HOW YOU CAN BECOME A BETTER LEADER BY COACHING 10-YEAR OLDS

Neil Voorsanger

Having worked for great organizations, wonderful bosses, gaining wonderful skills and guidance from extraordinary mentors, I remember the year I had my greatest jump in leadership skills – coaching 10-year olds in our local soccer league.

THE PLEA: Many years ago in spring, I was just like any other parent, working 12-14 hour days, supporting my family, trying to balance family, work and good deeds. A friend called, “Neil, I am part of our soccer league and we need one more coach for our 10-year old teams this Saturday morning. Please tell me that you will coach!” I immediately explained I had played basketball and football, never soccer, knew nothing about it, but thanks anyway.
Three pleas later, OK. I immediately raced over to an English friend of mine who I knew had played soccer as a kid and pleaded, “Two days from now I have to coach 10-years olds in a soccer match. Please help me understand the keys to offense, defense, what are the essential rules to follow?” After I ‘pocketed’ 6-8 nuggets, I showed up Saturday for our first soccer match.

THE CHALLENGE: Saturday morning, wonderful day, immense soccer field, one ball and twelve 10-year olds running in every direction. Where are the parents? None. I was on my own, didn’t know the names of my kids, with the opposing team at the other end of the field. I walked over to the other parent-coach-referee and requested a delay of 30 minutes so I could "warm-up" my kids. He agreed.
Of course my team didn’t need a warm up since they were hanging upside down from the top of the soccer net, fighting with each other, and sulking in groups of 2 or 3. What I of course was to learn later was that there were eight teams in the league, the head of the league having selected the best players for his team; our team being the last team, got the runts, troublemakers plus the only two GIRLS.
Yes, this was long ago when girls didn’t play soccer and the league added these two girls to my team. When at the last moment the girls showed up, the boys moaned, “NO WAY we can win with girls!” So I lined all twelve at the goal line and had them race to the middle of the field. The girls were the fastest, all complaining stopped.

PLAYER ASSIGNMENTS: I asked them how many had played soccer. All had. I then explained as I watched them racing across the field everyone had wonderful talents but I needed them to separate themselves into three groups: (1) those who could "run like the wind” to disrupt the middle of the field, (2) those who were “lean and mean” to defend our goal, and (3) those who were “lean and tough” to score goals. Happily, they sorted themselves into these three groups. I then imparted the wisdom of my English friend in distilled success-steps so each group knew what to do (offense, defense, and middle field).
The soccer match began. Within minutes the other team scored their first goal and my entire team collapsed, arguing, blaming, screaming, a frenzied shark feeding. I called to the other coach, “Ok to have a 5-minute break?”

HOW TO WIN: I gathered my 10-year olds around me and explained the rules for playing:
First: “I don’t care who made a mistake, I want to know who played “smart” (I then pointed out what each member of our team did to play smart). Tim never gave up running even though he couldn’t catch up and then got the ball back; Mary got in front of the best player and stopped the ball; and so on.”
Second: “I never again want to hear what anyone did wrong I only want to hear from each of you what you did right.”
Third: “Every time we have a soccer break I will ask each of you what did we did right on defense, disruption, offense.”

KNOWING HOW TO WIN: Each week the opposing team was tougher and better. These matches were before cable TV, the how-to books; I had to get our team soccer-smart, fast! It was enormously helpful each week to have my English friend give me tips (he refused to replace me). For example, how to defend against the super star, how does our goalie defend against the player who has broken free, and so. Our first win, pure luck. Our second win, whatever luck left in our bag. Then we started winning because we knew how.
We played all eight teams, each week playing smarter and better, ending in second place losing finally to the best team. What was even more remarkable was that every one of our players arrived on time every week, I never had to discipline, never had to criticize.

LESSONS: I discovered that runts and troublemakers only act like runts and troublemakers until they develop the skills of winning. Those two wonderful girls became the best in midfield and on their own baked fresh cookies for us each week! So, were there any other lessons? I learned:
· Tailor the task to the abilities
· Demand that each player build the conditions for self-respect (then they are coachable)
· Embed the essentials for success
· Focus on what each player did right (so he/she repeats it)
· Each next time, up the goal to better and smarter
Later in my career I learned many other pieces to a winning formula but coaching 10-year olds was a fabulous start! And, oh yes, wherever my English friend is, thank you again!

© Copyright 2011. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.

Steve Jobs - A Lesson for us All

Why Steve Jobs Will be a Business Model for the Next Hundred Years
Neil Voorsanger

With the passing of Steve Jobs, industry has lost a model of innovation and success that will be imitated for a hundred years. Business schools will create future courses for executives on the “Steve Jobs Effect.” What was the essence of his success? Can his genius be duplicated, or taught?

Here is my reading of the genius of Steve Jobs. He integrated three forces of product and marketing innovation: Extrapolation of product innovation, accessible to all, and made “luxury” affordable:

Extrapolation: With few exceptions, most product innovators work around the edges, improve a product by 10%, ‘add features’ typical of the automobile market, such as speed, comfort, sound proofing, fuel consumption, green technology, beauty, with the hopeful winner having the most and best of features. Jobs was not an incrementalist, a me-tooer at a lower price, Jobs extrapolated into the future. He thought to himself, what is the logical next step in innovation from the main frame? From the desk top? From mobile to networking? Jobs always thought not 10% better but what are going to be the logical progression of our product two product generations from now? Few R&D or product innovators think this way. He was unique for his time. So to be a Steve Jobs ask, where will social networking be ‘two generations’ from now? Where will medical care be ‘two generations’ from now?

Accessible to All: Twenty or thirty years ago to be legitimate programmer one had to be able to create a computer spreadsheet in computer language. This created an artificial class distinction between the Techies and the “Dummies.” The buying markets were the big corporations with their huge IT departments. But which market is bigger … always the Dummies. So Jobs said, don’t worry I will make operating a computer so easy you will be able to operate it in ten minutes. He made a complicated technology operate invisibly so it could be accessible to everyone. Outcome, his company is the richest company in the world, and over the past 30 years “ease of use” increased personal productivity by a factor of 10 if not a 100; now billions can use computers versus thousands.

Luxury at an affordable price: His last most brilliant contribution was not to provide a MP3 player with exposed circuit boards and a 30 page manual but provided an aesthetically gorgeous product, priced 20% more than the competitors but always within an affordable range, capturing two key markets: First Adopters and Status Joiners. First Adopters are the 5%-10% of the market that always want to buy first, who are intensely loyal, will buy even if there are a few bugs because they want to be first. The genius of pleasing this market is they pay for a major chunk of the R&D investment, so thereafter later consumers will contribute 40% to 80% to overhead and profit. Of course the largest market is the latter group, the Status Joiners, and because of the elegance and beauty of design, utility, and affordability, give them status at an affordable price.

Many, many companies have made fortunes with just one of these forces; Steve Jobs was the first to combine all three. Wherever Steve Jobs is I am sure that he is already working on taking Heaven to the second generation. Pure genius.

Neil Voorsanger: An executive coach for thirty years; clients use me to take them from very good to excellent. Online access through fastlearn.net; available December 1, 2011.

© 2011. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved

From Military/Family/Sports to Business - Winning Habits

Neil Voorsanger


Ever wonder why business seeks winners in academia, military, sports, and even family? Each has skills, attitudes, and values that transfer to success in every business. Although times are changing one of the deep secrets of executive promotion is given two equal candidates for promotion the candidate who is married/with kids often has the winning edge. Why these values are important (and for the other disciplines) is explained below.

FAMILY
Sacrifice is not an option; a child cannot be ignored at 3 AM.
Compromise is unethical; committing to anything other than the tough decision eventually leads to failure (e.g. do your homework, brush your teeth, save money).
Responsibility matches capability; a parent doesn’t expect a five-year old to develop a family budget. In the same way, a manager matches accountability to the capacity of the employee but never accepts inferior performance.

SPORTS
Perfect practice, makes perfect - The old adage “practice makes perfect” is nonsense. Practice, unless it is perfect, means bad habits remain as powerful as the good habits, and always surface at the worst times. How many executives practice before their presentation to their board? How many sales people practice to win the $3 million contract? I wish I had a dollar for every professional who told me, “Oh come on, Neil, there isn’t time to practice. I will be fine.” The outcome: Always inferior performance, or disaster.
The tougher the practice, the greater chance of winning - Over and over in business, I have seen preparation as poof-balls (don't embarrass anyone). Rarely in practice does the person playing the customer scream in the executive’s face, “I don't understand one thing you have said! Why can’t you give me the same outcome for half the cost! Why can’t you deliver the same outcome in half the time? Why can’t you double the value to me for the same price?” These are the real challenges thrown by customers and prospects but they are never practiced because it’s safer to assume a perfect outcome. Make the practice truly fearsome and you may have a chance.
Will my quarterback make my ten other players better? Every NFL coach knows that after the perfect pass, the quarterback must make all his players better. Will my sales supervisor/manager/executive make his/her people 30% better?
When all is lost will he/she keep trying? We all know the employees and executives when things are going great give their all; when things go bad, oops, where are they? The true measure is when sales are down 60%, will the employee give his/her best or sneak aboard the lifeboat? The toughest part of any effort is the last 20%. It takes guts and integrity to make it succeed.

ACADEMICS
The truths of academic success:
The best work at 120% every week for four years - Every gold medalist I knew (straight A for four years of college) studied until midnight every night. A recent study of homework habits revealed that at the University of Arizona the average student studies no more than 3½ hours a week.
Learn how to learn - Master how to learn, not just how to take the test. Recently I talked to the head of HR for one of the two winningest brokerage firms in NY and asked what training is she using? She told me the firm gave up on training programs; they now only hire the top 8% graduates because no matter what you throw at them, they succeed.
Consistency is a habit - When working with a Dean at a postgraduate school, I asked what is the best predictor of academic success? He told me the school found ‘consistency of performance’ is the best predictor of future success. Consistency of success, not just for one semester but for every semester, year after year.

MILITARY
Excellence replaces fear
I had the extraordinary good fortune to meet a World War II veteran of the landing at Normandy, Omaha Beach. He was about 85 years old and after his talk, it was my turn to ask him a question. “Sir, when you first set foot on the beach with shells exploding all around you, soldiers dying, what was going through your mind?”
He had been answering questions sitting in a chair but after hearing my question he stood up slowly. You could see him go back in time, back and back to that very moment 60 years ago, wanting to give me his most honest answer.
Thinking for over a minute he said, “I thought only about my job. I was so well trained that all I thought of was doing my job. I was never afraid.”
He was the naval officer responsible for the beach landing.

ARE VALUES REALLY IMPORTANT?
... When McDonalds first entered Japan many years ago, the Japanese threw out the American trainer and insisted every Japanese server master twelve ways of saying, “Thank you.”
... A famous tennis player observed, when I don’t practice for a day, I know it. When I don’t practice for two days, my coach knows it. When I don’t practice for three days, my opponent knows it.

The lesson: Practice excellence every day for the rest of your life.

© 2007. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.

How Do You Sell a Product You Can’t Name or Describe?

Neil Voorsanger





An old friend of my wife’s asked me to help her friend raise money for his biotech invention. I called the inventor and asked, what is the invention? He replied, “I’m sorry I can’t tell you because I haven’t patented it.” I asked what does it do? He said it speeds up biotech research. Has a prototype been tested? "No." How much do you want to raise? He said, “I must have $200,000.”

I became less gracious, “Are you out of your mind? How can I ask any investor to invest in something that he/she can’t see, understand, or know anything about?” I then told him forget it. He called our mutual old friend, who called my wife, who called me. I told him I was back on the case.

Well I know a lot about product research and anyone who can speed up research is a bloody genius. Here is why. Research is unforgiving and brutal. If I pay you as a researcher I expect you to invent something. Examples might be: (i) invent a molecule that improves gas efficiency by 50%; (ii) find a drug that eradicates cancer (that one has been ongoing for 50 years); or, (iii) predict human behavior (that one has been ongoing for 10,000 years and still no answers).

Here is why researchers get very little sleep. Imagine that you go to a beach in a foreign country and lose your car keys (I was stupid enough to do this). It is getting dark, the beach is empty for miles, the lifeguards have gone home hours ago, your loved one suspects you aren’t as smart as you always claimed, your children are out of control, the nearest pay phone is five miles away. Your loved one whispers supportive comments such as, “We are alone, we could be ravaged by roaming gangs, what are you doing to do!!”

You have a plan. You fantasize that your car keys will jump out of the sand, leap into your hand, and everyone can go home. Instead you stare at hundreds of square feet of sand, an endless sandbox hiding your car keys. You are too old to cry, too mature to scream. What do you do? Here is what you do, and here is what every researcher does.

Step 1: You state a research hypothesis: “As dumb as I am, I believe that my car keys are no more than 3 inches below the surface on this beach, i.e. I did not lose them in the parking area.”
Step 2: You then bound the universe of your research: I believe that the keys are somewhere in this ten square feet of beach (marked off by four rocks).
Step 3: Assure purity of the research (avoid contamination): You threaten your children that if they run across the 10-foot square area, thereby burying the lost keys even deeper, they will suffer horrifying consequences.
Step 4: Initiate experiment 1 of n: Using the most advanced research tool you can find (your child’s sand shovel), you start digging the first of 100 small search areas.
Step 5: Determine whether experimental outcome advances knowledge of the hypothesis: After six experiments, the first six areas of the beach don’t have the keys. Continue research.

14 experiments later, I found the keys. All experimental research follows the same procedure. You can see the challenge of real research is not the brilliance of the ideas but the millions of experiments it takes to find the one molecule that works. In other words, the researcher who can rule out the false trails the fastest usually wins, i.e. the fastest researcher usually wins. Thus, this inventor was promising an experimental procedure that would speed up this trial-and-error of thousands of experiments, by a factor of 3-10. Worth mountains of gold in the market but I couldn’t name it, prove or describe it.

Furthermore, I was blocked by the US Government (SEC) who would insist I go to jail if I promised investors untold riches, and even worse, promised these riches to investors who are not “sophisticated” and have not been apprised of all the investment risks. In the meantime, the inventor’s lawyers were terrified that as my greed set in I would make some unbounded claim and we would all go to jail.

You can always tell how upset you have made a lawyer by the magnitude of years he/she cites as an expert in the field, the greater the years, the greater the panic. My lawyers were citing hundreds of years of accumulated experience, so they were very upset.

I sat there in a funk knowing piles of gold were ours if I could just solve the problem. I calmed myself with deep breathing and restated the problem: How to get a group of investors to invest $200,000 in an invention that cannot be named or described but may increase the speed of biotech research by a factor of 3 to 10. I cocked my ear so I would hear suggestions from the universe, silence.

As often happens when panic has drained the last drop of hope (like a vampire), inspiration hits. Since I couldn’t name or describe the product couldn’t I create the same investment incentive by getting a highly respected biotech scientist from one of the pharmaceutical research labs (the target market) to review the product and assure me, yes, if it could be made, it would do what it promises to do, and yes, he/she would buy it?

Since most investment strategies involve Step 1, listen to my solution and Step 2, if you believe it, then future market promises are possible; I reversed the procedure: I said, since I can’t name or describe the solution, if I could get a potential buyer from the future market to assure a group of investors, yes, I have seen it, it works, and I would buy it, haven’t I done the same thing without violating the strictures of the SEC?

With the lawyers escorting me down every corridor, I did exactly that, got a leading research head from a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company to review the invention, after many hours of discussion with his firm and their approval, he appeared in front of a group of our investors, and said, “Based on the biotech research our lab is conducting, I would buy this invention.” He received no incentives other than reimbursement of his travel expenses. We raised $187,000 in forty-five minutes.

If you feel this post can help a friend or scare a foe, please forward.

© 2007. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.

Working Smarter – Getting the Deal

Neil Voorsanger


This week I got a distressed call from an old friend, a CEO of a startup seeking to raise millions from investors. He was having no luck. He sent me his business plan and PPT and after I reviewed it, I asked him, “I am curious. You were an outstanding hedge fund manager, yet in your business plan I cannot figure out how I, as the investor, win big?” He answered, “Isn’t it clear from my presentation?”

Herein lays the problem for him, for anyone trying to get a major commitment, and potentially for you: He succumbed to the major failing of proposals – if I can’t explain to myself how I win, I don’t commit.

Despite his best intentions, he made me, the potential investor define his value/the return to me. He brilliantly described his business, how it would work, how the product would work but never answered these questions:

1. Why this would be a great investment for me?
2. Why I should invest now rather than later?
3. Why I should invest more rather than less?
4. The possible risks and how these would be avoided/minimized?

Instead my friend devoted 42 PPT slides to an exhausting explanation of his product/service, gave me financials that only went up (from left to right) and when I was finished I still couldn’t answer these basic questions:

5. What is his market?
6. What is his business?
7. What is the product?
8. Why is there a proven need for this product over the available products?
9. How does he make money (i.e. what is the revenue engine)?
10. Why will he be superior to his competitors?
11. Why does he need my money?

If I am the investor and I can’t put into my own words the answers to these simple questions, then I do not have the logical framework for making an intelligent investor decision. As a potential investor I like the entrepeneur but I have to sell his deal to my investors and I can't explain it. So what do I do? I say, “There is great potential for you and I suspect you will be very, very successful. Let me get back to you in about a month.”

My purpose is not to beat-up on a hard working entrepreneur but to suggest that you can craft a wonderful presentation if you:

1. Pretend you are the audience; that is, frame questions you would insist on having answered, and see if your presentation answers them.
2. Present your entire presentation in not more than 15 PPT slides (I held workshops for hundreds of entrepreneurs on how to raise money from VCs and the VCs told me over and over, keep it to 15).
3. Rehearse your presentation aloud in front of a mirror at least 20 times.

How well could I have done? To give you some confidence in my suggestions, next week I will explain how I raised $190,000 in forty-five minutes from Angel investors for a biotech invention that I was not allowed to name or describe (the inventor had not yet patented it).

If you are interested, check in next week.

Should you feel these tips will help a friend or scare a foe, please pass on.

© 2007. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.

Working Smarter - Mental Tune-ups for Work

Neil Voorsanger

To fine-tune your excellence for work and for life, I encourage you to begin and end each workday with these mental warm-ups (about 15-20 minutes). The exercises are listed below; the instructions and explanations are in the section that follows.

If you faithfully perform these warm-ups you will avoid emotional meltdowns, become job tough, surpass your best, and may even overcome the competitors and lowlifes who torment you.

MENTAL WARM-UPS, THE EXERCISES

MORNING (10 minutes)
1. Fine-tune: Your emotions
Say “My fear is . . . (answer)”
Say “My shame is . . . (answer)”
Say “My success is . . . (answer)”
Say “My power is . . . (answer)”
Say “My courage is . . . (answer)”

2. Fine-tune: Chances for success
“By the end of the day I will have succeeded at . . . (complete list).”

EVENING (10 minutes)
3. Fine-tune: Your brain
Yoga breathing as you watch TV.

4. Fine-tune: Your dreams
As you set your head on the pillow, end your day with:
“I am grateful for . . . (answer)”
“My happiness is . . . (answer)”
“I, (your name), create my future.”

INSTRUCTIONS:

Exercise #1 – Fine-tuning your emotions
This exercise will help you balance your emotions and gain a sense of feeling whole. You will start each workday with a clear head, a true perspective of how you can achieve. I adapted this exercise from my New York acting teacher, Jerry Brody, a graduate of the Actor’s Studio. Each step of the exercise releases a blocked emotion, clearing the emotional sludge of the day/week. For me, these exercises were better than any $200 therapy session.

Instructions: (1) Start with Question 1 and ask yourself, “My fear is . . . ?” and wait for the answer; (2) speak the answer aloud (typically a short phrase); (3) repeat the question, getting a new answer; (4) continue repeating the question until you hear no more internal answers; (5) then go on to the Question 2 and repeat the steps; then for the remaining questions.

Example: Question 1, “My fear is . . ,” a sample of your answers might be:
“My fear is . . failure.”
“My fear is . . going broke.”
“My fear is . . I will choke.”
“My fear is . . I don’t have talent.”
“My fear is . . people will laugh at me.”
“My fear is . . I’m not loved.”
“My fear is . . (nothing comes up) . . . go on to the next question.

Caution:
(1) A brief answer suffices because your goal is to surface as many answers as possible.
(2) Only start this exercise if you can complete all five questions. For every problem you have, (question 1), over time your solution will be found in the answers to 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Exercise #2 – Fine-tuning chances for success
When we think of success most us think activity not accomplishment. For example, a salesperson will say, I will succeed today by calling 100 prospects (activity). By the end of the day 100 prospects will be called, to what outcome? This should be stated: I will gain acceptance for ten appointments (accomplishment). Always state a task as the outcome you want, not the activity.
Start each day listing all your accomplishments for the day. Whether or not you complete them is not as important as your mind-set, accomplishment. Please remember that every grand scheme is the sum of a 1,000 daily successes, not one grand success.

Exercise #3 – Fine-tuning my brain
This 1,500 year-old yoga exercise alternates breathing through one nostril and then the other nostril (by pressing one side of your nose, then the other). By performing this exercise you balance the hemispheres of your brain to gain the full advantages of both hemispheres.
If you have time to reach the count of 100 (right nostril<> left nostril), you will find: (a) you are profoundly relaxed, (b) your thinking is now both tactical and strategic, (c) your speaking/writing has improved 50%, and (d) as an unintended byproduct, you look better.

Exercise #4: Fine-tuning my dreams
These exercises are intended to give you one last chance to fine-tune your mental state before you fall asleep.
Say, “I am grateful for . . . (answer)” and list the things for which you are grateful. Your answers will prove why you are special, give you a chance to thank the persons and forces that shaped your life, and help you to remain humble.
Say, “My happiness is (answer)”, a glorious exercise to say all the things that make you happy. Your answers will focus your subconscious on the goals of your life, the personal happiness you want.
As you drift off to sleep say ten times, “I, (your name), create my own future.” This exercise forces you to cut loose all the dependencies that you imagine you cannot do without, to become a self-sufficient adult. Very scary stuff but if you stick with it, your payoff will be that you will create your future.

© 2007. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.

Conquering Writer's Block

Neil Voorsanger

You have a crucial report to write. You place your fingers over your keyboard and five hours later you are still staring at the screen. Doubt sets in. You panic. How do you break out of this deadlock and meet your deadline?

Step 1: Regain power

In the olden days automobiles had governors, devices that automatically shut down your gas pedal when you exceeded a preset speed limit. In the same way your MIND is trying frantically to stop you before you experience a humiliating failure! At a deep level your mind knows what is best for you and your mind knows that what you are about to write is junk. Your mind is trying to save you. Your mind is frantically saying, No. Believing you have a winning piece, you say, Yes. Your mind retorts, NO! YOU and your MIND are in a nasty tug-of-war called approach (go)-avoidance (retreat), resulting in immobility or Writer’s Block.

Your first step in smashing Writer's Block is regaining power by saying, "Thank you (mind) for trying to protect me. I can now write a wonderful piece so I ask for your help!” Your second step in regaining power is explained below.

Step 2: Take full control

Now that you are beginning to regain control, roll up your sleeves and dig deep into the murky ooze of your fears. You are not writing because you cannot define your fears. Which fear is it?

• FEAR ONE: You do not know what to write (content)?
• FEAR TWO: You do not know how to write (logic/structure)?
• FEAR THREE: You do not want to write (risks/rewards)?

If it is Fear Three, close your eyes, and imagine the most wonderful reward you could receive for your writing. Next, imagine the worst possible punishment you could receive for your writing? See them? Now ignore both because they are fantasies. You don’t know what will happen until it happens! You are doing a head-job on yourself! Your cause of procrastination is Fears One or Two. When you put into your own words the cause of your fear, you will release your mind to start writing. What-to-Write and How-to-Write is suggested next.

Step 3: Solve Content and Logic by anticipating and answering key questions your reader will have

Every presentation, report, or written piece is intended to answer key questions the reader may have. If you follow the sequence below and anticipate/answer each question in your text, you will come very close to including all the right content and the right sequence of logic. If I were reading your text, these are the silent questions I would want you to answer:

• Question 1: Why I should read this article (needs, benefits, payoffs to me)?
• Question 2: What is the central issue (essence, why unique, why same, examples)?
• Question 3: Why is this issue important to me?
• Question 4: What are the available options (do nothing, X, Y or Z)?
• Question 5: Which is the best available option?
• Question 6: Why?
• Question 7: What action do you want me to take?
• Question 8: What are the risks in accepting?
• Question 9: How do I assure myself the best chance of succeeding?
• Question 10: What is the most important point(s) for me to remember?

Do not include these questions but be sure to answer them as you write your text. If you answer these ten questions, your reader will silently thank you for answering most of the questions he/she might have.

Step 4: Your first draft will be awful, allow for the building of quality

Over the years I have managed writing teams creating hundreds of manuscripts and presentations. I have found that without exception, the first draft, even though the writer rates it as near perfection, is rarely better than 60%; the second version takes the draft to about 75%; the third version takes the draft to 85%-90%. After that, more revision is make-work.

Thus, accept that writing is sweat-drenching task, that no matter what you write, you will need to write three versions, a first draft and two revisions.

Step 5: Give yourself enough time

If you have six hours to write a document, how do you apportion your time?

• Design: 1 hour (about 15%)
• Draft 1: 2 1/2 hours (about 40%)
• Draft 2: 2 hours (about 35%)
• Draft 3: 1/2 hour (about 10%)

Step 6: How do I edit my own document?

You can be your own best editor if you put the draft aside for a day or so, and then re-look at it. The passing of a day or so always brings clarity and freshness to your thinking. As you scan the document, you will immediately see ways to sharpen the document, correct typos, clarify, and make points better. Most important edit? I have never read a book, seen a movie, or a report that could not have been improved by shortening it by 20%.

The most important point? The more you write, the easier it becomes. Good luck!

© 2007 Neil Voorsanger.