We are often told that questions are more important than answers. This is because you can quickly get answers from so many places such as Siri, Google, Internet, Quora, LinkedIn, and other expert sources. Today, you can get answers to just about anything fast. If you want to succeed individually or organizationally, you have to become good at asking questions.

Asking questions is good, but what is better is to ask bold, provocative questions that make people think. They are often not asked for fear of how others will react to them. But they must be asked if you want to come up with breakthrough ideas. If you want to think like an entrepreneur, solving customer needs that they may not even know they have, starts with a question. That's what entrepreneurs or those with an entrepreneurial mindset do. 

In his book New to Big by David Kidder, he writes that the idea of his company Bionic started when he asked a provocative question to GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt, at their annual conference in Boca Raton, FL.

Here is the question David asked when he was part of a panel, and Jeff Immelt was sitting in the front row:
"Jeff, how many fifty-million-dollar startups did GE launch last year? ... I bet the answer is zero ... And if that's true, I would be terrified if I were you. With ninety billion dollars in the bank and three hundred thousand employees, how does this not happen all the time?"

Instead of David Kidder becoming a persona non grata at future GE events, he was surprised when Jeff Immelt said at the end of their annual conference: "That was the most important question in the history of this leadership conference."

Suddenly, David realized that his idea of creating an entrepreneurial mindset within large companies had to be pursued as a business.  Many large companies had to become good at New to Big (taking an idea from concept to growth business) rather than being just good at Big to Bigger (taking a growth business and scaling it). 

He and some of his team members he worked with at the startup Clickable that David had co-founded decided to start Bionic. Bionic's mission was to help bring entrepreneurial mindset within larger companies using Growth OS (methodology they created from their startup experience, so the large companies are not only Big to Bigger machine, which they do well, but New to Big machine too. Becoming a New to Big is not something companies can and should outsource. They have to learn to develop that core competency if they want to thrive in the digital world in which we live. Bionic went on to work with many companies, including Microsoft, P&G, Citigroup, Nike, Exelon, etc.

The idea of starting Bionic would not have happened if David did not have the guts to ask that bold question in a high-stakes environment at GE's leadership conference. Sometimes the risky thing to do is to ask a question that many people are thinking about but not asking. If you want to have an entrepreneurial mindset, ask a provocative question as David Kidder did, and you can change the world for good.

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Do we build products, services, or courses, and then find out after launching it that there are not enough paying customers to make it profitable? This is an "Oh sh*t" moment that many go through. Some will grudgingly accept failure and learn from it. Others will continue to plod along, hoping for a success. But the market is brutal. It is telling you that they don't like what you have to offer. By the time you figure it out, it will prove to be a very costly lesson in time, energy, money, and confidence.

Alberto Savoia, author of "Right It," knows this well from his experience. He writes, 
"Most new products, services, businesses, and initiatives will fail soon after they are launched—regardless of how promising they sound, how much their developers commit to them, or how well they execute them." 

(You will also find my interview with Alberto Savoia in the blog post "Five Questions for Alberto Savoia: A Man on a Mission to Prevent Failures Among Entrepreneurs.")

So how do you eliminate failures right from the get-go? You have to pretotype that Savoia popularized and writes about in his practical book. The idea of pretotyping applies to all of us, not just entrepreneurs. Why fail when you don't have to? All you have to do is pretotype, gather data, make a go-no-go decision. It's not that complicated. 

What is Pretotyping?

Pretotyping is pretending you have a prototype of a product, service, or a workshop (in my example below) so you can find out whether customers are willing to pay. If customers are not willing to pay, you will fail. If you still decide to go forward, you will be taking a huge risk.  Great customers are those who pay before you even have a product.   

You can think of pretotyping as similar to what they use in manufacturing called build to order. In the beginning, you are building a customized product, so you have to build based on customers' willingness to pay. And that is what you have to do when you are trying to get valuable information from customers.

Tesla's Example of Pretotyping
Before Tesla built their Model 3 car, they pretotyped the concept to gauge customers' interest in the car.  They wanted customers to make a commitment by preordering it online by putting down $1,000 deposit. Over 115,000 put down $1,000 before even seeing the what the car would look like.  That showed Tesla that they can now build the car since there is not just passing interest but people were expressing it with cold hard cash.  It was time to build the car and they did.  Not only did I not preorder the car, I did not see this as a sign to purchase Tesla stock.  

My Simple Example of Pretotyping

Idea 
Have a one day workshop to teach people how to interview for a job.

Generating Interest
I gave a talk and asked people at the end how many would be interested in attending a paid workshop. 
Out of fifteen people who attended, I think close to ten raised their hands. So I thought I had customers. But raising a hand at a free talk costs one nothing. 

Test the Workshop Idea
I sent an email with one-pager advertising the workshop and the agenda. I priced it at $299, which I thought was very reasonable and would accommodate up to ten people. I knew that I needed at the minimum five paid customers to make it work. 

Response from Customers
I got only one response from someone who was ready to attend the workshop and was willing to send me the payment. Well one is better than none, but not sufficient to conduct a workshop, so I had to move to the back up plan if doing the workshop made no business sense.

Back Up Plan
I contacted the client and told him that the workshop idea will not prove very useful to him since clients have different backgrounds. Instead, I have decided to conduct two 75 minutes of one-on-one coaching sessions for the same price.

In fact, this client was getting an excellent deal. He would now get two one-on-one coaching sessions for $299, which would have cost him $499. The client gladly took the two sessions and liked it so much that he has become one of my best clients.  

For now, I have dropped the plan to do a workshop for now.  I may pretotype it again in the future before committing to it. 

 Lesson Learned
You have to pretotype to see if customers are willing to pay for your product, service, course, etc. If you don't get the numbers you need, you have to have a backup plan to take care of those who were ready to pay or already paid for it. You may lose a little, but it is better to lose a little by learning a valuable lesson than to lose a lot by not knowing whether you will get any customers.  You have to fail very fast. 

So pretotyping is something we should all do before we build anything. It can be as simple as my conducting a workshop or building a product or service. You need some data to justify building a prototype. Without customer data, you will be flying blind and crash. Pretotyping is a simple way to mitigate failures.
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One of my favorite scenes from the movies comes from "Tootsie," which came out in 1982. The movie is about an out of work actor Michael Dorsey, played by Dustin Hoffman. Getting a job as an actor is difficult for him since he is very picky in his roles. He decides to take a risk by impersonating a woman, "Dorothy Michaels," to audition for a part as a hospital administrator in a soap opera "Southwest General." He gets the part, and his role as Emily Kimberly becomes very popular. While working there, Dorothy befriends the lead actress on the soap opera, Julie Nichols, played by Jessica Lange. Michael is attracted to Julie.

When Julie invites Dorothy to her place, Julie, after having a few glasses of wine, tells Dorothy how frustrating it is when it comes to relationships. She confesses she would respect a man if he stopped all the BS and just came out and said:

"Listen... I could lay a big line on you, we could do a lot of role-playing, but the simple truth is, I find you very interesting and I'd really like to make love with you."

​Upon hearing that, Dorothy, naturally, starts feeling hot.

Later in the movie, Michael sees Julie at a party standing alone with a drink in her hand. He approaches her and lays the same pick-up line that Julie shared with Dorothy. Julie promptly empties her glass on Michael. Michael learned that what one says in private is BS, especially when one is little tipsy.

Now I don't like to get a drink thrown at my face or worse, get punched, but that pick-up line can be repurposed to network with someone. Let's face it, we meet many people that we would like to network with that rarely gets off the ground.

Why? It is a lot of work on both sides to network effectively. Networking just doesn't happen; you and the other person must make it happen for it to work.

So here is the repurposed line from "Tootsie" on networking that I have come up with. You can tweak it and make it better and post it in the comment section of this post.

Why can't we just stop all the BS and be direct and say:

"Look, I would like to network with you.
We can help each other out.
Let's set up a call ASAP and get to work."

Is it bold? Not really. Will it work? Yes, if someone sees a benefit in networking with me. Will this save me a lot of time? Absolutely. I don't want to network with people who don't know how to network.

As you know well that the half-life of any networking is when you end the conversation. Most of my networking contacts are just that. I am mostly at fault since I have not paid much attention to networking and developed any strategy and action plan. Instead, I spend a lot of time mastering other things and not focusing on networking.

If we want to succeed in anything, we have to focus on networking with a strategy and a plan. It starts with being direct and letting someone know that you take networking seriously. You and the other person have to get to work right away to make it work.

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I watched the first 2020 presidential debate, and Trump did not do what he had to do as an incumbent president. He acted like he is still a long shot challenger and that was a big miss om his part. But he does have a chance to turn it around in the next two debates. 

Will he?

Before I go into what he needs to do, here are the reasons why Trump did not do well:

1) Trump did not sound, look and act presidential
This was the easy part, and he couldn't accomplish that. Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all lost their first debate when they ran for re-election, but they all looked presidential. That allowed them to turn it  around on second and third debates. Trump may have been angry that he had to be there, but he had to show respect for the position that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln held. He acted like a WWE wrestler at a presidential debate.

2) Trump did not do much counter-attacking
Trump went on the attack right from the beginning. That is not what he had to do. He had to take punches and look for his spots in the debate and counter attack and walk away with a draw. That would have been a big win for him. Now he has to attack that will not make him look presidential and the format for the next debate is not conducive for attack style he displayed in the first debate. 

3) Trump had to defend his record 
That may be the main reason why he stuck with his attack strategy. Unless he was willing to apologize for 7 million infections and over 200,000 deaths. Instead, he was blaming Joe Biden for what happened under his watch. He had to address his record head on rather than being defensive.

4) Trump did not give his vision for second term
This is what he had to do, at the least, in the debate. He has no clue why he wants to remain president. What is he going to do that he has not done during his first term?

5) Trump could not change
You are how you debate. Trump showed he does not follow the rules and thinks he can do anything he wants. Joe Biden didn't even have to say that. Trump did the selling for Biden. At the end, Biden outsold the greatest salesman the world has ever known without even being that good in the debate.  Just think of that. Trump showed that he has no self-awareness and could not change.  He was given ample of opportunity by the moderator and he wanted to blow up the debate and succeeded.  

Trump will struggle in the next two debate formats. He will have a hard time connecting with ordinary Americans in the next debate, a town hall format. Trump has a hard time being empathetic, which will be needed since he will have to look at the people who are asking questions. The third debate is about foreign policy. That is Joe Biden's expertise. Biden can go very deep. The bad news for Trump is that it is going to be the least-watched debate.

Winning Strategy for Trump to Adopt in the Next Two Debates
The biggest problem Trump has in 2020 election is that he won the 2016 election.  He did everything to lose that election and carved out an electoral college win and lost the popular vote by close to 3 million votes. As we know that success is a bad teacher.  He is doing everything again to lose the election, hoping that his base shows up and the Democrats will stay home. If that does not work, then create doubt and let the courts decide like they did in 2000.  But a better strategy is to do well in the next two debates since he has such a low bar that if he just not make faces, maintains his composure and be polite to Joe Biden and the moderator, he will win.  No one will care what he says. 

He must answer questions below rather than blame, obfuscate, or deflect. If he is going to take credit for things, then he must also accept the blame. He was the only president we had for the last four years. He must look like he is willing to live by the slogan that "Buck Stops Here." If he does not do that, the election will come down to---to put it bluntly---racist America vs. non-racist America.

1) What is his vision for the next four years regarding good jobs, health care, China, climate change, and deficit/debt?
2) Why the US has 4% of the world population but 20% of deaths? What went wrong? Why should we trust him that he can fix this?
3) Why is the country so divided over race and justice and how he plans to bring the country together
4) Why can't he release his tax returns to see if he has not committed fraud and who he owes money to?
5) How has his signature achievement, tax cuts, and trade deals, have helped ordinary Americans
6) Why should people believe that he cares about the Constitution, Democracy, Justice, Facts, and Decency?
7) Why is he the only modern president who has ever gotten asked by the media to denounce white supremacist groups?
                                        
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Rather than playing Monday morning quarterback after the first presidential debate, I have written this post to show how I would coach Joe Biden's debate against Donald Trump. After the debate, I can then easily show what I recommended and what he actually did during the debate.

I think this is a good exercise since I use this when I coach candidates who are going for high-stakes job interviews, sales calls or speeches.  It is something I recommend you do if you want to handle a high stakes situation with both confidence and competence. 

We are close to the first presidential debate, and in this post, I will focus on how Joe Biden should debate against Donald Trump. Note this is not really a debate but an opportunity to get your points across. So I have prepared talking points that Biden must get across while being persuasive, hard-hitting, and entertaining. If he does that, Biden will win. It is not likely to move many voters but you want to get the voters motivated to turn out on election day. If Biden has a good performance, he will get the turnout he needs to win the presidency. At least that is what I think but that is what I thought in 2016. It did not turn out that way since Trump eked out an electoral college win.

Winning this type of debate will not change a single vote. But it will assure those who support Biden that he can get the job done. That is his main objective in this debate. 

Note, I will not post one on Trump debate talking points since I don't think he is coachable and will do what suits him as he has always done:  lie.  You don't need any talking points with that bulletproof strategy.

One thing Joe Biden has to be careful is not to respond to Trump's lies.  If he does that he WILL lose and be thrown off his game.  All Biden has to do is say calmly with a smile when Trump lies about him, "I am not going to dignify his lies" and then hammer Trump on why he is so unfit to remain as president. Biden just has to wear Trump down which is a strong possibility since Trump will not have his audience there.  Trump struggles mightily  when he is not talking to his audience. Biden just have to stay focused and let Trump expend all the energy and frustrate him with attack that hurts his myth of being a strong, competent and ethical leader.

Below are the key talking points to get across if I were coaching Joe Biden.

Opening
I want to make one thing clear right upfront. I agree with Bernie Sanders when he says that "Donald Trump is a pathological liar." Folks, it gives me no joy to say this about the president of the United States. He has demeaned the office so much that it may never recover after he peacefully leaves on January 20, 2021. So one thing I want the viewers to note is that only I have come here to debate. Donald Trump has come here to lie, insult, bully like he always does. When you look at how awful his record has been for the last four years, he has no choice but to lie about his record and everything else.  You already know all this but I have to make sure since the moderator is not going to be doing any fact checking. So pay close attention. He is not here to debate but to put on a show so you talk about him and not talk about issues that matter to you such as Covid, health care, jobs, justice and climate change. 

America First
Donald Trump promised America FIrst when he ran in 2016. And boy have they delivered. They exceeded all expectations.
We are first in most COVID cases.
We are first in most COVID deaths.
We are first in most people unemployed.
We are first in most money spent during COVID.
We are first in being the biggest laughing stock in the world.
Donald Trump and Republicans are very proud of this accomplishments.
They along with their right wing SCOTUS judges promise to deliver more firsts till your head keep spinning.

Five Words
Donald Trump recently demonstrated what a stable genius he is because he could cite five words like "dog, baby, diaper, bottle, candy.". Perhaps he can demonstrate it here, again.  

But the five words Donald Trump and the Republican party can't say even once because they don't believe in are these: Constitution, Democracy, Justice, Facts, Decency. 

Repeating "dog, baby, diaper, bottle, candy" a few times makes Donald Trump feel smart. Repeating "Constitution, Democracy, Justice, Facts, Decency" makes you feel safer that the president and his party will stand by their oath of office. 

Hoax
Folks, my opponent has been telling you about hoaxes since he wanted to become president.
First, it was Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Then it was the Mueller Report.
Then it was the Impeachment.
Then it was COVID.
Now it's the upcoming election.
The only thing that is a definite hoax is Donald Trump and the Republican party.

Cognitively Decline
Donald Trump goes around saying I have cognitively declined.
Folks, At least I know I am not the president.
Donald Trump, after close to four years, still does not know that he is the president.

"Sleepy Joe"
He has been going around calling me "Sleepy Joe." Folks, the only person who has been asleep on the job, is Donald Trump with more than 200K COVID deaths, an economy in depression, and environmental destruction because of climate change.

Lying
Donald Trump lies to the American people all the time. People have gotten tired of counting them. I will give him this; he is our national champion of lying.  
But he is no match when he goes up against international players like Putin, Un, Xi, and MBS. They are grandmasters of lying. 

THEY. CLEAN. HIS. CLOCK. EVERY. TIME.  

Putin -- lied to him about Russia's involvement in our election. He bought it hook line and sinker.
Kim Jong Un -- lied to him about denuclearization. He bought it again. Un still has all his nukes and more.
Xi -- lied to him about COVID-19. Trump bought his lies and even repeated it to Americans what a great job Xi is doing. Again he bought lies from a despot that has killed over 200,000 Americans.
MBS -- lied to him that he didn't kill Khashoggi. Trump bought his lie, thus endangering journalists everywhere.

Trump may win with lies over his base and scared Republican Congressmen and Senators, but he is always the biggest loser when he goes up against grandmasters of lies like Putin, Un, Xi. MBS, and many others.

Economy
Our economy is in bad shape, and it is all Donald Trump's fault.
Donald Trump has a successful track record of declaring bankruptcy,
His daddy gave him close to half a billion dollars, and he lost it all. 
Gone. 
Think about that.
He has had to declare bankruptcy something like five times, meaning I win, and everyone who invests in me loses.
When he became president, he inherited an excellent economy from President Obama and now look at where we are: unemployment greater than the Great Recession, a declining GDP, markets in turmoil, rising debt and deficits, loss of confidence.
We are not just dying from his incompetent response to COVID response. The American economy is dying from that too, and worst of all, people have lost hope about their future.
Kamala Harris and I will turn things around like the way Barack and I did when we took over in 2009.

Race
Donald Trump was a racist before he became president, but he has succeeded in Making America Racist Again.
He was racist when before he became president.
His racism helped him take over the Republican party with the birther lie about Barack Obama.
After he became president, he said there were good Nazis marching in Charlottesville.
He calls African countries as "s-hole" countries. 
He hates anyone who is non-white. 
He won't condemn a white teenager who killed two people who were protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Donald Trump promised he was going to Make America Great Again. All he has done is Make America Hate Again. The only way to stop this is from voting Trump and the Republicans out of the office on November 3rd.
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Health Care
Republicans have no ZERO interest in coming up with a healthcare plan. ZERO.
But worse, they want to get rid of the plan that was passed by Congress. Millions of people depend on this for their wellbeing.

Without ACA, everyone suffers.
The cost goes up for everyone.
Health care gets worse for everyone.
Seniors will suffer the most since they will have to wait and wait since emergency rooms will be packed with the uninsured when they have an emergency.
Hospitals will be stressed and will be forced to close down.
We took a Republican plan that Mitt Romney passed in MA. But not a single Republican supported it when it came for a vote, but have worked relentlessly to repeal it.
Why?
They simply don't care about people because ACA benefits all Americans. They only care for their rich base who don't need ACA for their healthcare.
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Leadership
America no longer is viewed as a leader in anything
Just look at our Covid-19 response. If America had like it has always led, US and the world would be doing so much better.  Now we can't lead since we can't even take care of Americans.
Donald Trump had thee choices when he spoke to Xi on February 6, 2020: Lead, Follow or Lie.
He lied repeatedly and still keeps on lying about Covid-19.
But numbers don't lie; misery don't lie; hopelessness don't lie.
We are dying not because of Covid-19 virus but because of MAGA virus that Trump spread and keeps on spreading.

Taxes
We have an unfair tax system where rich and corporations pay little to nothing and middle class people are viewed as losers and suckers who have to support our government.  That is totally unfair. That is another thing we have lost in America with Trump and his billionaire cronies: Fairness. 
We can't have Donald Trump who says is worth over $10 Billion paying zero taxes.  Is that fair?
Is that what you want? Another huge tax cuts for his Mar-A-Lago mafia and you end up losing ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans care, social security, education, etc. Trump and the Republicans believe that only the little guy who works hard pays taxes and rich guys like Trump can use all kinds of scams from paying little to no taxes. 
The only way we will have a fair tax laws that works for everyone is to get rid of Trump and the Republicans. Kamala Harris and I will restore fairness that has been the bedrock of American values since the beginning. 
A $10 billion dollar con man paying zero taxes is not fair wherever you live, especially Scranton, PA where I come from.

Killer Line
Donald, you can go to my website (joebiden.com) and see all my tax returns and see what a sucker I have been for paying so much taxes.
If you want us to believe you that you too are a big sucker like me and paid a lot of taxes, then Be the man and release all your tax returns before midnight.

We the Losers and Suckers
Look folks, when you are worth tens of billions of dollars and pay zero in taxes you can afford a $70,000 haircut. That reminds me of the time when I grew up in Scranton, PA. After my parents paid taxes and if they had any money left, they would give it to me to get a hair cut and made sure I tipped the barber.  They wanted me to look good so maybe a girl would go out on a date with me.  Folks do you know who paid for Donald Trump's $70,000 haircut? Losers and suckers like you and me. We paid $70,000 when he was not president. You know how much Donald Trump likes to scam little people. E, losers and suckers, will be paying million dollars for his haircut. 

Get to the Truth
I promise you if you elect me, I will release all of Trump's tax returns and see what fraud he has committed. And if he has committed fraud, then he is going to jail.  Donald, be the man and release all your tax returns tonight.  Be brave and release your tax returns. You can do this  even with bone spurs. 

Law and Order
The person who is the number one law breaker is Donald Trump.  If you are white, male rich and president you can get away with murder as he once said. And he has gotten away with a lot. According to his personal lawyer, he may have committed tax fraud. That's why he won't release his tax returns.   He has obstructed justice and he was impeached.  But unlike Trump, we don't have William Barr and the Republican Congress to protect him.  So law and order starts with the president and you can't have law and order if he is the number one law breaker and spreads chaos.

Knock the Bully Out on November 3rd
Donald Trump has always been a bully. He knows how to bully people that are weak, scared and powerless. Just look how scared the Republican Congressman and Senators are of Donald trump. They would rather crap in their pants than to confront this Bully-in-Chief. 
Folks, you have the power to knock this bully out on November 3rd and he will never be heard from again and free the Republican party will once again become the party of Abraham Lincoln. 

Closing
I mentioned when I ran that this election is about capturing the soul of America.
What kind of America are we going to have?
A country that is based on Constitution, Democracy, Justice, Facts and Decency or country where Trump and the Republicans can do whatever they want.
Constitution can be trampled at will
Democracy is denying people to vote
Justice is only for rich and powerful
Facts are lies and 
Decency is weakness. 
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Here is what I will focus on if I am elected:
First, we need to get Covid-19 crisis under control.. This administration will go down as the most incompetent in the history for its response. When you have over more than 200,000 deaths, the Trump has failed miserably.
Second, we need to get Obama Care strengthened and I will do that. Trump and the Republicans will take it away from millions and that means it will raise cost for everyone for worse.
Third, we have to rebuild a better America that is fair for everyone, not people like Trump and his rich friends who think that winners are scammers and  tax payers and people who serve in the military are losers and suckers.

Trump did not make America Great. He told us that America can only be Great if losers and suckers like you pay your fair taxes and people like my son Beau serve in the military so scammers like him and his rich friends can walk away with millions and billions.  
That is Trumpmerica in a nutshell.
We work they play. 
Trump and the Republicans have turned America from being a Great nation to a failed state.
The election comes down to a simple choice: What kind of America do you want?
Trumpmerica or America.  
You decide. 

If Joe Biden comes prepared and do some of the things I suggest in this post, he will make his points clearly, emphatically and entreatingly and show he is ready to lead and turn things around from day one. 

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"It ain't over till it's over." - Yogi Berra.
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In professional golf, technically, you are not done until you sign the scorecard. We rarely see that on TV. What we always see on TV is a player finishing his round by holing the putt.

Usually, a professional golfer does not make mistakes on the 18th hole, resulting in a big score or outrightly losing a tournament. So when it happens, it becomes a teaching moment not only in golf but in what we do as professionals.

So let's take a look at two examples of collapses on the 18th hole at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. One was at the recent U.S. Open, and the other one was at the last U.S. Open. 

In the third round of the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, one player did not finish well on the 18th hole. Danny, from New Zealand,  six-putted the last hole to get a nine on a par four 18th hole.  

If you watch the video, you will see that Lee completely lost his concentration when he missed the first putt that was only four feet away for a par. Pros usually don't miss a four-foot putt. Lee then proceeded to miss a few more putts. At worse, he should have walked away with a bogey, which is a good score on the difficult 18th hole. With a bogey, he would have finished with an excellent score of 74.  That is a very good score at this venue since only a handful will shoot par or below. Instead he ended up with a score of 78. These were not hard putts for a pro of Lee's caliber, but he just lost his concentration and subsequently his cool. He like Roberto Duran probably said as he was leaving the putting green "No Mas, No Mas," and withdrew from the tournament. 

You rarely, if ever, see a pro like Lee miss six putts when the first putt is only four feet away. He is a professional golfer and knows how to finish a round well. We can all learn from his experience in the importance of finishing smart and strong. You are close to the finish line, but you have not crossed it so you have to stay in the game with your game face on.  And this is no different when we are working on a project or a business deal. You have to close it out well.

Lee realized later that he let himself, his fans and sponsors down with the way he exited the tournament.  He apologized saying, "It was very unprofessional and foolish... My frustration took over me and combined with injury I had to fight with it all week. … I shouldn’t have left it like that.” That was the right thing to do, as a start.  But he has a lot of work to do before people forget this incident.  Yes, we are all humans, but people don't expect that from professionals.  You are paid to get the job done as best as you can no matter how you are feeling or how well you are doing. 

Not finishing smart can even happen to great golfers like Phil Mickelson. Mickelson had a major disaster on the 18th hole in the final round of the 2006 U.S. Open played at Winged Foot. He double-bogeyed the 18th hole to lose the tournament. All Mickelson had to do was par this hole with a good golf club selection to win the tournament. But he elected to use a driver and sliced it that started his problem on that hole that you can see in the video.

Mickelson was having a hard time keeping his drives on the narrow fairways at Winged Foot, so the smart decision on this final hole was to use a long iron or fairway wood to keep the ball on the fairway. Then hit another long iron to put the ball on the green and two putts for par and win the tournament. But that is not what happened. Mickelson did not finish well and lost. He was cool, but he made a terrible decision off the tee. And he paid dearly for it. 

In 2020 Mickelson did not get a chance to redeem himself since he did not make the cut. You must capitalize on your opportunity when it presents itself since you don't know whether you will ever get another chance again. 

Both these examples show that whatever you do, you have to keep your focus and finish strong. These two players are professionals, and we can learn that being a professional means having good concentration and keeping your cool since a lot of money is riding on decisions you make, whether it's golf or business.
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​Not a day goes by that I read someone famous getting fired or go on a so called medical leave for some inappropriate tweet or social media post they sent out. 

Here is how long it typically takes to lose jobs for egregious behavior or offenses:
Sexual Harassment -- Years
Racism -- Years 
Insubordination -- Years
Incompetence -- Years to Never
Ageism -- Never
Inappropriate Tweet -- Hours

Social Media shows us who we really when we are all by ourselves and have no one to stop us from getting what we think off our chest fast by letting the whole world know. It is empowering, but  can be very destructive.  For this post, I will focus on Tweeter since it is the easiest.

And guess who made tweeting what we are thinking popular: President Trump.
He loves it.
He could not survive without it.
It's his drug of choice.  

Fortunately for him, he can't get fired from his job until November 3rd, 2020.  

Unfortunately, we can get fired in hours.

Just think of this for a second. You are out of a job in less than a few hours for expressing your well-guarded thought that no one would have ever known you had if it weren't for Tweeter.  People now know your innermost thought on topic that is unrelated to anything illegal you are doing.  

No one tweets I am sexually harassing this person.
No one tweets look what a racist thing I did at work by not hiring a person of color.
It rarely, if ever, happens.

But if you tweet about something offensive that is sexist, racist and homophobic, you are justifiably fired from a job. There are no excuses. There is no he said, she said thing here.  You will have a hard time proving that someone hacked your tweeter account. You are on your own to face the consequences for showing what you really think and believe. 

f you can't afford to lose your job, then don't post anything on social media. It's that simple. 

We naturally think it's a joke when we get fired for an inappropriate tweet.  We think who follows us anyway and even have time to read our inappropriate tweets besides two chickens and a pig in some barn in Idaho. 

But when we get up in the morning and turn on the news, we are the news. We have lost our job. How did that happen? What did we say to deserve this notoriety? We all like to be famous but not for being a world-class Tweethole.

And we immediately send a customary apology tweet --- thinking, hoping, praying --- that it will undo the damage. It never works. Next, we go on our favorite cable news shows to apologize. That does not work either. The cable shows love Tweetholes since it gets them good ratings. Some audience members will support you if you show some contrition with a tweet saying that you were unfairly treated. 

Damage is done. You are not likely to get a second chance soon since no company wants to hire a Tweethole if it knows how to do a quick Google search of our name. 

Tweeter is dangerous.

No one knows for a long time when we are drinking excessively in private, taking drugs, stealing, or even having affairs, but everyone knows very quickly and make a negative judgment on how we think and what we believe in when we send out an inappropriate tweet. And if enough people feel that way, you are toast. 

What to do?

Get off Tweeter and other social media. It's very addictive. If you can't, then become the President of the United States. Then you can tweet anything you want with impunity for four years and have lots of fun doing it. Otherwise, limit your use of Tweeter if you want to keep your job, maintain your livelihood, and not risk becoming a certified Tweethole.  

Simple Rules to follow to keep your job

• Hold a tweet for at least 24 hours. It is safer to be last when it comes to tweeting.
• Be happy with having a few followers so you don't want to be controversial.
• No one cares what you think or believe so why share your thought in a tweet? 
• If you do feel the need to share a thought, post a blog. It is hard, but you will only post it if you are scared. Tweeting requires no courage, and that's what gets people into big trouble. 

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“Nothing else in the world…not all the armies…is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”–Victor Hugo, The Future of Man.


One thing we have learned from President Trump is how leaders like him think and hire.  The leadership books make it appear that leaders have a methodical process that they follow when hiring. But that's not true. Leaders in business and politics operate by the gut. The trick to getting the job with them is to appeal to their gut. ​

In this post, I will focus on William Barr, Attorney General (AG), in how he got the job of AG. I am using an example from the political world since most are probably familiar with him and can verify for themselves, but Barr's technique will work in any field. Note, you don't have to like William Barr or the job he is doing as AG, but you can definitely learn a lot on how to get a  job.  If you follow his technique, you too can get the job you want.

What I find so interesting about William Barr is that he was not on anyone's shortlist to replace Jeff Sessions as the AG.  So how did he end up getting the job? Below you will find the technique he used. 

Below are the steps William Barr went through that not only got him the job he wanted but has enabled him to keep the job, which is hard under President Trump.

Validation
Everyone wants to be validated and no one wants this more than leaders. If you validate their thinking, you are likely to get their attention. And no leader has demonstrated this more than President Trump. 

President Trump kept saying after he became President that he wanted his "Roy Cohn," a lawyer who can get him out of legal troubles. Roy Cohn was his lawyer in New York City who got him out of legal troubles.

Unfortunately, he didn't have his "Roy Cohn" in the justice department to get him out of legal trouble, especially the Mueller investigation. President Trump was letting everyone know about his problem and what he was looking for in an AG who can solve his problem. 

President Trump's problem started when his first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, had recused himself from the Mueller investigation since he had contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States. Sessions got the AG job because he helped Trump get elected President.  Sessions, when he was the senator, was the first major political figure to endorse Trump. 

Sessions was very loyal to Trump and did everything Trump wanted in enacting his policies, especially when it came to immigration. But Sessions was not his "Roy Cohn." For recusing from the Mueller investigation, Sessions drew Trump's ire. It was a matter of time before Trump replaced Sessions.

Enter William Barr. He has always had this view of the Imperial Presidency. Barr's interpretation of the Constitution allowed a president to exercise unlimited power with little to no checks and balances from Congress. Barr and the President thought alike. Barr's idea and time had collided and he was not going to miss this golden opportunity to redefine the presidency the way he envisioned it.  But first he had to get his idea to the President since I don't think Trump knew who William Barr was.  But how do you get the President's attention? Appeal to his self-interest.  

One thing I want to mention.  All CEOs will say that they are not driven by self-interest.  But when you look deeper, that is not likely to be true.  All leaders are driven by self-interest.  You just have to do some research to find out what that is and if you focus on that, you will not only get their attention but a job too.
​
Thought Leadership
Barr had the credibility and the experience since he was the AG under George H.W. Bush for fourteen months. But he didn't get to re-define the presidency as he envisioned since Bush was defeated in 1992.

Barr saw an opportunity with President Trump.  Barr understood Trump's problem and knew how to solve it. But first, he had to get his view in public so Trump would find out. Barr was positioning himself as the "Roy Cohn" Trump was looking for. 

Barr wrote a memo dated June 8, 2018, titled "Mueller's 'Obstruction' Theory" that explained what he saw wrong with the Mueller investigation. In short, he thought that a president can't be investigated while in office.  Below was the opening sentence in this memo:

"I am writing as a former official deeply concerned with the institutions of the Presidency and the Department of Justice. I realize that I am in the dark about many facts, but I hope my views may be useful." 
To follow an appropriate protocol. Barr sent the memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel. But his ultimate audience was President Trump, and he knew that with his credibility and experience, the memo would get Trump's attention. And it did.

Build Consensus
But President Trump needed to see whether William Barr had support from his core supporters before he replaced Jeff Sessions. Barr had plenty of support. One of the people who lobbied on behalf of Barr was Pat Cipollone. Cipollone was Barr's former speechwriter, a fellow board member at the Catholic Information Center, and  White House Chief Counsel. Barr also received plenty of support from Fox News, especially Laura Ingraham, whom president Trump frequently talks to get her views on political matters. 

President Trump now had the cover from inside the White House and Fox News who he depends on getting ideas and making decisions. Trump wanted Barr.

Getting the Job
Selling President Trump was not hard since the memo did the job. Since Barr's view of the Imperial Presidency aligned with President Trump's view, Trump finally had his "Roy Cohn." To make it official, Barr had to look and sound reasonable in the Senate Judiciary hearing to not cause any consternation among Senate Republicans when it came to confirming Barr. Since the Republicans had the majority Barr was confirmed along party-line votes.

Doing the Job
Barr now had to live up to being Trump's "Roy Cohn" and he did not disappoint.

Mueller Investigation
Instead of releasing the report, Barr released a four-page letter with his interpretation of the Mueller report on March 24, 2019. And the redacted report was not released till April 18, 2019. This allowed Barr to spin the report that Mueller did not find any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. He also did not find any obstruction as he wrote this in the four-page Barr letter:

"... Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."

The characterization of the Mueller report in the Barr letter allowed President Trump to keep repeating "No Collusion, No Obstruction, No Nothing." And it stuck. Trump did not get impeached even though there were at least ten incidents of obstruction cited in the Mueller report that were committed by President Trump.  But Barr kept Trump out of trouble by creating narrative that the investigating didn't find anything impeachable. It worked.


Michael Flynn Investigation
William Barr recommended that charges be dropped against Michael Flynn, the National Security Advisor. Flynn had admitted that he had lied to the FBI twice regarding his contact with the Russian Ambassador. The reason Barr cited was that Barr felt that the government had no legitimate reason to investigate Flynn in the Russian probe. Again, Trump did not want Flynn to go to jail, and Barr acted as Trump's "Roy Cohn." The Appeals court will decide whether the justice department can drop the charges against Flynn.

Roger Stone Investigation
Roger Stone, long time ally of President Trump, was found guilty of witness tampering and lying. The prosecutors in the justice department wanted to recommend a sentence from seven to nine years. But when Trump sent angry tweets, the four prosecutors withdrew from the case. Another prosecutor working for Barr recommended that the original recommendation was too harsh. Again, Barr came through as Trump's "Roy Cohn."

Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison, a $20,000 fine, two years of probation, and 250 hours of community service. But he never served any time in jail since his sentence was commuted by President Trump. 

E.J. Caroll
E.J. Carroll, an American journalist and advice columnist, had filed a defamation suit against Trump. She had accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the Bergdorf Goodman store in the late 1990s. When a judge ruled that Trump had to provide his DNA, Trump again needed his "Roy Cohn" to go into action. And that is what Barr did.

The justice department took over the case, and at the least, it buys Trump some time during the re-election. At worse, the case will simply disappear since the government can't be charged with defamation. Barr knows what his job is and why he wanted the job and has not disappointed Trump thus far and unlikely to do so. 

Barr understood Trump's problem and knew he could solve it. He got Trump's attention by writing a memo and got the job. He has kept Trump out of legal troubles.  If you do what Barr has done fro Trump, you too can get the job you want.  
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When we are speaking, we want to get our point across, so it resonates with the audience such that some, if not all,  will take action. If we are not successful, we will not achieve our objective. But suppose if you are a prosecutor and your objective is to put bad guys away. If you don't resonate with the jury in your rebuttal argument, you could lose the case. Bad guys go free. You don't get a second chance. 

We all remember the famous OJ Simpson trial. The trial lasted for eleven months. In the famous closing argument, Johnny Cochran, OJ's lead attorney, exhorted to the jury that "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Cochran was referring to the botched effort by the prosecution to have OJ try Aris Light gloves. Since OJ was wearing latex gloves, it didn't fit.  That failed demonstration helped acquit OJ since the jury saw it and OJ made sure the jury saw it. And Cochran made sure in his closing argument that the jury did not forget that the gloves didn't fit.  

The jury didn't forget. They deliberated less than four hours to find OJ not guilty. What Cochran did was he did not make the jurors think too hard. The jurors saw with their own eyes that gloves didn't fit; hence, they ignored all other evidence. Though prosecution had better facts, it did not have a better story.  And that is often the difference between winning and losing since both sides are persuasive in their arguments.  

A prosecutor gets to make the rebuttal argument. It is the last argument the jurors hear before deliberating. The challenge the prosecutor faces is to come up with an argument that is simple, clear, and memorable so the jurors can latch on to that and come up with the justification they need to find the defendant guilty. And it has to better than the one defense attorney uses to acquit their client(s).

So how do you make the jury not think hard? One way to do it is by using a children's poem. Anything a children can understand then adults are certainly going to understand.

Jason Masimore, a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), used a children's poem to convict Republican State Senate majority leader of New York, Dean Skelos. Preet Bharara explains this in his book Doing Justice.

Skelos was a powerful man in New York politics. He abused his position by extorting money from businesses that went to his son, Adam Skelos. The SDNY, led by Preet Bharara, charged Dean Skelos with conspiracy with his son.

The SDNY had strong evidence against both the father and the son. Still, Bharara did not want to take any chances. Some jurors could be sympathetic to defense's best argument that Dean Skelos was just being a good father by helping his son.  

To game-out this argument, SDNY hired a jury consultant to see what the focus group said during the deliberation. Most in the focus group were not persuaded by the father-son argument, but some did bring it up. So SDNY had to come up with a better story in their rebuttal argument.

And they did.

Jason Masimore had read to his son a poem "gorilla" from Shel Silverstein chidren's book Where the Sidewalk Ends.

In the poem, this kid goes to school riding on top of a gorilla, and everybody is nice to him. He gets presents. He gets all As. Life is really good for the kid because others know that if they piss off the kid, then he will unleash the gorilla on them. No one wanted that to happen so they did whatever it took to satisfy the kid.

Adam Skelos did not have to say anything or do anything to extort money from businesses to pay him. Businesses knew how powerful his dad was.

Masimore explained to the jury: "The gorilla in this case that you heard about, it's the power of the office of the senate majority leader." This children's poem was a perfect metaphor since it got to the heart of how an abuse of power works. The use of it helped convict Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos.

This example shows that whenever you are making a case, you need a better story than your competitors to persuade decision makers. You need an argument that is simple, clear, and memorable. If this could work in a high stakes criminal prosecution, it will work in business or anything.

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Hiring the right candidate for a job is hard, especially if it's for a high-level position. Whomever you hire will either help you win or lose; hence, the stakes are very high.  ​

When hiring, there are usually three types of candidates you end up considering:
1) Candidates who are NOT interested.  
2) Candidates who really want the job.
3) Candidates who are interested. 

In this blog post, I focus on #1, those who are not seeking the job you have or are even interested in the beginning.  For you to get these candidates, you need a lot of skills besides sales.  In future posts, I will cover #2 and #3.  Candidates who fall in to category #1 have no competition and it is up to them whether they take the job. Note, this position is not advertised. The only person who knows about this position is the person who is hiring. And this happens at high-level, mid-level and low-level.  You want to get into this category by letting people know you are worth the bet.

Why target those who are not interested?

They are likely to help you win if you can persuade them to work for you. It won't be easy. The uninterested candidates require time, patience, flexibility, and gentle persuasion. If you want to be an effective leader, you must do whatever it takes to get these people on your team. 

You see this in football, both NFL and college. The winning coaches have outstanding assistant coaches. All good coaches want to work for Bill Belichick, head coach of NFL's New England Patriots, and Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama. If an assistant coach is good and lucky to get to work for these two great coaches and help them win, that assistant coach will have an excellent shot at getting the head coaching job either in the NFL or college.

It's no different in business and politics. 

In this post, I use as an example of how Barack Obama got Joe Biden to become his vice president. I show the ten steps that are required to entice talent and demonstrate you are indeed an effective leader. The source for this post is Joe Biden's book, Promise Me, Dad.

The candidates are going to go through these three phases.  First, the candidate is going to go from not interested to interested. Second, the candidate is going to go from interested to serious consideration.  Third, the candidate is going to go from serious consideration to acceptance. 

Below you will see what you have to do to take the candidate through these three steps.  If you sell too hard or close to fast, it can backfire.  Remember, the uninterested candidates have options so you have to foremost develop a relationship. You have to show that you are a good bet.

Steps To Hire Someone Who Does Not Want the Job

1) Express Interest in Hiring
Barack Obama, after he had secured the Democratic nomination in 2008, contacted Joe Biden to vet him for vice president. Joe Biden's initial response was that he was not interested. 

Though Obama made it appear that Biden was the leading candidate and tried to close him by telling him that "This is real...But I need an answer right now."

Joe Biden said, "Then the answer is no."  

What do you do if you were Obama? Move on to other candidates or persevere? This must have been hard for Obama to be rejected right after he locked up the Democratic nomination. If this happened to us, our ego is likely to get in the way. But you must learn to suppress your ego when you are trying to get talent if  you want to be an effective leader. 

The uninterested candidates are going to be very challenging since they are not looking for a change. They are happy and secure where they are. Your work is cut out for you. Until they feel you care about their well being and future, they are not likely to want to take you or the job seriously. 

2) Keep Trying
Don't give up, if rejected. It's a long game. If you want to be successful, then hiring has to be one of your strengths.

Talent is rare so you have to work hard to get those that you believe will make a difference. If you can't assemble an "A" team and get them to work well together, you are likely to fail and, worse, be blamed for failure. To get talent, you must be humble, patient, and flexible. 

3) Show Patience
If you want someone that is hard to get, you have to be patient since that person does not care if you don't hire him. He has to feel like he can make a difference. This takes some intense trust-building.

Also, you must show empathy by urging the person to talk it over with the family.

Why?

​Others close to the person are more likely to better persuade the candidate than you. They will provide a different perspective that can easily cut through.  

In Joe Biden's case, his sons wanted him to run with Obama. They felt---and were proven right--- that Biden can help Obama win Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. His wife Jill was relieved that it was not the Secretary of State job since that would require a lot of traveling. But his mother may have been most effective in persuading Biden to take the VP job seriously when she said, "So let me get this straight, honey. The first African American in history who has a chance to be president says he needs your help to win—and you said no."

So after talking to family, he started doing some serious due diligence. 

Pro: Make history by helping elect the first African American nominee.

Con: The vice president position has been a butt of all kinds of jokes. 

Challenge: Reinvent the vice president position to make it work for both.

There was one more thing that Biden had to overcome: he had not worked for a boss for several decades. When he brought this concern to his wife, she said, "C'mon, Joe... Grow up."

Joe Biden went from not interested to interested. 

He finally agreed to be vetted but still wasn't committed. He still needed to have a one on one with Obama to discuss Obama's vision and priorities for the country and what role he envisioned for Biden. They were now entering a trust-building phase of the hiring process.

4) Develop Rapport
Biden met with Obama and wanted to understand what Obama's expectations were. He found out that Obama wanted his help with foreign policy, an area Biden was strong in. Biden liked Obama's focus on helping the middle class.  

After their one on one meetings, Biden had a better understanding of Obama's vision for the future and the role he saw Biden playing. Biden was convinced that Obama was honest and could be a good president. Biden felt he could help Obama not only win but govern. But he still needed to be comfortable with the role that would make him happy. 

Joe Biden went  from interested to giving the job a serious consideration.

5) Redefine Job
Joe Biden liked Obama, but he still had not defined his role to make him accept the job.

Joe Biden had experience in many areas based on his years in the senate, so he felt he can help Obama in all areas. Here is how he defined his role to Obama:
"I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision... You're president. I'm not. I get it. But if it's my experience you're looking for, I want to be the last guy to make the case."

Obama agreed and got the man he wanted to be his vice president. They were both happy. But now they had to make it work.

You can stop here and say that you got the person you wanted, but you will not be able to attract talent in the future. You must do more. And the next five steps are what you have to do to continue to attract and develop talent to remain an effective leader.

6) Build Trust
Trust does not happen with one meeting. It has to be built and nurtured. And that's why Joe Biden wanted to have a weekly lunch meeting with Obama. It worked. It is something that not only helped them develop a strong working relationship but build deep friendship. 

7) Give Responsibility
If you hired well, then you must give the individual the responsibility to shine. And that is what Obama did with Joe Biden.

Obama made Biden responsible for Iraq, Recovery Act, Ukraine, Northern Triangle, Cancer, and others. Biden did a good job with all the areas he was responsible for.

8) Grow into the Next Job
The person has to do a good job, so his profile is enhanced and makes him attractive for a top job. In Biden's case, the president. 

In the corporate situation, this could be the top job at the same company or other companies. 

9) Support and Promote
If the person has done an excellent job and helped you win, you must do your part to support the person and promote him for a future top job. Again to use a football analogy, Bill Belichick has so many assistants who became head coaches. 

10) Make Successful
Once the person gets the top job, you have to help him in any way possible so he succeeds. 

As you can see, there are a lot of steps, but this is what's required. Great leaders do this, and that's why people want to work for them. 
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