If your strategy includes the expectation that other people will change, you have failed before even starting.
Author Archives: stevegm
What mental model is shaping your problem-solving?
What mental model do you use to tackle problems? When I approach a challenging decision or situation, I analyze it first from a – if this, then that – “legalistic” (perhaps overly so) framework. I don’t do this by choice. It results from the logic-based instruction that is law school, and which played such an …
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Introspection
Whether it is relationships, business, or life itself, it seems to me that the most important characteristic leading to success is introspection. Introspection in·tro·spec·tion/ˌintrəˈspekSH(ə)n/ noun The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes. Based on my experiences, all enlightenment stems from introspection.
Don’t ignore the elephant for the ant
What are you focused on? Is it the symptom or the problem? Do you have your eye on the part that you understand? Or the whole challenge? It’s easy to focus on your strengths, and aspects of a challenging situation that you understand. But the solution often lies in the areas you don’t understand. The …
Hope isn’t a plan
Hope isn’t a plan.
Who is making the decisions?
Who is making the decisions? One of two people, always. Either the person with the expertise. Or the person with the money. If you can’t be one of those, your just holding down the carpet. Figure out how to be the smartest person in the room on the topic at hand, or count beans.
Lining up ducks
John: We’re ready to make an offer. Elizabeth: I’m sorry. My client already sold the manuscript. John: I thought we were the number one choice. Elizabeth: You were. John: I thought they were excited to work with us. Elizabeth: They were. John: Then why did they sell to our competitor? We just needed a little …
What does free information do to our economic system, over time?
Scarcity is at the cornerstone of our economic system. Supply and demand. All that great stuff we learned in economics class. Yet, information is the “product” of the 21st century. And the free distribution of information is the heartbeat of the internet. In fact, reducing scarcity is at the core of technology in general. Consider …
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Capacity to absorb
Fill up a sponge and it is nearly impossible to get it to absorb more. It is full. Take care of the surprises you can predict, so you can absorb those you don’t see coming. Everybody has a limit. There is only so much we can deal with at once. At any given point in …
Only one thing sets you apart
If you can’t be you, you can’t be real. And being the real you is the unique thing you have to offer this world. Technology reduces what was once valued highly to a commodity. But, the one thing that will always be unique is – you. What is uniquely you? Invest in that.