Welcome to this week’s edition of The Small Business Corner newsletter!
This week, I’ll limit the first part to a brief reflection that ties back to what I wrote two weeks ago about Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.
When you have all the tools and resources to build a high-quality technical skillset, the question you ought to ask yourself is: “What am I bringing to the table?”
To answer this question, you need to take a step back and look within. Introspection, thinking, self-awareness, and a general understanding of ourselves and our surroundings start by using our minds to analyse information, synthesise what we know, and come up with roadmaps, strategies, and action plans that help us build on what we currently have and grow.
It’s common to hear that you need to ship first and iterate. This is equally true in business as well as in personal life. Tinkering, trying new things, producing something quickly, and improving on it is a great antidote to the perfectionism that hinders us from moving forward.
But without a guiding idea, this tinkering might feel aimless.
As Robert Greene points out in his book Mastery:
“Our dominance, our mastery does not stem from our hands but from our brains, from our fashioning the mind into the most powerful instrument known in nature—far more powerful than any claw. And at the root of this mental transformation are two simple biological traits—the visual and the social—that primitive humans leveraged into power.” — Robert Greene
Combating Stress, Joy and Responsibility
This is fresh out of the oven—a brief reflection from Unai Simón, the Spanish goalie, following their victory in the Euro Cup final on Sunday night.
Simón, a football veteran, was asked about the outstanding performance of the young talents on the national team, Nico Williams (22) and Lamine Yamal (17). His response turned into a fantastic reflection on the importance of not taking things too seriously to combat stress, be more responsible, and do a great job.
According to him, seeing how joyful and relaxed Williams and Yamal were made it easier for the whole group to cope with the stress, helping them focus more on the field.
This offers food for thought on how to approach significant challenges personally and within a group, both in our personal and professional lives.
“They are two guys whose potential I can't even begin to fathom, to be honest. Both Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal have been very important to us in this Euro Cup. Not only because of what they have done on the field but also because of what they bring to the team. They are two guys who, when I'm about to play a Euro Cup final and feeling nervous on the bus, they are on the bus dancing, enjoying every moment. They enjoy playing football. And seeing them gives you the reassurance to say: there's no need to be nervous. We should approach life like they do, with joy and responsibility. I believe it's very important to have players like them in the team to relax a bit, let go of inhibitions, and give things the importance they deserve.” — Unai Simón
“I’m now six months into Shopify.
So far it’s going basically on schedule: as I was told, ‘Your first couple months you’re going to have zero idea what’s going on. Then around month three you’ll come up for air and think, ok, I got this; and then you’ll try to start doing stuff. Then you’ll really struggle, because you won’t be in that happy new float-around-and-learn-people’s-names mode, you’ll be in oh-shit-can-I-really-do-this mode. It’s actually a little scary. But then around month five or six, you start to actually figure some things out for real. And then it starts to feel fun.’
So far it’s gone pretty much exactly to plan. But it’s starting to get fun.” — Alex Danco
Unlock Your Potential
Feeling stuck? Mel Robbins and Dr. Adam Alter reveal a three-step roadmap to help you move forward. Turn frustration into action and discover your true potential.
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