Perseverance, meditation and checklists
A second week with the bug has meant I’ve had to sharpen my focus. Thanks to old mate fatigue the theme this week has deteriorated from “ideas that are important” to “lessons that require the least amount of effort” (while maintaining relevance of course). We continue our weekly dose of “Monday Morsels” with articles that I felt were truly relevant to developing your skills for business & performance.
Clouds and dirt —
I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s DailyVee 033 last week and was particularly enjoying the theme — “for the love of the dirt”. The premise is simple, clouds are for dreaming of ideas (honing in on your goals, vision or north star), but execution or the dirt is what matters. The greatest ideas come from the dirt. This reminds me of a key tenant of the 80/20 principle in strategy, which is that it shouldn’t be an overview, but an underview. The micro, the grind, the execution is where it’s at — that’s where you’ll have your most seminal moments. This highlights Gary’s current narrative, that entrepreneurship is not as glamorous as people make it out to be, but if you like it, it shouldn’t matter.
Patience & perseverance; How Uber conquered London (Black Cabs) —
This article by The Guardian on how Uber beat London Black Cabs is truly insightful to learning how the ride sharing juggernaut launched in London. The key lesson from this was that they HAD to bastardise their own product from Uber Black to UberX. If they hadn’t then someone else would have — quite an influential moment for their international business. Take a look at the new data visualisation by Uber of their rides for some perspective how much their business has changed.
Meditation a common practice across high performers —
I meditate once a day to help me function normally (I’m an A type personality, that has anxiety). This article highlights the commonality of meditation across high performers, containing what evidence there is for meditation, plus a how-to guide. Using meditation is detrimental to changing your mindset, particularly when dealing with high doses of stress, which I can attest to is incredibly valuable.
The Checklist Manifesto —
The below chart highlights the importance of checklists to me, but that may be my first conclusion bias, having recently read The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. Atul’s primary study in the book was the use of checklists in surgeries that he created with the WHO. This study was and final checklist was eventually adopted by all UN countries & signatories of the WHO. The data point below highlights that maybe a checklist should expand to outside of surgery. Either way, the utility that businesses can gather from checklists is enormous. Decreasing errors, automating the dumb stuff that we’re forced to spend our time on and creating better communication across the team, just to name a few.
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Thanks for reading! Have an awesome week.
Jordan Michaelides
SinglePartners.io solves hard problems, with a focus on helping organisations to think big and agile. Our remote team of specialist advisors utilise agile methodologies and technology to execute short term tactical or long term strategic work that provides results. Our sister company Startup Lab automates the process for entrepreneurs to create & build their business ideas.
