The Indiefield Blog

Some people work hard to lower the bar at work. These are the people who not only do the minimum amount permitted, they actually work hard to do just a little bit less than that. Most people seek to meet the bar. They figure out what's expected, and do that. A few people, very few, work to relentlessly raise the bar. They are the ones who overdeliver on projects, show up ahead of schedule, instigate, suggest and push. Raising the bar is exhausting, no doubt about it. I'm not sure the people who engage in this apparently reckless behaviour would have it any other way, though. They get to experience a fundamentally different day, a different journey and a different reputation to everyone else.

No company cares about you. Companies are simply not capable of this. Your bank, certainly, does not care. Neither does your pension provider or even that online retailer that you purchase so much from. It's amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact. People, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of caring. It's part of being a human. If you want to build a caring company, you need to fill it with caring people and then get out of their way. When you free your people to act like people (as opposed to cogs in a profit-maximising efficient company machine) then the caring will obviously happen.

There is often an initial warning sign that a project is in trouble. Sometimes it even begins before the project does. Our subconscious starts looking around for an excuse, deniability and something to blame. It gives us confidence and peace of mind - it's far easier to be calm when the police appear at your door if you have an excuse handy. Sometimes we even start looking for the excuse before we accept the project. We say to ourselves (and our clients), "this is best efforts ..." Then, as the project moves along (or not), we continually add to and refine our excuse, reminding ourselves of all the factors that were out of our control. Some people who have a built-in all-purpose excuse (middle child syndrome, wrong astrology sign, some slight at the hands of their upbringing or the system from long ago) and they often end up failing. They have an excuse ready to go, so it's easier to back off when the going is tough. Here's an alternative to the excuse-driven life: what happens if you actively avoid looking for excuses at all? Instead of making excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses.

A shop owner has to make bets. To buy inventory, to choose this over that, to make decisions in advance about what's going to sell. The owner might need to make these decisions months in advance, with no chance to re-order if there's a hit and nothing but discounted sales (losses) for what doesn't sell. The relentless physics of the situation means that shops need the ability to not just pick hits, but to make them. It's so different in the digital world. Amazon Prime says: "We're going to sell everything, and a lot of it. We don't care which thing, because it's all the same to us. Just put everything in the store and the market will sort it out". As a result, they have far less promotional power. Amazon doesn't make a hit, it contains hits - they have it all and the longer the tail, the better.

What do you do with legacy products and services? Things you started that never really caught on, or died out slowly over time? That's a very easy way to judge the posture and speed of a company. If there's a one-way track - stuff gets added, but it never gets taken away - then the ship is going to get slower and heavier and become much harder to handle and it will eventually sink. Either you're focused on maintaining the legacy features or you're focused on figuring out how to replace them with the future. Your clients want the future, not the past.

There is a lot of fear associated with 'overstretched'. Too much financial risk and you'll end up stressed, bankrupt and overstretched. But what about the more prevalent, more subtle and ultimately more damaging notion of being under stretched? The old school factory-mindset encourages every employee to protect their time and their effort. Don't go the extra mile because no-one will ever thank you. Don't push harder because you'll only damage yourself. Don't let them make you do more because that will be the new normal and you'll have to work harder forever. It's true: in most businesses productivity only increases as the result of more effort, and that effort is rarely compensated in an immediately obvious way. Here's the thing: modern work is different. In fact, the exhaustion from overstretching yourself in a modern working environment is some of the best exhaustion you will ever feel. So yes, we need to figure out how to push ourselves until we're overstretched.

On paper it is quite easy. Sell a story that some people want to believe. In fact, sell a story they already believe. The story has to be integrated into your product and services. The iPad, for example, wasn't something that people were clamouring for... but the story of it, the magic tablet, the universal book, the ticket to the fashion-geek tribe - suddenly there was huge queue out the door for it. The same way that every year, we see a new film sensation, a new fashion superstar, a new hit record, a new online phenomenon. It's not an accident. That story is just waiting for someone to hear it. They key point here is "some people". Not everyone will understand your story, and that's okay too.

If you play music in a tube station with a bucket or card reader for donations, every song must be a showstopper. There's no chance for nuance and pauses while you build up to a crescendo. If the commuter doesn't stop, it's all for nought. So your music changes. You're always at 11, always jamming it, always pushing the moment. Most of us behave like this, sometimes anyway. But occasionally someone will stop to actually listen to you, and then you have a choice. You can take that person on a journey, forego the next stranger and instead seduce the one you've got... or you can keep pushing for more attention from more commuters. Both work. The challenge is in making a choice, your choice, a choice based on why you're doing the work in the first place. It's not up to the commuter, it's up to you.

Yeah whatever. This is tough advice. Sometimes it seems as though the only way to take it is personally. Here's the thing: it's never personal. It's never about you. How could it be? That critic doesn't truly know you, understand you, or hear the voices in your head. All they know is themselves. So you just carry on doing your work, the best way you know how, producing the best you can. Is there really any other choice?

I love the lottery, because it's easy. Not certain, but easy. If you win, you've hit the lottery, literally. Most of us are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.