Melvin Feller owns and is the founder/CEO of Melvin Feller Business group. He operates in Dallas Texas. A former sailor and proud supporter of our vets, Melvin now concentrates on business and his love of seeing people become successful in all areas of life. He is an avid Christian and knows all things are possible in Christ! He has been a domestic violence survivor in his marriage and divorce to Tina and more importantly a cancer survivor.
A Productivity Secret According to Abraham Lincoln
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A Productivity Secret According to Abraham Lincoln
Melvin
Feller a longtime admirer and reader of Abraham Lincoln, has known what
a just and wise man he was! In fact, one of my favorite quotations
comes from Abraham Lincoln when he said, “Give me six hours to chop down
a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” A Productivity Secret by Melvin Feller
Melvin
Feller feels that not only was that a metaphor for how we might
approach all the work in which we engage, but it also represented his
philosophy as a skilled woodcutter. He spent much of his early life
working odd jobs including rail splitting. As Melvin Feller points out,
that history shows that he is considered as one of the top three
presidents in American history, but Melvin also feels that this same
philosophy was applied to his political career as well. Therefore,
Melvin Feller points out that we can take his quote both figuratively
and in a literal sense as well.
Melvin
Feller thinks of Lincoln’s quote often. It is so simple, efficient and
wise to apply it to any project we undertake. After all, how many times
do we bring the wrong tool to the job, only to waste countless hours or
days trying to avoid the certain purchase of the right tool?
As
a boy, Abe Lincoln owned a hatchet and skill at using it. I could guess
he knew intimately what the difference in outcomes he could expect when
he used a dull hatchet when compared with a sharpened one. He knew the
dull ax lacked efficiency; it made the work harder and resulted in less
consistency in outcomes.
When
the hatchet is dull, the job is long and tiring. It is even more
dangerous because a dull hatchet has a tendency to bounce, resulting in a
wild chop that can fling it into your leg. However, when it is sharp,
the job can take as little as a few minutes and it is actually more fun. A Productivity Secret by Melvin Feller
However,
how do we “sharpen the ax” when it comes to our goals and our projects?
We may set a goal to manage our money better and keep more careful
track of our budget. Some of the steps include collecting all of our
bills into one location, write them all down, enter them into a
spreadsheet, balance our checkbook and add up our monthly expenses. In
addition, it would be smart to write down what we spend every time we
buy something. This would involve keeping a pad of paper in our pocket
and a pen so we could record them.
f
you are like me, what can happen is I will sit down, start the writing
down the bills and “oops! I forgot one, I need to get up and go get it.”
I go into the other room, grab the bill and sit back down. After I am
there for a while, I remember, “Hey, I need my car registration, oil
change receipts, and car mileage so I can record what I pay for that
every year.” Therefore, up I go again, this time so I can go out to the
car and rifle through the glove compartment. As you might guess, I would
be lucky not to find something to distract me from my task.
Therefore,
Melvin Feller illustrates that in order to sharpen the ax in this
example, it would be far better to start out by thinking. Grab a sheet
of paper and make a list of all the items we need to start and
everything we need to see our goal through to completion. Thus, the list
might look something like this:
Spend 10–15 minutes collecting every last bill and receipt I need to record in the ledger
While I’m up, grab a notepad, pen and calculator
Collect my wife’s checkbook and my own
Gather all of our credit cards, banking passwords and account numbers.
Think through whether I need Quicken, or if I can use Excel to perform my budgeting needs
If I need Quicken, go up to Wal-Mart and buy it, bring it home and load it
Clear everything off my desk except for my computer, notepad, stack of bills and invoices
Might I need a drink of water? Go get a glass.
Will I want some music playing in the background? If so, turn it on
Shut the door for privacy
Unplug, or turn off my network connection — no e-mail, web browsing.
Unplug the phone in my office
A Productivity Secret by Melvin Feller
Starting
with everything I need is so much more efficient, because the excuse to
get up and become distracted becomes more difficult. In fact, it
becomes easier to work on the
project than it is to have to get up repeatedly and get a missing piece
of the puzzle. When we have everything we need within arm’s reach, we
finish faster. Progress will be steady and we will succeed more often.
Think
about some of your top goals on your list for a few minutes. Do you
have everything you need to keep the progress rolling along? Sure, we
may have some big goals that requiring we achieve smaller goals ahead of
time. Therefore, you could start with a sub-goal or “step”. Think
through everything that you need to carry out that step.
Another
side to sharpening the ax is educating yourself. Think of it this way.
When Lincoln said the first four hours of a 6-hour tree cutting
activity, he would spend the first four sharpening the saw. How can we
apply this to our continuing education?
In
my coaching and business ventures, I can sometimes “paint myself into a
corner” if I do not first research what I am trying to do before
I start. A client may ask me to add a feature to their business that
sounds great, but I do not necessarily know how to do evaluate how it
would fit without first dissecting their business. My tendency is to
plow right in, with a dull ax and try to force the feature to work. You
see, it is much more fun to get started. Yet, several hours later, I
find I’ve got a headache, my idea isn’t working and I’ve got a big
mess on my hands. There have been more days than I care to reveal where
I have messed up so bad that I have had to re-evaluate their whole
business from the beginning — costing sometimes days of progress. A Productivity Secret by Melvin Feller
The alternative to this inefficiency is to make the first task of any project to carefully plan
the enhancement. For me, writing a “mockup” or “ghost business” of how I
was going to add the feature or service. Finally, using my rough draft
as a guide ask what I need to read and research to get that job done. It
might not be fun to face the fact I do not know something. I like to
think of myself as smart. However, by admitting, I do not know it and
then seeking out chapters of books or articles describing what I want to
do and then compiling it, I learn.
Why
do we avoid sharpening the ax? This usually is because we want to begin
our projects right away. We want to get moving so we can complete the
tasks as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, like the examples above
reveal, going to work with a dull ax usually takes longer and makes the
task less enjoyable.
We can motivate ourselves to sharpen the saw is to remember we face several risks for not sharpening:
We risk extending the time it takes to complete our goals.
We risk frustrating ourselves by having to stop several times midway through and having to sharpen.
We risk damaging the work and tools we already have
We risk decreased enjoyment of working through the project.
We want to enjoy what we are doing don’t we?
Like
everyone, I have to struggle with the fact ax sharpening is not as fun
as whacking away at the tree. Collecting the sharpening stone and ax
takes time. Running a wet stone over hard steel gets boring after just a few minutes. Nevertheless, as Lincoln said, the simple ax sharpening can decrease tree-cutting time by hours. A Productivity Secret by Melvin FellerHowever, I
challenge you to take some time to review your goals and look for “ax
sharpening” opportunities you can take with some of them. If you are
just starting out on one of your goals, ask yourself if you have
everything you need to complete it. If you are missing something, what
is it? Are you lacking information/education? A tool or some software?
Do you have the right materials? If you are in the middle of completing a
goal, then it is not too late to assess whether you have everything you
need and to write it down. Whatever you are missing, go out and get it.
Melvin Feller is known as “The Entrepreneur’s Mentor” because Melvin walks his talk.
Melvin Feller has been there and done that and more importantly, Melvin
Feller knows how to transfer the skill set for success. This is main
reason that he has been the sought after coach to hundreds of small
business owners, entrepreneurs, Realtors, real estate investors and
service professional internationally. Melvin
Feller’s main talent is to show you how the step by step process to
build and enjoy a successful 6-figure plus business while having a
balanced life. Melvin Feller maintains offices in Texas and Oklahoma. Melvin Feller MA Business Consultant, Business Owner, Entrepreneur and MBAMelvin Feller MA is in Texas and in Oklahoma.
Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Group in the 1970s to help
individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory
as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic
objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes. He has
extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line
results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many
organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive
leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management,
organizational development, training, and customer service. He has
coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business
development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and
business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many
workshops nationally and internationally.
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