Define What Success Means Before Starting a New Project

November 17, 2010 By 1 Comment

Prior to starting any project I always ask a very simple question: What defines success?

This may seem like an obvious question but not necessarily. Many times we start projects not knowing what success actually means, by the numbers. We may think that we know what success will be but a lot of times those become moving targets that can make make it seem unobtainable.

By defining success metrics up front you’re able to honestly determine if success can even be achieved based on the project scope and the resources you have allocated to the project. It’s much better to determine that you need additional resources or to extend the deadline before you start a project instead of in the middle or once the deadline has already passed.

When you work as part of a project team, require this of the team. Some people may shrug their shoulders and others may want to figure it out later. Don’t let it be put off. It may be hard to define but it will serve as a better light by which you can guide and check in on the status of the project.

Are you already defining what success means before starting your projects? Have you found that it helps guide your projects?

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Photo Credit: seeveeaar

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Enabling Your Abilities

June 29, 2010 By 4 Comments

Knowing that I’m a huge fan of Timbaland and gadgets, a friend of mine recently sent me a video of his new tour bus. The tour bus has been completely outfitted with everything imaginable to allow him to record and mix a song whenever he has a stroke of creativity or when he has time in between performances, appearances and other responsibilities.

Besides thinking that the tour bus was awesome and being slightly jealous that I couldn’t have something uber-cool like that, it got me thinking about why Timbaland invested the money to build the tour bus.

Timbaland is one of the most sought after producers in the music business and also an award-winning artist. His ability to be creative anywhere at any time is critical to being able to stay on the top of his game. Without a tour bus with these capabilities, he would either have to turn down opportunities or do a lot of flying back and forth.

This brought me to consider whether or not I have an optimal set up with me at all times to enable content creation and fuel creativity.

To enable myself the ability to create content on-the-fly, the following tools are standard in my gear bag (mostly affiliate links):

In addition to the main gadgets, I also always have all of the cords, chargers, memory sticks, and other accessories that will allow me to transfer and upload my content and always be charging.

There certainly is some duplication between the capabilities of each of these gadgets but they do provide me the full suite of tools that I inevitably need during my travels.

I also always have a magazine or two and at least a book besides the magazines and books that I keep on my iPad and iPhone. While this doesn’t necessarily enable content creation, unless I’m reviewing a book for this blog, it does help to keep my mind sharp and inspire ideas.

Depending on where I’m traveling to, this bag will be tweaked but this is my standard day-to-day gear that I always carry with me.

While there may be some tools that could be upgraded or other tools that I want to add to my gear bag, my assessment is that I do have a complete set of tools to enable content creation and creativity from anywhere I may be.

Are you enabling your ability to be creative and create content anywhere you go? What say you?

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Doing the Advanced Work

June 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

It’s a natural feeling to want to be successful in life.  We constantly set goals, both short and long term, that hopefully lead to success.  Sometimes they’re short, quick wins and other times they are long term goals that lead to success such as saving for retirement.  Time and time again I hear people call others “lucky” or “fortunate” when they achieve success.  Is it really simply a matter of luck that leads to success?  I don’t think so.  Sure, I’ll agree that in almost any victory, a little bit of luck helps.  We all deal with small fires or bumps while achieving our goals.  We all have someone that mentors us, watches over us or gives helps to crack open the door.  What you do with that opportunity is up to each of us.  But, if you just sit back and wait for that door to be opened then you may never reach your goals.  So, what can you do to help achieve your goals, both short and long term achievements?  I’d argue it’s all in the advanced work.  It’s in the preparation and practice that you do leading up to achieving your goal.

In sports there are athletes who people, including me, think were born to play their given sport.  Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Serena and Venus Williams.  All examples of people who are extremely gifted athletes.  You could probably come up with another 10 athletes in your favorite sport(s) to list here as well that are amazing at the game they play.  While these athletes may be gifted, it is not simply that they were born to play the sport.  Their excellence is the result of years and years of doing the advanced work.  They spend their lives preparing for greatness.  We’ve all heard the stories of shooting hundreds of foul shots before a game; putting for hours on end; running wind sprints with parachutes attached until reaching pure exhaustion; and swimming hundreds of laps per day.  In this world, improving by just a mili-second can be the difference between reaching the holy grail in their sport.

Doing advanced work isn’t only for sports.  Musicians who are getting ready to go out on tour will practice their concerts for weeks and sometimes months before going out on the road.  Actors practice for hours at a time for what amount sometimes to only a few minutes of screen time.  For an event like the Inbound Marketing Summit, we spend almost an entire year planning every angle of the event to ensure a successful event for our attendees, speakers, sponsors, venue, and our team.

This leads me to consistently ask myself what I am doing to ensure future success.  Do you ask yourself this same question?  If so, you must define what success actually is ahead of time so that you can measure against it.  It’s hard to do advanced work for something you can’t measure.  Sometimes those goals change and that’s ok.  Change your success metrics and the advanced work to achieve those metrics.

A great example of doing advanced work is in planning a presidential event.  President Obama attends and speaks at several events every week, sometimes having 2-3+ events in a single day.  Each one of these requires weeks of preparation including security plans, emergency route planning, media plans, travel and scheduling and a number of other considerations.  Every second of President Obama’s movement is scheduled and planned ahead of time.  This planning isn’t done solely because of the President’s busy schedule, it is also to ensure a successful and safe event for all involved.  During one of President Obama’s visits, the White House Presidential Advance team filmed a couple behind-the-scenes videos as they prepared for an event.

If you can’t view these videos, you can check them out over on the White House’s YouTube channel.

What advanced work are you doing to prepare for your future success?

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