Category: Everything else

A commitment that can work wonders for our career happiness – refuse to measure progress in years and, instead, do so in decades.

This isn’t just about the Bill Gates idea that we overestimate how much we’ll get done in a year and underestimate how much we’ll get done in a decade.

It also forces us to move away from well defined goal focused thinking to more ambiguous direction focused thinking.

While the former simply invites impatience and short term thinking, the latter forces us to embrace long term patience while using our energy to hustle in the short term.

Macro patience, micro speed.

One way to think about how much we let our insecurities define our responses – When we get feedback of any kind from people we care about and trust, how long does it take us to move from defensiveness to reflection?

After a post about how the internet exploded into tributes for Kobe Bryant and Clay Christensen, Roy wrote in with a thoughtful note about his unwillingness to whitewash Kobe’s past – specifically about a time when he admitted to rape.

We exchanged notes on this as I explained it was the reason I wasn’t jumping in on all the adulation – at least not just yet. I shared that I’ve come to accept the fact that most reality is nuanced.

Thanks to his incredible work ethic, innate abilities, and a desire to make things, right, it is clear that his balance sheet is, for the most part, in the black.

He was an amazing athlete – but, he also made a bad mistake that caused a lot of harm when he was young. And, Roy shared a thoughtful post on the importance of acknowledging this nuance and contradiction.

When the media rewrites Kobe’s story to make him innocent, the media rewrites women out of the story. Kobe doesn’t need to be innocent to be loved. And his victim doesn’t need to be perfect to be believed. Kobe’s death is an opportunity for journalists to report difficult truths to readers and for moms to have tough conversations with kids.

Or, as another note nicely put it – “He deserves to be immortalized,” Dionne said, “but it’s also OK to say he did something that harmed someone else.”

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Note to folks receiving this via email: I am aware that these emails are being sent twice over the past two days. I’m checking with Feedblitz and am hopeful the problem will get fixed shortly. Apologies for the trouble..

There’s a reason the space occupied by the windshield in a car is significantly larger than the rear view mirrors – it is far more important to keep our eyes on what lies ahead than it is to constantly look behind.

There is an important life lesson in there.

It also turns out that there’s another powerful lesson to be learnt on this drive.

Even as we spend time looking at the windshield and rear view mirror, much of the joy from the drive often comes from acknowledging a few blessings present in the current moment – good health, peace of mind, and those who are on the journey with us.

It is natural to spend a lot of our time dreaming about what lies ahead and analyzing what happened. But, our happiness is proportional to our ability to take stock of the moment and remember to appreciate the many blessings we do have.

Here’s to doing plenty of that this weekend.

A simple question that works as a measure of how fit we are – how long (can range from hours to days) are we sore after a good workout?

Over the past days, it’s been fascinating to see the internet explode with tributes about Kobe Bryant and, among the more geeky crowd, Clay Christensen.

Folks from all walks of life came together to celebrate two human beings who made a lot of difference in many lives. It was wonderful to see these tributes transcend differences in race, political leaning, and even nationality.

Death is often considered a morbid topic. But, it is in times like this we realize that death is the ultimate leveler and giver of perspective.

More than anything, such experiences remind us that we’re not here for long… so, we might as well be kind along the way.

After all, at the end of the day, all we have is each other.

The biggest benefit of investing in great customer service isn’t in its ability to reduce the number of upset customers or prevent bad reviews.

It does that.

But, by transforming bad situations into memorable ones, great customer service inevitably increases the lifetime value of a customer every time they experience it.

(Inspired by a recent experience with Anson Belts)

Trial and error is a powerful way to learn. The quicker and cheaper our tests and iterations, the steeper our learning curve.

It is all well to desire a culture of experimentation. But, such efforts go sour if we say we encourage experimentation but make a big deal of every (inevitable) misstep.

Therein lies the catch – trial and error come as a package deal.

PS: It is also just as important to make a big deal out of every win. The best way to encourage a culture of continuous learning is to take both in our stride and keep plugging way.

I saw the news about Clay Christensen’s passing away yesterday evening.

While he was famous for his work on disruption, his work on his excellent book – “How will you measure your life – made him one of my heroes.

As his work inspired a series of workshops in graduate school that we called “the good life sessions,” a thoughtful friend cold emailed his office and gifted me a phone call with Clay as a graduation gift (what a great gift!). I was reminded of that conversation today.

That conversation further drove home 3 ideas that I have been attempting to learn/live since I read his book –
1. Don’t let life happen to you
2. Search for integrative principles that cut across work and life.. and then hold to them 100% of the time.
3. The truest reflection of your priorities in work and life is how you allocate your time and available resources.

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom so generously, Clay.

It made a difference.