A review of the Shane Snow book, Smartcuts.

1. SMARTCUTS
…A BOOK ABOUT REAL WORLD WARP PIPES.
WILLA FOGARTY

2. DON’T YOU MEAN A SHORTCUT?
As defined by Shane Snow– a shortcut is a rapid, short-term
gain.
A SMARTCUT is sustainable success achieved quickly
through smart work.

3. You can think of a
SMARTCUT
as a shortcut with
INTEGRITY.

4. INTERESTING…HOW CAN I
USE SMARTCUTS?
Simple answer:
LATERAL THINKING
A kind of thinking where the most elegant
solution is achieved only when you attack it
sideways.

5. NEW IDEAS emerge when you
question the assumptions the
problem is built on.

6. PATTERNS OF LATERAL
THINKING APPEAR IN
ALMOST ALL SUCCESS
STORIES.
THE PATTERNS
CAN BE DIVIDED INTO CLASSES…

7. SHORTEN
LEVERAGE
SOAR

8. PART I.
SHORTEN YOUR
PATH TO SUCCESS.

9. HACK THE LADDER
Instead of going up the traditional ladder of success, invent
your own ladder.
Public figures (Presidents, entertainers, etc.) often work hard
in another field, and then switch ladders to level up.
Instead of climbing up an endless ladder to success, jump
sideways to a different ladder!

10. TRAIN WITH MASTERS
You can spend 1,000 hours practicing a skill,
OR
a world class practitioner can guide your practice and cut the
time to mastery significantly.

11. ON ONE CONDITION…
Training with masters is MOST EFFECTIVE when:
• The relationship is informal
• The relationship happens organically
This leads to a focused journey with
trust and accelerated learning.

12. RAPID FEEDBACK
MYTH: “Fail often and fail fast.”
FACT: A Harvard study says otherwise; entrepreneurs who
failed in previous ventures were not any more likely to
succeed in the next one…
You need something else…

13. FEEDBACK, YOU NEED FEEDBACK.
Feedback causes you to focus on IMPROVING the task.
Don’t take it personally! Successful people tend to focus on
the feedback itself, instead of internalizing it.
Feedback must be provided early and
often (hence the rapid part).

14. PART II.
LEVERAGE MORE
BANG FOR YOUR
PROVERBIAL BUCK.

15. PLATFORMS
How much better is HARD WORK when it’s AMPLIFIED by a lever?
Successful people throughout history have built layers of abstraction
in business and in life that have allowed them to multiple their effort.
These are called platforms.
**Platforms amplify our effort and teach skills in the process.**

16. WAIT… SAY THAT AGAIN?
Platforms can take the forms of tools, technology, or even
environments.
Platforms free up room for creative problem solving.
What’s MORE IMPORTANT today is knowing how to leverage
platforms to get the results you desire.

17. WAVES
Luck= being in the right place at the right
time…right?
WRONG.
Successful people and companies are adept at
placing themselves at the right place at the right
time– or catching the wave.

18. HOW DO I CATCH A WAVE?
“The secret isn’t practice—though that certainly helps. It’s going to
the beach to watch the waves and getting in the water to experiment.”
A.K.A. PATTERN RECOGNITION
Pattern recognition can come with experience and practice, as well
as DELIBERATE STUDY & SEARCH.
*Deliberate pattern spotting can
compensate for experience.*

19. SUPERCONNECTORS
Build VALUABLE relationships with people.
The problem with networking is people are out for themselves.
***
Instead, SUPERCONNECT—Learn what people need and ask:
“How do we create something of value?”

20. SUPERCONNECTORS
Building relationships through GIVING is more
work, but it is also much more POWERFUL.
“Giving is the timeless smarcut for harnessing
superconnectors and creating serendipity.”

21. “WHAT HAPPENS POST-
SERENDIPITY—
IS WHERE THINGS START TO
GET REALLY INTERESTING…”

22. PART III.
SOAR
FARTHER THAN
PASSIVITY AND THE
PLATEAU.

23. MOMENTUM
Momentum is both an ingredient and predictor of success.
BUT the problem with rapid success: when the champagne is
gone, momentum often stops.
So what do we do?
What do we need to keep the momentum going?
A sense of forward motion.

24. The secret is to BUILD UP POTENTIAL ENERGY so that
unexpected opportunities can be AMPLIFIED.
“Success is like a lightning bolt. It’ll strike you when you
least expect it and you just have to keep the
momentum going.”
HOW DO WE HARNESS
MOMENTUM?

25. SIMPLICITY
Sometimes bigger is not better.
Sometimes more of a good thing is too much.
Sometimes the smartest next step is a step back.
Successful people strip the unnecessary
from their lives and ZERO IN on
WHAT MATTERS.
Simplicity allows them to move on to BETTER THINGS.

26. 10X THINKING
It’s often EASIER to make something 10X BETTER
than it is to make it 10% better.
Our peak potential occurs when we go for high-hanging
fruit.
Human nature supports
BIG IDEALS and BIG SWINGS.

27. “TO CREATE
BREAKTHROUGH
CHANGE, YOU HAVE TO
BREAK THE RULES…”

28. “…AND SMARTCUTS
remind us that together,
we can achieve
the implausible.”