Yesterday, I completely forgot to mention the second most important role of a CEO!  Let’s recap:

#1: Provide the team with the necessary resources.
#2: Build shareholder value

#2 is the one I’ve known the most. Really a CEO works for the Board of Directors (who directly represent the shareholders). A CEO’s job is typically summed up in the 40,000 foot overview definition of “build shareholder value.” Meaning, always focus on increasing the valuation of a company.

This is obviously all encompassing, since everything from your team hires, technology development to revenue generation directly impact the valuation of a company.

So, there you go - that’s the best way to describe a CEO…

CEO = The head of an organization responsible for building shareholder value and facilitating all the resources necessary for the company to act on it’s business plan.

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I know I’ve been quiet as far as posting, just been working on many projects. Plus, rather than post regular random thoughts, I thought I’d write mostly USEFUL things that you can actually learn from!, so those only happen once in a while

Over the last month or so, I’ve had another epiphany where I figure out more about what a CEO’s job really is - big company or small.

Here’s how this started…

My mentor just recently accepted the CEO position at a company that is 100% out of his industry understanding - pretty amazing company though. As we were teasing him about his new position in a brand new industry (for him) he made a comment that really hit home with me, he said:

“It really doesn’t matter since the main role of a CEO is to just gather the resources so his team can do what they do best - he’s just there to make sure they have what they need.”

That one sentence probably taught me more about business than an entire semester in college and the funny thing is that he said it in passing in the lobby of our building while we were joking around…

I have thought about what he said for a while now and it makes total sense. That one statement alone also describes the major difference between a CEO and an entrepreneur. An “entrepreneur” has subject expertise so he/she works IN the industry. But a CEO is really a manager - someone who makes sure that the wheels are turning.

So go on and be the CEO, make sure everyone on your team has what they need!

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I spoke on Saturday to a crowd of about 400 and although I’m very used to public speaking, I have to say that this is the largest group I have ever spoken in-front of. I’m never really nervous about it any more, but it still can get you if you think too much about it.

Speaking in-front of 400 people or 40,000 people for that matter is the exact same really as speaking in front of 10 - it’s all in your mind if there is any difference at all.

If you want to speak well in front of a crowd, here are 3 tips I highly advise…

1. Humor - If you’re not a fun or charismatic person, you’ve got a lot of work to do before you can get on stage (or just don’t get on stage). If you can’t get the crowd into your conversation and responding, they’re lost. I don’t care HOW technically amazing your talk is - people are people and you need to FIGHT for their attention.

2. As for Audience Feedback - I always ask questions where I say “Raise your hand if you agree?” - sometimes people don’t raise their hands, they think it’s a rhetorical question - well I stop and repeat myself until they do.

3. MOVE AROUND - I like to be on stage, left side, then right side - then sometimes come OFF the stage. The more you can force the audience to follow you around, the more they are tuned in.

If you stand still, talk in a plain boring monotone voice - kiss your presentation good bye. I don’t care if you’re presenting a way for humans to fly, you’re not going to have the crowd (ok, maybe then you would…)

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So I’m sitting at a seminar this past weekend and someone I truly trust tells me, “hey you should do the kolbe…”

What the hell is a kolbe? Sounds like some Jewish dance.

He was referring to a “Kolbe Index” - it’s basically 36 questions you answer - this thing then does a FULL analysis of you and tells you what kind of person you are and what your strengths are.

Why the heck do I need to know who “I” am…

I mean who knows you better than you know yourself. Well, it’s not for that. There are 2 purposes to use it for:

1. Self-Validation

It’s nice to know that you’re not crazy and that it’s OK to be the way you are - Kolbe tells you how to work WITH who you are rather than changing yourself.

2. Hiring!

This is where I’m going to be using it the most. You can make all your potential hires go through it first and review the evaluation - it will really help you better understand what you’re getting into.

It only took me about 20 minutes, I did it while I was waiting for my flight at an airport. It’s even kind of fun to do…

I was blown away…

They were right. This thing had me PINNED! The evaluation was VERY specific, let me show you a few things…

This is the BASIC rating they gave me: I don’t like doing research (TRUE), I’m OK at following-through with things after launching them (ALSO TRUE - this is why I always have product managers), I’m GREAT at coming up with ideas and JUMPING on them (SOOO VERY TRUE) and I’m a pretty bad IMPLEMENTOR (Here, I disagree a bit). I find I’m very good at execution and implementing, but maybe I’m not?

They do warn not to argue with the results and NOT TO GET OFFENDED.

Now, that is general stuff right? Well, here, let’s get into the details…

This is just ONE of many examples where I got freaked out. It was DEAD on, I SERIOUSLY do work better LAST minute, I HATE conforming and even more, I hate sticking to scripts - I’m a “winger” - I like winging things.

Bottom line, this Kolbe Index was great. Once you take the 36 questions you can buy all sorts of evaluations, career, personal relationships and many more. For hiring, I’m going to use the main Kolbe Index and the “Career MO.” The main Kolbe Index is only $50 and the Careero MO was like $30.

So, for a total of $80, I validated myself - feel good and can stop trying to change myself!

Visit http://www.Kolbe.com

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I actually have not RECENTLY met Mr. Buffet, it has been about 3 years, I met him while still in college through a program. A few of us were hand chosen to fly out to Omaha and meet him.

He does a program every month where some students come to spend a day with him.

Overall the day was great, we started the morning with a round table session with him where we discussed the U.S. Economy and how he chooses his investments. By the way, he straight out says that the U.S. is in deep trouble with China - we need to stop borrowing money from them.

He was a bit amusing - he has that “old man” sense of humor, but it was refreshing.

For example, he owns about 8% of Coca-Cola so he INSISTED that we all at least hold one drink in our hands and open it. He said, for every 1 of 12 opened, he made money. It was funny out of his mouth.

A few interesting points though…

1. He did not seem to want to talk about his family/kids.
2. He drives an OLD beat-up car.
3. Still lives in his old house
4. Office is NOT impressive and he actually leases most of it out.
5. Most people in Omaha are NOT fans of him - they think he’s cheap too…

Why I was not only disappointed, but even OFFENDED…

First of all, we were all college students paying our own way (and that was hard enough). But, would you believe that for the 30 of us, we all had to PRE-pay our lunch, it was $8 a person. That is a total of $240 that he could not even cover for us?

We ate at his “favorite” restaurant and it sucked - the chicken was dry, pink and felt like it was cooked the night before.

The entire time he was showing us his wallet with over $3,000 in cash in there and a black card, yet he could not even pay our $8 lunch?

The man is a genius, but he is seriously too cheap for his own good, but it was an honor meeting him - definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

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I suspect highly that this is a joke by Google or else someone there is on some good crack…

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

Google is allowing you to BACK date your e-mails and send e-mails to the past (but of course only until April1, 2004 - launch date). This is such a weird April Fool’s joke, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense…

How do I use it?

Just click “Set custom time” from the Compose view. Any email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient’s inbox. You can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option.

Here is another one…

Ahhh Google and their sense of humor - keeping it real and great culture.

All you entrepreneurs and CEOs can learn something from them!

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