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Success In Five Words.
Success in Nineteen Words.

It wasn't really a sleepless night. But it was "one of those nights" (not that infrequent for me) when some words start rumbling around ... and around and around. I just wanted a list of "stuff" that gets to the essence of human behavior, and thence is directly related to individual effectiveness at pretty much anything. (NB: And, ain't it always the case, "stuff" that business schools either recklessly take for granted or decide is not sophisticated enough to merit their attention.)

So here are "the real basics"—in five words. Achieve Excellence at these five things and the world (of human organizations) will pretty much be your oyster. To wit:

Read.

Write.

Talk.

Listen.

Appreciate.

Once the keyboard was at my command, I ended up (surprise!) extending the list to 19 words. Herewith:

Read.
Write.
Talk.
Listen.
Appreciate.

Walk.
Work.
Sweat.
Sweat.
Enthuse.
People.
Frontline.
Act.
Anger.
Band.
Apologize.
Weird-out.
Network.
EXCELLENCE.

Here, also in very few words, is my more or less definition of the 19 words:

Read. (Outstudy 'em.)

Write. (Clear, concise, powerful.)

Talk. (Presentation mastery. Study. Practice-practice-practice. Storytelling, mastery of.)

Listen. (Study. Practice-practice-practice. Understand enormous power thereof.)

Appreciate. (Engaged. Thoughtful. Compassionate. Appreciative always, enormous power thereof.)

Walk. (MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Again, learning, and learning is required, through practice.)

Work. (Work harder than the next person. "Balance"? Uhm ...)

Sweat. (Sweat the details with maniacal passion!)

Sweat. (Sweat the details with maniacal passion!)

Enthuse. (Enthusiasm moves mountains.)

People. (Great and engaged people>>>Great strategy. Best bosses = Best people developers.)

Frontline. (Firstline supervisors, quality of, determine just about everything. Must become an obsession.)

Act. (Most tries wins. Hence "most failures" is a concomitant reality—celebrate 'em.)

Anger. (Raging impatience with dumb stuff. Constantly question the status quo.)

Band. (Small, passionate, relentless bands of people/renegades change the world. Period. Avoid the hierarchy—it tenaciously defends the past in 9.9 cases out of 10.)

Apologize. ("I'm sorry," enormous power thereof. And rare, particularly among men.)

Weird-out. (Multiple, unusual sources of information and feedback.)

Network. (Develop wider-deeper-downward relationships. Think "suck down for success." Think-obsess on R.O.I.R./Return on investment in relationships. Again, women take to this instinctively.)

EXCELLENCE. (The only standard. ALWAYS CAPITALIZE ALL LETTERS.)

Over to you ...

Tom Peters posted this on 12/15/09.

Comments

As with you G.E. post, I tossed my thoughts out on the table over on your Facebook entry. But I will restate here that you just laid out a firm foundation upon which the rest of b-school "education" should be built.

Posted by Dan Gunter at December 15, 2009 9:24 AM

Tom,

Good list.

Re: #7. I'm not sure that excellence can co-exist with balance. To a certain extent, if you want to get super-good at something, for most people, that means you have to give up time and energy in some other place in your life.

Posted by Aaron Windeler at December 15, 2009 9:39 AM

Care.

Posted by Christopher Mahan at December 15, 2009 9:43 AM

EXCELLENCE in all caps, all the time. The older I get the more I realize the ability to focus is invaluable.

Posted by BawldGuy at December 15, 2009 11:15 AM

Tom, Great list(s) for introspection and discussion.

I would add a few to the mix (several may be buried in your list, but need emphasis!!!!):
o Love
o Share
o Empathize
o Aspire
o Mentor
o Repent

Posted by Randy Bosch at December 15, 2009 11:22 AM

Excellent post, Tom, and brilliant additions Randy. Saying sorry without turning (repentance) doesn't mean much. Repentance means to turn. With repentance, profound change can occur. I will also say that there can be an immediate change in the atmosphere with the mere utterance of "I'm sorry." But, of course, if these words become mere words they eventually lose their power to change when spoken in the mouths of those who do not turn. When I was a kid, I always shot off at the mouth and I had to keep saying I'm sorry, as my conscious would get the best of me. One day my mother asked a simple question, "When are you going to repent?" "I already said I'm sorry," I shot back. "So, when are you going to turn?" She asked. I thought about it for a little while. She waited. My head was spinning. "Today" I said. My mother was so very patient. So were my teachers. Bless them! Turning is not easy, but it's the continuous effort and good will that matter. The conversation with my mother took place when I was 10. The work continues.

Thanks Tom and Randy!

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 15, 2009 12:23 PM

Tom,

Extraordinary indeed.

As per your wisest consideration, I might add some:

- Research Hard

- Harmonize it all

- Be an unconditional peace-maker

- Be always constructive

- Acceptance is not good enough if it conditioned. Thoroughly accept by zillion deeds.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at December 16, 2009 2:40 AM

Tom,

Also, people mustn't read lavishly but STUDY, STUDY, STUDY whatever textbook.

By a great grace of yours, you frequently mention about your readings on the "Founding Fathers."

Look at what Honorable President James Madison stated: "Knowledge must forever correct ignorance." This in support of my kind suggestion in paragraph one.

In other orders of ideas, it is important that your dissertations, which are truly helpful and relevant, get to an even larger scale. In doing so, if I were you I would define some terms.

I bought and read the "...Passion ..." textbook by you. But, Why don't you unambiguously define, say, in seven to nine lines what Managing By Wondering Around?

Since "Excellence" is canonical milestone for this prominent blog, some younger generations and even people outside of the English-speaking world might not know exactly what you mean. I would say that "Excellence" as dealt with in this portal is the product of a seminal book that I co-authored with Mr. Waterman named "In Search Of Excellence." Then I would use the seven to nine words of unambiguous description of "Excellence" as per Mr. Tom Peters.

Finally, and meaning well! Using extensive idiomatic language is great fun. You have conquered the international scale. But, you might perhaps conquer even more souls and minds if you use that idiomatic parlance (idioms) accompanied with parenthesis including the standard English meaning.

It is you, for God's sake, that have spoken about the new 3 billion capitalists. Perhaps, there are many people in Moscow that understand what you're saying but not fully because of said idioms.

All of this is said under great respect, in kindness and in gratitude for your sustained yet extraordinary efforts.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at December 16, 2009 4:36 AM

It strikes me that all these words are about communication, or closely related to the act of communication.

It also strikes me that in the 21st century, Business is communication!

Jay, Bangalore

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Posted by Jayakumar Hariharan at December 16, 2009 6:22 AM

Interesting. Although I think you should rank Listen above Talk.

Posted by Brendan at December 16, 2009 10:39 PM

Re-imagine! always sits on my desk because I love your ability to tweak the imagination.

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Simple words, said boldly, are often all it takes to spring us into action.

I also agree with Jay that communication is going to be the centerpiece of business in the future, but hasn't it always been. The difference? Everyone is listening to your conversations now--they are the market.

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Posted by Bill Rice at December 17, 2009 9:14 AM

--All good points. Here's my 5 words:
1. Passion
2. Practice
3. Perform
4. Reflection
5. Perform

Posted by Paul B. Thornton at December 17, 2009 9:13 PM

Late in the day I put forward the following interconnected five:

Look - explore, be open, find new viewpoints

Think - study beyond the subject, consider the deeper issues, find new meanings

Do - turn up, be on the pitch, take responsibility, see it through

Connect - communicate, tell stories, listen, share, smile

Care - empathise, be passionate, believe, take the first step

Posted by RobCH at December 21, 2009 2:22 AM

Number 18 has been one of my pets
for a long time.

"Your Network is your Networth"

Who said that? I said that....
Also,
Four words left daily with my undergraduate business students are simply:

"STUDY HARD PLAY SMART" !

Posted by Doug Reed at December 23, 2009 3:20 PM

Great list. Thank you. Best thing I've read in ages. I would add Gratitude to the list... similar to Appreciate... but in a simpler form: Say 'Thank You' a lot!

Posted by Rob at December 25, 2009 5:08 PM