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by 0xdeadbeefbabe
3097 days ago
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I saw your google tech talk a while ago, and I really like the concept of leverage even though I usually dislike this genre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnIz7H5ruy0 I think people get too religious about effectiveness. I was wondering what you do when you don't want to follow a list of good things to do? I assume self-publishing was discouraging at times, wasn't it? |
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1) It's also important to align your energy levels and what you want to do with your list of high-leverage tasks. When you're really excited about doing something, even if isn't strictly the highest-leverage thing you could do, you can actually end up creating more impact because you do a much better job of it.
2) Sometimes what's needed is just a change in perspective about things you need to do. I play with this a lot in the leadership coaching that I do. For example, I hate responding to emails because processing them all feels like a chore. But if I reframe responding to emails in my mind to be hunting for gems that might lead to new opportunities, I'm much more likely to go through them (at least the ones that are gems).
And oh yes, there were definitely discouraging points. The story about early, negative feedback from my wife (that I posted in another comment) was one.
Another is that ten months into book writing, around the start of 2014, I started feeling a sense of intense FOMO from reading Hacker News. Stripe had raised a valuation round of over $1B, and WhatsApp had been acquired for $16B. That led to moments where I would wonder "What in the world was I doing writing a book?" and "When will I ever finish?". I had just finished a first draft, I wasn't sure how rewarding financially the book would be, and I was feeling like I had removed myself from the startup game.
That led me to start looking for jobs, which quite fortunately, also led me to my current role at Quip. So everything worked out in the end.