Rudy Giuliani: Mayor of New York City (1994-2001)

“The greatness of this country is the individual opinions of its people. Imagination and creativity are America’s greatest resource.”

I did not know very much about Mr. Giuliani prior to hearing him speak, but afterwards I am a fan, finding his accomplishments quite remarkable, and his viewpoint refreshingly practical. He shared really interesting statistics about his time as Mayor of New York. When he took office as Mayor, there were 2,000 murders a year in New York? Which was a higher casualty rate than Vietnam! His campaign slogan was simply “We can’t do worse!” The primary way in which the murder rate was so dramatically reduced during his tenure was by creating a data-gathering resource, and using computers to collate the information to reveal meaningful trends that held police departments accountable for increased crime in their areas of responsibility, and provided incentives for decreased crime.

He also instituted a ‘Broken Windows’ campaign to fix all the broken windows in the city of New York, on the (turns out correct) theory that the appearance of abandonment and neglect promotes further crime. In addition to reducing the crime rate, when Giuliani took office his predecessor told him they expected 300,000 more on welfare in the next year, and he would need to hire more workers for the welfare department. Instead, Giuliani dramatically decreased the number of welfare recipients, in part by offering the unemployment department workers financial incentives and bonuses every time they actually placed someone in a job successfully.

He concluded with giving his four keys to success in business and in life.

1. READ. Read books, all that you can. Alternate books that challenge you with books that you enjoy, novels etc. When you are trying to get kids to read, or read more frequently, introduce them to books about the subjects they are passionate about first. After they learn to love reading, and become skilled readers, then is the time to introduce more challenging material.

2. ASK advice from successful people in your line of work. If you want to be a successful husband and father, ask a man who is. A successful leader, business owner, manager, the same principle applies. Practice intentional studying and copying of successful behaviors. Learn to use a Churchill-esque mix of defiance + optimism.

3. WRITE down what you want to achieve. Keep it in a journal that you review frequently. Know what your goals are and evaluate your progress to them. Don’t get side-tracked by behaviors or paths that will not lead to where you want to go.

4. THINK, slow life down and all time to reflect. Whether you use prayer, or meditation, or exercise…find a quiet thinking time in your life daily. Refuse to let life just happen to you, think about it as it occurs.