“Never be afraid of failure. Just learn from it. When you’re young you have even less to lose.”
Tag Archives: Advice
Does Your World Smell Good?
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Does the world smell good? I’ll tell you, I had never considered the question so it’s ok for you say… ‘huh’? This question comes from a conversation I had over dinner with my godson and it really did make sense after I listened to him. I have smiled inside ever since I heard him explain that the world smells good. Stay with me on this one.
I learned over dinner that in Joseph’s mind everything in the world smells good. At least, everything in the world should smell good. He explained his logic to me. “Trees smell good,” Uncle David. “So does candy. And baguettes.” Not bread mind you… baguettes. That one made me laugh.
I asked him what happens when there is a bad smell that encroaches on his nice smelling world. I figured that question would leave him stumped. Wrong. He told me that bad smells make him want to scrunch up his nose and stop the smell. Sounds logical, right?
photo by:
superhua
Will Your Year Be A Fireworks Show?
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Reading some of my earlier posts it may seem that the words pour out after the title is written. Let me assure you that I struggle with both the blog post idea and the writing to support the idea. That may be what is supposed to happen. The reality is that I am as familiar with the ‘delete’ key during the writing of a paragraph on my Mac as I am with the ‘return’ key once the paragraph is complete. They say that writing is a ‘process’. I think this may be writer speak for a real struggle. It takes time. It takes work. It is not an overnight success. So, my post today. Will your year be a firework show?
A January 1 ‘any year’ post by a blogger may be the most difficult to write. What do I have to say that may not have already been said? What can I write that may be of a level that would be worthy of a read in a noisy world? Could I write something that was relevant and new?
What Does It Mean To Be A Leader?
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Now, before you think that this blog post will be a self-absorbed piece on leaders and leadership let me first change the context of this question with the addition of just one word. Dad. What does it mean to be a leader, dad? That was the question my son Ryan threw out to me the other morning on the drive to school after I casually asked what he would like me to write a post on. I must admit it has had me stumped. Why?
I am the last to toot my horn about my leadership ability. I do what I do for my businesses and civic involvement. Over the years some amount of success brands you as a ‘leader’. But are you really a leader? Am I? I honestly did not know what to write as an answer to this seemingly innocuous question posed by my son. One thing I knew for certain, though, is that he did not want a recital of the standard dictionary definition such as “a person who rules, guides, or inspires others; head“, as seen in the Collins English Dictionary.
The way I wanted to answer my son came to me as I listened to an interview with Spotify founder Daniel Ek. I thought his comments got to the heart of what it meant to be ‘a leader’, and more to the point, an ‘entrepreneurial leader’. In his interview Daniel said “when you look at the world there are so many great things out there, but there are also so many things that you can do a tad better”. Hearing that I had my ‘ah-ha’ moment. Working in the real definition I came up with the answer to the question.
photo by:
law_keven
Can You Hear Me Now?
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Communication is something many of us struggle with. We are born with no real ability to communicate. Over time we learn the skills. Unfortunately, while we learn how to communicate we then rapidly learn to keep things inside, to keep things bottled up. We learn this for many reasons. None of us really want to embarrass someone by what we say, we may hold back to position ourselves to gain from information we have, or we may not want to lose someone close to us which may be the result if we say what we really want to. While having a filter on our conversation is good, it can lead to unintended challenges. Can you hear me now?
We really over complicate things for ourselves by not being more of a student of our own behaviour. I probably went at least the first 10 years in my marriage before I realized that my wife, when we had an issue that was elevated to a serious (read heated) discussion was not looking for what I was giving back verbally. To expand on this, I came to realize that listening to the issue, then outlining my solutions to make the situation better or prevent it from happening again in the future, was actually not what she was really looking for, at least not at that moment in time. Sure, this information will be useful at some later point in the conversation, but the typical “type A personality – leader – guy – husband – dad” five point outline of how to fix the situation was actually, and quite counterintuitively for a guy, not what she wanted or needed right at that moment. She wanted to be heard. She wanted to be listened to and understood. She wanted to know that I really ‘got it‘.