I couldn’t bite my tongue.  Last night, I briefly watched (God forbid) a clip on CNN about the Big 3Detroit auto CEO’s who had marched, hat in hand, to capitol hill to lay claim to their piece of the bailout pie.  The segment I watched was showing various clips of the senators speaking to these nutty Big 3 CEOs. During the middle of the segment I leapt out of my chair and launched on a tirade that would have been better saved for rallying a bunch of guys to throw tea into Boston Harbor.

Now, the content of CNN segment will soon (if it is not already) be famous. Can you guess what it is? Actually, you can read the whole story here.   The gist is this: the Big 3 CEO’s traveled to Washington D.C in private jets to ask for federal bailout money for their companies.  Of course, the symbolism of this is that the executives of the auto companies still have their heads in outer space, are out of touch with reality and, therefore, giving their companies money would be putting good money after bad.

This doesn’t seem like such an illogical conclusion, does it?  Oh, the hipocracy of it all!

Wait for it…YES, ELIZABETH, THIS IS THE BIG ONE!!

Now, Politicians completely divorced from reality is not something new.  But, in this case, they may be even more “Cuckhoo for Cocoa Puffs” than the Big 3 CEO’s.

How about the fact that we, as American taxpayers essentially gave the pols in Washington a multi-trillion dollar checkbook that they have effectively messed up beyond belief and comprehension (can anyone figure out the tax code or the medicare thing?)  The senators on the panel yesterday essentially screamed and railed against the audacity of the CEO’s to arrive on private jets and ask for federal bailout money for their companies.

Uh, excuse me Senators, but how well do you travel?  How many perks do you enjoy on the taxpayer dollar?  How much are you feeling the recent economic downturn your constituents are dealing with?

My guess is, Senators, that you travel well.  Since the median net worth of a U.S. Senator is $1.7 million (read more here at OpenSecrets.org, I am guessing that you aren’t feeling the ‘recession’ as much as your constituents.   I have to hand it to you, though, Senators, for it was a fine performance for the cameras.  You are “fighting for responsibility” and don’t want “these auto companies to come back here in 6 months again asking for more money so you can just fly your private jet home to your palace of gold!”

Never mind, Senators,  the $700 or so billion that will need to be printed like monopoly money to “fix” the financial system that teetered on the brink a few short weeks ago.  I think there is enough pork in that bill to cost you the vote of the animal rights lobby.

Senators, you act like the trade and budget decisions you have collectively made have had no impact on U.S. industry or jobs.  Yes, I guess you are free to choose when to use “fuzzy logic” and when no to.  Just as long as it fits.

Let me make sure I understand you, Senators:  it is OK to have an insane farm subsidy program for decades and light fire under Government Sponsored Entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fuel a housing boom (and, by the way none of these industries have rich CEOs that travel on their own planes- wink).   But, these auto companies, hey “we’ve got to be responsible here.”  Uh-huh.

So, who wins in all of this you might be asking?  Many things are zero sum - somebody wins, somebody loses, so…drumroll please….

And the award for the biggest sucker holding the bag goes to…The American Taxpayer!

Tell them what they’ve won, Johhny!  

We’ll Ted, The American Taxpayer has won an all expenses paid trip into the bondage of debt for the better part of eternity! **Applause**  That’s right.  Not only will working men and women be in indentured servitude for their existence on earth, but future generations will also be eligible for the same lifetime benefit!  It’s a total prize package value of over $100,000,000,000,000.00!!!  **Applause**

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There is a need to make a solid and decent living from the business, while at the same time smart small business owners know that they need an exit.  To have a successful exit (e.g. selling their company or passing it down to future generations or employees) small business owners must have a ‘saleable’ business.

Unfortunately, building a “saleable” business means making the decisions and choices along the way that lead to long-term value creation (branding, systems, processes) and making the business able to function independent of its owner is the key variable here - this necessarily impedes the money the owner can take out of the business in the short-term.

In order to build a saleable business, the small business owner must not rob the business of the re-investment of cash necessary to build sustainability.  Few small business get over this hurdle.

In his famous book: The E-myth, author Michael Gerber captures this issue quite saliently.  I highly recommend reading this book if you want to know more about overcoming the business sustainability and saleability hurdle.

Many a small business owner is faced with decisions such as: “I can invest $5,000 into a new marketing campaign or little Johnny can get braces.”

Thus, we are faced with one of the biggest quandaries for small business owners.  Present vs. Future.

The most successful small business are those where the owners are in “nothing to lose” scenarios.  For example, the young factory worker who decides he wants to start a business, moves in with his parents, saves his paycheck, buys and small pizza franchise, works 70 hours per week , reinvests nearly all the profit for the first few years to pay down debt and develop a name brand and then, bang!  Five years later the now slightly older former factory owner owns two pizza franchises netting him $200,000 per year and build a net worth of over $1,000,000.

Main principle: those with nothing to lose are more difficult to defeat than those who have something to lose.

Plain and simple, if you have nothing to lose you will take more risks and have asymmetries of motivation that yield an edge.

The ‘nothing to lose attitude’ is paramount to success as an entrepreneur.

For illustration of this point, read on…

I once had a job as a bouncer at one of largest bars in my home state of Wisconsin.   We would routinely have 300-400 people in on a Friday or Saturday night.  When you throw a couple hundred gallons of alcohol consumption in, this made for a rowdy crowd.

Being the young “tough guy” that I was , I had the idea that any drunk bar patron who looked at me cross-eyed was going to get an arm-bar and an express ticket to the back-alley.

After a few tussles in my first few weeks on the job, one of the restaurant managers, Jim, came up to me one night and pulled me off to the side.

“Adam, you are doing a decent job here.  John (bar manager) likes you, I like you, the bartenders like you.  But, I want to warn you about something.”

He put his arm around me and walked me to the back of the bar and continued.

“One day you are going to get rough with the wrong person.  There are people out there that you just don’t know about.  They can and will do anything.   For instance, take a look at that guy over there,” he pointed a rough looking middle aged guy sitting at a high table having a beer, “I saw that guy in a fight here a few years back.  He got hit so hard his eyeball popped out of the socket.  He still kept swinging and put the other guy into intensive care.  Unless you are willing to have your eyeball knocked out, or worse, don’t mess with him.”

Of course, I ended up NOT messing with the eye-ball guy.  However, I DID take a very important lesson from that night that I am reminded of often, particularly as I survey the competitive landscape in my real estate and consulting businesses:  “those with nothing to lose are tough to beat.”

This also reminds me of a scene in one of my favorite movies: American Beauty.  In the scene, Lestor Burnham (main character) is in a meeting with a guy his company has hired to help with downsizing.  After Lestor shrewdly blackmails the hatchet-man for $50,000 + benefits, the guy makes the comment that Lestor is “one twisted f#@&,” to which Lestor responds: “Nope.  I’m just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose.” Thus begins Lestors empowering journey through his self-indulgent mid-life crisis.

The ‘nothing to lose’ mindset is, indeed, tough to beat.

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Well, not really, but I might as well be considering the treatment I get at banks.

Yesterday I needed to do some personal banking.  However, even before I walked into the branch I was on edge.  Why?  Just the day before, I had tried and failed to find a National City Bank (recently purchased by PNC) near my office that was open later than 4 PM.  That’s right.  And I live in a Metropolitan area of over 4 million people.  Irritating to say the least.

Ok. So, I can deal with looking like an after-hours bank stalker (passers by probably thought I was casing the joint for a robbery), roaming from bank to bank trying to find a branch that operates in the real world where normal people work throughout the day and past 4:00 pm.  What I can’t deal with is what ensued when I actually cleared an hour out of my day and went into a branch.

Read on…

We’re back to yesterday and I walked up to the teller window, handed her my deposit ticket with two checks and a smile.  After a minute or two of clicking away on her computer, she scrunches her face, pauses for a few seconds, and tells me that she will have to place two different holds on the funds deposited from the checks.  Out of a total of roughly a $7,000 deposit, $4,000 won’t be available until 5 business days later and the remaining $3,000 will be available in 10 business days.

Having dealt with holds on checks before (successfully, I might add), I was curious this time as to why they would place a hold, since I have had an account at the bank for over 4 years, routinely make deposits of this size (drawn from the same accounts - from my business and have never bounced a check.

Upon inquiring with the branch  manager, I was informed that this was “policy.”  Admittedly, I got a bit belligerent; “so, your policy is to upset your depositors?” I asked.  I submitted my argument (that these check amounts and drawn-on banks were consistent - for over 14 months, etc.).  After getting some more corporate drone propaganda babble, I simply smiled, grabbed my receipt and left.

Not once during this trip, or other trips to the bank did anyone at any branch do anything to provide any level of customer service.  Apparently, customers aren’t important anymore to these institutions.  They are getting away from the basics of business - which is never a good idea.

The management of these big banks either: A. have a really good, dynamic growth strategy or, B. are really screwed up.

I’m guessing, since the business model the brilliant managers of these big banks pursued was loaning money to hoards of people with hardly a pulse (called subprime and alt-A) and buy all kinds of super risky credit derivatives and then pay themselves insane bonuses that would make even the 19th century robber barons turn over in their graves.

It seems to me that when any business gets away from the basics, like taking care of customers, things get dicey.  When companies get delusional and think they can be all things to all people, or pursue things way outside of what they are good at/able to, unpleasant results (e.g. lower profits) ensue in due course.

Maybe retail banking is just being geared to be taken over by robots in the future or it will be entirely self-service.  All in the name of efficiency.  Well, when you force customers to conform (as all banks can, because our society is built around electronic money blips that mandate institutions at virtually all levels) it can appear that they are accepting it, when in reality they are resentful and looking for other options.

My solution(s).

1. Start my own bank
2. Switch banks
3. The old capitalist way

The old capitalist way would have you purchase a share or two of your bank’s stock (assuming publicly traded) and show up to the shareholder meeting.  In rare Gordon Gekko form, you would make a compelling speech to management, in which you would inform them that they are making costly mistakes at a grass roots level.  Of course, this approach is probably moot at this point in time, because the federal government is nationalizing banks (effectively) at such an alarming rate that, instead of lobbying the managers of the banks for real change to make you a happier customer (and, hence, more profitable for the bank) you will have to write impassioned letters to your congressmen and congresswomen.  What a strange world we live in now.

For now, I am going to opt for switching banks.  I’m longing for the old days..you know, a bank like Cheers, where everybody knows my name.   This may be like searching for the lost city of gold, but I’ll find one.

As far as opening a bank, I always have an eye on opportunities to capitalize where others are screwing it up royally.  Give it some time, though.  You never know what could happen.  Crazier things have…

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As I keep my ear to the ground, this is what I am hearing:

Should I buy stocks or go into cash?

Should we buy a house or keep renting?

Will I have my job next week/month/quarter?

Will I ever be able to retire?

Add to these a heavy dose of uncertainty and you have a perfect recipe for mass amounts of people looking for their next move.

In the spirit of fun and learning, I thought that I would offer up a few nuggets of what I think five clear cut options you have as an entrepreneur/investor are right now.

1. Run for the hills

You could hole up in a cave, mount some machine gun nests and wait for the rioting and looting to ensue.  Usually, if you want to make money this is not the best idea.

2. Yearn for the past

Most of the other people that aren’t running for this hills or participating in the ostrich look-alike contest are fondly reminiscing about the days of yore.  Things were good for a long time for people in many different industries.  Mortgage brokers used to be able to almost literally print money.  Blank checks were handed out to financial planners and stock brokers (in the forms of commissions and fees).   Auto companies used to be able to piston SUV’s and pickup trucks off of assembly lines and watch their wallets expand.

While this was all well and good, it is now part of the past.  Evolution and change are the rule of the day in business.  Well, they always were, it was just a matter of it being practiced.

3. Learn a lesson or two

There  are plenty of things we can learn from what has happened in the credit, stock and real estate markets in recent months and the events that are currently taking place.

“Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  - George Santayana

For the entrepreneurs and investors still standing, this quote should burn into our mind that we should never get so far ahead of ourselves as to think that we are invincible.  I knew more than a few companies and individuals who thought the music was never going to stop (just like in 2000, when dot-coms became dot-bombs).

Life is a constant shakeup of learning and doing.

4. Tackle New Opportunities

Since the apocalypse is not yet upon us (despite Sports Illustrated magazine’s lobbying), there are no doubt new opportunities to make money in industries that are currently decimated.  Think: housing, auto’s, mortgage.  What shape this will take I don’t yet know.  Could new, niche focused portfolio lenders pop up to fill gaping holes in the mortgage market?  Will the upstart auto companies popping up like weeds in Silicon Valley usurp the global auto powers that be?  (I mean..come on, can GM hold out that much longer?  Glad I dumped my shares a few years ago).

When the tide finally retreats back to the sea, we will all look around and realize that not everyone has been swimming naked.

5. Vote

Since election day is upon us, it would be very patriotic of me to neglect to mention that the polls are open and you (well, those citizens of the U.S. who enjoy the privilege of voting) might be well served to pull the lever for the future you want to see.  I encourage you to get down and dirty and learn what I call the ‘micro-politics’ of your municipal and state governments.  Find out who your local judges, prosecutors, city council members and other elected officials are.  These people will impact your life more than the newly income president and vice president will.

Think about: keeping criminals off your neighborhood streets, approving new businesses into your city or town, changing the tax code to make it more/less favorable to businesses or homeowners.

—————-

Alright, now for a shameless self-plug.

My business partner, Dylan Tanaka and I will be resuming our real estate video blog at MiRealEstate.tv.

Keep your eyes open tomorrow for brand new episodes.

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-Warren Buffett

It’s not a big stretch to see that a lot of the world is afraid right now.  For example, take a look at some recent news headline snapshots:

“Searching for ways to tackle the unfolding economic crisis…

“Market Crash Shakes World”

If you had taken a nap like Rip Van Winkle  a year ago and woke up today, here is what you would find:

• Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns out of business
• AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned by Uncle Sam
• The Dow Jones Industrial average down 40%

Perhaps you would just like to go back to sleep for another year and wake up to hopefully find things in less of a state of absolute pandemonium.

Alas, if you did that, you would probably miss out on one of the largest wealth building opportunities in your lifetime.

Dovetailing the opening quote by Mr. Buffett (a reasonably successful investor!), the time to ‘get in’ is when pessimism and uncertainty are running high - just as they are right now.  When hoards of investors and consumers are scared and cynical, they aren’t looking at the true intrinsic value of investment opportunities are not making logical decisions.  Emotion (read: fear) is driving their actions and pushes the real value of investments below their true worth.

Take the asset class that I like the most right now: real estate.   I don’t think that you’ll find a more out of favor sector of the entire U.S. economy.  The credit crisis and foreclosure tidal wave have all but extinguished even the most resilient of investors hopes for a comeback in the near future.  However, select investments do make sense in both the short and long term.  For example, take look at the following deal breakdown for a single family home deal in Roseville, Michigan (one of the cities in Metro Detroit where my real estate firm purchases bank owned homes):

Purchase price: $20,000

Repair Cost:  $10,000

Total Cost Basis: $30,000

Annual Net Cash Flow (allowing for repairs, vacancy, capital improvements and all operating expenses): $3,600

Now, even if you strip out the idea that the house is worth more than $30,000 from a comparative market value standpoint and you strip out the idea that the house will ever appreciate in value (both of these are extremes, but bear with me), you are looking at purchasing an asset at a price of about 8.3 times annual cash flow.  In stock parlance - this would be like buying a company at 8.3 times earnings, or a P/E ratio of 8.3.

Considering the fact that the S&P 500 (a broad market indicator) is trading at roughly 18 times earnings (P/E ratio of 18), you can see that real estate is not necessarily the bastard asset class across the board that much of the media would like you to believe.  In fact, if you throw any semblance of long term price appreciation in the mix, combined with any benefit of income from real estate being more tax efficient (not always a given)- you have a strong performing asset.

–>  you will not that I left the idea of leverage out of the equation in this analysis for a more ‘apples-to-apples’ comparison

Right now, I think there are some great buys on the stock market side of things as well.  Cyclical stocks are going to be out of favor right now (think: steel makers and home builders).  Among others, I think this is a great time to grab stocks like Nucor Steel (NUE) and KB Homes (KBH).  I have owned Nucor for over 4 years now and could launch into a few reasons to buy, outside of the fact that their shares have been pummeled by the fear mongering of late.  KBH is trading for less than its net tangible asset value - meaning  you could (theoretically) purchase the entire company and liquidate it and at least make your investment back.  This is a relatively rare occurance in the modern stock market.

Since this is not a stock picking blog or real estate blog, I will not opine further.  I only use these examples to illustrate that one can profit from all of the madness going on right now by just looking at the horizon and not at everyone else’s head under the ground.

As is plainly evidenced, fear and greed will always play a dominant role in investment decisions.  The question is: which side will you be on?

————————————

For those in the Metro Detroit area interested in learning more about real estate investing, the industry or what is going on in general in the marketplace right now, the upcoming Real Estate Investors Association of Macomb (REIA of Macomb) is going to be great.  Than Merrill of the A&E show Flip This House is going to be on hand to razzle and dazzle with his tremendous knowledge and investing techniques.  Meet people from around the area who are of like mind and occupation.  Go to the website to learn more.

———————————-

I also encourage anyone who wants to learn more about successful investing (of any kind) to read the compilation of letters that Warren Buffett writes to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders each year.  Go here to download some good reading.

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I have no such interest.

There comes a point in time where you must admit the lack of control you have over many factors that intimately affect your life.  The latest events on Wall Street over the past week are an example of this.  This does not mean that we cannot adjust and improvise, and capitalize accordingly, it simply means that our boats, however large, will be tossed and pushed to an fro whether we like it or not.

One thing we can take away from this latest financial debacle is the old axiom: “the more things change the more they stay the same.”  Consider this:

• in the 1990’s as the “new economy” was booming, it was “different this time” was the prevailing wisdom as the stock markets soared to dizzying heights, and people rushed in with investment dollars
• in 1998, a hedge fund managed by Nobel Prize winners and math genius’ imploded and almost took the financial system down with it - they claimed they were different because they could mathematically eliminate risk from their portfolio
• in 1929, flush with money from the roaring 20’s, investors were betting big with borrowed funds on the stock market - in spite of past market panics and margin calls, it was different for them
• in 1971, President Nixon implemented wage and price controls, designed to tame 6% inflation and there were a great many who thought “temporary” wage and price controls could cure inflation - it will be different this time, they thought.  By 1974 the U.S. inflation rate had reached double digits

Apparently it was going to be different this last time as well, with subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations.

Different indeed.

To take away something different from this most recent market meldown would be like saying that we have ignored history repeating itself over and over again.

Be ready for the next one.

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Here’s a scenario for you:

A stranger comes up to you and asks to borrow some money. You have the ability to make the $5,000 loan being requested. The stranger can’t provide you with much information. They are vague about what their job is, how much money they make and how they will be able to repay the loan. They don’t have any assets to speak of. But they “promise” that they are going to repay the loan.

Does it sound like a good idea to make this loan?

If you said “yes,” then congratulations, you have what it takes to be a modern day finance company.

Now, you get to CLAIM YOUR PRIZE: Billions of dollars of losses!!!!

It used to be the job of banks and finance companies to ferret out the bad borrowers - you know, doing their best to solve the old adverse selection/moral hazard problem. From the huge mess we have in our financial markets right now, it seems as though all the computer algorithms that they had drawn up to make lending decisions did way worse than a monkey could have done in releasing funds to borrowers who were never going to make a payment.

_____________________________________

Finance giant and investment bank Morgan Stanley has just announced that they will “freeze” all of their clients’ home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). While the company isn’t releasing much information about this as of yet, one can speculate that the main reason for this is that the values of homes have dropped so much over the past 12 months that the equity being borrowed against is no longer there.

Hmmmm…

Knowing what we know about how many Average Joe’s and Jane’s use their homes like ATM machines, taking out equity to buy everything from new cars to vacations and plasma T.V.’s, it isn’t hard to see how further changes like this in the lending markets are going to make for a very lean Christmas this year in many homes.

This is likely troubling for consumer spending, since much of it relies on the “2 C’s:” confidence and credit. The mortgage and finance companies, who used to woo Average Joe with tantalizing offers of cheap and easy credit, are now gunning for him. It seems every dollar of red ink is stained with the blood of Average Joe’s and Jane’s across America.

If I could rub an old lamp and give orders to my genie, I would wish for ‘normal’ lending standards to return to the market - you know, like it used to be before things got absolutely nuts and ghosts started getting financing for leaving some residue on the wall.

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This is the question that I am posing to anyone out there with an insatiable thirst for wealth that has let their health go by the wayside on their rapid ascent to the top.

I can’t help but stand by in wild wonder at all of the financially successful people I know that look absolutely uncomfortable (and probably feel that way too). Just about every high level manager at the companies I used to work for were woefully overweight. For some reason, a huge gut was a ‘badge of courage’ of sorts for working all the long hours and eating all the takeout food.

Unfortunately, many of the successful entrepreneurs and business owners in the business community where I currently live (Metro Detroit) and other cities I travel to are woefully overweight and out of shape.

As I look around, it seems like there has to be an inherent tradeoff between making money and being healthy. Is this really the case? Am I really to think that the only path to wealth is a body composition that resembles that of an orca whale?

When you look at this from a high level, I can only come to the conclusion of complete insanity. It is insane to neglect your health of the sake of a more dollars. If money is simply a means to an end (time, freedom, material things, etc.) then what sense does it make to raise the odds that you won’t enjoy the end result you have created? Sounds like a bunch of work, time, money and effort for nothing to me.

I would even submit that establishing a more healthy lifestyle would be more conducive to accumulating wealth. What if you were more effective in your investing or your job? What if you just felt more energy each day when you got up? What if your body rewarded you with better performance for treating it well? I think more wealth would flow as a result of this.

If being successful is a choice (it is), then lifestyle is a choice as well. I don’t think it’s an incongruous choice, either. Success is about more than money and material wealth. It’s about contributing- leaving the earth a better place because you were on it for short speck of time.

I guess it’s all a matter of what you decide to focus on. Although I can only control myself and my own actions- I am going to monitor this trend.

More on this in future posts.

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How can a company lose $8.7 billion in a single quarter and still stay in business? For the sake of the economy here in Southeast Michigan, I hope that Ford is able to implement their turnaround plan. If not, I hate to speculate what the outcome will be.

Speaking of this, haven’t these auto companies been ‘turning around’ for the past 5 years or so? Anyway…

Being involved in residential real estate investment here in Metro Detroit, this news definitely makes me bi-polar. On the manic side, I can see more foreclosures and distressed properties coming to market, driving prices down and presenting better deals. On the depressed side, I see more unemployment, more housing inventory driving rents down and more blight taking hold.

There are indeed two sides to every coin.

For anybody doing business here in Metro Detroit (or anywhere for that matter), I present this to you as the most compelling reason to develop a global business model. Being geographically dependent on your customers and suppliers (as Southeast Michigan is so dependent upon domestic based auto manufacturing) is a non-starter. As a 21st century business, you must learn to tap into the power of a worldwide customer and supplier base.

It has been said that, in business, you are either growing or dying.

The best part of this is that we have a choice; we can succumb to the pressures of economic change or we can make our peace with them and adapt.

As always, history will be the judge and jury.

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Clutter is everywhere you look: your email in-box, your snail mail box, your computer desktop, your voice-mail box -pretty much every aspect of your life on planet earth in 2008.

Clutter can be defined as any form of communication, correspondence, task or process that adds no value or gets in the way of adding value. Examples are everything from benign emails (most are), snail mail (mostly bills and credit card offers) to digital junk. Clutter is insidious, so you have to be vigilant.

Here are five ways that I actively use to get rid of all the clutter and junk that gets in my way of getting the truly important things done:

1. Delete everything

That’s right. I delete 99% of all email every day. If I receive an email that requires action, I will respond and then delete the thread. This forces me to be as clear and concise as I can be in my email, thinking through everything and putting any issues to rest. Chances are, if someone replies back to you again, the previous emails will all be in the thread. If not, you are talking about different subject matter anyway - so you just saved yourself some time and in-box space.

The more email I keep, either in my inbox or archived, it seems the more I have to do. Even though something might not need action, you still feel compelled to act. This is anti-productive.

2. Throw everything away

Every piece of mail I get (as long as it’s not a birthday card or money) ends up in the garbage. I do all of my bills electronically or through auto-pay. There is no need to have mountains of paper on your desk, either. The U.S. Army used to have a rule that went like this: “you touch a piece of paper only once.” Stick to this and you’ll be doing just fine. It has worked wonders for me.

This works for non-work related things too. Just picture all the junk you had to get rid of the last time you had a garage sale. There is no need to keep things around that just take up space and nothing more. Do everyone a favor and give it to the local Goodwill store or your some other worthy cause.

3. Send everyone to voicemail

Unless I am expecting a call for a specific reason at a specific time, I let every call go to voice mail. At least half the time there is no voice mail message left, which to me means that the call really wasn’t that important. If there is a voice mail, I can listen to the message and prepare a response (or possible responses). This helps take me out of reaction mode and into proactive mode.

4. Be anal about organizing your digital files

I am pretty liberal about the delete key on my computer. As far as files go, I try to use as few as possible. It is amazing how much hard drive space you can chew up in a matter of 12 months. No wonder they keep making these things bigger and bigger (or, maybe it is because they keep making them bigger that we keep using more and more space?). Immediately prioritize the files you need to keep and those which you can discard. By the way, don’t lie to yourself and say that “I may need this one someday…”

Also, be sure to keep the digital files you do keep in an organized file structure. You should have specific folders set up for specific things, and stick to it rigidly. I’m only telling you from experience - you can easily spend 15-20 minutes at a time looking for a file that you really do need.

5. Get things off your plate like a hot potato

Anything that requires action on your part should be dealt with in a timely manner. You don’t need me to really tell you this, but I think it’s worth a friendly reminder. There is a tendency to let inertia rule your daily actions and if the momentum is not on your side, your “to-do” list piles up quickly. This leads to overwhelm, which develops into clutter very quickly. Soon, you can’t see the forest through the trees.

If you commit yourself to dealing with important items right away (and discern what is truly important), then you will be able to free yourself from the minutiae that confounds your peers.

___

As always, take today’s Top 5 for what it is: some practical insight on what works for me and what I think can work for you. Take bits and pieces or only bits if you like. The over-riding goal is to drive success levels higher - namely yours and mine.

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