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Make your business the case study
If you run a web design agency, you may find yourself too busy working on client work to spruce up your own website. If you’re a freelance writer, you’re too busy ghostwriting for clients to put pen to paper for your own thoughts. If you’re in marketing, you promote your client’s products, but you don’t…
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Constructive criticism
People who praise everything you can seem extremely supportive. They hype your work, and build up your self-image. While this energy may make you feel more confident, and can help you gather the energy to nurture an initial idea, pure praise also doesn’t help you make your work better. A statement that sounds like constructive…
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Yardsticks and patience
Ailian Gan believes that it took Seth Godin four years of blogging every day before he found his style and started writing like he does today. It’s tempting to use that as a yardstick; for me, I’m two years into blogging every day, and hopefully I’ll get there in another two. The reality is, there’s…
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Make the present catch up to the future
When you make a prediction about the future, you are putting your reputation on the line. If your prediction comes true, people trust you more. If your prediction doesn’t come true, people trust you less. When you are working with people’s expectations, making a simple prediction, “I’m going to get this thing done today,” helps…
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Selling and transparency
When Michael Karnjanaprakorn worked as a CEO, a fair part of his job involved getting people to join, invest in, or partner with the company. In order to do this, he would need to persuade people to buy into his vision. In other words, he would sell. As he gained more experience with selling, Michael…
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The slump
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do to get out of the slump. You feel as though there is barely enough time to make the work good—let alone to escape, clear your head, reset your energy. You’re feeling scared, too. You don’t want the slump to turn into a block. You probably know the answer: keep…
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Pursuing vs. ensuing
There are two extremes at how you approach a goal. Pursuing: At one end, you are in pursuing mode, chasing the goal directly, stopping at nothing to achieve it—you are going to get it, or you will die trying. You say no to the many inessential items because they are distractions. You do your best…
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In order to figure it out, you need to do it
In order to solve a problem that has eluded you and your team, you may want to work on the problem by yourself rather than waste everyone’s time. While it’s a noble goal, and it might be helpful in small doses, keeping the meetings is a good idea. If you’re a person used to delivering…
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Independent vs. interdependent
When you work independently—as an entrepreneur, freelancer, or creator—in the early days, you actually could become more dependent on the people you know. For example, you could rely on the people already in your network to help you come across new opportunities, support you emotionally and hold you accountable, and tell their network about your…
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You can just do stuff, you know
Yesterday, Pharrell Williams released an album. He also turned 51. It’s on a WordPress website. It’s not available through streaming platforms. If you want, you can download all of the songs in .mp3 format with one click. It’s delightfully straightforward. He also didn’t promote it, not even on his own social media channels. Not that…