Category: success

good views ahead

Perspective is all we need. Sorry, Beatles. Whether it’d be an entire population during a pandemic, talent on the verge of signing a contract with a new employer, or a traveler navigating a city for the first time. A clear vision goes a long way.

It’s the reason we get out of bed. Goals. Ones we can move towards while anticipating improved circumstances down the road.

The ability to show a “you are here” roadmap, with the different paths that lead to success, is crucial. Without it, nothing happens.

terrible boss

Entrepreneurs often have the worst bosses. Themselves. Even though many entrepreneurs make excellent leaders, all bets are off when it comes down to ourselves.

Why treat ourselves worse than we would treat an employee or a friend? Research shows that dog owners are more serious about buying healthy food for their pets than buying healthy food for themselves. What have we ever done to deserve this?

Consider yourself as a friend. Be nice.

when you won

You could have won this week. Even a couple of times. Heck, maybe every day. Twice! Depending on your definition of a win. If you feel like you haven’t won in a long time, maybe it’s time to redefine winning.

In Start With the Why, the author Simon Sinek describes how he was once present at the Gathering of the Titans, an annual meeting of America’s 50 top business leaders. When the attendees were asked whether their companies met their financial targets during the past year, about 80 percent raised their hands. When asked whether they felt successful, (very) few hands remained up.

Orson Welles once said: if you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

People need wins. Define what winning looks like to you. Don’t let others define it for you. Grant yourself a victory now and then.

no shot no hit

It’s hard to hit the bull’s eye without taking a shot at it. Not sure about the math, but taking a shot in the general direction of the bull’s eye surely increases your chances a thousandfold. You can’t do anything wrong if you don’t do anything, to begin with. Does that imply that you can do right by inaction? Unlikely. However, in some (large) corporations, this seems to be the case.

Companies today need loyal employees who don’t shy away from controversy. Employees who have the guts to go against the grain deliberately.

Employers must create environments that encourage this type of behavior. A climate where it’s not only okay to fail, one where failures are forgiven promptly.

It’s the way forward. The path towards growth. If it weren’t for persisting through adversity, none of us would walk, after falling on our faces as babies, time after time.

forgot what you asked for

The amazing feeling immediately after you get what you asked for — emphasis on immediately.

When people ask to be famous, subsequently do everything to chase their goal, and eventually end up as a star, they can suffer tremendously. The celebrity can no longer speak freely. Every statement has to be pre-approved by a manager or publisher. To name one of the undoubtedly many downsides.

A small price to pay? When we ask for something, we usually don’t take secondary effects into account.

Think the ask (or desire) you’re manifesting completely through. Remember that a bump in the road today might be a secondary effect of something you asked for a long time ago.

first progress

Throughout the history of humanity, progress wasn’t always perceived as a good thing. Now it seems progress is the way forward. Health and defense, among many other domains, appear to need innovation daily. Either to push a nation forward or to beat adversaries in a race towards a certain goal.

Some cultures are inherently more progressive than others. Yet, even in forward-thinking places, innovation is sometimes hindered in an attempt to maintain the status quo.

There is a first time for everything. There has to be.

Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, among many others, helped overcome discrimination at NASA as women and as African Americans. They helped the United States of America succeed in the space race. Paving the way for others to follow in their footsteps.

Here is to the pioneers who take the punches and let ridicule roll off their backs.

pervexionism

Done is better than perfect. Always. Done is a result of an action. That action has to start in order to achieve “done” as a status.

Perfectionism can stop us dead in our tracks, long before we even start to take action. Fantasizing about the perfect outcome can be tremendously frustrating due to limited imagination. Some things are so hard to approach theoretically that the desired outcome can only be achieved through actually beginning to experience the process.

I call the feeling of paralysis at the precipice of a project: pervexionism. You want every detail, down to the nitty-gritty, to be just right but are vexing yourself in the process. Do first, improve later.

auto-accountability

“I work for myself so I guess I work a boss.” The second bar 2 Chainz raps on “Feel a Way” featuring Brent Faiyaz & Kanye West. The message is obvious — a wholesome and delicate balance between arrogance and self-love. If you’re looking for an earworm or mantra, give it a spin. Is this how affirmation works?

Entrepreneurs work indeed for themselves. Usually, depending on how the entrepreneur is wired, entrepreneurs work for their employees in the first place. Their customers, investors, stakeholders…. probably all come first. Entrepreneurs often put themselves last, even though they’re the first one that has to answer.

Depending on discipline levels, the entrepreneur could either be too lazy, have an ideal work ethic, or work way past the point of crashing. With auto-accountability, meaning you (only) answer to you, finding an optimal level of tough love towards oneself is a lifelong struggle. An interesting and satisfying struggle.

not a winner

There are no medals for pioneering.

In the song titled “#1”, Nelly asks (himself) “What does it take to be number one?” Boasting that he already is number one, he leaves the question unanswered, to go on by rapping: “Two is not a winner, and three nobody remembers.” Recite this (in your mind) with a thick St. Louis accent for optimal results.

In entrepreneurship, there are many times where you explicitly don’t want to be number one. Pioneering is hard. Heck, paving the way is super tiring and risky. You do all the hard, inglorious work. Stuck with your boots in the mud, digging for gold. Only for somebody else to enter later and reap all the benefits. Bootstrapping from a garage can (mentally) feel like being out there in Klondike.

If you absolutely must pioneer. Think twice and stock up on plenty of energy, fuel, and courage. There may have been more than one fictitious claim in Nelly’s hit record but sometimes, two is a winner, and three everybody remembers.

brand new brand

How exhilarating it is to be at the forefront of something new.

Fourteen years ago, right before I left my home country for an undefined period, a friend of mine told me this: “you’ll get to reinvent yourself and be a whole new you.”

I always had trouble understanding what she meant by that. In my mind, I was happy with who I was. So why should I reinvent myself?

I think she meant that, upon starting something new, you have a choice to meticulously and deliberately curate baggage that you want to leave behind.

Here is to a new beginning. One that is bound to be stunningly phenomenal. A brand new you. A — no negativity allowed — rebranding for your business, kicking last year in the behind. May your personal and entrepreneurial endeavors be prosperous.