Edge

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

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.

Risk and reward

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

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.

You’ve got this

You.

Because you are in charge. Not your boss. Not your partner. Not your friends, colleagues, or any general circumstance. You are driving this car and you call the shots.

Have got.

Because it’s in you. Whatever it is you need, you have it. You might not have found it yet, in fact you might be searching for it right now. In articles, podcasts, gurus, and self-help books. But it’s not there, it’s in you.

This.

Because it’s up to you to choose what “this” means. Perhaps it’s money, success, fame. Happiness, tranquillity, relaxation. Family, balance, spirituality. You define it and you make it meaningful.

You’ve got this.