On Culture

I want to briefly go over the steps I follow to building a culture in my office. This can be applied in other situations such as raising a family, teaching a class, etc.

Step 1:
Define who you are in 7-10 words.
I am the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism.

Step 2:
Define your culture by replacing "I am"with "It is" in the previous sentence.
It is the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism.

Your culture should be who you are. Do not try to establish somebody else's culture because it probably will not match your personality. Make sure your culture is authentic for you!

Now to build the culture, you need to determine how you will portray this. I have a room dedicated to being remarkable and different in the heart of my office. It will be filled with intellectual things such as self-help books and leadership quotes, accompanied with Dr. Seuss books and cat memes.

Now that you have your why (I believe in the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism) and your what (manager, teacher, mother, etc.), you need your how to connect the two. How will you portray why you live through what you do? This answer is the answer to unlocking your culture.

On NEFAW

NEFAW means No Excuses, Find A Way. This is an extremely powerful mindset to live by on a daily basis. It means no matter what happens during your day, you will find a way to accomplish what you have set out to do. 

This week I have really begun to embrace this. I have been struggling to sign a lease for my office because the owners are taking their time (oddly). However, I anticipated this to be finished last week so I already scheduled group interviews this week. Last night with 15 people present, I walked to Independence Hall and conducted the interview on the lawn put front. I laid out blankets for the recruiting class to sit on as I stood with my PowerPoint on my laptop. Basically, I found a way to run the interview instead of rescheduling them and possibly losing some high quality recruits.

If you live by this principle, you will be truly amazed by how much you can accomplish in your life. It leads you on a path to being truly REMARKABLE!

On Shortcuts

It is rare that shortcuts are a good idea. Shortcuts are usually taken with the mentality of, this will get me to my end destination quicker. However, nobody ever picked up a guitar and started playing Stairway To Heaven. Usually they start with something like Smoke On The Water. You need to learn each step as you go along. Even if you tried to learn Stairway To Heaven and that is all you did until you mastered it, you still have not learned the fundamentals like chords, proper finger technique, or scales. After learning Stairway, you will fall because you do not yet know how to create songs. You do not know how to learn songs. And you probably do not even play Stairway To Heaven correctly.

Apply this to other aspects of life. Creating a business: if you try to grow too fast, you will fall since you do not have the people in the organization capable of holding up your company. Being a student: If you do not study throughout the year, your grades will hurt at the end.

Always remember, if a path feels like it will be hard, but it is the correct way of doing it, then do it every time. It is easier in the long run.

On Motivation

There are many differences between highly productive people and not so productive people and motivation is one of the key differences. Most people believe to do something, you need to be motivated to do it. "I will go to the gym when I feel like it." I don't care who you are, if you are sitting on the couch watching tv, nothing about that will motivate you to go to the gym. They key to motivation is to start doing it and THEN motivation comes to you. If you get your gym bag go to your car and start driving, are you likely to go to the gym? Yes!

You need to act your way into feeling! (This comes from John C. Maxwell somewhere). Think about what you need to do to make your business go, to get good grades, to work, get in shape, etc. Most likely you can envision where you want to be, but to get there, you need to do "annoying" daily tasks. Do not wait for motivation to make you do these acts. Just do it (Nike). 

"Being a professional is doing the things you love on the days you don't feel like doing them."

-Julius Erving

The key to being REMARKABLE is doing the little things. They always add up.

On Life Balance

Balance in life is dependent on your own happiness levels. If you love work and life then balancing it is not a trick of time, it is a trick of optimal life satisfaction. For self-employed people, entrepreneurs, and students, it is extremely important to learn balance. Much of balance comes from energy management. You need to put the same amount of energy into your family life, your social life, and your work life. If you keep your energy levels up high, people will not blame you for spending time at work. You need to show your family and friends that you love them by giving them your full attention whenever you are with them. Make sure you schedule important things for all circles in your life and attend them.

Time is a factor as well. You need to spend time with each circle to optimize your satisfaction levels. Maybe some weeks, you spend more time working than others. That is natural for anything other than a 9-5 job. I suggest each week you sit down and work out your schedule. You start by plugging in all of the most important things. Then you list how many hours you want to spend with each circle. Then you fill out your schedule accordingly. However, the amount of time you spend in each circle will not mean much if you do not bring your full attention during that time! ENERGY IS KEY!

Without energy, how can you be REMARKABLE?

On Studying

I am currently studying hard for a math exam tomorrow that is the final and biggest exam in my career at PSU. To study, you need to get in the zone. I play light music on my headphones, something like Norah Jones, and just go to town! GET AWAY FROM COMPUTERS!!!!!! (I am leaving this computer ridden building in a minute.) 

I believe you can learn all the information in a very quick time. The key to taking an exam is getting enough sleep the night before because you learn in your sleep. Do not study within an hour before the exam and do whatever you can to relax and be confident. That is half the battle. I have been at my best when I go into an exam telling myself that I know everything (whether I do or do not.) I utilized this system to its fullest potential when I hit Dean's List this time last year.

Happy Studying and Good Luck!!

On Crunch Time

During a time period in which you have to really push yourself to get results, it is important to step up to the challenge and face it head on. I have to admit, I have not done this during many opportunities to do so, but it unleashes your full potential and pushes you through a period of rapid growth. Once you realize you are capable of doing more than you give yourself credit for, you begin to truly excel at a higher level.

We see this many times in sports where a player breaks out during the playoffs and elevates their performance to another level. What typically happens is this performance allows them to raise themselves to a higher level in the following season because they have unlocked a new potential for themselves.

Accept crunch times or push weeks as a growth period and you can grow faster than most people around you. Challenge yourself to become truly REMARKABLE!

On Learning

Many of my friends, and myself, are crash studying for finals right now. I am amazed by how much I learn in the few days for finals. It is almost as if I learn just as much, or even more, than I have learned all semester. I think this is because during the semester, I lose sight of how to learn.

You must learn as if the next day, you must turn around and teach this material thoroughly to a new class. If you adopt this mindset towards learning, it will increase your efficiency with learning and allow you to really learn at an amazing rate. When I study for finals, I study with the intent of teaching this material. I know if I can teach the material, then I will be ready for the exam.

Good luck on finals for all those taking finals!

On Boundaries

"We predefine our boundaries."
-Christian Gouse

I personally believe every person on Earth was born to do great things. However, we set our limits as we grow based on what society tells us to set our limits to. The vast majority of people live an unremarkable life so they can have a safe job with a home. However, a person should constantly challenge themselves to improve so they truly have no boundaries at all.

The only boundaries you have are the ones you create. Nothing is impossible: I'm possible.

On College Degrees

A college degree is, indeed, important in society today. It represents the skill set one has acquired during 4 (or 5) years of college. However, I do not find it to be necessary. Often times, a young college student does not even realize what he/she wants to do for a living and graduates with a degree they do not even want to pursue. It is more important to acquire a growth mindset (Mindset by Carol Dweck is an amazing book). Most people are trained to have a fixed mindset (if I do not get a college degree, I will not get a high paying job). What one needs is a growth mindset (if I fail to get a college degree, how can I show that I have a good enough skill set to work?) The reason people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, etc. really excelled and changed the world despite having no fancy collegiate document to show their skill set is because they believed they could do it and they needed to figure out how.

Important but Not Necessary: college degree.
Necessary: Growth Mindset

"Energy and persistence conquer all things." -Benjamin Franklin