You are browsing archives for
When a homeowner decides to put his house on sale and calls a broker… When he calls the moving company… When a family arrives in town and calls someone recommended as the family doctor… When a wealthy couple calls their favorite fancy restaurant looking for a reservation… Go down the list. Stockbrokers, even hairdressers. And […]
It’s impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can’t have heads without tails. Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that. You can’t have success unless you’re prepared to have failure. As soon as you say, “failure is not an option,” you’ve just said, “innovation is not an […]
Perhaps this sounds familiar: When it’s time to write a resume or talk to a boss or discuss a project glitch with colleagues, the instinct is to spin, to avoid a little responsibility, to sit quietly. Put a best face forward, don’t set yourself up. When reviewing just about anything you’ve done with yourself (in […]
About a year after they were founded, Google was first mentioned in the New York Times. As an aside in a non-news column. Today of course, it seems like everything they do is instantly news. It’s easy to forget that just about every major online service (eBay, Amazon, Paypal, Twitter, Facebook) launched in obscurity. Same […]
Here’s a little-spoken truth learned via crowdsourcing: Most people don’t believe they are capable of initiative. Initiating a project, a blog, a wikipedia article, a family journey. Initiating something even when you’re not putatitively in charge. At the same time, almost all people believe they are capable of editing, giving feedback or merely criticizing. So […]
The number one reason people give me for giving up on something great is, “someone else is already doing that.” Or, parsed another way, “my idea is not brand new.” Or even, “Oh no, now we’ll have competition.” Two big pieces of news for you: 1. Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits […]
The easiest form of management is to encourage or demand that people do more. The other translation of this phrase is to go faster. The most important and difficult form of management (verging on leadership) is to encourage people to do better. Better is trickier than more because people have trouble visualizing themselves doing better. […]
Every project (product, play, event, company, venture, non profit) has a million tasks that need to be done, thousands of decisions, predictions, bits of effort, conversations and plans. Got that. But what’s the hard part? The CEO spends ten minutes discussing the layout of the office with the office manager. Why? Was that a difficult […]
Maybe this year… Your knowledge will reach critical mass.. Your boss will give you the go ahead.. Your family situation will be stable.. The competition will stop innovating.. The traffic jam will cease.. There won’t be any computer viruses to deal with, and Then… You can act, you can launch your project, you can make […]
A check in your wallet does you very little good. It represents opportunity, sure, but not action. Most of us are carrying around a check, an opportunity to make an impact, to do the work we’re capable of, to ship the art that would make a difference. No, the world isn’t fair, and most people […]
