That’s a criticism, of course. A report, study or testimony that’s all anecdote with no data carries little in the way of actionable information.
On the other hand, if you want to change people’s minds, “all data and no anecdote” isn’t going to get you very far.
We act on what we understand, we understand what fits into our worldview and we remember what we act on.
There are two kinds of mistakes.
One is the sort where failure is not noticeable because failure means that you didn’t engage with an audience. If you do an art show and no one comes, no one realizes that your art show failed.
The other is harder to walk away from. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. When you engineer collateralized debt obligations that merge together mortgage streams, inextricably linking the healthy ones with the others, it’s a mistake with real consequences.
Confusing the two types of errors is a recipe for tragedy. If we can figure out how to organize and plan for the first type of resilient failure, it’s far easier to experiment.
If you’re not having any second thoughts at all, it’s probably because you’re not thinking it through enough.
The hallmark of the true believer is that there’s no room for judgment. For everyone else, misgivings are a sign that you’re carefully considering the problem at hand.
They’re not the same.
We often strive to have both, but that’s unlikely. The price of having one almost certainly involves losing the other. We often end up compromising something to get both and fail.
Better to have one than neither.
Tomorrow is another opportunity.
There are thirty people over there who are just waiting for you to help connect them, lead them or make things better. But if you’re still defending the stuck project over here, the one you put so much into, you won’t be able to show up for them.
Customers, partners, clients and students who need your voice or your product aren’t going to benefit from it because you’re working so hard to dig yourself out of a previous hole, a situation that is now harder than ever to work your way through.
It’s easy to focus on the problem right in front of us, and to decide that this problem, and only this problem, is the problem for us to solve. But there’s a cost to everything, and the opportunity lost when you’re doing this is just as real, even when you don’t notice it.
Of course, we don’t create contribution by flitting from one thing to another whenever things get difficult. But we also sell ourselves short (and harm the people we’d be able to serve) if we’re unable to quit a project that’s gone sideways.
What happened yesterday already happened. It’s a gift and an asset from your previous self. You don’t have to accept if you don’t want to.
Small companies create almost all the jobs. They are the insurgents, the agents of change.
Big companies are a backbone, reliable providers of goods and services. Big companies operate at a scale that most of us can’t even imagine.
The two points of view often conflict. And each can learn from the other.
Net neutrality is an argument between freedom of innovation by small business vs. control from big business.
Campaign finance reform is an argument against big companies and their leaders buying the outcomes of elections.
It’s not always about capitalism vs. the alternative. It’s often about the status quo vs. what’s next.
Worth noting: A small business is not a big business that hasn’t grown up yet. It’s different. A small business has an owner, someone who can make decisions without meetings, who can listen to customers and who can embrace the work at hand.
If you run a small business, I hope you’ll check out the new workshop from my friend and colleague Ramon Ray. The folks at Akimbo are working with Ramon to help connect small business people on their journey to making a bigger impact. It works better together.
Disagreements among people who mean well usually begin with that emotion.
You meant to say something or agree to something, but the “other side” didn’t hear it that way.
That’s enough for a customer to walk away forever. That’s enough for a lawsuit. Because denying the experience of the other person doesn’t open the door for re-connection.
Forward motion is possible if we can extend the sentence to, “That’s not what I meant, but that must be what you heard, how do we fix this? Will you help me make things right again?”
If we can agree on intent, it’s a lot easier to figure out how to move forward.
53 years ago, early in her career, Joni Mitchell recorded this song.
It’s not something most people will want to listen to often. Shortly after that, she became the one and only Joni Mitchell. But first, she had dues to pay.
That’s the work of practice and discernment and skill. You’re not born with genius, it’s a skill.
You might have to sing more than one song like this before you end up with the art that resonates with your audience.
My new book ships in two weeks.
It’s about the human process of shipping creative work, regardless of what sort of job we have. It’s about trusting yourself. Mostly, it’s about getting back to becoming the person you seek to be.
You can find details on the book (and links to pre-order) here.
For the true fans, I’ve put together exactly 400 sets of limited-edition swag. If you order the special 12-copy set of the book from Porchlight, you’ll also get a large handful of cool stuff, including a hand-lasered writer’s block, a set of letterpress hand-printed pages, six (of 12) collectible storage packs and a magical surprise that contains actual magic.
If you’re the sort of person who likes to go first, or wants to share a book with your peers, today’s the day. There aren’t many…
[update 10.21 end of day–now a bestseller on Amazon, thank you. And the 12-packs are sold out…]
Back in the old days, I took someone to a local Italian restaurant for dinner.
As we looked over the menu, complete with regional specialties and handmade pastas, he started to sulk. With a sullen look, he said, “I want a hamburger and french fries.”
Somehow, the patient kitchen staff figured out how to produce this out of thin air, and a tantrum was narrowly averted. But I’ve been thinking about that interaction a lot.
In his mind, “restaurant” meant, “a place where I can get a hamburger and french fries.” If you look at many 1 star reviews (of books, of music, of restaurants) this is precisely what you’re going to see. A mismatch of expectations. A mismatch that is blamed, completely, on the person who created the work, not the critic.
It doesn’t matter that the thing was clearly marked. It doesn’t matter that the thing was extraordinarily well-produced. And it doesn’t matter if just about everyone else experiencing it was thoroughly delighted.
Because for this spoiled, under-informed and impatient patron, it failed.
This failure comes from a few contributing factors, all amplified by our culture:
First, you can’t know if you’re going to like an experience until you experience it. All you know is your understanding of what was on offer. And because there are so many choices and there’s so much noise, we rarely take the time to actually read the label, or we get carried away by the coming attractions, or we just don’t care enough to pay attention until we’re already involved.
[And marketers are complicit, because in the face of too much noise, they hype what’s on offer and overpromise…]
Second, because many people are afraid. They’re afraid of the new and even more than that, afraid of change. Most people in our culture would like to be entertained not transformed, lectured at instead of learning.
Third, the double-edged sword of giving everyone a microphone means that we’ve amplified the voices of dissent at the same time we’ve given people a chance to speak up about their desires. This means that mass culture is far more divisive than it ever was before, and it also means that bubbles of interest are more likely to be served.
And so the fork in the road:
You can either turn your operation into a cross between McDonald’s and Disney, selling the regular kind, pandering to the middle, putting everything in exactly the category they hoped for and challenging no expectations…
Or you can do the incredibly hard work of transgressing genres, challenging expectations and seeking out the few people who want to experience something that matters, instead of something that’s merely safe.
