You As The Product: Reinvent Yourself Using Lessons from Product Innovation

Editor's Notes

• #1: Hi! I am Julia, and today we will explore how we could apply (lessons from)(strategies of) Product Innovation to innovate our careers and constantly reinvent ourselves as professionals, in order to face the market changes without fear and be invincible in the long run. —————— Hi! I am Julia, and today we will explore how we could apply (lessons from)(strategies of) Product Innovation for innovating our careers to fuel our growth and enable us to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing market. in order to fearlessly face the disruptive market changes and stay invincible in the long run. —————— Hi! I am Julia, and today we will explore how we could apply (lessons from)(strategies of) Product Innovation for innovating our careers, for constantly reinventing our professional life, in order to fearlessly face the disruptive market changes and stay invincible in the long run. —————— During the session, we will explore the Product Innovation foundations and see how the principles from this field can be applied to our professional development to fuel our growth and enable us to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing market.   You will learn actionable tools and strategies to constantly reinvent and elevate your professional life, in order to fearlessly face those disruptive market changes and stay invincible in the long run.
• #4: Did you know that: 🇪🇪 Estonia has the most startups per capita in Europe? 🇪🇪 Estonia has the most unicorns per capita in Europe? 🇪🇪 Estonia leads Europe in investments per capita? 🇪🇪 99% of Estonian public services are available online? 🇪🇪?
• #5: Every company that is aiming for the long-term game needs to be innovative and constantly explore new opportunities in addition to its current portfolio of products that bring cash. There are two different types of activities that such companies perform: → Exploiting - maximizing existing opportunities by developing further the products and services that proved to be a good fit for the current market, excelling at it and improving it → Exploring - searching for new opportunities in order to create a new product, find a new niche, or be prepared for global market changes Both are important and have to be presented in the company’s portfolio in a good balance. Exploring is cool and exciting, but it needs funding, as well as the existence of the company overall depends on the cash flow received from existing products. At the same time, if the company, even very successful, would only count on the exploitation of the currently successful products, sooner or later, it will be put aside by more innovative competitors, or it might become totally irrelevant as a result of market changes. So, to be viable, the companies need to have both Exploit and Explore portfolios. The most successful companies constantly reinvent themselves by exploring the future while excelling at exploiting the present, to stay ahead of everybody else and beat disruption. ——- The most successful companies have two types of portfolio: Exploit portfolio - they exlploit what they already have, excelling at it and improving it Explore portfolio - they explore the future by innovating and constantly reinventing themselves to stay ahead of everybody else and beat disruption (before they become obsolete) They Grow in what they are currently good at, and they search for the new opportunities. ——- ——— The most successful companies constantly reinvent themselves by exploring the future while excelling at exploiting the present, to stay ahead of everybody else and beat disruption. (before they become obsolete)
• #6: Successful professionals embrace the same strategy - they excel at what they are doing currently while constantly exploring new opportunities to stay relevant and maximise market opportunities. Here we are talking about our individual portfolios of skills, competencies and activities we perform in the professional world. Exploit - … Explore - … There is the same balance of Exploit and Explore. As much as we might love learning, we can’t spend all my time in the Exploring area as we need to earn a living exploiting our current skills. And if we only exploit what we are good at, we inevitably become irrelevant as the world changes faster and faster, and sometimes just dramatically, independently of the fact if we notice this or ignore it. ❓ Are you investing enough to constantly reinvent yourself in order to stay relevant? ❓ What do you like to do more: ❓ do what you are already good at or ❓ explore new opportunities? ❓ Raise your hand if you feel that you have good balance of Exploit and Explore. ❓ Raise your hand if you never have time for explore. 💡 Are you investing enough to constantly reinvent yourself in order to stay relevant? ————- Successful professionals embrace the same strategy - they excel at what they are doing currently while constantly exploring new opportunities to stay relevant (invincible) and maximise market opportunities (invincible to market changes. ) (before they become irrelevant. (To stay relevant) (thrive despite of market changes) (even thrive )
• #7: Don’t wait to start exploring new opportunities until the situation with your Exploit portfolio becomes really bad. Both companies and individuals need to keep that good balance between their Exploit and Explore portfolios, deliberately and all the time. We tend to become less active and lose our sense of urgency when we are in a good, stable situation. It is easy to grow over-confident about our future, assuming that circumstances will always remain favorable to us. And when the situation changes, suddenly or slowly over time, while we have been overlooking the signs of upcoming change, we are not prepared at all for it. What is worse, we might also lose our ability to learn, innovate, and adapt, which is also a separate skill set. The more we perform exploring activities, the more skillful we become in them. Again, this is true for both companies and individuals. How many famous companies lost their competitive advantage or even went bankrupt due to becoming too complacent and overlooking the current trends? General Motors, Kodak, BlackBerry, Nokia, the list goes on… Let's not become a part of this list. Let’s start exploring already today.
• #8: When we are in the Exploit domain, we feel confident about our skills and activities that have brought us our income so far. We are also able to do things with a high level of quality and aim for efficiency, as we have done this many times and know how we could optimize and streamline our work (or make shortcuts ;). This gives us a feeling of stability - “business-as-usual.” At the same time, doing the same things over, again and again, might become boring - for some people more than for others, as we have different appetites for novelty - but still, all of us need some of it. And also, this stability might end at some moment - and probably faster than we expect. And it is never boring in the Explore domain. However, it is quite challenging. We never have enough time to be prepared “enough.” To feel confident about what we are doing. We can not invest too much of our resources in an area we are not sure about if it really brings us the results we are hoping for (❓“Should I go for this MBA thingy? Should I invest in ICF education? Should I aim for this (CST) certification? Should I write a book around this great idea? Should I change my profession? Should I quit my job and start my own business?”). Our only safe (or “safer”) option is to do small steps, experiment, go fast, and validate our ideas and assumptions. We need to be just “good enough” to get the evidence that we are moving in the right direction. Or actually to understand that we need to change this direction and try something else or to do it differently. It is messy and uncomfortable. Difficult for our perfectionist nature. But also exciting. And making us fit better for the great future.
• #9: In the same way as with companies, personal innovation might happen on several levels: Level 1. Operational Innovation Becoming better at what you are already doing currently - by optimizing for higher quality, better efficiency, and more creative solutions for your tasks. Level 2. Product Innovation Acquiring new skills and competencies, performing new activities. It may be just a new single competence to learn and master, e.g.: → New programming language → New tool → New technology → New framework → Facilitating skill → Coaching skill Or something more complex, where you remain within your main area of competence but start moving towards new activities and exploring different facets of utilizing your expertise: aiming for a leadership position, speaking at conferences, teaching your competence to others, writing blog posts, articles or maybe even working on your book. All of these complex movements require a whole set of new skills in different combinations: coaching, mentoring, critical thinking, teaching, public speaking, writing, design, etc. Level 3. Strategic innovation In the business world, it would mean Business model innovation, in a personal space, you might move to: → New industry → New profession → Entrepreneurship → Brand-new career ❓Where might be the highest impact here? The possible impact of personal innovation is getting higher towards the right part. But the risk also. ❓What can we do with it? The Big Bang approach might be the worst strategy here. All or nothing. We either win big or fail big (and the latter is much more possible). The closer to the right part, the bigger change we are aiming for, the greater the need for us to engage in iterative experimentation. This involves taking small steps, validating our hypothesis or experiencing minor failures, deriving major learnings from these failures, quickly adapting by shifting directions, and experimenting once again. Just as real (innovative) companies do. (Innovation stack levels are introduced by Gary Hamel in a book “The Future of Management.” There are actually 4 levels: Operational, Product/Service, Strategic and Management innovation)
• #10: Another aspect to think about is how we allocate our time across different types of activities. And here The Three Horizons Model can be useful. The Three Horizons Model, developed by McKinsey, is a strategic tool for managing and allocating resources effectively across different time frames. This approach helps organizations balance their focus between short-term operations, medium-term growth, and long-term innovation. We can apply the same approach by thinking in terms of different horizons for our skills development: ——————— Horizon 1: Tactical improvements of what we are doing now. Horizon 2: Exploring and learning new skills that we believe we will be able to apply in the near future. Horizon 3: Exploring further future opportunities. Horizon 1 activities take up most of our time, followed by Horizon 2 activities and then Horizon 3 ones. These activities change over time: some Horizon 2 activities move to Horizon 1, while others disappear. Most Horizon 3 activities disappear as we explore them further, but some progress to Horizon 2 and may eventually reach Horizon 1. And what about Horizon 1 activities? There is a high risk that, over time, these activities may become irrelevant in the new reality. Lucky for us, if we have been disciplined in exploring Horizon 2 and Horizon 3, we might be better prepared for this. Are you planning to stay relevant by balancing your focus across all three horizons? ;)
• #11: The Three Horizons Model, developed by McKinsey, is a strategic tool for managing and allocating resources effectively across different time frames. This approach helps organizations balance their focus between short-term operations, medium-term growth, and long-term innovation. We can apply the same approach by thinking in terms of different horizons for our skills: ——————— Horizon 1: Tactical improvements of what we are doing now. ——————— Horizon 2: Exploring and learning new skills that we believe we will be able to apply in the near future. Horizon 3: Exploring further future opportunities. Horizon 1 activities take up most of our time, followed by Horizon 2 activities and then Horizon 3 ones. These activities change over time: some Horizon 2 activities move to Horizon 1, while others disappear. Most Horizon 3 activities disappear as we explore them further, but some progress to Horizon 2 and may eventually reach Horizon 1. And what about Horizon 1 activities? There is a high risk that, over time, these activities may become irrelevant in the new reality. Lucky for us, if we have been disciplined in exploring Horizon 2 and Horizon 3, we might be better prepared for this. Are you planning to stay relevant by balancing your focus across all three horizons? ;)
• #12: The Three Horizons Model, developed by McKinsey, is a strategic tool for managing and allocating resources effectively across different time frames. This approach helps organizations balance their focus between short-term operations, medium-term growth, and long-term innovation. We can apply the same approach by thinking in terms of different horizons for our skills: Horizon 1: Tactical improvements of what we are doing now. Horizon 2: Exploring and learning new skills that we believe we will be able to apply in the near future. Horizon 3: Exploring further future opportunities. Horizon 1 activities take up most of our time, followed by Horizon 2 activities and then Horizon 3 ones. These activities change over time: some Horizon 2 activities move to Horizon 1, while others disappear. Most Horizon 3 activities disappear as we explore them further, but some progress to Horizon 2 and may eventually reach Horizon 1. And what about Horizon 1 activities? There is a high risk that, over time, these activities may become irrelevant in the new reality. Lucky for us, if we have been disciplined in exploring Horizon 2 and Horizon 3, we might be better prepared for this. Are you planning to stay relevant by balancing your focus across all three horizons? ;)
• #13: The Three Horizons Model, developed by McKinsey, is a strategic tool for managing and allocating resources effectively across different time frames. This approach helps organizations balance their focus between short-term operations, medium-term growth, and long-term innovation. We can apply the same approach by thinking in terms of different horizons for our skills: Horizon 1: Tactical improvements of what we are doing now. Horizon 2: Exploring and learning new skills that we believe we will be able to apply in the near future. Horizon 3: Exploring further future opportunities. Horizon 1 activities take up most of our time, followed by Horizon 2 activities and then Horizon 3 ones. These activities change over time: some Horizon 2 activities move to Horizon 1, while others disappear. Most Horizon 3 activities disappear as we explore them further, but some progress to Horizon 2 and may eventually reach Horizon 1. And what about Horizon 1 activities? There is a high risk that, over time, these activities may become irrelevant in the new reality. Lucky for us, if we have been disciplined in exploring Horizon 2 and Horizon 3, we might be better prepared for this. Are you planning to stay relevant by balancing your focus across all three horizons? ;)
• #17: ”If you put half a dozen flies and the same number of bees in a glass bottle, lie the bottle down horizontally and turn it so that the bottom of the bottle faces the window of the room.” What do you think, who gets out sooner – the bees or the flies? Let’s see what happens next: “The bees struggle for hours to find a way out through the glass bottom before finally dying of exhaustion and hunger, while the flies have escaped to the opposite side through the neck of the bottle in less than two minutes” 🐝 The intelligent bees know very well that the way out and their rescue is there where the light is. So they try this familiar option over and over again, which does not serve them well in this new situation. 🪰 Meantime, the feather-brained flies, careless of logic, perform all kinds of movements in all possible directions, and this strategy works very well here: the flies regain their liberty very fast. And while our brains and logic are not usually that bad things to have, when ideating and innovating, we need to free up ourselves from what we know, from our habitual thinking and iterating through old familiar options – and instead try to go in many different directions, come up with some crazy ideas, build on new ideas on top of them, and finally find some gems (well, with further validating that these are real gems). So, when ideating, let’s be more like flies rather than bees!
• #18: Henry Mintzberg, in his book “Understanding Organizations…Finally!” brings many interesting analogies between organizations and bee hives, showing that we might learn quite a bit from bees in designing and running our organizations. There is an important exception, however. According to an experiment done by Gordon Siu: ”If you put half a dozen flies and the same number of bees in a glass bottle, lie the bottle down horizontally and turn it so that the bottom of the bottle faces the window of the room.” What do you think, who gets out sooner – the bees or the flies? Let’s see what happens next: “The bees struggle for hours to find a way out through the glass bottom before finally dying of exhaustion and hunger, while the flies have escaped to the opposite side through the neck of the bottle in less than two minutes” 🐝 The intelligent bees know very well that the way out and their rescue is there where the light is. So they try this familiar option over and over again, which does not serve them well in this new situation. 🪰 Meantime, the feather-brained flies, careless of logic, perform all kinds of movements in all possible directions, and this strategy works very well here: the flies regain their liberty very fast. And while our brains and logic are not usually that bad things to have, when ideating and innovating, we need to free up ourselves from what we know, from our habitual thinking and iterating through old familiar options – and instead try to go in many different directions, come up with some crazy ideas, build on new ideas on top of them, and finally find some gems (well, with further validating that these are real gems). So, when ideating, let’s be more like flies rather than bees!
• #20: Impact/Effort matrix might be a useful tool for the initial mapping of possible ideas - to solve a problem, innovate, or try a different direction. In addition to the business context, it might also be used for mapping ideas for our personal and professional development. This mapping is still somewhat subjective and might not be that fact-based, but it serves well for getting the initial understanding and throwing away unpromising ideas. There are 4 domains there. → Easy Wins domain- something that will bring us great results without much effort. Probably, this is something that does not happen that often, but still it might be so sometimes. It is very easy to decide what to do with it - do it first! Collect this low-hanging fruit as soon as you can. → Waste domain - a lot of effort, little impact. It is also easy to decide - throw those ideas away and forget about them. → Incremental domain - not much impact, but also easy to implement. So deal with these ideas when you have some extra time, between big tasks, or just when you want to have a change from your current activity for a while. We know that we should not multitask, but sometimes, we want to do something different and new. → Big Bets domain - a lot of effort, but the possible impact is also might be very essential. This domain is a tricky one. This big impact might tempt us, but it is not granted in any way, it is just “possible.” Are we ready to make this big bet? To invest a lot of our time, effort, and money to it without knowing for sure if this investment would bring us the desired outcome. ❓Should I quit my job and start my own business? ❓Should I write a book around this great idea? ❓Should I aim for this certification? ❓Should I invest in ICF education? ❓Should I go for this MBA thingy? ❓Should I change my profession? While we can never be completely sure about the outcome, we still could try to mitigate this uncertainty by running experiments and validating our bets. Big Bets domain is not a territory for Big Bang, a cowboy-style leap of faith, but first of all, for small steps to explore, experiment, validate, and change directions when needed, and only then for making those big attractive bets, and probably more informed ones this time.
• #22: In product development and innovation, we need to validate our hypotheses to ensure that our product ideas are desirable, feasible, and viable. Similarly, when exploring new opportunities for our professional development, we need to validate our ideas about the new skills and competencies we believe we should acquire. ⚒️ Feasibility: 'Can I do this?' Can you learn this within your constraints (time and finances), and is it something you would enjoy doing over the long term? 💰Viability: 'Should I do this?' Is it economically sustainable for you? Are the time and financial investments in learning new skills reasonable compared to the potential benefits? 💗 Desirability: 'Do they want this?' Is this skill currently in demand and is the market for it large enough? We need all the 3 to be on the place. If there are only 2 if your desired skill is only: → Feasible⚒️ for you and Desirable💗 for others but not Viable economically - Won’t Pay For Itself - you can’t make your living out of it. You might like it and become good at it, and others would also appreciate it, but they won’t be willing to pay enough for you. Or the price tag of acquiring this skill is way too high - think of MBA education. → Viable💰 economically and Desirable💗 by others but not Feasible for you - no luck either, you Can’t Deliver. You don’t have time or finances to acquire this skill and become good at it - or maybe this skill is very age-connected - think of the career of a ballet dancer. → Feasible⚒️ and Viable💰 but not Desirable - Not Fit For Market. You can do it, and you might generally get paid for it well - but the market currently does not want it - think about the current market realities and Agile-connected professionals. And our goal is to find that sweet spot in the center. Quite tricky, right? ;)
• #23: There are quite a few ways to validate if our desired skills, education or career moves, that we are willing to invest our time and money in, would be worth it - from perspectives of Feasibility, Desirability and Viability of Product Innovation domain. ⚒️ When validating Feasibility it is important not only to validate that we would be capable to achieve the desired level of the new skill, but also that we would like doing it, that it is something that suits our nature. For this, you can try: → Shadowing - for example, in my adolescent years, I was planning to study medicine to become a doctor. My older sister at this time was a medicine student and I had the luxury opportunity to spend several days and nights with her in the hospital during her practice. This was really eye-opened experience, which made me realize that this profession was not at all for me. → Start practising a new skill as early as possible: for example, IT-field is a very attractive area nowadays, and many people go there without much understanding of what it is about, but just because it is cool and well-paid. However, this type of activity does not suit everybody, and it is worth to start writing code on your own to understand how you feel doing it before making big investments in serious education 💗 With Desirability, the first step might be analyzing the current job market, and reading job ads might be a very useful activity. We can also share our work as early as possible to see if there is an interest, as well as teach others, offering an introductory-level talk or workshop at our workplace or community event - even if we don’t give a starring performance there, we might get a good understanding of the level of interest toward it (and as we know, that teaching is also the best way to learn). If we are lucky, we might find an opportunity to talk to the experts in the field who might be willing to share some insights with us. 💰When validating Viability, we need to understand if our Return On Investment - how much we invest in it versus how much we could get out of it - would be fair enough. It is also worth for example, not only thinking about investments in education and obtaining certification, but also considering the cost of the certification renewal, which might be just ridiculously high in some areas. Of course, we can never be able to get the guarantee that we succeed, but this way, we can decrease our risks sufficiently.
• #26: Don’t wait until you are “ready.” Do it now. → Do this talk → Write this blog post → Conduct this training → Apply to this job position → Start speaking this language 👀 You might fail 👀 You might make mistakes 👀 You might lack confidence 👀 You might feel uncomfortable And: 🌟 You will learn 🌟 You will get feedback 🌟 You will gain the confidence 🌟 You will expand your comfort zone The growth happens through experiencing the discomfort. Embrace discomfort and become invincible!
• #27: “Creatures of Discomfort” is the name of the first chapter of the latest Adam Grant’s book “Hidden Potential.” With the subtitle “Embracing the Unbearable Awkwardness of Learning.” This immediately resonated with me and hooked my attention. Being very curious by nature, I love learning probably more than anything else. I can spend hours and hours doing this. Usually, it is a very pleasant activity for me. Until I start practicing it in real life. And feeling: → Silly → Clumsy → Awkward → Ridiculous → Discomforted In learning languages, I like studying grammar the most. Understanding the logic of the language, sometimes very special. Doing the exercises. A little bit of vocabulary too. Answering a teacher’s questions. But not talking to people. At least until I learn the language to some “decent level”. But the real results come from practicing and going through all this awkwardness. Not from studying theory and doing exercise.
• #28: To learn, we need to practice in real life and make a lot of mistakes. We learn to drive a car by driving a car, to speak a foreign language by speaking the language, to code by writing code, and to speak publicly by actually speaking publicly—not by reading or watching a video about it.  Of course, preparation is very important: learning a theory first, doing grammar exercises and memorizing initial sets of words and phrases of the foreign language, doing a “dry run” before delivering an actual talk.  Still, we usually stay in this preparation phase way too long instead of starting practicing and getting feedback immediately. This feedback often comes from our mistakes. It does not feel comfortable, but it helps us learn very effectively.  → We see where our weak points are  → We see what we are doing wrong → We learn how to correct it → We are getting smarter The real progress in learning happens largely thanks to making mistakes. Embrace this awkwardness of learning in order to grow.
• #29: To learn, we need to practice in real life and make a lot of mistakes. We learn to drive a car by driving a car, to speak a foreign language by speaking the language, to code by writing code, and to speak publicly by actually speaking publicly—not by reading or watching a video about it.  Of course, preparation is very important: learning a theory first, doing grammar exercises and memorizing initial sets of words and phrases of the foreign language, doing a “dry run” before delivering an actual talk.  Still, we usually stay in this preparation phase way too long instead of starting practicing and getting feedback immediately. This feedback often comes from our mistakes. It does not feel comfortable, but it helps us learn very effectively.  → We see where our weak points are  → We see what we are doing wrong → We learn how to correct it → We are getting smarter The real progress in learning happens largely thanks to making mistakes. Embrace this awkwardness of learning in order to grow.
• #30: And actually, making mistakes is a big deal only in our heads ————— “Creatures of Discomfort” is the name of the first chapter of the latest Adam Grant’s book “Hidden Potential.” With the subtitle “Embracing the Unbearable Awkwardness of Learning.” This immediately resonated with me and hooked my attention. Being very curious by nature, I love learning probably more than anything else. I can spend hours and hours doing this. Usually, it is a very pleasant activity for me. Until I start practicing it in real life. And feeling: → Silly → Clumsy → Awkward → Ridiculous → Discomforted In learning languages, I like studying grammar the most. Understanding the logic of the language, sometimes very special. Doing the exercises. A little bit of vocabulary too. Answering a teacher’s questions. But not talking to people. At least until I learn the language to some “decent level”. But the real results come from practicing and going through all this awkwardness. Not from studying theory and doing exercise. Adam Grant, in his book, puts it this way, that while in theory making more mistakes is perceived as: 👀 Looking stupid 👀 Feeling shame 👀 Being laughed at 👀 Experiencing discomfort in reality it is: 💪 Getting smarter 💪 Gaining courage 💪 Laughing at yourself 💪 Expanding your comfort zone P.S. Other things that I learned as an adult through great discomfort and awkwardness: → Skiing → Ice skating → Roller skating → Snowboarding → Public speaking → Trainings conducting → Driving a car and later a motorcycle Some of them I can do quite well now, some are still challenging. But with every new skill I learn, I am really expanding my comfort zone and not afraid anymore looking stupid, feeling shame and being laughed at.
• #33: Many of us are familiar with the 4 stages of the Competence model. 1️⃣ Unconscious incompetence. An easy stage. We are blissfully unaware of our incompetence. We think we can do it if we only want to. ⛷️ If we have never done downhill skiing, the process looks as easy and natural action; we have even seen many little kids doing it so gracefully 2️⃣ Conscious incompetence. Quite an unpleasant stage. We are bad at something and we are aware that we are bad at it. We tried and we did not like the experience. We thought we were able to do it more easily. We might feel frustrated and have a fear of looking incompetent. ⛷️ Even the almost flat slope is able to show us all the problems with our balance and coordination. We feel very clumsy, and that slope suddenly becomes very steep and the speed is totally uncontrollable. Of course, we fall. It sucks! Look, those 3-years old are doing it better than me! Everybody probably laughing at me now. What a shame! 3️⃣ Conscious competence. Things are getting better, but still, our feelings are mixed: ✅ We can perform at the required level ❌ But it takes a lot of effort, which is frustrating The conscious competence phase can be exciting and exhausting at the same time ⛷️ We can go down that slope, but we need to control every movement consciously 4️⃣ Unconscious competence. A really great stage! We are good at something and we don’t even have to think about it because it feels natural. We can do our job without thinking. Our performance is great. ⛷️ We finally truly enjoy going down the slope! … and what comes next? Blissful enjoying of the skill?
• #34: No. Complacency. More often than not, we stop developing a skill when we have achieved a minimally needed threshold of it, where we gain unconscious competence and stop challenging ourselves. How many of us are progressing with our driver skills after several years? Ok, it might be enough for our everyday trips - until we rent a car in a snowy mountain area 👀 Much worse if it happens to our work-related skills. We start doing everything mechanically. It feels easy and natural. We are in our comfort zone. Blissful comfort zone. Or a dreadful one. If we need to improve something, we need to do something differently. Try new skiing techniques. Accustom ourselves to a new tool. Learn new technology. And feel like a novice again. Uncomfortable. Slow. Frustrated by not having results right away. And we seek to avoid those unpleasant feelings. But this is where our unfair advantage might be. When we feel that things have become easy and pleasant, we might enjoy this new state for some time and then still challenge ourselves again - trying new things, embracing discomfort, feeling frustrated - and going to a new level of performance. To new heights. Getting the feeling of achievement again and again as a reward for the initial frustration and other hard feelings. Something that not everybody does.
• #39: Attachment to instant gratification is one of our biggest enemies. Doing what feels pleasant now. TV, social networks, snacks, chocolate, wine. (One of our biggest enemies here is our impatience and desire to get results right away, our need for instant gratification. More often than not, our actions and results are not closely linked in time, and we get discouraged by the lack of results and quit. However, all big outcomes require consistent efforts for a long time — and usually, for a much longer time than we were planning initially.) Or at least doing something that has immediate results. Creating a document, answering a message, or attending a meeting. Something that gives a sense of being productive - or just busy. It feels good. There are also things that we have to do due to external demands (work, family, housekeeping). And there are some other things, those that are so easy to postpone. The things that we have promised ourselves to do, important for our future, but with the results not as evident as the satisfaction from a glass of wine or the feeling of accomplishment because we have been so busy answering those emails. And we don’t have time for these things anyway. Sports. Professional development. Learning languages. Reading. They are difficult, and the results are somewhere far away, like the next beach season, if there are any at all. And the chocolate is right here, now. I fight with it every day. It requires discipline. A lot. Sometimes I fail. I am tired, I am not in the mood, It is not so pleasant, I have other priorities, and the results are not guaranteed at all. But sometimes not. And then, a year (or five) later, I look back and I am surprised how much I have progressed. I learned, my skills developed, my thinking became clearer, I speak a foreign language more fluently, and all of this happened brick by brick, one tick of the box at a time. It feels even better. “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”- William Arthur Ward ———————————- One of our biggest enemies here is our impatience and desire to get results right away, our need for instant gratification. More often than not, our actions and results are not closely linked in time, and we get discouraged by the lack of results and quit. However, all big outcomes require consistent efforts for a long time — and usually, for a much longer time than we were planning initially.
• #40: Is consistency always good? What about if we are consistently doing the wrong things? Probably not? And what is better: inconsistently doing the right things or consistently doing the wrong things? ;) Probably, some small results could be achieved in both cases, but those results will be far away from what we hoped for and dreamed about. So, the first step is understanding, what are the right things to do. And this is tricky. Sometimes we already know it right away - in many cases, people understand exactly what they need to do (but if we only followed our own advice that we are so generously sharing with others! 😉). Sometimes we need to learn and explore first, to understand what are the right things to do. And when we know, to a certain extent, what we have to do, then we just need to go there, day by day, ticking those boxes, way beyond our comfort zone and usual initial lack of discipline. One of our biggest enemies here is our impatience and desire to get results right away, our need for instant gratification. More often than not, our actions and results are not closely linked in time, and we get discouraged by the lack of results and quit. However, all big outcomes require consistent efforts for a long time — and usually, for a much longer time than we were planning initially. So, let’s not quit too soon. But let’s also not forget to correct our course and actions as we learn along the way. As doing consistently wrong things will not get us to our desired destination either.
• #43: Branding is a Value Multiplier. First, you need to create value. Then, you need to do branding. The process is the same in the case of Company Branding and Personal Branding.  Personal Branding is building your reputation, showing yourself as an expert and demonstrating what you are able to do. Personal Branding is not bragging about your achievements. It might work, but short-term only. The best way to showcase your expertise is to offer something useful to others. For example: → Create content on social media, share useful materials on your site, write articles, record videos and podcasts → Conduct training for free → Talk on events The process of building your personal brand will probably take longer than you think. Still, all the small steps build up towards creating your professional reputation. ❗️But remember, branding multiplies the value you are producing.  Your primary focus should be creating value. Not magnifying mediocrity.
• #47: The world changes faster and faster, and we need to change with it, too, to adapt to these new realities and not become obsolete. It is clear that in the future, the speed of change will only increase. This means that most of us will need to pivot our careers throughout our lives, probably even several times. Many of us have already done it at least once, and we need to continue doing it. It implies the necessity of learning new skills, and it might become harder as we age, especially if we are not used to doing it regularly. Looking for the next skill to learn? Think about developing your learning skills. There are special methods for doing it, such as deliberate practice, active learning, using spaced repetition, applying what you learn, cultivating a growth mindset, embracing failure, making mistakes, and others. Yet, the best way to do it is just to learn something new all the time. The more you learn, the more natural it becomes. You train the learning muscle itself and develop your clear thinking abilities. And it is just really great to learn. Pure fun. Which also helps us stay relevant.
• #48: Don’t wait to start exploring new opportunities until the situation with your Exploit portfolio becomes really bad. Both companies and individuals need to keep a good balance between their Exploit and Explore portfolios, deliberately and all the time. We tend to become less active and lose our sense of urgency when we are in a good, stable situation. It is easy to grow over-confident about our future, assuming that circumstances will always remain favorable to us. And when the situation changes, suddenly or slowly over time, while we have been overlooking the signs of upcoming change, we are not prepared at all for it. And what is worse, we also might have lost our abilities to learn, innovate and adapt, which is also a separate skill set by itself. The more we perform exploring activities, the more skilful we become in them. Again, it is true both for companies and individuals. How many famous companies lost their competitive advantage or even went bankrupt due to becoming too complacent and overlooking the current trends? General Motors, Kodak, BlackBerry, Nokia, the list goes on… Let's not become a part of this list. Let’s start exploring already today.