More important is to care about the customer’s point of view, to do the maximum emotional labor possible and to believe that what you do is worth money.
Giving a discount cheapens your work and probably makes the customer think they were hard done by – that they could have actually asked for a bigger discount.
Discounts don’t work.
There is simply too much to read. The internet is endless and ever growing.
That’s why companies like Facebook and Twitter have done so well. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, if you’re bored or if you’re lonely, these companies will give you something to look at. It will link up with your social life, your browsing history and your location too, if you let it (yes, there is a choice). It will make you feel pleasure and excitement for a fleeting moment.
Calling the main page on Facebook and Twitter a “feed” is no coincidence. Like a baby screeching for mother’s milk, these companies recognize our thirst for connections and take the thought out of choosing what to read and what to consume.
But can we do better and can we read better? Any reading for a purpose is better than the default Facebook addiction. Managing what we expose ourselves to is a full time job but it’s worth it. Choose books and newsletters and RSS feeds. Choose active reading over passive consumption. Better yet, read something purely for the purpose of creating something.
I had to catch the early flight to Johannesburg this morning for a bunch of meetings. It was dark and my kid was still asleep.
I’ll be in the big bad city all day and then arrive home late tonight after my child has gone to bed. Sometimes life is not creative bliss.
However, I believe it is always fun to work and have meetings if you focus on the people. Today I will meet 2 new people and one who I have only met once before. The work side of things is important and I had to prepare for the meetings, but it flows easier if I focus on understanding and enjoying the different people. It makes it easier for me to leave home in the dark!
Also, the more exposure I have to different people and places, the more cannon fodder for writing and creativity.
I find it very easy to be wasteful. I can spend money far easier than I can make it. If I let it, my house atrophies and falls apart so that water and energy leaks away. Netflix will line up episode after episode so that time ticks away.
Waste happens when I have plenty of choice.
The opposite thing seems to happen when I think I have less than I need. If I am stretched on a job I can put in superhuman efforts and meet a deadline. If I am running out of money, I can make ten bucks last for a long long time. If I have a clear idea of where I am headed, resource constraint is not so much of an issue. Sometimes it is liberating and let’s me achieve more than I set out to achieve.
A common refrain on many of humanity’s problems is that there are simply too many people. Flora and Fauna will never be prioritized over humans, and with an ever growing pool of humans the pressure on the environment will lead to widespread catastrophe.
In many respects of course this is true and obvious. Forests are shrinking and animal species are going extinct. However, Humans don’t just extract from a fixed set of resources. We can also create new resources through invention. Check this awesome article for more info.
I think the future of wildlife is not so doomed but also not so wild. Unfortunately more like a zoo than a Serengeti, I think we are headed for a strong culture of managing land, technology and investment for flora and fauna to flourish.
Like it or not, We as a species are not going to stop taking over wild lands, but we are also not going to stop innovating.
The different phases of my life have been strongly linked with different priorities. This is not always a conscious choice. Over the years I have been focussed on school, girls, sport, music, partying, and starting a family. Not one of these were conscious choices, but choices nonetheless and the knock on effects are huge.
Having realized this, I now find that many of my larger choices are more conscious. I realize I have never prioritized my career. I realize I want to change things. I want to write things down to make them stick.
Some recent steps I have taken to improve my focus and save time for what matters:
The next step is to partake more in communities of like minded people in the flesh. I’m thinking writers groups, and arty types who I don’t seem to have in my life at the moment.
Life is a journey not a destination, right?
He took some initiative. She showed some real initiative there.
The gist of this concept is that you need to start (initiate) something yourself. Of course, your brain can trick you into believing that this relies on various conditions. The young apprentice may tell himself he is not qualified to start a new project. The exec may convince herself that she needs sign-off from the partner before anything can happen. This is in fact what the big corporate companies have set up to manage risk in the work place. Standardization of the workplace ala McDonalds’ production lines means that little goes wrong, but little is created in the mean time.
Hence we want to be our own bosses. Once you leave the comfort of a salaried low ranking job, never has the pressure to initiate something been so great. Publish an article, make a sales call, think of a new offering that will turn a profit and then find an audience that is willing to hear you.
Write a novel. Paint a picture. Initiate something from nothing. Show some initiative. Create
Important to understand is that the urgency of initiative (make a start and create something) is very different to the urgency of conformity (hurry up and wait for sign-off). We do what we do for the long run and for the freedom of being able to make something now, here, today if we can.
Making an impact on an audience is difficult. Powerpoint presentation design, tone of voice, content, lighting, manner when speaking – it all needs to be thought of when you make a public presentation. The speech needs to be refined and rehearsed.
However, more important is what you have done in the years and decades leading up to that point. If you don’t have the message clarified over time due to a consistent history with the subject, then it will all sound a little desperate. I think you need to have a long track record behind you and the impact you make with a speech is not the result of a couple of nights’ work – rather it is the culmination of many bits of previous work. If you gain a reputation for a line of work that is channeled, focussed and weighty due to your reputation with the audience – you will probably make an impact. If a speech is grappling to be relevant and consistent with who you really are then it will fall on deaf ears.
When creating something, the problem with following ratings, clicks, likes, engagement online is that it has its own set of rules to win – it is its own game, in and of itself. When the art of popularity is refined, it usually (always?) becomes a race to the bottom to appeal to the most people. This distracts you from the real task at hand – making something cool.
Creating something authentic and original – whether it is a book, an experience in a BnB, a song – means that it will not appeal to everyone. By definition. This is ok.
Instead we must double down on the people we want to please, who matter to you and whom you want to engage with your art.
I don’t think you can possibly matter to everyone. We must stop chasing ratings for ratings sake.
Chimpwithcans 