Day 3: Every Day Of Your Life Is A Blank Page
I don’t have a story for you today. The day was simple — I’m still dealing with the pain of friends leaving our company, and I had a lot of clients asking for things to happen yesterday.
#Sales
Thankfully, the nuggets of wisdom I had for the day were easy to digest, and only needed about 15 minutes of reflection. They encouraged me to get through the humpday with a little more optimism.
Marcus Lemonis:
- Leadership is about reinventing yourself.
- Business and life are built on vulnerability. If you can trust each other, then you can help each other.
I didn’t know Marcus Lemonis’ life story before attending the Summit. After listening, I can appreciate why he didn’t release approval for his speech to be published. Still, his nuggets of wisdom are so real and practical that I forgot he was even a celebrity — it felt like he was speaking to real pains in my heart.
My favorite nugget of wisdom came from his “moving to college” story. He thought that he could get away from his emotional problems by going to a school that was far away from his hometown so that he could start fresh with people. Funny thing about our personal problems though — they tend to follow us. Your problems will follow you because of your memory. Only you know yourself, and only you remind yourself of the things that weigh you down. That’s why, in order to reinvent yourself, you have to understand yourself and how you function in order to get better. That’s the key to reinventing yourself. Strive for self-awareness.
My second favorite nugget of wisdom came when Lemonis shared how he continues to practice “knowing himself”. He exercises transparency with the people he does business with in order to build trust. Creating a bridge of trust allows his business partners to share problems freely. This is a lot easier said than done because we’re obligated to share our private vulnerabilities. Finding the words to articulate your thoughts, especially your feelings, accurately is a difficult thing to practice. If you’re not confident in that ability, then that’s your sign to start practicing. Discretion is key, but do start practicing.
On a personal note, I’ve noticed that most leaders and business owners get coined as a little “weird” or kind of “crazy” to enjoy high-stakes responsibilities and entrepreneurship. I often relate this “weirdness” to the way soccer players call goalkeepers “weird”. It’s rumored that soccer superstar Iker Casillas once responded to the idea that goalies are a “crazy” breed of athletes. I scoured the web for that interview, but couldn’t find it. Still, the rumor is that his response went something like this:
“I don’t see why anyone thinks goal keepers are the crazy ones. You have 20 guys on the pitch chasing after the ball, but the extra 2 of us are the only ones waiting for the ball to come to us. Now you tell me who the crazy ones are.”
Most leaders tend to jam to the beat of their own drum. There’s nothing wrong with that, because everyone has their own story. I share all of this because Lemonis reminds us that while we may not know our whole story, it’s a leader’s job to help us write it.
Fredrik Haren
- Creativity is not about making something out of nothing. It is about taking two formally understood things and combining them in a new or unique way.
- Don’t challenge creativity. Ask “why” only if you’re seeking a deeper understanding of an opportunity, not to question its validity.
Creativity is a skill that is hidden in plain sight. We live in a generation where nothing is “original” anymore, and that can be daunting to think about. The truth is that creativity has nothing to do with being 100% original. It has everything to do with being innovative.
Being innovative really just means having the ability to see the real “change” that impacts people’s lives. It’s seeing the real “problems” that exist, and finding unique ways to to use tools already at your disposal. Think of the popular blog “Life Hacks”, where we’re taught how to use a binder-clip (solves the problem of holding loose pages) as a cable-manager (saves us from costly cable management products for our desks). When you can find solutions that really change the way people do things, then you’ve found yourself a key-ingredient for innovation.
We’re trained, sometimes all our lives, to perform our skills and abilities in a specific way. We’re rarely encouraged to consider using them any differently. So I encourage you to be innovative with your potential. Don’t think — act. Innovation never came from talking about it or reading about it. Do it. Learn from failure, mimic success, solve a problem, and fall in love with the process.
Repeat ;)