Finding The Gap
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What's that even supposed to mean: soft skills? Next-level thought leadershit? As you can feel, I have an itch with the term "soft skills". What's "soft" about... leadership? communication? empathy? honesty? trust? Is it soft because you can't measure it? Just as you can't measure love, right? So love is soft. Makes you soft. And, as soft, it can be disposable. Or is it?
To be a "thought leader", they say you need to be authentic, original and come up with new, innovative, disruptive ideas that no one has ever said before. That you can't repeat yourself. Buillshit. It's fine to repeat yourself. In fact, do that. Like in music, add some new riffs, new instruments, new versions, new interpretations. Say the same thing, in as many ways as you can. You'll find new angles, new holes to fill, new spaces to leave, new ways to see. Just like a song and its own...
Are you saving your BIG IDEA for when you have the big audience and everyone is waiting for what you have to say? You're not alone. This fear hits us all the time. You think that you'll "save" your big idea for when you're famous / recognized and don't want to "spend" it early in your journey. But what if you're not spending your best ideas? What if you're refining them, live, with an audience? Think of it like a song you just wrote. It sounds good in your head, but unless someone else...
And more is more —no shit, Sherlock. 🕵️♀️ You've been taught that "less is more", as in the belief that simplicity and clarity will always mean more, by taking off what's not necessary. However, what if it's not less, but actually more? "More is more" by Monotype. To make it "less" cluttered, cleaner, clearer, complex, you need more. More thoughtful, more experienced, more nuanced, more focused on the other side: your customer. More "others-focused". And less will be less brain work for your...
There are 2 dangerous things in a world of fit-ins (besides being standard/average/best-practice): → Fit in Imagine this: you’re a square and have to mold yourself to fit in a circle shape, because everyone else is a circle. In the end, you’re still a square, only now hiding your edge. → Blend in Picture yourself as a color. You’re a color (choose your fave one) and get into a blender with other colors. You get blended in dissolving and dissipating your hue and intensity. You get an average...
Fit in. Fit with. Fit. You're supposed to find a product-market fit, a customer-product fit, a product-channel fit (omnichannel, right?), so that your business thrives. Which means you need to look like the others —or VERY similar at least. And becoming something like the others turns your offering into average. That's why it fits. Now think of this: if you're supposed to fit in (your market, customers', channels), how are you supposed to stand out?
They're both about leading, and it will... frustrate you. stretch you. for sure scare the shit out of you. When you go diving, you go see what's below the surface. When you go in business, to best help your customers, you go below the surface. Business feels like diving because it involves the unknown. It involves risk. And it involves facing your fears. Dealing with the unknown → How to be prepared on different (and sometimes unexpected) scenarios. Involves risks → How real, realistic and...
Understanding. Yeah, that simple. Understanding of principles, of the conditions, of the stakes themselves. Diving is a different kind of fun (from snorkeling), you can explore for longer what's underwater. Even prepare to study things in their own environment. And understanding comes from getting prepared, do the thing and increase the level of difficulty / complexity. You need trained skills to get oriented. To look for different landmarks: the coral reef, a slope, the boat's shadow, the...
To go below the surface, you need special gear —more than just a snorkel and fins. And the stakes also get higher. What do you think it takes to see under?
For snorkeling, you: don't need quite a lot of equipment: usually just a snorkel, a vest to float and fins. stay on the surface, need lots of sun protection, the risk on it is VERY minimal. have fun, yet, you can't really explore for longer then what your lungs can hold to see below (a starfish, an angel fish, coral...) have a simpler sense of orientation: you stick your face off the water and figure out where you are. On the other side, you also experience more resistance: sun, wind,...