How often do you change your mind? I don’t know of anybody who keeps a journal of the amount of times they change their mind during the day, week, month or year. Changing our mind isn’t something we deliberately aim to do, but it’s necessary for our growth as people. As Adam Grant, author of Originals, says in his book Think Again: changing your mind does not mean you’ve abandoned your principles. It means you’ve evolved.
What is one skill you think everyone should learn? Have a seen a version of this question going around Twitter for the last few weeks. The question is subjective, and so is the answer anyone gives, because it’s not very specific. For what purpose? To accomplish what? In what context? For ones whole life? You get the idea…
Many of the most impactful individuals, both contemporary and historical, have been generalists: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Richard Feynman, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Marie Curie to name just a few. You would think that schoold and organizations would do more ot “attract and value” Generalists; but they don’t!
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is a titan entrepreneur. Many books, articles, blog posts have been written by people about how Amazon works, but Jeff Bezos has written his own take on it: Shareholder letters that give a unique insight into how Amazon operates.
I was recently reminded of a founder I coached about 7 years ago. Back then he had developed a climate change solution which eventually failed for various reasons; I wasn’t all surprised when his venture failed. I remembered him while on a recent trip in Cozumel Mexico, where I saw a solution that mimicked his being implemented.
The organizations that no longer exist are the ones that failed because they missed the future. Why did they miss the future? Because they were late to the party or got disrupted by an upstart. They never led, thus got disrupted. Ironically , organizations that fail operate with a fear of failure. Internally, it’s this mindset that kills any chance at disrupting themselves!
As we close 2021, I want to publish a short post on leadership and innovation. Innovation is another code word for leadership. Innovation doesn’t happen on its own, and it’s not a one person show, but a team game. But there is a spark that’s needed to get started, and that spark starts with a person who wants to change things for the better, imagines a better world; someone who thinks and acts differently.
