The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life

As leaders, we are involved in providing strategic direction and vision for the organization. It's part of the job. But who helps us provide strategic direction and vision for our lives? Michael Masterson is here to help.

In his new book, The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life, Masterson provides practical advice on making your life vision a reality. I've read six of his previous books and numerous e-mail, newsletter and web site page he has written.

About half of the material in this book I've seen before, but the rest is new and was very helpful. On page 8, Masterson asks the reader to commit to "The Pledge" by signing and dating it. It reads:

"I have committed to creating a master plan that I can use to succeed this year. I commit to following that plan without question or complaint. I further commit to keeping a journal on my progress and investing the time and money needed to achieve my goals. At the end of the year, I promise I will write to you and explain exactly what I have accomplished." (page 8)

Several things I like about this, including:
1. You have to write it down. Studies have shown that written goal are more likely to be accomplished.
2. It includes accountability. You have to write Masterson at the end and tell him how it went.
3. It removes doubt. By removing questioning and complaining. These are a couple of my biggest road blocks.
4. It provides measurement. You can't manage what you can't or don't measure. Keeping a journal helps you measure the progress you are making.

The Pledge starts with a test called "How Good is Your Life?" If you buy the book at the deeply discounted Amazon price, this test alone is worth the price.

I've already read this book cover-to-cover, underlining as I went. Then skimmed back through it again and underlined some more. I anticipate more encounters with this book in the years to come.

As a practitioner of personal development and planning for over a quarter century, I found suggestions for dealing with some of the issues I find particularly troublesome. Masterson includes advice on: information addiction and "being in a rut." A couple of things I excel at.

Favorite quotes:

"The single biggest reason that people fail in life is that they never take effective action." (page 6)

"The cost of failure, successful people know from experience, is very modest compared to the cost of inaction" (page 7)

"That was the shape of my delusion when my father said, 'If you want to be a writer, you have to write. A writer is someone who writes.'" (page 114)

"Attitude can change behavior, but it is much more common for behavior to change attitude." (page 174)

The 25-25-50 rule for preventing analysis paralysis (courtesy of Bob Bly).
"No more than 25 percent of your time studying."
"No more than 25 percent of your time observing."
"At least 50 percent of your time actually doing the things you are studying and observing." (page 155)

Hopefully, this whets your appetite for more. You can get you own copy here:

Economics in One Lesson

While not really classified as a leadership book, Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics elaborates on one lesson which is of great importance to leaders.

Henry Hazlitt explains his one lesson as this: "The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effect of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

I would contend this lesson is as applicable to leadership as it is to economics. Hazlitt believes his lesson requires a long, complicated, and dull chain of reasoning. He thinks such a chain of reasoning is difficult for many people to follow and so they give up. They are looking for the short, immediate, and visible result.

Such a view will lead to bad economic decisions. I believe it will lead to poor leadership decisions, as well.

Throughout Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics, Hazlitt illustrates time and again how economic policies that consider only the immediate effect on one group of people have detrimental effects for the long term on most other groups of people.

His examples are stunningly simple, yet, evident in every day life all around us. Hazlitt's insights clarify many of the apparent inconsistencies I see in organizational and government policies. Rather than inconsistencies, these are merely the natural outcomes of short-sighted thinking intended to positively impact one interest group.

Hazlitt explores the apparently unintended consequences of taxes, tariffs, price-fixing, rent control, minimum wage control, unions and inflation. None of them appear appealing under his instructive review. Even the groups who benefit in the short-term from such policies are seen to suffer in the long-term.

The lesson for leaders is: Consider the likely long-term impact of your decisions on all groups.

The World is Flat

If you want a thought provoking read on what is happening in the world today pick up Tom Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

Friedman highlights 10 world events that have taken place since 1989 to revolutionize how businesses operate in the 21st century. He starts with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the release of the Windows operating system in 1989.

He then discusses the dot com boom, bubble and bust which happened as a result of the Y2K software concerns beginning in about 1995. While the individual investor may have taken a beating in this market, businesses were given a world-wide information superhighway providing them access to markets around the globe. A concept Friedman refers to as "making the world flat." Or leveling the playing field of competitive advantage based on geographic location.

World Flatteners #4 - #9 include:

4. Uploading -- placing your own created work on the Internet where anyone can gain access to it and download it for themselves. Individuals are no longer just consumers of electronic products, they are now producers. Think blogging, YouTube, and Wikipedia.

5. Outsourcing -- sub-contracting all or part of your work functions to another company or individual. Then re-assimilating their work back into your organization.

6. Offshoring -- moving an entire operation, such as a whole factory, overseas or off shore.

7. Supply-Chaining -- horizontal collaboration between suppliers, retailers and customers to deliver products smoothly, quickly, just-in-time, and add value during the process.

8. Insourcing -- allowing collaborating companies to actually come inside your organization and perform functionality for you.

9. Informing -- making all the knowledge of the world available at your fingertips. No longer are you limited by the experts you can talk to. You can Google anything and learn from the best and brightest in the world.

In The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Friedman suggests that these flatteners have allowed 3 billion new competitors to enter the global job market. Any job that is not bound by physical proximity is fair game for these new job seekers.

Physical proximity jobs include: mowing your yard, fixing your car, unplugging your toilet, serving your food, etc. But even some traditionally geographically based jobs can be done over the Internet such as: teaching you Spanish, preparing your taxes, taking your order at McDonalds (the food will still have to be prepared and served locally, but your drive up order can be taken from anywhere), and providing you medical advice.

In these economically challenging times, you owe it to yourself to read this book to gain a better understanding of what you are really up against!