I was reading through Automotive News last week and they were profiling a very successful dealer group owner named Rick Hendrick. He managed to build up a dealer empire of 60 dealerships, 80 franchises, and over $4.3 billion in revenue last year. But the path to there has been filled with hardship, including: a plane accident killing his son and several relatives, a felony fraud conviction, and leukemia.

How did he manage, despite all of the challenges, to build up one of the largest dealer groups in America today? Rick swears by his 10 Keys to Success:

My friend Jay White, who runs the large and well-known DumbLittleMan blog, has graciously asked me to guest post on his blog, which is a “tips for life” type of blog.

My post was put up there today, and I figured I’d pass along the link to anyone who doesn’t mind reading my work off-site:

• Keep Your Day Super Productive
  

Sometimes, we all need that kick in the pants to get motivated to accomplish something.  Whether it’s listening to pumped up music before the big game, exercising each morning, or rewarding ourselves with little chocolates, no single method works all the time. 

Today I stumbled across a site designed (and I use that term loosely) to show you just how lazy you are, and make you feel very underachieving.  Why would I share this with you?

Partially, because it is very entertaining (warning: productivity threat), and also in the slight chance that you might actually be motivated to do greatness as a result of it.

Usually when I discuss optimizing keywords I am referring to targeting search engines like Google, but what about the “niche” search engines that are mushrooming up all over?  Those search engines are often used not just by consumers, but also by job recruiters (among others).

I’ll take for example a site like Monster.com or Craigslist, both sites with tons of resumes posted on there.  How do you get your resume seen by as many recruiters as possible?

I recently revisited one of the most influential movies of the last century, The Godfather.  In the movie, Don Corleone, the head of the crime family, is a shrewd businessman.  Through making “an offer he can’t refuse”, as well as understanding the dynamics of the business relationships, the Don managed to consolidate power and run all of the gambling operations in the country. 

This three part drama about the Corleone crime family is usually just seen as good entertainment, but I extracted several business lessons from it.  These lessons apply even if you are not in the line of mafia work.

If the phrase “time is money” is true, then it certainly behooves us to try to minimize the amount of time it takes to do any task.  As someone who reads an awful lot each day, I have been particularly sensitive to the time it takes me to read something (in case you haven’t noticed, on the main page of this blog, I even let you know the estimated amount of time needed to read each post!).  Over the years I have put together some ways to read faster - instantly.

I, like most people in the USA, love entertainment.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2004 we spent over $540 Billion entertaining ourselves (I include eating out at restaurants entertainment - we’ll discuss this in a different time and place). Although the last decade or so has seen many changes in the type of entertainment we prefer, one thing stays the same - we watch entertainment in order to:

• relax/de-stress
• laugh
• live a simulated life
• pass time

Do you sleep enough? Chances are you don’t. It’s probably related to one of the following:

Uncomfortable bed, kids, work, friends and lastly (you guessed it) Internet.

While we read on a regular basis that people are supposed to get 8 hours of sleep or even more, some recent research shows just the opposite. It is well known that adults need less sleep than children, but no one was advocating cutting your sleep.

“people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate than those who get 8 hours of sleep.”