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“It manifests itself in the shape of the lucky fool, defined as a person who benefited from a disproportionate share of luck but attributes his success to some other, generally very precise, reason.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness If you haven't read Taleb's book, he
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Pushing on your work takes an intense amount of energy. And without energy, it's hard to maintain consistency, perseverance and results. Energy is not a given. You have to foster your routines and habits to keep peak performance going. I like to hike, play tennis, trail run and
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I love dealmaking. I agree with Robert Ringer's observation about dealmaking: "There are no statistics to prove it, but after years of experience, I'm absolutely convinced that dealmaking is the highest-paid profession in the world." I think the creative pieces and bringing ambiguous, and
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I like spending the weekends thinking, learning and relaxing. The weeks are such a grind and intensive with deal making and doing business. Today, I was having some reflections on the NPR podcast, How I Build This: Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter. I embedded it above and you
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Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com How do you know if you had a solid day or week of output? We can easily get deluded into thinking we were highly productive, but we may have simply stringed together fleeting days of busy activity. Sometimes, simply maintaining that appearance of effort
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If you spend most of your time trying to convince people of what they need, you may be in for a highly expensive and wasteful lesson from the marketplace. I get it. When you have an idea that you love, you think others should love it as well. But, we
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I have shared about the need to unlearn and reinvent continually because of market forces all around you and the pace of change. Once you see something that was once hard become convenient, commoditized and automated, you have to unlearn and relearn. I think that the Harvard Business Review has
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“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ” ~ Alvin Toffler I often think about that phrase, "What got you here won't get you there." It's a powerful reminder that
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I read Derek Sivers' mantra years ago, "Either 'Hell Yeah!' or 'no." It's a fantastic way to live and do business. Most things don't work out. And a lot of time, money and relational equity can be wasted when taking
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A few projects matter. So do a few relationships and a few tools. It's so easy to simply accumulate stuff and throw horsepower into everything. While thinking that should cover over any deficiencies, what is often hidden is the cost in the form of waste, unclarity and management
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There's a world of opportunity out there for what you are pursuing. But one piece of clarity that gets overlooked too often is qualification. Most people you meet cannot say, "Yes," to what you are offering. However, a few people can. I'm not sure
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The saying in French, mise en place, roughly translates to everything in its place. French cooks use this approach to keep order and readiness in their work. I have done this for decades, and I even train my kids on this important practice, not only for survival and getting things