ARTICLE ZERO - WHO DO I THINK AM I?
Welcome to my mind and the first attempt to extract some of the contents that have collected over the past 15 years into useful articles others will hopefully enjoy reading and be able to apply to the decisions they make in their personal and professional lives.
As of today, I'm not sure if anyone will be reading the articles I'll be posting here. But I'm not sure if that even matters. I've decided I'm doing this for me.
It has actually been almost a year since I first wrote "build authority through distributing high-value content for free online" as part of the plan to grow my business. And since then, I've written dozens of incomplete posts while listening to that discouraging voice in my head telling me all the reasons my idea is stupid and my effort is in vain:
What do I have to say that others don't already know?
How can I be so presumptuous to believe I can help other intelligent, driven people do what they do better?
Do I really have original thought or am I unknowingly plagiarizing smarter people I've heard and learned from in the past?
Can I handle the possible criticism and rejection when I say stupid things or I'm wrong?
It is easy to hide ignorance by staying silent, but this website will create a digital record and clear evidence of my intellectual shortcomings. However, I hope there is truth in the saying "you only truly know a topic when you can teach it to others". And because of that, I am writing this first article.
I've lived a life that has generally gone nothing like I planned. Like many young and ambitious people, my first job was in a fortune 500 company where I thought I might become CEO if I just worked hard enough. That was back in the '90s. Eventually, I was no longer able to handle how inefficient people worked, how rewards were earned through politics as much as performance, and how easy it was to celebrate mediocrity.
Since leaving the corporate world, I've committed to not run my business with the behaviors or attitudes I found so displeasing. I would build my business around efficiency and productivity. I would not play politics but let performance speak for itself in a true meritocracy. And quality would always trump quantity. Doing a few projects exceptionally well would always be valued over doing a bunch of mediocre projects, regardless of the financial impact.
I've since learned the price of living up to the principles I follow.
I've seen that growth and profit come more readily to those willing to utilize politics to win favor or salesmanship to over-promise.
I've learned that perceptions of quality and excellence are very subjective. And people can rationalize excellence in everything.
It is true, isn't it? Few people proclaim their own mediocrity. In fact, I've seen studies that show up to 90% of people think they are above average on any given skill. And we all know mathematics dictate that is unlikely to be true.
If I'm being honest, I must assume I am one of these people based on the fact that I've started this site.
THE DOUBLE-EDGE OF IGNORANCE
An article published in 1999 titled Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments summarizes this paradox well:
"People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. This overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it."
You can buy the full article HERE.
I've learned that this paradox applies to companies as well.
The services I provide require clients to acknowledge shortcomings or gaps in their abilities. Clients need to acknowledge that they, in fact, are not above average in some ways. They have to admit they need help and they have to want to be helped.
Beyond the ever-present constraint of budgets, the biggest barrier I need to consistently overcome with prospective clients is to convince them that there are better ways (often far better ways) to do what they are doing today.
I see poor decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information. I see good ideas doomed to fail because of the pitfalls of not knowing what you don't know. I see companies operating in an outdated reality, as if it was still 1994, not 2014.
And with that inspiration I will wrap up my first article. I hope I'm able to provide some educational or entertainment value to those that discover my site. I hope I spread more of what I value in the process.
Most importantly, I hope this exercise elevates my own understanding of the topics I write about. I hope it both makes me aware of my own incompetency and forces me to put in the effort to actually be above average myself. I hope that in the process, I become more efficient, I elevate my own definition of excellence, and I learn a few new skills as well.