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People who are "unconsciously incompetent" don't know they're incompetent--they know so little about the subject that they can't fully appreciate how little they actually know. That's why every barber and taxi driver you meet is an expert on the economy and international politics.

HERE ARE SOME USEFUL RATIOS TO TRACK: --Return on Promotion: For every $1 you spend in advertising, how much revenue do you collect? --Profit per Employee: For every person you employ, how much profit does your business generate? --Closing Ratio: For every prospect you serve, how many purchase? --Returns/Complaints Ratio: For every sale you make, how many choose to return or complain?

Remove chronic annoyances. There are many things in life that can wear on your nerves. Examining ways to reduce or eliminate chronic stresses or annoyances can generate significant improvements in life satisfaction.

Every time you switch the focus of your Attention from one subject to another, you incur the Cognitive Switching Penalty. In order to take action, your brain has to "load" the context of what you're doing into working memory. If you constantly switch the focus of your Attention, you're forcing your brain to spend time and effort thrashing, loading and reloading contexts over and over again.

You've lived different lives, and you've each paid a different price for what you've accomplished. Any comparison you make instantly renders itself invalid, so you can relax.

In the classic sales book SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham describes the four phases of successful selling: (1) understanding the situation, (2) defining the problem, (3) clarifying the short-term and longterm implications of that problem, and (4) quantifying the need-payoff, or the financial and emotional benefits the customer would experience after the resolution of their problem.

Large companies are slow because they suffer from Communication Overhead. If you're responsible for working with a group of more than five to eight people, at least 80 percent of your job will inevitably be communicating effectively with the people you work with. Objectives, plans, and ideas are worthless unless everyone involved understands them well enough to take action.

Whenever you're tempted to compare yourself to an acquaintance, colleague, classmate, or celebrity, it always helps to keep in mind that your goals, preferences, and priorities are completely different.

Iteration may take some additional effort up front, but after you've gone through a few cycles, you'll have a deeper understanding of the market, direct knowledge of what people actually want enough to pay for, and a clear understanding of whether or not you have a viable offer to give them.

Guiding Structure Your environment will eat your goals and plans for breakfast.

Key Performance Indicator It is better to have an approximate answer to the right question than an exact answer to the wrong question.

Funding is the business equivalent of rocket fuel. If your business needs additional capacity and is already pointed in the right direction, judicious use of financing can help you accelerate the operation's growth. If the business has structural issues, it will explode, and not in a good way.

To avoid unproductive context switching, a batching strategy is best. Eliminating distractions can help prevent unnecessary interruptions, but it's entirely possible to waste energy mentally thrashing even if you have the entire day free. The best approach to avoid unnecessary cognitive switching is to group similar tasks together.

There are three common ways to Segment customer data: Past Performance, Demographics, and Psychographics.

Don't just present data--tell a story that helps people understand what's happening, and you'll find your analysis efforts more useful.

A Goal is a statement that clarifies precisely what you want to achieve, which makes it easy for your brain to use Mental Simulation to Visualize what achieving that Goal looks like.