Fairness
“If someone is working more, they deserve more. That’s fair” [Overheard in a conversation.] That’s not necessarily true. It generalizes that more effort (aka work) is tied to more rewards. If that were the case, interns should be millionaires by now. A book that took 11 years to get written, should be the most awarded. Or… It could have nothing to do with it. Like this song, by Beastie Boys “It was summer 1986. We wrote it in about five minutes. We were in the Palladium with Rick Rubin,…
Everything’s been said
Jain. [German expression for Yes and No at the same time (Ja+Nein)] If you have this feeling that when you’re writing (daily), you’ll get to a point where you’ve said it all. You might be right. Or not. Everything’s been already said (mostly) by someone else. However, you have a perspective very few people (if any) have. Your own experiences. Your own fails. Your wins. And your burns. Being original is an spectrum. Like life, it’s not all black and white. So, go ahead and repeat. Plus, if you…
The hard choice
If you’re jumping from idea to idea, making all of them a priority as they show up, they’re not a priority. In fact, they might feel as emergencies, taking over each other constantly. And that’s not emergency anymore. It’s simply chaos. Here’s the thing Most of this happens because making the hard choice is… well, hard. As creatives, visionaries, or innovative people, we LOVE the new shiny object. But unless we get ruthless with ourselves and make the hard choice to pick and stick to the…
That one riff
“Super simple and basic, but it’s effective!Super busy stuff or a lot of unnecessary notes? NO!” That’s Kirk Hammett talking about one of Metallica’s most popular (and loved) songs. What would you say about your approach to work with clients? Are you looking for simple and basic? Are they looking for simple and basic? Or is it all about busy and ornamental?
Maximizing profit
When you’re selling what everyone else is selling, it might give the impression you need to match the rest. 1 way to do that —actually, how the vast majority sees it— is by cutting costs down. It relies on 2 models: Mark-up / mark-down prices (a way of cost-plus pricing). Coming from the industrialized age of business and mass production industries. A method vastly used and (still) taught as a core subject at universities. Shareholder value theory. Maximize the gap between price and costs, as…
Seeing the future… only by humans.
Leadership is about vision and only people can have a vision of the future, not things or concepts. It makes the notion of [THING]-led business an oxymoron. Because, how could a thing decide? A couple days ago there was a question about if business could be led by —Sales, Growth, Innovation, etc. If it could be led by things. Here’s what friend of the list and Data Scientist & AI and Analytics Specialist, Genevieve Hayes (do go check her emails out) said and I couldn’t put it better [shared…
Future and present (addendum)
Friend of the list and founder of Truly Human Hospitality replied to the Future and Present daily with this reel where she talks about managing and leading. Loving her POV, so here it is for you. 🙂
A question for you
Here’s a question for you: If leading is a choice, can things and businesses be… Product-led? Sales-led? Marketing-led? Growth-led? Innovation-led? Experience-led? I’m curious about what you think. 🙂
Future and present
“Leaders are in charge of the future, and managers are in charge of the present.” Blair Enns Friend of the list, James Turner came up with this email about Managers vs. Leaders, taking on points about how you can focus on the present and the future of your business. Under this view of future v present, you can also find out that one goes in the direction of innovation (being wasteful per definition), looking for the new; and the other, towards efficiency-seeking (the best use of resources) to…
Doing it the wrong way
“If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way.” Interview to Jerry Seinfeld – Harvard Business Review Following yesterday’s email about helping your client with what they want, not what they need, this last part needed some closure (or opening). When you’re looking for new ways, different approaches, how to break from what is, to devise, see and design new futures, you’ll be wasteful. That’s just reality. You can’t make something that’ll work out at the first try (well, in most of the…