It’s worth a read in its entirety, as Mr. Johnson has a number of interesting insights. I particularly liked the following two excerpts:

Q. Who are the chain’s competitors?

A. Our number one competitor is ourselves and our way of thinking, which is informed by decades of experience. It’s not another store; it’s not another format like the Internet. Our competition is ourselves and our best friend is our imagination.

 …

Q. What ideals have you embraced from Steve Jobs?

A. The importance of doing everything you do to your very best. And that the journey is the reward. If you do things well one at a time, you end up in a really good place. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Control the things you can.

I also love how they are driven by the question “how can we make things better for the customer,” which has led to a number of innovations, including my favorite: http://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights — when you use this web address, it will give you access to all of the highlights you have made in your Kindle ebooks. I use this a lot. For example, I just visited there and grabbed this highlight from a book I’ve been reading (What the Buddha Taught):

According to the Buddha’s teaching, it is as wrong to hold the opinion ‘I have no self (which is the annihilationist theory) as to hold the opinion ‘I have self’ (which is the eternalist theory), because both are fetters, both arising out of the false idea ‘I AM’. The correct position with regard to the question of Anatta is not to take hold of any opinions or views, but to try to see things objectively as they are without mental projections, to see that what we call ‘I, or ‘being’, is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates, which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing permanent, everlasting, unchanging and eternal in the whole of existence.

Cool, huh? I can’t do that with highlights I make in books purchased for Apple’s iBooks, and I doubt that Apple will ever make it possible to do so.

But I am beginning to have some doubts about Amazon, and whether their focus on innovating is maybe keeping them from paying enough attention to the basics. For example, lots of tech blogs, and some major online magazines, have noted that Amazon’s policy of allowing free publishing of Kindle ebooks is resulting in the Kindle store having a lot of spam.

I’m not sure what Amazon was thinking when they started this. I know that, if I were a publishing firm, I’d worry that some of my great books would not become bestsellers because users went for the cheap stuff instead.

Another area where it looks like they are not paying adequate attention is in the categorization of books. For example, if you look in the Science category for Kindle ebooks, within the first few pages you are going to come across titles such as The God Delusion, The Paleo Diet, Sweet Farts, Young Men and Fire, iSteve, and so on. I got so frustrated trying to find new science ebooks that I just gave up on it.

Whether such “little things” will wind up having an impact on Amazon’s bottom line is not for me to say. But I know from 62 years of living on this planet that you do best when you don’t lose sight of the basics.

So, we would have no qualms in recommending mentoring/counselors to our friends as an avenue for further growth.

But, what about when we ask whether we ourselves are providing enough mentoring and counseling?

I recently came upon a pastor’s highlights of a typical pastor’s week. The key thing that stood out to me were the number of times he provided mentoring and counseling, with some of those instances being:

• Talked to a pastor ready to quit
• Talked with a man questioning his marriage
• Helped a pastor think through strategic change
• Talked to parents distressed over a son who got in trouble
• Wrote 9 blog posts
• Met with a staff member considering a new direction for his ministry
• Talked to a husband thinking his marriage is over
• Helped a businessman think through organizational changes

I began to wonder if I am doing enough mentoring. And, while I now think I probably am, things that I often considered just a lunch with a friend was considered by many of those friends as receiving some mentoring.

One thing I know, which you might not have realized yet, is that: anyone who has worked in an area for thousands of hours has the ability to mentor others.

Since I don’t want to come across as preachy, I’ll let this be the end of the post. I don’t like to be preachy … I just like to share information that I believe might be helpful to you, and let you think about how to apply it in your life.

Take care.

And, I had not even planned to write today, until I came across an article that is so inspiring that I felt that I must recommend it to you: Jon Morrow’s On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas. Technically, Jon should have died before he was two. Instead, he is 27 and highly successful, thanks to the impassioned actions of his mother, along with his own determination. Did prayer make a difference, too? I don’t know. Maybe. I would even say probably. Regardless, I do know that action and determination made a huge difference.

If you have already read it, read it again. There is so much that we can learn from this story that it’s hard to absorb it all with just one reading. You might even want to write down what you have learned it.

I got completely burned out on blogs, even my own. So much of what I was reading was “me too” writing (20 different blogs talking about the same thing), and none of it really mattered. So much useless writing is done just to get people to visit a site and view an ad.

Want an example? Here’s one: somebody had a blog title along the lines of “Would Shakespeare Tweet?” My answers:

• No.
• Who Cares?
• Does Steve Jobs tweet?

It had gotten to where I was reading less than 1% of the headlines in my feeds, because they were crap like this or “me too” articles.

So I basically gave up on Twitter, and just doing that made me feel so much better. (I still have an account and have even spent about 5 minutes on it so far this year, but I basically consider it a bad use of my time.) And, although I had trimmed my RSS feeds, I trimmed them even more. I now rely heavily on a few key aggregators: Memeorandum, Techmeme, Arts & Letters Daily. I kept a few other major feeds, such as TechCrunch and Daring Fireball. I also kept about 20 of the less-popular, but interesting and useful blogs, such as Michael Hyatt and Dan Ariely, and I regularly read The New York Times (I’m undecided on which subscription option to use).

So, now there is less “noise” in my information intake, but even when my intake was peaked, I still had a sense of not having enough (useful) information. For example, you know that somewhere in the world, someone today looked at some ancient scripture in a new way and had a life-changing experience, one that we could maybe benefit from, too. Maybe it even gets blogged. But the chances of me picking it up? Pretty close to zero.

In thinking about this, and in thinking about people who have personally inspired me, I have realized that perhaps the best way for me to find such nuggets is directly: maybe read the Bible daily, instead of hoping someone else gets an insight from it that is useful to me. Maybe read other literature that is known to inspire (I have done some of this, but way too irregularly).

I once read that Eric Schmidt said that Google is not archiving the web for it to be read by humans, but for it to be read by machines. When we reach that plateau, machines will identify trends and “nuggets” that we could never have figured out on our own.

Until then, and even after then, it’s up to us to look at how we are consuming information, and which parts of it are useful or at least inspiring.

And he does load himself up, and has all of his life, because he wants to make sure he can contribute as much as possible in this life. Anyway, after our chat, I thought to myself that it’s better to take on too much than to take on too little. When you get to the end of your life and look back, if you are a reflective person, you are either going to conclude that you took on too much or that you took on too little. No reflective person would consider that they had bitten off just the right amount.

I say all that to get you to think about whether you are living life at the right tempo. Frankly, I feel that I have not bitten off enough, and I believe I need to pick up the pace and take more on. (Yes, being retired gives me an excuse, but I still have to face looking back on my life when I come to the end of it … I don’t want to be too disappointed.)

Another way of looking at this is to ask yourself whether you want to live life to the fullest or whether you will be satisfied with less.

Anyway, something to think about.

I recently lost a friend of 30 years. Last week he found out that he had advanced liver cancer, and was given only about 4 weeks to live. He only lived a few days after that. It hit me hard, not only because I loved him as a friend, but because he and I were about the same age, making me again confront my on mortality.

Something you realize when you are confronted with such a situation is that, when a person is gone, their whole life is gone. To paraphrase what I said in an email to a few friends:

“My friend was a fine man who enjoyed playing with his dog growing up, enjoyed playing football, busted his butt in the Naval Academy studying for exams, served his country admirably, served his industry as well as anyone ever has, opened Christmas presents for his kids, was a loving husband, made us all feel good with his heartfelt laugh, and on and on. Why he didn’t get to continue this for another 20 or 30 years is beyond me.”

Not only is he gone, his memories are gone. All that was inside of him is gone, including his ideas for the future and his ability to bring them about.

Thinking about this can put things in perspective. It made me realize, again, that I spend hours and hours every day tinkering with things that don’t really matter.

I’ve gone through these periods of introspection before, generally brought on by the death of someone close. The longest period of introspection was when my wife passed away several years ago. But there have been other losses that have made me really think, too.

And, a few months ago, I confronted my own mortality when I was given a health scare. For a month or so, I dealt with the fact that I might die soon. Fortunately, the health scare turned out being a false alarm. But, it sure made me think about making changes in my life.

But the lesson I learned from dealing with the reality of my wife’s death, my dad’s, several of my friends, and even what I thought was going to be mine, is one that I still have not internalized. A couple of weeks after realizing my health scare was a false alarm, I was back to wasting most of the day just doing whatever came to mind. I know retired folks like me are entitled to some slack … but I have been carrying too it far, and I know it.

This weekend and the coming week I will take out several blank sheets of paper and try to figure out what I should accomplish in the remainder of my life. Because, right now, I know the remainder of my life could be very short. So could yours. It certainly could be less than what you think it will be.

Many of us tend to live as if we were indestructible. I assure you, and me, that we are not.

Stephen Covey, in his classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, recommends that we picture our own funeral and write down what we want said about us. He then urges us to keep that end in mind and to work toward it.

I highly recommend that exercise to you, and I hope you are successful in shaping your life toward the ends you want to achieve. You will encounter resistance, mostly from yourself, but if you keep a focus on the end, I am convinced you will accomplish more than if you do not.

For example, if you look ahead at the next 10 years and ask yourself what is likely to happen, you might have answers like:

- Your mom and dad will likely pass on (given their current age and health)
- Continued decline in sells volume where you work could lead to your layoff in a couple of years
- The 20-year old fridge is likely to wear out, along with the furnace and A/C
- Your daughter is doing so well in school that she may get a scholarship, reducing the amount needed from college savings
- Your 10-year old pet will likely pass on

And so forth. In realizing these things, you might then ask questions like

- Is mom and dad’s estate large enough to require that estate taxes be paid? Are there assets that can pay the tax, or will the estate need to be sold to pay taxes? Are their wills in good order?
- Is it time for me to hunt a better job, before I get hit with a layoff and become harder to hire because I’m viewed as just another laid-off guy among millions?
- Am I doing what is needed to keep my dog healthy and am I keeping him happy?

And so on. Bottom line: you wind up with questions that give you actions for the present. I know that in today’s crazy world, where you already have too many actions, you aren’t really looking for more. But, remember one of the things we learn from David Allen’s GTD is that it’s best to get ALL the actions onto your various lists, so you can deal with what’s most appropriate. You could find some of your new actions are of a higher priority (in your mind, which is what counts) than your other actions, and so you begin work on them immediately.

Perhaps you already doing this exercise regularly enough. Or, perhaps it’s been too long since you have done it and it’s time for it again. If the latter is the case, I’m glad to have provided a useful reminder to you.

I was chatting with some folks on Facebook about this last week, and a few seemed overly consoling, given the amount of time that has passed. So, I wrote this in reply:

Time does not heal all wounds, but it does a pretty good job of duct-taping them.

Someone else remarked that this was a great quote but that “fair” might fit in it better than “pretty good.” Maybe so.

To me, the point is that absolute sayings like “Time heals all wounds” are not going to apply to everyone. (Sometimes I wonder if they are said only by people who have never been wounded all that deeply, but that is just speculation on my part.)

Even my more-qualified remark doesn’t fit everyone, as evidenced by someone trying to word-engineer it to make the healing power of time seem less significant.

Just something to keep in mind when you find yourself in a situation where you want to offer condolences or advice.

In particular, Ben Horowitz noted the following in discussing how to handle complaints from one executive about the competence of another:

On the other hand, if the complaint is new news, then you must immediately stop the conversation and make clear to the complaining executive that you in no way agree with their assessment. You do not want to cripple the other executive before you re-evaluate their performance. You do not want the complaint to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’ve witnessed the efficacy of self-fulfilling prophecy countless times in my life. All too frequently it has resulted in negative consequences. Think you’ll motivate your kids by calling them lazy? Guess again. Such talk will help ensure they become lazy. Reverse psychology often backfires.

Words and attitudes are powerful shaping forces. It pays to periodically review the kinds of phrases you are using around those you influence, to see if you are crafting a result you do not want.

As to the article I was reading, you can find it here. It is primarily directed to an audience of CEOs, but you’ll find interesting points in it regardless of where you are on the corporate ladder.