A.B.C. TOOLBOX #8

On giving credit to your ex-colleague, mimicking great people and… procrastination.

Hello! Welcome to the A.B.C. TOOLBOX bulletin — a weekly selection of ideas, tools and people that I have come across and found interesting.
Remember: it is written with the intention to inspire and help you grow in business. I hope you will enjoy it!

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A. Book: Applied entrepreneurship

I’ve been reading another guide to becoming a better self. Chewing on a lot of self-help books can be frustrating.

Some of them are over-simplistic and show self-development and achieving goals in a 3-step, easy one-click manner. Then I look at the reality and it is way more complicated.

While some general rules and habits are very useful — it is by understanding the details of certain decisions made by certain people that we can observe and absorb greatness.

So if you already have the general self-development framework and look for vivid examples of greatness in action — reading autobiographies can be very rewarding.

They are a first person report of certain events and thus provide us with the raw material to come up with our own conclusions.

Although an autobiography is not reality and can be biased, if done right it provides the reader with interesting data and can make you feel like you are a companion of someone else’s journey through life.

If you are willing to become an entrepreneur or you are an entrepreneur looking for clues and doubting your own sanity — you must read “Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the creator of NIKE”.

Phil Knight’s autobiography grabbed me with his authentic love for sports and outstanding ability to gather talented people. It will take you on a rollercoaster, so enjoy the ride.

“Shoe Dog” is one of the TOP 3 books I have read this year. I hope you like it, too.

B. Idea: Giving credit to the ones who shape us

This year is my 15th anniversary of becoming a full time professional.

It asked for a small recap. Looking backwards I realized that almost everything I have achieved is thanks to the people I have met.

My bosses, clients, team members and friends. I hated some of them at that time, but now I just want to hug them.

I feel guilty how little credit and attention I gave to each and every one of them.

Time was moving so fast, there were things to do and I was so technocratic. I feel ashamed.

What I have decided to do is get back in touch with them, one by one, to thank all my “shapers" personally and ask if they needed any help.

Do you have any ideas on how to show gratitude in a convincing manner? Have you ever had similar ideas?

C. Blog: Procrastination - a confession

My mom once told me a story about her university years.

When students were supposed to be studying for an exam they suddenly found many other interesting and absorbing activities.

For example boiling water for tea required a personal chaperon of the kettle throughout the whole heating process.

So they stood and stared at the kettle, killing time. Time that was not meant to be killed. Time that was meant to be used for studying.

If you’ve ever experienced an avalanche of ideas calling for immediate action, when you were supposed to do something that didn’t excite you — you may want to read it.

My new blog post on procrastination: why it happens and how to deal with it: “Confession of a happy procrastinator”.

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That is it for this Friday. Tell me which text was your favorite - A, B or C!

Just reply to this email. :)

Have a great weekend!

Greg Albrecht

P.S. 7 listopada o 20:00 czasu polskiego odbędzie się Facebook Live (tym razem po polsku) na moim Fan Page’u. Temat to: "Co dalej w karierze? Praktyczne techniki własnego rozwoju.” Podzielę się doświadczeniem własnym i moich klientów w budowaniu kapitału kariery i własnym rozwoju (bez tanich chwytów i dróg na skróty). Będzie mi miło, gdy dołączysz i zaprosisz znajomego! To wydarzenie jest bezpłatne.

 

 

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