Snippets and clippings for inspiration

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Sometimes you just like the way something is phrased either in your self-talk by you or in something you heard or read. Maybe you just feel strongly about an idea but can’t parse it into action, yet. This is all about collecting that inspiration for re-inspiration, later. Some by others, some by me.

  • The blank canvas syndrome

  • Creativity in constraints

  • That approach stems from one of L’Oreal’s key values: “Saisir ce qui commence,” or “Seize what’s starting.” In the context of being early to market, be it a product, idea or belief.

    • “Today’s pitch is two seconds,” says Rochet, “and six seconds is the new long-form ad.”

  • “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

    — Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Not losing is not winning.

  • There is no normal. Simply the relentless cycle of change.

  • People don’t like to be lectured at. The want to learn from someone taking the journey as a non-expert

  • A road trip of ideas

  • Two kinds of marketing

    There’s the kind that no one can possibly like. The popups, popunders, high-pressure, track-your-private-data, scammy, spammy, interruptive, overpriced, overhyped, under-designed selfish nonsense that some people engage in. And then there’s the kind that inspires us, delights us and brings us something we truly want. We call them both marketing, but they couldn’t be more different. The selfish marketer is marketing at us, trading money for attention to sell average (or below average) products to disinterested people. The excuse is that money needs to be made, or that the boss insists, or that we have no choice… The successful marketer is marketing with us and for us. And she doesn’t need an excuse.

  • Extraordinary contribution creates careers. It’s a breakthrough in the status quo, a shift in a previously accepted power dynamic.

  • View Work as a practice, not a performance. You’ll worry less about reviews of your work and more about learning.

  • You don’t have to be right, just get a baseline of where you’re at now and try to be better than that tomorrow.

  • The ability to apply creativity to intellect

  • Systems Thinking + Design Thinking + a diverse and collaborative team =  the machine that builds the machine. It’s a recipe for repeatable genius.

  • Effectiveness is a habit developed through practice. Once people identify and remove the most wasteful practices, they can create blocks of uninterrupted productive time. In addition to looking for wastes of their own time, executives should ask how they waste their employees’ time. Everyone in an organization can be a knowledge worker who specializes in a vital contribution.

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