And Motivation Archives

Leadership Behaviors

Published in Business on January 8, 2019

I have been given a lot of thought to Leadership lately. I have been placing special emphasis on the things I personally look for in Leaders. It doesn’t matter if it’s someone I report to, or someone that reports to me. Coincidently, my biggest observations about leadership in corporate America is that we too often align leadership with an individuals position, and as those in those positions we rely too heavily on that assigned leadership. We get lazy.

Leadership is servitude, and we’re here for our teams, not ourselves.

Don’t Allow Yesterday’s Failures Stop You From Getting to Tomorrow

Published in Business on September 21, 2018

When you’re building or leading your team, it’s easy to be crippled by the myriad of decisions, and indecisions, you’re faced with on a daily basis. It’s easy to be dissuaded from something you know can be done, but when measured against your own rational thought seems improbable.

We spend a great amount of time focusing on the external obstacles, when in reality – the only obstacle that keeps us from achieving something great is ourself. – @perezbox

Ask yourself, in this scenario, which one are you?

A. Look at past failures and tell yourself, “we can never do X because we have failed at A, B, or C.”

B. Look at past failures and tell yourself, “we can do X because we have failed at A, B, or C.”

I chose to be B, intentionally. How about you?

I intentionally say “I choose” because it’s an active choice, my rationale mind by default moves me to be A.

The rationale mind tells me that the odds are against you. The math doesn’t make sense. The opportunity is wrapped in intangible benefits, and no explicitly attribution to a tangible metric. My irrational heart, tells me – but imagine if you can!

Failing doesn’t scare me, not trying does.

Whether you’re building, or leading, a company, product, platform or team, the same principle applies.

Don’t stop dreaming!

Don’t fear failure. Embrace Your Scars.

Published in Life on November 4, 2017

I was recently asked what I would tell myself if I could go back ten years. Why are the simplest questions, the most difficult to answer?

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to answer. Everything I thought of felt shallow; as if it was either not impactful enough, or it’d be forecasting events. Neither were things that someone could take with them on their journey.

As I reflected on my past, I realized a common theme – I have made a lot of stupid decisions, I have failed a lot. Personally, professional, physically and everything else in between. I realized I have a certain disregard for failure, embracing the scars etched in me from those experiences.

If asked today, I would say: Don’t fear failure. Embrace your scars.

Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.

Some people see me and think, “That dude is successful,” others look and say “Damn, that dude is a tool” but that’s a conversation for another day. For those that perceive success, what they don’t see are the multiple battles experienced, and the impacts they’ve had – the scars they’ve left on me emotionally, physically, mentally. They don’t realize that the success they see has very little to do with being smart or proper planning, but a shit load of luck and a high-degree of stubbornness not to allow failures consume me.

The successes are nothing more than result of multiple failures, each building on the other.

Thankfully the more you fail, the better you get at it. I can’t quite articulate why that is, but you grow a certain aptitude for assessing situations and coincidently making better decisions. Like most things though, it’s a learned skill. It’s ironic, to get better at not failing you have to fail more.

The key is not the act of failing, but recognizing the failure quickly and adjusting accordingly. Your scars are for you alone to own, they will be the foundation from which you will be built on tomorrow. Wear your scars with pride.

CaboPress – A Business MasterMind (I Think)

Published in Business on October 21, 2017

For the past three years Chris Lema has invited me to join him at his event – CaboPress. For three years I have declined the request.

I declined previously for two reasons:

Didn’t think I had much to offer,
Afraid of the impressions hanging out on a resort in Mexico would have on my team.

What I failed to realize however is that it wasn’t about what I could offer, but the impacts it would have on me as an individual, and more importantly the renewed insights I could bring back to the team. In short, like many of the decisions in my life, I was an idiot.

This year, with the beginning of a new chapter in my life I said yes. As I sit here and reflect on that decision, I feel strongly it was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time.

Thinking About Competitors

Published in Business on December 25, 2015

When you think about your competition, how do you account for it? Do you stress over them? Do you find yourself constantly looking at what they are doing? Maybe comparing yourself to them?

I know I did, and sometimes still do. Every move felt like it would change the game for us.

It rarely did! It rarely does!