This is the one that was made before you even showed up. This is the one that sets the agenda, determines the goal and establishes the frame. The decision before the decision is the box. When you think outside the box, what you’re actually doing is questioning the decision before the decision. That decision is [...]
This is the one that was made before you even showed up. This is the one that sets the agenda, determines the goal and establishes the frame.
The decision before the decision is the box.
When you think outside the box, what you’re actually doing is questioning the decision before the decision.
That decision is far more important and much more difficult to change than the decision you actually believe you’re about to make.
-Seth Godin
…are we stuck in High School? I had two brushes with higher education this week. The first was at a speech I gave in New York. There were several Harvard Business School students there, invited because of their interest in marketing and exceptional promise (that’s what I was told… I think they came because they [...]
…are we stuck in High School?
I had two brushes with higher education this week.
The first was at a speech I gave in New York. There were several Harvard Business School students there, invited because of their interest in marketing and exceptional promise (that’s what I was told… I think they came because they had heard that Maury Rubin would make a great lunch!).
Anyway, they asked for my advice in finding marketing jobs. When I shared my views (go to a small company, work for the CEO, get a job where you actually get to make mistakes and do something) one woman professed to agree with me, but then explained, “But those companies don’t interview on campus.”
Those companies don’t interview on campus. Hmmm. She has just spent $100,000 in cash and another $150,000 in opportunity cost to get an MBA, but…
The second occurred today at Yale. As I drove through the amazingly beautiful campus, I passed the center for Asian Studies. It reminded me of my days as an undergrad (at a lesser school, natch), browsing through the catalog, realizing I could learn whatever I wanted. That not only could I take classes but I could start a business, organize a protest movement, live in a garret off campus, whatever. It was a tremendous gift, this ability to choose.
Yet most of my classmates refused to choose. Instead, they treated college like an extension of high school. They took the most mainstream courses, did the minimum amount they needed to get an A, tried not to get into “trouble” with the professor or face the uncertainty of the unknowable. They were the ones who spent six hours a day in the library, reading their textbooks.
The best part of college is that you could become whatever you wanted to become, but most people just do what they think they must.
Is this a metaphor? Sure. But it’s a worthwhile one. You have more freedom at work than you think (hey, you’re reading this on company time!) but most people do nothing with that freedom but try to get an A.
Do you work with people who are still in high school? Job seekers only willing to interview with the folks who come on campus? Executives who are trying to make their boss happy above all else? It’s pretty clear that the thing that’s wrong with this system is high school, not the rest of the world.
Cut class. Take a seminar on french literature. Interview off campus. Safe is risky.
The secret to creativity is curiosity. We often forget to teach kids to be curious. A student who has no perceived math ability, or illegible handwriting or the inability to sit still for five minutes gets immediate and escalating attention. The student with no curiosity, on the other hand, is no problem at all. Lumps [...]
The secret to creativity is curiosity.
We often forget to teach kids to be curious. A student who has no perceived math ability, or illegible handwriting or the inability to sit still for five minutes gets immediate and escalating attention. The student with no curiosity, on the other hand, is no problem at all. Lumps are easily managed.
Same thing is true for most of the people we hire. We’d like them to follow instructions, not ask questions, not question the status quo.
Yet, without “why?” there can be no, “here’s how to make it better.”
Seth Godin
Too many people follow other people who have no idea what they are doing. The old saying, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” really encompasses this truth. Seth Godin writes about this “blind leading the blind” over at his blog- I’m the first person to admit that compared to you, [...]
Too many people follow other people who have no idea what they are doing. The old saying, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” really encompasses this truth. Seth Godin writes about this “blind leading the blind” over at his blog-
I’m the first person to admit that compared to you, I have no idea what I’m talking about. You’re there, doing what you do, and doing it with skill.
Let me be really clear: My job is not to tell you what to do. I don’t know what to do. You do.
Not just me, of course. Everybody with a blog or a book or an interest in your success. Don’t do what they say. Listen to their questions instead.
My job is provoke you into asking hard questions. Ask those questions to your boss and your co-workers and yourself. It’s easy to show that self-aware decisions and thoughtful strategies outperform blind stumbling.
I don’t have a lot of patience for this list of seven rules or that manual of how it’s supposed to be or the step-by-step road map you can purchase today only. I think you’ll do a lot better if you get optimistic about the future and cynical about pat answers at the same time instead.
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