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Play the Blue Audio version of Tetris online right now! |
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Thursday, 02.09.2012 |
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| The Max Strategy |
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Product Details
Notes
well-written parable with business lessons
the main character feels trapped in his corporate job
he tried to start a business, but it failed
people said to him, "at least you still have your job"
he's experiencing career stagflation
Max Elmore makes him write all the self-help advice he learned
then he crosses it out and writes, "experiments never fail"
he says goal setting and planning are not useful
most people don't have a strong career passion to follow
instead, the only goal should be to do something different every day
play around and see what happens
great innovators often do things to show off their ideas and talents
they don't plan to change the world, they just keep playing with new things
Burton Malkiel's book on the random walk down wall street
he talks about a thousand people flipping a coin
eventually, eight of them flip heads eight times in a row
those people look like geniuses to everyone else, but it's just random
in business you can do tons of cheap experiments
most will fail, but if you succeed with one out of ten, you win big
John Pemberton invented a headache syrup
his teenage employees mixed it with water and drank it
instead of firing them, John added club soda and created Coca-Cola
Ruth Wakefield planned to melt chocolate into her butter cookies
but the chocolate didn't melt and mix in, it formed chunks
she was at a hotel called the Toll House Inn
this is where the Toll house chocolate chip cookies came from
Levi Strauss couldn't sell his tent canvas
but gold prospectors kept wearing out their pants
so he made his canvas into jeans
success is an achievement lottery
the key is to enter as many times as you can, each ticket is cheap
bounce around and play with fun ideas until something hits
you don't need the perfect plan
a lot of success comes by accident, but it's because you kept trying random stuff
don't try to make something perfect according to plan
just do it differently each time, sometimes you'll stumble on something better
people hate to change, but they love to experiment
the Hawthorne Effect is when participants know they're part of a test
they improve their own results regardless of the variable being tested
people want to be part of an experiment, and part of a team
you can change lots of variables all at once, just as an experiment
everyone else is struggling to be above average
but they're all trying to follow the same strategy and plan
you can stand out just by being different
don't just do incremental improvements
try radical new things all the time, every test is just temporary
there are plenty of ideas, you just have to be open-minded
Dr. Don Cooper accidentally injected too much tranquilizer into a patient
the patient died, and Dr. Cooper got so mad he punched him in the chest
that restarted his heart, and it could have been the invention of CPR
but Dr. Cooper didn't pay attention and learn from his experience
instead, more than a decade passed before CPR was rediscovered
remember that a lot of times, the successful product isn't planned
Levi Strauss wanted to prospect for gold, but he invented jeans
John Pemberton was working on drugs, and invented a drink instead
stay open to opportunity, even if it's unexpected and unplanned
George de Maestral invented Velcro by accident
he noticed that cockleburs were stuck to his pants
he looked under a microscope and saw the hooks in the cockleburs
Velcro is velour for 'velvet' plus crochet for 'hook'
Dave Thomas had leftover lettuce hearts from burgers
he figured out that he could use this to make salads
the salads at Wendy's became a huge seller for them
Dick Fosbury learned the scissor-kick high jump
but his butt kept getting in the way and hitting the bar
so he kept leaning back to try to lift his butt over the bar
eventually he invented the flop, going over the high bar backwards
look at old ideas and use recombination to come up with new ideas
combine the first part of an idea with the second part of another
Muhammad Ali saw a wrestler draw lots of people by being dramatic
Ali brought the drama from wrestling to his image in boxing
ask other people to help you brainstorm more ideas
most people don't have ideas, but they have lots of suggestions
in summary, try lots of experiments just to do something different
don't worry about the perfect plan
instead, just stay open to new opportunities that arise
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