April 2007

Greater Than Yourself: An Overview of the Challenge

My third book--tentatively titled Greater Than Yourself--is in the works, and I'm inviting you in on the process.

This one is also a novel, a parable-told-in-typical-cheeky-Farber-style--whatever you wanna call it (catch up on the discussion about it here). The story's developing nicely and the characters are fleshing themselves out more and more every day (the creative process in this kind of writing is really a remarkable thing. Freakin' scary, too, I must say, given that I'm never exactly sure what's going to happen next. You'd figure the writer should know that, right?)

Everything's subject to change, of course, but what follows, in semi-cryptic bullet form, is the outline of the book's message as it stands today. And here's where you come in:

Read through the outline and then give me your impressions of what some or all of the points mean to you. Right off the top of your head. Don't try to interpret what I mean, tell me what you think they mean.

Why am I asking this of you? Consider it an experiment in message clarity and congruence. Or remote-intuitive collaboration. (Okay, I just made that up). Bottom line is I think your responses will be very, very interesting and they just may find their way into the book.

You can either offer your comments in the...uh...comments, or, if you're just too shy, send me an email. (Make sure you remove "nospam" from my address before you send your email).

And I will tell you what I mean, too--just a little further on down the road. Thanks for your help!

Part One: Expand Yourself
• Expand Your Identity
• Shift Your Perspective
• Elevate Your Intention
• Commit To Your Legacy

Part Two: Give Yourself
• Choose Wisely
• Tithe Your Time
• Give It All Away
• Celebrate Dramatically

Part Three: Replicate Yourself
• Teach Others to Teach Others to Fish
• Change The World

Posted by steve at 04.24.2007 | Comments (22)

Pride, Love, Junk

Last month I had the great pleasure of speaking to the franchise partners of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? in Vancouver. But I wasn't just a keynote speaker, I was a customer-to-be.

It just so happens that I'm a man with a lot of junk, who has a family with a lot of junk and, therefore, a garage whose insides haven't seen the likes of a car in a long, long time.

So this week, after a robust junk--er--garage sale, I booked a time with the local GOT-JUNK? folks to have them come and haul away anything that hadn't been sold or couldn't be donated.

The "Truck Team" (their company language) that showed up--Mike and Jason--proved something that I (and others, certainly) have been saying for a long time: if you want your customers to love doing business with your company, make sure you and your employees love the company first.

And that's exactly what I saw in Mike and Jason. Maybe they'd rather have a more glam job like, I dunno, co-CEOs of a Fortune 50 multinational conglomerate with a company jet--hell, who wouldn't? But I have to say, they certainly didn't act like they'd rather be doing anything else but hauling my stuff and--brace yourself--cleaning up afterward.

These guys love their company, and they're proud of it. I'm not projecting here; I'm not putting words in their mouths. I know this because they told me. They told me with great admiration, for example, the story of how founder, Brian Scudamore, got the idea for the business while waiting in the drive-through at McDonalds. He was an 18 year old college student who started with one truck, they said, and now "he's a billionaire or something."

Then they told me about their recycling process because they want to help care for the environment, and their donation process to help take care of their community.

And, bottom line, they didn't just de-junk my home; they gave me space--real, live garage space for our cars. A garage with cars in it! It's almost disorienting. But they also gave me something I didn't contract for:

Inspiration and awe that comes from witnessing an "un-inspiring" job done with heart and soul.

Pride. Love.

Ingredients of their great Junk business.

Don't even try to tell me it's not possible in yours.

Posted by steve at 04.04.2007 | Comments (3)