What I learned Golfing

I picked up golfing just under ten years ago. I gave up boating due to I no longer could just leave for the weekends with kids at home and with the price of gas it was becoming problematic filling the boat up. So I did what every good sales person does, pick up golf. Sure it would be good socializing and meeting new people (Sometimes after saying “Fore!”). I never expected to learn good business lessons.

Over the last decade I shaved some 20 strokes off my game. Not to worry, par is still not in jeopardy. In the beginning it was all about striking the ball consistently, square and with the right club. Over the last few years that became less of a worry. I had mastered the “basics” now what I was finding was that my game was inconsistent at best. I would have a round in the low 80’s then the next round on the same course was nearing 100! What was going on?

It is all mental. I would get bad shots in my head then proceed to repeating that bad shot because that is what I was thinking about when hitting the ball. I did a little reading on golf and decided what most professionals have is a process they go through.

First is consistent setup. How you approach the ball, looking to where you are going to hit the ball and what club to choose. Next and most importantly for me is visualizing the shot. How it was going to come off the club to where it was going to land and how it was going to bounce. These are the images I have before my best shots. Not to worry, I still get the bad ones in my brain and follow with another bad shot.

I think in business we do the same things. Sometimes we focus on the negatives. From the bad culture, to bad decisions and finally to not holding ourselves or people around accountable simply not being authentic with our communication. What we need to spend more time on as leaders is visualizing the future, paint a verbal picture of exactly what it looks like and giving that image to all the people involved so they know what to do on a daily basis to align with that vision.

Don’t under estimate the impact that vision can have on both your golf game or your business.

Caden is about to turn 14. While many kids that age have vision of driving real soon and so does he, he also has another vision. That is to own his own business. Really he already does. He talked about it visualized it so well it has just happened. While a 14 year old may not understand all the items needed for a successful business, he could teach us all a lesson (Which his mom is constantly trying to take back) and that is to fake it till you make it, push yourself daily and don’t be afraid to fail.

360 Fly Camera

The boys showed me the 360 videos on YouTube and ever since I have wanted one of those camera's. The 360 Fly is a HD 360 camera that is roughly the size of a baseball. Battery life is really good and the app for iPhone/Pad is decent. I don't like that you have to connect via the WiFi direct to camera. I assume this is due to the throughput and Bluetooth could not stream enough to keep up with the feed.

Click HERE for video

I recorded the above video just quickly to see how it looked. You may notice some water drops on the lens, yep it definitely is waterproof (I dropped into the pool and had to fish it out) Remember when watching the video above to look around. If you are on iPad or iPhone you can just move the screen around, if you are on PC just use the mouse.

Battery life is good, it is simple to use and a great start for 360 video. After I have some more time to use the unit I will update everyone.

Bose Soundlink III versus Bose Soundlink Mini II a suprising victor!

Lets just get the basics out of the way. The build quality and ease of use is BOSE so it is very good if not great. Simple to use, easy to pair and I really don't know why the provide a user manual. It is that easy to set up.

The Soundlink III is large and heavy for a portable speaker and has a retail price of $300. It sounds great and battery lasts all day. (14 hours according to BOSE however I have never needed to use it that long!)

One thing that the SoundLink Mini has that the regular Soundlink does not is a microphone. I find this nice because you can use the speaker as a speaker phone when paired with your cell phone. Nice for a conference call during meetings and such. (Be darn if I could find the information on Bose site that gives you that information)

The real news is the SoundLink Mini II. The sound is incredible, in fact I might suggest it is better than the full size Soundlink. After reading several reviews I am not the only person that feels that way. A quick tip is to put the unit in a corner and it enhances the bass output. (It can get a bit boomy sometimes depending on the room) I will say that Bose says 10 hours on the battery. At a high volume I would suggest you get 6-7 hours of battery.

The one area that Soundlink II exceeds is outdoors. I am guessing it is due to larger speakers which should produce a larger sound. So if you are mainly using this outdoor at a louder volume I would go with the larger Soundlink II. However let me be clear, the Soundlink II is much heavier, and much larger so you need to evaluate if you are traveling with it. I travel a lot with the Mini and have been very happy. Another item that is handy is the Mini charges with standard mini USB which I already have when traveling where if you travel with the Soundlink II it requires a special Bose connector.

Last is the accessories. The only one I have purchased is the Bose case for the Mini and I do recommend it. It is very protective, light weight, holds the power cord and is not a waste of space.

All in All I recommend the Mini for sound, portability and function. Only caveat is if you are needing longer battery or mainly outdoor use.