Word - Omerisms: Recent Episodes
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When things are going well, we naturally focus our time doubling down on the things that have made us successful. Our offering are resonating, so we focus on raising awareness, pitching to those who haven’t bought yet and investing on expanding our reach, so that we can sell more.
All of that makes sense – why wouldn’t we double down and capitalize on what’s working?
The risk comes, though, when we’re too focused on “now” and not at all focused on “tomorrow”, on “what’s next”. That is, where is the market headed and what does the customer want? How will the landscape change in 3, 5 and 10 years? Where are our threats?
Because it’s easy to get caught up in today’s success, easy to fall back on this will continue forever.
But that’s not realistic and, as we know from our own life experiences. Life doesn’t work that way.
The real test of a successful, enduring entity (individual or organization) is how much time we dedicate to investing in our future. How much of our time today, are we thinking about tomorrow?
The most commonly cited example is, of course, 3M, with its “15% rule” (15% of employees' time would be focused on innovation) and its 30/4 rule (whereby 30% of its sales should come from products that didn’t exist four years ago).
These are tangible, measurable goals. We can assess them and evaluate them and, if we’re not seeing the results we want, we can go back and assess what didn’t work.
The trick is to translate that into our own lives and our own organizations. This isn’t easy - because when things are going well, we tend not to worry about how that might change.
But the best predictor, in my mind, of the future-focused organization is how much time we’re spending on understanding, predicting and embedding change.
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At the end of season 2 of the HBO series, Succession, one of the show’s main characters, Tom, tells his wife, Shiv, something I found to be especially poignant:
“I wonder if the sad I’d be without you, would be less than the sad I’d get from being with you.”
He says it, of course, in the context of their relationship, but it's meaningful in the context of other ‘relationships’ in our lives, be it with our work, our friendships or otherwise.
We spend so much time building these relationships - doing things we’re comfortable doing because the ‘returns’ are known and predictable, or maintaining particular friendships because we’ve ‘grown up’ together and there’s a comfort or consistency to them - that we sometimes don’t make the effort to evaluate whether they’re still working for us.
Or we have thought about it, and we do understand that it’s not ideal, it’s not working, and yet we keep going, because it’s the easier path.
The fact is that we get into routines and systems that we know and can predict, even when they aren’t good for us. Because we don’t know where we’ll be without them.
What we’ll lose. Whether we’re able to do something else. Whether we can ever be with someone else. Or simply whether it’s in us to do the hard work needed to begin again.
Because doing something else means doing things that are uncertain and difficult and risky. And the easier path is the status quo. Better the devil you know.
At the same time, if we’re honest with ourselves, I think we also know that, after a point, that’s not the right answer. When the “sad” we’ll feel outside of that context will be less than the sad we’ll feel within it.
The bet, of course, is that it will be a temporary sad and the work that we’ll do to reestablish ourselves will result in something more constructive, something more positive, something more ‘happy’.
Not at all an easy choice, certainly. The variables for making these decisions will differ from you to me to someone else. And emotion and fear of making any change will play a significant, often outsized role.
But at some point, we’re all forced to make this assessment.
What matters more to me? What is better for me? Where do I need to go?
Is the current situation serving me and helping me grow? Or is it holding me back, hurting me?
Hard choices, indeed, but choices we all have to ultimately make.
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What would you choose?
Would you rather be happy or special?
For so many of us, our identity is wrapped up in our work, to the extent that we let it become the defining element. That’s not hard to do, especially if we think the work we’re doing is important.
And important work demands something more of us. It requires a commitment and focus and drive that “normal”, “punch-in/punch-out” work doesn’t.
And while there’s a real value to that, it’s a fine line.
The commitments we make to achieve, to create or do something that resonates in some way - to become “special” - can lead us to decisions that we wouldn’t otherwise make. Things that consistently go beyond what, in our heads, we may know to be right.
To spend nights and weekends on work at the expense of time spent with family and friends.
To spend our time on activities that promote our work incrementally rather than personal projects that deliver joy disproportionately.
To remain intently focused on the treadmill even when our mental and physical signals are telling us it’s not the right choice.
Look, I’m not suggesting we live 9-to-5 lives. Nothing great is achieved that way and I’ve written about that time and time again.
And I’ve also been clear that we must commit ourselves to any cause in order to do valuable, meaningful work.
I’m just saying that, at some point, the gains become incremental and they (should) force us to ask ourselves the question:
Do I want to be special, or do I want to be happy?
It’s a tough question to answer, believe me, I get it. But it’s one we have to answer.
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There’s a tendency we all have to try and ride out a tough spell or a difficult challenge. To try and just “get to the other side”, mentally, at least, even if you have to physically go through the motions.
Thing is, that’s a passive strategy. One that intends to remove us from the reality of the situation and the challenge of the actual battle.
The goal is to make things easier for ourselves, to reduce the emotional toll we’d otherwise have to incur. In other words, to avoid exposing ourselves and becoming vulnerable.
The best performers don’t think that way. They lean into challenging situations.
They know their strengths and weaknesses and they’ve thought through their strategies, what they need to do. Not only that, they look forward to the battle itself, they relish it.
So far from simply trying to mentally get through the situation, they lean in.
They are active participants, executing their strategies but always listening, learning and reacting. They value the test, the battle of wills They look forward to it, to see what they’re actually capable of.
As such, vulnerability isn’t a constraint or something to guard against. They embrace it. They know that true success requires it.
Is that a riskier proposition? Does it mean we’re more hurt when we don’t get what we want? Absolutely. But the true champion knows that there is no other path to real success.
Take the risk, get involved and put all of yourself into it. Look forward to the battle.
There is no other path.
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I was having a conversation the other day about what it takes to drive change within a community and the person I was chatting with made an interesting point.
She said that people often think that, in order to shift behaviors, we need to focus on those who don’t believe and are diametrically opposed to our ideas.
After all, if you can convert a naysayer, then you’ve unlocked the template for success. Rinse and repeat.
The reality, she suggested, was that this is a far harder path to pursue. The value for effort trade-off isn’t a good one.
Better instead, to focus on those who believe already. Give them the tools, give them the training and enable them to succeed. In doing so, you begin to seed the right stories within that community.
In other words, those who’ve achieved success will share those stories with others.
At the same time, those around them (the ‘lesser believers’ if you will) will see their success and ask what and how.
And when you have enough of those stories going round, others will want to emulate them, to become successes in their own right.
Slowly but surely, then, the nonbelievers will come around. Because they’ll see that this is, indeed, the right path.
It’s a good idea, one worth remembering. A reminder that the best path to success isn’t always the most obvious one.
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The thing about transformative technologies is that they expose where value is - or isn’t - being generated.
As a result, they accelerate the shift towards value ‘maximization’. In other words, those tasks that technology should deliver, it will, and those high value tasks that humans should focus on, they will.
The problem is, though, that more often than not, it’s the humans who aren’t able to keep pace.
Corporations will want to pick up and run with these new efficiencies and tools and it’s the folks who aren’t able to shift into new roles who get left behind (or left out).
We can also look to our governments to help monitor these developments and set up retraining/reskilling programs, etc., but governments tend not to move at needed pace.
So the lesson in all of this is simple. The responsibility has to remain with us, as individuals, in charge of our own careers.
If we remove the idea of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s appropriate and what’s fair, we need to look at our work and our roles in a more dynamic sense.
We need to assess where the value lies in what we do. We need to objectively evaluate whether the work we do could be done quicker, cheaper or better elsewhere.
In the same vein, the question we should be answering is am I making a difference? Not based on the rules we’ve become accustomed to, but the rules of the future, the rules were moving towards.
Reid Hoffman has suggested that tools like ChatGPT - which has the potential to be transformative in ways we’ve never seen before - will expose which parts of our work are low, medium and high value. And as a result, far from deterring the artist in us, it will allow for the true artists to rise.
I believe that, and so should you.
But it will all begin with us. Not the government, not our employer, not our community.
With us.
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Big problems are intractable.
They’re hard to get to grips with, hard to manage and hard to overcome.
No matter how much we believe in the cause, the scale of the mountain is daunting and, more often than not, can seem insurmountable. Which is why they’re ‘big’ problems.
Our opponents - those diametrically opposed to our agenda, whether it’s because they don’t see it as a problem or because they’re incented to maintain the status quo - understand this and their job becomes clear.
Plant that seed of doubt, so that we question whether the problem is even solvable.
Or add small obstacles here and there, delaying progress and moving the next milestone even further out.
Or simply obstruct - not allow us to make any progress on the issue, because their participation in some form is required.
The goal in all of these cases is to break us, by either getting us to stop believing or simply exhausting us into submission.
It’s a fruitful approach that often pays dividends. Simply because, when it comes to human nature, it’s easier to break down than it is to build up. That’s the sad truth.
The solution? Action.
Consistent, persistent action. Forward steps, no matter how small. Continued, incremental progress. Positive momentum over time ensures we have something to keep fighting for.
That may mean redefining what constitutes ‘material progress’ at any given time. Something that’s meaningless at one point in time could be considered a big win at others. After all, there’s no such thing as linear, consistent progress.
And that’s OK. The key is, simply, progress.
Yes, that requires a level of mental strength. It requires us to ignore the practical realities of the status quo (at times). It requires more than a measure of pigheadedness.
But it works. Not as fast as we’d like, perhaps, but certainly over time.
And the ability to do that, requires continued belief in the cause, at all times and at all costs.
Therein lies the trick to solving the unsolvable: keep believing and keep going.
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Is there a difference between facts and opinions?
That seems like a question with an obvious answer, but I saw it posited on someone’s Twitter feed earlier.
They were suggesting that what we consider to be facts are nothing but very strongly held opinions.
If that were true, it would suggest that what we believe is simply what we believe - ideas that we’ve come to accept as fact based on our own observational, anecdotal or experiential learnings.
It would suggest that at some point, in some way, we could even be dissuaded from our ‘facts’, in favor of other ‘facts’, with the right argument, approach or mental state. Which would allow us to then build our entire worldview around those ‘newer’ facts.
My point, whether you accept the idea that the Twitter user was trying to make or not, is that it’s worth considering, at least every now and then, whether our collection of facts, in our own corner of the universe (business, family, community, etc.), is indeed the collection of facts that we think it is.
Because this might allow us to see another point of view.
Which might allow us to understand whether there may be a different way of doing things. Which might allow us to see the world through someone else’s lens. Which might just allow us to learn to work and live with those around us in a more harmonious fashion.
That doesn’t mean complete alignment and acquiescence. It just means more harmonious and understanding.
The dangerous thing about our ‘facts’ is that they entrench us and, many times, limit us. It might, more often than not, be good for us to peer over the divide and see what’s actually out there.
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When Lebron James broke Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s all time points scoring record in the NBA last week, he did so with about 10 seconds still to go in the third quarter.
As soon as he scored that 38,388th point, the game was paused and celebrations ensued. His family came onto the court along with the press and a host of others.
There was a speech from the NBA Commissioner, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and, of course, from Lebron himself. Abdul-jabbar then presented the ceremonial ball to Lebron before the game was finally resumed, some 10-15 minutes later.
In contrast, I’d be hard pressed to see the same thing happening in the English Premier League when some future player beats Alan Shearer’s all-time goal scoring record of 260.
I’m not saying it won’t be hyped up in the same way or that it won’t be celebrated, I’m saying with almost 100% certainty that the game will not be stopped midway to celebrate the achievement, followed by a series of speeches and an awards presentation.
Why is that?
Both are important achievements in their respective sports. Both will be hard records to beat for future generations. Both are (and will be) the source of endless pride for not simply the player, but the team and its fans.
So why the difference?
It seems to me that in the NBA (and possibly more widely in American sports), the individual is prized over the team. Yes, we certainly love our teams - we talk constantly about the need for team unity, collaboration and high performance - and we certainly promote the need for high performance teams, whether we’re in sports, business or schools.
But at the end of the day, we value the individual the most. We need a face. We need to be able to identify who is responsible, who led the way, who is the best.
Personally, I also think that there’s a perception that talking about winning “teams” as a whole unit is boring. Sure, they’re required, but it’s hard for the average Joe to connect with a “group of people”. There’s no personal connection there. It’s more human to look at a person - a name, someone who comes with a story, a background, an angle that resonates.
That human connection is the point and it’s amplified by a culture that has been built on individual achievement, the idea that “we can do anything we set our minds to” and “become who we want to be”. The individual sits front and center in that American ethos.
To be clear, that’s not a negative judgment, it’s simply an observation. Lebron deserves all of his accolades - it just struck me as odd how the game was stopped to celebrate this very individual achievement.
By the way, I’m also not saying that this doesn’t happen outside the US, it certainly does. But it’s amped up here to a level unseen elsewhere, perhaps driven by our media’s reach, visibility and culture. We love our winners and we especially love our individual winners even more.
That’s worth thinking about as we consider our own attitude towards winning teams, individual performers and overall achievement.
What do we value more? What do you think?
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Taking risks is a challenging idea when it comes to implementation.
When the rubber meets the road, and we have the opportunity to actually do something, that’s when we find out whether or not we’re actually ready.
It’s tempting to think that the right resources will help us bridge the gap, or that having the right people around us will help, or even that our own personal (decades of) expertise will be enough.
Possibly, but when the time comes, it isn’t any of those that propels us forward.
It’s our ability to get over our fear of failure.
Getting over the idea that, no matter what we have available to us and no matter how successful we’ve been before, it’s entirely possible that none of that will be enough in our future.
Because it is possible that our offering won’t be fit for purpose. Or that no one will actually buy it. That it just might not work.
And the thing is, no one can resolve those concerns for us. Because it might very well turn out that all of those concerns will be the case.
But they also might not.
Not in a “one-zero”, “it will work or not work”, binary sort of way - because every journey has its ups and downs, and even the most successful organizations have been through times when it could have all been for nought (go read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight).
It might be that we’ll do it, and it won’t work and then we’ll shift course and try something slightly different and keep going until it’s actually done.
The key is to try it anyway, despite the fear, despite the concerns. And to do that, we have to back ourselves, believe in our ability - our potential - to actually figure things out.
Action, feedback, course-correction, and more action. All backed by belief and persistence.
Do it. Learn from it. Keep going.
There's plenty of upside to being a contrarian, until there isn't.
Sometimes, it's worth considering that the popular opinion - the consensus view - may very well be the right view.
You can access the podcast here.
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So much of my youth was spent constructing who I wanted to be, my sense of self. With that came the confidence to do the things I needed to do, in order to be what I defined as successful.
But with it also came a series of behaviors (facades? Personas? ) that were designed to protect me from getting hurt, personally or professionally. I was conscious that, in my pursuit to be respected and received positively, I’d be conscious of how I behaved, what I said, what I did.
This is who I am and it fits nicely within the box that you’ve become comfortable with. So please accept me.
That’s not uncommon - it’s actually pretty normal. We all do it and, in order to be part of any given community, it’s pretty much required. Sure, some of us will go to greater lengths than others, but we all (choose to) operate within specific confines and norms. We’re not all exactly who we are. (Some folks even wear it as a badge.)
Of course, I like to think I was more myself than not, but if I’m honest, there were plenty of instances where I was more concerned about the box and fitting in, than building/defining my own.
As I get older, though, my perspective is changing. I’ve less time for behaving one way while feeling another. I’m not interested in spending time with those who might be quick to judge me. I find it far, far harder to grin my way through a conversation with folks who “aren’t themselves”.
I also appreciate that there’s a cost to that. It means I’ll have fewer “friends”. My ‘community’’ becomes smaller. I get that.
But the thing is, I’m much more interested in being myself - to the extent I understand myself - and being with those who are ready and comfortable to be themselves. I don’t have to “get along”, I don’t have to observe the norms of a given community if I don’t agree with it, even if it is one that I grew up with and one that, once upon a time, played a part in molding who I became.
Carl Jung talked about the two halves of our lives, saying that the first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego while the second half is about letting it go.
I think what he meant was that in the second half of your life, you realize what matters, what’s important and what moves you. And that the important thing is to focus on that - not in a self-centered way, but one which is aligned with your values, one that makes you feel better about who you really are and who you really want to be. One where those around you are truly interested in being real.
Put another (crude) way, I think it’s about giving far fewer fucks as you get older, because life’s far too short.
Of course, that’s not easy. But as I get older, that makes more and more sense to me.
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One of my (many) shortcomings when it comes to cooking is that I follow recipes to a tee.
Yes, I appreciate that that can be a positive and it is - in the sense that the resulting dish will be exactly to specification. It will taste and (for the most part) look exactly as the recipe author intended.
But what I don’t understand is the conceptual underpinnings of what’s going on. For example, if I were to change the butter to cocoa ratio, or if I were to reduce the number of eggs, or if I tilted the balance more towards water than flour, what would happen?
In other words, beyond the obvious, I don’t understand why I’m doing what I’m doing and how I might alter one element (versus another) to suit my personal tastes.
And that’s because I don’t have the fundamental education to be able to do that. What’s the role of butter in baking a cake? Why use this flour versus that flour? How do I manage proportions to produce what I want?
Basically, I’m an automaton. I just go about doing what I’m told.
So my goal now is to understand the why.
And that means going back to basics. Educating myself on not only what is needed to make a specific dish but also why. Understanding also the interactions between those ingredients as well as the specific ratios that drive different types of interactions.
Only when I do that, can I free myself up from the specific recipe and then be able to add my own personal stamp on the dish I’m making.
Only then can I exercise any level of personal creativity.
Only then can I not simply produce - I can then create.
We often see success as a destination. It's not because destinations suggest we can stop when we get there.
True success isn't a destination, it's a journey - and that means addressing complacency, as I discuss in today's episode.
You can access the podcast here.
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Seth Godin recently wrote about how bitterness is consistent and impenetrable. If you let it, it can become “a wall you can lean against, whenever you choose”.
That resonated with me, as I’m sure it does with many of us. When we’ve been wronged (perceived or otherwise), it provides us with a point or direction towards which we can channel our emotions, most notably our anger.
It allows us to rest assured that we are not to blame and that we can/should place responsibility for what has transpired elsewhere - a person or an entity or an event.
It is, indeed, a familiar wall that we can return to time and again, offering us some sense of comfort.
But that’s about all it really offers.
So it got me thinking: How do we find our way out of it? What’s the process?
After all, letting go isn’t easy and forgiveness can be very, very hard. The concern is that doing so means we’re letting “them” get away with “it” (whoever “they” are whatever “it” is).
Surely, someone must be held accountable?
That’s absolutely right - someone must be held accountable. And I think that someone has to be us.
Now, that’s not to dismiss the wrongdoings of others, nor is it to suggest that we are to blame for everything that has happened in our lives.
Rather, it’s to suggest that the only things we can control are within ourselves: our outlook, our interpretations and our actions.
Persisting in our bitterness doesn’t move us forward. It slowly but surely ensures we retreat within ourselves, that we adopt defensive postures at the expense of progressive movement. It’s a path of stasis.
But letting it go - rather working towards letting it go - is a path for progress. And it’s one that requires conscious thought and concerted action.
It requires us to understand what’s happened and assess it critically. What was our share of this?
It requires us to understand and accept those things that we cannot change. Not be happy with it but to accept it as something we have no ability to shift.
It requires us to understand that those things we cannot change should not control how we feel about those things we can change. It shouldn’t take us out of the moment we are in and it shouldn’t constrain us from forward movement.
Of course, part of this might mean accepting that the path we originally intended to take may no longer be open to us. That it’s time to choose another path.
I appreciate this last bit is incredibly difficult. There’s a lot of self-questioning that will arise, some of it very much existential in its nature. But, it’s required work.
Yes, this in and of itself will yield an added measure of grieving, anger, futility and many other emotions. But it’s a necessary process.
And then, it’s about forward momentum, as we work to emerge from the intoxication that our bitterness has immersed us in.
And that means, thinking and planning for the future: what could be. How we move forward. Where we go. Who we go there with. And the mindset we plan to take with us.
After all that? We take action. We do the work. Not necessarily, it’s worth remembering, in one seamless forward motion, but often in fits and starts, in iterations, with a relapse here or there. But always focused around where we’re going, always resolving back towards our true North.
We do the work.
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Are you a Craftsman or an Artist?
Rick Rubin posed this question on a podcast recently and it made me perk up and take notice. We tend to conflate the two terms but Rubin suggests there’s a difference.
A craftsman builds things, to a high level of quality. The craftsman does this consistently and often to a spec. He or she listens to you and what you need and then delivers, time after time after time.
The artist, on the other hand, creates. The artist conceives of new ideas and new ways of doing things. The artist takes risks.
It may well be in the same discipline but the implications can be wildly different. You know what you’ll get with the former and it will always be great and to your expectations.
With the latter, there is, for lack of a better term, the element of surprise. The idea that, while you don’t know what you will get, it could well be unlike anything you’ve seen before.
To be clear, this isn’t to suggest that one is better than the other. That isn’t the case - it just depends on what you want. As such, there is a place for both.
But it’s worth knowing which one we are and, as important, which one we want to be.
We tend to think effort and graft are the most critical ingredients to doing our work well. They're not.
The fact is that there's one, far more important and foundational requirement for success, as I discuss in today's episode.
You can access the podcast here.
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Are we at an Inflection Point?
According to Investopedia, an Inflection Point is “an event that results in a significant change in the progress of a company, industry, sector, economy, or geopolitical situation and can be considered a turning point after which a dramatic change, with either positive or negative results, is expected to result.”
I’ve been thinking about this as it does feel like we’re in one at the moment. Depending on who you listen to, things are about to commence a material decline or, quite the opposite, begin to pick up and improve.
Of course, looking at data isn’t as helpful as you’d think. There are a host of variables you can consider and, again, depending on the ones you pick, the answers can be quite different. (Note that that doesn’t mean that data provides no value. Quite the contrary, it’s super helpful in informing us about all of the possible parameters. You just need to assess it carefully.)
So what do we do?
Personally, I think inflection points are a chance to double down on our core mission. And we can do so by regularly asking ourselves a few key questions.
What are we focused on delivering? What change are we driving in those we serve? It’s important to use these questions as our North Star - to guide us and determine whether the changes we make, the actions we take, are aligned with where we are trying to go. Anything that diverts us from this mission, by definition, is a distraction.
Are we listening to those at the coalface, so to speak? Are we absorbing insights from those closest to the customer, who are hearing regularly from those we serve? This is the real insight. If we’re seeing movement in one direction or the other, that tells us something.
Can we spread our fingers across multiple pies? Can we test the waters with experiments in multiple directions (but still aligned with our overall strategy) so that we can turn on a dime as needed, as we learn more about what’s going on? This is risk management 101, of course, but it’s important to reiterate that the experiments need to be aligned with our core strategy.
Are we living within our means? This is important: if we’re regularly focused not only on revenue but profitability, we’re going to know how much headroom we have. By managing to live within our means, we’ll be able to pick and choose our risks, know our limitations and ensure survival, no matter how the economic environment turns out.
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The Greek-Armenian philosopher, George Gurdjieff, believed that we are born without a soul and that our life goal is to grow and develop our soul - our souls are earned.
He also believed that most of us tend to go through our lives as automatons - going about our day to day in an unconscious state. And that we need to work on ourselves in order to rouse ourselves out of this state.
I’m intrigued by these ideas.
The first suggests a measure of control over ourselves and our destinies. The idea that we aren’t simply fated to be this way or that, that we are indeed open books that can be written by ourselves (or, if we’re not careful, others). But that depends on us.
The second point builds on the idea that our souls are grown and developed. That we need to do the work to get there. To wake ourselves from the social, cultural or environmental parameters that work to constrain us from becoming who we were meant to be, who we should be. But it’s down to us and the effort we’re willing to put in. You have to enjoy the process, of doing that work.
These ideas resonate with me. They’re not easy ideas and they’re certainly not a given. But they leave it in our hands. I like that.
The point is that they give us a measure of choice, a measure of control.
Really, they give us (more than) a measure of hope. They give us a path forward.
From a young age, we're stuck on this idea that we have to get everything right, right from the start. Because you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Truth is, in so many aspects of our lives, especially our careers, that's just patently false. As I discuss in today's episode, you can indeed have second acts.
You can access the podcast here.
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A measure of ambition is a critical ingredient of success. We have to want what it is we’re after.
But too much ambition is a turn-off - and I don’t just mean for others, but to ourselves especially.
There’s probably many measures of this and we all have our own bar for what constitutes “too much”. For me, one of the most critical is when we calculate every interaction in terms of its payoff.
How will it help me make a sale? How can this individual connect me to someone else of value? What’s the economic benefit of this relationship?
Our rationalization is that none of this is noticeable but the reality is that it is. In fact, over time, it’s as if our intent is emblazoned on our forehead. And this reputation begins to precede us.
Worse, it changes us and who we are. We become shallow and calculating. We don’t think beyond ourselves. We start to forget who we really are.
Correcting for this can be a tough ask, especially if we’ve already lost ourselves down this path.
But it’s necessary. Not just for others and how it looks. But more importantly for ourselves, and ultimately our own success.
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash
When the going’s good, it’s tempting to want more.
Our stock picks are at all time highs, so surely they’ll keep going higher…
Or sales are booming, and in that euphoria, it’s tempting to prioritize revenue growth over profitability or innovation.
Those strategies might make sense at times, but not always.
The real basis is to ask: what are we driven by?
Are we driven by the fundamentals? Do they support our strategy, in light of market dynamics and competitive movements and personal risk levels?
Or are we letting our emotions get the better of us? Are we fueled by the intoxication of success, and FOMO.
It’s helpful to know the rules that we’re operating by - and it’s helpful to set these rules before the going gets good.
This way, we engage as needed, pursue when necessary, and exit when appropriate.
As the saying goes, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.
It's that time when we start planning our resolutions for the New Year. At the same time, there's also a sense of concern inherent in some of us - the sense that we're not really going to keep at it, given our past behaviors, so what's the point?
As I discuss in today's episode, we should do it anyway, because our false starts in the past provide the education and fuel for us to be successful in the future.
You can access the podcast here.
Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash
"Success isn't determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose."
-- Pele
As we kick off 2023, our thoughts naturally turn to new beginnings and starting afresh.
Yes, I realize that the concept of a New Year doesn’t change anything fundamental. In other words, there’s nothing intrinsically different between who we were on December 31st and January 1st.
As a result, some argue that the whole idea of resolutions and goal setting is a silly one because, after all, we’ll just go back to the status quo in a few days anyway.
I disagree. Artificial constructs aside, the idea of getting started on changes that move us towards becoming who we want to be is a good one. It’s worth making the effort to go after them.
But society is right on one count:, the success rate is definitely an issue. We do indeed give up not long after we embark on our goals.
Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for this and there’s no shortage of advice around how to keep going. But three ideas resonate most strongly with me.
First, just start. Don’t overthink it. Don’t overplan it. Just start, in any way, shape or form.
Second, take small steps. Don’t set crazy goals to achieve in the short term. Focus on the process and just move forward, even if it's just a half step at a time.
Third, the above advice from the late, great Pele (G.O.A.T.): it’s all about how we react after we falter - and we will falter. There’s no point brooding or sinking into self pity. Just get up, assess why we did what we did and get started again.
The point is progress, however we define it.
Keep moving.
Keep growing.
Keep going.
Happy New Year.
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The investor and de facto philosopher, Naval Ravikant said that "The more neatly you fit into society, the less free vou actually are."
It’s an interesting perspective.
The more neatly we fit into society, the more, by definition, we’re accepted. Which also means that we’re observing and adhering to society’s defined norms.
And the more we’re adhering to defined norms, the higher the odds that we’re not adhering to what we believe but rather what society believes.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that there is convergence between these two ideas, but it’s also entirely possible - I’d suggest, more than probable - that there isn’t.
That, at some level, we’re sacrificing of ourselves to be what’s expected of us. That we’re moving less towards who we are and more towards an idea of who we should be.
That’s worth thinking about as we close out the year. It’s worth considering what we’re about and what we want and where we’re headed.
It’s worth considering if the box really is for us.
Those words from Bruce Springsteen's The River got me thinking about this idea of singular dreams and how they define who we are and what we do.
I dive into what this potentially means and what it, perhaps, should mean for us, in today's episode.
You can access the podcast here.
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Part of the reason I love the band, Radiohead, is that they have a complete disregard for conventional musical norms.
They’ve had numerous hit albums since the early Nineties but none of them have followed any sort of predictable pattern.
For most bands, scoring a massive success such as The Bends - their edgy, alternative sophomore rock album - would have led to a progressive evolution of that successful sound. Maybe a creative push or an adventurous tilt on this or that song, but, in the main, it would have been progressive steps forward, in search of another hit.
Radiohead didn’t do that - they took the path of wholesale change. They junked their entire sound and experimented.
They wrote an album about alienation and the emerging implications of technology to create OK Computer, in 1997. It was a massive risk, in the commercial sense, but also an incredible creative tilt that is now regarded by many as one of the greatest albums ever made.
That doesn’t happen in a Paint By Numbers scenario. It doesn’t happen by taking small steps. It happens in jumps. It happens when you are guided by an ethos more than you are by numbers. It happens when you stop worrying about being liked and accepted and more by a focus on the work.
We all want and aspire to that and we may even be intellectually committed to the idea. But actually taking that step is difficult emotionally.
Because it demands commitment at a very transactional level - it requires action. It demands that we stop intellectualizing and start doing - without any guarantee of a return.
As difficult, it also requires taking the risk of not being accepted. It requires an understanding that what we offer will not be viewed or received in the way we believe it should. And that’s a hard thing to grapple with.
That’s the thing about taking risks, I suppose. You’re doing something out of the norm, and you don’t know what will happen. That uncertainty is part and parcel of the deal.
But, at the same time, it’s also why the potential return (however you want to define it) is so much higher.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of our daily work.
Particularly, when you’re growing something - from a project to a business - there are any number of things that need to be taken care of, and every single one of them seems important.
From the branding to the website to the administrative activity, we can spend our time doing things that, while necessary, aren’t central to the mission.
But, really, all that really matters is the one thing. Pretty much always.
Pretty much always, there is that one thing that will move the core objective of the business forward. That one thing that allows us to get to MVP, or that allows us to Launch, or that brings in a paying customer.
It’s essential to focus on that, first and foremost.
Of course, the other stuff is important. But when you’re crunched for capacity and resources, when you’re bootstrapping, and when you need to show results, it’s better to allocate your time to getting that one thing done.
If you don’t, nothing else matters.
Sometimes, telling others - and ourselves - that we've arrived isn't a good thing.
In fact, as I discuss in today's episode, it can lead to a complacency that can derail everything that we've achieved so far. So that messaging, to others and to ourselves, is important.
You can access the podcast here.
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If you’re at all into football (soccer), you’ll no doubt have watched the World Cup Final yesterday.
It was, in my view, the greatest world cup final in history - with goals, drama, late comebacks and ultimately, penalties. Argentina were amazing winners and, of course, as everyone’s talking about, Lionel Messi got his World Cup, rounding out one of the most storied careers in the history of the sport.
Messi was named the player of the tournament and many consider him to be The Greatest Of All Time, especially now that he’s won literally every trophy and medal he’s fought for in his incredible career.
As great as his story is - and Messi has clearly been the player of this World Cup and, frankly, the last 2 decades - there’s another Argentinian player who’s story is as compelling but in a different way: Argentine goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who’s heroics kept the Argentine team in the tournament more than once.
Martinez left his home country in 2010 to play for Arsenal, leaving his family behind in order to better provide for them and get his big break. But the “big break” wasn’t what he expected.
Instead of becoming a starter at Arsenal, he was loaned from club to club and spent the next 10 years on six different loan spells. Many would have given up and moved to a different, smaller club (such as Spurs :-)), but Martinez stuck to his guns, eager to break into the Arsenal first team.
His chance came in 2020, as a result of an injury to first choice goalkeeper, Bernd Leno. Martinez stepped in and performed incredibly, becoming first choice for the rest of the season, ultimately playing a key role in securing an FA Cup Final victory for the club.
He then moved to Aston Villa, but continued to show enough ability to become Argentina’s first choice goalkeeper, ultimately helping them not only secure a path to the World Cup, but helping them win it. Emi Martinez is now a World Champion.
But think about those 10 years. Think about the mental strength needed. Think about the self-confidence required to maintain your sense of who you are. It’s not hard to look at his story and imagine how he could have given up or made a different decision in any of his loan spells over those 10 years.
It’s easy to become disheartened and stop believing that you could play in the big leagues. It’s much, much harder to keep your head down and plow your way through it. But that’s what Martinez did. And now he’s won the World Cup.
To me, that’s an incredible lesson. And while Messi is amazing, and while he is the GOAT, it’s worth giving Emi Martinez kudos.
Legends don’t come in a prefabricated template, they come in all shapes and sizes. And Emi Martinez, without a doubt, is a legend.
Credit: @theomzproject
It’s been a heck of a week (on many levels), so my head has been in a few different places the last few days.
My natural instinct in times like these is to make sense of it all, to put everything into a construct that makes sense (to me). But as I tried to do so, I came to the realization that perhaps I was trying too hard. That instead, maybe what I needed to do was not ‘resolve’ but to just ‘be’. At least for a little while.
So, I’m going to take Anthony Bourdain’s advice:
“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.”
Social media provides us with a very specific idea of what "the" life is. There's no shortage of influencers who showcase how glamorous their everyday life is.
But before we get caught up, it's worth understanding that what we see is what we're shown, as I discuss in today's episode.
You can access the podcast here.
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One of the hardest things for me, and for any of us I suppose, is to be thoughtful in that space between stimulus and response. I’m referring, of course, to Victor Frankl’s observation that:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
It’s one of those things that we conceptually agree on but, to practice it is really, really hard.
Because the stimulus may well evoke specific emotions, ideas and baggage. It might touch on hot buttons that force a reaction before we even have a chance to think. There’s a short term emotional satisfaction to this, that, more often than not, isn’t helpful in the medium to long term.
Because emotional reactions don’t typically make for sound decision making. And by then, it’s too late. We’ve said or done what we shouldn’t have.
The alternative is to exist in that space,and think and assess before we react. More to the point:
Pause. Just don’t react. Take a few moments (and if it’s an email, perhaps a few hours or a day) before you take action.
Observe yourself ‘feeling’. In that pause, observe your emotions. Pay attention to what it is. Have I been insulted or is the individual making a practical point?
Understand what those emotions are. Is it something to do with us? Jealousy? FOMO? Insecurity of some kind?
Don’t judge. Above all, don’t judge. Don’t make presumptions about the other person or yourself, what the intentions are, etc. See it for what it is.
Determine which beliefs they are tied to. Understand the underlying basis of your initial reaction - which beliefs does it violate? Which does it confirm?
It’s kind of like a jigsaw. We are, in that space, putting puzzle pieces together to understand what the true picture is. And the more we pause and reflect and think, the better our ultimate response and the better the end result.
Of course, there’s another by-product, which is a much better understanding of ourselves, which is what allows us to develop. That’s the final part of Frankl’s quote:
“In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This, in my mind, is the real lesson.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
No one wants to be told what to do, but everyone wants to understand what they should be doing.
From your employees to your colleagues to your customers, this is a truism.
If I give you an order, you’re not likely to take it well, no matter how well versed I am in the subject, no matter how competent and practiced I am in a specific discipline. It just isn’t in our nature to react well to that sort of thing.
Instead, we want to be brought along. Yes, I want to know that you have the expertise. But I also want to know that you understand my point of view. And most of all, I want to know that the journey is one that will be thoughtful in its passage.
Which all boils down to empathy and authority.
If you’re trying to elicit a change of some sort (take on this project, join my company, buy my product), show empathy and authority.
Empathy. I understand your concerns. Yes, there are challenges. No, it will not be easy. I know where you’re coming from.
Authority. I know my way around this. I’ve dealt with those issues myself. I know the path and how we can work our way through it. I can get us there.
Those two things give people the comfort they need that they are understood and they will get there (wherever there is).
Today's episode looks at Keanu Reeves answer to that question from Stephen Colbert a few years ago.
The answer, to me, was thoughtful and insightful, and could be interpreted in multiple different ways.
You can access the podcast here.
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When I was growing up, I loved reading British football magazines such as Shoot!
And one of the topics I’d love reading in them were articles about the “greatest goal” or the “greatest player”, etc.
In fact, I remember a piece somewhere about “The Greatest Save In The History Of Football” - specifically, England Goalkeeper Gordon Banks’ save from a Pele header when England played Brazil in a 1970 World Cup Finals game. It was a sure goal until, miraculously, Banks pulled off the greatest save known to man.
It was, without question, an amazing save, one that most goalkeepers probably wouldn’t have made. And because of that, the article stated, and I believed, that Banks must indeed be the greatest goalkeeper of all time.
It’s the same sort of thing when it comes to the greatest football player of all time. Is it Pele, Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo? Depends on who you ask, and rest assured there are entrenched, fervent camps for each one of those players.
The reality, of course, is that, for the most part, there’s no such thing.
There are too many measures of “great” within any given field. There are different roles to be played, and each one contributes to success.
All of them matter. Is the goal scorer more important than the player who provides the assist? Is the goalkeeper who makes the save more critical than the defender who prevents the shot in the first place?
It just doesn’t matter. Because there’s never only ‘one’ great player. One person is never responsible for an entire team’s success. There are many variables that conspire to create a specific successful situation - not least of which is the fact that success is never achieved alone. And so, absolute judgements aren’t possible, nor are they relevant.
Perhaps we need a different definition of greatness. One that’s not about whether it’s Pele or Maradona or Messi or Ronaldo. Because it can be all of them in different ways, based on those factors that matter the most to us.
(By the way, in case you’re wondering, the answer is Pele, without question. The Greatest Ever.)
The Franciscan Friar and ecumenical teacher, Richard Rohr, said that the things that brought you success in the first half of your life are of no use to you in the second half and, in fact, they actually get in your way.The older I get, the more strongly this statement resonates.
It's tempting, when we've achieved some measure of success, to believe that we've arrived.
The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, counseled against this idea of "arrival" and believing we are important, as I discuss in today's episode.
In last Friday’s post, I talked about the need to accept the duality in those around us, from those we live and work with on a daily basis to those we see periodically (for example, friends and relatives during the holidays).
Here, in the US, this is the season of Thanksgiving and it’s a wonderful time to remember who and what we should all be grateful for (putting aside the fact that giving thanks should be a daily activity).
When doing so, though, one of the things that we tend to struggle with is the duality and contradiction of so much in our daily existence.
Structure, rules and constructs can be useful mechanisms and when we're growing up, they're usually unavoidable.
At the same time, they can be both good and bad and, as we grow older, it's worth questioning many of them. Both in terms of what they mean for us but also, as importantly, what they mean for others we live and work with.
Carl Jung said that the greatest tragedy for any child is the unlived life of his parents.
I don’t know if there are many of us who haven’t been impacted by those words, in one way or another. Whether it’s related to what we do for a living, to how we behave with others, to who we associate and spend time with.
In ancient times, when a Roman general achieved success and marched through the streets of Rome in triumph, an auriga (a slave) was appointed to walk behind him and every so often, whisper in his ear, “Memento Homo”.
Remember, you are only a man.
Getting older is something all of us have to deal with. And, especially in today's hyper-competitive, social media driven environment, it comes with its own challenges.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the reality isn't quiet so black and white, which is heartening, because life is full of nuances. As are each of us.
I love actual, physical books. Mostly non-fiction, sometimes fiction as well.
I love not only the content in the books I buy, but I love how it feels in my hand, even how it smells. It’s a rare, almost nonexistent thing now, but I love walking through a bookstore, discovering new and interesting titles across all sorts of genres. That process of discovery is (was) one of the best things ever.
When we let FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) drive our behavior, it’s almost always a path to disaster.
Whether it’s to do with investments (crypto, anyone?), social interactions or work activities, the minute we decide on a course of action because we’re concerned about what might happen if we don’t participate, we’re bound for trouble.
Smartphones are everywhere and the natural temptation is to use it to record all of our important experiences for posterity.
However, as I discuss in today's episode, there's something to be said to, perhaps, put them away and to simply be in the moment.
When I was a 14 year old learning to play the guitar, there was no internet. Which meant that, if you wanted to learn a song, there were only a few ways to do it.
You could try and learn it ‘by ear’; you could have a friend show you how (assuming you had a friend who played guitar and knew the song in question); you could buy a guitar magazine and check out the included sheet music (assuming they transcribed that specific song in that specific issue)…
The reality of markets is that they move up or down, driven by a wide range of variables, not all of them predictable.
When they’re up, we tend to think everything is rosy and those companies reaping the benefits can do no wrong (or at least very little wrong). Conversely, when they’re down, we think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and there’s nothing that can be done right, so best to beware.
A common mistake of someone new to the sales process (whether you're selling a product to a prospect or an idea to your boss) is that the more detail you provide, the higher the chances of success.
Reality works quite differently, as I explain in today's episode. The fact is that the onus is on us to get our message across, which means we need to do the work, not the customer.
When we’re deciding what’s important, we need to be thoughtful about the voices we’re listening to - specifically that they’re worth listening to.
Twitter is probably the most prominent example today. While there are about 450 million users on the platform, about 10% of that user base contributes 80% of the tweets.
There’s an excitement when we’re running at full tilt that’s hard to replicate. It’s as if every fiber of our being is alive and tingling, as we work towards a specific goal.
Certainly there’s a sense of risk (you might even call it fear) but it’s one that pushes us to stay on our toes, alert and focused. We’re geared to execute carefully, we’re mindful of staying agile as we do so, and we’re entirely focused on results.
In today's episode, I tackle my own personal prejudice with the drum machine, specifically via a song from the artist, The Weeknd.
It's a reminder that how we assess value isn't always objective but perhaps colored by years of conditioning, that often turns out to be wrong.
Do you say “you” or do you say “we”?
I’m asking specifically from the context of starting at a new job. That is, how long does it take for you to start using “we” when referencing your company and its activities?
I was thinking about your services…when you talk to your clients…what’s the thinking behind your products…
The thing about deadlines is that, if we’re conscientious, we’ll actually work to them.
Which, in general, is a good thing because deadlines ensure that we prioritize our tasks, allocate the needed resources (usually) and get things done with intent.
At the same time, deadlines - if not correctly set - can give us a false sense of security.
Bill Gates said that he once believed that, if someone had a high IQ, they could be good at everything. He doesn't anymore, and that's a key idea to come to terms with if you want to build a great enterprise.
Because great teams and achievements are, as I discuss in today's episode, built on the back of diverse capabilities and people.
Like it or not, mistakes are par for the course.
As much as we’d like a perfect innings, there really isn’t any such thing.
That’s a function of the variability inherent in our environment. Our colleagues will not always act predictably. Competitors don’t always behave the way we’d like them to.
Character trumps content. Always.
If I have to choose between two individuals - one fully versed in their line of work but untrustworthy, and the other who is less than well versed but trustworthy, I’ll go with the latter person every single time.
When we listen to songs, they come fully formed - perfect entities in and of themselves. But the fact is that the really great ones can evolve and change over time, because they're driven by something deeper, more meaningful.
That, as I discuss in today's episode, is not that different from us and our lives.
Decades ago, in the early days of the PC, Steve Jobs observed that “most people didn’t want to learn how to use a computer; they just wanted to use it”.
That was his underlying philosophy with the Mac (and all (of his) subsequent Apple products): how do you make the product so simple, so intuitive, that the customer can simply use it without a learning curve? And you have to admit, it’s worked beautifully.
While I’m not a “gamer” in any real sense of the word, there is one that I downloaded on my phone years ago and play when I have some downtime. It’s called Wordscapes and involves rearranging a set of scrambled letters into words in a crossword-like fashion.
I’ve played it enough that I’m now at Level 2,744.
Creating something new is a challenging task - so much so that many of us don't actually take the step to create whatever is that's in our head.
The reason, as I discuss in today's episode, is that we get caught up in two specific issues that stop us from taking those essential steps forward.
It’s rare that our work appears in its full and complete form at the outset. It’s rare that we have all of our ideas, our concepts, all of our flourishes fully figured out at the start.
More often, it develops over time, through our continued work and effort. Each stage of development either reinforces our core idea and/or allows us to discard those elements that don’t fit.
It was Pablo Picasso who said, “Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good.”
I know we like to believe that what we do should be effortless and fluid, that that is what makes us “professional”.
But that isn’t the reality of real success - the kind of success that leaves a mark.
Whenever I go to Karachi, I'm amazed by how the city functions and how people go about their daily lives, especially when so much we take for granted in the west, just doesn't exist in the same way over there.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, people get on with things. They live their lives. Because it isn't just about what's around us and the way things are, it's about our own will.
If you’re going to make the time and incur the expense of attending a trade conference, it’s worth trying to actually learn something while you’re there.
I was at just such a conference recently and sat down to listen to a talk. A few minutes before the start of the session, a couple of men sat behind me and immediately launched into a conversation amongst themselves.
A short (and late) one today given other commitments - but I did want to share something I heard that really resonated with me.
I was watching the HBO show “Ballers” which stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) and in Season 5, he talks about how he thinks about living life, making decisions and moving forward.
Brands today are quite different from the brands I grew up with. Many of them are quite explicit about what the stand for and believe in, even if that narrows their target market.
These brands, I'd argue, achieve far greater loyalty and commitment than those that don't. Because, as I discuss in today's episode, consumers are sick of fitting in. And they expect brands to reflect that.
Seth Godin recently wrote about The Journal of Universal Rejection.
It’s a “journal” that allows you to submit any form of content (“…any and all types of manuscript: poetry, prose, visual art, and research articles”) which it then, without question (and, often, without any review) reject.
Like most folks, I was floored this week when I heard the news that Yvon Chouinard, the 83 year old founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Patagonia, was going to give away his company, instead of selling it or taking it public.
Specifically, ownership of the $3 Billion company (that generates $1 billion in revenues and $100 million in profits every year) would be transferred to a specially designed trust and nonprofit organization…
Our past has a tremendous bearing on where we are today. That's a fact. But if we are to have ambition, if we're to move forward, we need to let it go.
And that begins, as I discuss in today's episode, with us. We need to adjust our mindset to be one of self-control and empowerment. It's begins with us.
There’s a ton of debate these days about whether a recession is looming (or not), followed by just as much debate about whether we’re already in one.
Each side puts forward plenty of data and evidence to support their position - and if you listen to what they have to say, you can be convinced either way. So, who’s right? What’s the actual truth?
What is art?
Is it the physical artifact, the making of the physical artifact, or is it both?
Recently, Jason M. Allen won the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition under the digital art category, by submitting a piece of work he created using an artificial intelligence program called Midjourney, a software that turns lines of text into hyper-realistic graphics.
When we lose an opportunity (a sale, a promotion, a job offer, etc.), it’s normal - and OK - to feel down, especially if it was something we really wanted. After all, if we’ve really given it everything we had, we’ve made a commitment (emotional and otherwise) which, ultimately, has not been rewarded.
So, we take the lumps.
When those we work or live with are going through challenges, large or small, we’ll often have this desire to solve their problems for them. We want to do what we can to make things easier for them and ensure they remain happy and sailing along smoothly.
This is, of course, completely understandable…
Our lives and ideas and perceptions are made up of all of our collective experiences, pieced together in different ways, sometimes elegantly, often not.
As such, how we view ourselves is, in many ways, an aggregation of these stories. It's important, then, that we focus on and interpret these stories carefully, as I discuss in today's episode.
I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Wall Street, which stars Michael Douglas, who plays probably the greatest white collar villain of all time, as well as a young Charlie Sheen as his impressionable apprentice.
It’s really an incredible film that provided some powerful social commentary on Wall Street (and, in many ways, America) in the 80s…
You might have noticed the uproar this week over a video of Sanna Marin, Finland’s Prime Minister.
It showed the politician dancing with friends at a private party (in someone’s residence) over the summer. She was enjoying herself and, as you might expect at such parties, letting loose. Well, somehow, the video was leaked online and the uproar it caused was relentless and global, as you might expect in today’s social-media driven world.
Taking on challenges can be daunting. We worry about the commitment and we worry about all of the potential outcomes. In doing so, we can be tepid in our approach.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the only way forward is as simple as it can be challenging to execute: we need to forget to be afraid.
We’re at that time of year when young adults emerge from college, armed with their degrees and ready to enter the working world. For most, this is their first real job and they’re both excited and nervous.
In addition, they’re also entering the workforce right in the midst of all the debates about work from home (WFH) has some real benefits but also poses real challenges for the new entrant.
So, if you’ve read the popular press recently, you’ll have heard about this practice called “quiet quitting” which seems to have entered our vernacular and become a bit of a thing among some folks.
The idea behind it, if you weren’t aware, was not that an employee leaves their job, rather that they limit what they do to only what is strictly in their job description.
It took me a while to understand that the idea of "learning" was not a one and done concept but an enduring, long lasting one.
There are a number of reasons for this as I discuss in today's episode and my key message or takeaway is that, while we've made progress over the years, the path is continuous - so long as we shift how we think about it.
One of the most common conversations you’ll have, as someone who manages others, is the conversation about goal achievement.
That is, what will it take to achieve our goals? What needs to be in place for us to get there? It’s a good discussion (usually) that keeps all of us grounded on the practical steps that should be taken to enable us to get to where we want to go.
At a commencement speech years ago, the author David Foster Wallace recounted a story of two young fishes who meet a couple of older fish as they’re swimming along. One of the older fish greets the young fish and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” The boys continue swimming and a short while later, one of them asks, “What the hell is water?”
Brad Pitt's film, Ad Astra, brought to mind an interesting point about the commitment and sacrifices we make in pursuit of our goals.
In such situations, we will give of ourselves fully, which is good. But, as I discuss in today's episode, when we don't get what we originally set out for, we can still take away valuable lessons.
One of the most common conversations you’ll have, as someone who manages others, is the conversation about goal achievement.
That is, what will it take to achieve our goals? What needs to be in place for us to get there? It’s a good discussion (usually) that keeps all of us grounded on the practical steps that should be taken to enable us to get to where we want to go.
At some point, I think we all have to decide if we’re “For-Profit” or “For-Purpose”.
Yes, we can and should be about both, but one has to take precedence in defining who we are and what we’re doing.
To be “For-Profit” is to be focused on the numbers.
We tend to think of successful people as alternate beings - people who come to their work with a mindset that is always on, always without doubt. In other words, not like the rest of us mortals.
The truth, in my view, is different. Successsful people are more like the rest of us than we think. There's just one intentional difference, as I discuss on today's episode.
Self-awareness is a tricky thing.
I mean, we intuitively recognize its importance, but truly practicing it - balancing it - is another thing altogether. Certainly, we’ve seen examples of folks who run the entire spectrum.
Those who are like a bull in a China shop, completely oblivious to whatever anyone around them says or thinks - or perhaps they are aware but simply don’t care or believe it’s necessary to consider their views.
When Tom Cruise climbs out onto the Burj Khalifa or free solos up a cliff for a scene in one of his Mission Impossible movies, we love it.
When Jackie Chan does his own stunts in any of his action films, we’re enthralled.
In today's episode, I speak to the fact that respect isn't something that is bestowed, it's earned. It isn't something we can expect as a matter of course.
It's something that has to be worked towards and in the show, I discuss a range of ideas as to how to do exactly that.
I know it’s a cliché to say this but we learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.
The reasons are obvious, of course. Through our mistakes, we gain practical experience in what not to do - and it’s this experience that generates knowledge that is seared into our subconscious, often painfully so.
I think too many of us have this perspective that knowledge must be ‘absolute’ and expertise in a given field must be ‘complete’ in its nature.
What I mean by that is we believe being good at something and being able to speak to that expertise requires total command over that field. No questions, no doubts. Complete mastery.