To make an end is to make a beginning - lessons from 2011
I’ve written about the different facets of transformation and disintermediation in the publishing industry throughout 2010 and 2011 but I wanted to share a more personal angle and distil the lessons I’ve learned into ten key points that will guide me in 2012.
- You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Abandon any attempt to make a horse drink water and focus on achieving something of less resistance.
- All progress depends on the unreasonable man … Hence the reasonable captains of media will stay in their comfort zone until, like Charles Handy’s frogs, they boil to death.
- Success comes from daring to begin. Daring to begin is not happening in the boardrooms of media companies. Instead the boardrooms of media companies are fighting to dampen the fires of legacy.
- Like impressionism and surrealism, new media production is an art movement that is being reclaimed by creatives. Real change is being led by daring, curious and digitally minded individuals who have little to lose and everything to gain from digital progress.
- From small beginnings come great things. As a creative taking charge, you don’t have to reinvent everything. Leave that to the masses. Instead, follow the demand, learn the ropes, plan assiduously and execute with precision. We all have the opportunity to reach an audience. Digital is a great leveller.
- Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. Even though it is often tempting to give up because things do not transpire in the time you’d hoped, push on past the objections, swim hard against the currents, and keep believing in your project. The end is much easier than the beginning.
- Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. But trying to achieve things alone is a struggle. In business seek your sweet spot. It probably lies somewhere at the confluence of marketing, production and technical know-how. There is strength in the power of three.
- You have to be ready to experiment and fail. Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. The best laid plans allow for change and sometimes you need to shift your rifle from one shoulder to the other.
- Defining a clear vision is helpful. Listing your values is a foundation. Mapping your market and defining your proposition are good too. But you don’t have to see the whole staircase, to get started. The secret of getting ahead is breaking your overall vision into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first ones. Plotting and recording progress on a milestone planner and using a project management tool helps you to get underway.
- Reaching the end is actually just the beginning. And the beginning is proclamation that the conditions are laid for the next stage of the journey that is change. What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. (Eliot)
I’ve gained these insights from working with my colleagues at iGlimpse . But what learnings have you taken from 2011?
Post inspired by the words and wisdom of: ~T.S. Eliot~ ~Mark Twain~ ~Alan Cohen~ ~Martin Luther King Jr.~ ~Norman Vincent Peale~ ~Henry F. Amiel~ ~Goethe~ and ~Henry Ford~
