Author: Andrea Grassi

Have you ever thought of a nice idea, like a story for a book, and stopped by executing it because someone else was first?

I surely did. And I also knew that ideas alone are of no value, yet it blocked me anyway.

In my mind I thought I was simply adding repetition to the world, nothing new. We like “new” ideas. We like being first in something and that’s probably one of the reasons I stopped pursuing that idea.

Let’s take the idea for the book I told you before. It was about a different outcome in WW2.
Can you imagine how many stories on this topic have been made? Even a tv series.

They didn’t stop and it was the right choice.

An idea by itself is not enough to be neither interesting nor revolutionary. An idea can be a nice concept, but alone is worthless.

It’s what you put into the recipe that makes the difference. It the things around the idea, the execution, your take on a problem, that makes it different.

Take on ideas that you like even if they are already present in the world. Think basecamp, nobody thought it would succeed this way.
There will be many ideas that will produce failure, but that shouldn’t stop you unless you absolutely need to have them succeed.

In some cases success is simply being able to express the idea in its glory.

I’ve been in burnout many times. This is a realization that didn’t come easy.

I never asked for help, I always recovered by myself, with a long time, with many introspection.

While it seems great if you read it, it’s not. We’re not burnout-proofed.

Burnout will happen again, might happen again, and I’ve seen it through friends and coworker happen again and again. I’ve seen their morale being destroyed piece by piece, their enthusiasm being lowered and so on.

I’ve also saw the reactions of people. From the one that promise you “I’ll help you”.
But they don’t.

From the one they ignore the problem “It’ll get better”
But it wont.

And after many encounters with the burnout I can say that one of the key lessons here is about recognizing and accepting pain.
We, as humans, don’t like pain.

We don’t like tu suffer ourselves, but even seeing pain in other people is something we’d gladly avoid.
If we allow others to share their pain entirely then we can’t escape from it, we must face it.

That’s why we say “I’ll help you” (lying) or “It’ll get better”.
It’s because we don’t want to face the pain the person is ready to put on the table.

Why some brands “click” more than others?

What makes them intriguing or interesting, what makes them an example to follow?

Branding is a really wide topic. Some branding takes place in the office, while another one takes place in the heart.
In the office you plan and define how the brand should like, what message should convey and so on, on the other hand there are small companies that have such an excellent branding without resorting to the office, to paid advertising etc.

They have what’s commonly called “personal branding” and it’s not a matter of marketing alone, it’s a form of expressing and (in some cases) being true to your customers.
Taking them by hand and guide them towards your ideas to see if they match, and if so here they are, discovering a new amazing brand.

It’s about finding a niche that shares your value and having a way to express to them what you think it’s worth.

We often say “Oh, if I look back at that moment maybe I’d choose a different path”.

How much of the knowledge we get from knowing the consequences of our action would dictate our choice?
If we knew beforehand that our promotion would destroy the morale of a person and put he into depression, would we continue or not?

if the consequences were clear, would you do it anyway?

That’s a hard question that measure your inner status if the consequences produce some damage to other people.
We might end up with saying “how could I know?” but in the end the real question is: “If I knew it, would I have changed course?” because if not, it’s clear what you are.

When you have more than one insurance you can compare their behavior when something goes wrong.

I’m not saying a comparison on how they work on topics of the insurance but how does it work, for example, to cancel the insurance itself.

Chances are, one will have friction. One will make it difficult, harder, etc.
Having less friction is almost always a value. It allows people to make choice freely. So, even if your business doesn’t benefit from it, it makes people happy.

Friction, on the other hand, makes people anxious because they feel caged. Friction removes possibilities and blocks people from moving on.

Aiming for frictionless processes should be our gold standard.