Posts in Tag: persistence

What makes the whole journey worthwhile

Writing a book is exciting, fun, and incredibly rewarding.
Here’s what nobody tells you:

It’s also a journey full of doubts.

While writing “The PATH to Strategic Impact”, I had

→ no less than 72 moments where I thought, What am I doing?

→ followed by 37 half-finished drafts where I thought, Maybe I’ll just stick to what I know.

→ and at least 21 times when I stared at the words on the page and thought, This is either brilliant or complete nonsense—still not sure which.

(Ok, I made these numbers up, but you get the point.)

But I realized I’m not alone in this.

If you’ve ever been responsible for leading anything, you’ve probably had the same thoughts. That moment where the weight of your decisions, your ideas, your strategy hits you and you wonder: Is this really going to work? Is it even good?

And that’s the thing. We all feel it—the uncertainty, the doubt, the excitement. That’s what makes the whole journey worthwhile.

I guess what I’m trying to say is …

Thank you for being part of this journey! For sticking around for the messy parts and the moments where things didn’t look so polished.

In four days, The PATH to Strategic Impact goes live. And honestly? I’m excited for what comes next, but even more excited for what we’ll learn together along the way.

Because in the end, none of us really know if the plan is going to work. We just show up, give it everything, and figure it out from there.

99% are sh*t

“Sounds like 99% of ’em are shit! It’s the one percent I’m interested in.”

– Dick James in the movie “Rocketman”

The 1% music publisher Dick James was referring to turned Elton John into one of the bestselling musicians of all time.

It’s my favorite quote from the movie about Elton Johns life.

The one percent were indeed golden.

But.

What’s so easily overlooked is that the 1% wouldn’t have happened without the 99%.

You must get the bad stuff out in order to get to the gold. (And it can be a lot of bad stuff.)

It’s no difference for the geniuses. They make tons of bad stuff around the 1%.

Most of it, they don’t publish. It goes to the trash directly.

But they keep going and looking for the 1%.

If you’re willing to invest the time and effort, as Dick James concludes in Rocketman:

“You never know. One day, you might have enough for an album.”

Get This Moment Counts in your inbox.
How exceptional leaders communicate when the message has to land

    I value your privacy. No spam. Just “Great stuff, brilliantly articulated” (to use the words of longtime reader David).