Month Two: Judgement Day
Well, I can say dry January gave my plan an accelerator, to place a brick on the gas petal sort of accelerator. February was much calmer, and I restored some essential functions, like seeing friends on the weekends, having a drink after work, etc. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes over America, I am back to shelter in my apartment, working out here, reading, and educating myself to the best of my ability.
February wasn’t as ultra-productive as January, but I did accomplish most of my goals.
I stayed on track with soft skills training. Diving further into Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Here is the advice I received from him:
Become genuinely interested in other people
Smile
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener, encourage others to talk about themselves
Talk in terms of the other person interests
Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely
If you need more context to these items, I strongly suggest you read the book yourself. The examples Dale uses are incredibly uplifting and still relevant today.
“The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene is starting to impress me. The historical research and examples are genuinely exemplary. Also, griding through the various corporate jobs, I’ve seen the dark side of the business world. You want to know how your enemy is thinking, and what to prepare for, how to respond. To reiterate, one law a week for 48 weeks this year is my goal.
Law 5: So much depends on reputation — guard it with your life
Law 6: Court attention at all costs
Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit
Law 8: Make other people come to you — use bait if necessary
Again, I am not going to dive into detail on any of these; I suggest you read the book. But, I am not taking every law and trying to integrate it into my daily routine. There are two sides. On the one hand, I am looking at other people who may be trying to use these laws to gain power. On the other hand, the ones I believe in to be moral and just, I am trying to turn into habits. But I believe to be able to see how your enemy is thinking is a great advantage in life.
My goal of the month was to brush up on my product management skills and terminology. For that, I read James Turner’s “Lean — The Beginners Bible,” which claimed to be four books in one. While I disagree, you can call any of the books, more of copy and paste from the internet with wildly inappropriate commentary and opinions of a child. You can tell the author never worked in a Six Sigma organization and possessed very rudimentary views of Scrum/Lean. The book was so bad that I went to leave a condemning review on Amazon, and they do not carry the book anymore. So if anyone else would like a copy, please shoot me a message, and I am happy to give you mine.
My favorite listen of the month was “Let My People Go Surfing” by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. Not only was the book a fascinating insight on how to build a socially conscious successful company, but the man’s life was wild. The end of the book was about a strong pitch for saving this earth, one of the most engaging I’ve ever heard. It left a lasting impression on me. It made me think of the economic model we live in and why it’s not working. You can’t have a model of having to buy things continuously, the waste will become insurmountable, it won’t last forever. The COVID-19 crisis further proves the point; our economic system is too fragile for both the people and the planet. It only benefits a minimal number of people on this planet.
The time I had reserved for reading two other books was snatched away from me by my projects at work. The benefit of this is I worked with my client’s lead designer and was able to learn Sketch last month. I successfully implemented two high-end wireframes and used it to complete two full website designs in March, which I’ll write more about later.
I was also able to finish the first two sections of a class called “Introduction to Data Science” taught by Harvard-X. I’m now pretty familiar with R-Studio and in the process of learning the R programming language. Sometimes I love it; sometimes, I want to throw my Mac out the window. I did not initially plan for this, but a very talented data scientist recommended the class to me. So I will be spreading my data and analytics curriculum throughout the rest of the year. From the first article, I knew things are fluid and will change.
If you would like to read more, here are the first two entries:
Month One: Business Strategy and Execution
Cheers,
Mike