

It may sound superficial, but people really do treat you differently when you dress like someone who belongs at the conference table vs. the poker table.

How many of these things do you do (honestly?) What areas might it make sense to work on? What other rules from the old school do you think would be helpful to remember?

One of the more interesting (but little known) things about Christian theology is the concept of the devil. Most people think of him as this dude in red tights, with a pointy tail and horns and a beard. And a pitchfork. Like an evil ballerina who farms.

But actually the devil is immensely beautiful. Like Brad Pitt times a billion. Or me, times ten.

He was one of God’s greatest accomplishments. He was smarter, more creative, more charming than we can imagine. And even after the fall, his outward beauty never diminished. Nor did his creativity, intellect or charm.

It’s a difficult thing to wrap our minds around, that the personification of evil would be contained in a thing of beauty and brilliance. And yet when you think about the concept of temptation, it makes sense. If you really did live in a world where you were being silently opposed, prodded, tempted to do things that weren’t in your best interest… you’d probably trip up a lot less if your tempter was an ugly dude with a snarl, wearing tights with mustard stains going down the front.

I think one of the points of that story is that a lot of the things we think are good can be very bad for us. Hard work can be good. Hard work that leaves your family lonely and your life out of balance is not. Money can be good. Money as an end to itself, or used to buy another BMW when there are families living in tents outside the city, less so. Beauty can be good. Beauty that is used as a tool to manipulate, or as a basis for exclusion, not good.

C.S. Lewis talks about how one of the best ways to tell people a lie is with the truth. And while we live in a world of broken economies, broken families and broken lives, it’s hard to find the culprits, the ones who cause all the pain. That’s because the culprits aren’t wearing red tights and holding pitchforks. It’s actually pretty hard to find people who are overtly evil and ugly and mean. Most of the bad stuff that happens in the world is the result of lies masked with the truth.

Our markets lie in ruin and global commerce is threatened because while hard work and innovation are good… unmitigated, perpetual growth and expansion are ultimately destructive and unsustainable.

Because we think beauty and nice things are good, we create and consume as much as we can, willfully ignoring the consequences on our planet’s resources and on the gross inequity between us and our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world.

Because we believe in the importance of the self, we ruin countless relationships and marriages because we refuse to compromise or truly put the other person’s needs before our own.

Because we want families to be safe, we train our children to avoid people that don’t look like them, perpetuating cycles of racism, sexism and classism (which is particularly egregious because, according to spell check, “classism” isn’t even a word.)

When we look into our own lives, it might make sense for us to examine how things that we might have once thought of as good (or that others might still consider good) could be harming us or those we love.

It might make sense to consider whether our workaholic tendencies are a good thing if our relationships are suffering.

It might makes sense to examine whether our desire for more requires that other have less.

It might make sense to think about whether hard work drive are always good, considering they might be driving us in a direction that is ultimately destructive.

It might make sense to think about whether our love for country masks us to the injustice and pain others feel at the hands of our military or economic systems.

But to do so will take work, because it’s very likely the worst part of ourselves isn’t wearing red tights. It’s probably hidden in plain view, inside something beautiful but ultimately deadly.