HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER
Sunday, December 23, 2012 § Leave a comment
Be wiser, not stronger. Different!
Be wiser, not richer.
Wiser, not more successful.
Wiser, not more acclaimed.
Wiser, not more respected.
Wiser, not more loved.
ROOTED IN EFFORT
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 § Leave a comment
Does the second CEO call Oprah? Hell yes! But calling Oprah is not a strategy. The strategy is to create a sexy enough proposition that Oprah might bite.
When we obsess about what we cannot control (Oprah’s response) our experience of the world swings between manic and depressive moments and meanwhile, we waste our time unproductively.
When we focus on what we control, our experience of the world is rooted in our effort and we are constructive and productive.
It’s easy to see what incidentally has the higher chance of success with Oprah.
SUCCESS IN EVERY MOMENT
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 § Leave a comment
Seeking success and practicing success are not the same.
Please see previous post for context.
A CEO might say, “Once we have received the venture capital investment, we can build the technology platform that will satisfy our users and we will be successful.”
Or, “Once we get featured on Oprah, our sales will take off and we will be successful.”
Or, “Once we are through this recession, demand will pick up again and we will be successful.”
(For the CEO these stories will often go hand-in-hand with stories about waiting for personal happiness and life balance – “And once we are more successful I will work less and pay more attention to my partner, kids, friends, health, etc.”)
Just as with seeking personal happiness, achieving success this way can prove elusive:
A. Hoping for external circumstances to work out in your favor is not a strategy for success, it’s just a gamble.
B. The market gives it and the market takes it – maybe today you get lucky with Oprah or the VC and the day after it’s your competitor.
Buying lottery tickets can pay-off big time, but it’s not what value creation is made of. Focusing on external milestones can be a big distraction for the CEO and a drain for the organization. It distracts from value creation that you can control.
What if you define success by the values with which your team works and interacts, the conduct of your organization, the courage with which you make strategic decisions and pursue a new solution, the value you build for the customer, the way you align the organization with the impact it seeks?
The CEO/manager that focuses on these questions can have a successful day every day.
CEO seeking success
Honey: “Honey, how was your day?”
CEO: “Crappy. Oprah that bitch still hasn’t called us back about being on her show!”
CEO practicing success
Honey: “Honey, how was your day?”
CEO: “Excellent. The team is gelling, we had a great conversation about the feature set and we committed to drop the upgrade in favor of the earlier beta-launch.”
Please consider where your business strategy includes statements of hope about how your circumstances will align and change. Strike those out. Your successful strategy is made up of how you respond to circumstances, not how they form you.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T or I KINDA LIKE YOUR HAIR, DONALD
Thursday, March 29, 2012 § Leave a comment
Etymologically “respect” is made up of looking back at someone. It’s about regard for past actions. Respecting you means I know what to expect from you. It’s the consistency of your actions. Is it sufficient to be consistent? No. Someone who is consistently late will not be respected for always being late. But we might say, “I respect you for always being on time”, or “for always trying to be honest with me.” It’s about something that takes effort.
When we see someone very successful we might be inclined to respect them. We don’t respect them for their achievements though; we respect them for what we assume they did for their success. It’s not the result we respect, but the effort and discipline that lead them there.
You can’t respect Donald Trump for having countless buildings in NYC with his name on it. I might respect him for sticking to his hair-set-up though – because I have to assume that it takes emotional commitment to keep it that way, given how much fun he is made of because of it. We are respected for the effort that we put into something, especially when it is related to emotional integrity. Getting respect begins with respecting ourselves – doing what we think is right is a commitment that we keep to ourselves. It takes conviction and courage to act with integrity.
When we achieve success without courage and conviction, it is not fulfilling. Getting lucky gives us a short-term boost of joy, but doesn’t provide us with sustained self-respect and content. Society is better at celebrating achievements than integrity. That’s confusing: We might imagine we need achievements to be successful, respected and liked. But it’s the other way around! Our success should be defined by the respect that we get – from ourselves first and foremost. Commercial success has a great chance of following that personal success.
Success is not a prerequisite to respect; respect is the prerequisite to success.
We earn respect from ourselves and others when we courageously do what we believe in.
Respect Donald, respect!
Business Buddhism 