of Seth's Tribes (2)

How To Be Wrong

John Zogby, the successful pollster, was completely, utterly wrong about Al Gore in Florida. By ten points. And he was wrong about John Kerry, and wrong about his prediction for the New Hampshire primaries in 2008. But notice that I said "successful pollster," not "disgraced pollster." If he wasn't willing to be wrong, he'd be unable to be right as often as he is.

Issac Newton was totally, fantastically wrong about alchemy, the branch of science he spent most of his career on. He as wrong as a scientist could be. And yet,he's widely regarded as the most successful scientist and mathematician ever.

Steve Jobs was wrong about the Apple III, wrong about the NeXT Computer, wrong about the Newton. Insanely wrong. You know the rest.

The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong!
The secret is being willing to be wrong.
The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.
The only thing that makes people and organization great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.

I've been waiting for you to ask for the shortcut, the error-free, failure-free way to get people to do what you want, to make change happen without risk or fear, to magically alter the status quo. That, after all, is the best way to sell you on the ideas here. If I could just give you the answer, you'd be leading a tribe right now.

The honest answer is: There isn't an easy way. It isn't easy for middle mangers or CEOs or heretics. The truth is that they appear to risk everything, but in fact, the risk isn't so bad. The downsides are pretty small because few of us are likely to get burned at the stake.

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.

People will follow.

of Seth's Tribes (1)

How Was Your Day?

It’s four a.m. and I can’t sleep. So I’m sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Jamaica, checking my e-mail.

A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over to me and, in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, “Isn’t that sad? That guy comes here on vacation and he’s stuck checking his e-mail. He can’t even enjoy his two weeks off.”

I think the real question – the one they probably wouldn’t want to answer – was, “Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?”

It took me a long time to figure out why I was so happy to be checking my e-mail in the middle of the night. It had to do with passion. Other than sleeping, there was nothing I’d rather have been doing in that moment – because I’m lucky enough to have a job where I get to make change happen. Even though I don’t have many people working for me, I’m in the business of leading people, taking them somewhere we want to go.

On the other hand, most people have jobs (for now) where they fight change, where they work overtime to defend the status quo. It’s exhausting. Maintaining a system in the face of change will grind you down.

Think for a second about the people you know who are engaged, satisfied, eager to get to work. Most of them, I'll bet, make change. They challenge the status quo and push something forward - something they believe in. They lead.

"Life's too short" is repeated often enough to be a cliché, but this time it's true. You don't have enought time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It's not jus pointless, it's painful. Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.

The amazing thing is that not only is this sort of life easier to set up than ever before, but it's also more likely to make you successful. And happy. So how was your day?