Daily Post with Adam Fairhead: Recent Episodes
Adam Fairhead
I’m posting daily musings designed to help teams doing work that matters, achieve more of what matters. Covering ethical online marketing, the new economy, leadership, and a growth mindset.
Might it be time to start training ourselves to feel good when we get the ‘right things’ done, rather than when we just get ‘things’ done?
We either fight for something, or we fight against ourselves. What does your body of work – and those you work alongside – fight for?
Enjoy the ride, difference maker. No dead man ever benefitted from having achieved “inbox zero”.
Please, make an impact. But make it a positive one, worthy of your time, that the world needs, that you can be proud of.
Shortcuts and “killer tools” keep coming. If you do work that matters, ask yourself: will this benefit my work, or do I just fear the tools?
Accept it. Now you can focus on doing the hard work, instead of worrying about why it isn’t easier.
Those of us in pursuit of meaningful work that makes a difference shouldn’t be asking, “Is this making me enough money?” but rather, “Is this worthy of my life?”
When every single person in your market has derived maximum advantage from your work, your work is still not done.
If you’re doing work that matters, don’t treat it like everything else in the market. Dignify it with the opportunity to stand apart.
Neither is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The world is more three-dimensional than that. But it’s important to make a choice consciously. Which do you want to be known for?
Amazon has set the criteria for what “best” means to them. But you get to set your own criteria, for the betterment of those you wish to serve if you choose.
The market chooses, as much as big players try to influence that choice. Give the market the message they need to hear to make the right choice.
We all need to design a price for our work, even if the price of some pieces is $0. If our work matters – if we wish to create change with the fruits of our labour – we must remember: it’s never just about price. Or just about value.
The normal kind produces robots. This new kind enables good teams to produce great work that makes a difference. Which would you prefer?
If you do work that matters, if you’re trying to create change, please, own the world. Just know what it means first.
Trying to simplify the complex often creates new types of complex. Trying to simplify simple often creates a better experience for those in our care.
Which do you strive for?
If you do work that matters – if you’re trying to make a difference – remember to speak up in the name of privacy and respect. Our work benefits from a safer digital community, as do those we wish to serve.
Salespeople get a bad rap when they’re only doing what they’ve been forced to do. Look to the leaders.
Will we get to see you and engage with you today? Or must we instead try to pick you out from a sea of similarity?
Consider showing your process to the world – we can only appreciate your genius if you let us see. We may even tell our friends.
Please, make the experience of doing business with your company as accommodating, delightful and memorable as you can. But for the benefit of everyone you serve, don’t sacrifice your “house rules”. They’re important for you and for those in your care.
One hour isn’t a very long time. But if you use an hour wisely, you can do so much more than you think.
Our language has a huge effect on our actions. Consider yours: are you at war, or would you be better off simply better serving those you’re best equipped to serve?
You do better work when you focus on what matters, instead of maximizing and optimizing your way to mediocrity.
Maybe the marketplace is down, your industry is tough and you seem down on your luck at the moment. But maybe, the solution is to simply show up fully and regularly enough to tip the scales in your favor. See you tomorrow.
There are many lenses to see our work through. Knowing your primary lens will often reveal how you could be accelerating with the handbrake on. What’s yours?
Knowing why we do what we do has a profound effect on our actions. Why do you do what you do?
As you produce meaningful work for those you serve, remember who you’re building for. There will always be critics, but they don’t know what you know. Serve your tribe.
How would our meaningful work benefit if we looked beyond the scapegoats and improved ourselves and influenced change, instead of wasting time blaming our smartphones for things?
We have more access, connection and distribution than the president of the United States had 20 years ago.
We live in a world that celebrates unstructured minds but rewards sustained focus. Which would you prefer to have?
Unless they’re the people you set out to serve – those in your choice of market for whom you can produce a lasting difference – ignore them.
Perfection isn’t the point. Progress keeps us in the game and if we can make enough of it, we might just create something wonderful.
Vote for progress with your dollars, and earn the votes of those you wish to serve with your integrity. It means more to them than you think it does.
Things are happening in the world. Right now. We need leaders. We follow leaders. You want to be followed so that you can make a difference.
Are you connecting the dots yet?
Are you in the business of debating who is right, or the business or getting people unstuck?
Your choice.
The universe would be a lot more dinged up – for better – if more people like you focused less on the first, and more on the second.
Beware those with Expertitis. You’re not always the expert; that’s precisely why you’re the best person in the world to serve your choice of market.
The more time we spend together with them in their world, talking their language, seeing things their way…the easier it is for them to choose your company over any other option in the marketplace. Regardless of scope, price, quality or value.