A seminar participant said: "Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes." So, how many of you are at work -- fight now -- on "mediocre successes"? At work on projects that won't be recalled, let alone recalled with fondness and glee, a year from now?

We don't study professional service firms. (Mistake.) And we don't study WOW Projects. (Worse mistake.) There is, of course, a project management literature. But it's awful. Or, at least, misleading. It focuses almost exclusively on the details of planning and tracking progress and totally ignores the important stuff like: Is it cool? Is it beautiful? Will it make a difference? My No. 1 epithet: "On time ... on budget ... who cares?" I.e., does it matter? Will you be bragging about it two -- or ten -- years from now? Is it a WOW project?

So, then: Step #1 ...the organization ...the professional service firm/PSF 1.0. Step 2 ...the individual ...the pursuit of distinction/Brand You. And: Step #3 ... the work itself ... the memorable project/WOW Projects.