How to Give People Something They Can't Get Enough Of

Being a source of something scarce makes you valuable to the people in your life — family, friends, your employer, your community.

So, speaking of scarcity in today’s environment, here’s something very valuable you can do:

Be someone who starts and encourages upbeat conversations.

People are gloomy. The news is gloomy. The sky is falling.

Be the person in your environment who’s the optimist, who celebrates what is going well (it’s there — look for it…). Encourage people, pat them on the back.

Talk about how the world is being reinvented. Talk about all the opportunities on the other side of the anxiety and disruption. Tell funny stories. Laugh a lot.

I guarantee you will be very nearly alone in that effort. This makes you the source of something scarce. This makes you valuable, and valued, among the people you care about most. 

Dr. Gerald Bell

It is an indescribable thrill just to be in the same picture as this man. His friendship, encouragement and generosity mean the world to me, and have enriched my life immensely. What he said to me ten seconds before this photo was taken I will remember as long as I live.

I am simply putting this link here, with the advice that, at some point in everyone’s life, they should do whatever it takes to meet him and learn something from him.

Hey, I Know Nothing About Enterprise Software and User Interfaces

So, I left a comment a few days ago on a posting about enterprise software design over at Signal vs. Noise, the blog written by the guys at 37signals.

Do you know that famous New Yorker cartoon — “…on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog”?

Oh, how true.

So that comment generates a boatload of traffic to our humble little vanity blog, including — get this — a number of serious emails asking my opinion about user interface design for enterprise software and, in one instance, whether I thought these types of design firms have a future.

Those of you who know me understand the rich humor in these requests because, although I am inept in many, many things, I am spectacularly unqualifed to formulate meaningful insight into the enterprise software and user interface industry.

Except as a user.

I’m an everyday person in an organization who uses software (including my company’s enterprise tools) as an occasionally central tool to accomplish what  I need to do.

I understand nothing about the technical skeleton of software and interface design, but I do know that bad interface design bothers me because it costs me time and energy and focus — or worse, it wastes these precious resources. I think there is a spectacular future for any company or developer who can design simple, intuitive, adaptable interfaces that make people’s work easy and useful. I am deeply loyal to any product, for that matter, that is exceptionally considerate of me, my time, and my energy.

If you design interfaces for enterprise software and you like what you just read and you have a lot of money, please call me. My eleven year-old daughter thinks we’re going to be rich because Daddy has his own website.

Mastery: A Perspective

Leaders are able to improve the performance of their organizations when they grasp the concept of mastery. The best definition of mastery I’ve ever heard came from a man who has made mastery a fundamental responsibility of hundreds of thousands of leaders, Dr. Gerald Bell.

In an interesting interview with Guy Kawasaki about his new book, The Dip, marketing guru Seth Godin puts mastery in an interesting context when discussing whether or not to quit or stick with something:

“Mastery is an addiction. Most people never master anything and never experience the thrill of being on the other side of the Dip. As a result, they don’t seek out new opportunities for mastery. I hope that as parents, we can do a better job of teaching kids this habit.”

He’s correct, of course, but I wish he had done more than just skim the surface.

My guess Seth is talking about mastery in the context of a love of improving, of learning, and of pushing through a challenge or problem in order to do as well as is humanly possible — not be perfect — but to strive for excellence without being necessarily derailed by obstacles, disappointment, and so on.

Really effective people are highly focused on mastery for mastery’s sake; that’s why it’s an addiction, a reason unto itself.

Unfortunately, Seth then proceeds to kind of, sort of just breeze by the role of passion in mastery. It’s not the point of his book, I realize, but I wish he would have discussed passion, or love of a job, mission, challenge, etc., as crucial to mastery and, therefore, an important part of pushing through, around, or away from the Dip.