The title of this post is “stolen” from an interview of Joe Rogan with Jon Jones (an American mixed martial artist). As Joe had it, the responsibility of greatness comes with potential. It’s not about what you’ve done, but what you could have done. It is about your potential, about what’s in you.
What immediately comes to my mind is also a phrase on which a famous life coach Marie Forleo always ends her show episodes: “Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams, because the world needs that special gift that only YOU have”.
So let’s briefly discuss this: the gifts or talents and the responsibility to deploy them.
In this article I will of course show-off that I still remember some operations management stuff from my MBA. Yet, I promise I’ll share quite some value as well, because a lot of those complicated terms boil down to a very practical and down-to-earth principles, applicable equally good to a factory and to a simple household.
Operations management in its essence is about dealing with complexity. So… let’s simplify our everyday life, shall we?
“Be nice!” – that’s something a kid hears a lot. Since early on we are expected to be nice to others, meaning at least: be friendly, share and help the ones in need. “She is a nice person!” – that is supposed to be a compliment. “That’s so nice of you!” – is meant as a sincere “thank you”. However, what is “nice”? Moreover, is it always good to be nice? Let’s discuss.
I actually got to thinking about this subject after I came across an article mentioning ruinous empathy. Ruinous empathy? – I thought – how can that be? For me, empathy is an essential and positive skill. How can it be ruinous? What does it mean? So I did a quick Google search and discovered that such thing indeed exists, yet in fact has little to do with actual empathy. We talk about it in a situations when a person is not saying what needs to be said, because he or she is desperately trying to be nice in order to protect someone else’s feelings. Let me give you a very simple (even simplistic) example to demonstrate ruinous empathy:
A couple of days ago I was using my husband’s iPad to show cartoons to our kids on YouTube. Now when he goes on YouTube he is bombarded with new episodes of “Fixies” and “Octonauts”. Yesterday I accidentally clicked on an ad for some sort of a desk decor and today this desk decor is “attacking” me from every ad space there is. Targeting in action. I got it. Seems to be based on my interests, right? But is it? Doesn’t it look like someone makes an assumption about my interests and defines a “frame” for me to fit in? Can I still choose “yellow”, if someone tries to direct (read: limit) my choice to “red or blue”?
Have you noticed that even those people who are shy and reserved in real life, who tend to abstain from engaging in a debate, happen to actively voice their opinions on the web?
How many “anonymous” comments have you seen recently? Were they harsh, judgemental and maybe even cruel? Probably. At least much more so compared to the ones voiced out loud, in real life.
Family Life CEO 