Life Lesson

Smile at a stranger and the rest will follow. No need to make sure they pass it along.

Write a meaningful message (from you or from a brand) and the rest will follow. No need to spend time contemplating how to make it viral.

Take the leap of applying to that job, that trip, that organization and the rest will follow. No need to get hung up on all the reasons you might not get picked.

There are certainly actions worth taking that require us to think ahead and think about it after the action.

Then there are certainly actions that aren’t. Ones that the rest simply follows.

Stay Positive & Let’s Not Mix The Two Up

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There are certainly some commodities we don’t want to mix and match.

Toilet paper for example. No one wants 24 rolls of all different brands, ply and designs.

Bulk commodities like that aside, there’s something special about mix and match offerings.

The special thing is a feeling; one of adventure, one of getting more value than the cost by getting multiple experiences, one of a guarantee there has to be at least one of the mix and match that one really enjoys.

If you’re not offering mix & match, it’s worth figuring out how.

You may not make as large of a profit margin, but you’ll more easily build loyalists among those who naturally gravitate toward mix & match opportunities (that’s a lot of people, btw).

Stay Positive & Mix First, Then Match

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If you’re creating or innovating a service or product that leverages AI, I implore you to include a toggle ability.

The Smart Nest Thermostat is always learning your temperature habits, but will 1. override your settings for the vacation you plan on taking and 2. if you edit it multiple times while on vacation, it’s going to learn from that.

Spotify is always learning what you like to listen to and will try to give you more of what you want to listen to, but perhaps you have a kid that you want to play children’s music for temporarily or you just feel in the mood for some polka music – guaranteed you’ll have a very different Release Radar populated for you next week than weeks prior.

Driverless vehicles are learning your routes, but one override to take the longer scenic route home forces the AI to question itself: maybe the path that has been taken up to today isn’t the right path.

What a beautiful thing having a widget to toggle the learning on and off would be.

Stay Positive & Don’t Wait For Suggestions For This To Reach Your Threshold, Build It In From The Beginning

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Keeping the status quo is dangerous.

Letting bad things happen is dangerous.

Not holding others accountable is dangerous.

All these are certainly more dangerous than leaping, trying something new, holding yourself accountable, going out of your way to do good deeds and righting things when you see they are wrong.

Stay Positive & Put Dangerous In Perspective (What IS Dangerous And What FEELS Dangerous)

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An entrepreneur isn’t really an entrepreneur until she has a few failed experiences to talk about.

A writer isn’t really a writer until he has a few rejection notices from publishers to show for it.

A hockey player isn’t really a hockey player without a scar somewhere to show for it.

Every profession has marks of someone who is experienced.

And my favorite thing about it? It’s really really hard to fake them.

Marks off all sorts (good and bad) signal to others that you are who you say you are, that you can be trusted.

That trust is how you become more of an entrepreneur, more of a writer, more of a hockey, more of a professional.

Stay Positive & You Build Trust By Doing

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Frequent pivots isn’t a sign of half-haphzard decision making or worse, indecisiveness; it’s often the sign of a master with foundational knowledge about the task or project.

Why?

Because one thing is true. What’s working smoothly today won’t be the same tomorrow.

Different influences, variables, stakeholders, requests. The list goes on on how tomorrow will be different.

(Heck, even later today might be a different situation entirely.)

Note: It’s not the goals that change, but the course on which one is on to achieve them often can.

Stay Positive & Pivot And Proceed

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Commodity goods will hang in for awhile, but they won’t thrive.

Not as much as the brands that find a network to tap into (or build) around the commodity, which, by extension, no longer makes it a commodity.

It’s only a matter of time before a competitor finds a way to connect their consumers to each other in a meaningful way.

Stay Positive & You Can Only Be In The Lead For So Long Sans Network

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