Washing your rental car
Do you take your rental car for a wash before returning it? No, apparently no one has, ever. That is why “ownership” makes a world of difference.
In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.
I heard this fantastic quote when reading Thomas Friedman’s recent book, “Thank you for being late”. Friedman attributed the quote to former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.
Ownership can take a variety of forms including things like owning a house or car or owning equity in one’s company or business. But it can also mean owning your own decisions.
One of the highlights of my professional career thus far was taking the stage at a sales kickoff with my colleagues at SurveyMonkey and talking about the “7 keys to success”. One of our keys was:
Be the CEO of your territory.
I’m certain we were not the first organization to make that a key to success, and won’t be the last. But we were effectively telling our sales organization to “Act like an owner.”
More than the other six keys, the concept of ownership really resonated. I think it’s because we provided clear expectations and guardrails. And that created operating space that our team members could own. When teams understand the Why? (underlying goals) and the What? (definition of what success looks like), they are empowered to figure out the How? And the “How”, is frankly the hardest and most fun part of achieving any objective. It’s also the part that makes you feel like an owner.
Creating a sense of ownership, whether literal or not, is empowering. Linking back to the quote on rental cars — I think both Summers and Friedman would agree that someone who owns something has a strong incentive to take care of it. And someone who doesn’t, well, doesn’t.
💵 A simple, thoughtful explanation of how wealth is very different than money.
How to Make Wealth
🌇 My takeaway was that you need to find a city that matches your ambition, not the other way around.
Cities and Ambition
🏙 Six excellent points on how urban living exposes people to diversity and all the important services government provides.
6 Big Differences That Turn City Dwellers Into Liberals — www.cracked.com
If you aren’t a liberal when you get to the big city, you might be before the year is up.
📧 The only guide you will ever need for multi-channel attribution.
Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling: The Good, Bad and Ugly Models — Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik — www.kaushik.net
Learn pros and cons of seven standard multi-channel attribution models, and how to create a powerful custom model. Optimize marketing budgets, improve ROI!
👨🎤 Strategy is the art of exclusion.
