The water crisis — an international problem

July 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

s you know, there is a huge worldwide water crisis. My spiritual guru has been warning us about this for decades. He said the wars of tomorrow will be fought over water, not oil. The irony is that some parts of the world have too much water while others have almost none. The Middle East has almost no rainfall and the rivers there are drying up. American rivers are running dryer too, but we are not having a life or death crisis yet and probably won’t for another twenty years. Israel is smart and has desalinization planets. They create their own water and use it with very sophisticated irrigation systems. Israel has the most water efficient agriculture in the world. Meanwhile in India, parts of North India are very dry while in Kerela it rains eight months a year and rains hard. So, what should India do?

India and its wealth of water
India has tons of water. Unfortunately, India’s water is not where the agriculture is. Kerela gets more rainfall than any other part of India. But, they are stuck in the Southwest of India while the agriculture is inland, with much of it far up North. If India could figure out how to store all of the water that falls in Kerela, they could sell it to the Middle East or pipe it up to other parts of India for a fee. Creating a pipeline is expensive, and India would probably take decades to finish such a project. Neighboring China can put up a 50 story building in weeks. Perhaps India should hire China to teach them how to get things done quickly.

China and India — water wars
India has several rivers running near the Tibet border in Assam and Kashmir among other places. It is my hunch that one day India and China will go to war over these rivers. A war would be devastating to the world. I hope they find a better way to deal with their water shortages.

California
California gets more rainfall than Arizona, yet Arizona knows how to store its water in underground tanks. California has an aqueduct system spanning the entire state to get water from one part of the state to the other. But, the source of much of our water is the Colorado river which deposits water into Lake Meade which is low this year. Hmmm. If it rains in Colorado, the water comes to California farms. But, if it rains in California, the water just seeps into the earth and is lost. California needs to get rid of its lawns, and invest more in the type of irrigation technology that Israel has. That way we can grow the same plants using only 15% of the water (more or less.) Learning the ropes of desalinization would be another smart step so that California will be ready for the future. California’s population keeps growing fast as immigrants love California as their initial landing point and people from other states love to come here. But, how many people will continue to come if there is no water? We’ll have to find out. Perhaps only the rich will be able to live here one day and the others will flee to Texas where it rains constantly.

Egypt
Egypt has 82 million human souls, but only one source of water — The Nile. When the Nile dries up, or when the Sudanese hog it all to themselves, they will have a war. However, there will not be any water for the locals in the mean time. Many scientists feel that many rivers will completely dry up. So, how are 82 million of some of the world’s poorest folks supposed to survive under these conditions? Will they just die out? It will be very unpleasant to find out. My prediction is that Egypt will become a barren wasteland one day. Only the pyramids and a few of the mummies will survive.

The rest of the world?
The other countries will also have water issues. Water will be an issue of world concern and people will be fighting over it and killing over it. Countries might redefine their borders based on water rights rather than on linguistic or political reasons. Or, we might have a world government that governs how water is shared. It will be interesting to find out how our water catastrophe is worked out, but probably not pleasant!

The Rupee Mentality

July 7, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular, Success | Leave a comment

Do you have the rupee mentality?

Some people start thinking about all the small details. They calculate exactly to the penny or the rupee what someone is charging them. It is really annoying when people count every rupee. They end up annoying you so much that you don’t want to do business with them in the long run. Penny-wise and pound-foolish is an English proverb that applies to those who lose important business deals because they were stuck thinking about pennies.

Some companies save money by hiring the cheapest employees who can’t even function. Others save money by not training their employees. They don’t even realize they are saving money because they never even considered investing in training. Others count the exact price of something without taking a deeper look at the value of the offering. Sometimes the value is not easily discernable which makes it hard. But, the exact price means little if you don’t know the worth.

I notice that when I am in India I start thinking small just like Indians. I argue over ever last rupee with the cab drivers. I count every penny I spend on tip. And I am paying extra attention to anyone who is gauging me and generally fire them immediately if at all possible. Even if you don’t talk to any misers, just being around them is enough to get you thinking like one.

As a general rule, at this stage in my life, it is more about the long term of a business relationship. I don’t care exactly what I am paying someone as that has no reflection on anything. I care more about whether or not this person will be true to me and helpful in the long run. If I have to hire and fire and hire and fire, I am losing a lot of my own time. My personal time is worth about triple or quadruple what I pay an experienced beginner to work for me, so the main thing is to conserve my own time while getting the job done right. Unfortunately, most service providers are not appropriate, and I end up doing too much myself. But, on a brighter note, I no longer have the rupee mentality. Now , I am counting the minutes I waste rather than the pennies I lose!

How Forbes & Harvard Business Review shoot themselves in the foot on Stumbleupon

July 6, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Forbes and Harvard Business Review are two of the largest and most interesting business publications out there. Yet, every time I visit their blogs online there are annoying intermediary pages that I have to click the “skip” button. I am on about ten social media platforms and I visit them each several times a week. I found that an article I published on Twitter about how meditation changes your brain became very popular with a crowd that was interested in marketing of all things. So, I published yet another article about spirituality with a title including the word “mindfulness” and how it affects your brain. Another success. The very next day, I decided that my Stumbleupon followers would love to read about meditation and the brain, so I sourced some articles from Google.

The first articles that showed up were from Forbes and HBR. Unfortunately, the page that first came up from HBR was completely black with a “skip” button and a pop up. I think they were trying to strong-arm me into joining their newsletter. When I published the article on Stumbleupon, the photo section showed a black page — how unattractive. HBR might be getting lots of followers on their newsletter, but they are basically outcasting themselves from having a chance to ever make it on Stumbleupon! Forbes basically does the same thing except they make you wait twenty seconds before you skip their advertisement. How annoying.

As with any other business decision, you gain in one place and you lose in another. But, ruining your chances on social media is not a good decision in 2015, especially when the networks are focusing so heavily on photos! If I were running a huge blog, I would have very expensive and clear photos that appear before anything else. You might ask why I am not doing this now. The answer is that we are a very small blog and our budget doesn’t permit for that — yet!

Going to India was good preparation for what the USA became

July 5, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: America, India | Leave a comment

My Maiden Voyage to India
I went to India several times in the last thirteen years. My maiden voyage was back in 2002. I had some bizarre experiences with people who kept asking the same question again and again and again. I kept saying no, no, no, no, no. It was like dealing with people who had part of their brain shut down. What I came to realize is that India is a land of extremes. There are people who are extremely smart, and many who are completely clueless. There are very moral people, and others who don’t have any morals. There are many different religions and castes who normally have almost nothing to do with each other. We see India as having “a culture” while in reality it is more like a patchwork of opposite societies forced to live with each other.

Sorry, Meter Broken
What bothered me most about India was that there was so much negligence and backwardsness almost everywhere. I have never been to Punjab, however, I understand that is the most organized part of India. This is because there are many Sikhs there, and the Sikhs are a very meticulous people who also have a very military attitude. 90% of the Indian army consists of Sikhs who are local to Haryana and Punjab. But, in the rest of India there are leaky faucets, piles of bricks left for months by the side of the road, police who take bribes, broken things of all descriptions, potholes, people who don’t drive in lanes, rickshaw drivers who have rigged or broken meters, and other types of nonsense.

What the U.S. Became
America has never been a perfect country, and we have never been as meticulous as the Japanese about keeping things clean or fixed. However, I have noticed that things have gone downhill in the last twenty years. There is more negligence and Unreliability here. When I hire American programmers, not one is able to meet simple deadlines or get back to me. In my apartment complex, the cement used to repair the sidewalk seems to break within a few weeks of its installation. We have to make multiple requests for the sink to be fixed. When I had my car repaired at Toyota for a noise, they fixed one noise and then didn’t double check the car for additional noises which resulted in me having to bring the car back and get yet another free rental car from them for a few days. We both lost a lot of time and money because they didn’t check their work — which reminds me of most of the programmers I hire.

India in 2002 Prepared Me for America in 2015
Since India prepared me for what I term “abject negligence,” I am more tolerant of it. However, if you run a business, you should make sure that you don’t do anything negligent and that you tolerate very little negligence on the part of your workers, especially those higher up. If you choose to not do certain tasks which are less valuable in your priority list, that is fine. However, if you neglect critical tasks, the consciousness of neglect will mirror itself into the others who you deal with. I have seen this spiritual principle manifest itself in real life so many times that I look for it to happen and try to analyze how the other person’s behavior is similar to mine. In my opinion, India is on its way slowly up and America is on its way down. I am not convinced that America will ever become as backwards as India and I doubt that India will ever become as nice as America. In the long run I believe that China will run the world and the rest of us will be their servants!

Does your business behavior mirror itself in others?

July 4, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

Taking Classes in Feng-Shui
I studied feng-shui for many years. I read books, attended classes, and did studies on my own. I learned that where you put your furniture is merely one aspect of feng-shui and the affect it has might not be as predictable as what the book you read might say. However, I learned that there are serious effects for having broken things around. There are bad consequences for being too busy to take care of things. There are also magical results for spending an hour or two in a charged up environment.

I Feng-Shui’d my Room
I remember that I cleaned up and rearranged my room a few years ago. After that I got more business. I’m not sure what the connection is. Changing your surroundings changes you on the inside. It changes your brain in a sense. Of course you could argue that the change within occured before you changed your surroundings. Perhaps a little of both is true. When I have dinner in wealthy fast paced neighborhoods, my sales are often much higher the next day for my e-business. I analyze this affect as it is a critical part of feng-shui that has nothing to do with where your sofa is placed. But, what about behavioral mirrors?

Behavioral Mirrors
I always complain that my programmers don’t get back to me or do what they are supposed to. They also rarely finish anything on time and let simple projects drag on for months. But, when I look at my schedule, I realize that I do not make dealing with them a priority. I put off dealing with them sometimes for months. Part of why I don’t deal with them is that it can be very exasperating to deal with someone who delivers flawed work every time you check your work. It is disappointing and depressing as well as a waste of my limited time. Perhaps it is not the time factor as much as the fact that dealing with uncooperative people is draining and a source of anxiety. I just can’t deal with them. So, is the sluggishness of the programmers a reflection of my own sluggishness in getting back to them? Or am I slow getting back to them because I know that whatever they did will not be on time or correct? Or is the problem that I need to be more vigilant in trying out new programmers and mastering the art of hiring?

Perhaps my inability to get programmers with slack in their schedules is because I also rarely have any slack in my schedule.

My sales lady is often accused of not answering messages. I realize that I too do not answer messages. I do so because most of my messages are from people who don’t have a purpose in calling me. They call me back and leave a message saying, “Duy, you called me?” Perhaps I should filter through my messages every day and call back the good ones, but I am already behind on my work. Perhaps the bigger issue is that I have failed in personal time management. It is hard when you keep having new tasks you are adding into your schedule and old tasks you are phasing out. If I had less to do, I could answer messages and get back to programmers and really be on top of everything. Many of the big business blogs claim that less is more. Focus on priorities and farm out the less consequential work!

Does Your Behavior Rub Off on Others?
Do you see your employees having the same flaws as you do? Do you try to correct it in them before you correct it in yourself? Or do you not even notice your employees flaws since you have identical flaws? Perhaps you overload your personal schedule and your workers are all overloaded and unable to focus on priorities. Take a look at all of the flaws your employees seem to have as a group. I’m not saying that every employee has the same flaw, but look for patterns. Then see if you have some similar type of flaw yourself. You might learn a lot and change your life as a result!

Envisioning the long-term growth of your company in addition to the short-term

July 4, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I always get stuck on this. I study analytics, I figure out my next move, I take action and measure the results. I’m good at this and I like it. I do well with my business because I am analytical and enjoy analytics. I do well because I work hard and have vision, plan and take action. But, in my quest for growth, I tend to lose track of the long-term picture. The long-term baffles me. As a child, I had grandiose long-term strategies about how I would become a multi-billionaire like Warren Buffet, dominate industry, and be world famous. It didn’t quite work out like that although I am famous in my tiny industry. I am loved by some and despised by others because I implement policies for advertising that affect other people’s lives! But, I un an advertising site, so that is my prerogative!

As a realistic adult, it is harder to look at the long run. As a child, we think that life will go the way we plan it to go. We reject the idea that things beyond our control will happen. We don’t understand that relationships can ruin our lives, or that illness can cripple us. We are oblivious to the fact that an uncontrollable turn in the market can reduce our income to pennies overnight. As an adult, my problem is that I know to much, and have been through too much. I have lost my ability to be unrealistically optimistic. But, I need to look to the long term future. I need to envision some realistic ways that my business could grow and blossom into something bigger. Growth is the goal of any business (or Twitter account) and I want mine to grow.

Since I run directories, the only way to grow is to start new directories which is relentlessly time consuming and expensive. Dealing with programmers is nearly impossible these days as they are all overloaded and completely irresponsible. To get ahead these days you need good social media, and I am already spending half of my time on blogs and social media. If I try to hire others to help me with these tasks, their performance is usually so dismal that they get fired right away. Going into the unknown to grow is the problem.

I decided upon a solution for long-term growth of my outsourcing directory. I decided to go from writing 15 blog articles a month to 80. I meditated on this business problem while at the beach, and of all of the various solutions to the growth problem that I pondered, this was the one that would have the greatest results in the next year. I have never written so many blog articles before. This is going out on a limb into a new work strategy. Will the new help I hire do a good job? Should I use my existing people? Will I even have time to do half this amount of writing? I guess this little experiment will unfold. I’ll become almost a full-time blog writer. Wish me well.

Do you have a long-term strategy for your business’ growth over the next ten years. I think that both of us should meditate on this reality!

Working as a team with programmers

July 3, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Leave a comment

Working as a team with anyone is very critical. But, the problem is that most people are not team players. Let me rephrase. Those who work for fancy large companies by definition have to be team players or they will get fired immediately. However, those who can’t cut it with a fancy job, work for smaller companies and usually do not have adequate team playing skills.

The problem is, that without team play, programming work cannot get done. As a manager, you need to coordinate with workers to check their work. If you can never schedule time to see them, how will you check their work? If two programmers are working on different parts of the same project, they need to coordinate to make sure they finish at the same time with work that has been checked.

Most programmers at smaller companies have no clue how to be a team player, so the trick is to manage them. I fantasized about sending programmers out to get samosas at a designated time. That way they could get used to getting work done at a specific time. Of course there is nothing technical about samosas, but the being on time aspect would be the critical factor. If the programmer was assigned to have samosas on the manager’s desk at 3pm and just didn’t do it, the programmer would get in trouble.

My experience with programmers is that they just don’t do things. You ask them to do something and they don’t. You ask them again and they don’t. You pester them day and night for a few days and suddenly they produce results. Unfortunately, if you run a company with 25 people, you will not have time to run around bugging everyone day and night. It will tire you out. So, the solution is to train people on simpler tasks how to communicate their progress, and get things done by the deadline every single time.

Training people to “touch base” as Americans say and get things done on time will make your BPO amazingly better than the others. Most workers at outsourcing gigs just don’t care, just don’t get back to people and just don’t finish work on time or finish it correctly. If you aspire for greatness, you can achieve it, so have someone get you some samosas today! But, the secret is in the tamarind sauce!

Giving people a chance to lead

July 1, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Leadership | Leave a comment

When thinking about cultural differences, people look at superficial things first. Indians eat samosas and have arranged marriages while Americans love hamburgers and freedom. Although there is a lot of truth to these statements — or at least there was a few years ago as Indians are now mostly having love marriages and Americans have given up the idea of due process in favor of having the government engage in kidnapping and torturing suspected threats to national security. But, putting aside my snide remarks and cheap blows to American values, culture is complicated. One could say that culture is an evolving body of commonly embraced ideas and practices in a particular geographic area or social circle — or both. Cultures influence each other as they merge and the study of how they influence each other is quite complicated.

In any case, what I found in India — samosas aside, is that there is a vast shortage of leaders and followers. Few in India lead, and even fewer follow. So, how does business get done? Many companies have self-managing employees. What a concept. Is there a system of checks and balances? Additionally, there is very little question and answer as it is bad manners to question your authorities in India. Unfortunately, sometimes you need to question your authorities to clarify their instructions, ask for opinions if there are multiple ways of tackling a task, and sometimes it is good to criticize them when they are off base. As India is a very authoritarian culture (the opposite of America) it is hard for the locals to ask enough good questions and to have meaningful interactions between people of different levels in a company.

So, just how do people interact in Indian companies? I am not so familiar since I have only observed as a customer. They seem to like to get together to have chai time every day as I also do. I have heard that the lower level employees like to huddle around a higher placed employee or boss. Perhaps they think that their physical proximity to him/her will help the greatness of the boss rub off on them. Or perhaps they feel they will gain more privilege at the company if they do.

But, what if Indian companies adapted a system of letting inexperienced employees lead the entire company? Most people think that their job lacks job satisfaction and meaning. I know a way to give your job meaning. You get to run the entire company for a day or a week. Of course you can’t just let anyone do that. You have to train them and give them smaller responsibilities first to build them up to the level where they can handle an entire company. Additionally, let’s try to remember back in time when we were taking driver’s education. I remember that my teacher had a brake pedal on his side of the car so that if I made a mistake, he could intervene and take over at a moment’s notice. What if running a company were like that and the boss could let someone else manage everything, but if he saw something bad happening, he could step in. It is an interesting concept and I think it would make great material for a reality show, blog, or just plain meaningful gossip. I bet Donald Trump would love a scenario like the one I just described. But, if you mess up…

“You’re FIRED!”

Do you have a mentor? A good one?

July 1, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

If you run a business, you need a mentor!
Beginners know that they need a mentor, because they don’t know anything. The idea of a beginner running a large business is scary. But, they could start small. But, imagine how fast you could progress in your business career if you had the right guidance? Sometimes the right information doesn’t all come from the same person. You might get some valuable information from a former boss, a friend, a colleague, and maybe even a life changing tip from a guy at a bar! It has all happened to me. And it is all about being open! The best business advice in my life happened when a guy sat next to me at a bar. This was no ordinary guy though. He was the former manager of the bar at the most prestigious casino in Nevada!

But, what about people who are seasoned in business. Do they need a mentor? The answer is that they do. But, the mentor might not be someone you might ordinarily think of as a mentor. You need to bounce ideas of someone who can think outside the box and suggest alternate ways of handling situations. By investigating different modes of operation, you might discover stumbling blocks, or new ways of handling a situation much better.

A good mentor will get you thinking about the important things in your business and will keep you on track. A bad mentor might give you the lecture on positive thinking and thinking big. These are important, but this is just the same old motivational crap we’ve been hearing for ages. Yes, think big, but also think of how to expand. The how part is generally not easy, and with one hundred directions you could pick, picking the optimal one is the trick.

I have more than one mentor, but my main one is my psychic. He is a bit unusual because he can not only disect complicated business issues and decisions with me. He has a psychic sense of what might do well in the future. Of course he is not always correct, but he has been correct about many critical things affecting my health and business. He correctly predicted which places I could visit that would help my health and that my Twitter account would grow the fastest of all my social media accounts — and it did! My other mentor is the boss of the company who did programming for me. He doesn’t always have a tip for me, but sometimes he comes up with big ones that change my life. During a casual discussion about pecan fudge, he gave me a tip of analyzing my social media output that changed my life. We are getting 20x the volume out of Facebook as before since I decided to prioritize it. It is amazing what a little good mentoring can do.

Sometimes a twenty minute talk a few times a year is all you need. There is no measure for how much mentoring you need. Two hours a week, twenty minutes per quarter, or just when you need it. It is very difficult to tell. But, a good business person should always be weighing different ways and variations of doing things to find the most effective way. Discussing these ways with others is generally a good idea if they have some good input! Good luck with your mentor! Get one today. Network!

Don’t choose a programmer, choose a team!

June 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Tagged | Leave a comment

Choosing Programmers is Hard
Many small companies have a huge dilemma choosing programmers. Most programmers are busy and unreliable, especially to new clients. But you need good programmers for your site to function, so what to do? It is a common mistake for a company to choose “a” programming company only to be let down. Smarter companies might test companies or freelancers out before hiring. But, in real life, companies and freelancers get busy, quit, or become incompetent the minute a task gets complicated. You need more than one entity helping you out with your programming no matter how small your operation is.

Hire More Than One
So, the key in hiring programmers seems to be pairing. If you want a programmer who is smart enough to handle difficult tasks, but fast enough to handle quick fixes, you might need more than one person. You could ideally hire a fast programmer who might not be that sophisticated to handle last minute problems, but also hire a more refined programmer with a tighter schedule to handle more critical yet less time sensitive tasks.

Which Programmer; Which Task?
I like to have overseas companies work on less critical tasks as a rule. I’ll often have a company in India working on a new project whose outcome is not tied to my income while my regular programmers work on existing projects. It is good to test programmers out on less critical tasks to see how they do and how fast they finish. Critical tasks should be reserved for programmers who have stood the test of time and who have proven themselves.

Wine Pairing vs. Programmer Pairing
Pairing programmers with different attributes is a great idea. Have fun with it. If you get really bored, think of it as something like wine and food pairing! Pair an advanced programmer with a less experienced programmer. Pair a fast & limited programmer with a slow but good programmer. Pair an overseas programmer with a domestic one. That way you can work at night with the Indian programmer and during the day with the American one. There are many ways to pair programmers, and I strongly suggest having backups for your pair as well. Good luck!

You should give people “x” days to follow you back on Twitter, right?

June 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

There are Twitter experts who have hundreds of thousands of followers who advise others. Should you take advice from these “experts?” Well, they sort of are experts since they have proven their ability to gain followers that engage. However, they don’t know your individual business. Specific knowledge about how to market your particular business is much more valuable than generalized industry knowledge about social media. If the industry standard is that you should tweet at 4pm, but you get better results at 7pm, then post more at 7pm. The key is to know how to do your own analytics and your own quick experiments and get valuable results even if they are not fine-tuned to NASA standards.

How many days do you give?
I was advised to give anywhere from 2-14 days for someone to follow me back on Twitter. Since I am aggressive on Twitter and follow up to 1000 individuals per day, I need to unfollow people so I can follow more people. I don’t have fourteen days for someone to follow me back. What I observed was really interesting. People involved in Marketing follow me back much more quickly on Twitter than those involved in technical trades such as programming, web design, call center, medical billing, etc. I can get excellent results from the Marketing crowd if I give them two or three days. But, the techies need more like three to five days. Of course on Twitter, the law of diminishing marginal return does apply. I tend to get lots of follow backs the first six hours after I follow people. Each hour or day that passes the follow back rate diminishes. It is up to you how to decide how many days to wait!

One trick I use
Rather than unfollow people at the top of my follow list after two or three days, I unfollow the next day in many cases. However, I don’t unfollow from the top. I will scroll 1000 listings down, so I get the folks I followed 48 hours ago and unfollow them if they didn’t follow me back. This technique enables me to follow and unfollow large quantities of people daily which allows me to grow a lot more quickly. You have to have more people following you than you are following to be able to use this technique.

If I follow 8000 and 10000 are following me, then Twitter will allow me to follow up to 10,000 + 10%. So, I’ll follow 1000 per day until I get to 11.000 and then unfollow from 1000 down the list the next day. That way I am always following 2000 new people at any given time.

Jeremy’s 11 tips for better business decision making

June 29, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you read my blog, chances are you are involved in a business of some sort. Unfortunately, most business people get caught up in the daily grind of overworking and have not enough time to make really good decisions. Warren Buffet is much wiser than this and works only 2 hours a day. That way he has plenty of time for last minute meetings, emergencies, and engaging in deeper thought about the decisions that really matter. But, enough about Warren, let’s talk about you. What techniques can you use to make amazing decisions?

Also see:
Bathe & meditate before making business decisions!

(1) Work Less
Most people work too much. As a business person, you make more if you produce more of value. But, a lot of the tasks you engage in are what I call “busy-work.” Many experts recommend finding a way to outsource your busy work to a younger employee or to someone else. That way your time will be freed up for more important tasks and decision making. As a manager or executive, your primary function is as a decision maker or a lead at important meetings and not to do menial tasks.

(2) Sleep More
What? This blog is crazy. What type if idiot is telling me to work less and sleep more? Me! If you are stressed out all the time running around like a rat on a rotary, you will be in a crazy state of mind. If you want to make good decisions you need to be well rested and in good physical shape.

(3) Eat Healthy Food; Diet Matters More Than You Think.
I recommend a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables (I bet you’ve heard that before) and regular exercise. Fruits nourish the body with lots of fiber and vitamins that you need for keeping calm and energetic. Additionally, they don’t have the same level of toxins that meats and processed foods have. Fruits are easy to digest too and easy on the liver and kidneys. Too much meat can make you feel heavy and sluggish! Your carbohydrates are best gotten from brown rice and oats which have many health benefits you can read about on the internet! Vegetables have fiber and minerals which your body desperately needs. Additionally, fresh or open-net salmon is high in omegas which is essential for your eyes and your circulation among other benefits. The details of your diet are up to you, but in most countries, the national diet is very unhealthy!

(4) Brainstorm Before Analyzing
Most bad decisions are made in a hurry. Other times, bad decisions are made with insufficient data. If you are new to making particular types of decisions, you won’t know how much information is necessary to make a good decision, and you will undoubtedly make a bad decision. If you are making a hiring decision, you need to compare dozens of qualified applicants before making up your mind. If you compare only three and pick from them, your pick is not likely to be optimal, and then when they quit you will be high and dry.

(5) Analyze Yourself & Then With Another Business Person
I prefer to think up multiple methods and variations for methods of solving a business problem. After I think of all of those methods, I think them over for myself, taking notes on the benefits and downfalls of each system. I will often talk each idea over with several people who are good business thinkers as well. These talks can take over an hour at times, so be disciplined about this painstaking but critical process. A business process may involve multiple steps. Getting those steps in the correct order may not be easy. You need to figure out what can go wrong if a particular step is in a particular order for example.

(6) Create a Board of Mentors
It is difficult to schedule time with others to compare business ideas. However, the input of others could be quite valuable. If you are making a business decision that could be worth $50,000 in long term extra income, how much time should you put into that decision? In my opinion, a decision of that caliber could take months of refinement and perhaps more than 20 hours. Plan on spending that type of time with your board of handpicked advisors or consultants.

(7) Enjoy Nature
Go hiking, relax at the beach, and enjoy nature in all types of places. Nature is the best place to get your body balanced, get in shape, and reduce your stress. People who are stressed out cannot focus on deeper decision making activities. They will overlook critical factors and impatiently jump to conclusions. In fact, you might be better off having your most serious meetings at the beach after sunset — I kid you not!

(8) Refine your Decisions
In my experience, my best decisions were not made on the first attempt. It took me years to figure out what made my business tick, and even more years to implement optimal policies. Your first big decision on a particular business matter such as hiring, pricing, business process optimization, etc. will most likely be wrong. But, don’t cry! Decision making is hard, and requires refinement. As you gain more information and experience, refinements in your processes, pricing, interviewing and hiring analytics and processes will ensue! Whatever business decision you make, make it with the intention that more brainstorming, more analysis, and more discussions will need to happen on a regular basis until you have gotten things to the point where they don’t seem to be able to get any better!

(9)Use Alcohol With Care
Too much alcohol will dull your thinking. If you are going to make critical decisions, you need a clear head. On the other hand, a glass of red wine every day will relax you, and is considered to be healthy for your heart, reduces stress, and can help you live longer according to some researchers. The right amount and the right type of alcohol makes the difference.

(10) Think Outside the “Box-fice” & Bump Into People More
Most people cannot think outside the box. Your office is like a box and is good for cranking out routine work. However, if you need to think strategically, your office might not be the best place. Many people have their best thoughts while dropping in on a friend, bumping into someone at lunch, or driving on a road near the beach. Google understands this and they engineer their buildings to have more common spaces where people will bump into each other and have stimulating conversations about innovations and other topics. You need to mold your life to integrate this Google concept of bumping into people. Try to have more unpredictable activities, do unusual things, and talk to a wider circle of people about business issues. If you limit the people you talk with to a narrow circle of people, your thoughts and decision making will reflect that narrowness. But, if you expose yourself to new people (preferably thoughtful people,) as well as reading books by great thinkers, your thinking will evolve.

(11) Evolve Your Mind Over Time
Your current mental state might be fine, but to make even better business decisions next year or next week, you need to widen and refine the way you think. Reading books about great business people, widening your social circle, and thinking more deeply and intricately about business decisions will help your brain to become more adept at handling complicated issues. If you make it your life mission to become refined at making great decisions, you will evolve into that state. But, if you are constantly bogged down with busy work, stress, eat improperly and don’t go to the beach enough — you will just be another scatterbrain!

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