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It Might Not Work This is for those of you who have an idea buzzing around your head but are too afraid to make leap. Don’t read the following things as if I’m saying them. Read it as if you are saying them to yourself. Start with this: It may not work. Now ask yourself the following questions with your idea in mind: What if it doesn’t work? But, what if it does?  What if it doesn’t work the first time and I figure out why? What if I take what I learned, try again, and it works? What if …

Originally published on May 6, 2020 We’re our own harshest critic. That’s a fact. Sometimes the criticism is more stinging than at other times. Sometimes we brush it off, but usually, that’s when the stakes are low.  The higher the stakes, the bigger the critic.  If we’re stretching our capabilities, learning something new, the nasty critic will show up again. Always trying to talk us out of whatever it is we’re doing.  It’s a big reason people don’t learn new things – adults at least.  We’re afraid to look like a failure at something we’ve never done and have zero …

Feeling Like an Imposter Recently, I interviewed Brian Smith as part of ongoing research I’m doing for a book I’m writing about Recruitment Marketing. Brian is the Recruitment Marketing Manager at Alterra Mountain in Denver, CO. It’s funny, as a former recruiter I’ve interviewed thousands of people talking about things I have no clue about like software engineering and never really felt imposter syndrome nor was I ever nervous before a call. On the contrary, before each interview I’ve conducted for my book, I’ve felt nervous, self-doubt, and a bit of imposter syndrome creep in. Like Seth Godin says, this …

“Reassurance is futile” These words aren’t my own. I’m stealing them from Seth Godin. I was recently on an exclusive Zoom call with Seth and other altMBA alums to talk about his upcoming book The Practice that will be coming out in November. During the call, we would discuss a topic that is covered in his book and then break out into small groups of 4-5 of us to discuss what it means to us and the creative work we’re doing. To kick off our discussion around reassurance, he said, “reassurance is futile.” He also mentioned that reassurance is not …

How could I have done that better? Like creativity, learning, and becoming better at something is an incremental process — bit by bit. You learn one thing, and that sparks questions, more curiosity, and you dive a little deeper. You begin to uncover edges you never knew existed. Once you’ve done something, ask yourself, “how could I have done that better?” Even if you only find one little thing, that would make it better, right? Then, what happened if you found one other little thing? And on and on. Incremental changes, over time, add up to significant change and improvement. …