Success could yet be my middle name

How much advice can one entrepreneur or business executive possibly process in a lifetime? The question may sound like the start of a bad joke but I ask it in all sincerity. It has been said more than a few times that we are an information society bordering on information overload. By the look of my office, I must be pushing the maximum capacity for one person's allotted limit of storable data (hard or soft copy, take your pick).

However, this is not meant to be a debate about the amount of stuff in our lives but, rather, a discussion on what we are doing with all that stuff. It is there, so it must have a purpose - or it did have at one time.

For instance, I love business books. I buy the books because I am seeking advice on marketing, management, leadership, customer service, accounting and all the other issues that a business executive struggles to master. Of course, I am also seeking information specific to strategists, consultants, high-fliers - you get the idea.

So here I am, surrounded by mounds of these books. Some are completely read, some are dog-eared and mauled from being referenced so frequently and others are still waiting for me to soak up the wisdom being purported.

Regardless of how much interaction I have had with any of these books, I find myself wondering to what extent the old books have actually been put to use in the company I work for. Let it be noted, books that are propping up wobbly desks do not count as being useful in the business.

Books are just one example of a source of business or entrepreneurial support. Add to that pile the stack of magazines, the daily e-mail newsletters, the seminars attended and all other random bits of advice collected from the well-meaning. It is information hovering around us, patiently waiting for us to wake up and apply it.

It is like a friend said over lunch the other day: People go to seminars all the time and if you randomly called any of the attendees a few weeks after the session to ask how they were using the information the response would be predictable. "What seminar? Oh, yeah. I've got that handout and manual here somewhere. I've been meaning to go back over that stuff."

Sounds familiar?

Well, in a moment of brilliance I decided I would go back to all of my advice-filled books, wipe off the cobwebs and turn the words on the pages into action for my job. Now why had I not thought to do this sooner?

To make the task manageable and effective, I even developed a plan of action. Instead of trying to digest and apply an entire book, I committed to extracting only one chapter or a single idea from a given book per month.

Which chapter or suggestion picked is dictated by a given problem or need I may be having that particular month. The next step is to practise what is preached on a daily basis over the next 30 days (or until the goal is reached). The idea is that those really useful ideas will be incorporated into my job long-term after making a habit of it that first month.

For example, my topic for May was pulled from a book on organisation (always my greatest challenge). As planned, I identified a single, very basic idea to implement. The result? Each Sunday evening last month I reserved 20 minutes to make a list of daily activities to be completed in the week ahead. These were not goals but very specific actions. OK, it was basically a to-do list but, like I said, organisation is my beast of burden. Did everything get accomplished on those lists? No way. But seeing in print what I was unable to accomplish was a real wake-up call. It certainly served as incentive to work a bit harder.

Overall, last month's organisational challenge went so well that I decided to continue with my plan. By my calculations, if I stick to this plan of putting advice into action, by the time I retire success should be my middle name.

Then again, if things do not go so well, I will just chalk it up to getting a lot of really bad advice.

I hope the editor will excuse me for running out of sage words this week, so I am falling back on some titbits.

Out of India

As you peruse the newspapers' travel sections looking for your next vacation destination, you may want to consider the following: One of the fastest growing tourist spots outside of North America and Europe is India. Every year, millions of people are making the sub-continent their No. 1 choice to visit. Hopefully, the country won't become too commercialised. I would hate to see the Taj Mahal just become a big shopping Mahal.

Big bucks

Forbes magazine has released its annual list of the richest people in the world and, once again, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates tops the list.

The magazine says the world's newest billionaire is Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. Makes me wonder if the next book will be called Harry Potter and the Search for a Trustworthy and Highly Creative Tax Accountant.

An interesting bit of info: The average age of the world's billionaires is 64 - so there is still hope for me to make the list. I have six years to save those odd $999,999,000.

When kids could be kids

By today's standards, those of us 35 or older should not have survived our childhoods. Our baby cribs were covered with lead-based paint.

Our homes were not child-proofed. We rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle. No one died.

We ate candy by the handful but we were never overweight. Because we exercised every day without thinking about it. We had no computer games, cable TV, video or DVD, mobiles or chat rooms.

But we had friends. We would leave home on Saturday morning, go play all day. We fell out of trees, broke bones and teeth in games. There were no lawsuits.

We made up games with sticks and did not poke out too many eyes.

And by some miracle, we all survived.