The pursuit of less, instant expertise, and fast wins [Venture Kindling]

This Venture Kindling post feature short bits of information I’ve tripped across or developed that can help you light a fire or revive a fire for your venture.

 

The pursuit of less, instant expertise, and fast wins

Kindling from the web:

The pursuit of less. “Busy lives do often have strikingly high incidental costs that we often ignore,” so warns the folks at the School of Life. Their video, In Praise of the Quiet Life, is a reminder that there are two kinds of poverty: involuntary and voluntary. And it’s in the rare choices of voluntary poverty where the greatest gains of life are made. So, if you plan to give up anything I can use, let me know.

The (nearly) instant expert. The folks at Copyblogger reposted an excellent article on the 4 Unexpected Methods for Becoming an Authority on Nearly Any Subject. Personally, I rather expected their “unexpected” methods but they are good advice nonetheless. Examine your idea through the lenses of market segment, ease, teachability, and sincerity and you’ll likely come up with some good next action steps to take with it. Maybe even one or two which may be unexpected.

Fast wins may yield slow results. Researchers have observed that people knock out a few quick wins early in their day feel more satisfied and often more energized for their day. The problem, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review is that Your Desire to Get Things Done Can Undermine Your Effectiveness. It turns out that succumbing to easy tasks—the completion bias—can also rob you of your ability to work on the tougher, long-term goals. Who would have guessed that cleaning my desk, sharpening my pencils, and reading my emails would keep me from working on important stuff?

Latest personal kindling:

10-minute LinkedIn tune-up. If you use LinkedIn, take 10 minutes to tune up your settings to get the most from it. LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen joined me on a Reinventure Me toolbox podcast to discuss How and why you should manage your LinkedIn settings.

Bad-day containment strategies. How do you keep a bad day from getting worse? (No, that’s not a set up for a punch line.) Listen to my latest podcast with Armin Assadi, So you had a bad day…


“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.”

— Jim Rohn


Leave a comment about this venture kindling and/or share some of your own.

[shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="45982"]

2 thoughts on “The pursuit of less, instant expertise, and fast wins [Venture Kindling]

  1. In regard to “The Pursuit of Less,” I was thinking that we tend to think of poverty as a boolean switch. Rather than thinking of choosing or not choosing poverty, really we voluntarily choose to move one way or another along the continuum — actually a much more complex, repetitive set of choices.

    • I think you’re right Penny. Sometimes it’s helpful, though, to see it in boolean terms so that we can recognize that we *are* making choices everyday, even if we aren’t aware of them. Appreciate your insightful comment!

Comment on this post

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.