work

Bluntness is appealing to busy people.

That if you need something urgently done, give the task to the busiest (or second busiest) person in the office.

Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear what we want them to know about us. One of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think about nike …. In their ads they don’t ever talk about the product. ... What does Nike do in their advertisements? They honour great athletes. That’s who they are. That’s what they are about. Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it we stand for. Where do we sit in this world. What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done …

Some rich people keep working hard because they love doing what made them rich. I've found three other types (not mutually excl): the ambitious who keep moving the goalposts, the creatives who keep finding new passions and the Calvinists who are afraid to not be working hard.

I personally experience the three types differently: the ambitious are inspiring, creatives are fun and Calvinists are draining.

People who want to appear clever rely on memory. People who want to get things done make lists.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

The greatest threat to a service is the team that operates it.

Remember that what ultimately matters is not technical excellence but market penetration. The two rarely go hand-in-hand.

In this case, the manager was participating instead of leading. A leader would rather drive the appropriate sense of urgency, clarify roles and responsibilities, ensure those are understood, and oversee a timely resolution. A leader would participate and discuss the issue only to the extent needed to get enough details for that facilitation; no more, no less.

Create a To-Stop list rather than a To-Do list.