Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity and More (Made Simple Series)

by Donald Miller

In business, your boss (or your customers) may really like you, but in large part, they see you as an economic investment. And there is nothing wrong with that.

So, how do we become ridiculously successful? By making other people absurdly successful!

I am a hero trying to learn and get better

A value-driven professional sees themself as a hero on a mission, not a victim.

daydreaming and talking about ideas do not put points on the scoreboard. It’s only when we make a real thing happen in the real world that our world begins to change and get better.

By staying relentlessly optimistic, you dramatically increase the chances that at some point you will succeed. The more optimistic you are, the more you will be willing to try—and the more you try, the more often you will actually experience success.

When you tell your story, do this: 1.Start with the problem you or your company helps people overcome. 2.Agitate that problem to make it even worse. 3.Position yourself, your company, or your product as the resolution to the problem. 4.Describe the happy ending people will experience if they use your product to resolve their problem.

The question is this: If this were the second time I were living this day, what would I do differently?

It’s by reflecting that we edit our actions and design our lives. Those who do not reflect neither edit nor design—they simply respond.

Instead of understanding business as a for-profit entity that solves problems for paying customers, they think of a business more like a community group—that is, that customers give them money in order for them to create a community inside their office.

Overhead is anything involved in the cost of doing business that is not related to product creation, marketing, or sales.

Overhead is the salary for any position that is not creating a product, marketing that product, or selling that product.

Whose time is going to be taken up to create, launch, and sell this product?

What new people need to be hired to run this project and what will they need to be paid?

How much will our overhead increase if we launch this product?

Are their unnecessary costs we can cut in this launch to make sure the entire plane doesn’t get too heavy?

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