We are always faced with so many choices.
Do you be… or do you go and do?
It’s a continuous loop of being, learning and understanding before you can go and do, share and be understood.
The Yin & Yang of Creativity…
I’ll share more in an up and coming blog post, but last week I was in Atlanta at a Leadership meeting. And at the meeting the boss put up a slide, and at the bottom of the slide he shared the books he recommends.
Personally – I loved that. Because, I always want to read new books which are recommended by intelligent people.
Which got me thinking… about smart people I know.
There’s a fair few of them. And then I began to notice a trend. A pattern, amongst them. They read books was number one. But they had much more in common…
To become smart… here’s what I found;
We are often faced with difficult situations where we have to learn a new way of working, a new method or a new process.
We hear that AI is going to take over our jobs.
Who knows?! But what we do know is that we should continuously learn new skills. Might seem hard at first…
So recently, I was on holiday and took the opportunity to read a book.
The book I read this summer was called, Never split the difference.
It was a great ready! Thoroughly recommend it.
The reason why I like it so much was because Chris gave some wonderful examples, he shared stories of successes but also failures! (you don’t have many people do that.. and then finally, it really did teach me something about empathy!)
So today’s thought is… make sure you’re equipped with the skills needed to negotiate.
Yesterday, I was talking to my team member about some work we are doing and I made the comment.. ‘slowly but surely’.
Now, for those who know me, I love the old Brian Clough quote, “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job”. That’s very much me… but then on the other hand, there’s only so much you can do with what you have control over. It’s all about control.
So today’s thought is centred around doing what you can do, little by little, with the control you do have.
Not sure if you knew, but I help out at a local charity where we cook food on a weekly basis and serve it to vulnerable folk who need it. There was a company that got in touch, and said – if we could provide some information, about what we do, they’d like to donate some money. So one of the volunteers wrote a few paragraphs.
When asked to review it, I wanted to ensure we tell the right story but with numbers.
You see, numbers can add alot of context to a story.
Once upon a time, there was a king.
This is how most stories start… and you may notice, there was ‘a’ in there to clearly identify, one…. king. Not several kings. Not some kings. Just one king.
Once upon a time, there was a king. His kingdom had alot of people.
‘Alot of people’… Doesn’t really say much. You can’t put it into context. Was it a big place. Was it a small place. How can we compare it to other regions and kingdoms?
Once upon a time, there was a king. His kingdom encopassed over 10,000 residents and was one of the largest kingdoms in the land.
Now we’re talking! We got a number… 10,000…. and then we got some context, because we found out it’s one of the largest in the land!
Numbers can do so much. Yet, when telling a story or update, we tend to omit them for feelings. Why can’t we do both? use numbers and have feelings? Build the story to the context.
Now the whole ‘once upon a time’ was an example. But think of something you’ve done recently that you’d talked about – how many numbers did you include?
I look at advertisements, I look at talks, I listen to podcasts… there are so many people out there vying for our attention… how can they get our attention?
Oh, you’re probably wondering more about the charity I volunteer at? Well, we cook over 60 hot portions of food every Monday and Thursday which is then served to the homeless and vulnerable – no questions asked.
Recently, a brilliant advert was shared with me to highlight how awesome it was in telling a story with numbers. And I wanted to share it with you…
What do you enjoy doing?
Watching football?
Playing games?
Eating food?
Whatever you enjoy doing… do it! (And there can be monetisable opportunities). But do it with some passion also. I’ll explore in another blog post of mine about a book I recently finished called, Tuesday’s with Morrie. Great book.
But for today’s Friday Thought… it’s from Gary V, and he puts it quite simply…
So the book continues and fair play to Arnold… it’s a decent read!
A relatively short chapter but nevertheless, a very important one. As you can guess, it was all about selling. Not selling yourself as such – but there is an element of that, but selling what you represent, what you stand for and included in that, your vision.
So the story Arnold tells is about body building. Again, you’ll have to read the book to learn about his story.
For me… what I took away was the element that people may or may not fully understand your vision. Understand what you stand for. Understand clearly where you want to get to.
This is where the sell, sell, sell part comes in.
Depending on what you’re doing. How you’re doing it. And the amount of success you’re having, you have to sell yourself, your trade, your work… whatever it is that you do. And sell it in a way that people want more!
I remember when I was at Kodak, and I wanted to become a chartered engineer. So I had to fill in forms, do lots of work etc… but I wasn’t selling myself. And I remember clearly my mentor at the time saying… ‘Bal, you have to write I did… not we’. That’s stuck with me since. I’m very clear and intentional that if I do something.. then I did it. Not just to get the applauds but if it goes wrong, then the buck stops with me… and my team is not to blame. Yes there’s times where it’s a team effort so it’s a ‘we’.
Have a look at your vision… work through the chapters and now, tell me honestly, are you able to sell it?
Chapter 3 People!
And this was a really good one…
Now… it’s not rocket science.
If you want to make it in life – you’ve got to work hard.
What comes easy…. goes easy. But when you work super hard for something, you know it’s going to stay with you.
Before I joined the graduate programme for Kodak – I received some really good advice. It was…’make as many mistakes as you can when you’re young because a) people will forgive you and b) you’ll learn. When you’re older… people aren’t as forgiving’.
Awesome advice.
And I made a fair few mistakes – but most importantly, learnt from them. But you’ll only make those mistakes if you’re working. In the book, Arnold talks about working your ass off.
How many of us can seriously say we work super hard on particular topics and subjects?
I remember… when I was at Coca-Cola, I did a Kaizen activity (if you don’t know what that is – I’ll let you google it). It was a week long event, we had people fly in from all over Europe, USA, etc… The preperation was intense, the Kaizen week was even more intense… and then post event, there were so many actions. I remember leaving home super early to get to the office that week and then coming home really late every day. Everyone used to work from home on Friday – but there I was, with one or two others, and the cleaners late Friday typing up notes and sorting out the flipcharts and post-it notes. I worked my ass off for that Kaizen event… and it paid dividends. The senior leadership noticed, It was in the newsletter… but more importantly, we saved something like 80 hours of processing time, halved the number of process errors, etc… It was a huge win!
It really is about working your ass off to be the best. To be really good at what you enjoy. What you do and more importantly, when you are working your ass off on something you enjoy – it’s fun! That late Friday in the office, I was enjoying it! Myself along with the other two folk (and the cleaners) had some music going in the office, and we were enjoying it!
In the book… Arnold talks about 24 hours. I use this alot also when people ask me, how do you find the time to do everything.
You have 24 hours in a day
Let’s say you work for 8. And then, you may sleep for 8. That leaves you with 8 hours.
Now, for example… you’ve got to commute to work, you may spend time with family, eating etc… (Arnold breaks this alot better in the book than what I have in this blog)… so let’s say, all that takes about 4 hours.
You’re left with 4 hours free a day. Let’s put 2 hours aside for catching up on things, traffic perhaps, and other stuff which you may not account for.
In a day – you can easily have, around 2 hours free. What are you doing with those 2 hours?
Most are mindlessly scrolling through social media. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Check your screen time on your phone. How much time in a day or week do you spend doing that.
Be more productive.
So today’s thought is… work your ass off. Seriously, work hard and achieve something special. Those 2 hours a day, you could easily start going to the gym and improve your health. You could even just walk for an hour a day – imagine the health benefits of that. You could start a new hobby… Anything. Just pick something, for which you have passion for and work your ass off.
So I’m going to continue through the chapters of the book I’m reading that’s been written by Arnold.
Today’s thought centres around…
Chapter 2 was great!
Recently, I was on a call with my mentor. We were having a chat and he stopped and said, Bal… you need to think bigger.
I was like – what do you mean bigger… He said, you’re thinking too small! It was like he’d read this chapter before we’d had our conversation! (He hadn’t by the way!)
We think next steps. Baby steps sometimes – which can be ok. But what is the bigger picture?
In the vision board – how big did you go? Some people say they want to write a book. That’s great. But do you want it to be a ‘best seller’? Or just another book? You got to think big. Bigger than what you’re thinking. If you’re aspiring to be an actor, do you want to act in a few films or act and win awards? Oscars?
This chapter in Arnold’s book really made me think – that you have to think big. Think big and bold. Not just want you’re going to achieve in a few years (whilst short term planning is important) you have to think bigger… 10 years. 15 years. 20 years. What is it that you want to achieve? What kind of legacy do you want to build?
I recently finished the book, ‘psychology of money’. Great read! I’ll talk about that another day. But one thing that it talks about is, compund interest. How over long period of times, your money will grow – and grow and grow. Don’t look short term. Think long term. I’ve done something similar, where about 15 years ago – I opened a savings account. And I put in £100 per month. It’s one of these that is a shares savings account (for those in the UK – Stocks and Shares ISA). Now, it’s grown. Every 4 or 5 years, I check it and see how it’s doing, do I need to change anything but in all honesty – I’ve just let it grow! Now when I opened it, I jokingly called it my ‘Lamborghini Fund’. I thought one day, I might have enough to put a deposit on a Lamborghini. Priorities have changed since then – but you know what give it some more time… and I won’t be far off! That was me thinking big then!! Then I was driving a 8 year old VW Golf diesel – but I was thinking big about a Lamborghini.
So to wrap up today’s Friday Thought… don’t think small. Think big… think huge! And dare to dream because you need to chase those dreams… as they will become reality one day.