The Secret to Life...

Sandy Koufax

Before I start, let me issue a warning: If you aren’t a sports person, you might decide to skip this blog. But don’t. You are about to learn the secret to life.

Okay, now let me get started …

When I was a kid I dreamed of being a baseball player. As you may infer, that never happened. At least I get to write about it. (Small miracles, right?)

Well, I recently got to watch the moderated discussion between Joe Torre and Sandy Koufax on Fox Sports. Joe Torre is mainly known for coaching a second-rate team called the New York Yankees. Yeah, I said it. What you going to do about it?

Sandy Koufax, on the other hand, is known for many things. He pitched four no-hitters, including the eighth perfect game in baseball history. He had 2,396 strikeouts, won the Cy Young award four times, and, oh yeah, he was retired by 30.

Take that, Torre.

Sandy Koufax became something of an enigma. People thought he knew the secret to life, a personal philosophy that worked in his favor.

An interviewer asked him once who his biggest influence was. He said that it was his grandfather. He went on to say that his grandfather had a saying that he lived by.

And this is the secret to life, according to Sandy Koufax’s grandfather.

What was that saying?

Say no to drugs?

Live long and prosper?

I’ll be back?

No, no, and nope. (Great sayings, though).

The saying—his secret to life—was: “Be loose with your money and tight with your time.”

Imagine how cool it was to be Sandy Koufax. My grandfather never spit out wisdom like this. He mainly said things like “pass the peas” and “listen to your dad.”

“Be loose with your money and tight with your time.” Pretty cool.

So let’s talk about this “secret of life.”

We can all agree that time is finite, right? In our day-to-day lives and duties, time is finite for sure. We aren’t machines who can simply move faster to make more widgets.

We have no ability to stretch time. To make things last.

Therefore, we have to use our time well. If you work upwards of 12 hours a day, that’s a long time. Are you choosing the things you do with your time wisely? Are you working so that you can get out of the office faster, make more money, and provide value to your clients? Or are you constantly taking breaks to catch up on the Real Housewives of New Jersey, twitter, and Facebook?

(Love the real housewives, by the way … especially Theresa. She seems like a great cook.)

Now I’m not saying that everyone should be working every minute. Remember, I’m a huge fan of Ultradian breaks. In fact, I took a break between paragraph three and paragraph four.

Instead, I’m asking you to think about the moments you spend at your job and in your personal life. Are you making the very best use of your time? Or are you wasting an opportunity to be doing something better?

Are you getting the sleep you need? Are you spending quality time with the people you care about? Are you giving the people you work with 100 percent of your attention when needed? Or are you waiting for the next thing to happen, and not living in the moment?

Think about it. When you get really old like me (I’ve been 28 for the last number of years) and look back at the years, the stuff that you will regret the most is the time lost. You won’t regret the money you lost.

Time is our most valuable commodity. (Thank God it’s not being traded on the open market yet. I wouldn’t want time to be a part of our recession. How horrible would that be?)

I’ve been very fortunate in my life and would say that I’ve become pretty good with managing my time. I treat time with respect and try not to waste it. I joke about how much TV I watch and how lazy I am, but the truth is that I get a great deal of joy out of everything I do. Everything has a purpose for me, and this gives me a great deal of nourishment.

Can you say the same thing? And for those of you in your 20s, trust me when I say that you have no idea how little time it takes to get form 25 to 60 years old.

It goes by in a blink.

Today’s challenge: Consider adopting Sandy Koufax’s grandfather’s secret of life, if just for a day. Well, adopt at least part of it. Take the “loose with your money” part with a grain of salt. But “tight with time” … put that in the bank.

I Heart Jury Duty (and NY, Which Is Irrelevant)

I'm the guy in the front row, 3rd from the left.

You know what I look forward to (other than going to work each day as a tax consultant)? I bet you guessed jury duty, didn’t you?

I’m a pretty exciting guy, huh? Jury-duty-loving tax consultant.

Jury duty is great. You get a lunch break. You get paid. $15! A day!

Also, it’s probably the one and only time where openly judging someone is completely socially acceptable.

Okay, so you are probably thinking I’m being a smart aleck. To be fair, in most cases, you would be right. It’s virtually impossible for me to refrain from making witty remarks. (In the interest of full disclosure, my wife would use the word “irritating” instead of “witty.” It’s just semantics though.)

But in all actuality, I love jury duty, and not just because it’s the closest I’ll ever come to being Matlock.

And herein lies my problem: Attorneys never pick tax consultants as jurors. Accountants listen to well. (Also something my wife would dispute.*)

Though I have been called to jury duty many, many times, I have only served on a jury twice. And both times, I have learned a ton.

The first jury trial I had the pleasure of participating in was a civil trial between General Motors and MTA. I felt like a badass. I was referee watching two titans duke it out. This was Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield. Rumble in the courtroom jungle.

The jury had no sympathy for either company. There were two expert witnesses—one representing each side of the case.

The first expert—the fellow representing the MTA—wore a bright, plaid sport coat and a not-so-terrific tie. It was way too wide. (If you only take away one thing from today’s blog, let it be this advice: Always remember to wear thin ties and never wear plaid when testifying!) The expert was also a little argumentative and defensive, particularly when cross-examined.

He might or might not have known his stuff. I couldn’t tell because I was too busy being annoyed by his abrasive attitude. (And the stains on his tie – did he have soup for lunch?)

Then General Motors sent its expert to the stand. GM’s expert was wearing a smart, respectable, solid suit, not to mention a thin tie. He looked at the jury when he answered questions. He may or may not have known his stuff, but I was convinced that he did. He was in control. He was calm, and he didn’t try to fight with the attorney who was cross-examining him.

From this I learned how to be the better expert witness in everyday life. How you approach testimony in court is how you need to approach everyday life. Be more like the GM expert witness and less like Mr. Wide Tie.

(This blog is not affiliated with the MTA or General Motors.)

(I like both products.)

(Kudos to cars and buses.)

Being a good listener starts with small things – like listening to the waiter explain why your egg sandwich is taking so long. And the same holds true in dealing with clients, employers, and employees in business. When talking to an upset client, employer, or employee, remind yourself not to feel attacked. If you listen for the attack, you won’t hear the question, and you will respond defensively.

If you listen to the question, and then you think about what information the other person needs to better understand your position, and then calmly deliver that information, then you will respond more directly, and you will sound more competent.

Your client, your boss, your employee will think you are smart, even if you aren’t. Here’s something I know to be true: People will believe you are smarter if you want to help them and demonstrate that you can help them, even if you are not. By the way I am definitely not smart. You might think I’m smart because I’m a tax consultant, but think again. (I like jury duty for God’s sake.) But people keep turning to me for help, trusting my wisdom. It’s because I’m a good listener. It’s because I want to help them.

Today’s challenge: If you start feeling defensive, take a deep breath and remember to listen for the question. Respond calmly, with the intention of helping the other person understand your position. Answer to the best of your ability, and ask questions when you aren’t clear.

*Teasing my wife in my blog is one of the ways I flirt with her. I know that makes my romantic skills slightly questionable, but for the record, my wife is pretty darn amazing and she never nags. Well, hardly ever. At least not today. It’s 6 a.m., and she’s still sleeping.   

Related Posts:
The Price is Right
The Secret to Life
What is Trust?

Credibility Is Quality

Yes, I love food.  And I love relating my theories to food!

Your daughter’s birthday is coming up. You want to get her favorite kind of cake—a triple-chocolate mousse cake. You decide to try the new bakery around the corner. The guy behind the counter is very happy to see you. He takes your order—your daughter’s name, the occasion, size of the cake, flavor—and tells you the cake will be ready at the end of the day.

When you return at the end of the day, the cake is not ready. The bakery is having problems with this, that, and the other, and it turns out Janet’s cake will not be ready until the next morning. This is pushing it since your daughter’s party starts the following afternoon. The cake still isn’t ready in the morning—they need a little more time.

When you finally pick up the carrot cake (you ordered triple-chocolate mousse) half an hour before Janet’s birthday party begins, it reads: Happy Graduation, Janice.

Are you ever going to return to the corner bakery? No.    

Credibility is quality. If you are credible, people will correctly assume you produce a quality product. If you seek to run a successful business (which of course you should—otherwise why are you running it?), credibility is a key factor in making your customers feel confident they have come to the right place. Credibility will compel them to return.

There are certain basic ingredients that go into making a person and/or company credible, just as a chef needs key ingredients for making a delicious cake.

To begin with, reliability and timeliness go hand in hand. Stick to your promised deadlines—say what you mean and mean what you say. A client has to know when you say they can expect a product on such and such date, they will get that product on that exact date. If people feel that they can count on you, they will count on you. This translates into business. Of course, unexpected circumstances and events arise from time to time, and when they do, you must always communicate with clients and keep them informed at all times. Surprises are rarely pleasant in the business world.

It’s also important to be realistic about projects. Assess the workload honestly. Never set an impossible deadline or budget to appease the customer in the short run. In the long run, missing that deadline will come back to haunt you like a boomerang. Pay now or pay later is a phrase that applies to both customer and provider. You know how much the work you provide is worth, and you know how much time it takes. If a customer expects you to compromise on the level of quality you pride yourself on delivering, then your company may not be a suitable fit for that customer. At the very least, they should expect a lesser degree of quality. At the end of the day, such an expectation is unacceptable. Never compromise on quality. It is a direct reflection of who you are and what your company stands for.   

Listening is another key component to sealing your reliability. If you don’t know exactly what the client wants, how can you deliver it? The guy at the bakery obviously wasn’t listening when he was told it was Janet’s birthday. Maybe his mind was on the horse races or some such thing. At any rate, when clients seek you out for your specialized service, you owe them your full and complete attention. If you are unsure about anything, always ask, always keep the lines of communication open. Never assume!   

In addition to building upon your own honorable reputation, another benefit of making your word your bond is that fact that a number of other human beings out there aren’t in the practice of doing this. Rest assured that every time you come through on a project, there is someone out there who didn’t. There are plenty of examples you could come up with in the business world: The cable guy who showed up three hours late. The painters who made a mess of your house. The barber who shaved your head when you wanted a little trim.

Not surprisingly (but unfortunately), there are just as many examples of this in our private lives. We all have the flaky friend, sometimes more than one: The friend who never calls back, who’s always late to the movie, who always forgets our birthday. (Why are you friends with this person? Cut ‘em loose!)  Make sure you aren’t that flaky friend. If you are—and shame on you if you are—you are probably also a flaky business associate. And it’s probably costing you!             

Today’s challenge:

Make a credibility checklist for companies you have to deal with both professionally and personally. Examine what these companies have done wrong and what they have done right.

Determine whether or not you are the flaky friend!  Keep track of who you owe calls to, favors, how many people you’ve rescheduled on simply because you didn’t feel like seeing them, how many times you promised you would do something by a certain date and then missed the date, etcetera.