Tag diseñosocial

And I mean there is no certain tomorrow. At least for 99% of us.

There is no discernible future. There is no short term. So we must do the best out of today and a few more days ahead of us.

How do you plan in times like this? How do you maintain a sense of what is right about the direction of your life and business?

When you must throw away huge beautiful dreams so you survive the next few weeks, all your frameworks, all your methods and assumptions are obsolete.

A new reality, one that keeps changing every week or so, calls for fast paced adaptations. More than ever we must unlearn over and over so we may remain sane.

To cope with the fatal loss of goals we must set new ones in never ending iterations. But goals are not the goal. Keep moving is the name of the game.

Sometimes it takes all your strength just to keep holding on. And for now, that is fine.

For almost my entire life, legacy has been one of my main drivers. The thought of making history, of being remembered and admired. It is the ultimate immortality. Because if we are remembered, then we will never die. If we are forgotten, then what is the point of anything?

We would be temporary. Inconsecuential.

But then Covid comes along. And I am faced with daily tasks driving me away from that greatness that would eventually write my name in the pantheon of heroes.

God damnit, how anxious and lost I felt! Here I am, the potential kwisatz haderach, spending (wasting) hours of my life doing anything but the things that would birng me closer to my goal of becoming a human myth.

And the, thank the universe, got to read this Naval’s tweet: “Legacy” is the opinion of people not yet born, about someone who no longer exists.

How obvious. How stupid and shallow made me feel. It was a shock. A revelation about how I really felt about others opinions. And the epiphany rose almost immediatly after: The only opinion of us that matters is our own. The only time that matters is now.

Now I feel kind of relieved. Still a little anxious. Not so easy to let go that dream you have been chasing your whole life.

We’ll see how all this ends.

If hard times breed strong people, then all entrepreneurs who decide today to start or keep pursuing their dreams, will become super heroes entrepreneurs.

They will be super strong, resilient, wise, resourceful founders.

They will be cautious but won’t be stopped by fear.

They will understand that starting up a company means solving real, meaningful problems.

They will be driving the betterment of the world.

They will be responsible for the continuity and thriving of the human race.

To those about to rise, we salute you.

You come and ask someone to build you an F1 car. You shouldn’t expect to get the car in 3 or 4 days.

You want the car to be the most beautiful? Add weeks of design. You need the car to actually be fast? Add maybe years of design. You need the car to become an icon so everybody may recognize it? Add months of testing and communication.

This metaphor is valid to any requirement. You want a company agile, self managed, ambitious, recognized, profitable, etc? It takes a lot of effort, a lot of money and a lot of time. If you requested the whole enchilada, then you can’t expect to get it after no expenditure of effort, time and resources.

Be sure to invest so you may get what you imagined.

it’s where I devote my time and effort.

In the last few days, there is an abundance of attention. That gold at the end of the marketing-and-advertising-efforts rainbow has been multiplied.

For most people, time has expanded. They have less things to do and more minutes, even hours, to spare. They indulge. And that is a huge opportunity for those looking to get more attention to say something.

People with time will indulge in 2 ways:

1. They will get even more of the thing that they already like: More facebook, more netflix, etcetera. So if you had a small window to say your stuff, now the door is wide open, so you can go deeper on your story.
2. They will be more indulgent to try new stuff. So you may have the opportunity to get to more people, that people that thought your brand, product or service was not for them and now they will have a huge surprise because you might be just that thing they weren’t looking for. This is a time for changes, for everybody, so you could help set their new normal.

In any case, you will have to provide what really matters. That easy and that hard. They may be indulgent now but this will also come to an end. And when that happens, the window of attention will narrow again. We all will be more selective of what we give our time and effort, and we will choose only those things worthy of them.

Hopefully it will al go to “normal” in a few weeks. In the meantime, probability says you will not make any money.

So rethink your strategy. Think about th 4c’s of value creation: Contribution / Coordination / Communication / Connection

Contribution: How can you help your community by providing any service or product. If you can pivot to serve Health, Security, Logistics or Education, by all means start doing it now.

Coordination: By actively participating between the business and industries labeled as essential and those that have encountered a dead end in their operations, you might find opportunities to create new materials, designs, companies and people, eager and able to help.

Communication: Yo may be the link between the information and a particular set of people interested in how all this will impact their businesses and their lives.

Connection: Maybe you don’t have anything to supply…but how about you help connect within your community groups of people that may supply goods, services, or even time to better the conditions everybody has fallen to?

Now we are standing in an age of mandatory involvement. The times when we could coast our ways through life have ended. Isolation has pushed us to rethink the burden or the obligation to be a part of the community as the exact opposite, as the privilege of being a part of a community.

Note: All this reflection was based on the words by Seth Godin in an interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT6Kl4buA3w

…with whom you haven’t had any communication yet, as how you plan to maintain your service through the pandemic, leave anything you might be doing right now and go to the telephone, email or social networks and explain.

You have to give them ease. You might not be able to fulfill your service or product right now, but you have the responsibility to be there.

They have to know that you are still there and that you are going to be there when all this is over, and, knock on wood, If your business is no longer viable, then they will appreciate you even more if you help them transfer your business to any other supplier, even if it is your competitor. Your job is, also, taking care of their feelings.

The name of the game, for now on, is REPUTATION, either for a personal or corporate brand.

Remember, people will forget about everything, but they will remember, always, how did you make them feel.

So here we are. The 100th entry in this blog.

One day I decided to write. I would be like Seth Godin. I would have a lot of insights and reflections to be part of the world.

That decision connected me with you, reader. With the ripple effect, it also connected me with people that haven’t directly read me. It connected me with people that don’t even know I exist! I guess that is the artist in me: creating despite the odds of never being known or applauded. In that sense, this practice is, at least for now, a paradox created by me and for me. I am writing even though i know the probability of reaching someone is really, really tiny.

Anyway, each day I’m eager to sit in front of this empty canvas, to surrender to this blank page. Each day I try to contribute. Each day is a struggle and a bliss. Kind of like giving birth and parenting. Each day I hope the right reader is going to stumble on these words and start a dialogue that starts another dialogue and another dialogue like dominoes. Until that time comes, and then more eagerly, I will show up for myself and for any person this words may resonate with.

Cheers / Namaste / Likke / Godspeed / Abrazos a todos!

You see on the news people fighting each other when the toilet paper pallets comes allong the hall in Costco. You see them and think, damn these people are really stupid. Why would they want to hoard this particular product?

But then, it is your time to go get some groceries. And, as you pass the toilet paper aisle, you see the crowd running to get the last packages of the white gold…then you feel the urge to join them in the shopping frenzy.

After a few steps forward you hit the breaks. How isn’t possible that you was going to indulge in the collective folly. Yesterday they were stupid for you. Today they don’t look so idiotic. As you walk back to your car, they look dumber and dumber.

Well that is the depiction of an irrational behavior. One of many we humans do. Actually we are mostly irrational. And the stupid things one does, have a particular way to seem logical to that person.

So what’s your stupid? Have you ever thought what habits or behaviors are becoming, or have been a ballast in your life? In your career? In your business?

So you are stranded. You are home. Maybe with kids and wife. You are in a situation you didn’t ask for and you have to make the best of it.

There is a lot at stake. Your relationship with your kids, your marriage and maybe even your own sanity, but, the good thing is you can design a routine that will give structure and hopefully give some valuable outcomes.

You may become your own guinea pig to perform an experiment. Try something, anything. It could be a meditation practice, some workout routine, a new nutrition plan, or a new mind set.

My suggestion is: design a daily schedule. Fill every minute. Don´t leave any space for desperation, boredom or fear to jump in.

Your control group will be everybody else in the house.

Even if you are the only one trying things, it is better to have one less person in a feedback loop of anxiety.