These things may be visiting a sick colleague in the hospital instead of meeting friends at happy hour, or putting in a volunteer shift when you would rather be outside enjoying the fall weather, or even standing up for a friend when the other friends in the group want to speak ill of them or exclude them. These are often small decisions which test our scruples and levels of loyalty; yet, they are also things which can mean the world to the other person.

I recently have experienced being the “other person” when individuals elected not to do the right thing. It stung and ultimately shifted the human dynamics forever. In Deirdre’s story, she suggests this is often the case. Most of our lives are not so dramatic that we are evaluating grand heroic gestures; rather, they are made up of small moments where “doing good” is simply doing the right thing, versus doing nothing. So, when it is often tempting to not do the right thing and follow the pack – while our conscious is bothering us to do the right thing – remember the mantra: “Always go the funeral.” The deceased person may not know you are there, yet you and the family will.

1. Always be true to yourself.
2. Rather than focus on work-life separation, focus on work-life integration.
3. Don’t network. Focus on building real relationships and friendships where the relationship itself is its own reward, instead of trying to get something out of the relationship to benefit your business or yourself.
4. Remember to maximize for happiness, not money or status.
5. Think about what your definition of success really is. Is it externally driven or internally driven?
6. Get ready for rejection.
7. Success unshared is failure. Give back — share your wealth.
8. Successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do.
9. Don’t lie, cheat or steal for one penny or one dollar — ever.
10. Business with bad people is always bad business
11. A bonus one:  Live your life full throttle. Take risks!

1. Go for perfect. Steve Jobs sweats the details. Enough said.

2. Tap the experts. Jobs hired I.M. Pei to design the NeXT logo, for example! Imagine, a world class architect designing a logo.

3. Be ruthless. Jobs is as proud of the products he has “killed” as the ones he has released. Focus. Fail fast. This will free up resources to focus on the right things. He scrapped a Palm Pilot clone when he realized that cell phones would eclipse PDA’s – and this lead to more engineers focusing on the IPod.

4. Shun focus groups. He believed that “people don’t know what they really want until you show it to them.” So he was his own one-man focus group – testing and playing with products himself for months. Interesting perspective – from a true creative leader driving innovation.

5. Never stop studying. He studied German and Italian cars for the Mac design case. He poured over Sony’s use of fonts, layouts, etc. He never stopped learning, growing, and challenging the status quo.

6. Simplify. His design philosophy is constant simplification. The classic example was when he asked the Ipod engineering team to lose ALL buttons, except the on/off button – which lead to the iconic scroll wheel instead!

7. Keep your secrets. Everyone – everyone – at Apple is on a “need to know” basis. This secrecy allowed Jobs to generate frenzied demand which lead to global headlines and lines from every Apple store around the block.

8. Keep teams small. The original Mac team was only 100 folks! This maintains strict accountability and tight communication.

9. Use more carrot than stick. Enthusiasm inspires long hours and “insanely great” commitment from your employees. Jobs is scary smart and tough as nails – yet his charisma is his most powerful attribute.

10. Prototype to an extreme. Everything from Apple is tested and tested – for years. Steve Jobs was known for scrapping a project after a year+ of time and resources on a prototype and start over from scratch.

We can all learn a tremendous amount from Steve Jobs – from his resiliency in the face of cancer to his perseverance when Apple faced tougher times in past decades. Yet, one of the most valuable lessons we can learn is his (and his team’s) approach to creativity – how can we apply these simple tips to our work?

What my parents and I experienced in this short 45 minutes was nothing short of amazing. Our exposure to the two delivery men started with a jovial call earlier that morning saying they would be at the house at 11:15 a.m. – which was 45 minutes earlier than the promised time. And promptly right at 11:15 a.m., they arrived.

“Good Morning! You must be Mr. Kaufman?” The energetic greeting was something one might expect on a Sunday morning at church, not necessarily by a Sears delivery team hoisting several hundred pounds of metal in the heat of the day.

The ultimate customer service experience continued to build from there.

• Happy, friendly conversation with ear-to-ear smiles throughout the entire interaction.
• Thorough knowledge of the appliances.
• Ultimate care and take charge demeanor throughout the installation.
• Attention to cleaning up after the installation – down to wiping down the appliances.
• Gratitude for the business and solicitous inquiry for feedback to improve in the future.

Does it get any better than that?!

These two men, Roy and Fred (we nicknamed Little Roy and Big Fred due to their ‘Mutt and Jeff’ disparate sizes and statures) obviously LOVED their jobs. They wanted to exceed the clients’ expectations. They wanted the customers to be delighted, not only in their new appliances, yet also in the overall experience.

We were.

The simplest of exchanges resulted in a raving fan and delighted customer. It is amazing what happens when an individual LOVES what he/she does and is committed to being the BEST in the service he/she provides. What so many of us could learn from this example! If this is the standard approach of a Sears delivery team this could perhaps be a turnaround in the making.

• First, simply determine what you want your brand to be. What do you want folks to think, say, or do when they meet you, interact with you, and when they speak of you to others? This is important. You may want to talk to other folks to get their insights. And most importantly: be authentic.
• Secondly, write down the descriptors and actions which represent that brand. Everything from the length and type of emails you send, to how you dress, to how you “show up,” etc. These are the metrics and measures by which you will then be judged against that brand. This is what you will stand for and how you will be referred. Write it down; say it when describing yourself to others to cement it further – then do what is on that list consistently. Consistency is the key.
• Finally, hold yourself accountable to that brand. In fact, after you have written the descriptors of how you want to be referred – then “assume that position.” For example, if you are faced with a challenging situation and are not sure how to respond, think of how someone like who you have just described would behave – then do it. This is a great way to continually grow into your brand, and build your skills and poise over time.

For those of you who have said to me over the past few years, “I don’t know if I even have a brand,” the answer is yes, you do, even if you don’t realize it. And, if you are unhappy with your brand, the answer to the question “Can I change it?” is again YES. It just takes conscientious self-awareness, authentic definition of how you wish to be thought of, and discipline and attention to making that consistently real to others.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

What do you value?

Do you share the values of the organization for which you work?

What behaviors truly represent those values?

What are you compromising to adhere to those values?

• What would we want with us if we were forced to live in a cave for 69 days?
• What would sustain us?
• What would we value?
• What would our perspective be and become?
• For what would we be most grateful?

Now, lets apply those answers to today, above ground, in our daily lives.

My point in this “Fine Line” has everything to do with exactly that: the fine line. In this case the fine line has to do with values – personally and professionally, individually and collectively. What is happening with our ability to stand tall in the face of temptation? Temptation comes in all forms – financial, sexual, social standing, promotion, power, and just plain old winning a competition. Oh – and by the way – that temptation is true for both Mark Hurd AND Jodie Fisher, his contractor (aka: actress) who ultimately was the nemesis that brought him down. He, arguably, had more to lose than Jodie with this tempting game, however.

Recently I have been working with several companies, on an international scale, who are struggling with how to grow and scale while instilling and maintaining a value system which will manifest the behaviors desired from their employees. I have repeatedly touted about how, at my old Alma mater Hewlett-Packard, we would fire people who lied on their expense reports, among other dishonest behaviors which would simply not be tolerated. Geez – who wasn’t listening?!

This is a wake-up call for anyone and any company who is seduced and intoxicated by temptation – in whatever form it may take. And oh, yes, for those cynically thinking and writing that Mark received a $12million dollar severance and over a $50million dollar total package to ride off into the sunset, which was grossly unfair, therefore it must not matter - I get it!

Yet, my question to them is, how do we think he wants to be remembered? What is the legacy he is leaving? What do his peers think about him now?  And, frankly, I wonder how that money can ever erase or even alter the obituary that will someday be written.

Squeaky clean may suddenly have a popular resurgence in our world. The legacy of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard has and will continue to stand the test of time as much for HOW they built and sustained their business, as HOW LARGE their empire was when they turned over the reins. As I mentioned in a blog earlier last week – that is the true measure of the man.