Why Winners Win: The Secrets of Outstanding Performance by Alan Weiss, Ph.D.

Alan is a big-time consultant and author. He gave a lunch-time talk at MIT on the secrets of being successful.

Alan Weiss Biography

Notes:

Nobody that succeeds gets bogged down in bureaucracy

Power doesn't corrupt – powerlessness corrupts

Unless the customer is impacted, then it don't matter (thinks many of the quality initiatives are failures because they don't actually impact the customer)

You should focus on output not input

90% of your time should be focused on external and only 10% on internal

You just need to win by a nose

What you think of yourself will paint how you act

Self-esteem is the biggest problem people have with getting ahead

Logic makes people think; emotion makes people act

People are most motivated by gratification from work (not money)

One of the biggest advantageous successful people have is they are ok with the 80% solution and are not perfectionist: "success not perfection"

If you improve by 1% a day, you become twice as good in 70 days

People focus on the next big thing too much instead of trying to improve incrementally

Can take out 20% of middle management at most companies and the next day no one would notice

People that are successful deal with stress

It is crazy to get rid of all the stress at work. It is good to have some stress to instill a sense of urgency

Increasing high performers productivity by 2% is much more valuable than increasing a bunch of low performers by 20%

High performers carry the day

People have an equal right to the same starting line, but not to the same finish line

Introvert/Extrovert has nothing to do with success

Always give people options instead of leaving the decision to them

Need to stand out in a crowd

Need to hit people emotionally with your value

There is a simple thing you can do to succeed: focus on results self-esteem, and value