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.

Mark didn’t make his book by selling books filled with New Age mantras on how to get rich. He earned his money by working hard, being open to seeing opportunities and having the guts to seize on them, and by focusing on what he could do now and not spending time regretting the past.

Mark shares a lot of his philosophy and “secrets” on his blog and in his new ebook (which is only $2.99). I highly recommend spending some time on his blog and/or in his ebook. He’s a totally no-nonsense guy.

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.

Of course, Einstein had a superior working knowledge of advanced mathematics and geometry. Yet, that would have gone to naught without a superb imagination.

As we enter into a new year, many of us are going to be facing problems that have been with us for a while. We may very well have to come up with new ways of thinking to really put those problems behind us. With that in mind, and because I believe that we should stretch our brains by learning new facts and concepts, I present the following, brilliant examples of thinking outside the box. While all of my examples address scientific material, the principles involved in doing such thinking can be applied to any area of life.

• A physicist develops a model of the universe that has no beginning, no big bang, and no ending. This is fascinating work. I reviewed the actual paper, available as a PDF, and rapidly got lost in the math. I did recall just enough from my advanced mathematics and physics masters’ classes (some 35+ years ago) to conclude that the logic and math appear sound. One of the most fascinating pieces of the model is that it requires that the speed of light not be constant with the expansion of space. The paper also does well in explaining the redshift-luminosity distance data of Type Ia supernovae, whereas current big-bang-oriented models do not. Plus, adhering to the Big Bang model also pretty much requires that we believe in the faster-than-light early expansion of the universe (inflation theory, complete with its own “particle” of an inflaton), dark energy, and dark matter. While the Big Bang models may actually be right, it is good to see someone getting outside the box in the modeling of our universe.
• A post at Edge, entitled Life: What a Concept, presents so much out-of-the box thinking about biology that the article is hard to summarize. Two things that really stuck out to me, though, were Freeman Dyson’s thoughts on metabolism as the key to the formation of life. After reading blurbs for years about how some biologists prefer an RNA-first model for the origin of life, while others prefer a DNA-first model, it’s great to see somebody say “you’re both wrong: metabolism was what got it all started.” I also like the group’s discussion of open-source biology. Some real powerful, out-of-the box thinkers involved in the discussion.
• Another article at Edge featuring Freeman Dyson: Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society. In this article, Dr. Dyson talks about the importance of being a “heretic” and in not accepting the “preferred way” of viewing things as necessarily being the right way. He then proceeds to do serious damage to those who claim that we have a societal-induced climate-change fiasco to deal with. While we certainly do have reason to worry about what we are doing to our planet, and ultimately how we are impacting the survivability of our species and others, he shows that current climate models consider only a small fraction of the variables that impact climate.
• Finally, the NYT has a great article on a physicist turns the city into an equation. The article is about Geoffrey West and others modeling how a city “behaves.” A fascinating read, again with a lot of out-of-the-box thinking.

Those of you with a technical bent are going to be fascinated with these articles. For those who are not technically-minded, let’s let another Einstein quote serve as reminder about the coming year (and life in general):

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

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.

As people who like to learn, we are fortunate that much has been written about Mr. Jobs. One of the most insightful and useful articles I have read in this regard is Cult of Mac’s publication of an interview with John Sculley about Steve Jobs.

Mr. Sculley formerly served as Apple CEO and Mr. Jobs worked for him for a while. The two have known each other for over 25 years, though, so Mr. Sculley knows Mr. Jobs about as well as anyone could.

Two key things stood out for me in the interview: Mr. Jobs’ passion and focus on the user experience, and his approach to providing a great user experience by taking charge of the entire system associated with delivering the experience.

Those of you who have watched his keynote speeches at WWDC events, and other product unveilings, know that he is *passionate* about a great user experience. My hunch is that he knows he is gifted in the area of user-interface design and that he feels obligated to use it to make people happy. And you can tell he experiences real, genuine joy every time he delivers on that “obligation.”

It seems to me that we should do our best to think and behave like Mr. Jobs in this area. We all play a role in someone’s “user experience,” from our customers at work to the family members who eat the meals we prepare, to the friends who read our Facebook entries. We owe it to them, and to ourselves, to look at how we can design those experiences to be as good as we can make them. In some cases, looking into this will expose some areas where we need to improve. By following through and improving, we can better the “user experiences” of those who mean a lot to us.

Something you’ll want to think about in terms of what it means in your life: We Are All Designers.

As to Mr. Jobs focus on systems thinking, those of you who were around in the business world 10 or 15 years ago will remember seeing systems thinking in action in Re-engineering Activities. I remember well how many companies hired consultants to come in and take their processes apart, and simplify them. Typical processes that got simplified (sometimes immensely) were purchasing, selection and hiring, warehousing, and design (the latter applied mostly to technical corporations).

Mr. Jobs knows that, to ensure you deliver the best user experience, you have to make sure every piece of the system that delivers the experience works well. That’s the main reason there is one, and only one, app store for iOS devices: so Apple can ensure that the user gets apps that give them a good experience. Some people think of this as “being too controlling.” I don’t, because I see where Mr. Jobs is coming from with it. Sure, it also has other benefits for Apple, such as a percentage of the profit of the paid apps. But mostly it helps protect the Apple image and the customer experience.

As an engineer, I am familiar with systems-thinking, and I like to think I do pretty well at it. But, as I read through the Sculley interview, I became convinced that Mr. Jobs has me beat hands-down on it, and that I would do well to be more systems-oriented in my thinking, both my long-term and product-oriented thinking, and in my day-to-day thinking.

You may find additional points in the interview that impress you. I just wanted to emphasize a couple of what I considered to be the key points. My hunch is that we could all do better in these areas, and that Steve Jobs is a fine role model for us in our related improvement efforts.

I’ve been blessed all of my life with being around some really exceptional people and I have attempted to model myself after them. I can’t say that I did a particularly good job in this modeling and molding process, but having the role models helped me immensely.

And, in addition to the role models in my personal life, Richard Feynman and John Kennedy were my favorite “long distance” role models. I think these would be good role models for all of my grandchildren, and I will get Feynman’s What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character for each of them.

But surely there must be people today that my grandkids can look up to and learn from (in addition to family and others in their personal life). Thinking of such roles models is really stumping me, though. So far I have come up with TIm Tebow for the guys, but nobody for the little lady. (Oprah came to mind, but the way she promoted The Secret really turned me off … I don’t want my grandkids to grow up thinking the “the universe” is doing their bidding, and I don’t want to see them fall for any of the New Age crap.)

Who would you recommend?

Screw productivity and productivity products, I win with sheer will ….I know I am dumb

In other words, he is saying he will not whittle away his life reading productivity blogs and books, but will overcome the resistance of getting things done by sheer will power.

Good old-fashioned will power can be very effective. Seems to me it’s in short supply, though, as people look for easy answers. For many things, there are no easy answers, and will power is the only way to work through the resistance.

I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That’s the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they’re allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it. Which means it’s a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.

…

I’ve found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding—thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they push out more interesting ideas. One I’ve already mentioned: thoughts about money. Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink. The other is disputes. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas, but without the substance. So avoid disputes if you want to get real work done.

My main take-aways from the article are that we can control what we think about, and that we should ensure we spend enough time thinking about items that are most important to us, and that involvement in disputes is generally a huge time-waster and a drain on the brain.

In this era in which multi-tasking is commonplace and our minds flit from one topic to another, it is really easy to lose focus on items that really should be receiving our attention. In this regard, as I have noted earlier, I agree with Harvard professor Steven Pinker that “distraction is not a new phenomena” and that it’s “up to us to develop strategies of self-control.” (The linked article has more detail.)