Tag Archives: success

being good helps, but it’s not a prerequisite

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along the road to success you’ll see tons of good ideas that never panned out. great ideas—revolutionary ideas—which never see the light of day. crumbled pieces of paper, the back of en envelope, torn-up napkins all filled with tomorrow’s next big thing that never was.

and yet how often does it happen, we’re sitting on our couch, listening to the radio, or reading a book and think, “how in the world did i not think of that?” we see hundreds of examples of seemingly worthless products, overly produced songs, and such basic ideas that we can’t believe it ever was successful.

how? because the simple truth is this: good does not equal success. it’s impossible to predict which ideas will win and which ideas won’t because there are so many factors at play. being good helps, but it’s not a prerequisite.

if you keep waiting around for the right idea to come, or a good time to start that business, or the market to swing back to the center you may be waiting a long time. better to take a chance and boldly go. as they say, you gotta be in it to win it.

size matters

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when it comes to organizational design, size matters. it sets the table for how your organization acts—what kind of culture you have—and what type of work you conduct. you have to decide what you’re after: more frequent, yet smaller meals; or bigger meals spread further apart.

to be successful, a small organization needs to specialize in something—one thing in particular above all else—and perform really fantastic work when it comes to that one thing. you can’t spread your resources too thin in a small organization because you just don’t have that much to distribute. the resources you do have must be very smart, very talented, and very motivated around your core mission. because of this, you should be paying those people with the talent and ambition to force success on your organization better than most others would pay. they are your bread and butter and you cannot succeed without them, and the name of the game is success. the work itself is often smaller and more transactional than enduring. yet due to the unique output from your highly talented resources, however, it’s possible to charge more for your products and services.

on the other hand, large organizations need work that is both larger in scope and has a longer duration. you have many resources that need to be paid and stability is paramount—”job security or job satisfaction” as they say. the nature of your large scale work is generally far less innovative or ‘start-up’ minded and more focused on sustainment and improvement which requires a different breed of employee. your resources are butt-in-seat personnel paid to do a specific task for some specified (or unspecified) amount of time. these personnel demand far less in terms of compensation because they are interchangeable parts—more trained in breadth of knowledge rather than in depth—which can easily be replaced.

every organization needs to make this decision, large or small? the worst part is when organizations find themselves caught in the middle: the culture is too small making it impossible to compete in the market with larger, cheaper organizations, but the organization is too large to maintain that smaller culture and still make a profit.

so which one will it be? large or small?

consistency is king

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talent is valuable. but talent also cheapened if you don’t back it up with consistency. to say that you’ve done something impressive is great, but to say that you can consistently produce impressive results is rather extraordinary. it will set you apart from all the rest.

too often we try augmenting our talents before we nail down the consistency part. instead of trying to operate at a higher level, try consistently operating at your current level first. when you do, you’ll know that you’re finally ready to make the jump.

and along the way you’ll start to build a reputation—one that says you can get the job done. every time.

don’t give them an excuse

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bill mccreary image from nhl.com

some nights in hockey — especially if your team has a reputation — referees will blow the whistle a little more than usual. it just happens that other games are merely called tight with little room to interpret the rules. whatever the cause, you never want to have your players cutting ruts to the penalty box.

on the bench during those kinds of games, there’s a common saying that gets passed around among coaches and players: “don’t give them an excuse to put you in the box.” it’s a simple message. even if what would normally not be called an infraction earns you a 2 minute trip to the sin bin, as a player you have to be smarter than that and adapt. you can’t give the referees any excuse to call you for it. keep the sticks down, keep both hands on your stick, and watch the play along the boards.

business can be much the same with clients instead of referees. some might love everything you develop for them or the kinds of services you provide, but others may be insatiable still and find flaws with anything you bring to bear. if you know you’re dealing with the latter, follow the same simple rule: don’t give them an excuse.

don’t give your clients a reason to question the validity of your statements; be sure to practice each and every one of your presentations and always perform the proper amount of due diligence in defining answers to their questions.

don’t give your clients a reason to believe that your products are broken; test, retest, and test some more until you’re absolutely certain that your products or services are programmed properly, or mathematically sound, or have multiple research studies to support them.

don’t give your clients a reason to feel like they can go elsewhere and get the same service; go out of your way to prove your organization’s commitment to them by answering their phone calls promptly, replying to their emails the same day, and generally making them feel like you give a damn about them as customers.

if you’re dealing with a difficult client, don’t complain if they’re bitchy or a hard-ass or they’re calling bad penalties. just don’t give them an excuse to call one in the first place.

leadership in the innovation age

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image by ortizmj12, flickr artist

one of the higher-ranking members at booz allen has an internal blog titled, “lead, or get out of the way!”

i certainly appreciate his willingness to to pass on the knowledge that he has learned over his distinguished career — and in such a contemporary form — but i have to say that i think it’s wrong.

at least in the innovation age it is.

i’d like to change my colleague’s statement to become “lead, then get out of the way!” and here’s why…

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don’t shy away from risk. roll around in it.

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i was recently listening to a podcast on itunes u called the design thinking: a new type of leadership. the speaker for the event is a man by the name of banny banerjee, an associate professor at stanford’s institute of design (or d.school). in his talk, he mentioned something that really resonated with me, and it was about risk.

“risk aversion is actually very risky behavior because with every moment that you’re looking at risk averseness you are also throwing away a lot of seemingly improbable ideas, but those are the ones that might allow you to make a leap rather than just make an incremental advancement.”

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case study: the @zoowithroy brand

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i have really been enamored with a certain blog — pardon me — bolg this summer for many reasons, namely the brand its creator has been able to forge using microsoft paint and 140 characters.  it really hit me a few weeks ago when fox saturday baseball did a mid-inning exposé on a shirt that an impetuous phillies fan bought from the zoo with roy online store and mailed to colorado rockies manager jim tracy’s office.  this national exposure followed after zwr himself already appeared on espn’s first take.  talk about local celebrity; in philadelphia circles, zwr isn’t just a celebrity — he’s a folk hero.

i wanted to do a quick and dirty case study on the “i want to go to the zoo with roy halladay” brand to see if we can figure out how all of this national exposure came to a simple bolg that someone created on blogger.com (it has since been moved to its own domain).

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what can we learn from the beautiful game?

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image by prettyfriendship, flickr artist

i like drawing parallels between sports and life.  there are so many lessons that we can learn just by taking a look at things through a different lens.  the beautiful game is no exception.

it’s world cup time right now; for me this is a huge deal.  the only way i can describe it to non-football enthusiasts is to take thanksgiving, wrap it up in christmas, and then get rid of it for 4 years.  it’s massive.

as i’ve watched the games and results unfold this year, i’ve had to rub my eyes in disbelief on more than one occasion.  most notably, for me, the first group-stage match between spain and switzerland where the swiss won with a 1-0 final score.  if you look beyond the score to the match statistics you see today’s lesson.

official stats for the game: spain 63% possession, 12 corner kicks, 24 shots… only 8 on target.  switzerland 37% possession, 3 corner kicks, 8 shots… but 3 made it on target and of course one resulted in that crucial goal.

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don’t forget to add the ‘fun’

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image by Tony M...., flickr artist

i was just at the grocery store picking up supplies for the week.

when i got home, i took out the bottle of vitamin water i had purchased as part of those supplies and cracked the top.  the flavor was called “spark” and was one that i hadn’t tried before, so — being new to me — i held up the bottle to read the label.

to my amusement, the text was upside-down.  i turned the bottle to read it and, the label — the text i was reading — talked about the action which i had just performed (turning the bottle upside-down).  it closed with a clever joke, and it was at that point that i realized what just happened.

i was having fun!

fun from a plastic vitamin water bottle?  yes.  (well, more specifically it was the label itself.)  so i started to ask myself a very simple question: why, when we create products, do we always leave out the fun factor?  when did we all become mr. soggy pants?

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“the common man goes nowhere” — herb brooks

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image courtesy of the herb brooks training center

“you can’t be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon.” — legendary hockey coach, herb brooks

of all of herb brooks’ quotes, i love this one the most.  i don’t know that it’s something i do intentionally, or if it’s something in my natural programming, but i don’t do common work.

over the last week or so, i’ve heard some pretty high praises from my client.  the program manager said of me in a management meeting, “john scardino, that dude is phenomenal.”  and just about a week after that comment was made, another member of my client’s organization said, “not to put any pressure on you, but you’re going to save [this project].”

i only know how to do things one way: the best way that i know how to do it.  so, to me, i’m not so sure that i’m really doing anything that’s truly special.  i see coworkers all the time logging long hours and doing a lot of great things.  the stuff my officemate, m. gregory white I, is doing makes me shake my head in astonishment.  i say it no matter where i go:  there are better people than me.  but there’s something that seems to separate me from the rest.

i’m uncommon.

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