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Art | Media | Culture | Commerce
End game.
What's your end game?
What do you want to be known for?
Legacy and immortality through building things that last forever?
Nothing lasts forever.
Everything lasts forever.
Feel everything and stretch time.
Promotion vs Stewardship.
A promoter evangelizes. They employ dynamics of persuasion to drive behavioural change. Promoters shout.
A steward is a guide. They take you on a journey of discovery. Stewards discuss. Stewards teach.
Be a steward for your brand, company, mission, movement, cause,...
Stewards have much more impact in the long run.
Doing the hard work.
It's hard to do the kind of work that stands out. It's hard to revisit output that's performing well for you and your business, and continue to hone it to make it better. That's where the gold is - all those bits of incremental work and energy into something that might be acceptable for most, but doesn't fully meet your standards of excellence.
The details matter, now more than ever. The business ecosystem is flat, and details are the differentiators. Almost every industry will become commoditized.
How will you stand out in the flats?
Gathering Momentum.
Be sensitive to groundswells.
Genius archetypes are all around us.
Sit still and you'll feel them.
Benchmarks...
How do you know when you reached a benchmark; a point of reflection where you take an introspective look at your work and measures of progress? On what levels do you assess your journey? What are the points of consideration?
Are they monetary? Are they driven by societal impulses, tidal progression in your industry, or perhaps technological advancement? What are the metrics we use to really get a picture of our work?
What about the immeasurable? Is everything binary, broken down into black and white, or is the grey area where the real work resides? How do you quantify the nuances and inflections - the infinitesimal complexity that's required to do truly game-changing work?
Are benchmarks more important than the spaces in-between?