MANAGING BY NOTEBOOKS
FOR $3 MILLION PER YEAR
(This is not just about money. It is about causing anything of value, whether tangible or intangible - and ultimately must lead to deep, enduring happiness and satisfaction with life.)
THE STORY, THE DISCOVERY
As a newby financial planner, I ran into Ralph C., the brother in law of a childhood friend, in Hawaii. I mentioned that I was with a firm that was pioneering financial planning (late '70's) and he said "let's talk."
I went into his beautiful, higher story, fairly spacious corner office and was impressed with how neat and organized it looked - and how relaxed he appeared, in his Hawaiian shirt. We talked for awhile about financial planning and what it does in terms of getting and keeping someone on track and he said "let's do it".
We ordinarily charged a percentage of income for the plan, so I asked him what his net income was and he said $3,000,000 a year. Well, I certainly didn't know what to do about that (but I got the answer from the home office: Not $30,000 but $2900).
THE POINT OF THE STORY
But the point of this story is what I found out about how he operated and was able to make so much money yet be so relaxed and enjoying life. The long and short of it is that he managed through notebooks.
(Sounds boring, but it freed up so much time that could be used for non-boring stuff and for a better life!)
Essentially, his notebook system was like having a giant dashboard to run and oversee his business enterprises - and he could drill as deep as need be and be able to access the significant data on any project, often beyond that of the project managers!
Of course, nowadays, we can use the computer for a good part of this, but I have yet to figure out what will work better than a notebook system, so I revised mine over time (to adjust for what didn't work or for ways to improve how things worked).
WHAT TO DO WITH THIS STRATEGY
Of course, since we are in the arena of "systems", to implement in the overall area of productivity you would use a program to do so, rather than random readings - you'd either design one for yourself or you'd tweek one designed by a relative expert (thereby taking less work and getting more impact), such as:
