i could never do that

Fifteen years ago, I was about to leave the country for work, without knowing when I’d be back. In the last week before my departure, I met up with a friend. He told me: “I could never do what you do. There are too many things for me here to leave behind”. I always assumed he didn’t mean to imply that I had very little to leave behind.

Muslims fasting for Ramadan often get asked: “so, not even water?” After confirmation that water is indeed excluded, the follow-up statement usually goes something like this. “Whoa, I could never do that.”

Of course, you could. You can leave everything behind, start all over, abstain from food and drinks during the day for a month. Overcome trauma. Heck, you might even be able to move a mountain.

Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, It’s also the cause of it — Mark Manson.

With enough intrinsic motivation, there is nothing we can’t do.

bye bye bear

Make more profit then. That’s what the virologist said. Advice provided freely in response to businesses complaining they’re suffering. While the advice in itself isn’t wrong per se, it definitely lacks a whole lot of nuance.
If you are prevented, or even worse, prohibited from operating (part of) your business, increasing profit is impossible.

When a bear hibernates, it prepares for eight months, give or take. It can’t magically prepare for two years. If the circumstances somehow don’t allow for the bear to wake up after eight months, it’s bye bye bear, unfortunately.

What’s true of nature is also true of businesses. Running a company is like driving a race. You’ll have to know precisely how much fuel is left in the tank. Take on too much fuel, and the excess weight will slow you down. Take on too little fuel, and you might end up running on fumes, causing you to have to forfeit.

Prepare the best way you can. No more, no less.

a little much

Forever running out of time. Literally. Overly self-disciplined people can be tough on themselves. Too tough even. Always pushing the envelope, trying to squeeze the lemon to the very last drop.

The feeling that coincides with running out of time is likely a result of biting off more than you can chew. Quick fix? Take smaller bites.

There are many frameworks and matrixes to organize professional work.
Take the ICE system, for instance, coined by Sean Ellis. Tasks that could accelerate growth for a company get scored. All three parameters, namely: impact, confidence, ease, are graded on a scale of zero to five. The tasks with the highest score out of fifteen are probably, from a strategic point of view, the ones to attend to first.

What about frameworks for people where business and leisure are heavily intertwined? Ideally, work can be switched on or off, at least in our minds. Still, for entrepreneurs, that’s often rather challenging to achieve.
An extra parameter is required. Joy. Does this task bring me any joy?

In an always-on world, reconsider if the task you think you have to do, is one that actually has to be done, or one that you are tricking yourself into thinking that it’s an absolute must?

For the remaining tasks, add joy to the impact confidence and ease mix for a kinder prioritization.

perpetual training

Some skills required for running a business will never go out of fashion. Selling and leadership, to name two. These skills are required at each point throughout a company’s lifecycle, whether you’re just starting or are heading a company that has existed for decades.

Some positions or roles within a company facilitate continuous improvement of those skills more than others. Training opportunities might not present themselves. If so, they should be actively sought out. A side business or project could be fertile ground for brushing up those skills.

Always embrace learning opportunities.

how to step by step

How-to guides get under my skin. Follow these seven easy steps, and you, too, will be successful. Especially tip number five surprised me.

The writers of the tv-show Grey’s Anatomy once had one of their characters say this. The problem with all the how-to, step-by-step books is they don’t take into account the exceptions to the rules. They never leave room for the outliers, the geniuses, the miracles.

Following step by step in the footsteps of a flourishing company, one that made it in your field, isn’t likely going to make yours successful.

Don’t optimize for success. Optimize for not failing.

find the dots

Intelligence is (more and more) the ability, and speed, with which you can connect the proverbial dots. However, for one to connect them, one must find the dots first. The more wisdom you acquire, the more patterns you’re able to distinguish and subsequently apply while solving a problem or otherwise confronted with an intellectual challenge.

That’s where a system comes in, a place to gather information. A directory that’s searchable, shared, and up-to-date. The more people collectively share this system within your company, the greater the benefit. However, without proper conventions and discipline, the system quickly loses its value.

With vast amounts of ever-growing knowledge in this world, learning everything by heart is not an option. Knowing exactly where and how to look, now that’s a valid option.

Reward people for documenting processes in your company.

hocus focus

When it comes to focus, there are different kinds that each come with their challenges. Put simply, short-term focus determines the level of concentration we can apply for a task at hand. Long-term focus means keeping track of goals and consequently not losing them out of sight.

Short- and long-term focus aren’t the same. What’s even worse is both often compete for the same resource.

Luckily, focus replenishes automatically, however not entirely. The amount of focus you can muster up depends heavily on how you feel. Your physical and mental health, state of mind, and energy levels all contribute.

Part of our capacity to focus can be trained. The process is simple. How would you prepare for a marathon? Surely by running. Focus can be trained by, you guessed it, focusing.

In this day and age, every internet-capable device is competing for our attention. While focus miracles (apart from medicinally induced ones) are hard to come by, some silent contemplation can work its magic.

Bonus: enjoy hocus focus beats, my carefully, artisanally crafted playlist.

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.

too diverse

What if, in an attempt to find your niche, it turns out your audience is incredibly diverse? It sure makes it challenging to spot similarities among them. Profiling your ideal customer becomes even more cumbersome.

Below are four reasons why diversity within a target audience makes things complicated.

Sample size too small

Perhaps finding similarities within your audience is just around the corner. When you’re just starting out with a handful of customers, finding similarities between your customers could be complicated. If a pattern doesn’t reveal itself straight away, wait until your sample size increases.

You haven’t found them yet

Maybe the similarities are there, but you’re not seeing them. If what you’re looking for is obscure at first, it’s tough to spot. You won’t know what to look for precisely, which isn’t exactly helping in the process. The upside is that you’ll have clear targeting criteria once you do find it.

Their similarity is their diversity

Maybe diversity is the defining factor. The fact that a limited amount of parameters can’t define your audience, that is precisely what defines them. The way forward, in this case, is to look for like-minded people. People that don’t seem to fit a particular profile. That’s your profile.

Can’t be probed

Your audience’s characteristics are tough to define from a behavioral and analytical point of view. In that case, defer to those parameters that are easy to define. Criteria such as geography and age.

It’s like Aaliyah said: if at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.

Building your ideal customer profile doesn’t happen overnight.

novelty curse

New wears off, sooner or later. Suppose your audience initially flocked towards your product or service for the novelty. In that case, they might leave due to antiquity if things don’t change fast enough.

While part of your thrill-seeking customers may have joined in search of something new, part of your customers may remain on board because they have gotten used to your brand.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. While innovating, make sure to keep what works.