I don’t write on this site for you. I do it for me. It’s an outlet. It’s also an exercise. I have no goal for it. I don’t know if it needs a goal. For now I’m just going to keep doing the exercise and see where it takes me.
Are you fine with that?
Don’t answer.
The creative process, innovating, and coming up with new products has enough road blocks on it’s own. Procrastination is a road block that comes toward the end. So is perfection. There’s a growing list and it’s not shrinking any time soon.
The key to shipping is to set a date on a calendar. It’s a hard date. Nothing exists beyond it. Version 1 ships by that date whether it’s ready or not. Then you tweak. Set another hard date. Version 2 ships by then regardless of who wants to hold it back for more testing. Rinse and repeat.
Shipping is most important because it’s right before shipping that most people fail. They hit all the final road blocks, they second guess, they want to have another meeting, they cave to FEAR, and suddenly we’re tearing everything apart.
You can prevent it by setting a hard date and taking the idea public regardless of whether or not it’s perfect or even ready. There’s always time to tweak and adjust later, just get the damn thing out the door or your might find it on the scrap heap with the rest of the world’s murdered ideas.
Many people who do extraordinary things don’t do them to fill a need or fix a problem, they do them for the attention and recognition. After all, we live in the American Idol generation.
Don’t be them.
Do extraordinary things because that’s what you’re programmed to do. That’s what you have the ability to do. That’s what you have the opportunity to do.
I’ll take the attention and recognition, but if it never it comes I’ll still be filling needs, fixing problems, and building things that are bigger than me. For if the world died and only a lone person remained, that writer would still write, that painter would still paint, and that woman would still find ways to do something larger than herself.
You don’t need an audience, you just need passion.
The attitude you show up with means a lot to the outcome of your day. If you’re not in a good mood about your job, if your boss has been overbearing lately, if you don’t feel you’re going to produce to your full potential, take a day off.
But don’t just sit at home in front of the TV. Go do your hobby, go do art, go write, go do whatever else you’re good at and do it for a few hours. And do it in the space where you’re most comfortable. Even if the work you’re taking a break from is the work you love the most, doing it without schedules, bosses, pressure, or in a different location can be the adjustment you need.
Really put a lot into it. That’s what’s going to hit the reset button for you. That’s what’s going to inspire you. That’s what’s going to bring back the motivation. That’s what’s going to trigger your muse.
Then go back to work the next day with that same energy.
Caution: If you’re consistently feeling down about your job or your boss and it’s every week that you’re feeling like you need another reset, it’s time to re-evaluate the work you’re doing. Either speak up, switch gears, or get out. You should look forward to doing the work or you’re in the wrong place.
There’s always an insurmountable list of excuses that seem to get in the way of accomplishing something; of shipping.
Sit down and write every single excuse that comes to mind on a sheet of paper.
Look at it. Study it. And then throw it in the garbage.
It’s all meaningless. It’s all a diversion created by your fear to stop you from succeeding. Because success means stepping foot in uncharted territory. That’s not safe. No, we can’t do that.
Stop listening to the voice of no. We need you.
That’s precisely why it’s worth going there.
Perhaps you can escape the rat race by finding all the extra miles the other rats aren’t traveling.
What are you waiting for?
The fastest way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed is to take aim at sacred cows. To challenge the status quo. It’s a mission all revolutionaries should undertake.
sacred cow (plural sacred cows)
(idiomatic) Something which cannot be tampered with, or criticized, for fear of public outcry. A person, institution, belief system, etc. which, for no reason other than the demands of established social etiquette or popular opinion, should be accorded respect or reverence, and not touched, handled or examined too closely.
…which for no reason other than the demands of established social eteiquette or popular opinion…
Regardless of whether the policy, person, belief, committee, et cetera was useful in the past, it’s now useless. And it’s your job to challenge its existence. There is no such thing as “go along to get along” when you’re a revolutionary. Unique means “not like others.”
Listen to what you’re saying. If you think your company will fire you for attempting to be invaluable and you’re worried about that, you’re doing exactly what they want. Go crawl back in your box.
Revolutionary companies like revolutionary employees. You’re not going against the grain because you like being a thorn in everyone’s ass. You’re going against the grain to create value. If they can’t see that then how are you valuable to them? And why do you want to stay?
Being a revolutionary can’t be done sporadically. You can’t show up to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and do everything by the book and reserve Tuesday for challenging the status quo and Thursday for standing up for what’s right.
Being a revolutionary has to be a habit. It’s a 24/7 thing.
If you’re inconsistent, they’ll squash you like a bug.
Asking for credentials is a waste of time. A credential just means you know how to do something in theory.
Want my credentials? My credentials are results, baby. And that’s all you need to know.
It’s a given that businesses have to make money. Profit is not evil (even though the demagogues will tell you different). But centering your business around the money is the wrong approach.
The reason businesses make a profit is because they fill a need. They provide what a consumer wants at a price the client is willing to pay.
The more money the business makes, the better for the business. And the more value the consumer gets, the better for the consumer. The two cannot exist without each other, so both compromise until the transaction is acceptable for both sides.
But sometimes as a company grows–or gets older, or comes under new management, or gets lazy–the focus shifts from filling the need to maximizing the profit. The consumer is no longer the focal point of the company’s activities. Instead, the focus is solely on the bottom line.
When your business is customer-centric your focus is on maximizing value, building relationships, serving, innovating, and connecting. When your business is profit-centric your focus is on cutting costs, exchanging value for time, automating everything that moves, saying no to innovation, and increasing the bottom line by any means necessary.
The customer-centric model is far more expensive to operate. But it’s meaningful and it’s something people want to connect with. The profit-centric model is cheap and efficient but it creates an emotionless, faceless organization.
50 years ago the profit-centric model worked wonderfully. How fast you can produce cheap stuff was the goal of each business. And customers didn’t care as long as they got what they wanted fast and cheap. But it’s 2010. Everything is fast and cheap. And competing to be faster and cheaper is a race to the bottom. You’re not going to beat Wal-Mart trying to run a better Wal-Mart.
What companies will find out more and more as the market continues to develop is that what seems more expensive (being customer-centric) actually produces the highest eventual profit margins because what seems more profitable (profit-centric model) actually ends up excluding you from the market.
Nobody wants to do business with factories full of automatons. They want to do business with classy, caring, and connected businesses that have unique personalities.
Do you run a profit-centric or purpose-centric company? Which one do you work for? Are you satisfied? If not, do something about it.
