Just as important as determining what you can’t afford to do…is realizing what you can’t afford not to do.
There was a time in my life when I lacked the sophistication to make this determination, but the lesson was profound once I understood its importance. On the issues that truly matter, knowing the difference is critical.
You can’t afford to rest on your laurels.
It’s not about money or fame or respect, it’s about maintaining an aggressive clip in the never-ending race towards self-improvement. Failure is not the enemy, nor has it ever been. The real enemy is Resistance, cowardice, and complacency.
“Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.”
—Hunter Thompson
It’s easy to be tough, angry, sensitive, and mercurial—just move in whatever directions your emotions dictate, and selfishly disregard the consequences of your actions. Loved ones, relationships, and societal pressures (hopefully) teach us to bring these characteristics under control as we get older.
An even greater goal would be learning how to incorporate generosity, thoughtfulness, courage, kindness, and empathy into who we are. Becoming less awful would probably appreciated by our coworkers, but enriching the lives of those around us is far more rewarding.
Meet Zintathu.
She lost her parents when she was a child and was raised by her grandmother in a shack in South Africa. Through These Numbers Have Faces, she’s a 3rd year marketing student and empowered to become a leader in her community.
These Numbers Have Faces educates and empowers South African youth to ignite community transformation. Per their website:
Numbers, statistics, figures, and data are important ways to evaluate and measure complex issues like global poverty. But in terms of actually reducing it, we believe transforming statistics into human relationships to be one of the most effective and powerful steps forward. It’s nearly impossible to connect with someone around the world if they are only a number. But when those numbers are turned into real people, we can change the world.
If you click through and the message of the organization resonates with you, consider making a donation. Or if you’re just able to spread the word about the organization, that’s fine too.
When I’m connecting a freelancer with a client or business with whom I have a relationship, I often indicate that the person (or business) is “easy to work with” (if it’s true). This might imply that being easy to work with is a good thing, but I’m not so sure.
In the same way that a resume designed to be used for a dozen job applications makes it a perfect fit for exactly nothing, it’s probably ok to reserve compatibility for an ideal client or consultant. This doesn’t mean that vitriol should be reserved for those you pass over, of course…
There are countless platitudes about how you need to say no to what’s wrong in order to say yes to what’s right (for you), and I think there’s merit to the idea behind that.
I suspect that Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs bumped heads on more than one occasion, and that they both realized that the juice was worth the squeeze.
I guess what it comes down to is determining what you ideal criteria are, and then working on enhancing the things that give you and your great match the synergy needed to ensure the success of a project.
If this involves a refusal to work with amateurs or a rejection of brown M&M’s, then so be it. Being willing to reject nine losers is the only way to ever find winner number ten.
Some people aren’t going to like you. Most times, cowards are content to gossip and quietly disparage your name in your absence. Word may or may not get back to you about this.
If you have a high profile, people may feel bold enough to confront you directly (or anonymously, if you “live” online). The purpose of the confrontation is to get a reaction, and it only feeds the beast to even acknowledge the attempts.
It seems a bit foolish to gratify those seeking to upset you by acknowledging their efforts, so I’d avoid feeding into it altogether. If this means that you have to keep a poker face until a kickboxing class where you blow off steam, then so be it.
In the startup world, a lack of sleep, nonstop work, and a general disregard for personal wellbeing (at the expense of productivity) is glamorized.
Among novice writers, it’s common to hear of individuals clearing entire days or weeks of their schedule to do nothing but write.
In high pressure professional environments (top tier law and consulting firms), late nights, weekend work, and (under important deadlines) even sleeping at the office are all relatively commonplace.
I’m not sure these extremes are necessary, much less sustainable.
I don’t need to lecture anyone on why getting poor sleep is a bad idea, but few (so far as I can tell) seriously explore the benefits of getting a lot of sleep.
I’m relatively new to the world or regular writing, so I don’t have much to share on that front aside from my personal observations.
Having spent time on a project (in my former life) where staying until 10PM was the norm, I can think of no better way to ensure burnout and developing a resentment for the work causing it than long, draining hours.
The older I get, the more I appreciate consistency, boldness, and quiet strength.
Between Twitter, Facebook, news sites, and a few other productivity-sucking locations on the web, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I lose between 5 and 20 hours per week engaged in brainless content consumption and social interaction.
Here’s the thing though — I don’t carve out time to waste every day. There are dozens of times per day where I mindlessly open up a new tab, visit Facebook, and drool on my keyboard (slight exaggeration).
So I find myself constantly interrupting…myself throughout the day. I did it while composing this post, even though I know the punchline and solution in place!
Anyway.
I don’t talk about it very much here, but I’m a geek. Really, I’m fascinated with technologies that would make a non-technical person weep with boredom.
Using this to my advantage, I put a very simple tweak in place on my computer. Without boring you with the details, I configured my system to send me to a very boring site (that I built and run) every time I visit one of my time-wasting sites.
And every time it happens, it’s a (small) surprise since wasting time and distracting myself is something I’ve practiced for years.
There’s no telling how long this experiment will last (a man can only go so long without checking for friend requests…), but it’s a small step towards the awareness that can help me eliminate the self-sabotaging (and subconscious) behavior.
Wish me luck.
But not through Facebook.
Solving global hunger is important.
Also: bringing job opportunities to underserved demographics, finding a cure for cancer, and ending the depletion of natural resources. I’m all for changing the world.
But we can start by holding the door a stranger, saying “good morning” (and meaning it) with a smile to the Starbucks barista, and picking up the phone to catch up with an old friend every once in a while.
This is a question that’s worth addressing, even if the answer is not made public.
The reason some people move through their careers a surgical focus is quite often because they have made a conscious decision about their career’s trajectory.
That is, by virtue of the fact that they’re moving with a particular goal in mind, they’re able to make strategic steps (and even sound decisions “on the fly”).
If you haven’t decided that you want to be the best at something, or that you want to be influential in your space, or that [insert a clearly defined and ambitious goal that you’d be thrilled to accomplish], then how can you make meaningful progress?
You will probably be just fine in the long run, but who wants to be “just fine?” Making it up as you go is a fine plan for some, but there are no laws against stacking the deck in
“I just wanted to be in engineering only – I never wanted to run a company, never wanted to run things, step on other people – Steve very clearly did, and wanted to be a top executive and a really important thinker in the world.”
“He was always focused on ‘if you can build things and sell them you can have a company’ and ‘the way you make money and importance in the world is with companies’,” Wozniak said. “He wanted to be one of those important people in the world.” (via)
– Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple