One of the famous scenes from JR Tolkein’s book series “The Lord of the Rings” is when Frodo the Hobbit is talking with Gandalf the Wizard about his quest to destroy the ring of power.  Frodo remarks that he wishes the ring had not come to him, and that it was not his burden to bear.  To this, Gandalf replies that Frodo’s sentiment is shared by all people who face difficult times.  But the times you live are not for you to decide.  All that we can decide is what to do with the time we are given.

This scene is very metaphoric for the current economic environment that has left many people wishing for better days or complaining about the burdens of a floundering economy.  It is a time where painful changes are being forced on the populace by market realities and government fiat.  However, we as individuals are not give a choice about the times we live in.  The only choice that any of us really have is about what to do with the time that we are living.

As such, it logically follows that we should seek to focus on the parts of our life that we can actually control.  Said another way, we should concentrate our thoughts and actions on our sphere of influence instead of our sphere of awareness or sphere of concern.  This isn’t to say that we should ‘check out’ from the world . . . knowledge of the local, national, and global marketplace is all a part of making decisions within our sphere of influence.  However, most of us would be well served by resigning our self-appointed post as “General Manager of the Universe” and concentrating our efforts on the pieces of our world that we can control.

Part and parcel to this is the understanding that your life is shaped by our decisions.  Both our good decisions and our bad decisions impact the course of our life.  Most of us seek to take credit for all of our decisions that turn out good, and seek somebody to blame when things take a downward turn.  We want to blame the government, big business, the Fed, or just about anybody else we can.  However, the fact still remains that the investments we chose went down in value.  We didn’t know they would go down … otherwise we wouldn’t have bought it.  Before we can make much progress in our lives, we mus take ownership of the decisions that we make.

The hidden wisdom of this change in perspective is that it actually bestows more personal power.  When we are faced up against a big nameless power, we can easily succumb to a feeling of inevitable helplessness.  However, when our focus shifts to the things that we can control, it puts an entirely different spin on the time that we are given in our lives.  We may not be able to control and influence everything, but we can learn to make the most of what we are able to influence and let go of the things that are out of our control.

It is only by learning to look past what is out of our control that we can learn to focus on what is within our control.  The way that we make the most of the time that we are given is by doing the most with what we can control.  In the end, each of us has a supreme choice to make.  That choice is how we choose to spend the time that we are given to live on the earth.  The quality of our time will depend on the decisions and choices that we make.  It is incumbent upon each individual person to choose wisely.

 

Testing is one place that touches on many of the agile marketer’s practices including measurement, content development, and goal setting. I asked Rose Holston of Aviso Communications to answer some of the main questions marketers have when starting down the path toward implementing an agile online testing program.

Testing is the single most important skill you’ll develop as an agile marketer.

Testing is not hard. Becoming a testing organization is. The act of setting up a simple test requires you to increase your proficiency in a number of areas; proficiencies that are crucial for progressive, data-driven marketing. For example, managing the IT department is an important proficiency.

To be successful, you need a plan. To execute that plan, every decision should be backed up with quantitative results that help evolve the plan. The more specific you get about the outcome you are trying to affect, the more you will learn from testing. There are three basic questions to be addressed.

1. Why will we test?
2. What do we test?
3. How do we test it?

Why Will I Test?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

In order to understand the power of testing, start with a picture or baseline of what is happening today. Take a snapshot of the past 30 days.

Where are visitors coming from?

When are they visiting more often?

Did they leave right away or did they visit multiple pages?

Did they take the actions I expected?

There are several easy-to-use tools and services that are useful in delivering answers.

• Google Analytics: It provides statistics about the visitors coming to your website, where they come from, the content they visited, and if they took the actions you intended.
• Search rank reporting: This tells you where your pages rank for specific keyword phrases.
• Paid search campaigns: This is a great tool to drive traffic to your website, and helps you to test messaging and develop landing pages that work.
• Bit.ly: This URL shortener is a great tool to not only shorten URLs but to measure click-through rates for links you have to external websites.

What Do I Test?

Think about outcomes.

Once you have a baseline, or that first picture, you can make assumptions about what to change and which enhancements can be made on your website pages.

Think in terms of numbers. Analytics provide some high-level statistics that give us clues to areas that need improvement.

Bounce Rate

A bounce rate determines if a visitor leaves after viewing only one page on your site. Pages with high bounce rates may be chasing visitors away.

Exit Percentage

Like the bounce rate, the exit percentage tells us which pages visitors tend to leave from. Although visitors may be leaving a particular page in large numbers, be careful in making quick assumptions. Visitors may be getting what they were looking for.

Conversion Rate

A “conversion” is the completion of an action you want a visitor to take. This could be a downloading a paper, submitting a form, buying, etc.

How Do I Test It?

Execute the plan over and over again.

A test plan organizes your day much like a marketing plan or editorial calendar. Test planning evolves as you learn more about the behaviors of your target audience and bump up against your own resource and budget constraints. Keep in mind that test plans are an excellent tool for reporting results to the C-suite. Testing just may get you more resources and budget.

A test plan has five major components.

Hypothesis

The “what” and “why” questions are answered by how you think the outcome may be affected.

Implementation

Define the details of the test. Include images of the creative in this section.

1. Control: A control is what you are measuring against. This is the current creative, or the winner of a previous test.
2. Treatment(s): Constitute what you are going to test against the control. For example, you may be testing multiple e-mail subject lines against your original control subject line.

Use of a control and treatment doesn’t imply a split testing strategy, in which traffic is sent equally to two different pages. You can also do serial testing, in which you post changes one after the other, measuring the increase or decrease in performance after each. Serial testing doesn’t require split testing software, though it still requires the discipline to review results and roll back to a previous version if changes reduce results.

Measurement Plan

Decide which metrics you’ll use to determine if your hypothesis is true. This is your baseline picture.

Results

Estimating how long to run a test depends on your current traffic and the number of conversions you generate. You must reach a point of statistical significance. Once you have defined a timeframe to run the test, you will record your results against the measurement plan. The test has now taken shape.

Analysis

Your measurement plan and results are the picture that becomes a story that you can now put into words. At this stage, we speculate on “why” visitors reacted in the way they did.

This process documents a complete “Kaizen” exercise. Kaizen means “good change.” Your goal is to define potential “good changes” that will instruct the next series of tests. On paper, your story reads like a novel, each test becomes a chapter in the book. Your expectations should be open as the purpose of your hypothesis is to prove or disprove what you think will happen.

Note: An agile marketer will always expect the unexpected.

All great efforts run into resistance. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried to implement tests and what barriers you’ve come up against.

Article source: ClickZ

 

The current economic and political environment is one that has become increasingly polarized.  News continues to come in about a building US government debt spiral that is running a very real risk of destroying the international prominence of US dollars in the global marketplace.  There are serious problems on the horizon if large efforts are not made soon.

In response to this situation, people react predictably according to their political persuasion.  Those of a left-leaning persuasion exhibit a noted tendency to blame all economic problems on President Bush, high-income earners, and foreign military operations.  Similarly, those of a right-leaning persuasion are more likely to blame President Obama, and government spending.  However, there is a key principal that people on both sides frequently miss.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that all of the nation’s problems are the responsibility of George Bush / Barack Obama.  (Pick whichever name makes you feel more vindicated)  Now that we have “proven” who is responsible for all of the country’s problems, what are you going to do next?  In response to this question, most people will trail off into some manner of semi-coherent mumbling about fiscal policy, national priorities, or some other form of rehearsed phrases.  Moreover, this narrative completely misses the point of the question.  Most people get so wrapped up in what they think other people should do, that they completely lose focus on what they should be doing.

Thus, the important question for people to ask themselves is not whose fault the problems are, or even what the government is going to do about it.  The wheels turning those cogs will continue to spin with or without our constant attention.  The prescient question for each person to ask themselves is what they are doing for their own future and that of their family.  What decisions will you make right now that create a future of happiness and prosperity?  What sacrifices are you willing to make now for the sake of your future?  Are you prepared to rely on yourself when cuts to government services become unavoidable?

The answer to this question will frame the future of your personal, professional, and financial life.  The difference between informed achievers and self-indulgent whiners is the propensity to take action.  What action are you going to take today?  Are you going to start a business to create an additional stream of income?  Are you going to build an investment portfolio to gain greater control over your financial future?  The exact decision that you make is less important than making a decision and taking action.

In the end, each person is ultimately responsible for the well being of themselves and their family.  The government has made more promises than can possibly be financed, so dramatic changes of one stripe or another are inevitable.  That’s not politics, its math.  Smart players in the game of life will focus on the decisions that enable them to gain greater control over their personal, professional, and financial life.  The unfortunate truth is that there are many undesirable things in the world that we have no ability to control.  Excessively worrying about them only serves to distract our attention away from the actions and decisions that bring us closer to control over our own future. It is certainly worthwhile to stay up to date on the events of the day, but study them from the perspective of a person who takes thoughtful action.  This will train your mind to see opportunity so that it can be captured with intelligent action.

 

Now that the 2010 election has (mostly) concluded, there are a few decisive trends that have emerged.  The most prominent is an abrupt shift in the balance of power for the house of representatives away from the incumbent Democrats to a new class of Republican candidates.  In addition to this, there have been many governorships that have changed hands.

There is a risk that many in the Republican party will misread this in the same way that Democrats misread their electoral victories in 2006 and 2008.  Namely that the votes were not so much for the Republicans as they were against the entrenched Democrat power structure.  There is a market sentiment across the country that the size and scope of government has grown out of control.

For many decades, political power in Washington DC has been a simple function of channeling lobbying funds, pork, and payoffs to the political allies of whomever controlled the legislative houses.  Public anger over this culture of irresponsibility and corruption has reached an unprecedented level.  A part of the trend that emerged yesterday was an artifact of the fact that the US electorate is largely center-right in nature, meaning that they will ultimately reject excessive intrusion into their lives from either end of the political spectrum.  The most prominent effect that unfurled was the notion that when a particular political party does not deliver on its promises for fiscal reform, it will be summarily removed from office.

Stagnation in the Midst of Change

One of the other truths that have emerged from the election is a return to reality for the states where the entrenched power structure is too strong for real change to emerge.  In my home state of Oregon, our prior balance of four liberal congressmen, one liberal senator, and a lone republican representative held through the election with absolutely no change at all.  Furthermore, the opportunity for the state to elect its first Republican governor since the early 1980′s was also destroyed as the state opted to re-elect a former two-term governor who presided over the construction of our states current fiscal mess.  The election of change produced no meaningful change in the state where I reside.

At artifact of Oregon’s vote by mail election system is the fact that it is extremely difficult to adequately control against vote fraud, since the state does not validate citizenship for newly registered voters.  Since the secretary of state office is firmly in control of the incumbent party, it is impossible to get a fair audit of the state election system.  It is quite ironic that in a gubernatorial race that was decided by less than 10,000 votes, there were approximately 90,000 votes from (left leaning) Multnomah county that were mysteriously dropped off just before voting was closed.  In the end, there will always be some areas that resist the change that is necessary because the entrenched power structure is so strong that it cannot be overcome.

So What Happens Now?

It is my sincere hope that the election of reform minded representatives results in a return to Fiscal sanity for the United States.  However, each of us is still ultimately responsible for our own prosperity, regardless of who wins or loses elections.  It is always important to understand what is happening in the financial and political environment so that we can plan our decisions from a standpoint of knowledge.  However, it is equally important to avoid over-reacting to political trends (both positive and negative).   The person responsible for your future is and always will be you.

 

In our current era of expanding government, there has been a dramatic resurgence of anti-establishment sentiment that seeks to fight against the powers in charge of government.  Ironically, the people who were most vocal in opposition of the government during the 1960′s have risen to positions of power and are now the target of opposition by people who don’t appreciate the dramatic escalation of government that has occurred over the last 40 years, capped off by the near-complete abandonment of traditional checks and balances in a deterministic quest to pass actions like a government takeover of health care in clear opposition to the will of the people.

These actions have been followed up by an even more insulting move to appoint many “Czar” positions that are declared to be “advisory” so that they do not require confirmation by the US Senate.  This rapid proliferation of people who answer only to the White House has many people afraid that the power obsession demonstrated by the current administration will steadily erode our freedoms and liberty until the United States becomes a totalitarian state.

The primary group that has emerged in opposition to this government power seizure is known as the “Tea Party” movement.  Strident defenders of the status quo and those with a vested interest in perpetuating the expansion of government influence have made many attempts to marginalize the Tea Party as a fringe group with no influence or tar it with vague accusations of “racism” or some other bland criticism of the government elitists.  The thing that these people need to realize is that even if they don’t agree with all of the Tea Party policy positions, their blatant disregard for the will of the people has created a movement that will not simply go away on its own.

The so-called ‘leaders’ who were trusted with power have used it to enrich themselves and now the very people who are expected to pay for their largess have simply declared ‘enough’.  As the influence of government continues to expand, the number of people who show discontent over the political structure will continue to grow.  People are beginning to realize that the system will not correct itself.  The entrenched interests will not simply walk away from their gravy train.  The only way remaining for the people to reclaim their nation is to fight the power of government elitists.

The flawed thesis that guided past protesters in the 1960′s who were “fighting the power” was a notion that everything would be better if only the “right” people were in charge.  (Namely, them)  The truth is that the ONLY way our nation can return to its past greatness is if people are in charge of themselves.  The fatal conceit of all intellectual elitists is that they become delusional over their intelligence and believe that it entitles them to control the lives of others “for their own good”.  This delusion is the fundamental underpinning of every totalitarian regime in the history of mankind and continues to be a one-way road to despotism.  The only way for any movement toward freedom to be enduring is for its ultimate goal to be one of liberating people from control, instead of shifting the type of control that is imposed.

 

In many endeavors of life, there are clear ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’  This is especially true in the world of corporations and financial markets.  In most situations, we tend to favor ‘results oriented’ decisions that promote people who have generated positive returns for the organization.  However, the million dollar question associated with this mindset is how to determine if the good results are due to luck or skill.  This is especially true in situations where results can be influenced by random fluctuations in market sentiment.  It becomes especially difficult to determine the impact of skill vs. luck when the period of evaluation gets smaller.  (Quarterly Earnings, for example)

Each of us regularly pays for the services of experts.  In some cases, this is done directly by hiring a contractor or consultant.  In other cases, this is done indirectly by purchasing a mutual fund that is run by a fund manager.  (Personally, I prefer to invest in a portfolio of index funds that follow a risk appropriate asset allocation model, instead of actively managed mutual funds.  I do this because I believe that active fund management is too dependent on luck for generating returns.  Generally this results in decisions that are overly risky relative to the return potential so that the fund manager can beat the market indexes.  This type of strategy tends to work fine while the market is going up, but there is generally a large downside loss potential if the market goes into a correction.)  The key question for each of us to ask ourselves is whether we are paying for people that are skilled or people that are lucky?

Furthermore, are we placing ourselves in a position to have our success determine by skill or by luck?  To what extent does my success depend on my skill, and to what extent does it depend on luck?  The more I depend on luck for my success, the less control I will have over where my life is headed.  It is certainly true that we can’t control our luck.  However, we can control the skill that we posses once fortune smiles on us.  There are many opportunities that will come our way over the course of a career or lifetime, but those opportunities are only useful if we have the necessary skill to capitalize on them.

 

The emergence of tablets (notably the iPad) has set the technology world on fire with speculation over the future of small form factor computing.  The allure of the iPad comes from its vertically integrated design that results from Apple exhibiting complete control over all parts of design, manufacturing, and software.

However, there are some who have concerns that this highly integrated, highly controlled model will stifle innovation if new ideas do not conform with the standards set forth by Apple.  Similar concerns have been expressed over the ‘Android’ handheld solution offered by Google.  In both the case of Apple and Google, complete control is being exercised over the supplementary services that create the ecosystem for a robust software environment.  The importance of control to these companies is very simple to see.  Whomever controls the ecosystem controls the revenue streams from advertising and affiliate marketing.

But what will happen to the future of innovation if access to revenue streams is controlled by Apple and Google?  Enter MeeGo . . . successor to the highly popular Moblin netbook software suite.  Co-Developed by Intel and Nokia, MeeGo is an open source platform that operates on both X86 and ARM based hardware, but is optimized for the new generation of Intel low power compute chips.  This means that MeeGo will be bringing the power of netbook computers to tablets in your bag and eventually to the phone in your pocket.  By constructing this ecosystem in an open source environment, the constraints to innovation will be lifted so that consumers can capture the benefits of competition that result from people creating new ideas.

The importance of this emergence is that technology and mobile computing have been leveling the playing field between big and small business for many years.  As this technology curve pushes further out, there will be more market opportunities that open up to small companies and new new entrants who adapt to the changing business environment more quickly than larger, entrenched competitors.  By harnessing this wave of emerging business models, aspiring entrepreneurs have the opportunity to path-find new methods for creating a profitable business.

The people who exhibit the drive and initiative to capitalize on this phenomenon will be able to realize fantastic gains in an environment where the business models of the past are collapsing and new models of success are emerging.  Quickly adapting to a changing business environment is the key ingredient that will define the future for both companies and individuals in the emerging world of opportunity.

 

One of the most prescient concepts in economics is the notion that “all changes occur at the margins”.  Expressed another way, this means that when things change, it happens in small incremental movements.  One of the commonly cited axioms of economics is that “rational people think at the margin”.  What this means is that our decisions should be framed in the context of what impacts our next action or decision, and ignore costs that are sunk or decisions that have already been made.

The importance of this concept comes into play when making both personal and financial decisions.  When deciding whether to fix an old car that has broken down, the only factors relevant to the decision should be the facts at hand.  It does not matter how much money you have already spent to fix the car . . . it only matters what you do with the current situation.  (Note that from a financial perspective, it is optimal to repair your existing automobile unless the cost of repairs exceeds the value of your car in reasonable working order.  The decision to get rid of your old car and buy a new one is almost never financial optimal.  This doesn’t mean that you should never get a new car, only that the purchase is a ‘lifestyle’ decision and not a ‘financial’ one.)

The inevitable result of thinking ‘at the margin’ is a narrowing of focus onto the decisions and opportunities at hand instead of dwelling on mistakes and missed opportunities of the past or fantasizing about expected opportunities in the future.  The only time that anybody ever has to act is now.  The past is gone, and the future has not yet come.  Action must always occur in the present tense.  This is not a renouncement of the benefits that come from planning for the future, but a realization that the future is built on many successive decisions, and that each decision we make builds the road for future decisions.

By zeroing-in on the decisions that you can influence today, it will create a remarkable degree of emotional freedom.  This liberation will come when you are no longer shackled by old decisions and no longer nervous about what will come in the future.  The future is and has always been uncertain.  However, people who have grown accustomed to making rational decisions develop the confidence that they can adapt to whatever future situations unfold.  The most important thing is to use the information and resources at hand to make the best decisions possible.  This crystallizes a seemingly infinite number of possible future options into one decision . . . your next one.  The result of that decision will set the stage for future decisions, but so will external events that are beyond your control.

The single area where most people run into trouble is that they under-estimate the extent to which their future will be shaped by things that they do not control.  Thinking about the unknown is inherently frightening, because we cannot plan for something we do not know will happen.  However, the unknown should not be allowed to become a crutch that scares us into inaction, but should also be appropriately heeded so that actions are not taken that greatly depend on a specific future outcome that is far from guaranteed.

The extent to which we can control our lives always is, always has been, and always will be at the margins.  We can influence small iterative changes that compound over time to produce tremendous results.  On balance, it is best if our actions create outcomes that are robust or adaptable to future changes in the marketplace.  While we may not know what these changes will be, we can be confident in our ability to adapt to them.  By shifting our focus to present things that happen ‘at the margin’ it will allow us to enhance our circle of influence by improving the effectiveness of our decision making.

 

In the American version of Football, there is a ‘system’ known as the “West Coast Offense” that has become a revolution in sports.  Bill Walsh implemented the system as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1970′s and went on to win three world championships, with two more achieved using this philosophy after Coach Walsh retired.

Up until Coach Walsh implemented the West Coast offense, there were two competing offensive philosophies that dominated Football.  The first was that of a ‘ball control’ offense where one team would attempt to control the clock by running the football repeatedly.  The effectiveness of this strategy came from the fact that the clock continues to tick after a running play or completed pass, but stops for an incomplete pass.  This means that if a team is large and powerful, it can dictate the pace of the game by controlling the clock and preventing the other team from taking the field.  When paired with a stout defense, ball control can be a highly effective strategy.  The Pittsburgh Steelers exemplified this style of play during the 1970′s.

The second offensive philosophy was a vertical passing or “Air Coryell” offense, named after Don Coryell.  The basis of this philosophy was to have fast receivers positioned near the sidelines and send them on deep passing routes if the defense crowded the line of scrimmage to stop the run.  This style of offense still relied on ‘establishing the run’ to open up deep passing lanes, but made its mark with the ability to produce big plays from long passes.  The Dallas Cowboys of the 1990′s were successful in using an Air Coryell system.

The problem that Bill Walsh sought to solve with the West Coast Offense was one of finding a way to win Football games if you didn’t have a large, physical offensive line and powerful running back required for a ball control offense or the explosive receivers and strong armed quarterback required for a Coryell offense.  The West Coast Offense relied on an intelligent quarterback making quick reads and short passes with precise timing.  By focusing on high percentage passes, it would allow an offense to control the clock by achieving many first downs.  Furthermore, it relied more heavily on disciplined execution from its players than physical prowess.

In this fashion, Coach Walsh changed the paradigm of professional Football from being about who is biggest, strongest and fastest to who is the smartest and most disciplined.  By focusing on quick passing plays, the opposing team had a difficult time tackling the quarterback before the ball was thrown.  By creating plays with multiple passing options, the system was difficult to defend without leaving at least one player open.  By instilling a culture of disciplined execution, the 49ers were able to achieve victory against other teams with more talent.

This philosophy is not only applicable to American Football, but also to your investing career.  There are some people who advocate for a ‘ball control’ strategy of investing that focuses on ‘safe’ investments like CD’s, bonds, and other low risk instruments.  The object of this strategy is to avoid losing.  Like in Football, this strategy requires you to have a large, powerful portfolio in order to produce sufficient cash flow.  Other people advocate a ‘big air’ strategy of investing that focuses on speculative opportunities with the opportunity to produce big gains.  This system requires just the right investments to be executed at just the right time in order to make the big play happen.  If any of the conditions are not right, things can fizzle very quickly.

An alternative strategy for your investing career is to focus on a system of disciplined execution that looks for multiple options and takes the opportunities as they are presented.  People who invest the “West Coast Offense” way will look for the things that are undervalued so that they can capture the opportunities while they are available.  The windows of opportunity will frequently shift, and are not always open for very long.  This system focus on producing steady, reliable gains one decision at a time.  As these gains compound over time, they will march you closer and closer to financial freedom, similar to a football team marching toward the end zone.

The strategy that you choose for creating your financial future will determine what is needed for you to be successful.  Many people are born without wealth, and few have inside information on hot opportunities, but anybody can develop intelligence and discipline.  Which way will you choose?

Champions Pay the Price

One of the great characteristics of Bill Walsh’s teams was the disciplined repetition that they would go through until every aspect of their game plan was executed perfectly.  For key plays, this would frequently mean practicing hundreds or thousands of times so that when game time arrived, the plays could be done without any hesitation or second guessing.

True champions ‘pay the price’ for their success long before the victory is won.  The place where champions really come from is not the game field . . . it is the practice field.  By doing the work and investing the time, champions are completely prepared for game time.  When the time of opportunity comes, they have done the work to perform flawlessly.  This same principle applies to business and investing.  The people who prosper are those who are disciplined and pay the price for success.

 

The song entitled “The Eye of the Tiger” by the group Survivor was made popular in the “Rocky” film series.  This iconic series of films is famous for depicting the rise of boxer ‘Rocky Balboa’ up from obscurity into the limelight.  In each movie, Rocky is faced with a daunting fight against nearly impossible odds of success.  In each situation, Rocky must find the fire that burns deep within his soul to unleash the relentless intensity of his desire to succeed.

The journey of Rocky is frequently pointed to as a metaphor for the struggle that each person faces to find their place in the world.  Many of us relate to the experiences of Rocky simultaneously struggling against the strength of his opponent, along with his own doubt and fear.  In each situation, there are many people telling Rocky that he can’t win, or that he is too old, or that he should quit.  As the film goes on, it becomes apparent that the fight is really about Rocky focusing all of his efforts on the one part of his life that he can control, while living in the midst of a world that is constantly out of control.  In the end he is able to summon all of his strength to bear and overcome the challenges before him.

This metaphor is very fitting for each of us in the pursuit of our goals and desires.  Will we allow the weight of the world to hold us down in obscurity?  Will we tacitly accept our circumstances as inevitable?  Or will we develop the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ . . . the relentless intensity of a jungle cat who must constantly fight for its survival.  If we are willing to focus our desires and pursue them with enough drive and determination to overcome obstacles, setbacks, and our own doubts, then there is no limit to what we can accomplish.