2013-06-10

Chap1. Buy One, Get Two Free

They realized that focusing on the money actually framed the problem too tightly.

• eg. Restaurant reservation, male students make the reservation and female students sell, exchange the pagers with customers.
• eg. Bicycle tire filling: free measurement, one dollar, donations.

The iterative process allowed them to optimize their strategy on the fly. Their insight was that their most precious resource was their three minutes presentation time on Monday. Students who having an entrepreneurial mind-set are benefit from their thinking frame.

First, opportunities are abundant. At any place and time you can look around and identify problems that need solving. Second, regardless of the size of the problem, there are usually creative ways to use the resources already at your disposal to solve them. An entrepreneur is someone who is always on the lookout for problems that can be turned into opportunities, and finds creative ways to leverage limited resources to reach their goals. Third, we so often frame problems too tightly. In fact, failure is an important part of life’s learning process. Just as evolution is a series of trial-and-error experiments, life is full of starts and inevitable stumbling. The key to success is the ability to extract the lessons out of each of these experiences and to move on with that new knowledge.

Although family, friends, and neighbors will happily give us pointed advice about what to do, it is essentially our responsibility to pick our own direction.
P.15

Chap 2 Problems equal opportunities

Problems = opportunities

• Traditional education: to avoid problems.
• Current education: to embrace problems.

Problems means gaps between reality and demand. If the problem can be solved by an innovating way, people who benefit from it might pay for the solution. Allow people to use a pen to enter information, in addition to tiny keyboard, to make this process more natural.

DO BAND gaps the inaction and action.

The first step to solving big problems is to identify them. The key to need finding is identifying and filling gaps – that is, gaps in the way people use products, gaps in the services available, and gaps in the stories they tell when interviewed about their behavior.

eg. Diaper: hazardous waste disposal devices or keep children comfortable.

GAPs means problems. The key is to take the time to clearly identify every assumption. When you look around your life, your office, your family, there are too many assumptions.
Most of us are content taking small, reliable steps. We don’t get very far, but we don’t rock the boat either. To reach for an alternative that has higher degree of uncertainty.

It is better to “make meaning than to make money”.

Problems are abundant, just waiting for those willing to find inventive solutions. This takes acute observation, coordinated team work, the ability to execute a plan, a willingness to learn from failure, and creative problem solving.

What we do: scouring newspapers to identify problems, brainstorming to come up with creative solutions, designing new ventures, meeting with potential customers, filming commercials, and pitching their ideas to a panel of successful executives. P.29指么，2013-06-11

Chap 3 Constraints and Rules

Individual, gene pool, and society.
We make many rules for ourselves. We define ourselves by our professions, our income, where we live, the car we drive, our education and even by our horoscope (占星術(shù)/星座). Each definition locks us into specific assumptions about who we are and what we do.

One of the reasons Google has been so successful is their willingness to tackle hard problems with an undefined path to completion. If others think your ideas are crazy, then you must be on the right track. One of the biggest obstacles to taking on “impossible tasks” is that others are often quick to tell you they can’t be accomplished. Most ideas, even if they look silly or stupid on the surface, often have at least a seed of potential. The craziest ideas might not work in their first iteration, but with a bit of massaging, they might turn out to be brilliant solutions that are feasible to implement.

One of the most important rules is to expand upon the ideas of others. Each person feels personal ownership for their ideas. You break a group into pairs. Idea generation involves exploration of the landscape of possibilities.

From two pilots’ story, it is better to know the few things that are against the rules than to focus on the many things you think you should do. Another way to break rules is to break free of expectations you have for yourself and that others have for you.

Chap 4 You could not appoint yourself.

Nobody told me I could or should do this … I just did it.

The world is divided into people who wait for others to give them permission to do the things they want to do and people who grant themselves permission. Some look inside themselves for motivation and others wait to be pushed forward by outside forces.

All jobs are similar. You need to identify the provocative(令人不快的) questions, collect relevant data, analyze it, select the most interesting results, craft a compelling presentation, and determine the next set of burning questions. He takes it upon himself to make the first move.
P.48扑浸， 2013-06-12

We need a growth mind-set. Those people with a growth mind-set are typically open to taking risks and tend to work harder to reach their objectives. The first step is learning how to pay attention.

First, the wallet is symbolic of the fact that problems are everywhere, even in your back pocket. Second, it doesn’t take much effort to uncover these problems. Third, you get quick and dirty feedback on the solutions you propose.

All you have to do is start over.
They pay attention at home, at work, at the grocery store, in airplanes, at the beach, at the doctor’s office, or on the baseball field.

Chap 5 Failures

The failure is an important part of our learning process, especially when you’re stretching your abilities, doing things the first time, or taking risks. I decided to include here my own abbreviated failure resume, showcasing some of my biggest mistakes.

In Silicon Valley, failure is acknowledged as a natural part of the process of innovation. Quitting is the bravest alternative. You will listen to your gut.

The failure must be lurking(潛伏) around the corner. The key to success is not dodging(躲避) every bullet but being able to recover quickly. You can put your energy into opportunities with higher likelihood of success.

Steve Jobs said he still loved what he did when he got fired from Apple. When they hit bottom, they sink in for a bit and then bounce back, tapping into the energy of the impact to propel them into another opportunity.

The failures force us to re-evaluate our goals and priorities, and often propel us forward much faster than continued success. Organizations consider rewarding success and failures, and punishing inaction.

Creativity results from action, rather than inaction, more than anything else. Therefore, if you want more successes, you’re going to have to be willing to live with more failures. Failure is the flip side of success, and you can’t have one without the other.

P.67, 2013-06-13

There are five primary types of risks:

• physical,
• social,
• emotional,
• financial,
• and intellectual.

Under most circumstances, you have to make decisions with incomplete information. You have to make a choice and take action in the face of considerable uncertainty surrounding each option. You need make decision with incomplete information. Keep in mind that failure is a natural part of the learning process. If you are not failing sometimes, then you probably are not taking enough risks.
2020-02-01

CHAP 6

You are passionate about something and are quite talented in the field, but there’s no market for those skills. Your passions overlap with your skills and the market. We are all powerfully influenced by the messages around us. People who are close to you often expect you to make decisions about your career path and stick with them.
It is important to reassess（評(píng)估） your life and career relatively frequently.
The need to find a role in the world that doesn’t feel like work. This only happens when you identify the intersection between your skills, your passion, and the market.
P.85, 2013-06-14

Chap 7

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

Both Quyen and QD3 throw everything they have –physically, intellectually, and emotionally – at the problems confronting them. If you go somewhere and do not meet someone new, you have certainly missed out on making a friend as well as on the possibility of making a million dollars. Paying careful attention to your environment actually takes a lot of effort. You pay attention to all the things that are normally “invisible”. What are “invisible” things around us?

They also find unusual ways to use and recombine their knowledge and experiences. Steve Jobs was open-minded and curious about the world.
Many people don’t feel comfortable making suck leaps, preferring instead to stay in smaller venues.
P.97,2013-06-16
As we have seen, we can manufacture our own luck by working incredibly hard and focusing on our goals. But we have many other tools at our disposal, including being open to opportunity that come our way, taking full advantage of chance occurrences, paying careful attention to the world around us, interaction with as many people as we can, and making those interactions as positive as possible. Making one’s own luck is ultimately about turning bad situations around and making good situations much better.

Chap 8

The importance of writing thank-you notes remains one of her most valuable lessons.

Keep in mind that everything someone does for you has an opportunity cost. That means if someone takes time out of his or her day to attend to you, there’s something they haven’t done for themselves or for someone else.
You aren’t going to like everyone and everyone isn’t going to like you, but there is no need to make enemies.

Essentially, your reputation is your most valuable asset – so guard it well.

Every experience you have with someone else is like a drop of water falling into a pool. As your experiences with that person grow, the drops accumulate and the pool deepens.
Whatever he did, I hoped he would be pleased with his decision at a later date. I urged him to consider how he would describe this challenge if during a job interview he were asked how he handled an ambiguous situation.
Everyone makes mistakes, and floundering is part of life, especially when you’re doing things for the first time.
Just say, “I did not handle that very well. I apologize.”
I felt tears welling up and had to think fast to pull out of the tailspin. I apologized. It is important to take responsibility for your actions and be willing to learn from your experiences.

Another essential life skill rarely taught in school is the ability to negotiate. The most common mistake in this negotiation is making inaccurate assumptions, and the most common assumption is that the recruiter and the candidate have opposing goals. The key to a successful negotiation is to ferret out 找出 everyone’s interests so you can maximize the outcome for everyone. (各取所需)

We live in a very small world, where repeat appearances are the norm.
If there are no intersection between their goals, walking away is the best choice. Many of us hold to the mistaken assumption that any deal is better than walking away. In general, to negotiate effectively you should work to understand your own goals as well as the goals of the other party, attempt to come up with win-win outcome, and know when to walk away.
Another valuable skill is the art of helping others. You try this approach sometime if you don’t do it routinely already. But you must be sincerely willing to help if your offer is accepted. Some people have competitive mind-set, where you win at someone else’s expense. This is completely counter-productive. Almost everything in life is done in teams, and those who don’t know how to make others successful are at a huge disadvantage.

In fact, the higher you reach within an organization, the less important your individual contributions become. Your job becomes leading, inspiring, and motivating others.
Paint the target around the arrow. The idea is that you should pick the most talented person you can (the arrow) and then craft the job (the target) around what he or she does best.

They rationalize doing the “smart” thing as opposed to the “right” thing.
Rule of Three: A squad leader is in charge of three fire team leaders.
Show appreciation to those who help you.
Protect and enhance your reputation.
Learn how to apologize with a simple “I am sorry, and I will improve it next time.”
Keep in mind that everything is negotiable and learn to navigate toward an outcome in which all parties win.
Try to play to other’s strengths, making sure they are doing what they do best.
P. 113, 2013-06-19

Chap 9

Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.
The divergence in value continues to compound over time. This is what happens in life. You get out of life what you put in, and results are compounded daily.
But the truth is, we are either doing it or not doing it. Trying to do it is a cop-out. You have to focus your intention to make something happen by giving at least 100 percent commitments. Anything less and you are the only one to blame for failing to reach your goals.
Make it a high priority or drop it from your list.
Achieving is your responsibility from start to finish.
You are ultimately in charge of your own life. You have no excuse for delivering anything short of your best effort at all times.
He believes his success comes from being able to focus with unrelenting persistence, and acknowledges that he put his heart and soul into everything he did.
Being competitive implies a zero-sum game in which you succeed at someone else’s expense. Competition is so built into our culture that it becomes the natural response.

In environments where there are limited resources, being driven to make yourself and others successful is often a much more productive strategy than being purely competitive.
As you can see, being fabulous comes in many flavors, but is all starts with removing the cap and being willing to reach for your true potential. This means going beyond minimum expectations and acknowledging that you are ultimately responsible for your actions and the resulting outcomes. Life is not a dress rehearsal, and you won’t get a second chance to do your best.

Chap10 Experimental Artifacts

Give Your Permission.
By that I mean, give yourself permission to challenge assumptions, to look at the world with fresh eyes, to experiment, to fail, to plot your own course, and to test the limits of your abilities. In fact, that’s exactly what I wish I had known when I was twenty, and thirty, and forty – and what I need to constantly remind myself at fifty.
It’s incredibly easy to get locked into traditional ways of thinking and to block out possible alternatives. For most of us, there are crowds of people standing on the sidelines, encouraging each of us to stay on the prescribed path, to color inside the lines, and to follow the same directions they followed.

We give students permission to challenge assumptions and to stretch their imaginations by breaking free from traditional ways of thinking.
We choose how we view the world around us. The environment is filled with flaws and flowers, and we each decide which to embrace.
You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously nor judge others too harshly. He wishes he had been more tolerant of mistakes he made and those made by others, and that he could have seen that failure is a normal part of the learning process.
You should not define yourself by your current position nor believe all your own press.

But I now know that uncertainty is the fire that sparks innovation and engine that drives us forward.

Future reading list:

• The Monk and the Riddle
• superclass

2013-07-07，completed first time.
2013-12-23，completed second time.
2014-02-08，completed third time.
2018-08-10，completed fourth time.
(END)