For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.
In today’s email:
We need to stop
Share the good
Procrastination my old friend
Asymmetry
Andy Grove’s career wisdom
ON YOUR CAREER
We need to stop
Most of us are doing a lot of positive things in our careers. And there’s the other stuff — the behaviors that limit our success. These could include talking over others, not looking after our health, or being disorganized.
Stopping a negative behavior quickly adds value to us. It adds value much faster than the time taken to develop a new skill. And we don’t need anyone’s permission to stop.
Your career is your business, and you are its CEO.
COMMUNICATION
Share the good
Matisse’s The Sheaf
There are always events in the world that could distress us.
There are also many wonderful events that could delight us.
We have a choice.
Are we going to spend our time with colleagues and clients focused on doom, or on something positive?
We feel better and they feel better when we share the good.
There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
PRODUCTIVITY
Procrastination my old friend
To be human is to procrastinate. Here are 4 actions to help overcome it:
Do the most enjoyable part of a task first: e.g. watching YouTubes of what customers dislike about your competitor’s product
Set a tiny goal: e.g. spending 3 minutes brainstorming the order of tasks you will perform
Have an accountability partner: e.g. ‘Sarah, I’m buying you lunch today if I haven’t made 5 sales calls in the next hour’
Pursue useful standards: ‘e.g. good enough’ or ‘excellent ‘ rather than the diminishing returns of ‘perfect’
Overcoming procrastination is about gaining and keeping momentum. Action begets action.
You may delay, but time will not.
1 MINUTE TO HAPPINESS
Asymmetry
My sporting team lost a final yesterday. I worked for the team as a teenager and love its history. I caught a flight to watch the game and sat beside my son and daughter.
Most years, my team won’t finish first. I don’t want to experience lingering unhappiness over something which I’ve no control.
So I have an asymmetrical response. I enjoy my team’s victories and participate in social media and watch post-game shows. When they lose, I focus on other things.
I try to have a similar approach in my work. Win a new client, savor the victory. Lose on a pitch, focus on the next one.
This asymmetrical approach makes me happier.
Without question, I’m a ‘glass half full’ person. In fact, it’s three-quarters full!
CAREER WISDOM
Andy Grove
Andy Grove (1936 — 2016) was born in Budapest, Hungary. He survived both Nazi occupation and Soviet repression before emigrating to the United States in 1956. Grove earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from City College NY (1960) and a PhD in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley (1963).
Grove co-founded Intel, serving as its CEO and Chairman across 18 years. He helped drive the microprocessor revolution that reshaped computing. Grove’s book, Only the Paranoid Survive, became a business classic. His legacy is one of innovation and resilience. Some of Grove’s career wisdom:
The sad news is, nobody owes you a career. Your career is literally your business. You own it as a sole proprietor. You have one employee: yourself.
Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.
Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say ‘yes' to one thing you are inevitably saying ‘no' to another.