belief
106 posts
Raising The Bar
When I was a teenager, I joined the local athletic club. I’d never been much of a runner, but since I went to an all-girls school, the draw of the athletic club where boys hung out was abundantly clear. It was time to dust off my running shoes. The worst thing about contemplating long-distance runni
The Bounds Of Possibility
Now that we are no longer bound by the constraints of probability, we must face the fact that we have a responsibility to own what’s possible. Opportunity abounds.
Proud Work
When I was growing up, work was a means to an end for many of the breadwinners in our neighbourhood. Work meant food in the bellies and clothes on the backs of the people you loved. There is both dignity and joy in providing, especially when you’ve gone hungry and shoeless, as my father often…
The Assumptions Checklist
Our decisions are rarely based on objective information. And even when we do have ‘good data’, it’s coloured by why, who and how it’s collected. Often our decisions are based on assumptions. We accept something as true, without proof. We make many of these assumptions with a scarcity mindset. We kil
Be Ambitious
In our culture ambition is both celebrated and frowned upon—not always in equal measure. Ambition is encouraged and rewarded, but only to a point. Perhaps it’s not ambition itself that’s the problem, but rather, our narrow definition of it? We aspire mostly to the ambition of accumulation. We want t
Who Loves Your Work?
Who loves what you do? Who tells their friends? Who waits in line? Who buys the lot? Who can you help? Who makes you care? Who has the problem you can solve? Who is your muse, your right customer, your reason? When you know, you’ll be one step closer to doing your best work. Image…
Lucky By Design
The cathedral was packed. More than a thousand people arrived on a warm Tuesday morning to attend cafe owner, Sisto Malaspina’s funeral. Many more stood outside—others watched the service at home on their laptops or giant screens in Melbourne’s Federation Square. We were there, not to mourn Sisto’s
One Of The Few
Few organisations look past the data to see the humanity of the client behind the numbers. Few companies act as if it’s a privilege to serve their customers. Few people take time to listen twice as much as they speak. Few products are made with love. In a world where we are doing our best…
The Best Fit
Sometimes we take on projects or clients that are a bad fit. Work that doesn’t energise us or customers that don’t value us. It’s hard to pay attention to the reasons why things aren’t working out when you’re knee-deep in the situation. But it’s important to try. We discover how we work best by payi
Another Time
During a high-intensity workout, the trainer reminds the athlete to treat every set as if it were the last. To train as if this was the only sixty seconds, he would cycle that day. In that moment, with that mindset he increases his effort, his performance intensifies and that changes his results. We
To Do Or Not To Do
We wake every day with solid ideas and imperfect plans. And yet every day we stall. We blame time. We await readiness or motivation, or both. We rationalise about tomorrow being better. We make assumptions about what it takes to be good enough. We allow doubt and uncertainty to take hold. We wait. F
Profit And…
My mother started working over sixty years ago. As the tenth child of a widow, with nothing more than a basic education she had very few choices. She could be a seamstress or a replaceable cog on the assembly line at one of any number of factories. Sadly the factory jobs won because those jobs…
How Are You Measuring Your Lead?
As a society, we have become obsessed with getting and staying ahead. We have become addicted to winning, and thus to comparing ourselves to others—not just in business, but in life too. But being ahead, either materially or psychologically is a slippery slope to a mindset of never enough. A culture
Pedestals
Whoever said you should never meet your heroes was only partly right. There is an element of truth in the adage. Reality can rarely compete with the imaginary. Fleeting, real encounters are flat—two dimensional at best. The imagined meeting is all deep connection and unspoken understanding on both s
You Don’t Need To Compete When You Know Who You Are
Before globalisation, marketing, hair straighteners and the bullworker, our tribal ancestors and village businesses stood out by excelling at their craft. They became known for doing the thing other people in the village couldn’t or wouldn’t do. They were beloved for the way they went about their wo
Perfect Ten
When we think of our work or products and services, we imagine the perfect ten version of them. The days without a wrinkle, when we are in the zone, and everything is running like clockwork. Striving for ten while knowing it’s rarely achievable is not easy. The ability to live that paradox is how we
The Art Of Making Progress
If only your business had more media exposure. If only you could get the materials cheaper. If only all the reviews were positive. If only the website had more traffic. If only your colleagues responded. If only every employee listened. If only more browsers bought. We spend a lot of time thinking a
Mean It Like You Say It
The Sunday ice-cream scooper at the gelato place on Spring Street makes new customers sample every flavour before they buy anything. She knows her gelato inside and out. Her enthusiasm is infectious. She reels off the most popular flavours and tells stories about how pistachio lovers always return t
Don’t Be Afraid To Start Small
On a rainy Monday early in December 1955, 40,000 African-Americans boycotted the public bus services in the town of Montgomery to protest the arrest of 42-year-old Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Their boycott lasted 381 days until the city repealed its law requiring
The Secret To Being Exceptional
You might remember when you were a high school student (as I do) trying to work out a revision system that helped you to maximise your chances of academic success. I never had much luck. Teachers held up model students as examples of how ‘hard work’ paid off. Straight-A students it seemed were the o
