Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

Posts

Sharing

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Sharing is hard. It exposes a point of view, a piece of context, that not everyone will want to receive. Not everyone will understand what you share and agreement is not yet met. You will almost certainly be misinterpreted.

Sharing is vulnerable. You’re admitting the things you don’t know while revealing what you’ve been focusing on. You’re asking people to listen to your idea. People always have opinions about new ideas.

Sharing is uncomfortable. You won’t be sure if your timing is right. You may not know who to share with first. You definitely haven’t thought of all the questions you’ll get and how to answer them.

Sharing is important. The only way to know if your idea works is to share it. The only way to gain allies is to share your perspective. Progress can only happen if we share.

Focus

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Our attention is limited by time, the nature of the mind, and by our choice of focus.

The more we focus on one thing, the less likely we are to notice another. Whether it’s doomscrolling, writing a memo, or churning something over in our head, our focus can be both productive and a distraction.

You don’t have to be absent-minded to miss something. It doesn’t mean you’re not smart if you have to re-read something after you catch your mind wandering. We all have limited time, limited capacity, and we need to focus to get things done.

Just remember: while you focus on one thing, you ignore another. So every now and then make sure to take a step back and make sure that whatever it is you’re ignoring, is by your own choice of focus.

Balance

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It’s surprising how often people look at only costs or revenue and make a decision. That’s a little like sitting on a teeter-totter by yourself and then proclaiming that it isn’t fun. Similarly, you can set out to provide the best handwoven tablecloths, but if you can’t make money, it won’t last long.

There are many pieces of the value puzzle beyond cost and revenue. Similarly it’s hard to measure whether you make the best cheeseburger in town without an income statement.

The trick is to set a vision, and do both.

Ask “how much does it cost?” when you have a meaningful goal in mind. When you crack the code to that cheeseburger, make sure your financial projections are reasonable.

The numbers are useful, and so is your intuition, just make sure you’re not relying too much on one or the other.