Driving Your Economic Engine

The third prong of the Good to Great model involves the translation of that at which you are best in the world into something at which you can make a lot of money. In the corporate world the goals are to:

• Maximize profits;
• Accelerate growth; and
• Create a sustainable competitive advantage.

And so to it is for you and your personal professional business. Again, this will be personal to you. How hard to you want to work? How much money do you want to make? When do you want to retire? Stuff like that. This process can be tailored precisely to your needs.

Find the Driver:
I attended the Festival of the Little Hills yesterday. It was a lovely day. Very relaxing and for a person who studies passion, it is on display in spades. There were rows of booths with artisans of varying levels of expertise, all displaying their wares for the passers by. I stopped to speak to a particularly wonderful glass artist, from whom we purchased a few items, and I asked her about her work. She was clearly passionate. From what I could tell, her work was extraordinary.

After she explained in detail how she does what she does, I asked her why she sells at shows like this. “That’s easy,” she answered, “I love the people.” She has a shop back home, sells through quite a few retail outlets around the country and sells quite a bit over the internet. She considered that she probably does not need to do this, but this is how she got started and this is one of the things she loves about doing what she does.

As we spoke, however, she also pointed out that these shows drive people to her website, which takes them to the stores that sell her items, and from both she makes a great deal more money than what she will take home from this weekend. In her mind, these shows are the driver of her economic engine.

In the end, she comes because she loves standing with me, talking passionately about her art, and selling me just what my lovely wife was looking for. That drives her passion and HER economic engine. That is what we are all striving for.

Follow Through:
I met the number one professional dart player in the United States over the weekend. I did not even know there was such a thing as professional darts. This guy can knock a dime off your tongue from 10 feet away, with a dart.

You could never in a million years get me to stand there with a dime on my tongue so he could show off.
“Oops, one more time. Sorry about that chap. The medic here will fix that right up. You’ll be talking again in no time. Next?”

How did he practice? How many people have holes in them because he had not quite perfected the feat? Even Meadowlark Lemon missed his patented half court half hook every once in a while.

He is incredibly passionate about darts. He plays with darts all the time, reads about darts, watches darts and travels the world participating in professional dart throwing competitions and exhibitions. The way his wife rolled her eyes confirmed this. As a result, he has become the US Dart Champion and is ranked in the top five in the world. He has found his passion and is best in one world and working on becoming best in a bigger world. Two prongs accomplished.

Does this drive his economic engine? He makes a decent living, but he has not yet channeled his passion and the fact that he is best in the world into truly driving his economic engine. His wife holds down two jobs. He has no sponsors, no agent, no commercial endorsements, no line of darts or dart shirts, and otherwise does nothing besides winning dart competitions. Unlike the glass artisan from the fair, he has never followed through to cause his passion to drive his economic engine.

Tiger Woods makes millions playing golf. That drives his economic engine, but the REAL MONEY comes from sponsors, endorsements, appearance fees, etc. It comes from the follow through. As you become best in the world you need to follow through and say to yourself, in the words of Cuba Gooding, Jr., “Show Me the Money.”

All I could think about as I spoke to the dart champion, were all the opportunities he had to make money using his expertise in the dart world. What should he do to cause his dart throwing to accelerate his economic engine? He has the driver. He needs the follow-through.

It reminded me of the movie with Tom Cruise and Paul Newman, “The Color of Money.” Paul Newman was the Hustler, reborn from the 1960s film about a pool shark who tried to defeat Minnesota Fats. Newman tried to explain to Cruise that one makes money in pool, not by winning tournaments, but by sharking pool and playing the competitions behind the scenes. That is how one drives the 8-ball economic engine. Tom Cruise had the passion and drive to be best in the world, but he missed that critical point.

How do you turn that into money!!!

Finding the Money.
The next several blog posts will assume that you have:

• begun the iterative exercises required to figure out what you are passionate about; and
• created your culture of discipline necessary to become best in the world.

If you have not, START. If you are not going to start, stop reading this blog as it is a waste of your time. You will remain one of the modestly paid worker-bees the rest of us need.

As Chris Draft of the St. Louis Rams recently pointed out,

“If you are not a Superstar, from the moment you make the team they are trying to replace you.”

Who is Chris Draft, you ask? My point, and his, exactly.

You can make yourself a Superstar, but remember, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Albert Pujols work harder than everyone else in their professions. Sam Walton pointed out after WalMart was promoted as an overnight success,

“We were an overnight success that was over twenty years in the making.”

Quotes are close but may not be exact.

Culture of Discipline

Being best in the world requires a lot of work. That is why you have to be passionate about the area in which you are going to become an expert.

Do not worry about finalizing every detail of what you are passionate about. Just start the process. You will use the process to iterate toward your passion and what the brutal facts show you is and is not your future area of expertise.

Step 1:
If you want to be the best in the area you are passionate about and do something you love for the rest of your life, then you have to decide to make it happen. Now is a good time to start.

If there is someone in your firm who is doing what you want to do, approach them and tell them about your passion. Ask them to be your mentor.

Either way you have to find all of the following:
What do experts read every day to stay on top of the area? What are the critical websites?
What books must you read to get the base background information?
Are there classes or seminars that you should take?
Who is regarded as the world’s experts in the area? Where can you go hear them speak or read what they have to say?
What organizations should you join and become active in?
How else can you learn and become a true expert? Think!

At this point we are still not worried about money. The goal is not to become rich. The goal is to do what you love, what you are passionate about, become best in the world and then parlay that into wealth.

Step 2:
Get out there and learn.
Go to every seminar by every important person on this subject that you can until you know that you could give a better seminar on the topic yourself. Then start doing that.

Read every core book on the subject. Read every current journal on the subject. Read ancillary articles and information that might clarify all your options in the area.

Write articles on the subject. Cutting edge forward looking critical thinking articles that show that you understand this information extremely well. Initially, they may only get as far as internal memos to the team. Then perhaps white papers posted on your firm’s internet. Eventually, work to create something that can be published and then co-author articles with an attorney who is well-respected in the field.

Take classes if that will help make you a true expert. Then find a way to teach those classes. First teach internally, then to perhaps junior professionals in a target client, then at a college and finally in a graduate program. Build up your credentials.

Join all of the important associations involved in any aspect of your area of expertise. Become involved. Meet people. Talk about the subject with passion and flair. Ask lots of strong questions. Show those who may need your services that you are passionate about this, that you know your stuff and are interested in knowing everything they know on the subject.

Even if you are shy, when you are in a group that is focused on the things you are passionate about, you will be able to comfortably talk to anyone. It is the fear of being unprepared that stops us from talking to people. Be prepared!

Step 3:
Do!
Find work on the sort of matters that you want to spend your life on.

Start by working with your mentor, if you have one, on any case in this area he or she has.

Do a pro bono project for a not-for-profit or charity.

Find small projects with friends you already have or have met in the associations you have joined to get started.

Do a phenomenal, over-the-top, perfect job on everything you do, no matter how mundane. Build your expertise from the ground up.

The ultimate goal as a professional is to establish yourself as the person everyone with a need for what you offer calls first, because you are the best and they know they cannot afford to have you on the other side of the table. You cannot get there overnight, but if you start now you will get there sooner.

We will talk a bit about time management next time.

READY SET - GO!!!!

Becoming Best in the World

Continuing with the themes and lessons of Good to Great by Jim Collins, once you have found your passion, which is no easy task and is an iterative process you will come back to over and over to refine, you must take that passion and turn it into something great.

Being Best in the World:
All of the Great companies discovered that to win in their markets they had to decide to be the very best in the world at what they did.

There is no way to become best in the world at anything if you are not truly passionate about doing it every day. You can force yourself to be good, but eventually you will become too bored or tired of the subject to keep yourself beyond the cutting edge, as the best must be. One must find that place where you have deep burning passion and determine that it is an area in which you can become great.

We have one of the best intellectual property damages experts in the country in Wayne Hoeberlein. It took him years to find this passion. He did boring accounting work, did some expert work in divorces and contract disputes. Then one day he did an IP case. The light went on. He found what he loved and focused on becoming best in the world. He now does this exclusively and serves in cases involving the biggest companies in the world every day.

Everyone migrates away from things that do not engross them to those things that do. So step one is always to find what you love to do. What you are passionate about.

Face the Brutal Facts:
Of course one cannot be best in the world at anything, not even in an area about which they are not truly passionate. One has to “face the brutal facts” about who they are and how they are going to become Best in the World at the thing they are most passionate about.

For example, Kimberly Clark, long one of the world’s largest paper manufactures decided that even if they were passionate about paper, the brutal facts were that there was no way for them to be best in the world at producing this commodity product. So they built on their passion for paper products by deciding to be best in the world at paper distribution systems.

They took the dramatic step of selling all of their paper mills and got completely out of the paper manufacturing business. They channeled all of their efforts into reinventing paper dispensing systems. Those big roll toilet paper dispensers reduced the amount of times the rolls had to be changed. The dispensers with a second roll above the first so that again the rolls did not have to be changed as often. Creative new ideas based on their passion for paper but in an area where they could actually become best in the world. They followed their passion and are best in the world in that category and during the 15 years they were studied outperformed the market by over 15:1.

One of our professionals has a passion for scuba diving. Can she translate that passion into something within UHY FLVS at which she can be best in the world?

Is there a financial component to environmental law?
Calculating damages associated with pollution that destroys a delicate reef system?
Do companies involved in marine work require audits, tax work, etc.?
Are they international and do they perhaps pay bribes to foreign governments, perhaps to fish in certain waters or bring in catches above limits?

Is her passion for scuba diving about something else entirely?
Perhaps risk taking?
Are there opportunities to get that thrill in an area within our company?
Perhaps calm get-away beauty?
Is there an area in our company that is low-risk, low-pressure where she can be happiest and become best in the world?

What else? Go through the questions and discover the real passion. What is it about what you love to do that makes it something you love to do?
Perhaps, God forbid, she has to sell all of her “paper mills” here at UHY and go after becoming the best scuba diver in the world, or buy a shack on the beach and sell scuba gear and teach.

Brutal facts are important. I may love sprinting (I don't but go with me here), but I am old and fat and there is no way I can ever be best in any world in sprinting. So, that is not a career option for me. I have to figure out what else I am passionate about.

How about writing? I could start a blog or lead thought and help our experts write articles?
How about helping young professionals develop their careers and become happy in their work? Hmmmm.

Take you passion and think about whether (not "how" yet) you can be Best in Your Defined World at something that will drive your passion.

Face the brutal facts and build your future.

Finding Your Passion

The following is derived from one of the great business books of all time, Good to Great by Jim Collins and his team of researchers. They wanted to find out what drove great businesses to greatness. Get the book. It is a wonderful and relatively easy read.

I have taken the messages and transformed them into a process for any professional, since we are all our own business, to use to become great.

About what are you deeply passionate?
At what can you be best in the world?
What drives your economic engine?

The First of These is Passion:
The first step in creating your own Great business is to find what you are passionate about. No one can become an expert in anything they are not passionate about. One will never engate in the level of discipline necessary unless you love what you are doing.

A recreational or hobby passion is good to have and be aware of, but what you really have to work on is finding what in a business sense you are passionate about.

Passion is not based on money. The question is not, "How can I get rich?" We will get to that, but that is not this question.

As you do what you do, see what others do and explore on your own, what absolutely turns you on? What would you do if you could only do one thing every day?

This can be a job but more often these are tasks or functions. Things you like to do, not a job you like. The process will get to the latter.

At UHY Advisors FLVS, one thing we do is provide services for attorneys prosecuting some form of litigation. Our services range from pre-litigation strategy, to eDiscovery, investigation, forensics to damages analysis and expert testimony.
Let's say you are in this firm and your answer is:
"I love to discuss complex things with people. I could do that all day long. I have even considered trying to have my own talk show on the radio."
Why?
"Because I love to delve deeply into a subject and really get to the roots."
Why?
"Well I am interested in things and I always believe there is more to the story than meets the eye."
Why?
"I just do not trust anything I read unless I verify it for myself."
Why?
"People are selfish and greedy. Everything they say or write has their personal agenda behind it, but I know I can get down to the real, bald truth."

Well as we look at this we start to realize that this person is really cut out to be a forensic investigator and probably an expert witness as well. They will love the digging and research through the piles of data to find the real untained facts that prove the ultimate truth. But in the end they really will need to tell someone about it and debate the issues. Just gathering the data will probably not be enough.

"Well, I don't have a passion, well except for scuba diving. I work so I can scuba dive all night long and all weekend."
Why scuba diving?
"Because it is so calm and peaceful and there is a whole world down there that few know about."
Why?
"Because they can't see it so they just pollute it, and over fish it, and ruin the reefs and fish and crustacean habitat."
Why?
"People don't care about things they don't see. These areas need protection."

Well looking at this we can see how we have uncovered that there is a passion about scuba diving because there is a passion about marine life. There are laws protecting marine life. There are attorneys who are engaged in stopping companies from harming marine life. There are companies who do not realize they are harming marine life. Perhaps that passionate scuba diver can find a niche where she can work to protect the world she loves so much?

Find your passion first. Get deep into it. Once you do the "whys" adjust the questions a bit to "What" questions as well. Have someone go through this process with you. You may want to do it twice, once with someone who knows you well and at least one other time with someone who does not know you well. A person who knows you well may have some unique insights, but they are also likely to add color based on their own opinions of you, good or bad.

This is your future. Find your real passion. Do not necessarily define it in terms of a job yet. Define it in terms of things you love to do. Tasks and functions you would do every day if you could.

You have to be best in the world at something to drive your economic engine in the professional services arena and you will never be best in the world at anything you are not passionate about.

Good luck.





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Basic Concepts - An Outline

Over the coming weeks, I will elaborate on all of the following issues. I hope you find them illuminating and helpful.

1. You are a Business: Every professional is a unique and independent business.

This is true whether one works for a firm or hangs out her own shingle. Buyers by a professional and his or her team, not the firm, though the firm must help or the professional will leave.

2. Find Your Passion: As explained in Good to Great, one must become the best in the world at that about which one is passionate and use that to drive his or her economic engine.

What are you truly passionate about? It is only in these areas that you can become a true expert.

3. What is YOUR Focused Business? Identify your service or services and create your professional services business.

You must be the expert. Buyers pay the most in "bet-the-company" situations. In those situations they want the best. To get the best they will pay more. If you are the best, buyers will seek you out and pay you more. It can be a long road to get there, but worth the trip.

4. Become an Expert: Once you have identified the services you will deliver through your business, you must develop a "culture of discipline" to become the very best.

Read everything. Listen to the current experts. Take their ideas to the next level. See the future. Get published. Speak often.

5. Marketing: Building your expertise and more precisely the perception of expertise. Tell the "world."

6. Sell Strategically: Identify your targets with specificity. Research them. Who are they and who else influences the decision to hire you. Find them. Hunt them down. Create a "Win" for each and you will create a big win for you.

7. Execute and Exploit: Perform flawlessly. Use the client at a reference. Secure a testimonial. Write and article together and get it published.

The recession is apparently nearing its end, at least at some point in time. Those who have become experts and focused their efforts will end up on top.

At UHY Advisors FLVS, we are working diligently on this. It is a never ending endeavor. Our strategy now focuses on the areas in which we are truly top in our fields and we are building on that. The first six months of 2009 saw new business at around 150% of that brought in during the same period in 2008. That during a strong recession.

We are coming out of this rolling with a full head of steam. You can too.