Tag: bias

What to aim for

FabrizioLeave a comment

The biggest problem with self-help books, business reviews, parenting blogs, marketing podcasts is that they give you a kick when your mind is at peace and make you feel awful the exact same moment things get hectic and you fail to follow their advice.

Hearing about what somebody else has done in similar circumstances is not going to shield us from pain, frustration, anger, and thousands of other feelings when the situation comes to us.

Life is tough, no matter what.

Finding your way, the way you can call your own and be proud of, is what you should aim for.

The ocean of sameness

FabrizioLeave a comment

Messaging is the equivalent of defining. And when you define something you put a limit to it.

If I say tree, everybody understands what I am talking about, but at the same time everybody will have their own image of a tree in their mind.

If I say birch, fewer people will understand what I am talking about, but those who do will have a clear image in their mind.

If I say betula pendula, most people will not understand what I am talking about, but the very few who do will have a very powerful image in their mind, and a very strong connection with me.

Messaging is ineffective for many products because the limit is pushed further and further and further again, until the message itself loses any power to define what the product actually is. And for the fear of losing opportunities and market shares, all you end up selling is trees. Just like anybody else.

If your work involves some messaging, remember that your goal is to limit, not to expand. You can have different messages for different people and for different channels, but each one of them needs to be limited in order to resonate and actually mean something.

The alternative is drowning in an ocean of sameness.

Within a stone’s throw

FabrizioLeave a comment

Your urgency is not your customer’s urgency.

You might have a plan, investors that demand that you grow, the idea that 30% year-over-year is the only measure of success, a team that is competitive and wants nothing more than their bonus at the end of the quarter.

But that is you. And honestly, nobody cares.

Think about your customer’s plan instead, what their investors want from them, how they define success, what their team wants to achieve in the next 90 days.

And if your first thought is “it depends”, you might be right. Most likely, though, you are just trying to sell to anybody who comes within a stone’s throw.

Focus. And learn.

Embrace the mess

FabrizioLeave a comment

The best way to be in charge of something is to embrace the mess.

Of course, you should be committed and you should deeply care. You should bring your A-game and make sure that everybody involved can bring their own too. You should plan and execute and iterate and educate and plan some more.

And then, when chaos strikes, as it certainly will, you should be ready to throw everything in the air and play with the mess of the new setting.

It might not only be the best way, but also the only one.

Nothing personal

FabrizioLeave a comment

Other people’s success is nothing more than what it says it is: the success of someone who is not you.

It’s not your success, neither it is your failure. It’s not a missed opportunity and it is not less opportunities. It’s not your merit, it’s not your fault, it’s not your reward, it’s not your punishment.

It’s nothing personal.

Cherish other people’s success as vividly as you cherish your own.

The two go hand in hand.