Have I Bought Your Book?

I am a sort of a troll when it comes to people creating products and trying to become better entrepreneurs, on the internet or otherwise. If the price is right, I’ll often buy a book or course from a person who’s information just happens to flash across my monitor. I recently placed an order for designer chocolates from a friend of my wife’s, because, it was Tuesday?

About half the time I will make the effort to offer up reviews and referrals. Honestly, I buy so much random stuff that I see first-hand accounts of just how poorly produced much of the material released online is. Because it is simple and inexpensive to create a product, many simple minded and cheap people think they have a shot of making a quick buck, and will take a shot.

If this is you, as in taking a shot at a quick buck with shoddy material, well, then more power to you. If you can get away with it, and your conscience is cool with it, then who am I to convince you otherwise. If your moral compass is a little closer to pointing to truth, then I know you are as frustrated as I am that there is so much bad material out there. It’s hard enough to compete with being good enough to rank with the good stuff, but the fight for eyeballs and shelf space with the millions of subpar products out there is discouraging.

Can I offer any solace to your pain? No.

What can I offer? A sympathetic ear. A shoulder to lean. A potential business or accountability partner.

And maybe a person with a little spare time what used it to voice a thought floating around in your head.

Whatever I can offer, I hope I can help. And I’m still buying plenty of books, programs, and products. At my own risk.

Fear Of Mission Creep

When I was getting my start as an Air Force Acquisitions Officer, mission creep was a concept heavily drilled in training sessions. The dictionary definition of mission creep is, “a gradual shift in objectives during the course of a military campaign, often resulting in an unplanned long-term commitment.” As I was dealing with products and their life cycle, my job was to ensure that the products as presented from the finalized prototype did not become and over-budgeted, out of hand, final product.

How hard is it to keep a simple product from becoming a complicated mess? When I was the manager of a software platform, I sat in negotiations between the government engineer that had to sign off on the finished product and the contracted company that would do the work. A typical software release had 35-50 points to negotiate separately, and only on rare occasions, could both sides quickly agree with the workload necessary and skip to a new point. Many points took hours to negotiate.

Why? The government, trying to be a good steward of your money, doesn’t want to waste resources (at least since the late 80’s, and that was still debatable when it comes to large, flashy weapons systems). The contractor wants to get paid and is trying to put as much work for their people as possible without putting themselves on the line to many freebies.

Mission creep, just like all the good military terms and metaphors, has found its way into business speak as well. And it’s the same problem that befuddles many in the tech industry, especially for those building and maintaining apps. Look to Evernote as a prime example. Evernote is an app I love, but the builders and maintainers lost sight of what its core users loved, and began to focus on add-ons and related products that sort-of fit into the mission, and turned a simple application into a complicated mess. Once Evernote started shedding some of the dead weight and not-so-stellar other products, the company saw an instant upswing in use and popularity.

Don’t let mission creep become a problem that slows down your life. It is just as easy for that simple party you begin to plan to become an event worthy of a fairy-tale princess, with a budget that could bankrupt a minor fairy-tale kingdom. Your life is complicated enough without letting too many ‘good sounding ideas’ get in the mix and turn into nightmares.

For Review: Rule #2: Don’t Be A ______ (insert personal expletive of choice)

So for over a decade I have been working on a book that was a collection of tips on how to live your life right. It’s had different titles and different numbers of rules. I’m in the process of getting out of the ‘working on’ and getting into the ‘publishing’ of this book. I am periodically dropping chapters on Medium for review. So…feel free to review.

Rule #2: Don’t Be A ______ (insert personal expletive of choice)

These rules themselves are not meant to weigh so that any one is more important that another. Each rule is written to live on its own. However, I did purposely choose this rule, ‘Don’t be a _____,’ as the lead rule on the list for many reasons. It was difficult to supplant Rule #1 with ‘Don’t Die,’ but that was necessary. ‘Don’t be a _____,’ taking a new reign in the number two spot is also necessary.

The main reason this rule has always held such high regard for me is that the rule itself sounds so much like basic common sense, even if the general populace cannot seem to make the connection.

I wrote this rule (and by wrote I mean I put it in this form) to sound simple. Then again, I suspect you do not remember half of the Speed Limit signs you pass on the way to work.

That is why I am so in love with this rule for those who quickly get it, but it is not flawless. The major problem with putting out a rule like ‘Don’t be a ______’ comes from your particular position in life. To be totally and brutally honest, there are many times in life well it just might pay major dividends to be a _______. I worked through plenty of days personally where from my view at the time, it seemed a whole lot easier just to be a _______ and then move along with life.

Yes, being a _____ is an effective, even if not socially acceptable, production tool. It can actually help you to get more things done, help you keep people moving and focused, and is most effective when used to help keep people away whose full intentions are to keep you from getting things done (because they get something out of being a ______).

Effective, but often not right. At the end of the day, what do you really accomplish by being a _____? How many friends can you really keep if you go around constantly being a _____? How many can you expect to put up with your foolishness if they can’t figure out when you’re going to be a _____ and when you’re not going to be a _____?

The definition of a ____ will vary from person to person. The point will always remain the same. You will definitely know one when you see one, and there presence is rarely a pleasant experience.

The rude abruptness of being a _____ can be an effective, albeit abrasive, motivator. It also has about as much subtlety as using a cattle prod to keep a toddler from wetting the bed. Being a _____ is definitely a quick way to stop the momentum of a group that has found its cohesion. It’s also a quick way to turn someone against you, and generally a quick way to alienate yourself from the rest of humanity.

The quickest way to ensure you will gain a reputation as torturous and will lead a generally unsuccessful life is to spend your life being a ____ and making the lives of all of those around you a living hell. The only thing worse would be to be a ____, and not even realize it. You could actually see yourself as being the opposite, progressing ahead with behavior that is really a complete turn off, while envisioning yourself in a hero-style journey.

You do not have a right to impose your _____-iness on others. Your ugly behavior is a reflection of you and the world you choose to live in.

Despite any positive that could be pulled from being a _____, don’t. Just don’t.

But feel free to substitute _____ with whatever expletive that suits you.