All in Personal Codes
Overnight successes are all the rage. We see or hear a success story and we marvel at how they’ve come out of nowhere. Clearly, they had an idea that resonated, got their message out at the right time and were able to capitalize on the opportunity. I wish I could be as lucky as that!
Of course, overnight successes are almost never that.
The point of a brand is, in one way or another, to tug on our heartstrings.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a consumer brand, or a B2B brand, the goal is entirely the same: to establish a preference that has, as its basis, criteria well beyond the rational.
The problem is apathy.
When we’ve been burned long enough, when we’ve been ignored long enough, when we’ve been taken for granted, we might decide we don’t care. So, then, we ignore the issue or avoid it. We get on with other aspects of our lives, and deprioritize those things that have caused our problems.
One of the things I love about kids is their ability to just go after something they want.
Put a paintbrush in their hand and they create. Give them an instrument and they play without reservation. Ask them to tell you a story and they simply do it. They don’t worry about their technique, or their current skill level, or how their artistic choices will be perceived by the world.
Reiss Nelson is a 20 year old up and coming English footballer, who plays as a Forward for my club, Arsenal FC.
On Saturday, he came on as an attacking substitute in the 82nd minute of the 2020 Community Shield game, the traditional season opener when the prior season’s League Champions (Liverpool this year) play the FA Cup winners (Arsenal). At Full Time, the score was tied at 1-1 and so the game went to penalties.
The thing about respect is that it isn’t something that’s bestowed upon us. We can’t simply expect respect as some sort of birthright, a product of our position or title or so-called standing. We have to earn it.
Our actions and behaviors are what enable us to earn it, enable us to command respect. That’s all on us. We own all of our outcomes.
You know, the older I get, the less patience I have for the idea that we should let anyone or anything other than ourselves be the guide for what we do. That the perspectives of others are, at best, suggested inputs, and at worst, detrimental guidance (intentional or otherwise).
And the reason for this loss of patience is that I have grown tired of my own personal issues in this regard.
One of the things I love about kids is that they just get started.
Ask a 5 year old to paint, and they don’t worry about what they’ll paint, their technique, the precise color mix or anything else. They just grab a brush, pick a color and get going. No times wasted thinking, analyzing, pre-judging. They just do.
As we get older, we lose this. Too much thinking, analyzing and pre-judging. Before we’ve even tried.
Is it that we don’t believe we deserve to be ambitious? Or is it the fear that we are likely might fail?
Which one explains why we don’t wholeheartedly commit? Which one explains why we become “dabblers” - just dipping our toes in the water but not really getting wet?
Something stops us from committing ourselves, which seems a worse fate, to me, than even trying in the first place. We pretend to engage, to get involved and take on the goal, but really we’re not.
If you’re going to be in business, then you can only be in business to solve problems.
What I mean by that is that you aren’t doing what you do to simply ‘do work’, or to run a business (for all of the budding entrepreneurs out there).
You’re doing what you do because it helps your customer tackle a specific issue, something that they’re willing to pay good money (or some other form of consideration) to have tackled.
A few years ago, I was at a Van Halen concert - specifically, the David Lee Roth Reunion incarnation. Halfway through the gig, Diamond Dave sat with an acoustic guitar without the band and said to the crowd:
"When I die, I want you to sprinkle my ashes over the 1980's".
I had a different post I wanted to put out today but, instead, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts about John Lewis’ posthumous Opinion piece that was published in the New York Times yesterday. Written a couple of days before he passed away, it’s his final message to us all, and it speaks to the underlying ideals and principles that guided him through almost the entirety of his life.
This month, the podcast is focused on talent, specifically what we can and should expect of our people, as well as how we evaluate and manage them.
In today's episode, I close out the month by talking about standards and the little compromises we make to accommodate this or that particular team member. It's far better to raise the bar, set our own standards and bring our people with us.
What is this idea of “being a hero”? I don’t know how to really comprehend it, that is, what makes someone become a hero?
I mean, it’s a concept we talk and hear about incessantly - all over the media, in our news, in a lot of our personal conversations. But I don’t know if we really internalize what it means.
This month, the podcast is focused on talent, specifically what we can and should expect of our people, as well as how we evaluate and manage them.
In today's episode, I discuss a simple way to assess whether a performance problem is solvable or not, and that is to ask, whether it's a problem of content or values. The answer to that questions indicates whether the relationship is worth working on or not.
When you’re in the midst of it, the power of the herd is almost unavoidable. When it moves in a particular direction, the pull to do the same - to move with it - is relentless.
Aside from its very momentum, there’s a seemingly rational justification as well. All those folks couldn’t possibly be wrong, could they?
So, if I’m honest, I’ll admit that I’d settled into a very managed emotional pattern when it came to how I engaged with football (soccer for you non-English speakers) and specifically my team, Arsenal Football Club.
Arsenal would play their games and I’d watch, but in a very managed, somewhat detached way (most of the time). If we won, that was great and it gave me a nice feeling, but it wouldn’t send me over the moon.
My son took me to the driving range over the weekend. It was a great chance for us to spend some time together, enjoy the outdoors and work on our golf game.
It had been a long while since I’d even picked up my clubs, so my “golf game” really did need work. (When golfers ask me what my handicap is, I say I don’t have one. Not because I’m a scratch golfer - a zero handicap - but because it’s so high, it isn’t even worth measuring!)
We tend to think of massive entities - ‘working’ entities from big companies to big countries - as having a life of their own. Once they’re set on their way, they progress forward, taking out everything in their path. They have the power of momentum behind them, fueled by past success, money, resources, what-have-you. Forget stopping them in their tracks, just altering their path or slowing them down is difficult to do. Massive entities are very, very difficult to stop.
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.
