Reading Time: < 1 minJames Clear’s best-selling book “Atomic Habits” is surprisingly simple, but very powerful. He explains how habits are formed, and techniques for changing them to what you want them to be. I recently heard James on the Typology podcast, where he dropped another very simple yet powerful line: “Your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver […]
Encouragement
Talent vs Grit
Reading Time: 2 minIn a recent episode of Maya Shankar’s podcast, she had an episode titled The Science of Grit., where guest Angela Duckworth defined grit as “a power combo of passion and perseverance”. The crux of the episode was about the difference between “grit” and “talent”, not unlike the comparison I made with “talent” and “skill” in […]
What can you control?
Reading Time: < 1 minJust over a year ago, I shared the thoughts of Annie Duke and how good decisions can have bad outcomes. You might make the right choice, but things can still go sideways due to circumstances beyond your control. David C. Baker recently talked a bit about that when referring to agency principals: Your success as […]
To create better, create more
Reading Time: < 1 minIf you list some of the greatest composers of all time, people like Mozart and Bach are likely near the top. If you list some of the most prolific composers of all time, they’re also near the top of that list. Bach wrote over 1100 pieces, and Mozart (despite only living to age 35) wrote […]
Consistently good versus intermittently excellent
Reading Time: 2 minLeBron James is considered one of the best basketball players of all time, but it isn’t necessarily because of his top-end skill. When he’s playing great he’s certainly amazing, but it’s what he’s been able to put on the court consistently for years that has made him a Hall of Fame-level player. Not only is […]
Page Experience is becoming more important to Google
Reading Time: 2 minFor the past few years, Google’s “page experience” update has essentially been used as a tie-breaker. If you have features such as HTTPS on your site (which you should), or your site loads quickly (as it should), those weren’t huge ranking boosts. In fact, Google confirmed back in 2015 that HTTPS was essentially just a […]
Luck isn’t a matter of chance
Reading Time: < 1 minIn the book “How Luck Happens“, the authors make a clear distinction between “luck” and “chance”. Chance is out of our control. Good things happen and bad things happen, and we just need to see where things fall. Luck is a combination of three things: That means that luck still has an element of chance […]
Don’t lie to get the project
Reading Time: < 1 minSeth Godin recently published a blog post that ended with two great mottos: “You’ll pay a lot, but you’ll get more than you paid for.” “Our secret is that we don’t lie to get the project.” I agree wholeheartedly with both of those, though the second one is a little tricky. Back in 2016, a […]
You’re most likely a time billionaire right now
Reading Time: < 1 minIt can be hard to understand the difference between a million and a billion, but I’ve heard it said this way: A million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. In terms of how much time you have left on earth, even if you’re 50 years old there is a good chance […]
It’s about execution
Reading Time: < 1 minLast month I shared the very short story of the rabbit and the beaver at the Hoover Dam, and a video I recently watched from Gary Vaynerchuk brought up a similar idea. If you’ve follow Gary much over the past decade, he has a pretty simple philosophy — give it all away. He shares every […]