Get To The WHY Of The Matter (Part 2)
Shortly after posting "Get To The WHY Of The Matter" a couple of weeks ago a friend sent me a direct response to the article posing some interesting questions and observations that didn't occur to me would come up as a result of reading it.
The gist of his feedback was that asking the WHY questions could be a daunting, highly analytical, almost endless process because it would have to be applied to nearly EVERY scenario we might ever face in life before beginning anything. He went on to describe a process involving the diagramming of all potential obstacles and possible solutions (along with their respective good or bad outcomes) as a way to determine whether something is worth pursuing. What follows is my word-for-word response to him....
Your take on the process is an interesting one, however I'm not sure Getting To The WHY Of The Matter requires such deep analysis. In fact, that level of analysis could very well lead to paralysis...a frozen state where NO action is taken because there are too many variables to consider.
First of all, I'd only recommend this process for "significant" life initiatives or goals. There are a lot of things we do that don't really require a great deal of introspection, and to put those lesser actions through the diagnostic wringer would surely take a lot of the joy out of living.
My experience has been that this process is actually better served by taking a LESS analytical approach. A series of WHY questions fired off in rapid succession doesn't give the brain time to get overly involved. This is something that ideally triggers an intuitive response; one that's based more in emotion than logic and reason.
Remember, virtually all human behavior is primarily driven by a powerful need to avoid pain or fear. The desire to experience pleasure is in there too, but it nearly always takes a back seat to pain and fear. So what it comes down to is that every significant initiative we undertake is driven by a reason based on some combination of those three emotional states.
Interesting to note is that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is also largely based on the fundamental pain/fear/pleasure motivators. Those needs, when recognized and addressed, will be fulfilled by actions whose WHY reasons can be distilled down into something having to do with escaping pain or fear and/or pursuing pleasure. Once we recognize that we can decide if the action itself is warranted, or if there's a better, more efficient way to arrive at the same destination.
I concluded the above response with the same two word question that I now ask you: Make sense?
Get To The WHY Of The Matter
This post was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a friend that I hadn't seen or spoken to in a few months. She was telling me about her latest personal and professional triumphs and the goals she's now diligently pursuing with a passion.
I was impressed because she's someone who has a "take no prisoners" approach to her career, and figured given her ability to completely immerse herself in work she'd probably nail them with ease. However, as I asked her some probing questions about those goals it became evident to both of us that she wasn't entirely clear on what accomplishing them would actually mean to her!
Like a lot of people, she's chasing after something for a reason that on the surface seems perfectly sensible; it solves a problem or otherwise benefits her in some measurable way. But under close examination it sometimes turns out to be a reason completely unrelated to or even at odds with the REAL reason. Allow me to explain...
Let's start with the simple premise that virtually everything we do is guided by an ulterior motive; a gut-level mandate that we frequently have no immediate conscious awareness of. We make decisions on courses of action, set all kinds of goals, and choose one thing over another sometimes without having the foggiest idea of WHY we're doing it or what we really hope to gain as a result.
Whether due to intellectual laziness or a lack of emotional intelligence, the absence of reasoned specificity in our decision-making process frequently leads us down the wrong path for all the "right" reasons.
We make decisions because we believe they're in our best interests or because they fill a perceived void in our lives. But without bothering to first ask a series of "drill-down" questions - whose purpose is to get to the foundational need driving the whole process - this is very much a crap shoot...a roll of the dice.
You see this all the time! People start down a path because they have some vaguely defined outcome, desire or need in mind. What they've never bothered to ask is "Why am I doing this, or what does this outcome do for me if I achieve it?"...and then asking the same questions again and again and again in response to whatever answer(s) they come up with each go around.
At some point in this Q&A process you reach the end of the line; an answer that reveals the REAL reason - the WHY - behind the (potentially misguided) course of action. And very often it's either in direct conflict with the outcome we're so doggedly trying to realize, or an outcome that could be reached with a fraction of the effort and angst the original course of action would have required!
That's why a lot of people in life end up frustrated and unfulfilled even when they're accomplishing what they set out to do. They're pursuing something because on some superficial level they think it's going to fill the hole, satisfy the need or scratch the itch. However, because they never took the time to dig down and ask the tough questions they end up following a map whose directions lead them to the wrong destination.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever invested ridiculous amounts of time, effort and/or money attempting to accomplish or acquire something only to feel empty or unfulfilled when you achieve or get it? If so, it could be that the reason fueling your actions was several times removed from the REAL reason...the "bottom line" WHY of the matter.
Before you map out or tackle your next big capital-intensive, time-consuming, life and/or business-altering initiative, be sure to dive into interrogation mode and ask a series of WHY questions to confirm that the outcome you're shooting for is in sync with and is supported by the reason that's stoking the fire in your furnace. If it's not, go back to the drawing board and conjure up a new strategy. If it is, then damn-the-torpedoes, full steam ahead! Either way you'll end up following a course of action that virtually assures you of a satisfying outcome that justifies the time and effort spent.
To Serve Or Not To Serve
How many times a day are you presented with occasions to be of service to your fellow man? Do you actively look for them or do you avoid them? What's your position on the subject? Do you see "service" as being an obligation or an opportunity; something to be grudgingly tolerated or readily embraced?
These are challenging questions to consider because of the differing perspectives we all have on the topic.
Some see service as a pain-in-the-ass inconvenience...an infringement on their time and a drain on their energy. These "me oriented" folks aren't likely to jump on the service bandwagon unless they stand to realize some tangible, direct, personal benefit as a result of doing so. They're not predisposed to extend themselves even for something as insignificant as holding the door or offering to carry a bag of groceries to a fellow shopper's car. They simply can't be bothered!
The flip side, of course, are those people who not only don't avoid service opportunities, but actively seek them out. They see service as a vehicle for personal growth and recognize that we elevate ourselves every time we contribute to another person's life; even if it's only in some borderline barely-noticeable way.
Now just to be clear, I'm not suggesting you have to adopt a Mother Teresa-like approach to service. But the more you're able to supress your own ego and see service as a genuine privilege, the more YOU (ironically) will get out of it. Consider this another example of the "you have to give in order to receive" way of going about life.
Tony Robbins identifies contribution as being one of the six essential human needs, and one of the easiest ways to fulfill that need is be of service to the people we routinely encounter in our day-to-day lives. This doesn't require grandiose gestures or huge expenditures of time, energy and/or money! Quite the contrary. Very often the smallest gestures register the biggest impact. Something as seemingly insignificant as taking a few extra minutes to attentively and sympathetically listen to someone's problems can be a powerful act of service.
Where this attitude really pays dividends is in the business world. Companies that embrace a "raving fan" customer service model typically dominate their market or niche. They recognize that their success and longevity are almost entirely dependent on customers who aren't merely "satisfied," but are off-the-charts ecstatic! And that's a state that doesn't come about by accident. It requires a thoughtful and aware assessment of the company's relationship with its customers, and a willingness to exceed their expectations through strategic and meaningful service initiatives.
Notice the words "willingness to exceed expectations" in the previous sentence. They are the essence of a focused service mentality. Because people (in general) are so unaccustomed to being on the receiving end of unexpected acts of service and contribution, any efforts you make to be there for them and address their needs will be welcome and highly appreciated. On top of that, this approach usually leads to boatloads of money.
Speaker/author, Stuart Wilde, in his book "The Trick To Money Is Having Some," has this to say about service:
"The point here is that in order to serve people, you have to psychologically get underneath them. This does not mean that you are less than those you serve; it just means that while you are serving them, you have to subjugate your ego and your personality to their needs. That is difficult for most people because they need to feel that they are above the customer, or at the very least, equal to the customer.
But who is above or below, who is more clever or more rich, is irrelevant to the transaction. By getting underneath, keeping silent and concentrating on the customer's needs, you give of yourself. The customer feels that transfer of energy and responds. Learning to serve is one of the great money-making tricks in life. You subjugate your anxiety, your anguish, and your needs in favor of the customer's...long enough to do the deal. In serving there is the pleasure of doing things well. You learn humility and make loads of money."
So how many atypical, not-easily-forgotten ways do you serve your customers and clients? What kind of customer response usually accompanies them? And how do these things end up bolstering your bottom line?
Go The Extra Inch
According to various dictionaries, the word mediocre can be defined in any of the following ways: “of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate; rather poor or inferior; lacking exceptional quality or ability.” Mediocrity, of course, is simply defined as “the state or quality of being mediocre.”
With such a crappy connotation you’d think mediocrity would be avoided like the plague. Amazingly though, mediocrity's not only rampant throughout our culture, in many industries and fields of commerce it's become generally accepted as the norm. People have been on the receiving end of dumbed down, sub-standard products and services for so long now that many of them don’t know it can be any better. And to make matters worse, as long as consumers continue to willingly accept mediocrity in the marketplace, the providers of these products and services have little-to-no incentive to raise the bar. But as the saying goes, every dark cloud has a silver lining. And the dark cloud of mediocrity's no exception.
In a pervasive climate of “barely adequate,” opportunities to gain competitive advantage are all over the place. Regardless of the circumstances (personal or professional), aware contestants in the game of life will be regularly presented with openings to single themselves out…to move ahead of the competition and grab additional market share. And the good news is, accomplishing this isn’t always a colossal chore. In fact, very often the smallest adjustment in strategy or the smallest application of additional effort can produce a massively different outcome…a process I've labeled “going the extra inch.”
We’ve all heard the old saying, “go the extra mile”…a rallying cry that’s usually hauled out when someone needs additional motivation to accomplish a specific task. It’s a wonderful sentiment that over the years has undoubtedly moved many people to new levels of accomplishment. However, in the mind’s eye a mile's a substantial distance to cover…especially when compared to an inch!
Psychologically, a mile can seem to be a goal without end. Even though we’re typically speaking in metaphors when we use the words mile and inch in this context, one still represents a large task to accomplish while the other represents a small task. But the fact of the matter is that any large task will be accomplished more effectively if it’s tackled in smaller bite-sized chunks.
Most people can more easily embrace and act on one or more small manageable tasks than they can one large (and possibly overwhelming) project. And therein lays the beauty of the “go the extra inch” philosophy. The implementation of select incremental improvements in specific personal and professional areas of life will gradually raise a person or business above the sea of mediocrity. In truth, it doesn’t take a whole lot of additional effort to stand out from the masses.
Regardless of the product or service you provide, there's presumably a start-to-finish process associated with getting it in the hands of your customers, and that process can usually be broken down into multiple sequential steps. The tiniest improvement in any one of those steps could be a game changer. A similar small improvement in ALL of them would in all probability rocket you far ahead of your mediocrity-embracing competitors.
The same approach can be applied to any marketing, incubation and follow-up sequences you typically employ both before and after the sale is made. Break them down into their component parts and "tweak" them incrementally rather than wholesale. You'll be in a much better position to accurately measure improvements and you won't be buried alive by the process of a full-blown throw out the bathwater reengineering effort.
Why settle for the hum drum and unexceptional when category-conquering performance can often be realized by the selective application of fractional improvements in the way you do business? Go the extra inch where and whenever possible and you'll ultimately shine like a supernova while your rivals sputter and flicker like a wet match struggling to stay lit.
When Customer Service Hits The Mark
Had an experience a few minutes ago that I think bears mentioning. I was on the phone with a customer service representative from Bank of America. The conversation lasted nearly 15 minutes, and during the entire time I couldn't help but marvel at what a great job the agent was doing!
It was one of those out-of-body, third person experiences where a part of your brain separates itself from the conversation at hand and takes on the role of "observer." What it observed was a friendly, helpful and articulate representative who right from the start went out of his way to make MY interaction a pleasant and informative one. What makes that remarkable is that it happens all too infrequently these days...especially, it seems, when dealing with large corporate entities.
I was so impressed with his performance that at the end of our conversation I asked to speak to his supervisor so that I could immediately give him the "props" he so clearly deserved. After being transferred to my guy's manager, I went on to give the supervisor an earful about what a great job one of his team members was doing.
The manager was taken aback! Certainly not in a bad way, but surprised nonetheless that a customer would go out of his way to compliment the performance of a customer service representative. He said that just about the only time a customer asks to speak to a manager is to register a complaint; that people seldom-if-ever take the time to praise good performance. He thanked me profusely and assured me his man would publicly benefit from my show of appreciation.
After hanging up I got to thinking about how much customer service across the board could be improved if only people would take a few extra minutes (like I did) to give credit where it's due on those occasions when they encounter superior service. And this doesn't just apply to phone support.
Take it into the real world and effusively compliment your over-the-top sales/service rep wherever you may encounter him or her...be it a restaurant server, a parking valet, a sales clerk in your favorite clothing store, the bank teller, etc. And be sure to deliver the same kudos to their superiors. This is an example of positive reinforcement in action.
The more we acknowledge and encourage great service and behavior the more of it we'll see. It may not happen overnight, but it has to start somewhere, and we can each play a role in that process. How about you? Have you recently had a superior customer service experience that compelled you to go to a higher authority to report it? And if so, what kind of reaction did you get?
How Sticky Is Your "Stuff?"
After reading the title of this post there are probably a few of you who're going to need a minute to pluck your minds out of the gutter. That's okay, take your time. The rest of us will just hang out here until you regain your composure.
Okay, now that I have everybody's undivided and uncompromised attention let's talk about sticky and stuff. In that order.
As the image accompanying this article clearly illustrates, stickiness is what happens when something (in this case a nasty piece of well-chewed gum) latches on to you and won't easily let go. Whether we're talking gum, barbecue sauce, duct tape, plant burrs, annoying song melodies, super glue or mutant velcro, the net effect's the same: once you've crossed paths with a tenacious tagalong, separating yourself from it isn't always an easy task.
With the possible exception of the leftover barbecue sauce, nothing else from that short list is something you'd usually willingly and/or cooperatively welcome into your life in the first place. Doesn't matter. Anything that's sticky by nature doesn't need your permission to do its thing. And guess what? That's actually good news! Read on to understand why.
As a fiercely competitive “New Economy” business professional, you should always be looking for cool and innovative ways to reach and expand your market. Regardless of whether you're selling a product or service, your ultimate goal is to own the hearts and minds of your prospects, customers and clients. And that's most effectively accomplished through the implementation of potent, emotionally-charged sales and marketing campaigns, along with the delivery of a kick-ass product or service that rocks your customers' world! Oh, by the way, what I just described in that previous sentence is your "stuff."
Is this beginning to make sense? Your marketing stuff, your sales stuff and your product/service stuff needs to be so sticky (in a good way) that people can't get it out of their heads or stop talking about it.
Stickiness needs to be engineered into every component of your business at the cellular level. You want to create the business equivalent of the catchy commercial jingle or #1 radio hit that drills deep into the brains of your audience and relentlessly reminds them of who you are, the astonishing and unique value that you provide, and why they need to get their hands on it ASAP!
There are lots of ways to do this, and, fortunately, they're not always costly, complicated or convoluted. However, they do need to be consistent and compelling. That's a lot of alliteration to wade through, but when it comes to creating stickiness, those last two "Cs" are the most important ones.
Your stuff needs to be – at the very least – interesting to your audience. Even better, though, is if it actively engages them...gets them involved in a conscious and deliberate fashion. The more invested (and I don't necessarily mean from a dollars and cents perspective) people are in something, the more memorable and sticky it becomes.
Your marketing should invite participation and feedback. Your sales process needs to be dynamic and customer focused (i.e. what's in it for them). Both your follow up and ongoing customer service need to be value-driven and openly encourage input and suggestions for improved performance. And all of these things need to be practiced consistently. Because if they're sufficiently engaging and compelling, and they occur with a precisely-choreographed regularity, they can't help but become sticky in a way that serves the interests of both you and your audience.
How about you? Is your "stuff" sticky? Does it meaningfully engage your prospects and customers in a way that puts you "top of mind?" Your ideas and comments are welcome and appreciated.
3 Important Business (and Life) Lessons From The Matrix
At the risk of sounding like some kind of geeky shut-in incapable of dragging himself away from a video screen, I have to confess to having lost count of the number of times I've watched The Matrix over the years. From the very first time I saw it on the BIG screen (where I think I may have left the theater drooling and slack-jawed) to the dozens of other times I got sucked into it from the comfort of mine or someone else's couch, it's never failed to fire up my brain cells and adrenal glands. The Matrix may very well have been the first film in history to combine cutting edge computer visuals and highly choreographed martial arts action/fight sequences with an incredibly deep and thought-provoking spiritual and psychological sub-text. Too bad the sequels did such a poor job of continuing the saga.
Though the eye-popping visuals were cool beyond belief, what I want to address here are the ideas and suppositions woven throughout the film. 3 points in particular, I believe, are incredibly important and relevant far beyond the virtual world of The Matrix. I mean let's face it; the society portrayed in The Matrix is a near mirror image of the one we find ourselves in today, and just because that society exists in a "movie" doesn't mean the film's message is any less appropriate to our day-to-day lives. Quite the contrary.
By cleverly hiding the following "lessons" within the plot of this over-the-top, sci-fi, action extravaganza, the film's producers (the Wachowski brothers) were practicing subliminal messaging on a superliminal scale! It required a couple of viewings before these ideas really began to take hold and root themselves in my conscious mind, but once that occurred, I started looking at MY world (the real world) with a different set of eyes. See if you don't agree.
Lesson #1: There Are No Rules
As Morpheus was quick to point out to a confused and skeptical Neo in his first days of training, The Matrix was a construct created to resemble a real world, but one whose rules could be manipulated, bent, and sometimes broken, by anyone with the proper knowledge, awareness and belief.
During their astonishing Kung Fu fight sequence in the virtual training dojo, Morpheus keeps egging Neo on...goading him into discarding his limiting beliefs and misconceptions about what is and isn't possible and, more importantly, "real." At one point – after having been kicked across the room by Morpheus – Neo picks himself up off of the floor, gasping for breath, to be confronted by Morpheus asking, "Do you think that's air you're breathing now?". The look that passes over Neo's face in that instant signals his awareness that HE is in control of what happens in that space...that he can create his own rules and reality.
Even though that was a movie moment, I believe we have the same capabilities and options in our own daily comings and goings. Whether the context is professional or personal, most of us cling to a laundry list of beliefs about what is and isn't appropriate, possible or allowable in terms of how we conduct ourselves. More often than not, we adhere without question to certain behavioral "rules" simply because we've been told that's what we're supposed to do, or "that's how it's always been done." And most of us have been so indoctrinated with this dogma that to even consider doing otherwise invites a major brain spasm of confusion and contradiction; so much so that we usually give up such rebellious thinking in short order. Too bad because the real action and juice occurs when make our own rules!
Now I'm not talking about breaking the law or adopting unsavory or unethical practices, but a lot of the rules we choose to live by, that are imposed upon us by mysterious, unnamed people or institutions, exist only to benefit the few and not the many. And under close examination it becomes all-too-clear that bending or manipulating those rules can lead to wicked amounts of fun and profit.
The next time your confronted with a situation on or off the job that "requires" you to act a certain way, stop for moment and ask yourself this question: "Says who?" Follow that question with another one similar to this: "Without breaking the law, getting myself fired or irrevocably damaging a relationship, how else might I tackle this situation in a way that produces better results, more fun and/or greater profit?" The answers you come up with will probably be original, unconventional, and very likely outside the established rules for how this particular situation would normally be handled. Good for you!
The first few times you do this successfully may have you shaking your head in astonishment and uttering "Whoa!" like Neo did when he saw Morpheus leap across the chasm separating the tops of two skyscrapers. However, with each successive bending of the rules you'll be redefining your reality and establishing a new performance model for your own professional and personal conduct.
Lesson #2: Everything Is An Extension Of You
When Neo is taken to The Oracle for the first time – to determine whether or not he's "The One" – he has a brief but incredibly important encounter with one of the other candidates; a young bald-headed boy who appears to bend a spoon by simply concentrating on it. During this interaction the boy tells Neo, "Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: There is no spoon. Then you'll see it's not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."
The first time I heard this and it really sunk in, I experienced the king of all AH HAH moments! It wasn't just a lightbulb that went off in my head, instead, it was more like a full-color pyrotechnics display. The idea that the spoon was merely an extension of Neo, another part of him, was a mind bending moment that to this day, when I consciously consider it, influences everything I say and do.
Most of us go through life being driven by our egos to believe that we're separate from everyone and everything around us. That sense of "disconnection" is what frequently prompts people in the business world to treat their clients, customers and professional partners with callous disregard, and sometimes, with outright criminal intent.
The recent Wall Street meltdown is a classic case in point. With greed and self-interest being the order of the day, a relatively small number of financial institutions and their leaders screwed over a gigantic segment of the American population simply because it was expedient to do so. That countless people collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars so that a bunch of investment bankers could still afford their $10,000 shower curtains and gold-plated big screen TVs, is a perfect example of disconnection and ego run amok.
To a lesser and more subtle degree you can find examples of this behavior in many vendor/client relationships day in and day out. The customer is treated like they're some kind of "inconvenience" rather than a supremely-valued asset whose patronage is the organization's life blood. They are tolerated rather than being embraced and served at the highest level. In virtually all cases where this happens, it boils down to an individual or business NOT experiencing their clients as being intimately and profoundly connected to them. The moment you begin thinking of ALL of your relationships in that way – that everyone you come in contact with is just an extension of YOU – is the moment you'll begin treating people with love, compassion, decency and a service mentality. Because, hopefully, that's how you want to be treated and that's always how you treat yourself.
When you truly perceive people and things as being tied to you at some quantum level, your frame of reference shifts from an internal focus to an external focus. You start looking for opportunities to surprise people with unexpected gestures of value and over-the-top service. You do NOTHING that's not in the absolute best interests of your customers and won't stand to improve their personal or professional lives in some meaningful way. And you do all of this for the simple reason that it's the right thing to do. It signifies that you understand you're part of a whole, and that anything you do in service of others is also in service of yourself. So pull out the stops, start serving the heck out of people, and watch the magic happen.
Lesson #3: Look Beneath The Surface
The Matrix was a computer-generated virtual world meant to resemble the real world in exhaustive, pain-staking detail. It was only when someone was plucked from The Matrix that they discovered how different that virtual world was from the dismal, bombed-out ACTUAL world of the future they now found themselves in. Although The Matrix was an illusion, a dream to be awakened from, it was damn near pleasant compared to the bleak reality Morpheus, Neo and Trinity operated from. But for all of its virtual gloss and sheen, the world of The Matrix was really nothing more than a thin artificial veneer being propped up by endless flowing green lines of computer code; code that had to be deciphered and navigated by the Nebuchadnezzar's operators, Tank and Dozer, and, ultimately, Neo, once he became The One.
Those multiple layers of "existence," both real and artificial, had to be understood at the deepest level in order for the characters of The Matrix to survive and win the day. Don't think for a minute that this cinematic theme isn't equally applicable to the world you and I live in. It is! In many of our personal interactions what's presented to us superficially isn't always “in sync" with the real thoughts, beliefs and emotions percolating just beneath the surface. Or to put it another way, things ain't always what they seem.
For any number of reasons – some nefarious, some innocent – the people you come in contact with on and off the job may be wearing a social mask; one meant to distract, deceive, disorient or confound you. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to cut through the crap and get to meat and meaning beneath the surface.
Now, I'm not suggesting everyone is out to pull the wool over your eyes, but it's prudent (especially in a business context) to approach any new relationship with a curiousity mindset. Don't automatically accept things at face value. Instead, ask questions. Look for conviction, congruency, and, if possible, collaboration in whatever story your told. If the relationship your entertaining has ANY amount of significance attached to it, make sure you do some hard due-diligence before "jumping into bed." If serious and above-board, the party or parties you're dealing with shouldn't be put off by this kind of thorough, cautionary approach. In fact, at a time when displays of low integrity and questionable ethics dominate the headlines, they might actually welcome it because it demonstrates your own commitment and high ideals.
You may never reach Neo's level of deep discernment and superhuman awareness, but the regular practice of assessing people and situations at a level below what's right in front of your face will sharpen your own sensory skills, and reward you time and again with more reliable, enjoyable and profitable relationships in and out of the workplace.
The Commoditization Conspiracy
It’s almost criminal how many entrepreneurs and business owners are playing an unwitting role in the gradual marginalization, and possible extinction, of the ventures they’ve tirelessly slaved and sweated to get off the ground. They’re frequently so consumed by the simple “mechanics” of running a business that they don’t have the foggiest idea of how to go about differentiating themselves – in a meaningful way – from their competitors. They seldom come up for air long enough to strategically size up their value proposition(s), their marketplace, their positioning, and the strengths and weaknesses of their business rivals.
The above video lays bare this self-defeating conspiratorial disposition and suggests a number of ways to escape it at warp speed! If you’re a business professional looking to “up your game,” then make yourself comfortable. This could be the most mind stretching 10 minutes you’ve spent in front of your computer in a very long time!