To Sam Horn, whose name probably appears on so many of the recognition pages for the writers you've nurtured and whose scripts you've helped bring to life: Thank you for breathing life into this project as well. To Laurie Stephenson: You are one of the greatest shortcuts I have met; and without you, I would never have felt the peace and comfort that you brought to the process.
What a Shortcut Looks Like: The Rescuer on the River of Life
The journey you will take in the pages of this book will help you think, learn and earn the incredible power of the shortcut. Think back to the savior on my rafting trip, and you'll understand what this book is about.
Note
You often feel exhilarated when doing the most difficult aspects of your job. You're better at your job than most people you'd trust with your job, so you better do it.
The Know - Why
Why to Be a Shortcut — From What It Takes to Why It ’ s Worth It
THE SHORTCUT WAY
When you're in a hurry, you look for a shortcut to get you where you need to be. If you're in a hurry and don't have a lot of information, you really rely on a shortcut.
Shortcut Lesson
If you're one of those who's been laid off recently, you might be feeling a little bummed right now. You can think of it as a bumper sticker: if you're not a shortcut to someone, you're taking up too much space (and will likely be replaced with someone who is).
THE FIVE - STAR SHORTCUT
Basically, the lower the cost for someone to use your service, the better off you are as a shortcut. If you have the magic mix of low cost/high need, then you are a shortcut that will have extraordinarily high value.
THE HIGHEST - VALUE MARK
If you apply good old Economics 101 to it, you'll be able to determine your value as a shortcut and adjust accordingly. If you are an individual or service organization with a five-star rating, you probably have very specialized knowledge or skills; or you fall into that category of doing something that needs to be done that no one wants to do themselves.
THE THREE - STAR SHORTCUT
THE NEUTRAL ZONE
It's a nice Shortcut box to be in, but again judgments will be made - in this case regarding cost. Volumes are usually lower in this quadrant, but fees and prices rise because fewer people are highly trained in the high-needs area.
THE NO - STAR SHORTCUT
Or, if you "inherited" the employee with your job, write down the things you admire about their abilities. The no-shortcuts group—the no-star zone—is where you need to start asking questions of the person (including yourself) or the product that got there.
How to Be a Shortcut
THE CASE IS CLEAR
Or maybe you had to pitch your product or service to a single customer. If you can answer yes to all three, you're likely to be a hit and sell your audience. If you can answer yes to just one, you've delivered some of the goods, and sometimes that's enough; at least, you will travel in one direction Shortcut.
If you can't answer yes to any of these questions, rethink what you're asking for, and, more importantly, how you're asking for it.
EASIER
They are constantly looking for ways to make one of the big three.
BETTER
When you use this Shortcut tactic, you're essentially strutting your stuff—demonstrating how capable you are. You collect ideas that can make others look good so they don't look that much better than you by default. The people you are attracted to and want in your sphere are the ones who take the time to make you look good.
Sometimes you have to take the back seat so you know what it feels like to be in the front seat.
MORE MONEY
No wonder it's mind-boggling when you're trying to find that one piece of information buried in the haystack of information. If you do it exceptionally well and it's something others don't want to do, you'll be a rich Shortcut. That, in his mind, was the ultimate point of the business we were in—the one that put things on the screen of a viewer, our consumer.
Raise your hand,” The shortcut described earlier is a good way to jump-start this process. If you find yourself in the situation where you are overwhelmed, and it is indeed true that you are the source, it is time to negotiate. To get to the other side—the side of flow, of feeling fulfilled—you have to balance between anxiety and boredom.
THE CHANGE PROCESS IS BIOLOGICAL
Multiply the effort required to move from one place to another by at least 50 and you will have some idea of what it takes to achieve new, lasting positive behavioral habits. It only takes about 20 minutes before your RAM is full and we ask you to go back to what you know how to do and of course that won't work so we're more likely to give up. The prefrontal cortex uses a lot of energy in the form of glucose and it takes a lot of effort to process anything through it.
The only way to get past this energy-intensive gateway in our brain is to "mark" the new information, skill, or idea for growth.
YOU HAVE TO WANT IT
In contrast, the routine behavior stored in the basal ganglia is bossy and wins many arguments unless you deliberately override it. And that's why there are so many mediocre artists out there compared to the successful Shortcuts.
BE WILLING TO DO IT TODAY, TOMORROW, AND THE
Train Your Brain for 21 Days
Train Your Brain for 21 Days (Continued)
Keep Going—That’s What the Pros Do
The more consistently you do something, the faster it will be stored and leave that energy-draining space of the prefrontal cortex.
PUTTING THOUGHTS INTO ACTION
After you use a new behavior consistently for about 120 to 180 days, it will become a part of you, on a level that most do not achieve.
WORKING OUT LIKE A SHORTCUT
It is the stuff of experience and courage, the kind you get when you work skillfully; and the more you work to master something, the more knowledge and confidence you gain. The answer is this: It's the life we give to data that separates the good from the great. Most growth in corporations is a mix of merger/acquisition (M & A) activity and so-called organic growth—the kind that comes from taking something already available and turning it on its head.
The tragedy is that when managing data, they all too often find that they no longer have time to think and reflect—about the very processes that got them where they are.
How to Stand Out with Just a Little Bit of Creativity
Rarely can you have real long-term influence without spending the time nurturing the trust it takes to earn it. The more people you have in your pipeline with whom you have built that level of trust, the more influence you have. The point of this story is that influence is a right that must be earned; you must invest in the trust bank before you can spend influence.
And it's not just the big investments that add up; you can gain influence even through small deeds.
LIKEABILITY: THE QUICKEST PERSONAL SHORTCUT
If that's what you're experiencing, it's time to back up and review your likeability factors. As you become more aware of your likes and dislikes in these anonymous characters, you'll find that you can be more honest about your own likeability factors. Or are you somewhere in the middle and hoping to move up, or are you worried about slipping down.
Write down all areas of your life - both personal and professional - where you can comfortably claim to be one.
TACTICS TO NURTURE AND GROW YOUR SHORTCUT NETWORK
One of the things I learned during the home inspection was that the roof would need to be replaced. Coincidentally, she just retired, so her realtor referral to her clients and friends like me will be worth millions to some lucky Nancy who will be the queen of her realm. It's important to nurture the network of Nancys because they give us the freedom to become the Shortcut we want to be.
Do the following exercise; it will give you clues as to how you want to be perceived as a shortcut.
Exercise (Continued)
Why a Good Attitude Will Make You Money, and a Bad One Will
I successfully made my way to the Nordstrom store in the mall; it was lunchtime. They made me feel like I was the only one they served, and that my needs were the most important in the world. I only spent $15 for my meal, but I left feeling like I'd been to the fanciest restaurant in the world and ordered their Beluga caviar.
In a way, measuring emotional intelligence means measuring common sense and the ability to navigate the world.
Exercise
To be a successful shortcut, it's important to work on this aspect of yourself as much - or more than - the expertise. These kinds of approaches work well to get the customer "out of the rafters" and down to earth, so you can demonstrate your value as a shortcut to them. You will gain excellent insight into how they work if you make accurate assumptions from both lists.
Investigate an organization in decline and you will see that most of the people there are focused on maintenance issues.
Making Meaning, Not Making Money (Though That ’ s Nice, Too)
She heard the little voice in her head say, “I am the one who can resolve this conflict. His tact was completely different from what I've experienced before in this field, where I grew up expecting a series of obstacles and setbacks – ever-present and, often, conceit, “Oh, I wouldn't do that; it will cost a lot. A great place to witness stressful interactions is—you guessed it—at the airport (so much of my life is spent in this lab).
Okay, looks like I can get you a few rows closer to the front, but it's a middle seat.
