The Obvious: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed
The secrets to success in business aren't secrets at all. They are simple and obvious, but we overlook them. This life-changing book offers the short-cut road to success – in business and beyond giving digestible and effective advice that actually works, served up with inspirational anecdotes in a humorous style.'The Obvious' is a refreshingly simple and original business book. Business guru James Dale shows how the principles, values, and strategies that make businesses successful are those simple ideas that apply to life.Listening opens up worlds to you, paying attention puts you at an advantage over people who don't even show up, and telling the truth beats lying ten times out of ten. Try the simple – it's almost always more effective than the complicated.You'll find this book not only a sharp, cut-to-the-chase career book, but also an handbook of engaging wisdom that will bring you fast solutions to problems in any area of your life. 'The Obvious' reveals the eight core lessons you need to remember – each full of humour and fascinating anecdotes about the world's most successful movers and shakers. You'll find compelling real-life examples of the 'simple=success' formula from companies such as Apple and IBM, Ikea and Starbucks, as well as innovative people from Thomas Edison and Bill Gates, to Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg.Some ‘Obvious’ life-lessons that work:• Simple is Better Than Complicated – ask if you don't know; shut up and listen; be nice – it gets results.• Be Honest – the truth is powerful; apologies work; an excuse is not a reason; take responsibility – 'I will do it' gets you noticed.• Open Your Mind – failure is a good teacher; bosses are not all idiots – learn from them.• Energy Gives You the Edge – patience is a virtue; so is impatience; 'Do it today' – the key to effectiveness.Readable, fast-paced and entertaining, 'The Obvious' is for anyone's business bookshelf, from the CEO to the postroom, HR director to the entire sales force – or anyone wanting to be successful in life.
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JAMES DALE
THE OBVIOUS
Everything you need to know to succeed
To my wife, Ellen.I was going to make a list of all the things you mean to me, but the publisher said I had to leave room for the book. I love you. Obviously.
Contents
Dedication
Introduction
Part I – Work is a verb
The bottom is a good place to start
There are no shortcuts
Work is a challenge. Or it should be.
Part II – It’s not about you
It is about everyone but you
Go on an ego diet
The credit will find you
Part III – Don’t be a jerk. Be reasonable, kind, decent, fair – in a word – nice.
There’s something to this Golden Rule thing
The bad guys make the good guys look better
Play fair – what a concept
You’re judged by the company you keep
Part IV – Listen more than you talk
Shut up
Listen. Then hear.
You can learn a lot from great listeners. And bad ones.
It’s okay to be ignorant. It’s not okay to stay that way.
Ask. It’s a great way to find out what you don’t know.
Part V – Every job is sales
Don’t sell. Solve.
Give people what they want (not what you want them to want)
Buying is selling
The customer is always right … even when she’s wrong
Part VI – Simple is better than complicated
You can see more clearly from a distance
Ahem. Pay Attention.
Throw out your mental trash
Part VII – Less is more
Extra long is for suits, not meetings
Don’t write in ink (50% of all meetings get changed)
Cut the budget
Cut your losses
Part VIII – Say what you mean
It’s more important to do business than to speak business
A weasel is a rodent
Mean what you say
Part IX – Honesty – the most oowerful weapon in business
There’s no such thing as a good liar
An excuse is not a reason
Apologize
Take responsibility
Part X – Open your mind – let ideas in
Whatever you think, think the opposite
Failure is good
Change happens
Global is the new local
Just because someone is rich doesn’t make him smart
You have to get old. You don’t have to think old.
Part XI – Reality – deal with it
Life isn’t fair. Get over it.
Consistency beats a hot streak every time
Don’t look backward. There’s nothing there.
Most things aren’t as serious as they seem (but some are)
Part XII – Don’t keep score
Envy is ugly
Grudges are stupid
Forgive and forget – or at least one out of two
Ignore titles, especially your own
Money is a tool, not a god
It’s 0–0 tomorrow
Part XIII – Energy – the unfair edge
Show up
Today is a good time to do something
Obsessive–compulsive isn’t all bad
Patience is a virtue. So is impatience.
Don’t take “no.” Press “0.”
Work is not a hobby
Part XIV – Imagine you worked for you
Be the boss. Don’t be bossy.
Take Boss 101. Learn from best and worst.
Hire someone smarter than you
Promote someone who isn’t ready
Trust someone – besides yourself
Firing hurts – or it should
Everyone has a boss – even the boss
Part XV – Take inventory
If you wait for things to be different, you’re in for a long wait
If you have to ask for a raise, quit
Start over tomorrow – but don’t do it the same way
About the Publisher
The secrets to success in business aren’t secrets at all. They’re beliefs, ideas, values, and strategies most of us already know, but ignore. Tell the truth. Share the credit. Listen more than you talk. Open your mind. They’re in plain sight, staring us in the face, fundamental and familiar – in a word, obvious. Maybe too obvious. They’ve been recited to us by our parents and grandparents. Words to live by. As likely to appear in a fortune cookie as an MBA textbook. In fact, they are so fundamental, they may have been taken for granted or ignored, and certainly not practiced to their highest effect.
They’re simply obvious. Not tricky, sly, clever, or even complicated. Just proven effective, over and over, irrefutably. Not in a hypothetical case or historic analogy or cute parable, but in real life, in real deals, in real business. They work. Regardless of the field of business – from airlines to biotech to apparel to building to marketing to shipping to demolition to design to wholesale to retail to service to security to insurance to entertainment. Regardless of the job – from sales rep to department head to regional manager to HR to CFO to CEO. Same principles, same results, always effective.
