The Indiefield Blog

There's a reason it's a sin. It used to be "thy shall not covet thy neighbours Ox" so in a sense this was all about keeping up with the Jones's. But on social media these days it is so easy to find someone taller, thinner, richer, more beautiful, more intelligent, more successful, liked a lot more, with more followers, online friends, and LinkedIn connections. And there's no doubt you are better and more deserving than them. Ultimately it is all futile. The people above you are better than you, so are the ones below you worse? So when you make it to the top is everyone behind you less than you? I don't think so.

1. It starts with you talking about yourself, and your plans and intentions, to those around you who care about you and have your back.

2. Then it moves into a promotional stage where others bring your message to the wider world (cue advertising agencies and social media postings).

3. From there you move to the journalists and the editorial team talking you up. Not always easy as they may talk you down so it's not without risks.

4. The final stage is when bloggers and content creators are spreading your message.

All this only happens if you are delivering something worth talking about so get busy doing what you do.

The job of a managing director is not to cross things off the list. Her job is to write the list, and then work out what comes next.

Whenever we assess ourselves it is so easy to be brutally cruel and unreasonable because most if us are filled with self-doubt and self-blame. Even the people who appear to so easily project these things on to others. How about we start treating ourselves (and those around us) just a tiny bit more supportively. What would happen if we took more responsibility in order to have the real authority next time. Now there's a thought.

There's very little point to an exchangeable, PowerPoint reading, acronym-spewing middle management type these days. The type of manager who is quick to bitch and whine but slow to actually deliver. But there is a point to managers who can bend the world to their will, with enough initiative and vision to really add value to any project. Be that manager.

The advent of technology and the internet means so many previous administratively burdensome tasks are now done by a PC or are outsourced to someone who does it better, faster and cheaper than you. We no longer have to phone for a taxi we just open our Uber app. If you want to know a fact you don't have to learn anything you can just Google it. So what are we now filling all that digital time with? Oh, I know. TikTok.

We all fail and successful people actually fail more than most. So the two things you need to do is first, stop avoiding the blame and throwing shade on others, and second, you need to make sure you sign up for the high profile and scarily important projects. Here are some tips that will help you fail your way to success:

1. Take on the tough projects and assignments
2. Know what a successful outcome looks like and promise everyone you will get there
3. Get as many people involved as you can so you work as a team towards success
4. Know for certain what can go wrong so you actively avoid the pitfalls
5. Focus on the parts of the project that you can have an effect on and ignore the elements that you have no control over
6. When you fail (and you will) own it, call it a failure and note down what you learned so it is not repeated
7. Never blame others for failure. People who do that don't grow.

If these tips scare you, you are getting somewhere.

Companies and resources that are owned by private individuals or entities who are free to trade contracts with each other ultimately leads to increased efficiency, greater production, and a plethora of innovation. But success leads companies to protect their assets and investments by doing everything to make their market "un-free". Locking in patents, long term pricing and building barriers to entry in order to safeguard their balance sheet. Such thinking is up against technology, forced transparency and more sophisticated consumers with regulation on their side. In the short term the monopoly seeking entity is more effective. But in the long term the free market will always win.

We all know that developers, designers and artists do their best work when left alone to get into the flow and stay well away from the humdrum of organisational management. No clockwatching, no meetings, no stress from project demands. Our creative people need to be protected from all sorts of wasteful nonsense. Managers need to think more about what it is to be a creative because we all know that creating things is more difficult than it ever was before. And most managers would probably benefit from a bit of isolation to do the truly challenging tasks before them. But the creatives amongst us need to learn to behave more like a manager. If they don't they are ultimately side lined and get cut out of the big decisions within an organisation. Neither creatives or managers insist their way is the best way, but nothing will be brought into the world if they don't fully co-operate.

There are times in our lives when we have very little information upon which to make a decision – sometimes there's absolutely no information and nothing but the hum of a white noise machine. And yet still you have to make a decision. So you can use your experience, your intelligence, you might even try and tap into metaphysics and the principle governing all things! But occasionally all you can do is toss a coin. If you want to make sure you're right do best of three. If there is not enough data, or there cannot be enough data, insist on a coin toss. At least that way you can save yourself hours of pontificating and admit to yourself that you are winging it.