I’m starting to realize I’m starting to age, by the plain fact that old habits die hard. This comes as a surprise to me because I assumed I was part of a generation that trumps on flexibility and adaptability.
A series of litmus tests I’ve applied over the years have shown that I am not very well suited for world domination, as I might as hoped. Alas, I am to resign as an aging craftsman, with propensity for intellectual quips and philosophical debates.
The thing is, you too may find yourself in that predicament.
Have you always believed that you would make it big someday, and are now in the process of executing something grand, and realized you’ve expended 50% of your effort (based on some arbitrary measure) and are nowhere near your target? This, with all the books you’ve read.
Sure, there’re a ton more. And you could always try getting another job.
I started asking myself lately if anything major had changed in my life, and I realized that my behavior hasn’t really changed a whole lot over the years. Here are some of my not-so-stellar ones:
- going to bed at ungodly hours
- wasting time reading articles on the net, convinced that it’ll lead me closer to world domination
- wasting time on twitter and facebook
- not sticking to my plans
- making quick connections about things I read from the internet, like for example… how mashups are efficient ways to make big bucks (wrong)
- watching how other people succeed and emulating bits and pieces (also wrong)
Before I sign myself off as a complete idiot, I’m going to draw the line here and state that world domination requires a lot of WORK. And that work has certain elements that cannot be removed, such as goals, patience, communities of practice, apprenticeship, planning and execution.
A few years ago, I was naive enough to believe that with technology and some life-hackery, I could take shortcuts (money, time, know-how) in order to get what I needed or wanted. To an extent, this is true. I can now listen to my favourite music without having to pay for it.
But world domination is not the same as listening to music. They are two very different things.
I realized that world domination requires at least the following:
Know-How
When I experimented with a blog aggregator to see if it would bring me lots of cash without hurting people and with minimal effort, I was in for a lesson. I realized that I needed to put in a lot of effort and give it a lot more thought.
At the same time, it took me a long time to see the point of stuff like SEO, re-designing my layout, hacking my templates… and getting Wordpress to flippin’ work just killed any desire to make the site better. In short, I was lazy.
Some great ideas are complex to pull off, and there is such a thing as an individual preference – so projection is important, as in – asking the right questions, and being effecient about it. I wasted time mulling over so many different things, executing some, but I failed to analyze good case studies and learning from folks who have done it before.
Respect for what and who are already there
This leads to the next part about underestimating experts, leaders, professionals, systems, processes, and a whole lot of other stuff that can seem very “red-tapeish”.
On one hand, some experts seem like superheroes we can’t avoid quoting them every 5 seconds or so. But on the other, it’s hard to swallow the truth that some people I worked under did have some smarts under that skull of theirs… and I could’ve been a bit more patient at learning the ropes, and reflecting on it.
“I can be like that too”, was a common thought that ran through my mind. Thoughts like, I can start a business and run my own internet company… or, like… I can earn double my salary in 1 year by focussing on X, Y and Z.
And yet, some things take its own pace – you just can’t force it. Might as well sit back, smell the roses and enjoy the ride.
Reading between the lines
Graduate school has taught me a lot about reading between the lines. A lot of people who are relatively unknown who I never used to care about, had spent a lot of time writing stuff that they’ve learnt through their work, and I used to think that I didn’t need to bother about what they cared about. So, I tended to skim read a lot, until I realized I was getting nowhere.
Then, I learnt to dig deeper and search through the work that had been done by the authors, by disecting their arguments, their references… by drawing a more holistic picture of the work itself, in order to get a better understanding of what it was I needed to learn.
The real value is in appreciating the lessons that people gain when they do good work. Because ultimately, these are things I may learn, and that’s where good dialogue takes place in places like blogs, twitter posts, and messages.
It’s not just about “knowing stuff that’s been said already”.
Collaboration
In my six months of working part-time with what is now becoming a real startup company, I learnt that big ideas need good teams. There are things that can be done solo… like, I dunno… selling lemonade.
I was hired as a lead web developer to help build a product, and we started from scratch. It’s now six months past, and I basically overestimated my abilities to build websites. In other words, I couldn’t pull off building a full-fledged site in six months on my own. If there were 3 good people on the team, that would look more probable. And I say that not to quote some esoteric theory, or startup expert.
In recent weeks, a small but formidable team has come together to help this site move along faster, and I’m blown away by the exponential effect good people can do to a team.
World domination is not a solo effort. Even if you’re planning to take over the world by writing a book, that book requires the contribution of people other than yourself.
And sometimes, it’s just worth spending a bit more
As a stingy kiasu Malaysian, I also assumed you could get by with very little. A few things I learnt from working with folks here in London is that it makes sense to use money to move things along.
My wife works for a local charity, where they get donors from all over the place. Her CEO recently bought a huge map that cost a lot of money, for the purpose of sticking pins on the areas where donors had come from, so that she could be reminded of where her donors are and subsequently keep in touch with.
In Malaysian-speak, that’s quite blasphemous to the name of all things good. Firstly because it was a charity, funded by the public. And it would’ve been cheaper to use 32 A4-size printouts of Google Maps screenshots. But taking a step back, it did make sense. It was quick, efficient, and it did the job well.
I can’t imagine the amount of time I’ve lost trying to get things done with the absolute minimum. There are other factors in play, like time, comfort, a sense of provision, or partnerships… that make spending a lot less worse than I think it is.
I could’ve quoted a line from Gladwell’s Outliers, which I think makes sense, but I didn’t.
Anyway, just my rant about World Domination. What’s yours?
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