I love GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons 16 rules

Bob Parsons^® 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life in General

1.	Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
	I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."
2.	Never give up.
	Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.
3.	When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think.
	There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."
4.	With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
	Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."
5.	Focus on what you want to have happen.
	Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."
6.	Take things a day at a time.
	No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.
7.	Always be moving forward.
	Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8.	Be quick to decide.
	Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."
9.	Measure everything of significance.
	I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
10.	Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
	If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.
11.	Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing.
	When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12.	Never let anybody push you around.
	In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.
13.	Never expect life to be fair.
	Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14.	Solve your own problems.
	You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There's also an old saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."
15.	Don't take yourself too seriously.
	Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16.	There's always a reason to smile.
	Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: "We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time!"

"Copyright © 2004 Bob Parsons - http://www.bobparsons.me. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission."

4 Great Books to Read

I posted a required reading list for entrepreneurs a while back. I included a lot of great classics. I've been traveling a lot and I'm actually relaxing on the Big Island in Hawaii as I write this. I have been reading books like crazy lately so I wanted to post a little about them.

1) Abundance by Peter Diamandis- This book is about future of our planet earth and beyond. It tells of an abundant future. It goes into how we can solve some of the world's issues like poverty, clean drinking water, etc. Peter is the founder and Chairman of the X-prize. This is the organization that offered $10 million dollars the first person (non-goverment) to launch a manned flight into space twice within two weeks. Most recently he's been in the news for co-founding Planetary Resources The asteroid mining company with several high profile investors like the founders of Google and James Cameron. I've known about this project for a while now because Peter's Co-Founder/Co-Chairman Eric Anderson is a friend of mine and my forum mate in the Young Presidents Organization. Overall it's a book that gives you great hope for the next 10 to 20 years and for our future generations.

2) Entreleadership  by Dave Ramsey- If you are a small/medium sized business owner then this is a must read. It's one of those books that is a mix of reassurance that you are doing things right and new ideas that get you pumped up to implement into your business. It is filled with so many gems of wisdom. The book pulls from the knowledge Dave has gained in the business trenches. No theories here. All real meat! Because of this fantastic book I started listening to the Entreleadership Podcast
hosted by Chris LoCurto This podcast is every bit as good as the book. As a matter of fact, the final 2 books I'm going to cover are as a result of the interviews on the podcast. By the way Chris' blog is awesome too, especially this post about someone you might know of .

3)  Great by Choice by Jim Collins- Jim is most famous for his ground breaking best seller Good to Great. A common fixture on the bookshelves of entrepreneurs and business leaders everywhere. In this latest book he uses real life examples of how companies thrive over the long term. It tells you how you can choose to succeed regardless of the economy or any other outside forces. Listening to the 2 part interview on the Entreleadership podcast was actually just as good as the book itself. All of Jim's books are tremendously insightful, well researched, and highly recommended.

4)  The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni- This book was great timing for our company. We had all of the leadership team read it and have acted on some of it's principles. Most of Patrick's books in the past have been in story form. This book however, is in the standard business book style. The focus is on your company's organizational health. He gives great examples illustrating the importance of getting to know your team, having meetings that are both often and effective. He also has an interesting take on being a vulnerable leader and how that vulnerability with your team can make your company more healthy. I am going to read some of his fable style books such as Death by Meeting and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team in the future.

A Story of a Bedbug

So my pregnant wife wakes up at 2 in the morning and wipes a bug off her face. She finds the bug, kills it and is convinced, after 3 hours of internet research, that it's a bedbug that we brought back in our luggage from New York 2 weeks ago. She wakes me up to figure this little bugger out. It didn't help that after I posted a picture of it on Facebook to see if anyone knew what it was, my Director of coffee Phil texted me and said "that looks like a bedbug" Thanks Phil. A twitter post yielded little results. Mostly jokes like "it's an alien" and "I don't know but it's bugging me" and "not sure but if it was at my house it would be a dead bug". All cute but I needed an answer. My wife being pregnant AND exhausted, was a little anxious to say the least. After a lot of talk of burning mattresses and even selling our house (remember hormones and exhaustion) I knew I had to do something to diffuse the situation. At work I am constantly hammering my employees about resourcefulness (we even have an annual award for it) so I decided I better be resourceful. Since it was 7 in the morning our time I couldn't drive to a local exterminator and show them the bug to find out what it was. So instead I Googled for a bedbug focused exterminator in New York. (NYC people know their bedbugs AND it was 10 o'clock their time so I knew someone would be open) I got a hold of Green Eco environmental pest control and asked the extremely helpful gentleman if I could email a pic from my iPhone of the creature to identify if it was, in fact, a bedbug. I did, and his response? NO BEDBUG!! No mattress bonfires, no armies of men invading our house in white haz-mat suits. Just a happy wife , and back to sleep. Well, her at least.

Our new Core Values

We just recently revamped our core values. After 20 years in the coffee industry we thought we would upgrade and adjust our values to properly reflect how we do business today. One of our newest accounts (Prince Street Coffee in Lancaster, PA) wanted a copy so I thought I would post them for all to see. I am writing a new book to replace "Brewing a Creative Culture" (still available at Amazon.com) with each core value representing a chapter. This book will be kind of a "how we do business at Dillanos Coffee Roasters" kind of book. It will feature lessons, stories and principle's that will help any company, not just those in the coffee business. If you would like a full size copy emailed to you just contact my assistant Melissa at Melissah@dillanos.com