10 Reasons to Pick Up the Phone Now

Today fewer people get on the phone, preferring to text, chat, and e-mail. Here are 10 scenarios where a live voice is still the best option.

I've noticed recently that the Millennial generation's trend of phone avoidance is quickly spreading to people of all ages. It started with smartphones. Texting replaced leaving voicemails and whole conversations now take place with our thumbs. Calling someone has now become low on the communication priority list and even frequently disparaged.

Certainly written communication has its advantages.

• You can get your message out whether or not the other person is available.
• You can respond without concern for time zones or sleep patterns.
• You don't have to waste time with unwanted chatty gossip.

But the phone has benefits that text and e-mail will never overcome. It's still an important tool for business etiquette and should be considered equally in today's communication environment. Here are 10 scenarios where a phone call does the job best.

1. When You Need Immediate Response
The problem with text or e-mail is you never know when someone will get back to you. You like to think the other person is sitting there waiting for your message, but it's not always true. These days when someone sees your name on the ringing phone, they know you are making an extra effort to speak to them. Of course if they are truly busy, in a meeting, sleeping, or hiding from you, the caller ID will tip them off and you go to voicemail, which they rarely check anyway. At least now you can express yourself with heartfelt emotion.

2. When You Have Complexity with Multiple People
My wife Van was recently coordinating an overseas engagement for me and there were six different people in multiple time zones involved in the logistics. After five cryptic e-mail conversations that created more confusion, she was literally screaming at the computer. Finally I suggested a conference call. In 30 minutes, all questions were answered, everyone was aligned, and Van went from frustrated to relieved. She is now a newly recruited phone advocate.

3. When You Don't Want a Written Record Due to Sensitivity
You never know who will see an e-mail or a text. True, phone calls can be recorded...but not legally in most states without prior notification or a judge's order. Unless you are absolutely comfortable with your message getting into anyone's hands, best to use the phone for conversations that require discretion.

4. When the Emotional Tone is Ambiguous, But Shouldn't Be
Sometimes a smiley face is not enough to convey real emotion. Emoticons help broadly frame emotional context, but when people's feelings are at stake it's best to let them hear exactly where you are coming from. Otherwise they will naturally assume the worst.

5. When There is Consistent Confusion
Most people don't like to write long e-mails and most don't like to read them. So when there are lots of details that create confusion, phone calls work efficiently to bring clarity. First of all, you can speak about 150 words per minute, and most people don't type that fast. Second, questions can be answered in context so you don't end up with an endless trail of back and forth question and answers.

6. When There is Bad News
This should be obvious, but sadly many people will take a cowardly approach to sharing difficult news. Don't be one of those callous people. Make it about the other person and not you. Humanize the situation with empathy they can hear.

7. When There is Very Important News

Good or bad, if there is significance to information, the receiver needs to understand the importance beyond a double exclamation point. Most likely they will have immediate questions and you should be ready to provide context to prevent unwanted conclusions.

8. When Scheduling is Difficult
After going back and forth multiple times with a colleague's assistant trying to find an available date and time, I finally just called her. Now I didn't have to worry that the time slot would be filled by the time she read my e-mail. We just spoke with calendars in hand and completed in five minutes what had exasperated us over three days. Later that day I watched one of my foodie friends spend 20 frustrated minutes using Open Table and finally suggested he simply call the restaurant. In three minutes he had a reservation and a slightly embarrassed smile.

9. When There is a Hint of Anger, Offense, or Conflict in the Exchange
Written messages can often be taken the wrong way. If you see a message that suggests any kind of problem, don't let it fester--or worse try and repair it--with more unemotional communication. Pick up the phone and resolve the issue before it spirals out of control.

10.  When a Personal Touch Will Benefit
Anytime you want to connect emotionally with someone and face-to-face is not possible, use the phone. Let them hear the care in your voice and the appreciation in your heart.

http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/10-reasons-to-pick-up-the-phone-now.html

Essential Trait of Every Great Entrepreneur

Think about the keys to business success: Plenty of capital. A comprehensive business plan. A thorough market analysis. Remarkable employees.

Each is definitely important. But there's one essential trait every successful entrepreneur possesses:
Irrational optimism.

Why? To be successful you must embrace belief and push aside self-doubts: feelings that you aren't smart enough, dedicated enough, adaptable enough, or simply that, in spite of your best intentions and best efforts, you won't succeed.

Often other people don't help. Family and friends tend to shoot multiple holes in your ideas--not because they want to bring you down but because they care about you and don't want to see you fail.

Rarely will people say, "Hey, that's a great idea. You should go for it!" That's not how most people are wired. Most--myself definitely included--are a lot better at identifying and listing potential problems. We like to play devil's advocate because that makes us seem smart.

That's why you need to be irrationally optimistic. Not because the odds are stacked against success, but because irrational optimism helps you succeed in ways capital, business plans, and marketing savvy can't.
Of course you can take irrational optimism too far... but then again, maybe you can't.

Think about sports: A sport is the ultimate zero-sum game. Only one individual or one team can win, but great athletes still go into every game believing they will win because if they don't believe they can win they've already lost.

Is complete self-belief irrational? Sure. Is it also a requirement for high-level athletic success? Absolutely. Great athletes push aside doubt and disbelief.

So do great entrepreneurs.

If you listen to the naysayers you'll never start a business, never expand, never work and struggle and overcome--and never succeed. If you don't believe in yourself, however irrationally, you will not succeed.

Although no amount of self-belief is enough to ensure success, the smallest bit of doubt can ruin your chances.

In Bounce, Matthew Syed quotes Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, one of the most successful football (soccer) coaches in the English Premier League, on how athletes must approach competition:

To perform to your maximum you have to teach yourself to believe with an intensity that goes way beyond logical justification. No top performer has lacked this capacity for irrational optimism; no sportsman has played to his potential without the ability to remove doubt from his mind.

The same goes for entrepreneurs. Be smart, be logical, be rational and calculating, never stop trying to improve your skills. But most importantly, be irrationally optimistic.

Belief in yourself will take you to places no business plan ever can.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/essential-trait-of-every-great-entrepreneur.html

World's Simplest Management Secret

Management books have it all wrong. They all try to tell you how to manage "people."

It's impossible to manage "people"; it's only possible to manage individuals. And because individuals differ from one another, what works with one individual may not work with somebody else.

Some individuals thrive on public praise; others feel uncomfortable when singled out.

Some individuals are all about the money; others thrive on challenging assignments.

Some individuals need mentoring; others find advice to be grating.

The trick is to manage individuals the way that THEY want to be managed, rather than the way that YOU'd prefer to be managed.

The only way to do this is to ASK.

In your first (or next) meeting with each direct report ask:

• How do you prefer to be managed?
• What can I do to help you excel?
• What types of management annoy you?

Listen (really listen) to the response and then, as far as you are able, adapt your coaching, motivation, compensation, and so forth to match that individual's needs.

BTW, a savvy employee won't wait for you to ask; he or she will tell you outright what works. When this happens, you're crazy not to take that employee's advice!

Unfortunately, most individuals aren't that bold, which is why it's up to you to find out how to get the best out of them.

And you'll never get that out of a management book.

There is no one-size-fits-all in a world where everyone is unique.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/worlds-simplest-management-secret.html

Be Happier: 10 Things to Stop Doing Right Now

Happiness--in your business life and your personal life--is often a matter of subtraction, not addition.

Consider, for example, what happens when you stop doing the following 10 things:

1. Blaming.
People make mistakes. Employees don't meet your expectations. Vendors don't deliver on time.
So you blame them for your problems.
But you're also to blame. Maybe you didn't provide enough training. Maybe you didn't build in enough of a buffer. Maybe you asked too much, too soon.
Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn't masochistic, it's empowering--because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time.
And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier.

2. Impressing.
No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all "things." People may like your things--but that doesn't mean they like you.
Sure, superficially they might seem to, but superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship that is not based on substance is not a real relationship.
Genuine relationships make you happier, and you'll only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.

3. Clinging.
When you're afraid or insecure, you hold on tightly to what you know, even if what you know isn't particularly good for you.
An absence of fear or insecurity isn't happiness: It's just an absence of fear or insecurity.
Holding on to what you think you need won't make you happier; letting go so you can reach for and try to earn what you want will.
Even if you don't succeed in earning what you want, the act of trying alone will make you feel better about yourself.

4. Interrupting.
Interrupting isn't just rude. When you interrupt someone, what you're really saying is, "I'm not listening to you so I can understand what you're saying; I'm listening to you so I can decide what I want to say."
Want people to like you? Listen to what they say. Focus on what they say. Ask questions to make sure you understand what they say.
They'll love you for it--and you'll love how that makes you feel.

5. Whining.

Your words have power, especially over you. Whining about your problems makes you feel worse, not better.
If something is wrong, don't waste time complaining. Put that effort into making the situation better. Unless you want to whine about it forever, eventually you'll have to do that. So why waste time? Fix it now.
Don't talk about what's wrong. Talk about how you'll make things better, even if that conversation is only with yourself.
And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don't just be the shoulder they cry on.
Friends don't let friends whine--friends help friends make their lives better.

6. Controlling.
Yeah, you're the boss. Yeah, you're the titan of industry. Yeah, you're the small tail that wags a huge dog.
Still, the only thing you really control is you. If you find yourself trying hard to control other people, you've decided that you, your goals, your dreams, or even just your opinions are more important than theirs.
Plus, control is short term at best, because it often requires force, or fear, or authority, or some form of pressure--none of those let you feel good about yourself.
Find people who want to go where you're going. They'll work harder, have more fun, and create better business and personal relationships.
And all of you will be happier.

7. Criticizing.
Yeah, you're more educated. Yeah, you're more experienced. Yeah, you've been around more blocks and climbed more mountains and slayed more dragons.
That doesn't make you smarter, or better, or more insightful.
That just makes you you: unique, matchless, one of a kind, but in the end, just you.
Just like everyone else--including your employees.
Everyone is different: not better, not worse, just different. Appreciate the differences instead of the shortcomings and you'll see people--and yourself--in a better light.

8. Preaching.
Criticizing has a brother. His name is Preaching. They share the same father: Judging.
The higher you rise and the more you accomplish, the more likely you are to think you know everything--and to tell people everything you think you know.
When you speak with more finality than foundation, people may hear you but they don't listen. Few things are sadder and leave you feeling less happy.

9. Dwelling.
The past is valuable. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others.
Then let it go.
Easier said than done? It depends on your focus. When something bad happens to you, see that as a chance to learn something you didn't know. When another person makes a mistake, see that as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.
The past is just training; it doesn't define you. Think about what went wrong, but only in terms of how you will make sure that, next time, you and the people around you will know how to make sure it goes right.

10. Fearing.
We're all afraid: of what might or might not happen, of what we can't change, or what we won't be able to do, or how other people might perceive us.
So it's easier to hesitate, to wait for the right moment, to decide we need to think a little longer or do some more research or explore a few more alternatives.
Meanwhile days, weeks, months, and even years pass us by.
And so do our dreams.
Don't let your fears hold you back. Whatever you've been planning, whatever you've imagined, whatever you've dreamed of, get started on it today.
If you want to start a business, take the first step. If you want to change careers, take the first step. If you want to expand or enter a new market or offer new products or services, take the first step.
Put your fears aside and get started. Do something. Do anything.
Otherwise, today is gone. Once tomorrow comes, today is lost forever.
Today is the most precious asset you own--and is the one thing you should truly fear wasting.

www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-be-happier-work-10-things-stop-doing.html

8 Qualities of Fearless Entrepreneurs

You know the type: They do things other business owners only dream of doing--and usually succeed. Here's what sets them apart.


"In my office, the term badass is thrown around a lot," says Dr. Shelley Provost, a partner and director of happiness of the venture incubator Lamp Post Group. "We use it to describe many things: a person's performance or accomplishments or ability to close a sale or turn a profit, or how well they ask someone out on a date--basically their overall potential for awesomeness."

These are the qualities that Provost says set true business badasses apart:

1. They say yes first--then figure out how to deliver.
Badasses are incredibly confident, with good reason. If a job is anywhere near their wheelhouse, they will find a way to get it done or die trying.

Why? They trust their own abilities, but they trust the people around them just as much.

If you're a true badass, you think there's a way to solve every problem. All you have to do is find it.

2. They think differently than everyone else.
Most business problems aren't new. Badasses tackle old problems with a variety of creative solutions.
Instead of designing a corporate newsletter that no one will read to "improve communication," a badass will create a holograph of the CEO that welcomes you to work and gives you the latest news. And a true badass would wear a flowing gown like the one in this video of a Kate Moss hologram.

Tell me that wouldn't improve communication.

3. They speak up.
When badasses have a different opinion, they share it.

But they aren't argumentative--because that would just make them asses.

4. They enthusiastically share their awesome skills.
Badasses never shy away from teaching others.

Inject energy and innovation into your teaching method, and people will flock to learn from you. High Skill + High Confidence + Sharing With Others = True Business Badass.

5. They live by their own code.
They respect authority--but not too much.

Whether their code is to be a creative force in the world, to disrupt technologies, or to challenge others to examine their lives, badasses are unwilling to compromise their principles and beliefs for the comfort or approval of others.

If you're a true badass, you answer to a power deep within you.

6. They do what others only wish they could do.
One of my favorite quotes is, "The Wright brothers never had a pilot's license." Rather than look around for permission or approval, badasses are courageous. They're initiators. They have an idea and they act.
Rather than research and dwell on and discuss a problem to death, badasses find a solution by actually doing things.

7. They never, ever, ever give up.
Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that it takes 10,000 hours master a complex skill.
But the real key to mastering a complex skill is grit--the ability to stick with something long enough to log those 10,000 hours.

People with grit are like anti-dilettantes. Rather than flit from thing to thing, gritty people pick something and stick with it. They're tenacious, dogged, persevering, and they absolutely refuse to give up.
The grittiest people don't just work longer and harder, although that is part of the equation. They keep a laser focus on their goal and say, "No, thanks," to anything that gets in their way.

8. They ignore the haters.
There are many reasons to listen to the haters: to save face, to remain comfortable, to be secure, to not look like the fool.

But as Dale Carnegie, the badass of winning friends and influencing people, said, "The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore."
Haters try to talk you into--or even scare you into--sticking with the status quo.

Be a true business badass. Don't listen.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/8-qualities-of-fearless-entrepreneurs.html

Do One Thing & Do It Better Than Anyone Else

Become the best darn whatever-you-are that you can be. Set aside your other good ideas. The rest will follow.

The other day, I received a business plan from a pair of entrepreneurs who are smart, talented, and passionate--exactly the formula you want to see. I reviewed the plan they sent me (well, OK, just the PowerPoint). And they had a great idea. Interesting enough to keep reading.

But when I got to the fifth slide, they had another idea. And then later, another idea. Three good ideas in one plan. Sounds like a bargain, right? Wrong! Only a fraction of ideas actually get pulled off.

What do you think happens when you try to launch three ideas at once? Nothing. To implement even one good idea takes a mountain of work--strategic planning, product development, marketing pushes, financing, administration, human resources, and so much more. Taking one idea to profits is hard. To be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to realize the devil is in the details. Don't fall into the trap of trying--like so many entrepreneurs--to do too much.

Instead, you want to be the best at one thing your customers want or need. Focus on how that one thing you do best can deliver value to your customers. Become irreplaceable to your customers.

But that's not all. When you launch a business, you want to make a case to yourself for what makes you the best at what you plan to do. Each time I launched a new business, I took out a pencil and sheet of paper and wrote down a list of the key strengths and advantages that made me uniquely qualified to win in that particular space. Did I have special skills? Deep experience? Industry relationships? Patentable technology? If there's no set of assets that you possess that puts you ahead of everyone else in the given marketplace, then maybe you should move on and find a different idea that you are uniquely qualified to win at.

At ColorJar, my innovation consultancy, I call this finding your "golden purpose." The reason you and your company exist. The one thing you do so well that people recognize you for it. Focus only on being the leader in that product and service, and all else will follow.

Then, once people have trust and confidence in you and your abilities, they will come to you for more. Amazon sold only books when it started, but it was the best darn bookseller on the planet. Once customers became comfortable with Amazon and loved buying books on the site, they started asking Amazon for more. Today Amazon sells thousands of products. But the company started by becoming the best at one thing.

Entrepreneurs today see successful companies that sell many products or offer many services and forget that they didn't start that way. These companies gained credibility by being the best at one thing they were uniquely qualified to do. Google started out as a simple search engine. Zappos was just an online shoe seller. Richard Branson launched Virgin Records; only later did it become an airline, resort, mobile service, and even a commercial space program. These companies proved themselves in the minds of customers by winning their categories. They raised their hands high in one specific area of expertise and owned it before they launched another idea or two. That's what opened the door to the future.

So find a problem to solve, grab your pencil, and list your assets. Discover your golden purpose. Set aside all your other good ideas. And become the best darn whatever-you-are that you can be. The rest will follow.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-hoffman/do-one-thing-better-than-anyone-else.html

Secrets of a Master Negotiator

Life is negotiation. So much of our daily lives revolve around this practice and yet so few of us spend any time truly learning what it takes to become great at this requisite skill.
Think about it, how much of your life involves negotiation? Most people don't realize when it is taking place. But it surrounds us. It is who we are.
Sure, everyone knows that you have to negotiate to buy a car. Some may even know that almost every retailer—if pushed—will negotiate a better price for an item. But what about the more subtle forms of negotiation? Do you even recognize when these occur?
Have you ever said to your spouse "I'll take out the trash, can you load the dishwasher?" Negotiation. When you ask for a raise. Negotiation. Who's driving? Negotiation.
Since I was a child my parents have always told me I was good at manipulating others. Negotiation. Perhaps it was inevitable that I went into law, at least initially. A profession that heightened my abilities at reading people and knowing how to react to the tells they were giving me.
After a half a lifetime of negotiating and learning the techniques to do so better here are a few of the secrets I have picked up:

Basic Skills

1. Listen

To negotiate you must learn how to listen and apply what you hear to formulate your next move. Every word has a purpose. Every statement a hidden tell. If you listen carefully, I mean really carefully, you will be able to hear and understand what your opponent in the negotiation truly wants. Listening is the bare minimum skill you must have to start building your abilities as a good negotiator.

2.  Be Willing to Walk Away

When two sides are negotiating one of the other most basic skills you must retain is the ability to walk away if the deal does not satisfy your requirements. Some may think this is axiomatic but it is not.
Once I was assisting a friend to negotiate the purchase of a new car. At the end we were close but the dealer refused to remove some extra charge which was just more fat on the bone for their sales price. After much back-and-forth over this item we reached an impasse: the salesman would not take it out of the price and I would not move on him taking it out. I stood up, politely thanked him for his time, and said to my friend "Let's go."
To my surprise my friend remained seated, turned his eyes towards me, his expression quickly changing to that of a child's wanting a toy in a toy store, and said, "But I really want the car." At that point any chance of continuing to negotiate a better deal evaporated like a puddle on a hot Southern summer afternoon. If he would have stood and walked we would have never made it to the door before that item was taken off the cost. But by not being willing to walk away we gave the other a critical advantage: he knew we would not walk. Always be willing to walk away from a deal and let it be known in either a subtle or not so subtle manner, as the situation dictates.

Intermediate Skills

1.  Feign Indifference, Don't be Indifferent

Obviously we care about the thing we are negotiating for, otherwise there would not be a negotiation. But just as we must be willing to walk away from the deal, equally as important is that you must never let the other party know how much you want or need to make the deal.
For example, for anyone who is familiar with my other writings you may recall that I am a trial attorney that has tried hundreds of cases in my career litigating thousands more. At some juncture during the course of litigation the parties will eventually discuss settlement. Irrespective of my client's concerns and directives I always feign indifference during settlement discussion. Why? Because if the other side ever gets a whiff that you are not willing to try the case they will have a decided advantage over you in the negotiation process.
So no matter if my client is ready to take the case to the mat or can't afford or does not want to move forward anymore opposing counsel gets the same routine from me every time: "We can try to settle the case or just go to trial. I'm good with whatever." The goal in feigning indifference is to be as difficult to read as a blank page. In the end, however, it is a valuable skill to have in any negotiation. So you may not be indifferent, but never let them know.

2.  Have the Ammunition You Need

In litigation this is about having your case ready to go to trial if it does not settle and making sure the other party knows you are ready. In other negotiations, such as in real estate, it's about letting a prospective purchaser know you have another buyer on the line and that if they do not meet your terms you'll just sell it to the other guy. In any negotiation that involves an alternative action if the terms are not met you must let the other party know you can, and will, do a specific act they do not want you to do in the event terms are not met. In short, let the other party know that you have your ammo and are willing to use it.
Many years ago my then firm represented a man who had been horrifically injured by a product. Our firm was brought in to represent his interests against the manufacturer. Because of certain confidentiality provisions I cannot mention the product or even the type of product it was. Suffice to say, however, it was the first case of its kind and had significant national exposure on not only a media level but political as well. Well, as in any litigation case the parties are required to exchange documents whether they are detrimental or not to your case.
We knew that the defendants were holding out on us and saying that these specific very damaging reports did not exist despite the fact we had witnesses that testified to the contrary. We knew if we got our hands on these reports they would be shaking in their boots. Well, to make a long story short while referencing a great episode from Seinfeld, we employed a special team of people to "retrieve" the reports for us and "yadda yadda yadda" we appeared at pretrial with these ultra-damaging reports in hand. The case, one of the most contentious and longest I had ever been involved in, settled minutes later. Why? Because we had the ammo.
So it does not matter if it is litigation, real estate sales with an alternative buyer, or otherwise, always have the ammo—or appearance thereof—to support your side in the negotiation.

Advanced Skills

1.  What Motivates Them?  Use it

As a prerequisite, you must always listen. Listening, as stated above, is critical to hearing what the other side wants. But on a higher level, you must strive to understand why. What is motivating the "Why"? If you can listen between the lines to understand that which truly motivates the other party you will gain a decided advantage in the negotiation of the deal.

Let's take an example from McDonald's, the iconic company that is now making significant inroads in China. A few years ago, I watched a special on McDonald's that was fascinating. It went through the company's history, business philosophies, and plans for expansion. In regard to expansion, the company has at least one team of individuals canvassing China looking for great locations for future McDonald's.
In this show, McDonald's found and built a restaurant on a relatively undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of an industrial city. Why? Because McDonald's had done its research and knew that within three months of the purchase or lease of that land the local development authority would be approving a mixed-use high-rise community situated adjacent to McDonald's new location that would house over 20,000 residents. So, sure, McDonald's wanted the land to build a restaurant.
But if you were the owner of that land, wouldn't you find it helpful to understand what motivated the selection of that site? Armed with that knowledge, is it not reasonable to ask for a higher price in the negotiation process? That what in this instance is McDonald's desire to acquire the property. The why, however, and a more thorough understanding of the why, is what would really drive the deal.
So listen and figure out what motivates the other side. It will give you a leg up in the negotiation.

2.  Lead Them to the Water and Let Them Drink

A good negotiator knows you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Despite your best efforts, the horse must drink on its own.
In litigation, our clients are often frustrated at the length of time it sometimes takes to settle a case out of court. Sometimes this frustration even boils over into demands that we speed the process up or make the other party sign or respond to an offer of settlement.
At the end of the day, however, no amount of complaining, yelling, or otherwise can make the other party sign an agreement. In the end, you can negotiate the deal but the final negotiation—where you ultimately get the party to sign on the dotted line—well, that is all up to them.
You cannot hold their head underwater until they sign. But you can subtlety remind them that every day the agreement is not signed they are just racking up more attorney's fees. Heck, I like to even throw in a little humor referencing the fact I will soon be sending two kids off to college, and I certainly don't mind if they take their time; they are just helping with my kids' college-education fund.
So as in any negotiation, you must be tactful and subtle and lead them to the deal but always mindful you cannot force a deal to be made. A strategy of repeated subtle influence in this regard is often required.

3.  Accent Morphing

Familiarity breeds comfort. Comfort leads to a heightened ability to get a deal done. Let's face it, we are comfortable around those with whom we feel some common bond. Years ago, when we got out of a lengthy negotiation, my co-counsel turned to me and said, "Never realized you had a Southern accent before." As the day wore on, my accent dissipated, and I returned to my normal manner of speaking.
Well, it seemed that I had, during the course of negotiation with the opposing counsel, started speaking in a slight to moderate Southern accent during our marathon discussions before a court in Western Virginia. The opposing counsel himself was a large, imposing Southerner much like Fred Gwynne's portrayal of Judge Chamberlain Haller in My Cousin Vinnie. Well, it seems that somewhat subconsciously after hours of stalemate in this heated discussion I had started adopting the accents of the opposing counsel and the judge, a local legend himself. I know this may sound crazy, but we traced when the ice broke in regard to the settlement talks back to around the time I started speaking in a more gentile, Southern manner.
And so began a practice of mine of sometimes morphing my accent, ever so slightly in some instances, more so in others, to create a bond of familiarity between myself and the person with whom I am negotiating. Now, I'm not saying if you are from the deep South and are negotiating with someone from Brooklyn you should suddenly lose your drawl and go all Vinnie Barbarino on them. Rather, slight almost imperceptible changes in your accent to mirror your opponent in the negotiation can create an unconscious feeling of familiarity with you without the other side even realizing it, to the extent that it can, and often does, assist in the negotiation of a deal.

4.  Vilify, Unite, and Conquer 

Often we are placed in a position that no one wants to be in. A position that someone else has put us in. But the only way out is to negotiate a truce. This is often the case in law when you receive a preliminary ruling that does not support your case or, as is often the case, a ruling that makes trial more difficult for both parties. When this occurs, use the master technique of vilifying the third party, using it to unite those parties in the negotiation, and then conquer the deal through the aforesaid vilification and uniting of common interests.
For instance, we were once in a proceeding in which the judge made a ruling on evidence presented at trial by opposing counsel that was going to fundamentally change the outcome of the case. It was evidence the opposing counsel had offered and, upon our objection, should have been denied but the judge was new, did not know this area of the law very well, and let it in over very stern objections. Even the opposing counsel was stunned it was received.
At the end of the day, all trial counsel agreed that the party offering the evidence was actually in a very bad position. They would likely now win the case, but because the ruling on that critical piece of evidence was simply wrong, we had an absolute grounds for appeal that would be victorious years later, with the matter most likely having to be retried at significant cost and expense.
So what did we do? Vilify, unite, and conquer. Realizing our good fortune, we quickly vilified the court to the opposing counsel, making it appear like the enemy. We established that all parties were now in the same boat, having been sabotaged by this bad ruling. And we settled the case, because no one wanted a three-year appeal that would result in a new trial four to five years from the date of the current trial.
Vilify, unite, and conquer. It won't always be available for you. But when it is, use it to get a deal done.

http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/secrets-of-a-master-negotiator.html

The quickest way to get things done and make change

Not the easiest, but the quickest:
Don't demand authority.
Eagerly take responsibility.
Relentlessly give credit.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/the-quickest-way-to-get-things-done-and-make-change-and.html

Accountability and Integrity: The Golden Rules of Business

Deciding to do the right thing seems like a simple rule of business but often it gets lost in the day-to-day grind.

Say what you do and do what you say. Do the right things, and the right things will happen. It sounds as simple as the Golden Rule, but there is a surprising lack of accountability and integrity in the business world today.

These two attributes are central to OtterBox and our ability to continue to grow at a rate that's landed us on the Inc. 500|5000 four times. Integrity and accountability are, in fact, two of our core values.

I think most of us know what the right thing is, but being able to execute on it is another matter. Doing what's right isn't always easy. People frequently default to the simplest option as an automatic response, which often means integrity is not upheld and accountability is at stake.

An extreme example of lack of integrity and accountability can be seen in today's political landscape. No matter where they land on the spectrum, politicians are consistently promising to do the right things if elected. Lower taxes, save the environment, stimulate the economy - every election season the American public is inundated with promises.

To be fair, these politicians might actually think they can follow through on their vows, but the lack of results from any single one of them or any party as a whole has become an epidemic in and of itself.  That's where accountability comes in - you must do what you say.

Much like the American public, customers are quickly fed up with a lack of accountability. However, unlike the American public will quickly respond and take their business elsewhere.  Like Howard Beale said in the 1976 film Network, they'll be "mad as hell" and surely are "not going to take this anymore!"

Also unlike politicians, businesses can and must admit when they have fallen through on promises. Not all decisions made will be the right ones, but open and honest communication about those situations maintains integrity and accountability.

Integrity and accountability are daily decisions, not one-offs reserved for top level decisions by the CEO. Every employee must adhere to these values in all the tasks and operations they do. If a business doesn't have integrity in the small things, no one will believe it has integrity in the big things.

http://www.inc.com/curt-richardson/accountability-and-integrity-the-golden-rules-of-business.html

Secret Trait of Every Successful Entrepreneur

Conrad Hilton lost his hotel business during the Great Depression but was able to buy it back and build one of the world's most successful corporations. What's his secret?

One of the qualities that is most helpful in an aspiring entrepreneur is optimism.  Without it you would be foolish to attempt risk. Consider those before us who against the greatest odds managed to start and build successful businesses. What was their secret?

Conrad Hilton and I went to the same high school, N.M.M.I. He started his hotel business prior to the Great Depression and as a result found himself over extended when the depression hit. He lost his hotels but was retained as manager. By 1946 he had bought them back and formed Hilton Hotel Corporation. He was an optimist.

There is an old saying in the Army, "There's no atheist in a foxhole." That's easy to figure out and pretty self-explanatory. I'll give you a new one, "There is no pessimist in a successful start-up or turnaround."

How many people do you know that have a great idea for a business, talk about it but never do anything about it? What stops them? Is it the risk of failure? Based on my years in business I would say it isn't the risk of failure but a lack of optimism for success. Now you may think I'm splitting hairs but let me make this distinction.

You have to be a realist to recognize whether something has the potential to be a success or not. Does the product, goods or services offered in my new venture have value? Can I take this model to market and create enough distinction that differentiates me from the competition? Or if its something completely new, is there a market for it? If you are being realistic, and the answer is yes, then you have to ask yourself am I going to put myself out there? Now comes the optimism. According to Webster, the definition of optimism is an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome. By looking at that definition, I cannot see how anyone could start a business or attempt a turnaround without being optimistic!

I have heard from many readers that they want to start their own business but just aren't ready. For many that may be true. For those that fit this description, ask yourself will you ever be ready? There probably will be no better time than right now to start one. I say this because the macro aspects of the market have hit the bottom and are coming back up. Not because the government is doing anything but because business people are. The ability to rebuild the economy rests with you and me. Our voice, optimism and ultimately the power of small business will adapt and overcome.

The cost of money is lower now than before. With interest rates so low, the risk reward parameters have shifted. Based on today's rates; something slightly better than break even will return more money than conventional savings, money market or CD rates.

So, what are you waiting for?

The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

It’s great to see Windows 7 Beta finally released to the world! We're very proud of what has been accomplished over the last months; in many ways, it sets a new quality bar for a beta operating system release. Building on top of the Windows Vista foundation, Windows 7 adds a great deal of polish and refinement to both the user interface and the underlying architecture, while at the same time introducing many new features and improvements that support new hardware, give power users and casual users alike better tools to manage their digital lives, and enable new classes of application experience.

Over future blog entries, I’ll spend time drilling into some of those areas in more detail; of course, there are plenty of articles already out there that dissect Windows 7 in some depth, with the Windows SuperSite and Ars Technica providing notably comprehensive entries. I’d also like to draw particular attention to the series of Windows 7 interviews that Yochay Kiriaty has been posting on Channel 9, which give the inside scoop on the development of many of the most significant new features.

For now, though, I want to focus in on some of “secrets” of Windows 7: the many little tweaks and enhancements that we’ve made in this release that I’ve discovered and collated over the last few months of using Windows 7 across my home and work machines. These are the things that are too small to appear in any marketing document as “features”, but that you quickly miss when you switch to an older version of Windows. There are some who think that we’re arbitrarily hiding functionality to make Windows easy for casual users, but I’d argue that a great deal of effort has been put into this release to satisfy power users. In homage to those of us who enjoy discovering the nooks and crannies of a new operating system list, I’ve put together the longest blog post that I’ve ever written. If you’ve downloaded and installed Windows 7 Beta recently, I think you’ll enjoy this list of my thirty favorite secrets. Have fun!

1. Windows Management. By now, you’ve probably seen that Windows 7 does a lot to make window management easier: you can “dock” a window to the left or right half of the screen by simply dragging it to the edge; similarly, you can drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it, and double-click the window top / bottom border to maximize it vertically with the same horizontal width. What you might not know is that all these actions are also available with keyboard shortcuts:
   • Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock;
   • Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximizes and restores / minimizes;
   • Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow maximizes and restores the vertical size.

   This side-by-side docking feature is particularly invaluable on widescreen monitors – it makes the old Windows way of shift-clicking on two items in the taskbar and then using the context menu to arrange them feel really painful.

2. Display Projection. Had enough of messing around with weird and wonderful OEM display driver utilities to get your notebook display onto an external projector? In that case, you’ll be pleased to know that projection is really quick and simple with Windows 7. Just hit Win+P, and you’ll be rewarded by the following pop-up window:
   
   Use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to “clone”, “extend” or “external only” display settings. You can also access the application as displayswitch.exe.
   
   If you want broader control over presentation settings, you can also press Win+X to open the Windows Mobility Center, which allows you to turn on a presentation “mode” that switches IM clients to do not disturb, disables screensavers, sets a neutral wallpaper etc. (Note that this feature is also available in Windows Vista.)
   
3. Cut Out The Clutter. Working on a document in a window and want to get rid of all the extraneous background noise? Simply hit Win+Home to minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. When you’re ready, simply press Win+Home again to restore the background windows to their original locations.
   
4. Multi-Monitor Windows Management. The earlier tip on window management showed how you can dock windows within a monitor. One refinement of those shortcuts is that you can use Win+Shift+Left Arrow and Win+Shift+Right Arrow to move windows from one monitor to another – keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.
   
5. Command Junkies Only. One of the most popular power toys in Windows XP was “Open Command Prompt Here”, which enabled you to use the graphical shell to browse around the file system and then use the context menu to open a command prompt at the current working directory. In Windows 7 (and in Windows Vista, incidentally – although not many folk knew about it), you can simply hold the Shift key down while selecting the context menu to get exactly the same effect. If the current working directory is a network location, it will automatically map a drive letter for you.
   
6. It’s a Global Village. If you’ve tried to change your desktop wallpaper, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a set of wallpapers there that match the locale you selected when you installed Windows. (If you picked US, you’ll see beautiful views of Crater Lake in Oregon, the Arches National Park, a beach in Hawai’i, etc.) In fact, there are several sets of themed wallpapers installed based on the language you choose, but the others are in a hidden directory. If you’re feeling in an international mood, simply browse to C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and you’ll see a series of pictures under the Wallpaper directory for each country. Just double-click on the theme file in the Theme directory to display a rotation through all the pictures for that country. (Note that some countries contain a generic set of placeholder art for now.)
   
7. The Black Box Recorder. Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a repro for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine. Windows 7 comes to the rescue! Part of the in-built diagnostic tools that we use internally to send feedback on the product, the Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps. It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.
   
   
8. The Font of All Knowledge. Long Zheng will be happy: we’ve got rid of the Add Fonts dialog that has served Windows faithfully for the last twenty years. (Of course, for most of that time, it’s been deprecated – the easy way to install a set of fonts has simply been to drag them into the Fonts folder via Control Panel.) But now font installation is really easy – we’ve added an “Install” button to the font viewer applet that takes care of the installation process:
   
   There are lots of other new features built into Windows 7 that will satisfy those of a typographic bent, incidentally – grouping multiple weights together, the ability to hide fonts based on regional settings, a new text rendering engine built into the DirectWrite API, and support in the Font common file dialog for more than the four “standard” weights. For example:
   
   
9. Gabriola. As well as the other typographic features mentioned above, Windows 7 includes Gabriola, an elaborate display type from the Tiro Typeworks foundry that takes advantage of OpenType Layout to provide a variety of stylistic sets, flourishes and ornamentation ligatures:
   
   
10. Who Stole My Browser? If you feel like Internet Explorer is taking a long time to load your page, it’s worth taking a look at the add-ons you have installed. One of the more helpful little additions in Internet Explorer 8 is instrumentation for add-on initialization, allowing you to quickly see whether you’re sitting around waiting for plug-ins to load. Just click Tools / Manage Add-ons, and then scroll right in the list view to see the load time. On my machine, I noticed that the Research add-on that Office 2007 installs was a particular culprit, and since I never use it, it was simple to disable it from the same dialog box.
    
11. Rearranging the Furniture. Unless you’ve seen it demonstrated, you may not know that the icons in the new taskbar aren’t fixed in-place. You can reorder them to suit your needs, whether they’re pinned shortcuts or running applications. What’s particularly nice is that once they’re reordered, you can start a new instance of any of the first five icons by pressing Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 etc. I love that I can quickly fire up a Notepad2 instance on my machine with a simple Win+5 keystroke, for instance.
    
    What’s less well-known is that you can similarly drag the system tray icons around to rearrange their order, or move them in and out of the hidden icon list. It’s an easy way to customize your system to show the things you want, where you want them.
    
12. Installing from a USB Memory Stick. My wife has a Samsung NC10 netbook (very nice machine, by the way), and we wanted to install Windows 7 Beta on this machine to replace the pre-installed Windows XP environment. Like most netbook-class devices, this machine has no built-in media drive, and nor did I have an external USB DVD drive available to boot off. The solution: I took a spare 4GB USB 2.0 thumbdrive, reformatted it as FAT32, and simply copied the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO image to the memory stick using xcopy e:\ f:\ /e /f (where e: was the DVD drive and f: was the removable drive location). Not only was it easy to boot and install from the thumbdrive, it was also blindingly fast: quicker than the corresponding DVD install on my desktop machine.
    
    It’s also worth noting in passing that Windows 7 is far better suited to a netbook than any previous operating system: it has a much lighter hard drive and memory footprint than Windows Vista, while also being able to optimize for solid state drives (for example, it switches off disk defragmentation since random read access is as fast as sequential read access, and it handles file deletions differently to minimize wear on the solid state drive).
    
13. I Want My Quick Launch Toolbar Back! You might have noticed that the old faithful Quick Launch toolbar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7, it’s actually missing from the list of toolbars. As is probably obvious, the concept of having a set of pinned shortcut icons is now integrated directly into the new taskbar. Based on early user interface testing, we think that the vast majority of users out there (i.e. not the kind of folk who read this blog, with the exception of my mother) will be quite happy with the new model, but if you’re after the retro behavior, you’ll be pleased to know that the old shortcuts are all still there. To re-enable it, do the following:
    • Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
    • In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
      %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
    • Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
    • Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

    If it’s not obvious by the semi-tortuous steps above, it’s worth noting that this isn’t something we’re exactly desperate for folks to re-enable, but it’s there if you really need it for some reason. Incidentally, we’d love you to really try the new model first and give us feedback on why you felt the new taskbar didn’t suit your needs.

14. It’s a Drag. Much play has been made of the Jump Lists feature in Windows 7, allowing applications like Windows Live Messenger to offer an easy task-based entry point. Jump lists replace the default right-click context menu in the new taskbar; another way to access them (particularly useful if you’re running Windows 7 on a one-button MacBook) is by left-clicking and dragging up in a kind of “swooshing” motion. This was designed for touch-enabled devices like the beautiful HP TouchSmart all-in-one PC, where the same gesture applies.
    
    Another place where you can “swoosh” (not an official Microsoft term) is the IE 8 address bar, where the downward drag gesture brings up an expanded list containing the browser history, favorites and similar entries. The slower you drag, the cooler the animation!
    
15. Standards Support. Every review of Windows 7 that I’ve seen has noted the revamped WordPad and Paint applets that add an Office-like ribbon to expose their functionality. Few, however, have noticed one small but hopefully appreciated feature: WordPad can now read and write both the Word 2007-compatible Office Open XML file format but also the OpenDocument specification that IBM and Sun have been advocating:
    
    
16. Windows Vista-Style Taskbar. I wasn’t initially a fan of the Windows 7 taskbar when it was first introduced in early Windows 7 builds, but as the design was refined in the run up to the beta, I was converted and now actively prefer the new look, particularly when I’ve got lots of windows open simultaneously. For those who really would prefer a look more reminiscent of Windows Vista, the good news is that it’s easy to customize the look of the taskbar to more closely mirror the old version:
    
    To achieve this look, right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog. Select the “small icons” checkbox and under the “taskbar buttons” setting, choose “combine when taskbar is full”. It’s not pixel-perfect in accuracy, but it’s close from a functionality point of view.
    
17. Peeking at the Desktop. While we’re on the taskbar, it’s worth noting a few subtleties. You’ve probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature we call “Aero Peek”, which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop. I wanted to note that there’s a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing – just press Win+Space.
    
18. Running with Elevated Rights. Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator? It’s easy – hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you’ll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)
    
19. One More of the Same, Please. I’ve seen a few folk caught out by this one. If you’ve already got an application open on your desktop (for example, a command prompt window), and you want to open a second instance of the same application, you don’t have to go back to the start menu. You can simply hold down the Shift key while clicking on the taskbar icon, and it will open a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application. For a keyboard-free shortcut, you can middle-click with the third mouse button to do the same thing. (This trick assumes that your application supports multiple running instances, naturally.)
    
20. Specialized Windows Switching. Another feature that power users will love is the ability to do a kind of “Alt+Tab” switching across windows that belong to just one application. For example, if you’ve got five Outlook message windows open along with ten other windows, you can quickly tab through just the Outlook windows by holding down the Ctrl key while you repeatedly click on the single Outlook icon. This will toggle through each of the five Outlook windows in order, and is way faster than opening Alt+Tab and trying to figure out which of the tiny thumbnail images relates to the specific message you’re trying to find.
    
21. Walking Through the Taskbar. Another “secret” Windows shortcut: press Win+T to move the focus to the taskbar. Once you’re there, you can use the arrow keys to select a particular window or group and then hit Enter to launch or activate it. As ever, you can cancel out of this mode by hitting the Esc key. I don’t know for sure, but I presume this shortcut was introduced for those with accessibility needs. However, it’s equally valuable to power users – another good reason for all developers to care about ensuring their code is accessible.
    
22. The Widescreen Tip. Almost every display sold these days is widescreen, whether you’re buying a notebook computer or a monitor. While it might be great for watching DVDs, when you’re trying to get work done it can sometimes feel like you’re a little squeezed for vertical space.
    
    As a result, the first thing I do when I set up any new computer is to dock the taskbar to the left hand side of the screen. I can understand why we don’t set this by default – can you imagine the complaints from enterprise IT departments who have to retrain all their staff – but there’s no reason why you as a power user should have to suffer from default settings introduced when the average screen resolution was 800x600.
    
    In the past, Windows did an indifferent job of supporting “side dockers” like myself. Sure, you could move the taskbar, but it felt like an afterthought – the gradients would be wrong, the Start menu had a few idiosyncrasies, and you’d feel like something of a second-class citizen. The Windows 7 taskbar feels almost as if it was designed with vertical mode as the default – the icons work well on the side of the screen, shortcuts like the Win+T trick mentioned previously automatically switch from left/right arrows to up/down arrows, and so on. The net effect is that you wind up with a much better proportioned working space.
    
    Try it – in particular, if you’ve got a netbook computer that has a 1024x600 display, you’ll immediately appreciate the extra space for browsing the Internet. For the first day you’ll feel a little out of sync, but then I guarantee you’ll become an enthusiastic convert!
    
23. Pin Your Favorite Folders. If you’re always working in the same four or five folders, you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar. Hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.
    
24. Starting Explorer from “My Computer”. If you spend more time manipulating files outside of the documents folders than inside, you might want to change the default starting directory for Windows Explorer so that it opens at the Computer node:
    
    To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it’s in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read:
    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
    
    If you want the change to affect the icon on the taskbar, you’ll need to unpin and repin it to the taskbar so that the new shortcut takes affect. It’s worth noting that Win+E will continue to display the documents library as the default view: I’ve not found a way to change this from the shell at this time.
    
25. ClearType Text Tuning and Display Color Calibration. If you want to tune up your display for image or text display, we have the tools included out of the box. It’s amazing what a difference this makes: by slightly darkening the color of the text and adjusting the gamma back a little, my laptop display looks much crisper than it did before. You’d adjust the brightness and contrast settings on that fancy 42” HDTV you’ve just bought: why wouldn’t you do the same for the computer displays that you stare at every day?
    
    Check out cttune.exe and dccw.exe respectively, or run the applets from Control Panel.
    
26. ISO Burning. Easy to miss if you’re not looking for it: you can double-click on any DVD or CD .ISO image and you’ll see a helpful little applet that will enable you to burn the image to a blank disc. No more grappling for shareware utilities of questionable parentage!
    
    
27. Windows Movie Maker. Windows 7 doesn’t include a movie editing tool – it’s been moved to the Windows Live Essentials package, along with Photo Gallery, Mail and Messenger. Unfortunately, Windows Live Movie Maker is currently still in an early beta that is missing most of the old feature set (we’re reworking the application), and so you might be feeling a little bereft of options. It goes without saying that we intend to have a better solution by the time we ship Windows 7, but in the meantime the best solution for us early adopters is to use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (which is essentially the same as the most recent update to the Windows XP version). It’s missing the full set of effects and transitions from the Windows Vista version, and doesn’t support HD editing, but it’s pretty functional for the typical usage scenario of home movie editing.
    
    Download Windows Movie Maker 2.6 from here:
    http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d6ba5972-328e-4df7-8f9d-068fc0f80cfc
    
28. Hiding the Windows Live Messenger Icon. Hopefully your first act after Windows 7 setup completed was to download and install the Windows Live Essentials suite of applications (if not, then you’re missing out on a significant part of the Windows experience). If you’re a heavy user of IM, you may love the way that Windows Live Messenger is front and central on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send an IM to someone:
    
    On the other hand, you may prefer to keep Windows Live Messenger in the system tray where it’s been for previous releases. If so, you can fool the application into the old style of behavior. To do this, close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode. Bingo!
    
29. Enjoy The Fish. I’m surprised that not many people seem to have caught the subtle joke with the Siamese fighting fish that is part of the default background, so I’ll do my part at keeping the secret hidden. Check out wikipedia for a clue.
    
30. When All Else Fails… There are always those times when you’re in a really bad spot – you can’t boot up properly, and what you really want is something you can quickly use to get at a command prompt so you can properly troubleshoot. Windows 7 now includes the ability to create a system repair disc, which is essentially a CD-bootable version of Windows that just includes the command prompt and a suite of system tools. Just type “system repair disc” in the Start Menu search box, and you’ll be led to the utility.

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx