Customer traction

Thank you, Seth Godin, for the food-for-thought today.

This quote is an interesting one to me because 1) I’m not an entrepreneur, although the thought of becoming one is now stronger than ever, and 2) I immediately switch the thinking to my employer wanting to pay me more and spread the word about my work, my contributions, and the skills I bring to the table. I, myself, have become “a useful project.” Although this has always been my way of working on myself, it is always great to reread, refresh and rethink things.

Many words — mostly work-related — flew through my mind as I read this post by Seth Godin posted two days ago (also where I stole the above quote from). DMAIC (Lean Six Sigma’s Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control), specifically on defining a useful project to embark on. Voice of the Customer (VoC)… Net Promoter Score® (NPS®)… In short, I autopilot to work mode as I chomped through this post. And then, there’s…

Misallocation. Seth Godin said,

“Every minute the founder spends not working on this question might be misallocated.”

So true. Every minute I spend doing things that do not cause change to happen both for myself (or for my employer, or my family, or even my cat), I am focusing on the wrong things and inadvertently (or perhaps, knowingly) indulge in “a form of hiding.” Zero impact.

This reminds me of Adam Grant’s book Think Again. I am intrigued by how he thinks and the studies, stories, and ideas he shared in the book have definitely motivated me to rethink more often of my own learnings and to evolve. The same happens when I read Seth Godin’s blog posts and books or listen to him speak.