All in Aspirations
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
