Insider Fix emails have been providing thousands of my readers with three problem-solving fixes for a couple of months now and allowing them to harvest the benefits of my 1 + 1 + 1 = 10x formula. I hope by sending you this newsletter I can help shift your focus from reactive to proactive and ultimately help you grow both personally and professionally. Enjoy.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison
How to Optimize your New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year, Friends!
New Year’s Resolutions have never worked for me. First, I rarely sustain them past two or three weeks into the year. Second, they only remind me that I failed to properly prioritize the attainment of those same goals the prior year.
Here’s what does work for me, and which I follow religiously each year: I’ve gotten a ton of mileage from this exercise from Tim Ferriss and this one from Dan Sullivan, both of which ultimately ask the same question: based on the last year , what do you want “more of” this year and “less of” this year. Each of the above exercises asks the question slightly differently, and Ferriss does a great job applying Pareto’s Principle to the question, so I recommend exploring each of them. Once you know which column “more of” or “less of” each of last year’s significant events fall into, then you create a plan for getting “more of” each positive one and “less of” each negative one.
Also, if you’re not sure what you want “more of” or “less of”, here are some prompts from a great Life Assessment checklist.
Protecting your Business from Avoidable Customer Lawsuits
Here’s a New Year’s Resolution for your business. Talk to your business lawyer about your customer contract. If you’re a small- or mid-sized business, your customers probably make up the largest number of plaintiffs who can sue you (while your employees have the largest number of claims they can bring against you, since employment law tends to provide the largest number of local, state and federal laws and regulations you must comply with; more on that in another Fix).
Among other things, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, your customer contract should:
- prohibit class actions,
- require multiple dispute resolution steps prior to litigation (notice, cure period, face-to-face meeting, mediation, and arbitration),
- properly disclaim all warranties, selling your product or service AS IS, WHERE IS;
- limit your liability to the value of the purchase,
- require disputes to be raised in your home state and county, applying local law, so you’re not dragged into out-of-state courtrooms,
- permit you to recover attorneys’ fees if you have to bring suit for non-payment.
If you don’t see these provisions in your customer contract, ask your business lawyer whether they should be there.
Sleeping, Dreaming and Reading
I usually have two books going at the same time. The two I’m finishing right now are really great reads: Educated by Tara Westover and Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. Both are incredibly inspirational and highly recommended.
Here’s a fascinating infographic about sleeping and dreaming.
