The Pursuit of WOW! Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

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3 Sentence Summary

What are the things that make your business exceptional, unique, and sought-after? Tom Peters’ unconventional advice for beating the competition rings perhaps even truer today than it did twenty years ago. In 210 short, blog-style chapters, this book will challenge you to say no to commodities and yes to free spirits, show you why breaking the mold is less risky than following the crowd, and teach you the winning strategy of WOW!

5 Key Takeaways

1. Always be kind, say thank you, and give away credit. This is how you build lasting relationships.
2. Playing it “safe” is risky. Be different and always willing to reinvent yourself.
3. Great people matter more than anything else. Find them and give them autonomy.
4. Pay attention to design. It’s everywhere.
5. Move fast. Be less afraid of failure and inconsistencies than of becoming a stale commodity.

The Pursuit of WOW! Summary

Starters

• How to achieve excellence:
  1. Always keep your spirits up
  2. Learn something new everyday
  3. Practice that something until it becomes part of your nature

• It takes forever to maintain change; but it takes just a flash to achieve change of even the most profound sort
• When will we learn to honor error? Goofs are the only way to step forward.
• In the age of email and the internet, attentiveness – a token of human kindness – is the greatest gift we can give someone. 
• Empowerment is not the things you do to or for people, it’s the impediments you take away, leaving space for folks to empower themselves
• Success begets failure. Circumstances change, and the strengths that led to your first success often become weaknesses
• Great = having the imagination and zeal to re-create yourself daily
• Top notch quality is a must, but it’s no more than a pass to the players entrance to the stadium
• Corporations need an appetite for adventure, passion for bold leaps into the unknown
• Owning resources is a mistake. Instead, you need instant access to the best resources from wherever, whenever, to get the job done
• People matter. Find great people and give them autonomy
• Diversity creates opportunity 
• Do what turns you on, not what the statistics say is best
• The best advice anyone could offer might be to go to where the apparent hotspots aren’t
• If your product is tangible (plane, boat, car), distinguish yourself from the herd by emphasizing intangibles (service)
• If your product is intangible (service), distinguish yourself from the masses by emphasizing the tangible – that is, DESIGN

Getting Things Done

• As a career-building tool, the slow and steady (and subtle) amassing of power is the surest road to success
• Don’t forget your thank-you notes!
• People don’t forget kindness
• Writing a note demonstrates a level of effort, and is permanent
• It’s not a bad idea to maintain a positive “balance of favors” with a large number of people
• Praise in public, punish in private
• Give EVERYONE credit. Giving credit costs you nothing, and nets you big-time
• Stand behind people in times of stress
• Search out the hidden levers. The tenacious and time-consuming pursuit of mastering the minutiae that others don’t bother with can’t pay off enormously
• People give to friends, not causes
• Cocktail parties. The golf course. The decathlon club in Silicon Valley. This is where a lot of the serious action takes place
• Never waste a lunch eating alone
• Know more about your client (or coworker) than the next person, and you’ve got a leg up
• People can smell emotional commitment from a mile away. Use it to create an effective “barrier to entry” to your competition
• Return phone calls, fast. Credibility comes from being a person “you can count on”
• Manage perception. There is no reality. There is only perceived reality
• Show care, show confidence. Those who walk with their chin a little up, keep their backs straight, and wear exquisitely tailored clothes will find that people pay more attention to them.
• Join Toastmasters. Oral communication skills matter a lot.
• Don’t be a smart-ass; don’t EVER embarrass folks in public
• There are NO right answers – don’t press your case too hard
• Move slightly prematurely – and fast
• Victory tends to go to the most resilient. Almost nothing, small or large, was ever accomplished without setback after setback after setback
• Make the call now and solve the problem before it festers

Milk, Cookies, and Managing People

• If you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first
• Solid research reveals that the chances of your ever applying training lessons that are not applied on the first day back range from low to nothing
• Work on your three R’s: Reputation, Resume, and Rolodex
• In a world where success depends upon brainpower and curiosity, the self managed growth of the individual becomes paramount, and the wise corporation willingly turned itself into a tool for fostering individuals grow
• Behavior changes attitude, not the reverse.
• Pay most of your precious attention to the people with access to the people who actually move the ball down the field (secretaries and admin staff)
• Keeping customers informed may be the premier element of good service
• NOTHING is more important than keeping people informed
• We all seek stimulation while also valuing stability
• Word of mouth is the greatest advertising medium there is
• You generate word-of-mouth with excellence
• Passion is contagious
• Recruiting is strategy
• Never hire Mr. Right! Look instead for Ms. Slightly-off-the-Wall
• Look for the offbeat credential, the gap in the resume for two years she was off climbing mountains in Tibet or teaching kids to read in ruralTexas
• The number one leadership skill is the ability to develop others

Tips for Giving A Good Interview

• Don’t over schedule
• Save the Big Guy/Gal till last
• Find a comfy setting
• Try small talk (maybe)
• Prepare. Read everything you can
• “Please give me an example” are the five most important words in your arsenal. Most of the purpose of an interview is to gather stories – practical illustrations of precisely how things work (or don’t work)
• Think small. It’s the details you are after
• Get to the front line. The devil is in the details, and the details are usually at the front line
• Don’t stop burrowing until you understand. The best interviewers ask the dumbest questions
• Forget generalizations. Gather evidence
• Seek out “the way we do things around here”
• “Take me through yesterday” is a good way to start to understand how the place works
• Don’t let your notes age. Schedule time immediately afterwards to (1) write down your thoughts, and (2) make a first pass through your notes and fill in holes while your memory is fresh
• Practice (and observation) makes better

Pens, Toilets, and Businesses That Do It Differently

• Playing it “safe” is risky. Continue to be different
• Price complaints are value complaints. To win with premium prices you must clobber competitors on service
• Professional services are inherently personal. They are commodities only if you are a commodity – that is, if you don’t have anything special to offer
• Ask yourself what is clearly unusual about the services you offer
• The best always surprises
• Don’t let second-rate clients ruin your career and perhaps your life. Reject lousy business, position yourself to pursue clients who can make work fun
• The customer is a rear view mirror, not a guide to the future
• Few of us take packaging anywhere nearly as serious as we should. It’s a lost opportunity for most
• Hire offbeat. Hire different
• Need to get the message out about a quality problem or customer service snafu? Record and share a home video that shows exactly what’s happening
• Go and see for yourself
• Restrooms are a dead giveaway about how much you actually care about your “most important assets”

The Reasons Startups Thrive

• Distinction. They are different from the competition (and can clearly articulate how)
• Soul. They are memorable
• Passion
• Details. They pay attention and win with superb execution
• Culture. They recruit great people and work on developing relationships
• Community. They are involved in community affairs 
• Good books. They keep an accurate, timely, and clear picture of how the business is working
• A Pal. They have someone in their corner
• Perseverance. Many mistakes will be made. How you respond is what matters
• A Taste for Reinvention. You must be able and willing to pivot

Design is Everything

• The primary way to differentiate a product or service
• As important in a 29-cent item as in a $29 or $29,000 item
• An understanding that all senses were created equal
• Recruiting for “design sense” in every position in the firm
• How you use something more than how it looks
• Great rest rooms

Just Say No To Commodities (And Yes to Free Spirits)

• Did Moses have a secret Eleventh Commandment that said bosses have to be paid more than the people that report to them?
• Fun = Autonomy
• Give your people control and pride of ownership
• Mission > Money
• Job security is an oxymoron
• Give people a stake in the profit

Breaking The Mold

• The customer is not always right. In fact, they are frequently wrong. Assuming the customer is always right amounts to a betrayal of your people
• We don’t care that much about education and experience, because we can train people to do whatever they have to do. We hire attitudes
• A sustained advantage comes from a relentless focus on the intangibles
• Obsession for control springs from the failure to recognize or appreciate the value of spontaneity
• While hard data may inform of the intellect, it is largely soft data that generate wisdom
• Effective strategists are not people who abstract themselves from the daily details. They are the ones who immerse themselves in it, while being able to extract strategic messages from it
• Do not preconceive strategies but recognize their emergence and intervene when appropriate. Be finders rather than designers of strategy
• Keep finding and developing great people and let them do it their way
• Nurture inconsistency, that kind of personalized response you get from a mom and pop shop
• Front line employees should understand the economics of the business
• Employees don’t go through the same sort of decision-making process as the CEO not because of a lack of motivation – it’s because of lack of information
• Pursue accidents
• You should be able to describe how your business is special in 25 words or less. What makes you stand out from the “me too herd”
• “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
• The most effective performers iterate constantly; the least effective were the hyper organized planners

The Wacky World 

• Travel and immerse yourself in different cultures
• There is business opportunities everywhere – especially in Asia
• There’s nothing more local than humor
• Don’t overbook yourself when you travel. It takes a lot more emotional energy to do business and make personal connections when you’re out of your element

Tomorrow’s Strange Enterprises

• There are two kinds of project managers: those who wait to have people assigned to the projects, and those who round-up their own teams. Guess which go on to fame and fortune?
• Stability can come in many costumes
• Real stability is in my housepainter friend’s fabulous reputation
• When you’re dealing with human beings, there are no simple answers
• There is only one way to address skepticism – stay the course. Don’t waste time making a lot of speeches. Lead by example
• Make a list of your 100 top customers. Put it in your desk drawer. Every week call four them, just to check in, listen, see if there’s anything they want to talk about. Anything. When you get to the bottom of the list, start all over again from the top

Entrepreneurs’ Dreams

• Surround yourself with absolutely the best people possible
• Know yourself. Take an honest inventory of what you’re good at and what you’re not. Go out and find someone who is strong where you are weak
• Organize an advisory group. Bring together people who are wiser than you in certain areas
• Communication is essential to keep everyone on the same frequency
• Honest survey responses from your team can dramatically improve the company’s emotional well-being
• Success kills. It leads to conservatism and arrogance.
• There’ll always be a market for the unique product
• Paradoxically, the bigger the biggies get, the more room there is for the little guy to squeeze in with something revolutionary

The Qualities of Leaders of Change

1. Frighteningly smart
2. Animal energy
3. Irrational about action
4. Distilled vision
5. Cut to the chase
6. Disgust for bureaucracy
7. Performance freaks
8. Straight shooters
9. Tomorrow is another day – think fast, decide fast, don’t rehash yesterday’s work
10. Half a loaf is no loaf at all
11. Driven – they believe the impossible is possible and they’re determined to prove it
12. Perception is everything
13. Acknowledge emotion
14. A little TLC goes a long way
15. We can handle change
16. The need for perceived control – An informed colleague (customer, vendor) is a far less anxious one
17. Focus

Managing The Media

1. Tell the whole truth
2. Change your story when the story changes
3. Don’t get worked up about out of context quotes
4. Return phone calls promptly
5. The media is your customer
6. Forget corporate guidance
7. Take the long-term view
8. Know that there are jerks in the media
9. Don’t take your press releases seriously; the press doesn’t
10. Allow the media access to “real people.” Don’t muzzle your frontline workers
11. Say something fresh! The media are looking for a sound bite
12. Try radio (or podcasts) where you are given more time to tell your story

Presentation Secrets

1. Presentation secrets:
2. Practice makes better. There are no natural speakers
3. Stick to topics you deeply care about
4. Stories, stories, more stories
5. Don’t write it out in full or risk losing 75% of any emotional impact
6. Breathe!
7. Get away from the podium
8. Loosen up, you are not going to convince them anyway

Time Management

1. Focus and reject. One thing at a time
2. Use your day “right.” Understanding your metabolism is critical. Figure out when you are most productive
3. Rest and/or frolic
4. Pursue “mindless” interruptions. Plan for productive diversions
5. Be true to yourself. Don’t try to force something that doesn’t work for you

Just Do It (A Business Shape-Up Regiment)

1. Increase spending authority throughout the firm
2. Insist on a maximum of two levels of management
3. Review detailed operating results weekly
4. Look at training as the research-and-development expenditure
5. Eliminate ALL frontline supervisors
6. Make evaluation by subordinates a key component of all bosses’ performance appraisals
7. Eliminate job descriptions
8. Destroy organizational charts
9. Pledge two days per month to customer visits
10. Aim for one-third employee ownership
11. Promote people who disagree with you
12. Increase racial and gender diversity
13. Each year, have customers systematically evaluate every one of your quality and service measures
14. Have finance and accounting staff spend at least two days per week in the “field” with internal customers
15. Make a weekly award to the person who discovers the stupidest thing the company is doing
16. Base executive incentive pay on a share of revenue from new products and services introduced within the past 24 months
17. Reduce total cycle time for everything by one-third in the next two years
18. Sell off every piece of executive and boardroom furniture that costs more than $500
19. Vacate all facilities more than three stories high
20. Physically integrate all business functions
21. Achieve significant international market presence within three years
22. Make sure that at least 25% of attendees at your next off-site meeting are “outsiders” (customers, vendors)

13 Personality Traits of Success

1. Self-invented
2. Ever-changing
3. Battered and bruised
4. Inquisitive
5. Childlike, naive
6. Free from the past
7. Comfortable, even cocky in a way
8. Jolly
9. Audacious and bit nuts
10. Iconoclastic
11. Multidimensional
12. Honest
13. Larger than life

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