Thread by @roncaruthers

1. On getting stuff done:

My daughter is currently trying to rework her major at Berkeley and get a double major.

And she's a little frustrated because her academic advisor is not getting back to her, and she has a time sensitive decision.

So, she asked for some advice:

2. The specifcs aren't as important as the attitude I've learned to approach things with, which is what I'll lay out here:

She was waiting for ONE advisor to get back to her.

With a 30 second search, I found 3 OTHER advisors that she could reach out to,

3. Including 2 of the first advisor's bosses.

I not only found their emails, but their direct lines as well, AND for one of them, I even found a Zoom link for open office hours starting in 10 minutes, which I told her to get on.

Her question:

Which one should I do?

4. Answer:

ALL of them until you get what you need.

THAT is the lesson.

She was getting frustrated waiting for one person to get back to her, and my advice was to hit up EVERYBODY by email AND calls until someone gets back to her with the answer you want.

5. Occasionally, I will upset someone who feels overlooked, and I apologize for that, if I need to.

BUT, FAR more often I end up with a problem solved the way I want much, much more quickly that it would have been if I was waiting on one person.

6. Dan Kennedy once said: 'If your business is having trouble, make a list of 10 potention things you could do to solve it.

And then do ALL 10 AT THE SAME TIME until the problem is completely solved, never to bother you again.

7. It was good advice then when he gave it,

and it's good advice now.

Remember, the key phrase is to work on everything at once until the problem is solved,

NOT one thing at a time....wait....and then another thing.....wait somemore, etc, until you're old.

Nope.

8. ALL of it at once.

Patience IS a virtue with some things.

With business, it usually isn't.

/end