4 Big Ideas Made All The Difference This Year
My picks for best post, video, podcast and book of 2016
2016 has been an intensely rewarding year. This is due in large part to a personal commitment I vowed to continue from January 2015: To engage with new content sources to expand my wisdom about compassionate leadership and building valuable companies.
In addition to my daily fix from Fred Wilson and Inkl I continued to learn a ton from the Exponential View (curated by azeem) and a host of experienced founders including Marc Barros and via the team at Reboot.
The result? Well during 2016 I discovered four ideas that were game-changers. They helped to reinforce conviction, overcome challenges and in one case crystallise a long-held instinct which I had difficulty articulating until recently.
Not all ideas are new, some pre-date 2016, but their impact has been extraordinary this year and I’m certain they will endure for many years to come. So, in no particular order here are the four ideas that made all the difference this year.
1. The Idea Of Radical Candour
This is my choice for ‘Best Post’. It provides an incredibly effective framework for respectful and open dialogue between colleagues and team mates. It’s little wonder why this post went viral.
2. The Idea Of Hustling
I love the hustle. Connecting people around a shared vision and then executing is, well…there’s nothing like it!
Founders and CEOs know the energy investment required to keep hustling and to keep leading through the one-step-forward, five-steps-back onslaught of bringing an idea to life. It can be exhausting. Gary Vaynerchuk knows that. He also knows how to inspire people to dig deep and hustle hard using one mantra: You only live once.
This is my choice for ‘Best Video’.
3. The Idea Of Partnership
What’s Love Got To Do With It? via Jerry Colonna and the Reboot team is my choice for ‘Best Podcast’. Learning from elders is a must do and in this conversation the importance of trust and how to get on the same side of an issue (be it investors and founders or the founding team as a unit) is talked about in detail. There is no textbook here, it’s all experience.
4. The Idea Of Happiness
I promised myself I would read a book when I heard Jeff Weiner first talk about it years ago. I unplugged on vacation recently and started reading only to find this on page 8:
We are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. This is our most fundamental reality. And on this level, the problems we face as human being remain the same.
And this on page 10:
When we help others, the focus of our mind assumes a broader horizon within which we are able to see our own petty problems in a more realistic proportion. What previously appeared to be daunting and unbearable, which often makes our problems so overwhelming, tends to lose its intensity.
As this narrative continued the mental model for how to be compassionate, each day, in each situation, became clear. This was THE game-changer for me as a founder and CEO this year and it’s thanks to The Art Of Happiness co-authored by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler MD. It’s available from iTunes or Amazon.
Wisdom is the most accessible it’s ever been in human history. If there’s one thing to consider for 2017, it’s making time to stretch beyond the content sources that fuelled your knowledge and opinion in 2016. The world is changing too quickly not to, don’t you think?
