Started out strong, but hit a wall around mile 5 that pretty much lasted until the finish.  It was tough. Was averaging close to 8:15 miles before that, and slowed to almost 10:00 after.  Thankfully I’d built up enough of a buffer.

Here’s a good shot (not mine) that shows the wicked crown in the bridge.

I was happy to achieve my goal (barely… 1:59:15!) but actually running it wasn’t much fun.  It was definitely a struggle.  Shouldn’t have skipped out on the 10+ mile training runs!  Still, it’s cool to be a part of such a big race.  And San Francisco is a great place to run because of the sea-level elevation (aside from the hills) and cool weather (probably 55-60 during the race).

At they end they were serving Irish coffee.  Drinking Jameson before 8:00am and just after running 13 miles was probably not the smartest choice but hey I wanted everything I was entitled to!

I think I’ll focus on interval training next, which supposedly has more health benefits than distance running, and takes less time.  What’s the workout that will make me hit more home runs at softball?  That’s the workout I need.

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Using thousands of focus groups and polls as his data baselines, Luntz draws conclusions about what we really want.  It’s an impossible task given the size and diversity of the country, but still makes for an interesting read.  Among the topics given lengthy discussion are what Americans want from their jobs, their government, their religion, and the products and services they buy.  More money, more time, accountability, and peace of mind were recurring themes.

Luntz is a right-leaning author (I understand the GOP has been one of his biggest customers over the years), and it’s fairly evident in the book.  Yet he writes with admiration about how Barack Obama was the right candidate at the right time, and executed his campaign almost flawlessly.  Obama correctly summed up Americans’ sentiment toward Washington in one word during his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic convention: “Enough!”  The collective anger toward the incumbent administration and his message of hope and change was the perfect recipe for a landslide victory, although Luntz does take one swipe, calling Obama “perhaps the least qualified presidential candidate in a century.”

Another interesting section was on the importance of religion in America.  Although “non-religious” is the fasting growing segment of the population, the data unequivocally shows that religious people live longer and happier lives, make healthier choices, raise closer families, and have stronger relationships.  Some of the data was really surprising to me, and I have to disagree with Luntz’s portrayal of atheists as lonely, depressed, and immoral.  But there’s still something to be said about the uplifting power in believing in something bigger than yourself, even if it is all placebo.

There are some takeaways for marketers, primarily in word choice (and I expect more in Words That Work), but also in how to structure offers to appeal to Americans key wants.  He profiles a couple age-demographics — retirees and my generation, called Generation 2020 in the book — discussing what each thinks is important and what they want most out of life.

In a way, a lot of the data presented is pretty pessimistic.  We’re drowning in debt, unsatisfied at work, have no retirement savings, are fatter than ever, think tomorrow will be worse than today, and mistrust our large companies and our government.  Thankfully Luntz borrows from the Rolling Stones (“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need.”) and closes with what Americans really need.  And I have to love any section that prescribes a “swift kick in the ass.”

It reads a little like Brad Pitt’s speech in Fight Club:

I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

Although What Americans Really Want comes to different conclusion on what to do about it, it’ll make you think about what you really want and then perhaps how that differs from what you really need.

FTC Disclosure: If you buy What Americans Really Want… Really through the above link, Amazon will pay me 4% of the purchase price.

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It’s dangerous to exercise with the goal of getting in shape.  It’s far too general and you’ll never know when you get there.  And even if you did, you’d have to keep exercising to maintain that level of fitness.  To make matters worse, the more “in-shape” you are, the quicker you slide back down the continuum once you stop.  Why else does Michael Phelps swim 6 hrs a day?  He has to just to maintain his current level and try to improve a few more hundredths of second.  It’s a vicious cycle.

Instead of working out to get in shape, I think it is better to set concrete fitness goals with timelines and work toward those.  In a way, these are small methods to define what “in shape” means to you.  Some examples:

• Walk up the stairs without getting winded
• Do 20 push-ups
• Run 20 minutes without stopping
• Swim a mile
• Lose 10 lbs
• Bike to work
• Bench press your weight
• Complete a triathlon
• Fit into your old jeans

So I’m not going to worry about getting in shape anymore.  I’ll continue to work out because makes me feel good, and set some near-term goals so I can track my progress.  Otherwise I’m just a hamster in a wheel.

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The Other 8 Hours serves as a great reminder that everyone on earth starts with the same input (time), yet we achieve vastly different outputs based on how we spend that time.  Ideologically, the book falls somewhere between Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek.  All three begin with the near-universal truth that nobody gets rich working a 9-5, and then branch off on their different paths on how to overcome that.  While Kiyosaki focuses more on investment strategies and Ferriss discusses automation and mandatory ignorance/isolation, Pagliarini offers some concrete actions that everyone can take to improve their personal and financial lives.  Since he’s not as extreme as Ferriss, I think this book will find a broader appeal.

I found the book full of inspirational stories from entrepreneurs and others who have escaped the rat race.  Pagliarini shares a lot of tips on how to free up more time, leverage your talents, and squeeze more productivity from each day.  He gets a little preachy toward the end, but it’s hard not to after 200 pages of rah-rah motivational, take charge of your life prose.  Even if you take away just one positive idea from the book, it’s well worth the read.

Every minute that goes by is one you’ll never get back.  Are you doing what you want to be doing?

And if you read nothing else, read page 183.

FTC Disclosure: If you buy The Other 8 Hours through the above link, Amazon will pay me 4% of the purchase price.

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1. What should I stop doing?

2. What should I start doing?

3. What should I keep doing?

4. What could I do with less effort?

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Congratulations to Shani Davis and all the Olympic athletes.

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Among the most efficient was Liechtenstein, with 7 athletes from a population of 35,000.  (1 in 5000).

For the sake of comparison:

• Canada – 104 athletes out of 33.4 million. (1 in 321,000)
• USA – 250 out of 308 million (1 in 1,232,000)
• India – 3 out of 1.177 billion (1 in 392,000,000)

Liechtenstein is a tiny nation, just 62 square miles, wedged in between Switzerland and Austria.  Our small town has 70,000 people, and I’m sad to report that Livermore does not have 14 Winter Olympians.

So what has Liechtenstein feeling so Olympic?  Something in the water up in those Alps?  I think there a number of factors that allow Liechtenstein to produce more Olympic athletes per-capita than any other country.

• Per-capita GDP is over $100,000, making Liechtenstein the richest country in the world on a per-capita basis.  Skiing equipment and bobsleds are expensive, and they can afford to buy them.
• The geography of tiny Liechtenstein is covered with snowy mountainous, perfect for winter sports training.  There’s not much else to do.  In fact, they’ve never won a medal at the Summer Olympics.
• Citizens pay low tax rates, so they have more disposable income to spend on winter sports recreation.
• Liechtenstein has no military, so no able-bodied young men and women are joining the army instead of going skiing.

Liechtenstein has won 9 Winter Olympic medals in its history.   If we Americans were as good as the Liechtenstein-ians, we’d have won 79,000 medals, instead of the 216 we’ve got.  Basically they’re 365 times more efficient than us.  Gotta respect that.

Liechtenstein sounds like a nice place, I hope to have an opportunity to visit sometime.

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Unfortunately I never wanted to use them for fear they’d run out of ink.  Yeah I clearly had some issues.

Well this came up last week when we didn’t want to take Mochi on a walk because he’d just had a bath and it was raining and wet outside, so he’d get all muddy and dirty again.  Thankfully we were reminded by the song at the end of the Avenue Q musical we just saw, something about whatever happens is “only just for now.”  So Mochi got his walk in, got dirty, and the sun still came up the next day.

It made me think about what other “Mr. Sketch markers” people might have in their lives.

• Not using the nice dishes. (They might break!)
• Not wearing your shoes in the house. (The floors might get dirty!)
• Not using your new skis. (I might hit a rock!)
• Not taking vacation. (I might fall behind at work!)
• Not moving to that new city. (I might not know anyone!)
• Not remodeling your house. (It might lose re-sale value!)
• Not calling your friends or family. (They might be busy!)
• Not asking for a raise at work. (They might say no!)
• Not starting that business. (It might fail!)

Yes, all of those things might happen.  But they might not.

It took me a while, but I think I’ve learned life is more fully lived when you take out all the “nots.”

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It’s clear from the very beginning this is not another one of your “standard” business books.  There are doodles in the margin on nearly every page, and sometimes the doodles are in fact part of the text.  Entire chapters are told through sketches and scrawling handwriting.  No bullet-points, no lecturing, no advice.  Just a new way to look at some common truths about organizations.  For example, the entire text of Chapter 19 reads: “Orville Wright did not have a pilot’s license.”

MacKenzie describes traditional corporations as Hairballs, with each rule, regulation, procedure, layer of management, and bureaucracy as hairs adding to the entangled mess of the Hairball.  To thrive, he argues, you can’t allow yourself to be caught up in the Hairball; instead, you must orbit.  There’s a fine line between orbiting and launching yourself off into deep space, which usually ends up getting you fired.  While orbiting, you afford yourself the creativity to perform at your best and still be responsible to the overall goals of the organization.

The book is really a series of kooky stories from MacKenzie’s Hallmark experience and from his creativity workshops.  I liked the stories, and they always seemed to have a pertinent business metaphor.   In one example, MacKenzie tells a story about going to see a championship pool match, in which the professional player sinks all the balls with amazing ease.  Having expected to witness a much more challenging feat of skill, the author was disappointed.  Later, he came to the conclusion that the work was easy because the man was incredibly good at his job.  The unwritten assumption was that if you’re constantly working really hard, maybe you’re not that good at your job.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball is definitely recommended reading for anyone working within a large organization, and there are even some takeaways for entrepreneurs too.

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