Are You Racing to the Ceiling?

Earl Anthony is the greatest of all-time at what he did. Chances are, you have no idea who "Square Earl" is. 

Known as "The Doomsday Stroking Machine", Earl Anthony is widely considered to be the best professional bowler of all-time. By the time he retired in 1988, "Square Earl" had 41 titles to his name, along with six PBA Player of the Year awards. He also became the first professional bowler to earn $100,000 in a year, and $1 Million in a career, all before 1985. And in 2000, Bowling Magazine named Earl Anthony "Bowler of the Millennium".

So, why do we know about Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Johnny Unitas, and Babe Ruth, but not Earl Anthony, who was arguably as successful in his career as these other competitors?

Because the best Earl Anthony ever did was to score 300 points in a single game of bowling; 12 consecutive strikes. "The Doomsday Stroking Machine" achieved numerous accolades that others have not yet matched, but he was never able to score 301 points in a single game.

That's not Anthony's fault. It's the nature of the game. There is a ceiling to how well you can bowl. Once you bowl a perfect game, you try to do it as many times as you possibly can again and again and again.

Plenty of pin monkeys have done what Earl Anthony has done. Perfect games in bowling, while not easily achievable by all of us, are not scarce. Seeing that someone has bowled a perfect game is not particularly exciting either because it seems like someone at every bowling alley has done it.

Michael Jordan, on the other hand, is undeniably the best to have ever played the game of basketball. However, he never played a perfect game. The same goes for Wayne Gretzky and hockey, Johnny Unitas and football, and Babe Ruth and baseball.

None of them conquered the sport they competed in. No one ever will.

It's not their fault. It's the nature of their chosen competitions.

Are you competing in a field with a ceiling? Or are you pursuing something infinite? Bowling is a fun game to play on Thursday nights. But there is a reason that you've never heard of Earl Anthony, and it has nothing to do with his ability.


Have you read Dave's new book, If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count? If you enjoyed this post, you can read a sample of Dave's book here. Thousands of others have already purchased the paperback or downloaded it to their Kindle app. Read their reviews on Amazon here.

Falling Up

If we are doing something worth actually doing then one thing is for sure, we are going to fall. That could sound overly pessimistic, but it doesn't have to be. It's really up to you. How you view the previous statement might actually determine how you choose to fall.

Yes, there is a choice to be made when things seem like they are out of our control, when we fall. There are three choices, actually.

The first choice is to do nothing. When we make this choice, we do not let setbacks affect us. We simply keep doing the same thing again and again, running into the same pitfalls that knocked us down in the first place.

The second choice is to fall down. When something unexpected and inconvenient happens to us, we let the momentum carry us as far down as it can. Why is this happening to me? we might ask. Yet, we let the gravity of the situation force us into learned helplessness.

The third choice, and the most promising of the choices offered, is to fall up. When we make this third choice, we view failures as opportunities. That might sound oxymoronic. But you would have to be a moron to not choose it.

Choosing to fall up isn't just smiling while we get dirt kicked in our faces. It is an active process of capitalizing on dips.

In The Happiness Advantage, author Shawn Achor lays out two new paths to our mental maps of falling up. The first is choosing the right counterfact. The second is choosing a positive explanatory style. Here is what each of those looks like.

To steal the example used in Achor's book, imagine that you are in a bank with fifty other people when a gunman bursts in and fires one shot which lands in your arm. Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky?

Your choice of counterfacts might just decide this for you. A counterfact is a hypothetical scenario that could have happened instead of what actually did happen. A person who might think he or she was unlucky might lament that out of all the banks in town, why did they come to the wrong one at the wrong time. A counterfact that Achor has heard multiple times when he has posed this question to others is, "There are 50 people in this bank. Surely, someone here deserves to get shot more than I do."

A more positive counterfact could be the realization that you could have been shot in the chest or the head, but that you were lucky enough to have taken a bullet to the arm. Likewise, you're a relatively young and healthy victim. What if the shooter had hit a child or senior citizen.

The counterfacts that we choose to compare our trials and adversities to have an incredible power to lessen the severity of the fall that we've taken.

Equally important is the explanatory style with which you choose to explain the dip that you're in. Your explanatory style is how you explain what has happened to you and the impact it will have. We have become incredibly resilient people. Our ability to persevere is undeniable. However, we can still often find ourselves exaggerating what has happened to us and how long it will last.

An explanatory style which we might take as we are falling down could be that the unforeseen failure has unfairly pulled the rug out from under us. It hurts and will only get worse since there is no foreseeable end to this setback. Like a negative counterfact, this type of explanatory style can lead to learned helplessness as well.

Those who fall up explain their setbacks much differently (are you surprised?). A positive explanatory style might sound like this: Whoa! I didn't see that coming. It certainly won't last forever, but until we climb out of this, what can we do differently to improve our situation right now and once we are out of this dip again. This is a great time to reevaluate how we do things around here.

Falling up is a lot easier than either of the two other choices when faced with adversity. It might not initially seem to be easier when faced with the fear of uncertainty. Falling up requires a broadened perspective and creativity. But as with any setback, choosing to fall up will get you through the fall much quicker than doing nothing or falling down. Plus, you'll end up better off than if the fall had never happened.

It really just depends on how you look at it.


Dave is the author of If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count. Dave's book is about people who failed until they finally didn't and the lessons about succeeding that we can learn from them. If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count has helped readers across the world make their ideas count. Read a sample of Dave's book here. Then start making your ideas count . . . because they definitely do.

Your Potential Isn't a Myth

Pygmalion was a sculptor in Greek mythology, and a lonely one at that. He had lost faith in the women around him so committed himself to creating his own perfect gal. He did it with ivory, chiseling away until, upon standing back, he laid eyes on the most beautiful form of the feminine he had ever beheld. The only problem for Pygmalion was (hopefully, you've caught this already) that his new love was a statue.

While at Venus' festival day (I can only imagine what a festival hosted by the goddess of beauty, love, and sex would be like), Pygmalion abashedly wished that he could find a bride that would be the "living likeness of my ivory girl." Yet, he ended up going home empty-handed.

Upon arriving back home, he went to give his sculpture a kiss. As he did so, he noticed that her lips were warm. He also noticed that her body had lost its hardness. Galatea, Pygmalions idolized beauty, had been turned into flesh and bone.

This myth inspired a psychological phenomenon known as The Pygmalion Effect. It has nothing to do with falling in love with statues, but everything to do with creating happiness through expectations.

Norman Vincent Peale said, "If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal."

Sounds like wishful thinking, perhaps with a bit of sunshine and rainbows. But it's not. The Pygmalion Effect is science, brain science.

Whether communicated verbally or not, our expectations of others' potential connects with them. Naturally, they are processed by others in return. People act as we expect them to act. This is a major responsibility as leader.

What do you believe about the potential of your employees, students, colleagues, or family members? How are you conveying your beliefs in your daily words and actions?

Your expectations will affect others whether you mean for them to or not. It's simply a matter of picking up your chisel and carving the first pieces to reveal the potential around you.

Dave is the author of If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count. His book is about people who fail until they finally didn't and the lessons about success that we can learn from them. Read what other readers are already saying about Dave's book, and then start making your ideas count too.

I Gave Away $8,000

Selling books is hard. It is even harder if you are an independent author. You lack the credibility of a publisher's brand on the spine of your book, along with their marketing capital and distribution networks. But selling books as an independent author isn't impossible. In fact, it's becoming more possible than ever before.

I recently finished a four-day Amazon giveaway of the Kindle edition of my book, If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count. This book does not have the backing of an established publisher. It doesn't even have the backing of a start-up publisher. Just me and the Internet. Throughout March, the first full month that If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count was available on Amazon I sold around 40 copies to readers throughout the United States. Then my promo happened.

In just four days, with the help of Facebook and Twitter, If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count was downloaded over 2,200 times. My book became a best seller in three of Amazon's free download categories; business, creativity, and entrepreneurship, while also reaching #287 on Amazon Kindles best seller list for all free downloads. That's a category with 27,000 free books in it!

Had I actually sold all of these books, I would have earned $8,000 in royalties in four days, one-fourth of my annual salary as a teacher. But I didn't. I earned nothing.

Actually, that's the wrong vernacular. Here is what I did earn:

I earned 2,200 new readers.

I earned 2,200 new connections.

I earned spots on best seller lists in the largest book store in the world.

I earned friends on Twitter and Facebook.

I earned seven 4 or 5-star reviews.

I earned the sobering experience of hearing complete strangers say,

"OMG! You are a beautiful writer."

"If Dr. Seuss had written 'Oh, The Places You'll Go' for adults, this would be that book."

"Wow! I love your writing style! Also, just getting started and it is really making me think. Thank you!"

and

"Truly Inspirational."

I earned the opportunity to create something beautiful and give it away.

I earned the pleasure of talking to people online as they read my book.

And I earned the motivation to keep writing for me.

I'm not an accountant, or even that great with balancing a checkbook, but all-in-all, I would say that I earned a hell of a lot more than $8,000.

Wouldn't you?

Here's My Book on Kindle for FREE.

What Apple Can Teach Us About Friendship

What can Apple teach us about friendship? As it turns out, quite a lot. Apple is a business that happens to sell computers. Nevertheless, they're not in the computer business. That becomes apparent after walking ten feet into any Apple store.

Around you you will see iPods, iPads, MacBooks, and accessories. There will be large die-cut models of the latest Apple device, and sales associates in blue t-shirts. But if you listen closely, you will hear more than just computer jargon.

You might hear about a football game, a trip to Thailand, a grandchild's recital, or a retelling of an outdoor excursion. But chances are you will hear something completely unique and different.

Sure, there will be questions about devices and explanations of features, but that is the least of an Apple sales associate's interests when you walk into an Apple store. What people at Apple are more enthusiastic about is you. That's why they don't work on commission and have permission to talk about you for hours. Apple isn't in the business of selling computers. They're in the business of enriching lives.

How do you do that, exactly?

Simple. Be interesting. But be far more interested.



Dave is the author of If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count. You can get your copy on Amazon.com. Dave's book was inspired by his blog. And Dave's blog was inspired by you. Read If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count here. Then start making something count.

How I Became a Zappos VIP Because of Their Customer Service

I am a customer service evangelist. When I experience great customer service, I tell everyone about it. When I experience no customer service, I tell everyone about that too. While some people watch go hiking or play Scrabble in their free time, I test customer service.

Katherine at Zappos was being tested. She is an online sales agent for the company and nearing retirement, nevertheless, she is one of the few American workers who consider themselves fully engaged in their work. But I wouldn't find that out until later.

I had no intentions of buying shoes when I logged on to Zappos.com. In fact, I purchased two new pairs of shoes within a few weeks prior to Katherine's customer service test, so there was absolutely no need for a third pair. Unfortunately for Katherine, she didn't know that when I started our online customer service chat.

"Hi, I'm Katherine, and I'm here to help you."

"Katherine, my name is Dave. I'm quite a tall guy with big feet. I really like the hipster style of shoes, but they seem to always look awkward on my size-14 feet. Do you have any suggestions for me?"

(A pause in the conversation shows that she is thinking about what I just asked her).

"It is really up to the individual, Dave. Feel free to order what looks nice to you, and return it for free if you don't actually like it."

"I could do that, but what I'm really asking you for is fashion advice. Can you point me in the right direction?"

"Vans seem to be pretty popular."

"You're right, but Vans are too popular for my taste. I would like something a little less trendy (finding something that is hipster, but not trendy seems to be an oximoron)."

"Do you have a brand or style of shoe that you have really liked in the past?"

"My favorite was a pair of PF Flyers, but I'm hesitant to buy another pair. The old ones wore out very quickly. Have you received many returns of PF Flyers?"

"Not to my knowledge, but if yours were to wear out again, you can surely return them to us as part of our 365-day return policy. What style were your previous pair?"

I described my old shoes to Katherine. She found them and similar styles in the Zappos online inventory. We looked at them together, and Katherine started remarking about all of the colors available.

"If you would like, I can give you VIP shipping free."

"You can do that? (Yes, I was actually surprised)."

"Of course, what email is your Zappos account under?"

I told her. After a few seconds of wait time, Katherine sent me a link which redirected me to a VIP Zappos page complete with the shoes I was looking at and FREE overnight shipping.

"Katherine, you're fantastic! I wrote a book that talks about the remarkable customer service at Zappos, but you're something else."

"You did? What is it called?"

I gave her the title and shamelessly self-promoted the section about Zappos and the staff like Katherine that they are known for. Katherine took a moment to reply, but when she did this is what she said, "I just found it on Amazon. It looks very exciting. I'm going to buy it tonight. I can't wait to read your book."

The conversation continued, but it wasn't a test anymore.

Katherine had taken the time to listen to me, to put up with me, and then to really connect with me. That she looked up my book in the middle of our conversation let me know that she was listening and genuinely interested in me.

When all was said and done, I sold a customer service agent a book. Funny, isn't it? Even more hilarious is that Katherine sold me a pair of shoes that I don't even need. I bought them because of her service.

They weren't expensive. They were actually on sale for $30. That didn't deter Katherine though. That didn't even dampen her commitment to serving me as her customer. How do I know that?

Because, I ordered them last night and am wearing them right now.



Dave is the author of If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count. You can get your copy on Amazon.com. Dave's book was inspired by his blog. And Dave's blog was inspired by you. Read If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count here. Then start making something count.