“They’re Stupid!”

Where have you heard that lately? People are saying that Mr. Trump’s “they’re stupid” mantra has turned political correctness on its head. But, he may be on to something. A friend of mine reminded me of Carlo Maria Cipolla’s study of human stupidity which he reported in an essay titled The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Cipolla identified five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.

You ignore Cipolla’s five laws at your peril, especially #5.

As a business owner and executive, I didn’t use the word stupid, but like any good executive or manager, I understood the dangers stupid people presented.

My team at Juris, Inc. called them “unconscious incompetents.” They are people who are not yet competent for the position they are in and do not know they are incompetent. Few people, including the President of the United States, go into a position fully competent on day one. Conscious incompetent people know their limitations and compensate. They seek advice, take advantage of training opportunities, they self study, etc. — all in an effort to learn and gain experience that increases their level of competency. The process from incompetent to competent is explained by the authority triangle in my book The Language of Excellence.

The unconscious incompetent without hesitation makes decisions for which they are not qualified. As employees they expose an organization to undue risk and thus when identified they are driven out—terminated. The risk to society of unconscious incompetent political figures and bureaucrats is even greater, and unfortunately, they are seldom driven out, and prior to Mr. Trump, there was often no attempt to identify them. Who are unconscious incompetents: “They are the dangerous people—Trump’s “STUPID!” people.”

Now....consider this. Do you think Mr. Trump is ready, fully competent, for the job of President of the United States? If not, do you think he knows that? ...And if he doesn’t, wouldn’t that make him, I don’t know... “STUPID!”

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For signed copies of The Language of Excellence and other books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Every once a while, someone really comes through!  These are the Good people and Good products. The Good people do what they promised when they promised to do it, and they do it at the price they promised. Likewise, you occasionally get your hands on Good products.  They are priced right, built right, and do exactly what you expected them to.
 
Unfortunately, Good no longer seems to be the norm. More likely than not, you will not get what you paid for. I am really getting tired of poor service, shoddy products or poor workmanship, and failures to deliver (or show up) on time as promised. Those are the Bad people and products.  And it can only get worse from there. The Ugly are those situations where you feel you were cheated, intentionally mislead, or the product or service causes more harm than good. Since the Good is so rare today, I want to start sharing the identity of services and products that really stand out as Good—at least in my experience. I hope this list grows, because it is disappointingly short.
 

My List of Good Products and Services

• Mosquito Squad: For years we had to retreat to our screened in porch. Not anymore! To find out more go to their website at www.mosquitosquad.com.

• Closets by Design: The installer arrived when promised. The installation was professional and the finished product was exactly what we expected—Good quality, fair price, nice people. Go to www.closetsbydesgn.com.

• Turfcare Landscapes: We use them to maintain our current landscape including mowing, rose care, mulching, debris removal, roundup and insecticide treatment as needed, aeration, reseeding, trimming and pruning.  It is like our lawn and landscaped areas are on autopilot. They just take care of things—we don’t have to tell them what to do. They see what is needed and they take care of it—that’s all folks and it is great! Go to http://www.turfcareofnashville.com.

• Chris Doubler, Art Handler & Designer: We had some really large paintings that needed to be hung in high and difficult locations.  Finding the names of people who do that work wasn’t easy, but I finally came up with three recommendations. Two never returned my calls.  The third finally did, but he explained that what I needed was beyond his job grade; however, he gave me the name of someone who could do what I wanted. That someone was Chris Doubler. Chris called me back almost immediately. He quoted a fair hourly rate, and we agreed on the day and time for the work. He arrived as promised with all the equipment, tools, and helpers needed for the job.  He installed eight large pieces in a little less than two hours. The workmanship was first rate. You can reach Chris by phone at 615/423-5763. Services include installation, packing, consultations, and transportation of art. 

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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We Were Robbed!

Once we moved, we told the contractor, “Thank you but we will take it from here.”

Since our plan was downsizing, we didn’t expect to spend a lot of time on the second floor. Nevertheless, we realized that those upstairs bedrooms depended mainly on lamps for illumination. So being “contractorless,” we called an electrical subcontractor and told them we would like to have recessed lights installed in the three upstairs bedrooms. It seems everyone in the construction business is super busy in the Nashville area these days. Home construction may be down but mega apartment buildings are going up everywhere. The subcontractor “worked us in” to their schedule sending over two workers on a Saturday.

  

The electrical company has done work for us many times over the years and has done a great job. They have often worked in the current and prior residences when neither we nor anyone else was in the house. We trusted them completely. I admit, however, that this time we were not familiar with every member of the crew doing the recessed light work. My wife and I needed to run an errand, and we left the men alone to complete their work with instructions about securing the house if they should finish before we returned. We were gone a couple of hours.

When we returned, the house was locked, fully secured, and the men were gone. I had to go out again, so I looked for some cash that I had left in a basket on the kitchen counter.  [I have to be very careful here not to mention names. In America, you are innocent until proven guilty, and proving guilt isn’t easy without the help or stupidity of the thief.] Oops, the money was gone. So were three of my wife’s rings that were also in that basket including her 53 year old wedding band. Now getting nervous, I checked where I kept my watches and rings. Two very special rings were gone—a 22ct gold David Yurman piece with the image of a horse in black jade and a second gold ring with a carnelian carved by the German artist, Manfred Wild.

  

The sheriff is on the case—so is Mark Rollins because whoever the culprit is, this probably wasn’t his first robbery, and unless we catch him and put him away, it probably will not be his last. “Mariko, get your Beretta—the game is afoot.”

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For more about the move and its trails and tribulations go to the prior post titled Our Next House.

For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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Our Next House

My email, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts have been filled today with well wishes. My thanks to each you for touching base on my birthday. I thought I would use the occasion to give you an update on our physical move. It is only about three miles from the old homestead, which is now in the hands of my daughter and her family.

We are figuratively ‘bruised and bloodied’ but finally in our next house. I’m not calling it home yet because there is still a lot to do before it feels that way.

The plan had been to down size, but I think something went wrong with that plan. The house was previously owned by a professional hockey player. And I have been told the house was frequently an after game hang out, so it has taken some wear and tear. Thus, we decided to remodel and - renew the house before occupying it.

Our three month remodeling plan took about eight months, and there are still odds and ends that have to be done.  We had five destructive water events during the remolding. The first was an overflowing drip pan of an air handler installed in the attic. Then during a severe cold snap, we had an ice damn that damaged the ceiling and floors of the breakfast room. Both events did a lot of damage but were nothing compared to what we experienced during the water heater saga. It started when a traditional water heater also installed in the attic died of old age. Its tank burst sending water crashing through the ceiling and flowing down the walls of the living room and master bedroom suite. The contractor talked me into a tankless replacement so that I would never have that kind of problem ever again. Not so! After the drywall and other damage from the first water heater had been repaired, the tankless water heater froze and burst. It was déjà vu. Then the contractor recommended that I build a insulated room around the next replacement to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. Confident that the insulated room eliminated all risk of another frozen water heater, we went ahead with the installation of  new subflooring and carpet. The temperature outside dropped. The replacement of the replacement of the replacement froze and burst despite its protective new insulated room. In came the big fans again. Freshly painted dry wall was removed along with light fixtures, portions of the carpet, and subflooring. All had to be replaced, restored, and repainted. It déjà vu all over again!

This time I remembered the old saying “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” It turned out the tankless water heaters were installed in such a way that when the lights in the attic were turned off so was the power to the water heater. Which I later learned later, if installed properly, would remain unfrozen even at 30 degrees below zero.

That was the last straw when it came to a water heater in the attic. You see we already had a second traditional water heater in the garage. The only thing the one in the attic did was serve the master bedroom bath. “Guys, we are downsizing! Why in the world would two people need two water heaters?  I wish the contractor had thought of that instead of “an insulated” room. We rerouted the plumbing of the master bath to connect to that already existing other water heater—and finally I can say “We will never have to deal with that kind of problem ever again!”

We did get something out of this that most people don’t have—a nice insulated room in the attic. It is empty. The tankless water heater that once called it home is only a bad memory.

More to come—We were robbed!

The Cake Angel

I’m a cancer survivor—one who beat the odds. So far, to do so has meant three major operations, chemo, and radiation. After the first operation, I remember waking up in the hospital to listen to the surgeon tell me that he had been unable to remove all of the offending tumor. I should go home and put my affairs in order. I had two years to live, maybe. The team at Tennessee Oncology took over and thanks to them I am cancer free, at least for now.   The Oncology team is determined to keep it that way monitoring my health closely. That means regular visits to the clinic and my little slice of cake from the Cake Angel.

Everyone at Tennessee Oncology has been visited by the Cake Angel.  I don’t know her name or her story, but I would like to know both.  What I do know is that every day this nice lady brings a basket of freshly baked cakes to the clinic for the patients. She calls her goodies bread—Zucchini bread, banana, chocolate chip, cinnamon nut, butter pecan, etc. What an unselfish act.

Cancer is scary. Hours in a chemo chair with poison dripping in your veins is hard. It is a little less scary and chemo is just a little easier because of the Cake Angel.

A good person might do something nice once in a while. What elevates this lady to Angel status is that she does her nice thing every single day. That kind of dedication to a task she has created for herself can only be an act of love. Knowing that we have caring people like the Cake Angel in this world is sweeter that the daily slice of bread she offers to each of us.

Me on Chemo

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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Two spaces after a period is just wrong!

I learned to type in high school. It was 1958, so, of course, my typing was done on a manual typewriter. At the time, I had no idea just how valuable typing skill would become to me as a computer user. But I also picked up one almost unshakable bad habit—the “two space” error.

As Farhad Manjoo explains in Slate, “you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.” In spite of the fact that every major style guide prescribes the single space rule, people of my generation can’t seem to stop putting that extra space into everything they type including e-mails.

Farhad notes that “the people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences.” So when and why did some of us start adding an extra space?

It seems that the misguided two spaces are a product of those old manual typewriters I used in high school. We were taught to put two spaces after periods by our typing teachers to accommodate the shortcomings of manual typewriters. With those outdated obsolete machines used mono-spaced type, every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space on the sheet. Putting an extra space after a sentence made text easier to read. With today’s electronics, nearly every font is proportional. With proportional fonts, the two space exception to the long established one space tradition was no longer needed. With proportional fonts, typographers say the extra space diminishes rather than enhances readability.

The problem for people of my generation is that the muscle memory in our fingers that allows us to type without looking or thinking about the keys also automatically adds the extra space. While we know right from wrong, our fingers have a mind of their own.

P.S.: After originally typing the above, I edited the text to eliminate all the extra spaces my independently thinking fingers had added. There were nine.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα

The above ancient Greek text translates as "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."  A surprising number of fables and modern stories have been inspired by this bit of text attributed to Archilochus.  Jim Collins even included a version of one in his book Good to Great. Collins explains it this way:

“Picture two animals: a fox and a hedgehog. Which are you? An ancient Greek parable distinguishes between foxes, which know many small things, and hedgehogs, which know one big thing. All good-to-great leaders, it turns out, are hedgehogs. They know how to simplify a complex world into a single, organizing idea—the kind of basic principle that unifies, organizes, and guides all decisions. That’s not to say hedgehogs are simplistic. Like great thinkers, who take complexities and boil them down into simple, yet profound, ideas (Adam Smith and the invisible hand, Darwin and evolution), leaders of good-to-great companies develop a Hedgehog Concept that is simple but that reflects penetrating insight and deep understanding.”

The wily fox in chase or being chased uses a complex web of tactics and strategies to counter obstacles or challenges. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he doesn’t. The determined hedgehog, on the other hand, has one superior advantage in the world, his spiny needles. His goal may appear simple, with his superior advantage he perseveres against every foe. The fox is an opportunist and pounces from opportunity to opportunity—never gaining the clarifying advantage of superiority.

A good friend of mine, Tom Trebing, and a mentor to fresh entrepreneurs, tells (or re-tells) the story this way:

“A fox and a hedgehog were strolling through a country path.  Periodically, they were threatened by hungry wolves.  The fox — being blessed with smarts, speed, and agility — would lead packs of wolves on a wild chase through the fields and over hill and dale. Eventually the fox would return to the path, breathless but having lost the wolves and continue walking. The hedgehog, being endowed with a coat of spikes, simply hunkered down on its haunches when menaced by the wolves and fended them off without moving. When they gave up, he would return to his stroll unperturbed. The crafty cunning fox devises many strategies. The persistent hedgehog knows one effective strategy—i.e.—the fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one GREAT thing.”  

Let me try expanding concept using The Language of Excellence. The essence of excellence in leadership is the concept of Management Candy, M&M’s—doing the main things with the minimum resources necessary to achieve the objective. Great companies succeed because they practice Management Candy. They also have clarity of a mission.  In the choice between the Doing the Right Thing and Doing Things Right they have chosen the Right Thing.

Simply put, great companies have chosen the right thing (their superior advantage), and they have stuck to it like glue!

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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2nd & Church review of The Language of Excellence

The current issue of the literary magazine, 2nd & Church, includes a review of my book The Language of Excellence by talented author and distinguished business leader Gary Slaughter.

2nd & Church is a literary journal by, for, and about writers and readers throughout the United States. The publication’s goal is to be inclusive of many different types of writers and writing. To have a review in 2nd & Church and to have Gary Slaughter as the reviewer is a tremendous honor. What does Slaughter have to say about my book on leadership and management?

“In my judgment, The Language of Excellence by Tom Collins is among the best five books I have ever read on this subject. “ 

“Tom Collins’ The Language of Excellence just may be the only guide book to personal and business excellence you will ever need to read. Borrowing from a lifetime of achievement, Collins lays out clear guidelines that can help you find your own success while enabling you to offer others the same excellence that has marked both his life and career. A must-read for achievers.” 

To subscribe to the 2nd & Church or view the publication online go to http://secondandchurch.typepad.com.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Our Next President

Will the next president be a “problem solver”? I hope not.

Years of interviewing candidates for leadership positions have taught me

one thing: Never hire someone who describes their strength as problem solving. People who spend their time solving problems never seem to run out of problems to solve. Nor has solving a problem ever added value. At best things are just returned to where they should have been to start with.

Problems constantly confront leaders, but the best leaders devote most of their energy to pursuing opportunities. Those leaders don’t ignored problems, but they have come to understand that most problems are the symptoms of neglected opportunities. Pursue the right opportunities and many problems tend to take care of themselves.

What is needed in a President, or any leader, is the talent for doing the right things and building the right team. Great leaders focus on opportunities not problems.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Stocking Stuffers

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 a 30% savings go to www.tomcollinsauthor.com and enter coupon code C214 when ordering signed copies of books by Tom Collins.

"The Language of Excellence just may be the only guide book to personal and business excellence you will ever need to read. A must-read for achievers."—Robert Hicks, New York Times 

Regarding his mysteries "Collins has a knack for painting a picture in the minds eye of the reader, using the history of Nashville and consistency of the characters leaving you wanting more."

Last Minute Gift--It is not too late!

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It is not too late for that last minute gift. From now through December 31st, you can save 30% on signed copies ofmy book on how to deal with almost anything business or life can throw at you. I think it is the best gift one could give to a young professional.  Your gift will be invaluable to the entrepreneur starting a new business or a seasoned executive frustrated by the difficulty of steering an unresponsive corporate ship. For free shipping plus a 30% savings go to thelanguageofexcellence.com and enter coupon code C214 when placing your order.

"Tom Collins' The Language of Excellence just may be the only guide book to personal and business excellence you will ever need to read. A must-read for achievers.”—Robert Hicks, New York Times bestselling author

Can You Read Me Now?

As an author with dyslexia, I enjoy passing along demonstrations based on research done at Cambridge University.   The material in this post is not original, though at this point, it has been repeated enough that I have no idea who to give attribution to.  What research am I referring to? Here is a summary:

 “...aoccdrnig to  rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the  ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last  ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can  still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed  ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.”

If you think the above paragraph is “Azanming”, check this out:

  “7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!
 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!  BY N0W, Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17  4U70M471C4LLY  W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.”

Note that in the preceding paragraph not only are things mixed - up, numbers have been substituted for letters.

The demonstration warms the heart of someone with dyslexia.  This is the world I live in even when the letters are in the right order for everyone else.  Forget for a minute about the unusual text used in the Cambridge demonstration. Consider ordinary written text. A person with normal reading ability might be confused or put off by a misspelled, missing, or wrong word.  Not someone with my particular dyslexic tendencies.  I read images and context not letters or even words as you think of them.  I would not notice that the word was misspelled.  My mind would fill in the missing word and auto-correct a wrong word to match the context without even realizing it has done so.

How does it work when I’m writing.  In the early days my smart wife interpreted and reworked my efforts.  With success came secretaries who were told that it was not my job to get the letters in the right order.  That was their job.  I just had to get close.   Now I have technology— auto-correct, grammar and spell check, and as a backup, professional editors.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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Prepare for Opportunities and Contingencies

In a previous post I pointed out the five things that the successful do differently:

1. They engage in the planning process.

   Five Things

2. They set goals and objectives.
3. They develop plans for achieving those goals.
4. They prepare for opportunities and contingencies.
5. They measure progress and hold people accountable.

The fourth item on the list is of particular interest to me.  In a way, it explains that the planning process is more important that the plan itself!

Planning is an ongoing process.  It is a way of thinking and communicating—where the team is nimble and quick on its feet, constantly adjusting and refining the plan due to changing conditions and expectations.  Goals and objectives are merely temporary targets. As time advances on the future, assumptions become more accurate.  Decisions and actions made on the front line close in on a target that moves from a cone of uncertainty to a clearer target. Unexpected events create opportunities and contingencies that call for changes in directions.

Unexpected,yes, but not unprepared for.  A few years ago, I suggested that an organization’s management team meet monthly just to think about things that could happen. Their mission was to identify strategies that would allow them to benefit rather than suffer from those events. Over time it was surprising how often their imagined events closely mirrored reality, but more importantly, the team developed a way of thinking that enabled them to respond to new opportunities and deal with contingencies quickly.

Practice prepares individuals and teams to take advantage of events that are likely to surprise others. As Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.”

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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What Do The Exceptional Do Differently?

One question keeps coming up. People want to know what the successful among us do differently.

Anyone can be accidently successful for some period of time—you can have your fifteen minutes of fame. Leave success to chance, however, and you are more likely to never reach your goals.

Purposeful long-term success is never an accident.  The people and organizations that achieve long-term durable success do things differently. Specifically, they do five things:

1. They engage in the planning process.
2. They set goals and objectives.
3. They develop plans for achieving those goals.
4. They prepare for opportunities and contingencies.
5. They measure progress and hold people accountable. 

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Interview For Williamson County Arts

Reporter Michael Ackley covers the City of Franklin for Homepage Media Group. Michael interviewed me several weeks ago, and that interview was published in the November 23th edition of the Arts sections of the Franklin Home Page. For the complete interview go to http://franklinhomepage.com/section/willco-arts.

One of the questions Michael asked me was "How much of what you write in your mystery novels is taken from your own life?"

The main character is Mark Rollins. There is only a one letter difference between Rollins and Collins. The difference between my avenging hero and myself is much greater than that one letter. However, there are similarities. We both know about technology and guns.  We both know about law firms, running a business, and leadership.  I like great wines and the best restaurants. So does Rollins. We both live in the Music City area.  Actually, we reside in  Williamson County, Tennessee which is close to Brentwood and Franklin and  part of the greater Nashville Tennessee area—Music City USA.

By giving the my main character my skill set and placing him in the same place on this earth, it is much easier for me to visualize and write about his reaction to the fictional events I create for him. As an author you have to start somewhere, and by starting with the things I know, I was able to get up and running as an author faster. When you don't start writing for publication until age sixty-six getting there faster is pretty important.


In the interview, Michael mentioned that I recently made the first novel in the Mark Rollins adventure mysteries available as a free download.  If you would like a free download of Mark Rollins New Career go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/470351.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
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Communication is a two way street

Lately, I have run into several situations when performance that deviated from the expected was explained away as “I didn’t know.” “I didn’t know” shouldn’t cut it.  That goes for employees, class room students, and even family members. Communication is a two way street.

 If you don’t know, if you aren’t sure, it is your responsibility to ask. While leaders, including teachers and parents, have an obligation to communicate expectations, individuals have an equal obligation to absorb what is communicated and to ask when they don’t understand or when they need new information or guidance in handling a situation. If the answer is “I didn’t know,” then either the leader is failing in his or her responsibility or the individual who “didn’t know” failed in his/her responsibility.  Sometimes, it is both.

Leaders must clearly communicate what is expected -- goals, objectives, ethics, and core beliefs. There are circumstances when detail instructions or policies and procedures are required.  But you can’t create rules for handling every situation and the conditions surrounding it. Even if you could spell out detail instructions for everything, humans are not capable of real time recall of every rule while on the front line. That is when an organization’s core beliefs or a family’s value system must fill in the blanks.

When we talk about individual responsibility, we are confirming the individual’s obligation to learn and understand what is  expected.  Rather than “I didn’t know,” it is his or her job to say, “I need to know from you.”

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
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Tom Peters on his number one goal

Peters can knock it out of the ball park with straight talk about what is important.  For example when he was asked “What is your number-one goal in life?”

Peters answer was “My number-one goal in life, at the age of 71, is to be able to walk past a mirror without barfing.”  He went on to say, "People say that fame is important, but in the end it really isn’t. People say that wealth is important, but in the end it really isn’t. My ex-wife had a father who was in the tombstone business. I’ve seen a lot of tombstones. None of ’em have net worth on ’em. It’s the people you develop. That’s what you remember when you get to be my age."

Okay let me translate:

• First, take care of yourself.  If you don't you can't take care of others
• Second, take care of others and develop their capabilities.  

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Tom Peters on 21st Century Management

Tom Peters was one of the strongest influences on my life as an entrepreneur and executive and that influence is visible on the pages of my book, The Language of Excellence, dealing with leadership and management.  Recently, Peters was interviewed for the McKinsey & Company’s Quarterly.   You can read the entire interview by going to the McKinsey web site.

Talking about 21st-century management during the interview Peters says:

“My real bottom-line hypothesis is that nobody has a sweet clue what they’re doing. Therefore you better be trying stuff at an insanely rapid pace. You want to be screwing around with nearly everything. Relentless experimentation was probably important in the 1970s—now it’s do or die.”

His observation about experimentation is right out of the Model for Excellence—survival for long haul requires constant innovation.  You cannot continue to create and deliver the same product or service the same way and survive in the long haul. Experimentation and innovation are vintage Peters, and I might add the idea expressed also consistent with the teachings of Peters’s predecessor Peter Drucker.

Also straight from the Model for Excellence is Peters’s explanation to the interviewer of what business executives are in. It has nothing to do with products or services:

“If you’re a leader, your whole reason for living is to help human beings develop—to really develop people and make work a place that’s energetic and exciting and a growth opportunity, whether you’re running a Housekeeping Department or Google. I mean, this is not rocket science.

It’s not even a shadow of rocket science. You’re in the people-development business. If you take a leadership job, you do people. Period. It’s what you do. It’s what you’re paid to do. People, period. Should you have a great strategy? Yes, you should. How do you get a great strategy? By finding the world’s greatest strategist, not by being the world’s greatest strategist. You do people. Not my fault. You chose it. And if you don’t get off on it, do the world a favor and get the hell out before dawn, preferably without a gilded parachute. But if you want the gilded parachute, it’s worth it to get rid of you.”

While I gave the Model for Excellence its name, the model is drawn from ideas expressed in Peters’s  A Passion for Excellence. The model is explained in third chapter of The Language of Excellence. It was also discussed in an earlier blog post under the title The Pursuit of Excellence is the Only Sound Strategy.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Change

Change is constant, and I am engage in making a number of them.

With regard to web sites, I am moving to a new site TomCollinsAuthor.com. There are a couple of reasons for the move:

• First, having the site under my name as an author makes sense.  People are more likely to search the web by my name than by the either the publisher name, I 65 North, Inc.  or by the name of my mystery services, Mark Rollins adventure mysteries.  In the near future people searching for markrollinsadventures.com or i65north.com will be rerouted to TomCollinsAuthor.com.
• The second reason for the change is that switching to Squarespace as the site provider for improved graphics management and for its the simplicity of its ecommerce features. Consistent with its mission statement Squarespace.com provides more elegant solutions 

At the same time I make this change, I am consolidating my blogs.  I will no longer maintain both I65northblog.com. whataboutebooks.com.  I65northblog is being renamed TomCollinsAuthorblog.com  and I will discontinue maintaining whataboutebooks.com.

If you have any doubt that change is constant, check out T-shirt the gang at Juris had made of “me” to celebrate one of my birthdays when I still had hair.  I forget which.

When the above changes are fully implemented there will be only two active “official” web sites:

• TomCollinsAuthor.com
• TomCollinsAuthorblog.com

As for the Newsletter, right now it is taking a rest while I concentrate on finishing my current novel DIVERSION.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Can an enemy win by losing?

What would you think of a story were a militarily advanced industrial society, MAIS, is pitted against a non-industrialized cult enemy? Let us call them The Cult. The Cult’s generals have identified the MAIS’s military might as their weakness.

The Cult’s motivation is to kill anyone who is not a member of the cult.They believe that they can win a war against the MAIS by losing. The Cult fights from the back of pickup trucks. While the MAIS fights back using budget busting machines and smart bullets that cost millions of dollars each.  The MAIS puts its fighters in uniforms that identity them as targets. The Cult’s warriors disappear into the civilian population when pursued. When the MAIS shuts The Cult down in one place, they just move to another place. The MAIS fighters have rules of engagement, and they observe civilized rules of war. The Cult believes in savagery and brutality.

The Cult’s strategy is to keep the MAIS winning until they have no bullets left—their will to fight gone and their economy exhausted. How do they accomplish their strategy to keep the MAIS fighting?  Tactically, The Cult commits acts so abhorrent to civilized mores that the MAIS is compelled to attack, and attack and attack.

What do you think?  Does this seem believable? Does it make a good story?

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.