Connecting The Dots

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This book caught my attention by its cover and the reference that I did with Steve Jobs famous message about not trying to connect the dots looking forward, but trusting that they will connect when looking backwards, because they always do. Here’s my top 10 takeaways //THREAD//

1. Resilience Setbacks and tough times should force you to take stock of your strengths and find new ways to win. It is how you handle ‘failures’ that ultimately dictates your success.

2. Privilege You did not have to be born privileged to gain the skills to compete, and no privilege would help you if you didn't invest in developing your skills. Hard work beats talent.

3. Big Picture The visible condition of any person, company, state, industry or country is always a symptom of a deeper problem. To address the real problem, investigate the underlying issues and take a step back to see the patterns and trends that point to the bigger picture.

4. Arrows Of Progress The ability to figure out what change will look like three to five years before it happens, and then act on it, is how you will win. You can't plan for a world ahead if you're not investing in imagining it.

5. Stagnation Businesses fail for the same reasons people do: they don't understand market transitions well, keep doing the same thing for too long, and don't respond quickly enough when conditions change. All the data is there if you know the right places to look.

6. Vision It's hard to define where you're going if you can't explain where you are. If your customers don't care where you're going, ask yourself why.

7. Purpose When you focus on a mission that is authentic, impactful, differentiated and aspirational, people understand why they are with you. Customers know what they are buying. The employees know why they are working there. Investors understand where you are going.

8. Values Upholding your values doesn't mean you can't work with people who have a different view of the world. Just know where your lines are and what cannot be denied when it comes to values and mission.

9. Awareness Be excited about the opportunities, but don't underestimate the risks. The key lies in becoming aware.

10. People The hardest thing to understand in every company is not the products, it's the people. The strength of your team ultimately determines the strength of your company.

“You are not as good as people think you are when things are going well and you are not as bad as people think you are when things are going bad.” — John Chambers

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: typefully.com/Bibliosophy_/1JrbUYm