All in Leadership
It’s a really weird thing.
In the process of learning something on guitar, specifically when I’m dealing with particularly tricky fingerwork, I’ll hit a point when I just can’t get my fingers moving fast enough, or to the right notes, or with the fluidity and rhythm needed for the song.
It’s that situation when the mind knows what to do, but the body can’t translate. Time after time, I’ll try but I’ll miss this note or I’ll flub that one.
One of the most common refrains I hear from business professionals - both young and old - is that the achievements of ‘celebrities’, in any walk of life, are the result of luck, or great timing, or some other reason that’s preordained.
In others words, their smarts and hard work were contributors but not drivers of their success. They rationalize that what drove that person’s success isn’t accessible to them, that they’re disproportionately benefitting from forces outside of their control.
There’s a lot of talk these days about Artificial Intelligence. Much of the buzz behind AI and many of the “digital disruptors” that leverage it (think digital twins, IoT, blockchain applications and more) is well founded. Taken together, these capabilities and technologies will change almost every facet of our lives, from how we live to what we buy to how we work.
If you spend any amount of time in the Bay Area, you can’t help but be struck by the entrepreneurial spirit on display (seemingly) everywhere. Billboards promote the latest AI startup, not the usual Fortune 500 monolith. Coffee shops all over are filled with twenty and thirty somethings typing code, while random overheard conversations inevitably turn to the latest tech venture or entrepreneurial startup.
This week, I’m sharing my favorite ideas from “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”, an amazing book by Donald Miller. It’s a non-fiction book that speaks to how we should think of our lives as stories to be lived, making them more meaningful in terms of how we live it, and how we (and others) will remember ourselves as we grow older and when we eventually leave. This is Day 5.
This week, I’m sharing my favorite ideas from “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”, an amazing book by Donald Miller. It’s a non-fiction book that speaks to how we should think of our lives as stories to be lived, making them more meaningful in terms of how we live it, and how we (and others) will remember ourselves as we grow older and when we eventually leave. This is Day 4.
This week, I’m sharing my favorite ideas from “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”, an amazing book by Donald Miller. It’s a non-fiction book that speaks to how we should think of our lives as stories to be lived, making them more meaningful in terms of how we live it, and how we (and others) will remember us as we grow older and when we eventually leave. This is Day 3.
This week, I’m sharing my favorite ideas from “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”, an amazing book by Donald Miller. It’s a non-fiction book that speaks to how we should think of our lives as stories to be lived, making them more meaningful in terms of how we live it, and how we (and others) will remember ourselves as we grow older and, when we eventually leave. This is Day 1.
In my very early twenties, I went on my first business trip with my then boss. It was a quick trip to Bangkok (I was based in Hong Kong at the time) and I remember four things about that trip.
First, I got to fly business class, which was awesome. Business class was nice.
Second, I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, which was amazing. I couldn’t fathom such luxury.
Third, Bangkok traffic sucked - a 15 minute drive took an hour plus. Apparently, pretty normal back then (and not all that different now).
An endless debate that takes place in popular conversation is the question of whether people are born with special capabilities or whether they craft and mold themselves to become that way.
There’s a comfort in both streams of thought. The latter suggests that we control our destiny, who we are and who we can become. It provides for the mental foundation that we aren’t restricted to what we are today nor to what we have. Dream your dreams, make your plans and get after it. It’s all there for the taking.
For most of us, when we’re growing up, we’re exposed to plenty of structure. From our family rules to our religion to our social and community expectations, we’re guided (explicitly or implicitly) by defined sets of rules that tell us what to do, how to behave and even how to think.
“Why are we so afraid of secrets? Why won’t we take risks and figure out something new? We have given up our sense of wonder at secrets left to be discovered?” - Peter Thiel
The problem with the way our educational system works, in general, is that it is designed to produce established skill sets (mostly) that serve a world that has structure. Identify your specific focus area early, dedicate most if not all of your time and academic resources towards that focus area and dutifully march down that well-trodden path to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, programmer, etc.
There are two types of people in the world: those who plan and those who don’t.
And there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that those who plan are more successful than those who don’t.
Of course, just because you plan, doesn’t mean everything will go your way. Reality has a funny way of doing things that don’t align with our best laid plans.
If I'm honest, I will say that there are many times I struggle with the idea of getting older and dealing with the reality that there are, to paraphrase Steven Tyler, only so many more summers left in my life.
While there's, no doubt, much I have to be grateful for, I'm also flustered by the fact that there's still so much left to do.
And my view of myself doing those things varies - some days I think maybe I'm too old, other days, I'm not at all.
Perceptions are everything.
If someone believes something to be true, it almost doesn’t matter what the data says. The most reasoned arguments and the most robust set of facts will pale in comparison to their beliefs, values and worldview.
And as a marketer or salesperson reaching out to current and potential customers, it certainly doesn’t matter what you think. It only matters what they think, how they perceive the facts.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott
It’s almost always a bad idea to try and make difficult decisions in the fog of war, unless we absolutely have to.
In the midst of the battle, we’re faced with a host of messages and signals coming at us, non-stop, seemingly at random. Sometimes, our senses are heightened and we’re fully attuned to our circumstances, allowing us to make sharp, intuitive decisions. But more often than not, we’re not. Or we aren’t for any extended period of time.
I was thinking about the Dotcom era of the late 90s and the euphoria that gripped the markets for those few years as stocks climbed to record breaking levels.
The news of the day was engaged in a fevered debate - were we in a new era, one where the old models had become hopelessly outdated? Or was this simply another fad, not unlike Dutch Tulips, a bubble that would burst in due course, once we all came to our senses?
When sportsmen are learning to find their feet again after a long injury, or when they’re struggling with their form and looking to get their performance back on track, the advice they’re given isn’t involved or complex. They’re not told to undergo elaborate programs that will restore their physical and/or psychological state back to their prior peak.
In my last post, I discussed the idea of competition and specifically, that it’s existence shouldnt act as a deterrence to us entering into a specific market. In many ways, it can act as a validating factor that should, frankly, encourage us to play in that space.
But the more pertinent question, at least the one I’ve been turning over in my mind, is whether that’s even the right focus.
Our natural reflex, when we’re evaluating a market, is to think of competition as being a negative factor. If there is a plethora of companies already operating in a given space, fighting it out for share, our immediate assumption is that this market is “taken” or that adding another player into the mix is a dumb idea.
This might be the case, but then again, it might not.
