It’s tremendously difficult, probably impossible, to overcome your first impression.
If you give a lousy first impression, no matter how great you become, there will always be a monster prowling in the back of people’s minds: the way they felt about your first impression.
On the same note, if you have an excellent first impression, it will cover all kinds of genuine flaws that show up as time goes on.
Funny people, we are.
It’s frustrating when you’re better than somebody else at something, yet they seem to be running the better business, making more money, and getting more exposure, etc…
It’s because skill isn’t everything whether you’re a landscaping company, a digital marketing agency, or a chess player who streams on twitch.
The chess “Grandmaster” may be far better at chess than the “International Master” (referred to as an IM). But the IM may be more fun to watch, more charismatic, and flat out better at marketing and promoting his brand and connecting with his customers (his followers and subscribers).
So skill in your work will not tell the whole story. You have to be skilled to become great, but skill is not all it takes.
Find the weak spots, the vulnerabilities, and the imbalances and focus the majority of your energy there.
If you can find a weakness in the market or a need unfulfilled where you are strong, hit that spot hard and don’t worry about being “well-rounded”.
Being narrow and focusing on a niche will work wonders for your business or your project.
So get good at something (or figure what you’re good at doing) and find where you can fit into the marketplace and go deliver!
After you push the boat away from the shore there is time for a moment of celebration, but you better get to work and keep rowing.
The only thing worse than not setting off is to set off and kill your journey by not doing the work.
Start the project and be happy, but work hard to complete the job as well.
I took a break from YouTube in August of 2019. The break was intended to be about a month. It’s lasted 17 months. But now it’s over.
I have wanted for months to upload new content and make more videos, but a part of me was afraid because it’s been so long and this “I’m back” style video I’ve been recording and re-recording for the past seven months.
It’s a crazy self-destructive path. I never give up and I’m finally back and better than ever.
It feels like 10,000lbs has lifted from my shoulders and I’ll sleep well and happy tonight.
Now the pressure is on to keep creating videos and never let this kind of “break” happen again.
Monday is a great day. A great start to the week and only a portion of the time you have until this week is over. You’re never getting this week back. Don’t blame Monday for the slow start, just get started and cut your losses.
Just like you don’t want to start a day with failure by hitting the “snooze” button, don’t start a week with failure by blaming the “Monday Blues” or whatever boogieman or the slow start.
But that’s not the whole story. Sure, it’s no fun to be disappointed with yourself, but it’s much worse if you don’t subject yourself to the pain of discipline.
There is the pain of not making money. Not paying your bills. Not being able to care for the people in your family. Not being able to build them a future. Not delivering for your clients when and how you tell them you will deliver.
There is the pain of the anxiety rising in your chest as you watch what you’ve wanted to build burn to the ground around you. You get one present moment and it’s gone just like that.
The man who strings together lots of good present moments builds a great future and he does this with self-discipline.
You get one moment at a time and one future. Do not mess it up.
What comes next? And what happens when you can’t answer that question?
When you lose the hunger for what’s next, you start to drop the ball. It can be good if you’re ready to move on and you’re passionate about something else, but a catastrophe if you’re burning out, but still love what you do.
Something else also happens as you begin to taste success. Very often, you get comfortable and rest on the fruits of prior achievement. It makes you afraid to explore and try new things because the sting of failure carries the pain of criticism and disappointment as well as the feeling of failing. This makes you hesitant to trine things.
But if you want success and you want to maintain your motor, you must always ask what is next and what gets you excited and fired up and keep pressing on. Take the good lesson from the failure and try something else.
We had a new president installed in the United States yesterday. Half the country thinks the outgoing president is(was) a dictator, half the country thinks the new guy won because the election was stolen.
Regardless of whom each side is supposed to hate now (or whom we choose to strongly dislike), that’s pretty destructive to your mental state.
How many people lose themselves being caught up hating Obama or Trump? Are you the same person that you were before those administrations?
Hard work and practice makes you great, but you need optimism to keep that fire burning. Be ridiculously optimistic and you have a much better chance of success.
Most people aren’t the elite-of-the-elite, best-of-the-best, top-of-the-food-chain, superstar level in their work, art, sport, etc.
We must not let the fact that we’re not the creme de la creme stop us from doing our work, pursuing near-perfection, and being great where we are.
Are we so stupid and full of ego that we would forego the chance at being a star because we will not be content unless we’re the best of the best?
Can we not be happy or motivated unless we’re a superstar? Really? REALLY?!
Make your competitors dance. Keep them guessing by making moves that are solid, but throw in a wildcard every now and then.
Don’t be predictable.
The value of making a bad move is that it alters the way your competitor will look at you and you can use this to your advantage.
Make the competition akin to balancing on the tip of a triangle, but if you are the one pushing the initiative, they’ll be using much more energy than you.
Work smarter, not harder.
You can treat your first 500 fans like kings and queens. Also, you should.
They form the bedrock of your business and brand. They are the most important building block that you should be tending to early in any business or brand build.
Almost always we make it about ourselves. “She broke MY heart.” or “She cheated on ME.” or “They never listen to what I tell them.” or “They’ve robbed me of MY future.” etc…
What would happen if we focused on our response instead? What if we used every past hurt to build our future, not sandbag it?
Order is important. Being “put together” is important, but that stuff doesn’t make sales or keep a business afloat.
I’d rather do business with the guy who gets the job done than the guy who dresses/talks well.
Who would you rather hire: the good dresser or the good seller?
Win with substance. Not the illusion of good looks.
When you travel to new places, you’re looking for new experiences and new things to learn. As a photographer, you’re also looking for new photographs to capture.
Should you stand where everybody else does and shoot the same photo everybody else does? Probably not. Turn around and look behind you.
What story isn’t being conveyed by the “normal” photos that all the tourists take?
In art and business, when everybody rushes to the city, the interesting stuff is probably out in the country. When everybody takes a drink of water, take a bite of your sandwich instead. Be different and observant.
A little habit I’ve worked into myself over the years is this: When I see a distraction meant to capture my glance, I turn 180º around and look at what is across from it.
It’s not always interesting, but it’s a great way to practically remind yourself not to follow the sheep off the cliff’s edge and to create consistently interesting work.
The model, the system, the time constraints, the energy suck, the consumption of four prime years of life, the bad habits that come of it, and the crippling debt. These things make a college education practically a useless venture for the majority of college graduates.
Imagine you graduate college at 23 years old and take $150,000 in debt with you (many even more than that!) and have dreams of buying a car, a home, getting married, and taking out a small business loan to getting a business rolling.
What bank will lend to you? And if a bank will lend you enough to start a business, what about buy-in a car or home? What is the quality of life like? So what if you get a great business loan if you’re condemned to live in a dump for 3-6 years while you try to get the business kicking into high gear?
That is also if the business is successful. Because if the business fails, you’re back to square one, but with even more debt.
That means there is an immense amount of pressure which makes failing even more likely.
You will spend a decade paying off student loan debt and hope to be married in your early to mid-thirties at which point you buy a couple of cars and a house and take out more loans. Those loans last over the next thirty years at which point you’re in your early sixties and ready to retire.
A life spent paying off debts and years spent depending on banks to lend you more to ensure a reasonable quality of life.
Was the college education (job training) worth it all?
Fifty years ago, it was a great bargain, but my parents could pay off their college fees by working a summer job each year.
College is no doubt too expensive and not worth what goes into it any longer for the vast majority of students.
P.S. I very much dislike the notion that going to college means you’re now part of the “educated” class. Some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met were “brilliant” degree holders of this or that sort. College does not equally “educated” any more than attending Driver’s Ed equals a fantastic car driver.
What you see is what you get with me. I try not to be too secretive or pretend to be someone that I’m not.
I still try to be private about what I post on social media, but I want to be more open and share more every day. I can go months without sharing anything and I just want to be more open about my life. It’s difficult for me because I am what I am.
As you get to know me, I become a little less patient and my desire for things to be done to the best of mine and your ability tends to precipitate arguments or fights (just ask my wife) and that’s a place where I can work on being better.
That is, more patient and maybe not being such a stickler, but I do think doing everything to the best of our ability is hyper-important and I want the people I care most about to be the best they can be.
So what you don’t know about me is I’m vulnerable and don’t like to share as much as I want to. I want to share and show how I work, but I’m not comfortable with it. Also, I’m impatient and it leads to most of my problems.
I’ve committed to writing these blog posts six days a week. I committed to myself and nobody reads them. It’s an act purely for me. But I can’t bring myself to willing skip when I don’t feel like writing. I just start banging out words.
I don’t want to, I think I sound like a fool by now, and I kind of wish I hadn’t started a minute ago when I decided to force myself to write.
But now I’ve got some thoughts written down. Nothing profound, but maybe not boring either. Who knows? I’m just going to hit “Publish”.
As Simon Sinek points out, often C-level executives are like monkeys up in a tree. They’re up there hanging out and having fun, but from down below them, all we see are a bunch of asses. (I'm heavily paraphrasing here.)
Good ideas and input come from anywhere. Be aware of how the people around you feel about you and your leadership. If they feel like they’re integral to the success of the project, they will be more open to sharing ideas and giving input.
If they feel like they’re mindlessly working as a cog in the machine, they’ll stay out of the way and you’ll have less happy employees and many less great ideas.
Be cognizant and be open to all the good ideas.
You gotta keep mixing the bowl of batter to make some pancakes.
You might not think you’re going anywhere, but you gotta keep mixing.
The only way it fails is when you stop.