K.I.S.S.

When Steve Jobs
Invented the first mouse
It had a single button
Point and click
Enough going on with
Learning how to drive
Just to worry about that shifty stick
Work down design to
The smallest mount of buttons
The minimum required to ship
Don’t you know oh my
Darling complexity will kill you
Your users they’ll be gone in a blip

The best things in life
Are clear without instructions
If you gotta explain it
Your plan needs reduction
Just put it in plain sight

Give me a kiss
Keep it simple stupid

It’s easy to forget
That more is less
And start adding features
Left and right
Users knocking at the door
If they had just one thing more
Everything it would turn out right
But piling on them features
Is a one way ticket
Confusion leading them astray
The skill in design
Is learning how to find
Not what to add but
What to take away

Don’t make me cut through no thistles
You can keep all your fancy bells and whistles and shove them
Where the sun don’t shine

It’s day one at employee orientation
You don’t know how you gonna
Survive
You look to the left and look to the
Right
And wonder how you got in the room

Don’t you know they’re all
Feeling the same way
Time to arbitrage their insecurity
Wipe it away and fill with desire
To rise to the top of your company

Risin’ above the pack
To the top of the leader board

Now if you’re willing to work for it
Then rest ends up easier than you
Think
Make sure the terms for success
Are clearly defined
Know what’s expected and exceed it
Always do what you say you’re gonna
Do
Don’t bring people problems
But bring them solutions
Yeah with self confidence and
Humility
You’ll ask for and receive
The feedback you need
To rise above the pack

Now as you nurse that raging
Ambition
Don’t make the mistake of believing
That management is the only road to the top of the company
Great individual contributors
Are every bit as valuable
You just gotta know yourself
And play to your strengths
And soon you’ll be
Risin’ above the pack

Now there’s a
Double edged sword of ambition
It’s natural to impatiently
Wait for recognition
To obsess and pout
And position yourself
To get to that higher level
Well now I’m gonna tell you
To forget what you’ve learned
Cause if you push
Before you’re ready,
You’re gonna get burned
Just make yourself indispensable
And before you even know it
You’ll have risen above the pack

On my GTS 300
Cruisin’ down the Avenue Grand Got the wind in my hair
And the world on my back
But for 15 minutes I don’t care
I look in the rear-view mirror
But just a momentary glance
For the road ahead is long and clear
And paved with no small plans

On the way to work
I reflect on the days behind
I look at the road ahead
It reminds me that the
Journey is the reason
I get out of bed and work

Driving through an urban forest
35 and the trees have blurred
That’s when I find solutions
To the problems that occur
On the corner of state and Chicago
I’ve begun to disconnect
And see what’s really important
And what’s unnecessary stress

And I think about the times in life
To stay and times for moving on
The way to work
I look at the road ahead
That meditative moment is the
Reason I get out of bed and work
As I ride along thinking bout nothing
A thought appears in my mind
The solution to an HR issue
That’s been vexing me
For too much time
Now I won’t be afraid
(Don’t let me do it)
That I’ll make mistakes
One thing I know:
I won’t make it if I don’t try
The world seems to slow
Each morning on the road
That’s all I need to survive

As I ride along thinking about
Nothing
A thought appears in my mind
The solution to an HR issue
That’s been vexing me
For too much time

Look no further

If you’re seeking business wisdom
You don’t need no MBA
Look no further than the beauty
That surrounds us every day
In the creases of the leaves
Of a black tupelo tree
Vivid life experiences
Will give you what you need

Look no further
Than Mies Van Der Rohe
Or a painting by Monet
Look no further
Than an aria
By Liszt or Debussy
The birthing of great octopi
Or the films of Fellini
Business is the finest art
And I’m painting every day

I see you looking at my bookshelf
Eying “Catcher In The Rye”
Jack Welch didn’t need no “Tipping Point”
And friend neither do I
I was climbing Machu Picchu
I beheld that splendid view
An idea came for 100 million
Of shareholder value

Stretch

Now we all know
That you’ve gotta have goals
Every quarter
Nothing better to drive
The org to align
Around the metrics
That really matter
Writing goals takes some art
But there’s science at the heart
Measure out your best then
Raise so they’re a stretch

[Hook]
Your goals should
Bounce bounce bounce
Cause you’ve stretched them so far out
Quantify your best and then add twenty percent
Stretch it out baby now
You just may surprise yourself

Measurable and controllable
You heard that all before
Now take the numbers
You can hit for sure
And add a little more
Define your key results
No more than three to five to start
The first quarter takes some time
But subsequently you
Just need to update them

[Hook]

[Bishop Lamont]
OK you already know
Only got 90 days
And got a whole lot of goals
Don’t you want to win
Don’t you want to shine
Don’t you want a mansion
And a yacht like mine?
It doesn’t come easy
You’ve got to stay determined
It might look like magic
But I’m not Merlin
You’ve got to stay focused
And retain that hunger
Or you’ll never, ever, ever
Be the next Charlie Munger
There’s only one number
And that’s number one
If you’re not first you’re last
And that’s no fun
Control those controllables
Close those accounts
Ship my product on time
And let’s make large amounts
Action-oriented every day
All the time
So use this opportunity
To get your team aligned
Need I remind
Don’t be a victim
Hey you in the back
Come on, pay attention

[Hook]

It’s up to us
It’s up to us
And no one else
It’s up to us
Our success is up to us
We’ve got the idea
We’ve got the vision
We’ve got the team
We’ve got the customer
Critical mass
The market positioning
Now what we need,
The funny thing is
It’s in our hands,
It’s all around us
Execution it’s up to us

This is our moment
To disrupt an industry
One day we’ll tell our grandkids,
How we made history
Now if it were easy
Someone’d already done it
No pain no gain
But if we can take it
The rest is up to us

No one said it’d be easy
But it reminds me of another boy
That had to fight to be free
After he cut down that cherry tree

And daddy gave him a whipping,
In the square for all to see
But he didn’t let that stop him,
No he sailed across Delaware sea
To build the greatest nation
In all of history

I’m not gonna kid you —
I can’t tell you how long it’ll take
But I know if we stay focused,
We’ll be good to great
It’s moments like these
That shape our lives
Some of you will
Reflect on this as the
Time in your life when
You learned that
It’s really is up to us