How to win the game
Revision 3 (3 July 2004)
(and will be revised as many times as it takes to win)
The Rules to The Game of Life
Any act of kindness, no matter how small, is never wasted
Logic is the quintessential mortar between ideas and action.
Business is war. Take no prisoners, but, whenever possible, acquire
allies.
Profit spurns competition. High profit spurns ruinous competition.
The Microsoft Hardball on Competition:
Give away what your Competition sells to put them out of the game.
Give away the razors to sell the blades.
The HP Allegory on Razors:
Teach shaving lessons to increase sales.
A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men
Don’t let the bastards get you down
You can add infinite levels of quality to anything you deliver
David’s Design on Delivering Quality Service:
Ask any client, “How would you design our service around your needs?”
The most immediate person who sees your work is the best potential client.
The Chocolate Syndrome:
People will always value most what costs most.
The Bottom Line of Space and Time:
A lack of planning on your part does not equate to a crisis on my part
The Sundance Approach to Business:
No matter how old the field is, you can still grow a new crop by trying new things and being different.
Gotta tell the whole truth to the audience including all feelings and emotions,
logic, decisions, beliefs, and concerns. Total disclosure so that they
can participate in my decision process.
If audience members see me in public, anywhere in the world, and have some
ideas of what I should do next, please come to me. If this show is
decent, it will print on the screen at least the first name of everyone that
is interviewed. That way, you get not only my respect, but the respect
of your peers for how you interact.
Each night, if I can get away, I am going out for a walk. I need it
to think as well as to exercise.
I am going to assume that people are being informed by some means.
That is how these types of games are not commonly similar to life in the
US at all. These games are won only by sheer wit and wisdom, and a
little audacity sprinkled in for good measure.
Said to the audience/camera, "I want you to see how I think and how you can
achieve the effects that I am achieving because I will teach you my tools
through the entire game. I have never charged for a single session
in twenty years, coming onto 21 years this summer. You are my students,
and I will teach you what's happening to me. Whether you believe me
or not is your choice. I am damned interested in seeing how much truth
people are willing to see.
"All I care about is telling the truth. I am so sick of people lying.
However, there is a very clever craft of telling as much truth as you can.
I reserve the right to omit data from you, the audience, until I feel
like revealing it. Mind you, I have no control over these camera people.
They are on orders to shoot everything. They are the highest
order of photo journalists and they are stuck working for these jobs which
don't appreciate them enough to tell their names on the screen with the other
people on the screen.
You can steer people to make decisions that support your logic. This
is one of the benefits of being an expert. That is you job and that
is my job. Our job is to steer people into making good decisions by
any means possible. It doesn't matter whether people pay you to do
your job or not, your job is to, by any means necessary, make them do what
you suggest. That is the truest definition of an expert. So long
as the person making the suggestion does not immediately benefit from actions
in some way that would create a breach of law, another key to this game is
that if you are an expert and going to be professional, you are going
to write up a report, most of which is probably boilerplate, but only the
best of the truth that you can find and none of the fakery or lies, and,
thus, you keep the Guests abreast of everything."
The order and placement of ideas I do myself, in whatever order or process
I choose. I do not follow orders. I am an army of one on a mission
of thinking. Before thinking that this is going to make war obsolete,
I think you might consider just how much more interesting if there could
be honest computers. I mean, I would use a voting machine that was
electronic if I could get some form of assurance that my vote is protected
from abandonment or abuse at the hands of others.
I'm going to take you on a new type of ride. It requires your imagination.
It works better with surround sound, but stereo in needed. I
want you to be the camera person. I want to talk to you and I want
you to respond. It doesn't matter if anyone else is in the room with
you, so long as they aren't bothered, or get headphones and let everyone
play separately.
In this game, you're talking only to me and I am only talking to you. I
fully expect to hear you screaming at me for my stupidity at some time. I
am an expert as doing it my own way. What that means is I make mistakes,
lots of them, and I learn very rapidly. I take risks with time and
make snap decisions, but because of my expertise, I make damned good snap
decisions, sometimes better than planned, though sometimes they can be a
bit nippy at the heels of whomever needs to know it's time to move on.
I haven't set up a discussion group, but expect someone might do it, and
then I'll go visit and make comments as I have time to add ideas. If I
can, as per the rules of this game (which are out of my control), I will
give credit where people's names are known. If a person wants to remain
anonymous, please send email.