Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning.

A man with a violin plays six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people passed  through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.  

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: A woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. 

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.  

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave  money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a  total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest  musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever  written, with a violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the price of seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and  people’s priorities.

The questions raised: in a commonplace  environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment?

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made… what else are we missing?

The psychological angle

Humans tend to practice an advanced form of mental deletion. We do this to protect our fragile minds from the sensory overload that the rich experience of waking life offers us.

Simply put, there is just way to much to pay attention to. We have to delete a huge portion of the experience available to us, in order to focus on the task at hand.

Completing such tasks are often necessary for our survival. But…

There is a grand irony concerning the folks at the train station, rushing to work to make a the next buck.

Beyond food and shelter, we work for money that is then exchanged for “experience” – tropical holidays, entertaining diversions and the occasional concert.

Sometimes it’s worth pausing in our journey, if only to enjoy the accidental rewards we encounter along the way.

What do you think? (Reply with a comment below)

On a sunny day last week, I walked through the historic Sydney suburb of Glebe for no other purpose than to enjoy a cafe lunch and browse 2nd hand book stores.

What I was to discover, however, was startling proof of “The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma”.

This is a social-psychological phenomena that plagues innocent business owners – sowing the seeds of self-doubt and financial disaster.

Want to know what it is?

Unisex (isn’t the answer)

On my stroll, I walked past an interesting kind of store.

A sign (you can see it on the left) lured me towards the store’s proudly displayed merchandise.

Unisex is an interesting idea simply because male/female differentiation is one of the more traditional demographic gaps.

Today, more and more businesses are discovering that increasing the gender focus of their products is a valuable move. Coca-Cola, for example, recently made the decision to market Diet-Coke to women, while reserving Coke-Zero for a high octane, testosterone driven campaign for young guys.

However, there are plenty of things in the world that benefit from being unisex.

Wine (luxury or otherwise), travel and real estate seem like great examples of industries where gender is irrelevant and unmeasured. They’re unisex by default.

So what was so unusual about this cheap, “NEW” item of undetermined gender?

The sign was attached to a rack of shirts

This store was the kind of budget clothing outlet that hocks off un-branded beach clothes to passing student travellers.

Shirts (T-shirts especially) have always been potentially unisex, but no one ever advertises them as such.

Here’s why:

The store owner meant well in this scenario and the basic logic is simple: If you advertise shirts to both men and women, you should double the chance of a sale.

WRONG

When you try to appeal to anyone, you end up alienating everyone.

As you may be able to see from the photo below, the shirts are unusual… but there wasn’t anything wrong with them.

What is wrong is how full the rack was. Clearly the shirts were not moving out the door.

I can’t help but think that the store owner would have been more successful if he had put a sign up that said:

“Crazy hippy beach shirts – $5″

… because that would grab the attention of every free-thinker headed to the beach!

What does this mean for your business?

I got an email from a client yesterday, asking my advice on a proposed re-brand and new focus for her business.

As a financial advisor, she was considering the one of the following options:

1. Focus entirely on working with female business owners as a specialist advisor

2. Go after women in business, newly graduated students, young professional couples and families

Friends told her that she’d be very brave to go for option one’s niche focus. Others thought she’d be stupid to “limit” herself.

I cant help but wonder if the T-Shirt store guy was afraid of the “limitation” too.

At the heart of it, many entrepreneurs have a powerful fear of “potential loss” tickling the back of their brain. The thought of all those customers outside of your target market, who won’t buy from you, is kind of scary right???

Reality check: Be scared if you’re not in a niche

Internet marketing folks have known this truth for a while – but the lesson is just as relevant for today’s real world, brick-and-mortar entrepreneur:

By trying to target the “Mass Market” you put yourself in competition with the biggest brands in your industry. These are the corporates that have multi-million dollar ad budgets. You will not win.

The world (or even my client’s city) does not want or need another financial advisor – but an expert on helping female entrepreneurs plan their financial life might be useful.

I ended the email dialogue by challenging my client to target only entrepreneur mothers! This would take her niche to a whole other level – and give her an excuse to market to any number of coffee groups and day-care centres.

Besides, if she does a good job and word spreads… I’m positive it wouldn’t be a problem to work with the occasional non-entrepreneurial mum (or even… *gasp*… a dad).

It isn’t so much about the day to day reality of doing business – it’s about the story you are telling and the message it sends.

Let’s face it – occasionally some guys buy girl’s t-shirts (it’s actually a fringe fashion in some parts)… and women often buy small sized men’s clothes.

Let your prospect customers know who they are and why you’re right from them. Success only happens when you overcome the fears that prevent this.

What kind of message is your business sending?

Could you overcome your fear and target a more specific group of customers?

Let me know what you think – by leaving a comment (scroll down)

I was recently invited to give a talk on the basics of leadership – at a closed door corporate event which one of my clients hosted for their retail management staff.

It was out in the mountains – I got to fly back to the city while the managers face three days of leadership/team metaphor… a.k.a. Gruelling physical challenge.

The very cool, diverse group of people helped me figure out (and apply real world examples to) the following psychological criteria for exceptional leadership.

Best of all, it’s a acronym (who needs another numbered list anyway?):

G – for “Great Beliefs”

Before you lead any group of people to do something extraordinary, it pays to equip them with a set of awesome, empowering beliefs that allow them to get the job done.

Inspiration and motivation are irrelevant here – before we start playing with those Jedi mind tricks, you must first instil the beliefs that make the job possible.

Great, useful beliefs include:

“It’s possible to change things”

“My actions can and will make a difference”

“I already have or can find the resources (resourcefulness) I need”

R – “Reasons to Act”

Basic rule of behaviour psychology: No one, not even someone already on salary, will take any action unless they have a sufficient “reason why” providing psychological leverage.

Equip your team with multiple “reasons” why they can, must and want… to take action. Scary asshole bosses traditionally go nuts with threats when it comes to “Reasons to act”… and they may even get results! However, the best (most consistent) results happen when there is healthy balance of carrot (cos positivity is cool) and stick (cos we live in “reality”).

Ask yourself and your team questions like:

“What is the cost of not doing this?” … and…

“What is to be gained by taking action now… as opposed to next month?”

O – Outcome Clarity

This gets included simply because most folks forget the important parts of goal setting. Tangible measurements of success… plus, total certainty of when, where and with whom (more important than you think) are what well-formed “outcomes” are all about.

This is the stuff that makes “The Secret” work.

Practical approaches to turning a lame “goal” into a laser-precise “outcome” include asking:

“What will it look like when I have this?”

“Where will I be/What will I be doing the moment I realise I’ve achieved my goal?”

The more vivid and emotionally compelling the better.

W – Wilful Action

Simultaneously the simplest and the most regularly overlooked “essential ingredient” in the recipe for leadership success. Wilful action is getting up and doing it – once you’ve got all the other stuff.

Many times, people with the right beliefs, reasons, outcomes and even skills (see below) will still sit around waiting for someone to go first!

This is where you, the one who doth utter “Simon says”, stands up and leads! It isn’t called leadership for nothing.

S – Skills

This is where the technical training and real life “school-of-hard-knocks” stuff comes into play. Don’t bother leading folks who are incompetent. Invest time (and money) in first giving your people all the know-how required.

They don’t need to be masters – that comes with the actual “doing” part.

The best leaders are always already masters – they lead with so much more integrity by being able to say:

“Come, follow me down this road… I know the way.”

Got a question? Think something is missing? Want to know how this could apply to your specific leadership situation? Reply in the comment section (just scroll down) and we’ll figure out the answers together…

There is one technique that stands out from all the rest. The world’s most successful entrepreneurs and business people often share this strategy in common.

It isn’t an NLP technique or some other kind of tool (in fact, it’s hardly psychological). Read on to find out…

A vertical drop of hundreds of feet, rocks and razor sharp ice below, no parachute or safety gear of any kind besides my trusty helmet.

A little voice at the back of my mind screamed at the absurdity of what I was about to do.

I leapt.

The guaranteed method for enriching your life, in financial terms and in pure enjoyment, is simple:

Get passionate about a hobbie

Here’s why:

When the business elite unwind with their favourite pastime, they’re not destroying braincells in the same way you and I might, when we crack a beer and watch TV.

Hobbies enrich the mind – when you become really passionate and involved in a hobby, it becomes a parable of your own life.

As you learn to be successful in your hobbie, in turn, you’re learning to be successful in life and business.

The CEO who plays Chess is really practicing to stay 3 moves ahead of the competition

The sales star who plays football is conditioning herself to score goals

The entrepreneur who builds model air-planes is constructing the way and means to soar

My hobby is skiing

I’m ridiculously passionate about it. For me, a day carving turns in fresh powder is the best thing in the world.

When I leapt off a near vertical, double black diamond run (read: as difficult as it gets) at Treble Cone ski resort (Wanaka, NZ) I learned an extraordinary business lesson.

You see, in skiing, there is a big difference between “average” skiers (blue runs – medium difficulty) and the elite who throw themselves down the black (and double black) death-slopes.

In business, we’d say there’s a big difference between the half-hearted, “dabbling” entrepreneurs who occasionally make a bit of cash and the ultra-successful tycoons with a midas-touch.

The elite skiers seldom get there by skill. In fact, skill has very little to do with it. Experience also isn’t important.

Being good enough to ski insanely steep slopes comes down to one simple strategy:

Having the guts to throw yourself down that insane slope, despite your lack of skill and experience.

When you shoot off down a black diamond run, your heart is in your mouth… adrenaline is pumping… and you know you’re about to die.

You do the absolute best you can not to fall over (and tumble down the mountain).

You focus on getting to the end, not on having fun.

Then something incredible happens

You finish the run. You look back on how far you’ve come. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so steep. Your adrenaline is wearing off and your brain is flooded with endorphins.

You say to yourself: “That was $%#@ing AMAZING…. I wanna do it AGAIN!”

Having the guts to do something incredibly dangerous and difficult actually forces you to develop the skills and experience you need to succeed.

Every one’s first black-run is the same… it’s all about “just surviving” – just making it out to safety.

The second, third and twentieth runs become about being graceful, fast and precise… then you start looking for jumps and other opportunities.

You connect up the dots – I’ll get back to skiing.