Life Lesson

It’s not visible until it is.

An overnight success isn’t actually an overnight success. It’s a thousand invisible successful moments that led to this one visible moment.

And failure didn’t happen today. It happened in a hundred small moments leading up to today.

What’s important is that we do what we think and feel will lead to a success… every day. Drip by drip by drip.

Get comfortable with the lack of visibility. Success isn’t like putting colored sand in a jar.

Stay Positive & Don’t Slow Down

The book sucks half way through and you have the choice to set it down or keep reading.

Same decision is available to you about your happy hour deal at the bar.

Same with the 30 slides you’ve worked on in the presentation.

It’s all just a decision and we shouldn’t feel ashamed by cutting something short.

Far better to realize that making that kind of decision is more about creating the time and space to do better.

Stay Positive & When One Door Closes…

If it brings you joy, no one can argue that.

Same if it brings you anger.

“You made me angry” can be argued against. “I feel angry” can’t.

It warrants reminding that while your emotions are your own, so are theirs.

In the end, here’s what matters most: are you feeling what you want to feel?

If not, then, ya know, maybe start.

Stay Positive & You’re In Control

Leaders do a lot. No doubt about that.

One of the elements of leadership they never lose traction of (at least the best leaders don’t) is that their team maintains the 101.

They do the required readings.

They know the product or service.

They can tell the backstory.

They can tell a story.

Need a real life example? A bartender that doesn’t know what “up” or “on the rocks” is on a cocktail menu that only has those two options. Sure it’s bad on the bartender, but they’re a reflection of the leadership.

That’s what we are and that’s what our teams are to us.

Stay Positive & Mindful Of The 101

I’ve always despised RACI charts. Who is responsible? We are. RACI is for management and cogs and efficiency – not leadership. It’s a mechanism to get the bare minimum with the bare minimum. It’s a legacy made from the industrial revolution. It works (some of the time), but is it necessary?

When I have people asking me who is responsible for an effort, my answer is always the same: we are.

We may be responsible for managing it or for adding value or for the execution… but 100% without a doubt we are responsible every time. If it involves us, no matter in what way, we’re responsible.

Any answer that is otherwise along the lines of “they are” is a recipe for disaster. It’s the opposite of a network or a team. Stating responsibility is elsewhere is actually the invitation to blame someone else. The work is ultimately lesser because of this attitude.

Stay Positive & Own It, Always

Brushing once a day for less than a minute still puts us on the path toward dental hygiene challenges.

Something so rudimentary and simple requires intention and consistency to work out in our favor.

It makes you wonder about the more meaningful work we do. We clearly can’t expect remarkable results from using a new sales methodology if we test it out once a week. We can’t expect to reap the benefits of mindfulness when we only practice when it’s convenient.

It’s not that we have to do everything with intention and consistency; but we do have to with what we want to grow and ensure the future success of.

Stay Positive & Time For A Habit Check

The first level of a sticky product or idea is that someone comes to it multiple times. It’s the purchase of your same body wash again and again or the library you visit each month rather than going to any other one.

That’s powerful, but not nearly as powerful as the second level of stickiness.

The second level of a sticky product or idea is that someone wants to bring others into the fold. It’s the Dive Bar that you go to ounce and go again because you have to show others. It’s the purchase of a dozen more of your favorite hand-crafted soaps that you’ll give to your friends.

Both levels hold value but it begs a question around where we spend our time: maintaining level one? or pursuing how to achieve level two?

Stay Positive & See You Again Tomorrow?