The true warrior embraces the lean concept. They embrace lean knowledge and challenge themselves, and each other, at every turn … because the true warrior only does those things that achieve their desired results! That is just the way it is for the true warrior!

The lean concept is a term from manufacturing. Lean describes a production practice that considers any expenditure of resources, for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer, to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer—who consumes a product or commissions a service—value is defined as any action or process for which a customer would be willing to pay.

Lean is all about eliminating waste! Well, how does that fit within the true warrior’s perspective on priorities? It dovetails perfectly to help you discriminate against wasteful activity! So just what is the true warrior’s state of mind? What is the first question that every warrior asks, over and over again, before committing to action (engaging in battle)? “Will this task result in a kill?” In more practical business terms: “Will our prospects be willing to pay us for this feature, upgrade, or service?”

Of course … how does one know? Where is the evidence?

Every other activity is wasteful. If it doesn’t inspire more people to pay us, or cause the community to pay more, it is a waste of effort and resources!

Isn’t this a harsh perspective? Your most precious resource is your time. You can’t bank it. You can’t control it. You have zero control over the seconds that pass by! All you have is one hundred per cent control over is what you’re doing! So why is it waste? The answer is easy. Choosing to spend your limited and precious time on something that doesn’t gain anything for you or your company, when you could have spent it on something to your advantage, is a waste of that time.

The human mind does not do well with a disciplined analysis of prospective behaviour. It prefers to just guess the outcome and measure that against the minds internal contentment index—at which point we invariably choose comfort over reward, as working for that reward looks like the more difficult of the two options. Ouch.

You are warriors, and you have the power to flood the world with overwhelming success and create a huge backlog of customers lining up to give you, and your company, their money! So it has been written.