Tag: failure

Edge

FabrizioLeave a comment

Out of an audience of 100 people, seeking advice on how to get started with a project, when the speaker – who has extensive experience with that project – invites the audience to connect, this will happen.

90 people will do nothing.

7 people will send an invitation to connect.

2 people will send an invitation to connect and a personal message.

1 person will send an invitation to connect, a personal message, and ask a question that will help them get started with the project.

The points being:

  1. If you are one of the 90, remember that time is an extremely valuable asset, and your time in particular.
  2. Getting an edge on the other 99 is so easy.

The darkest hour

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Even in the darkest hour, there are things that keep you going.

Things that give you energy, that make you want to continue to try, that help you to not give up.

Even in the darkest hour, we need to be able to appreciate those things, name them, doble down on them.

That’s how we make the darkest hour a little less dark.

Breaking habits

Fabrizio1 Comment

Breaking a habit feels bad.

And it’s true whether you are just getting started or you have been at it for years already.

It just feeds that little voice in your head that tells you that you are a failure, that you will never make it, that it was all just an illusion, and that the truth is you don’t deserve it.

Of course, the reality is that building a habit is difficult, keeping it alive is constant work, and never missing a beat is impossible.

To keep that little voice quiet, you need an extra effort to see the 61.

Yesterday I forgot to post on the blog, for the first time in almost four years.

Today, though it’s difficult, I want to focus on the 61.

Let’s go.

Risk and reward

FabrizioLeave a comment

Some people do good work. Some people do poor work. Most people do average work.

And the reasons for that are two: risk aversion and reward seeking.

To do good work, you need to be able to deviate from the norm, find new ways, expand the possibilities. In most organizations, this is a risk, and most people prefer not to take it.

To do good work, you also need to be rewarded and recognized for both the success and the failure. In most organizations, average gets rewarded, and most people adapt.

If you are designing how your team will work, keep in mind risk aversion and reward seeking. And remember that if you do what everybody else is used to do, you (and your team) will probably fall in the middle.

Making sense

FabrizioLeave a comment

It doesn’t make any sense.

But seeking sense in what happens around us is a pointless exercise. It means you are trying to explain with reason something that goes beyond it. Feelings, moments, circumstances, relationships. Seeking sense is a rigid activity that aims at fitting the world into familiar boxes.

A better thing to try is seeking purpose. Purpose is the way you connect the dots. It is loose by nature, and it adapts to time and events. Seeking purpose is a flexible activity that aims at shaping your story into the world around you.