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1. Navy suit – Indochino

Get yourself a nice navy suit. This is the standard business suit and nobody moves into management without one. Seriously. Try not to stand out too much in it, that might be hard if you are the only one in a suit though. You wear it to symbolize your intentions…not to show off how devilishly handsome you are… like I do…
2. Brown/black alden shoes – ebay

These go with the suite, they are well made and will last forever if you take care of them right. Get your self a used shoe cleaning kit and you will be golden. No way are you going to get caught wearing those rubber soled pieces of crap from macy’s in a nice suit like the Navy one I just told you to buy!

3. 2 oxford shirts – Land’s End

These shirts are classic and can be worn with your suit or in more casual circumstances. That makes them very useful in business. You can wear them with your suit to that nasty takeover bid or out to coffee with that guy that writes for www.combsy.com (you really should buy him a coffee) with a pair of nice jeans (raw denim only!)

4. 2 dress shirts – thinredline

I love dress shirts, in fact I wish I could wear them all the time. Just not practical.

Thinredline is actually overseas…but by the time you add shipping they are around the price of a good dress shirt hear in the states ($40). You only need two of them; white & light blue. You can add other colors once you get the basics taken care of…or if you constantly spill red sauce on them like I do. Red shirts rock…

5. 1 pair khaki – J Crew

You should only have one pair of khaki colored anything…anymore and you might be a borderline schizophrenic. Make sure they fit right, cut right above your shoes. Do not go with the bunched up look…then we know for sure you are schizophrenic.

6. Fountain pen/moleskin – Amazon

I put these items here mainly so that you can look like the pretentious jerk you really are.

On the outside people will think “What a nerd” but little do they know how wonderful it is to write with a fountain pen…joke is on them! Especially when you stab them in the eye with it for calling you a nerd.

7. Watch with with leather band – ebay

Leather band for dress/casual clothes…metal for idiots.

8. Golf lessons – Local Country Club

I know I know…but seriously…all the old guys and gals love golf. In order to get ahead of business you need to beat them into a pulp on the golf course…plus it is usually a great way to get out of work!

9. A good barber – Ask the older guys that you work with

The bowl cut is no longer is style…go with a classic business cut or something a little more modern but nothing crazy. Unless your business card says CEO on it no spikey anime haircut!

10. Kindle – Amazon

Without books and knowledge you are going to get nowhere. Get one of the new kindles and then download a bunch of business books that actually have good advice…unlike this blog…and then start doing what they say. Just a tip…The Art of War by Sun Tzu…it is not to be taken literally in the business world…that was a mess.

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I have been working on a secret project for some time now. I believe around December or January it will be ready to go. The whole process however has had me thinking a lot about focus.

To me focus is everything. Nothing great, nothing worthy of time has ever been done without focus.

We live in a world that pulls our attention in billions of directions and I think it does it on purpose. Whether consciously or unconsciously most of the world’s powers (government & private) don’t want you to focus too much.

You see focus creates change. Focusing on goals creates revolutions, in politics and in technology…whatever really. A man or woman focused entirely on a single goal is extremely powerful, those in power fear that.

Now it doesn’t have to be a giant change. For instance, I have decided to focus on my marriage for a time until I think it is at a level both my wife and I are happy about. Not that we expect to become completely happy, but that we both feel a certain level of respect and love. Every night, instead of just laying there and reading our own individual books…I started reading to her. (Yes she read to me as well from her book) The conversation that it spurred was amazing…and our marriage is better for it.  That amount of change…from just a little focus of time and energy on my wife…the ROI is astounding!

Other things that I have focused on recently have included:

1. Revenue growth in my territory (up quite a bit)

2. My weight (lost 15 lbs in 40 days)

3. My brain (Started reading the classics)

However.

I think my focus is still pulled in too many directions.

I read books about too many subjects. & watch too many things on netflix. For the most part…my life lacks a definite focus in terms of overall goals.

I give the excuse about being a “Renaissance man” , however, even though most of those guys studied lots of different topics, for the most part they had a main vocation that they channeled that knowledge into.

Painting, sculpture, philosophy…they usually had one vocation they worked on most passionately and then used the other information & knowledge they got from studying or experience to better their main focus.

So what does this all mean?

It means in order to be successful, in order to achieve, in order to bring home the golden fleece, or finish the good fight…one must have focus.

Any general knows that a bunch of haphazard attacks will do no good in the grand scheme of the battle.  An army must have specific targets of interest that they know will bring home victory. Take the head of an army out and the body will fall so to say.

We live in a world that wants us to be machine gunners, just enough focus to keep the battle going. God, your family, your friends and neighbors though…they want you to be a sniper – bringing change quickly and efficiently.

Ask yourself some questions:

What is my main focus in life?

What areas of my life could I make better if I focused on them?

What areas of other peoples lives could I make better if I focused on them?

What is one thing I enjoy that if I focused on it I would make a better world?

Have answers yet? It is really hard to come up with some of these. It took me about a month or two to answer those questions. It was well worth it and I am still narrowing down those answers.

I think my secret project will in the end give you a good idea of my focus. But, you are just going to have to wait for that *smirk*

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• Focus (combsy.com)
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• 21 Simplicity Tips from some of the Worlds Most Popular Bloggers. – Live Simply (livesimp.ly)
• Think less focus more – just focus on three things (faction3.com)

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