Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
There are a few layers of hard work.
The first is being busy. Checking boxes. Sort of the monotonous must-dos.
The next layer of hard work is putting focus, intention, and care into each action.
The third layer is developing a process so strong that an observer may think the series of tasks that you’re completing is done effortlessly.
Sometimes the process is a long one, but that makes the end result worth giving.
Stay Positive & For Others, Worth Buying, Every. Damn. Day.
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Decision-making is difficult at first.
What color should you paint the wall? Does the logo need to be larger? Do you ask friends and family to give you money before you ask for investors? Do you pull the trigger now or wait until a better time?
Our lizard brain immediately seeks to put the weight on someone else’s shoulders.
So we ask others what they think. We ask them “if you were in my shoes, what would you do?”
The problem is that they are not in your shoes. And, once you ask enough people, you’ll likely be left with a split-decision that you still need to make.
Better to decide yourself. Decide early. Decide often.
Decision-making is difficult at first.
Stay Positive & Key Words: At First
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There’s a chant my volleyball team does when we’re in a rut. “1-2-3 Be Better!”
It’s really what we all want. It’s why some marketing works and some marketing doesn’t.
It’s why we choose one product over another; this spouse instead of that spouse; this plumber instead of that plumber;this fruit instead of that vegetable. It makes us feel better.
The real problem a marketer must figure out is what does being better mean to the target?
What’s their narrative? There why? What they care so internally and so deeply about?
How exactly does choosing that plumber make them feel better when, perhaps to you, there are better plumber choices out there?
Once you have that… that’s when you ace.
Stay Positive & 1-2-3 Be Better
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It’s incredibly easy to dive in, to be narrow-minded, to become subjective and, although you feel smart, you’re really ill-informed about a subject.
In this age of infinite information, we’re tricked into reading all there is on a subject and then calling ourselves experts.
When, truly, that subject is related to so many others, which also have millions of words, photos and videos about them.
The beer industry isn’t just about the beer industry, it’s about agriculture, oil prices, and, would you believe it or not: tacos.
The custard industry isn’t just about the mouth-watering delicacy of iced dairy, it’s about chickens, genetics, and extremely unpredictable ethical (or unethical) decision-making that happens from people half way across the world where their culture is different from yours.
The trucking industry isn’t just about getting something from point A to point B, it’s about the coal miners who fear layoffs, the city that has contaminated water and is receiving no help from the government, and it’s about the black market targeting semi-trucks instead of trains.
The best way to get smart and see the big picture is, as Seth Puts it, read more blogs.
Check out his post and download Feedly.
There’s no excuse for not understanding the big picture.
Stay Positive & Do It Before Everyone Else Starts To
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As the day wanes, our willpower to choose our own success does too.
We try to conserve energy by adopting what success looks like for those around us. We begin to second guess if we woke up with the right form of success in our minds. We start to change what success looks like for us based on the powers of influence that we’re surrounded by and the result is that we feel less fulfilled at the end of the day.
Your colleague puts more hours in and works hard at work, so you feel the need to put yours in too…even though you woke up thinking about how you’ll have dinner with your family tonight. That was success to you in the morning, but it shifted throughout the day.
If you can look forward, just a handful of hours from now, when you’re back in bed at the end of the day: What is it that you need to do to feel like you’ve succeeded today? Not your laundry list of to-dos, but the task that holds the greatest meaning to you. Write it down. Carry it with you. You’ll want to check it off tonight.
We often forget we have the choice of what success looks like for us 5 years from now, 5 weeks from now, 5 minutes from now. The choice is always ours, but we must choose.
Stay Positive & There’s No Reason To Let Others Shift What Success Is For You
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We live in a world of exponential growth. We know that tomorrow we will be able to build on what we did today. We know that by not touching money in our bank account, that the dividend makes itself larger each month. We know that smiling at someone in the morning can have a positive impact on the 50 other people they interact with throughout the day.
Sadly, there are business owners who ignore the fact we also live in a world of negative exponents.
Consider the gentleman who sells fudge at a small market, but doesn’t let anyone sample the fudge 1. even though all competitors do and 2. regardless of whether or not the customer guarantees him that she will purchase some fudge.
When a situation like this occurs, it’s not just one person who says they’ll never go to that food market again; It’s that person and their friends and their friends of friends and their friends of friends of friends.
Word of mouth travels fast, but at the end of the day complaints and negative word of mouth travel faster.
Sometimes what matters isn’t figuring out how to surprise and delight your customers; It’s figuring out how to prevent the moments that lead to an exponential decline in business.
You can’t please everyone, but you can do your best not to disappoint them.
Stay Positive & Find Your Soft Spots And Fix Them
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There are a few illegitimate reasons to dislike process.
Urgency: The problem you have now feels urgent, but what’s more important is a process that can help you solve the next 100 problems. The dividend on those far exceeds the dividend on solving the problem today, but being on different teams again with tomorrow’s problem.
Creativity: To many, process removes intuition. Interestingly, though, a moment of creativity can arrive at any time and, if it’s cunning enough, it will be applied. Even with process, no one says no to a remarkable idea (and if they do, you’re in the wrong place). After all, the process is meant to make creative ideas happen better and faster anyway. In fact, process is what will save your ass when intuition fails you.
It’s not broken: The current process may not be broken, so why talk about making process better? Because tomorrow’s problems won’t be the same as today’s and today you have dealt with different crap than you did yesterday. A process is really like a business plan for a certain type of service, and business plans are meant to be updated (made better) on a regular basis.
It’s for dummies: You have passion and an open mind and a determination to check a box, so you don’t need process, right? That’s for people who are not you. Being forward, I’m not sure I want to sell you out of this thought if you are thinking it in the first place. It’s less competition for those who know that process is what doubles efficiency when they’ve done everything they can think of.
Stay Positive & Love It Or Hate It, Find A Way To Bake It
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