My Monthly Newsletter Is Awesome. You Should Signup.

I wanted to find a way to deliver some kind of uniquely valuable stuff to you, my faithful readers and listeners, in a new format.  Something special and exclusive so you can brag to your friends that you are part of a secret club with decoder rings.

The decoder rings turned out to be too complicated and heavily monitored by the DHS so instead I opted for the next coolest thing.  A monthly email newsletter.

That’s right.  If you sign up (in the sidebar or the tab that says “Monthly Email”, which is a code-word for our secret club) you’ll get something super special in your inbox once every month.  It’s like a cartload of fresh ripe Honeycrisp apples delivered right to your door except it’s an email of words delivered to your screen.

I just sent out the first one yesterday.  I can’t verify, but initial reports indicate life-changing effects rippling across cyberspace.  Did you feel that?  Probably my newsletter blowing someone’s mind.

I will not normally include the content of these newsletters here on the blog.  It’s super secret and special, remember?  But just this once I will do so.  Very big of me, I know.

The newsletter is built around a review of a piece of media each month.  A book, movie, TV show, podcast or some other tidbit.  This month it’s the HBO series Silicon Valley.

You can check out the newsletter here.  More importantly, you can signup here!

Tell everyone.  But be secretive about it.  See you in the club next month with the other cool kids.

The Secret Skill That Beats All the Rest

From the Praxis blog

I’m going to tell you a secret. There is a skill you can master which will guarantee everything you do will improve by at least 50%, but probably more like 100%, and more over time.

The best part about this skill is it’s easy. Anyone can obtain it. You don’t need to have any particular natural talent. You don’t need any resources or teachers to master it. Once you have it and it becomes a part of your every operation you will begin to achieve at an accelerating rate. Your success will compound and your reputation will bring you more opportunities.

In the words of Morpheus, “Do you want to know what it is?”

Getting sh*t done.

That’s it. Read it again. Let it sink in.

What does it look like in practice? Responding to emails immediately, and never taking longer than 24 hours to do so. Showing up for everything you’ve said you’d show up for. Finishing everything you’ve said you’d finish and on time. When you say, “I’ll read that book”, or, “I’ll check out that website”, or, “I’ll send my resume”, doing it. Immediately. If you can’t or won’t, don’t say those things. Every time you say you’ll do something and don’t you’ve missed an opportunity to be better than the majority of your peers and build social capital.

In 90% of situations I’d take someone with coherent same-day responses to all communications who always delivers as promised and when promised over someone with mastery over just about any skill I can think of. I’m not alone in this. The desperate need for hard working, reliable people who communicate immediately all the time is off the charts.

If you make people wait for responses or wonder if you’ll ever follow through you’ve cost them, even if only psychologically. People don’t tend to want to work with people who cost them, they want to work with people who they never have to expend any mental energy worrying about. They want to work with people who pleasantly surprise them by over-delivering.

Anyone can be the person who always follows through, always communicates, always delivers, and never leaves anyone hanging or in the dark. It’s only a matter of will and discipline.

Just get stuff done.