There's plenty of upside to being a contrarian, until there isn't.
Sometimes, it's worth considering that the popular opinion - the consensus view - may very well be the right view.
All in Careers
We often see success as a destination. It's not because destinations suggest we can stop when we get there.
True success isn't a destination, it's a journey - and that means addressing complacency, as I discuss in today's episode.
We tend to think effort and graft are the most critical ingredients to doing our work well. They're not.
The fact is that there's one, far more important and foundational requirement for success, as I discuss in today's episode.
From a young age, we're stuck on this idea that we have to get everything right, right from the start. Because you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Truth is, in so many aspects of our lives, especially our careers, that's just patently false. As I discuss in today's episode, you can indeed have second acts.
Those words from Bruce Springsteen's The River got me thinking about this idea of singular dreams and how they define who we are and what we do.
I dive into what this potentially means and what it, perhaps, should mean for us, in today's episode.
Sometimes, telling others - and ourselves - that we've arrived isn't a good thing.
In fact, as I discuss in today's episode, it can lead to a complacency that can derail everything that we've achieved so far. So that messaging, to others and to ourselves, is important.
Social media provides us with a very specific idea of what "the" life is. There's no shortage of influencers who showcase how glamorous their everyday life is.
But before we get caught up, it's worth understanding that what we see is what we're shown, as I discuss in today's episode.
It's tempting, when we've achieved some measure of success, to believe that we've arrived.
The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, counseled against this idea of "arrival" and believing we are important, as I discuss in today's episode.
Structure, rules and constructs can be useful mechanisms and when we're growing up, they're usually unavoidable.
At the same time, they can be both good and bad and, as we grow older, it's worth questioning many of them. Both in terms of what they mean for us but also, as importantly, what they mean for others we live and work with.
Getting older is something all of us have to deal with. And, especially in today's hyper-competitive, social media driven environment, it comes with its own challenges.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the reality isn't quiet so black and white, which is heartening, because life is full of nuances. As are each of us.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trust is something we all intuitively believe in. We understand that it forms the foundations of each and every relationship we have, in every sphere of life.
We're, therefore, very careful about doling out our trust. It's worth realizing though that trust is a two way street - and that it's as much our responsibility to foster it, as it is the other person's.
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.
Taking on challenges can be daunting. We worry about the commitment and we worry about all of the potential outcomes. In doing so, we can be tepid in our approach.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the only way forward is as simple as it can be challenging to execute: we need to forget to be afraid.