When you see him on the basket ball court, he comes across as an arrogant rich billionaire who is extremely competitive and will stop at nothing to win. Then you see him in the show for start ups (Share Tank), listen to him and you slowly start realizing that this person has a very sharp business mind and has a practical approach to life and business. This realization led me to buy his book. Which finally got me sitting here over the Memorial day weekend to write up this blog ! Let me explain why...I just completed reading the book by Mark Cuban "How to Win at Sport of Business". He has some great themes in his book (Which is the compilation of some of his popular blog posts). One of them which I found most attractive was this nugget
"There are certain things in life we all have to do. There are certain things in life we choose to do. Then there is everything else. The things we do to kill time. In every case, all things being equal, we choose the path of least resistance."
It reminds me of the Issac Newton's third law of motion "The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force" restated for personal and professional lives ! Like the body in motion, people tend to continue down the path they are heading unless distracted by an external event/stimuli.
Cuban's words resonated with me and I found it being very true in my life. I hate going to Starbucks only because of the complexity in order a simple cup of coffee (Coffee - 2 Milk - 2 Sweeteners is the extent I can say to order my coffee). I use Amazon for my purchases, only because I have the Prime membership and one click gets me the product at my doorstep in 2 days !
How can this be applied in your professional life ? We need to make the choice of our customers the path of least resistance. Instead of pros and cons of 15 options, narrow it down to two and let the customer make a choice between the two. Make sure your stakeholders like and trust you so that moving away from you is both professionally and personally more work for them. Make sure all the contract and documentation are done early and quickly- It is easier for the customer to work with vendors who provide the least friction in closing the deal. Work on the foundation of a solution so that when time comes to extend it, we become the de facto choice. Plan for integrating with the overall business vision so that the customers finds it easier to continue with our services. to meet their business objectives.
This is a profound idea and just accept it. That is the path of least resistance !!
I just wanted to say I love reading your posts. They've been really enlightening and have really helped me see things in a new light!
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