All in Life
Our heroes occupy a curious place in our psyche.
We marvel at their ingenuity and intelligence. We admire their persistence in the face of considerable odds and elevate their achievements to the strata of legends.
At the same time, we gloss over the other aspects of their lives and characters. We airbrush over their failings or fully ignore them. We assume their contributions represent the entirety of who they were/are.
When one side is dominant, we tend to think they’ll always be dominant.
Especially when their dominance is all encompassing - more market share, more money, more resources, more access, more everything. They develop an aura of invincibility. Their people sense it, they exude it, they act it.
Every deal has a point at which it doesn’t make sense anymore. The point at which the ‘ask’ is just too much.
In a sales deal, it could be when the price is too low, or when the accompanying demands (product add-ons, service level demands, ongoing performance expectations, etc.) aren’t worth the cost.
Of course, this isn’t only the case with sales deals - it happens in all aspects of our lives.
It seems to me that being smart isn’t enough.
Not when you’re trying to get something personal, something important, done.
You can intellectually understand what you need to do. You can comprehend why you need to do it. You can even detail how you need to get it done.
But there’s still no guarantee that you’re going to do it.
This month's podcasts focuses on the mental aspect of how we work - on the why we get started, how we get caught in ourselves and the mental mindset needed to succeed.
In this episode, I wrap up this month’s theme on the mental mindsets we need to be successful, specifically sharing two ideas. The first is about how we should trust ourselves as we decide what we’re doing, when we’re on “the path”. The second is how we should focus on the process, not just the finish line.
There’s many things to consider when we’re making a decision that relates to people - whether we’re hiring someone for our company, deciding on a contractor for a particular job, or choosing between candidates for elected office.
We need to assess their qualifications, their technical competency, their work experience as well as their proposed plan of action (what they’ll do once they’re in the role). All of these are important indicators of the individual’s ability to be successful in the role and it makes sense that we be diligent in evaluating these factors.
When we’ve done things a specific way, acted in a particular manner or simply held a specific point of view for any period of time, we tend to get comfortable. We decide that this is how things work for us, and develop our world view (and accompanying behaviors) around these models.
They might be models we’ve been taught or ones we’ve developed for ourselves, based on our own experiences. But they become ours, whether we think they’re good for us or not (and even when we know they’re not).
This month's podcasts focuses on the mental aspect of how we work - on the why we get started, how we get caught in ourselves and the mental mindset needed to succeed.
In this episode, I talk about confidence, how it's difficult to gain but easy to lose. I also spell out the key behaviors, thought processes and tactics we should deploy to get it back. Our futures depend on it.
Have you ever removed a connection on LinkedIn?
I did recently, for the first time ever. This was someone I’ve known for a while, with plenty of shared experience and common connections. The reason I did it was because of his relentless negativity. There wasn’t a single post he made that was positive. Nothing that was uplifting. Instead, he’d ridicule, make fun and generally denigrate others (including his own employer).
We tend to have this view that science is a ‘fixed’ subject, in the sense that we think of it as defined and permanent in nature. That once scientists have done their thing, that once the facts surrounding a specific topic have been gathered and a perspective has been reached, then that’s it. We’re done.
Of course, that’s not actually the case. Science evolves, it changes and is subject to refinement. That’s actually the value of the scientific process - that as more data is captured, as we see the interplay of different variables over time, we learn more.
In today’s podcast, I’m taking a break from this month’s theme, which focuses on the mental mindsets that impact how we work.
With all that’s going on and what’s been on all of our minds, it didn’t sit right with me. So, what I thought I’d do instead is share, in audio form, the blog post I put out earlier this week on this site, in which I dissected my own thought process on this important issue. I am also including some additional thoughts here in this podcast that I didn’t on my original blog post, so even if you read that post, I hope you’ll give this a listen.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any period of time, you’ll have noticed that I usually comment or reflect on the most major events of the day in some sort of way, either explicitly or implicitly. But I haven’t really talked about the protests that have been taking place across the country (and indeed the world) over the last couple of weeks.
I’ve wanted to, but, the truth is, I’ve struggled with how to best comment and provide my perspective within the construct of this platform.
I’ve talked before about how technology has democratized access to the tools that help us create. This is as true in fields traditionally considered to be creative as it is in those that are more commercial. We have options in terms of how we do our work, how sophisticated we want its production to be, and where and when we distribute it.
This month's podcasts focuses on the mental aspect of how we work - on the why we get started, how we get caught in ourselves and the mental mindset needed to succeed.
In this episode, I discuss the delusion that is inspiration, this idea that if we just wait for it, it will eventually come and deliver us to where we want to go. That's simply not true and I discuss what we should, instead, focus on.
Early in my career, I was staffed on a project with a senior consultant who had developed a stellar reputation as a “real people person”. Someone who was focused entirely on the individual and their needs and, as someone who could blend that perfect balance between what was needed for the client, the project, the firm and the individual.
I had never met this consultant, but given the ‘word on the street’, I was looking forward to it.
The more complex the transaction, the more difficult it is for everyone to emerge with everything on their wish list. That’s just the nature of the beast.
Political negotiations illustrate this perfectly and very publicly. You have dueling parties, fueled by competing ideologies, each proposing what they believe to be in the best interests of their constituents. (Yes, I know that politicians are driven more by what they think their voters will want to hear versus what they need to hear, but humor me for a bit.)
This month's podcasts draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
Today's podcast discusses that day in 1965 when Bob Dylan went electric and changed the course of his career. But he also gave us a lesson in how we need to do what we believe in and be who we want to be, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says.
In 1969, Led Zeppelin released their sophomore album titled Led Zeppelin 2, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. A year later, they followed up that album with Led Zeppelin 3, which diverged from the path that their first two albums took. Where as the first two albums were driving rock albums, this one, while it didn’t lack for driving rock songs, dove pretty heavily into the acoustic realm. The album was panned at first but is now regarded among their best.
When I was in Business School, I was asked to take part - along with another student - in an experiment run by a couple of PhD students. We were given a store of currency and had to decide - over multiple rounds - how much of that currency we would give to the other person. (We might even have been given some rules as to how to do it, but I don’t quite recall.)
This month's podcasts draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
In today's podcast, I dive into a quote from the movie, Ghost In The Shell, which speaks to the importance of letting go of the past - whether we feel as if we've failed in our past endeavors but even if we've succeeded…
