Project Exponential

Process

A dinner party could change everything.

  • The perfect moment

    I don’t have time.

    I don’t have the resources.

    He’s just lucky. 

    Next quarter will be lighter.

    After this meeting.

    I need the right partner.

    The market isn’t right.

    I’m not finished.

    She manipulated the situation.

    It could be better.

    —-

    We paralyze ourselves. With excuses. Lots of them. But mostly, it’s fear.

    Whether it’s finishing a project or starting something new, our fears manifest in all sorts of forms and reasons why we shouldn’t, can’t, are unable to.

    The right moment may never happen. Stop waiting for it to come around and look to create it for yourself. Learn to deal with “good enough.”

    While you’re making excuses, others are figuring out how to make it work.

  • The $12,392,786.00 blog post

    I have had the good fortune of meeting, counseling, and sitting in business seminars with intelligent, driven, successful individuals — and they just want to become better. Industries range from music to publishing, finance to social good, art to real estate. Age, life experience, and stage of life vary; students, fathers, midlife, C-level, nearing retirement, starting up.

    Despite a plethora of variables, I’ve noticed a few themes that come up again and again. In fact, they repeat themselves so frequently I wish I could bottle them for distribution, sending them around the world to inspire people to do more and dream big.

    I’m sharing them here in hopes they resonate with you.

    Why $12,392,786.00? Because I believe if you act, the following nuggets will add value to your work and life. And if you’re really diligent, you’ll see benefits worth even more.

    ———

    We get in our own way. Believe it, accept it, move forward.

    Be willing to listen — to the point someone could convince you to throw your idea out the window or drastically change it.

    Don’t wait. Do it now.

    No one is going to give you permission.

    You have a choice. Don’t be seduced into thinking otherwise.

    Relationships are important. The “unexpected ones” often prove to be the most valuable.

    Milk the in-between spaces. In-between jobs, appointments, calls, relationships, events, ideas. They hold more potential than you think.

    There are an infinite choices. Pick one. If it fails, there will be another.

    No decision is irreversible.

    Question. Ask lots of them.

    Who (or what) can you connect? Everyone can bridge two people, two ideas, two companies. And it will multiply.

    Stop trying to sell to people you don’t know. Start with the people you do.

    Be vulnerable. Connect, reach out. People cherish authenticity.

    What are you really saying? Get honest with yourself and with your audience. Cut the crap and get real.

    Don’t assume. You never know whose talents can help you and how.

    Set dates otherwise you’ll never get it done.

    Pick up that pen, make that call, stop waiting to begin.

    There is no perfect.

  • Are you the first to the party?

    Most people are afraid to arrive early. They stall around and carefully consider the appropriate time to enter the room. Arriving before others places you in the category of looking too eager, bland, idle. And think of all that empty space you have to fill before other guests arrive—silence! awkwardness! preparation! look busy! smile!

    Yet these in-between moments are when great relationships are formed. The moments before the talk begins, the hours after the conference has ended, the off-campus lunch break.

    Show up early and offer help. You’ll be thanked, you’ll be the first to meet attendees, and you’ll establish familiarity with your surroundings before the rest show up.

  • How do you see risk?

    Everyone experiences risk. No one is immune to the anxiety that comes with it.

    The difference between the daring and the successful is that they’ve learned to cope with it.

    Questions to ask:

    How can I minimize my anxieties surrounding this?

    Can I make myself feel better about this decision?

    The more you dive, the more you’ll enter the water in a way that doesn’t hurt, and the board won’t seem quite as high…

    Jump.

  • Predict your own trend.

    We’re bombarded. With people, connections, business cards. Social media has connected us in ways we’ve never experienced before.

    But is it more meaningful? Valuable?

    Consider how it has changed your own relationships and experiences.

    Now that so much of our lives are recorded and documented online, how necessary is it to cultivate experiences sans media and technology?

    How do you cut through all of the noise to find what’s most valuable to you… as a consumer, individual, professional?

    Do you take advantage of the interplay of industries, reaching out to connect with others who might contribute to better work and better ideas?

  • We’re all blind.

    We’re all some kind of blind. We can’t help it.

    We were raised seeing the world a certain way, adopting particular values, learning how to interpret our immediate surroundings.

    What’s challenging to you may be quite interesting to the woman sitting across the boardroom, and she knows a great solution. Your client’s problem may be an easy fix in your world; to him, an impossible task.

    Are you willing to accept alternative views? Could you help another see more clearly?

    What’s stopping you from sharing what you know?