Latest / Author Hour / Solved in Seven Minutes: How Jim Sholler's Book Saved a Life and Un-Retired the Fixer

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Solved in Seven Minutes: How Jim Sholler's Book Saved a Life and Un-Retired the Fixer · Author Hour

• speaker-0: Don't get overwhelmed thinking about writing the book. Think about an outline. Think about your team. And you know, step one in my process is build a team. So, you know, that that works for this is okay, who's your team going to be? Because you don't want it to just be you. If you've never done it before, it's not going to be just you. Who's your team? You know, I had my my sister, some family, scribe. So okay, I I got my team. My step two is educate the team. In this case, the team was educate me. So it was a little different. And then work on, you know, the problem statement is create your problem statement is step three. In this case, it was the outline. Just take a month, you know, take however long you need the outline. Because writing the outline really kind of forces you to go, you keep revisiting and going back, you know, to find things. And it just winds up being a much fuller outline if you give it the time it deserves. speaker-1: Well, Jim, thank you so much for making the time and joining us. speaker-0: ⁓ thank you for having me. ⁓ it's a pleasure to be here. speaker-1: By by way of introducing the book, why don't you introduce yourself and just start with a little bit of background the lead up to the initial decision to write this? speaker-0: You bet. Thanks. So I as I say in the book, I I'll start at it kind of at birth. I was ⁓ I'll give you the short version, but I'm starting at birth. Basically, I I was always referred to as how come Scholler. I just I had to know. Anytime someone, you know, tried to propose a fact to me, I'd say, how come? How come? It drove my mother absolutely crazy. And that that kind of carried through, you know, high school, college into the workplace. And it evolved into organizing things. I I found that if I organized things and tried to sit back without an emotional take on things and just kind of put all the cards on the table, that I could get to the how come much faster. And that kind of evolved into this the brand I had at Fidelity where I was for 27 years as the fixer. You know, what when things broke. didn't matter if I had experience in it or not, they would pull me over and say, This isn't working. We need you to fix it. And the approach, you know, started from the beginning. It refined over time, which is what's in the book. But over time it basically became, okay, let's, you know, let's lay this out and figure out how come. And that's kind of what, you know, just how my brain has always worked. speaker-1: It it seems ⁓ in like reading your bio and background and everything, you're just you're like a real life fixer. Like your your job is just fix problems, figure things out. Can you give me a little more like what's what what are the most common things or what are some of the bigger problems you've solved? Like this sounds like a very fascinating almost like, you know, the wolf who shows up, but I assume it's not quite that dramatic. speaker-0: No, I mean it it was i you know, it was just something that I enjoyed doing. And it usually was first in more in the tech space where I wasn't a developer, but I was frequently doing either project management or managing IT resources and managing developers. And it it started in a frustration of wasted time and inefficiency. And it just amazed me to think that for all the brilliant technologists that Fidelity had, you realize that in school they're really not trained in formal problem solving. They might be analytical, but that's more from an engineering degree. And it it just was born out of frustration of seeing the time people were wasting. So I would start to kind of casually dig in, had to earn the respective people much more technological than me and really just start to, you know, figure out how to poke and prod and ask some questions. And eventually you you develop a reputation when something they've been working on for three days, you come in and after 30 minutes of of discussing it, they have a solution, you know, which started at kind of dismissing me, like, ⁓ you know, what what do you know about this? And 30 minutes later, it's like, son of a gun, you know, we figured this out. And, you know, so I then I just started to formalize it more and more over time. And I started to see the more I formalized it. The more I saw that there were applications, not just in technology, but across process, across people, you know, just dealing with human resource issues. So I'll give you a ⁓ kind of a cr an issue that crosses all three, which is one of my favorite. So you you asked for an example. So there's what I refer to as the the Ned said issue. So Ned Johnson was, you know, the founder, basically creator, brilliant, brilliant man of most of what Fidelity is known for. And we had the situation where I was brought into this meeting because we were going on weeks of people trying to solve this problem, where apparently Ned said that he wanted a specific page to be the default lockdown homepage for all of Fidelity employees. That was fine with most companies, but the company that was retail, which has 7,000 phone reps at the time, And they use a web-based application to do their job, said, absolutely not. They are literally all their training, everything has them, you know, finishing, hitting home, which takes them their homepage is the application for retail, not some welcome to you know, Fidelity today, here's the news for the day type of page. So they brought me in to say, you gotta fix this. We're at a stalemate, no one can figure out what to do. So I walked in and I said, okay, you know, what's what's the challenge here? Well, Ned said this has to be the lockdown homepage. So I said, okay, hold on. And they were all starting to argue after that. I said, hold on, hold on, hold on, time, time up. Does anyone have the memo or the email or anything from Ned so I can see the request in writing? Because anything you say up until you have demonstrable proof is a proposed fact. I needed to see the actual fact. So all these proposals are interesting, but where's the fact? So someone had to do some digging, and they went back and eventually found from Ned the request was actually, we would like to know that every employer, I want to know that every employee sees this homepage at least once a day. So I I've now I've been in this room, this meeting for about three minutes at this point. And I said, okay, so retail. Would you be willing to use a registry setting to have this page come up as the home page so that they see it first thing? And then they click home and they're back to where they are today. They just continue to do the job, but they will see that page. And retail said, yeah, absolutely. So I said, okay, it's been nice. speaker-1: I'll send you my bill. speaker-0: And I mean that was often, you know, when you just it it's amazing. I I tell people anywhere between seventy and ninety percent of problems are solved actually in the stage of verifying the facts, not even problem resolution, but verifying the facts. And that's what solves so many problems like that. speaker-1: That's a really interesting. It's ⁓ I I've spent a lot of time studying Elon Musk and he's, you know, of course has the algorithm and the first step of the algorithm is ⁓ make your requirements less dumb. And so I I s definitely see the rhyme of like, you know, when you closely examine the problem, it may not even exist, really. Exactly. speaker-0: I I've been reading the Book of Elonim halfway through it, and that was the first thing that resonated with me. I was like, yes, exactly. speaker-1: Amazing. Thank you. That's very cool. Very cool. Thank you. So so when did this become like a you know, you've you've been a a curious and an organizing person your whole life? When did it become like a formalized process for you? 'Cause that's what really the book is. The book is like your process that you run each time now that gives you this superpower. I I imagine it was sort of an organic evolution. Is that how it unfolded? speaker-0: That's exactly right. It it there was organic up to ⁓ moment. The the organic was, you know, twenty or maybe f yeah, about fifteen or so years of fidelity. And then but it was always just still like something I do at work. You know, I never really thought about how powerful it was. It was just I if anything, I was kind of glad that I had a thing that's gonna keep me at fidelity. You I'm gonna survive here because I got a thing, you know. And I actually did training to show other people because I I didn't want it to just be mine. I wanted other people to to see the benefit and and really my my war was on the inefficiencies of problem solving. So I I wanted to kind of train minions, but it was still just kind of a thing, a way I did things. In 2000. the aha moment happened, which is my wife had been as as I talk in chapter seven of the book, my my wife was dealing with a very, very rare bleeding disorder for 13 years. Her doctors were the head of hematology at the Dana Farber and Brigham and Women's in Boston, like the, you know, two of the best hematologists in the world. And they could not figure 13 years they couldn't figure out what it was. Wow. So finally one night they gave her an ill-advised plasma transfusion, which caused her to flatline. And they fortunately resuscitated her. And I came in the next morning and I said, So, you know, you you killed her last night. Fortunately you brought her back. So, you know, now what do we do? And they said, Well, we're going to test for factor 13, which is hemophilia. And I it just it the aha moment hit me like a brick on the head. They're trained in diagnosis, not problem solving. And I think it was the the organic growth of it in finally having the confidence that wait a sec, I know how to do this better than they do. They're doctors, but they don't know how to problem solve. So I said, guys, I I need a whiteboard and a marker, and I'm taking over. And they said, sure. And they got me a whiteboard, got me a marker. And the the ⁓ the title of the book comes from the fact that after 13 years of of failure, seven minutes into the discussion. we had a diagnosis. And that's really when I realized, all right, this this process works. I at some point when I leave Fidelity, I need to document this, you know, I have to I have to write this down for, you know, for my own good and for others. speaker-1: Yeah. Well ⁓ i impossible not to ask. What happened in those seven minutes? speaker-0: So it was exactly the the process in that I go through in the book. ⁓ you know, so build the the first step is, you know, build a team, train the team, you i just to gain some credibility, explain to them how the process is going to work, ⁓ state the problem. So we we clearly stated the problem. Then you just go through, you draw a T structure and you list the facts and the questions. So the the facts that we had were that she had surgery or major blunt trauma, like a ski accident. on these certain dates that she had listed. And she had meticulous records. Then on the right, we listed next to each of those dates, we listed when she had massive internal hemorrhaging, which was her bleeding, not external, it's only internal massive hemorrhaging. And I said, okay, these these are all facts. Then you always have to go back and confirm, does everyone do all your experts agree to these facts? Yep. We we agree. So then I said, okay, now we'll we'll do math. Math math is an acceptable fact. Every the difference between every one of these dates is two and a half to three months. So you keep now we get to the question part. You keep testing for hemophilia, which is a month one issue. When you bleed, you have to clot. We have nothing that indicates that she has a clotting problem. There is no sense to spend more than seven seconds on a clotting problem. So here's a question, and I wrote up on the whiteboard, what happens in month three? of the clotting ⁓ process or the you know the healing process. And they said, well, so we're you know, we're four minutes into the discussion now. And they said, well, in month three, you have to dissolve the clot. And if you don't, your body will have you'll have massive clotting, you'll have strokes, you have risks of clots going to your lungs and things like that. So I said, okay. You know, for for the record, we're we're about four minutes in, and this is the first time in thirteen years that anyone has ever mentioned the word dissolving to me. Just just thought I'd put that out there. So then I erased everything and I said, new fact, and in month three, the body has to dissolve the clot. So now my questions. What does the body need? What and again, I'm not a medical professional, so I don't enzymes, proteins, sugars, ⁓ what does the body produce to dissolve a clot? And they said, Well, you you produced plasminogen activator, which is PA, and plasminogen activator inhibitor, which is PAI one. And at that point, to to shorten the version, they said, At this point, you're beyond what we know. You need to go speak to this expert in Michigan who discovered all of this. A little bit of luck plays into problem solving too. He this gentleman interned under them in Boston. And that's why they're familiar with his with his work. So they sent us out to him. We met him, and he was able to diagnose that my wife has a plasminogen activator inhibitor deficiency, which is only known to exist in the Amish and the Mennonites. And her family were ⁓ Germans that fled to Switzerland to the town of Tamins, converted to be Mennonites for one or two generations. The ⁓ the genetic mutation started in the town of Tammins where her family lived. Then they moved to the US, converted to Christianity and and went on. But sadly genes don't care what religion you are. So yeah. And it's completely it is manageable, not treatable. In other words, you you can't eliminate it. But when it happens, she takes a certain amount of pills and it has been a complete non-event speaker-1: ⁓ speaker-0: Her her medical bills in two thousand were over a million dollars, and it is now a complete non-event. speaker-1: Wow. And and like no no ongoing no no change of ⁓ sort of life expectancy or anything like that. speaker-0: I if every year I continue to research in AI to see what new discoveries there are. And it's funny you ask that because the most recent research actually potentially l it's hard to research because it's so rare. I mean, like eight people at any given time have it. But just logically they're starting to link it to increased longevity because it prevents clotting, which in older years can actually be a major problem. speaker-1: ⁓ which causes yeah strokes and yeah. Yeah ⁓ exactly. speaker-0: Yeah. Wow. So if anything, it's actually linked to it might be it might turn out to be her superpower. And I mean, we went through being blamed for doing this. ⁓ the the stories I put in the book, chapter seven, I put chapter seven in, which is very personal, but I wanted it to be the compelling chapter that makes people say, Holy crap, there's this it was okay up until now. Like, yeah, maybe I'll use it, maybe I won't. But holy crap, this like I know someone who has a medical issue. I want those people using this to help them. speaker-1: Yeah. Well, y ⁓ if I was your editor, I'd say make that chapter one, but you know, that ship has sailed a few years ago. General rule of thumb that just, you know, open with your best open with your hit, your biggest song. ⁓ don't make ⁓ wait for chapter seven for the good stuff. But that's that's for anybody listening who's writing a book now. Not you know, if you've already written your book, just just ignore me. Interesting. Okay, so This is th thank you for explaining that and and telling that story. And kudos to you for putting in the personal hard thing because that is what really hits home and that's what, you know, makes this w when someone has an issue like this makes this the most important book they can possibly read. And that is a really that's a powerful place for a book to occupy. And a method like this can change lives and ⁓ good on you for going so far on your way to, you know, and investing in in putting it out into the world. It it it casts I'm I'm casting into sharp relief my inability to solve problems at the moment. And I'm like, yeah, this is it is really fascinating how given that it's it's all we do is basically wake up and deal with problems every day. The fact that it's never part of any curriculum, it's not just a medical school problem. It's a it's an everything problem. We should be learning being trained in problem solving techniques since we're five years old, but doesn't have to have yet to attend that class. speaker-0: I I've always said if you if you want to choose a marketplace that will never expire, will never be outdated, ⁓ solving problems, the the universe just continues to throw them at us every day. speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ David Deutsch has ⁓ two kind of etched in stone maxims which are problems are inevitable and problems are solvable. Like it's you know, the this is th th there's a great piece that comes with that as as your personal mantra. It's like don't be mad at the problem. There there's always gonna be a problem, but the good news is, you know, you'll solve it and or at least it's solvable. speaker-0: Well, and that's you know what part of what having the confidence to to so the book really forced me to put the the process in place, test it. I actually went back to work afterward. I I thought I was retired, but I went back to work because after writing the book, it was not only cathartic, but it kind of had me s you know, pumping to go back to work and prove that it it actually works. And that's a big thing when you when you have confidence that you can solve. problems, you're not, you don't fear anything. You know, we we do all kinds of things in life and people say, well, what if this happens? What if that happens? And I always laugh and I go, I'll figure it out. There's not I don't I don't lose sleep over what if. Why would you worry about what if if you can deal with everything? speaker-1: Yeah, the next the next problem is solvable. Tell me about the writing process, 'cause th this is this is an interesting one in that you sort of it was such an organic evolution and I imagine it's very difficult to put something that's so intuitive and organic down. That translation into black and white is sometimes very challenging. speaker-0: Absolutely. I mean the the you know with the the quintessential plug for for scribe here is I you know I could not have done it. I there there's just no way. I had some good advisors. My my sister, Gub Lester, was just, you know, absolutely critical. ⁓ she was the one who gave me the the first feedback here, read the first draft and said, ⁓ are you writing a memoir or do you want to train people? And I said, No, no, no, it's not a memoir. And she goes, All right, we have to start over. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So that, you know, then I I work with Scribe and the just the the editors and the advisors, everything was invaluable. What one of the key things that you think about, and I've seen people mention it in other of your other hour podcasts, is the the champagne moment. You know, and they tell you it it's not in terms of dollars, it's not in terms of book sales, you know, what makes you jump up and down? And for me it was easy to answer. I I have to write this book, and the thing that will make me jump up and down is the first person who contacts me to say, hey, I read your book and it helped us solve this major medical issue. And I'm happy to say I've actually had that happen with someone who saved their father in law's life. Wow. You know as a as a married male to to pull the the card out where you save your father in law's life, you're like, you're golden after that. That's you can't do better than that. speaker-1: Yeah, you're looking forward to Thanksgiving at that point. You know, this is you know Toast to me again? Okay, fine. ⁓ speaker-0: So that was really just helping me ⁓ you know, the the book process, it was everything. It was not only writing, which I'm not a writer, you know, it was it was ⁓ putting me into a an area I'm uncomfortable doing, which I wanted to do. I wanted to challenge myself to do something I've never done before. And it really helped me. That part became actually less of a challenge than the challenge of You know, can I remember everything that I did with this and how I did it and all the tricks and you know, that became the hard but the writing part with with you guys helping me, it was it was easy. speaker-1: Fantastic. That's ⁓ that's not everybody's story, but I'm glad to hear it. And that is I mean, our big mission is to just remove the friction, like unlock the books that are in so many heads like yours after an incredible career and all of this, you know, important information obtained. Because I'm sure a lot of what you learned you picked up by by reading the books that, you know, people had written before you. And so just contributing back to that pool is I think I think a moral duty, actually. speaker-0: Absolutely. I mean, there were things that my my editor suggested, you know, here at the at the end of this chapter, you know, you kind of want to recap it. That was the biggest thing for me was ri the recap. You know, I because it I I d I'm I'm verbose when I speak, but when I write, I I write nothing. And so it seemed it seems redundant to me to recap. So I I took her advice. I you know, I do this kind of recap, then I step away for, you know, a day, I go back and read it, and I'm like, wow, this is really good. This is she real like I'm so glad I did that because it's really good. speaker-1: Yeah. That's a it's a good feeling when you are when your present self is proud of your past self's work. It doesn't always go that way, but that's a good sign that you're making progress. Were there any other, you know, surprises or just unexpected good things that have come as a result of this book being out there? As we record this, we're little more than four years out for launch for context. The book's incredibly well reviewed, but I hope you've had some good some good instances that have come from readers. speaker-0: So yeah, I mean the I think probably the you know, one of the biggest things for me was the using it as a cr when I as I said, I finished it, I had to go back to work now. So, you know, I I go back to work and I mentioned the book in the interview process. I can't say it it got me the job, but it definitely helped. But that wasn't really the biggest part. I I thought that would be the biggest part, like, well, the book done, you know, helped me get the junk. But then I started to work and it was to build a problem management team and put the process in place. So I had the team read the book. You know, we I did the training based on the book. And the I never really thought about kind of the author credential that comes with that, you know. And I don't ⁓ I just I I'm not helpful because I was never a writer saying, you know, well, I'm an author, you know, I wrote a book. It was more, you know, very kind of casual, you know, I I I am so passionate about this. I wrote this book. You might want to take a look at it. And people would come back in and be like, ⁓ my God. So how are we? And now they're looking at me to say, so you tell us, how are we implementing this? What what are we going to do? How do like this is great. What do we do? So I to be able to, you know, to write it, put it down, and then to be able to use that to, you know, as a as a leverage to go forward and build credibility was I I just had not really even thought about that. speaker-1: Yeah. It's it's very interesting. As you described that, I'm I'm also thinking about how it's kind of ⁓ it breaks up this like potential ego log jam. What when you're sitting there, when you're telling somebody what to do or how it's supposed to be done, there's that kind of weird, like hierarchical thing. I hate telling people what to do. I I I don't like it. And ⁓ when you when you have the ability to just sort of hand them a book or refer them to a book, you'd be like, Look, I I wrote everything I know down, all my experiences, all my stories, all my frameworks. It's in this book. They can kind of go off on their own and and make it their own. ⁓ and and sort of come back and say, I agree with this framework. I want to implement it, but there's not this sense of like, you know, sit down, I'm gonna tell you how it is, we're gonna do it my way. It's like, look, I just I put it in writing, I put it in black and white, and you know, we can have a discussion about this, this object, this, you know, what what's down there, sort of you and me together against this, which is also the thing Rick Rubin talked about. He's I don't wanna talk about your creative ideas, I wanna I wanna hear the thing that you made and then we can t talk about the th how to change the thing. speaker-0: Right, right, exactly. speaker-1: Yeah. So how was it going back to work? How long was your was your encore? speaker-0: It's so it was supposed to I was gonna start my own consulting business. So I've never done that before. I always worked for you know large companies. So I was gonna start my own consulting business. So I figured I I don't have much of a network because everyone I knew worked at Fidelity. So I said, well, let me find a company looking for a problem manager and I'll apply for the job. And I in the application from LinkedIn, I took a lesson from the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza realizes that he needs to do the opposite of his, you know, of his intuition every time. So cause it's always been wrong his whole life. So I should do the opposite. So at the end of the application, I said, I really don't want this job. And I went on to explain that, you know, I want to start consulting. So I will join for six months. I know what you need to do. I'll put the pro I'll hire the people. I'll put the process in place. I'll put the technology in place with service now. And I'll get you set up and then after six months, I'm done. And I just hit submit and kind of laughed and said, Well, I'll never hear from them. And then the next morning they called me back in in true just stanza format and said, You know, I we really want to talk to you. And so had a discussion. They convinced me to join full time, not to do contracting. And I said, All right, you know, what what's the harm? I I could do a year. And after a year, I said, What's the harm? You I'll I'll do two years. I really like it here. And it wound up being two and a half years. And then I said that that's it, we're moving to Spain. I'm retiring. We're I'm done. So it was two and a half years and it was a great experience. We solved a significant number of major enterprise wide ⁓ issues affecting their global clients that people weren't resolving for years. And in matters of minutes we were we were knocking these things out. It was very rewarding. speaker-1: Wow. Yeah. Unbelievable. ⁓ yeah, I would think you'd you'd have the world beating a path to your door. How how did you decide to use Scribe when you w what was the journey, you know, you from the idea from from book to manuscript to publisher? Like I I imagine that that took a few years. What was the process there? speaker-0: Yes, so it's f it was just referral. So people I was talking to a a gentleman who continued on after I took the early ⁓ voluntary buyout from Fidelity. I was talking with one of my friends who would still have Fidelity and he said, What are you going to do? And I said, Well, you know, it he knows I'm not one to just go hit golf balls all day. You know, I I gotta do something. So I said, Well, ⁓ you know, it's a lot of people I'm sure this probably comes up a lot in in your podcast. I had told people the story about my wife so many times and people would always it would always end with ⁓ my God you have to write a book. Yep. So when I was leaving Fidelity and my friend said, What are you going to do? I said, Well apparently I have to write a book. So that's that's what I'm going to do. So he said, and it was kind of half jokingly and he said, well he had a friend, I forget the friend's name unfortunately, but he had a friend who had worked with Scribe and he said his friend could not speak highly enough about it. You have to check them out. So that was really I I looked into it. I loved everything I saw, had my first meeting and it just it went from there. Nine months later I was I was published. speaker-1: No higher compliment, by the way, than a friend telling you, ⁓ my god, you should write a book. You know, the ⁓ th they're not throwing that around too too lightly. That's that's fantastic. Did you start writing on your own? Or did you wait until you had the publishing figured out? Okay. So just you just sat down and cranked? speaker-0: I had I I started I wrote again, I just by the way my brain works. I I can't say I started writing, I started outlining, you know, and really doing an outline of how is this going to look, how is this going to flow. Then when I started to work with Scribe, it kind of, you know, some of the the training kicked in. So it it kind of all came together right when it had to. That like, you know, I could spend two years working on this O line. It's like, dude, start writing. ⁓ speaker-1: It's so much less stressful to write bullet points than to write prose. Yeah. Yeah. And then you had to you kind of make that that adjustment from your sister to be like, all right, we gotta we gotta pick a path here, whether it's memoir or or instruction with you know some personal anecdotes. W from that frame of mind, but and how long did how long was that process between when you were maybe wrote the first sentence of your outline and and published your book? speaker-0: So it was it was published nine months after I retired from Fidelity. So it was probably only about seven months to actually start writing. And it was kind of what one month I'm not doing anything. One month I'm going to, you know, work on start outlining this. At the end of that, started to connect with Scribe and then it was seven months and done. speaker-1: Yeah, that's a that's a that's a quick path. You're as advertised, an effective, an effective man. Thinking of that time period, do you have advice for people who are in that position right now who are kind of like, Man, people keep telling me I should write a book. I don't really know where to start. Seems like an intimidating mountain to climb. How do you solve that problem? speaker-0: Yeah. I would I I I can only speak to what what worked for me, but I would recommend really to anyone else is the if you haven't done it before, sitting down to write a book is the analogy I use. It's kind of like someone walking into your kitchen with one of these Super Bowl six foot long heroes or hoagies, depending on where you're from. And you can look at that and go, ⁓ my God, I can't eat that whole thing. And the speaker-1: ⁓ I I can I I'm not afraid of it. I can eat a six foot hoagie. Yeah, I'm not like Just turn the lights off, leave me alone with this thing, I'll take care of it right now. speaker-0: You have to come all right. First, you know, we we need a methodology here. We're gonna cut it into pieces. We might have to invite some people over, you know. And that that's really, you know, kind of don't don't get overwhelmed thinking about writing the book. Think about an outline. Think about your team. And you know, step one in my process is build a team. So, you know, that that works for this is okay, who's your team going to be? Because you don't want it to just be you. If you've never done it before, it's not going to be just you. Who's your team? You know, I had my my sister, some family, scribe. So okay, I I got my team. My step two is educate the team. In this case, the team was educate me. So it was a little different. And then work on, you know, the problem statement is create your problem statement is step three. In this case, it was the outline. Just take a month, you know, take however long you need the outline. Because writing the outline really kind of forces you to go. You keep revisiting and going back, you know, to find things and it just winds up being a much fuller outline if you give it the time it deserves. speaker-1: Love it. Fantastic. And then from the outline, once you shifted into writing mode, it just kind of just kinda happened. Did you use dictation or tools or anything like that? Did you sc structure your schedule? What what was it like tactically? speaker-0: No, I t I'm a a ⁓ I pride myself on my typing ability. So I I typed it, but my approach was I and I think that scribe is the is where I got the advice of something along the lines of a hundred words a day should be your target. You know, don't think you're gonna write the book tomorrow. And so I did two things that were critical for me. One is I had a a ⁓ definite limitation, no matter where I was in my head, I had a definite limitation. on roughly about a hundred w I think it was a hundred words per day. speaker-1: It might be a thousand. speaker-0: First house, maybe it was a thousand, yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah. So a thousand words are there, definitely definitely a thousand, sorry. So I ⁓ after a thousand, I would stop, but then the next key thing was every and I I don't know if this is for many people, but every day when I started, I started from the beginning of chapter one and read all the way up to where I was. And by the time I got to where I last left off. my hands were just the keyboard was smoking. And I, you know, next thing I knew, I was done with a thousand words. And it was only, you know, an hour and a half or two hours later. And I I tried that one day and it worked. And literally I did that for seven months. And then I was done. Wow. speaker-1: ⁓ interesting. That's a great technique. I love that. I hope we taught that to you. I don't remember if we did or not, but I love that technique and I'm gonna tell other people about it. speaker-0: Yeah. I I've I've read the book a painful number of times now. speaker-1: Yeah, it's it's it's part of it. It's you know, you th I I think there's somewhere where you can tell when some authors haven't really read their own book. And there's some authors I talk to that they go to read their audio book and they're like, ⁓ my god, I'm catching all these mistakes. Is ⁓ it's why we're recommend everybody do a read out loud edit because when you slow down and when you read it out loud, you force yourself to articulate each word, you you really evaluate each word through a new lens where your eyes just like skim over it, especially on a computer. If you're never if you've never printed it out, you'll catch more things. And then if you're reading it, you'll catch more things. But it's just you know, a matter of reps. So you you gotta read the thing a lot of times, a surprising number of times. Jim, this has been amazing. I feel like I could I could interrogate you for hours and keep unpacking this. I wanna hear all the stories. I wanna osmosis your your life's experience into my head so that I become a better problem solver. But I suppose that's what the book is for. So I'm gonna go buy the book and read it and try to become a better person. I appreciate you very much. Where should people follow you, check you out? attempt to unretire you again anywhere you'd send people other than ⁓ the book of course, which is Solved in Seven, the Power of Disciplined Problem Solving. speaker-0: Yeah. So thank you for sending people there. And the easiest way to contact me at this point is just solved in seven the with the number seven, not the word, solved in seven at gmail.com. And I'll get any I get any notifications from there immediately and I usually respond within hours. speaker-1: Okay. Solved in seven at gmail dot com. Fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this book and to talk with us today. And I look forward to bringing you a success story of applying your method in the years to come. speaker-0: Excellent, thank you so much. I'm gonna go finish reading the book of Elon now.