Road Map to Success and Happiness --- Four guides along the way. December 29, 2011

These are my guides as I attempt to apply the principles to my business model

While thinking of what I want to accomplish in 2012, and what I need to do achieve my goals for a prosperous and productive year, I was reminded of several books I cherish. It seems that to progress in this and any business, one must look at basic principles and strategies to excel. Hence, this list will serve as my road map.

This list is the basis of my New Year's Resolutions

Swim with the Sharks without Getting Eaten Aliveby Harvey McKay. Here’s a summary and review

1. Make your decisions with your heart, and what you will end up with is heart disease.
2. The single most powerful tool for winning a negation is the ability to walk away from the table without a deal.
3. Little things don’t mean a lot; they mean everything.
4. Anyone who thinks he or she is indispensable should stick a finger into a bowl of water and notice the hole it leaves when it is pulled out.
5. Your best people may spend their most productive time staring at the wall.
6. Everything is negotiable, but not everything that is negotiable should be negotiated.
7. He who burns his bridges better be a damn good swimmer.
8. Dig your well before you are thirsty.
9. Do not get mad and do not get even either. The only way you can achieve true revenge is not to let your enemies cause you to self destruct.
10. Nothing is greater to one than one’s self is.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - by Steven Covey. Here’s a link to the habits

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win-win
5. Seek first to understand, and then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

In Search of Excellence - by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. Here’s a link to the eight themes
   

1. A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'.
2. Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.
3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.
4. Productivity through people - treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.
5. Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.        
6. Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.
7. Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.
8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralised values.

And old-time favorite --- the king of all self-help books:

Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Here’s a summary of key points.

1. Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
2. Six Ways to Make People Like You
3. How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking
4. Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

To succeed and be happy in this business, I will attempt to apply many of these principles to my daily activities and interaction with people.

Someone once said “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”