Reading Time: 2 min It seems like the power cable for your phone wears out too quickly, doesn’t it? I know that we often are having to replace those cords. They must be poorly made, right? That may be true, but those cable are intentionally designed to wear out. When you have friction in a connection like that, something […]
Don’t try to be the best – just be better
Reading Time: < 1 min Striving to be the best at something can be a great approach in some areas. If you want to win a gold medal in the Olympics, you literally have to become the best at your craft. For most of us, though, becoming the “best” isn’t attainable, or often even measurable. If I wanted our marketing […]
Should you be scheduling more emails?
Reading Time: 2 min A few years ago, Gmail added a nifty feature tucked into the main “Send” button to “Schedule Send”. Pressing that button will open a prompt for when you want to send it, and then it essentially hides the email and sends it at the appropriate time. I use this feature occasionally, but an article from […]
Who should you accept criticism from?
Reading Time: < 1 min Whenever you do something in public, from writing to speaking to sports, critics will find you. When should you listen to them and when should you ignore them? In his book “Limitless“, author Jim Kwik makes it really simple: “Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.” There are a lot of people […]
Where is your perimeter?
Reading Time: 2 min It’s important to know what you don’t know. I shared last year about two “intermediate” website developers who are actually miles apart in terms of skill. One underestimated their skills, while the other overestimated theirs. In the case of “Alex” in that post, he was someone that really understand where their perimeter of knowledge ended, […]
Can you do it again today?
Reading Time: 2 min Years ago, I built a very popular website that showcased interesting locations in Google Earth. It took a lot of manual labor to find and categorize things, but it was a popular destination for a lot of users. Could I do it again today? Not a chance. First, technology is different. My manual labor of […]
Calm is contagious
Reading Time: < 1 min If you’re in a suddenly stressful situation, freaking out is likely to make things worse. It can be hard to control, but staying calm, particularly if you’re in a position of leadership during the event, can make a huge difference. From Ryan Holiday’s excellent book “The Daily Stoic“, he shares: There is a maxim that […]
Problem Solving versus Problem Finding
Reading Time: < 1 min Years ago, salespeople had all of the knowledge. If you needed information about a specific feature on a car, or a list of homes for sale in your area, there was no Google to help you out — you needed a human. The best salespeople were great problem solvers. These days, much of that has […]
Is reading work?
Reading Time: 2 min In episode 179 of The Long and The Short Of It podcast, hosts Pete and Jen argue that reading for knowledge should be considered “work”, and therefore it’s acceptable to do during the workday. I don’t disagree, but it’s tricky. I read quite a lot, and most of it is for the benefit of our […]
The odds don’t feel right
Reading Time: 2 min There are times in our lives when it feels like something should happen more often than it does, but the math proves that it’s actually on track. For example, the Atlanta Braves made it to the postseason 14 straight times (1991-2005) but only won the World Series once. It feels like if you make it […]