Who Not How
Stopped solo hero bullshit. Who questions unlocked my scaling.
buildingYour ability to succeed is based on the quality of the people in your life.
AQ's take: My circle's quality skyrocketed my wins. Garbage out.
Aug 16, 2024“Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives.” —Albert Einstein
AQ's take: Value giving flipped my taker fails into giver gains.
Aug 16, 2024The moral to the story: Don’t reach out to someone unless you have something meaningful to offer them. That “something” needs to be real and relevant, not just a compliment or flattery. True and real value. And if you want the relationship to continue, you must continue creating value.
AQ's take: Empty asks bombed. Real offers built lasting bonds.
Aug 16, 2024“You have to work less to make more money.”
AQ's take: Less grind, more cash. Wish I'd learned sooner.
Aug 16, 2024“Successful givers are every bit as ambitious as takers and matchers. They simply have a different way of pursuing their goals. . . . If you insist on a quid pro quo every time you help others, you will have a much narrower network. . . . Givers succeed in a way that creates a ripple effect, enhancing the success of people around them.” —Adam Grant
AQ's take: Giver success ripples hit my selfish solo fails hard.
Aug 16, 2024Joe loves this quote: “Be nice to the people on your way up, because you’ll meet them on the way down.”
AQ's take: Burned bridges haunt me. Now I build up.
Aug 16, 2024Unless you’re committed to the “What’s in it for them?” mind-set, and continue to nurture your relationships, then you’ll burn a lot of bridges along the way.
AQ's take: Future reminders in my crew beat past anchors.
Aug 16, 2024“Surround yourself with people who remind you more of the future than the past.”
AQ's take: Grateful nods to connectors changed my underrated network.
Aug 16, 2024“Self-made is an illusion. There are many people who played divine roles in you having the life that you have today. Be sure to let them know how grateful you are. Example: the person who introduced you to the person who introduced you to your spouse or business partner or client. Go back that far.” —Michael Fishman
AQ's take: Appreciation crave exposed my thankless team-killing days.
Aug 16, 2024“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.” —William James
AQ's take: WIIFT mindset saved my selfish outreach disasters.
Aug 16, 2024Always ask “What’s in it for them?” rather than “What’s in it for me?”
AQ's take: Wasted years pitching blind. Homework first, or stay broke.
Aug 16, 2024Get to know them, their context, and their goals. Give relevant value. Don’t waste their time. Do your homework.
AQ's take: Burned bridges with transactional BS. This demands real connection.
Aug 16, 2024If you want to develop transformational relationships, then approach relationships in a transformational, rather than transactional, way.
AQ's take: Delivered zero upfront value once. Lost the deal. Never again.
Aug 16, 2024Bring a result to the table. Make the pie bigger for everyone involved. Don’t come with big promises of future results. Bring immediate results. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.
AQ's take: My dumb opinions? Kiyosaki calls it poor distinctions. Ouch.
Aug 16, 2024“Intelligence is the ability to make finer distinctions.” —Robert Kiyosaki
AQ's take: Finally designing my life, not reacting. Game-changer after agency chaos.
Aug 16, 2024She imagined and designed her circumstances, how she worked, who she worked with, and what her life would look like.
AQ's take: 20 years grinding WordPress taught me: persistence rewires reality.
Aug 16, 2024“If you work on something important for twenty years, it will transform everything around you.”
AQ's take: Hell yeah or no? Saved me from 10 crap projects last year.
Aug 16, 2024“When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than ‘Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!’—then say ‘no.’”
AQ's take: Two-way fit killed my people-pleasing. Now only excited collabs.
Aug 16, 2024“Look, there’s absolutely no pressure for you to work with us. This is a two-way interview, and we are both evaluating if it’s a great fit. If you choose a different advisory firm, we will be absolutely fine. We only want to work together if we are excited and 100 percent on the same page for goals and expectations. Being aligned and upfront with each other from day one is crucial to a successful long-term relationship. And in the end, that’s what it’s all about.”
AQ's take: Old memories haunt my ADHD brain. Need bigger ambitions to escape.
Aug 16, 2024“We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.”
AQ's take: Prioritized takers too long. Twain's quote? My divorce wake-up.
Aug 16, 2024“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” —attributed to Mark Twain
AQ's take: Chasing tiny goals crushed confidence. Big ones rebuild it daily.
Aug 16, 2024“Personal confidence comes from making progress toward goals that are far bigger than your present capabilities.”
AQ's take: Cut vision-misaligned clients. Revenue dipped, then exploded 3x.
Aug 16, 2024In order to have Freedom of Relationship, you can no longer engage with people that don’t align with your vision.
AQ's take: Solo founder hell. Needed team to scale BionicWP.
Aug 16, 2024“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” —Reid Hoffman
AQ's take: AI as teammate? Already building agents to obsolete me.
Aug 16, 2024“Technology is a team member that keeps getting smarter and faster.”
AQ's take: My 'perfect' posts? Never shipped. Done beats perfect every time.
Aug 16, 2024“A painting is never finished—it simply stops in interesting places.” —Paul Gardner
AQ's take: 80% ships, 100% stalls. My Ghost graveyard proves it.
Aug 16, 2024“Eighty percent is already getting results while a hundred percent is still thinking about it.” —Dan Sullivan
AQ's take: Published imperfect daily. Habit stuck after 30 fails.
Aug 16, 2024Finally, get used to “publishing” or sending out imperfect work. Nothing is ever truly “finished,” only “done.” Done is better than perfect.
AQ's take: ADHD emotions overwhelm. Naming them shrinks the monster.
Aug 16, 2024“Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.” —Viktor Frankl quoting Spinoza’s Ethics in Man’s Search for Meaning
AQ's take: Expressed buried feelings to therapist. Lighter than therapy alone.
Aug 16, 2024“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.” —Mr. Rogers
AQ's take: Always learning beats experience rut. ADHD fuel now.
Aug 16, 2024Dan says, “Always make your learning greater than your experience.”
AQ's take: Ambition excuse? Nah. Chased hosting dreams despite Karachi doubters.
Aug 16, 2024“Ambition and success need no justification.”
AQ's take: ADHD spin cycle busted. Results in hours, not endless fails.
Aug 16, 2024“Getting results doesn’t take much time at all. It’s not getting the results that takes up all the time.”
AQ's take: Pretended expertise too long. Asking smart folks fixed my messes.
Aug 16, 2024You don’t have all the answers. It’s wise to consider yourself ignorant on most things, and to seek other people’s perspectives and solutions.
AQ's take: Hero to painters' team? Calendars filled. Wish I'd started Day 1.
Aug 16, 2024Seek to be a hero to those you work with, and you’ll do your best work for them.
AQ's take: Quit LinkedIn ego races. Building AI agents solo now.
Aug 16, 2024“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” —Ayn Rand
AQ's take: Burnout vanished when purpose hit. Agency grind made sense.
Aug 16, 2024Said Viktor Frankl, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
AQ's take: 17-hour days wasted. BionicWP exploded on results only.
Aug 16, 2024“Entrepreneurs base their lives on results. It’s not about time or effort.”
AQ's take: Micromanaging isolated me. Team fled, I crashed hard.
Aug 16, 2024“Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.” —Dalai Lama
AQ's take: Rivals? Ignored them. Built uncopyable WP magic.
Aug 16, 2024“Competition is for losers.” —Peter Thiel
AQ's take: Regret loop broken. Future visions fixed today's chaos.
Aug 16, 2024“The only way you can make your present better is by making your future better.”
Aug 16, 2024“If you have enough money to solve a problem, then you don’t have a problem.”
AQ's take: Finally freed from fake problems. Cash solves real ones fast.
Aug 2, 2024Our culture has brainwashed us into avoiding costs rather than making powerful investments in ourselves and our futures. As a result, we willingly do all sorts of “busy” or ineffective work outside our expertise and passion, falsely believing that “working hard” or engaging in such tasks is worth it.
AQ's take: Nailed my old burnout grind. Busywork bullshit wasted years.
Aug 2, 2024“No one ever lost any advantage by being humble, interested, and useful.”
AQ's take: Humility opened doors I bulldozed shut before.
Aug 2, 2024“Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution toward the things that really matter.” —Greg McKeown
AQ's take: Saying no unlocked my best work. Permission granted.
Aug 2, 2024Whos, when selected properly to fit within your vision, are never a cost. Whos are an investment.
AQ's take: Whos multiplied my output. Never regretted the spend.
Aug 2, 2024“You can survive without a community, but you can’t thrive without one.”
AQ's take: No solo thriving for me. Community fueled my comebacks.
Aug 2, 2024Believing that doing all of the Hows yourself is noble is a limiting belief. It’s not noble.
AQ's take: Dropped noble solo myth. Teammates crushed my solo efforts.
Aug 2, 2024When you focus on How, it’s often based on a scarcity mind-set and cost avoidance.
AQ's take: Scarcity Hows starved my growth. Vision Whos exploded it.
Aug 2, 2024“You’re either in communication or trying to escape.” —Joe Polish
AQ's take: Escaping convos killed my networks. Now I engage.
Aug 2, 2024“Commitment is a statement of what ‘is.’ You can know what you’re committed to by your results, not by what you say your commitments are. We are all committed. We are all producing results. The result is proof of a commitment.” —Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp
AQ's take: Results show I'm committed to distraction. Ouch.
Aug 1, 2024Psychologists call this Escalation of Commitment: Every time you invest yourself in something, you become more committed to it.
AQ's take: Sunk cost fallacy kept me in bad jobs. Escaped finally.
Aug 1, 2024“There are two kinds of suffering: long suffering and short suffering. The choice is yours.”
AQ's take: Short pain now beats long agony later. Learned the hard way.
Aug 1, 2024The focus for entrepreneurs always has to be on results or there’s no revenue coming in.
AQ's take: Revenue demands results. No mercy for busywork.
Aug 1, 2024According to Self-Determination Theory, every human being has three basic psychological needs related to their work: A sense of competence Autonomy in how they do their work Positive and meaningful relationships
AQ's take: Needed competence and autonomy at my agencies. Finally got it.
Aug 1, 2024Interestingly, though, research has found that teams who have high levels of autonomy but low goal clarity, as well as little performance feedback, actually perform worse than teams with low autonomy. However, when a team has 1) high autonomy, 2) high goal clarity, and also 3) gets regular feedback on their results, then their performance shoots through the roof.
AQ's take: Clarity + autonomy = rocket fuel. My teams proved it.
Aug 1, 2024Instead of providing radical clarity, giving profound trust and autonomy, and being committed to the results and flexible to the process, too many leaders obsessively micromanage the process of their Whos.
AQ's take: Micromanaging killed my first company. Lesson learned.
Aug 1, 2024By having clear Success Criteria, meaning what has to be true when this project is finished, you can ensure your Who doesn’t get lost. At the same time, you give them full autonomy in how they make that Success Criteria real.
AQ's take: Success Criteria saved my Whos from wandering. Simple fix.
Aug 1, 2024“Always reward creators. Never reward complainers.”
AQ's take: Reward builders, ignore whiners. Cleaned my team fast.
Aug 1, 2024Transformational leaders invest in their Whos, challenge them, help them clearly see the vision, and ultimately, get their Whos just as committed and invested as they are.
AQ's take: Got my Whos obsessed like me. Multiplied results.
Aug 1, 2024Leaders should be committed to results, not to a particular process.
AQ's take: Results over process. Saved my ass repeatedly.
Aug 1, 2024“Lessons are repeated until learned.” —Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott
AQ's take: Repeated my procrastination lesson till I journaled daily.
Aug 1, 2024“As an individual, your time and attention are linear and finite. You only have so much. So, when you ask yourself, ‘How?’ then you have to be the one to find out where to learn, you have to be the one to actually learn how to do it, and once you’ve learned how to do it, then you have to be the one to actually do the task for the unforeseen future. If at some point in the future, you decide to hire someone to do it for you, then you’ll have to train them.”
AQ's take: How? stole years. Who? hands back life.
Jul 19, 2024Unlike technical problems, adaptive problems do not have a known answer, according to Dean. Because they don’t have a known answer, they require a creator. That’s where you are the “Who.” Everything that has ever been invented or innovated was done by a Who, acting as a creator, solving an adaptive problem.
AQ's take: Adaptive chaos? I'm creator now. No cookbook.
Jul 19, 2024“The most useful thing you can do for other people is appreciate their value.”
AQ's take: Appreciating talent? Teams explode. Magic.
Jul 19, 2024“Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.” —Alfred North Whitehead
AQ's take: Automate dumb stuff. Brain freed. Genius mode.
Jul 19, 2024“Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.” —Michael Jordan
AQ's take: MJ decisions: no rethink. My doubt killer.
Jul 19, 2024In psychology, there is a concept known as decision fatigue. What it means is that, having lots of things on your mind and weighing decisions can really exhaust your energy and willpower. Even small stressors, like finding a parking spot or worrying about being late for a meeting, can tax your mind.
AQ's take: Decision fatigue wrecked me. Simpler choices heal.
Jul 19, 2024You’ve got to step up and commit to doing things better and smarter, not solely working harder.
AQ's take: Smarter not harder. Who? rebuilt me fast.
Jul 19, 2024“You can have everything you love in life as long as you give up what you hate.”
AQ's take: Quit hating 3am emails. Now I love sleep more. Game changer.
Jul 19, 2024Will Durant, explained it this way: “The ability of the average man could be doubled if it were demanded, if the situation demanded.”
AQ's take: Deadlines forced my lazy ass to double output. Brutal truth.
Jul 19, 2024Only those who value their time can become increasingly free in the realm of money.
AQ's take: Time freedom first? Explains why money chased me after quitting burnout.
Jul 19, 2024“Don’t twist yourself out of shape to be attractive to people you don’t want to work with.”
AQ's take: No more bending for shitty clients. Life's too short.
Jul 19, 2024You can’t have money freedom until you achieve time freedom.
AQ's take: Can't buy Ferraris if chained to desk. Hit home hard.
Jul 19, 2024By freeing up your time, you get the invaluable benefit of freeing up your mind.
AQ's take: Freed my brain from ops hell. Ideas exploded.
Jul 19, 2024Making the single decision to add a Who to a specific area of your life eliminates decision fatigue in that area.
AQ's take: One Who killed my daily grind decisions. Freedom.
Jul 19, 2024Eliminating decision fatigue from your life should be one of your primary goals if you want to be a high performer and increase your income.
AQ's take: Ditched fatigue, income jumped. Wish I knew sooner.
Jul 19, 2024“Creative people are always inventing their past, present, and future.”
AQ's take: Rewriting flops as wins? My daily therapy.
Jul 17, 2024“What is the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it’s not how much time you spend doing what you love. It’s how little time you spend doing what you hate.” —Casey Neistat
AQ's take: Neistat freed me. Hates list slashed. Loving life now.
Jul 17, 2024Rather than asking, “How are we going to do this?” he asks, “Who are we going to get, either internally or externally, to make this happen?”
AQ's take: Who? ended my solo suffering. Plate's clean.
Jul 17, 2024You get in life what you tolerate.
AQ's take: Tolerated toxic hires. Cut 'em. Life improved.
Jul 17, 2024“Isolation is fertile ground for hallucination.”
AQ's take: Isolation bred my delusions. Need real talk.
Jul 17, 2024Here are the questions on the one-page Moving Future process, which will help you improve your time every 90 days: Looking back over the past quarter, what are the things you have achieved that make you the proudest? What are the current areas of focus and progress that make you the most confident? Looking ahead at the next quarter, what new developments, projects, or goals are giving you the greatest sense of excitement? What are the five new “jumps” (progress) you can now achieve that will make your next 90 days a great quarter regardless of what else happens?
AQ's take: 90-day questions exposed my BS. Proud reset.
Jul 17, 2024“It’s more satisfying to be useful now than to be remembered later.”
AQ's take: Legacy dreams flop. Today's help? Pure win.
Jul 17, 2024Your potential is virtually limitless when you stop asking “How?” and start asking “Who?”
AQ's take: Who? blew open my limits. How? was prison.
Jul 17, 2024“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” —Peter Drucker
AQ's take: Efficiency fooled me busy. Effectiveness wins.
Jul 17, 2024Yet, none of this would have happened if Michael had tried to do everything himself. Sure, he may have won one or two championships. He would’ve had an incredible stat sheet. But he would not have emerged as a legend in one of the most dominant dynasties in sports.
AQ's take: Ego crushed. I solo-hustled to burnout, MJ shows team makes legends.
Jul 16, 2024However, the most crucial lesson may be that Michael Jordan was not a self-contained entity. His “potential” was not innate or fixed, but rather, contextual and relational. Michael Jordan was literally changed and expanded through his team, coaches, and experiences.
AQ's take: Solo myth busted. My 'innate' potential tripled with right Whos.
Jul 16, 2024If Michael Jordan couldn’t get to, let alone win, a championship by himself, why would you even consider trying to pursue your goals on your own?
AQ's take: Nailed my lone wolf fails. No championships without squad.
Jul 16, 2024What are YOU trying to accomplish? Do you have Whos in your life that give you the perspectives, resources, and ability to go beyond what you could do alone? Or are you keeping your goals so small to make them easier to accomplish them on your own?
AQ's take: My tiny solo goals screamed safe. Need Whos for real scale.
Jul 16, 2024It can be easy to focus on How, especially for high achievers who want to control what they can control, which is themselves. It takes vulnerability and trust to expand your efforts and build a winning team. It takes wisdom to recognize that 1) other people are more than capable enough to handle much of the Hows, and 2) that your efforts and contribution (your “Hows”) should be focused exclusively where your greatest passion and impact are. Your attention and energy should not be spread thin, but purposefully directed where you can experience extreme flow and creativity.
AQ's take: Control freak confession. Wasted years on Hows, ignored Whos.
Jul 16, 2024Results, not effort, is the name of the game. You are rewarded in life by the results you produce, not the effort and time you put in.
AQ's take: Logged endless hours, zero wins. Results reality check hurts good.
Jul 16, 2024Yet, this “How” question is what you’ve been taught to ask your whole life. Our public education system is entirely based on “How.” We’re taught from a young age that we need to do everything ourselves. We’re taught that getting help from others is “cheating,” and something we absolutely shouldn’t do.
AQ's take: School wired my solo grind addiction. Time to rewire.
Jul 16, 2024If you’re ready to realize a much bigger and more powerful future, then you must stop asking yourself, “How can I accomplish this?” That question, although common, leads to mediocre results, frustration, and a life of regrets. A much better question is: “Who can help me achieve this?”
AQ's take: Brain shift unlocked. Who question ended my solo hell.
Jul 16, 2024That’s what real leadership is: Creating and clarifying the vision (the “what”), and giving that vision greater context and importance (the “why”) for all Whos involved. Once the “what” and “why” have clearly been established, the specified “Who” or “Whos” have all they need to go about executing the “How.” All the leader needs to do at that point is support and encourage the Who(s) through the process.
AQ's take: Micromanaging killer exposed. Vision + Why freed my Whos.
Jul 16, 2024When you’re trying to accomplish something challenging or difficult that you’ve never done before, you probably need a Who. Let me say that another way: You absolutely need a Who if you’re trying to accomplish something new and challenging, unless you’re fine not getting the result you want in the near future.
AQ's take: New challenges crushed my solo genius act. Who saved me.
Jul 16, 2024“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” —Ronald Reagan
AQ's take: Credit hog phase yielded nothing. Reagan truth stings.
Jul 16, 2024According to Kegan, the basest form of psychological development is the Socializing Self, which is when a person operates out of fear, anxiety, and dependence. You don’t make your own decisions. You don’t have your own goals. Instead, you are simply trying to be accepted by your peers and will do anything you can to conform with them.
AQ's take: Old peer-pleasing me exposed. Fear stalled everything.
Jul 16, 2024Above the Socializing Self is the Authoring Self, which is when you’ve gone from unhealthily dependent to a much more healthy independence. You’ve developed your own sense of self. You have a worldview, goals, and an agenda. However, you have a perceptual filter that you cannot see beyond. Everything you do is to confirm your bias and achieve your narrow goals. This is where most people stop in their development, highly convinced of their own perspectives and unwilling to alter those views.
AQ's take: Stubborn bias phase wrecked me. Couldn't see beyond my nose.
Jul 16, 2024The Transforming Self is different from the Authoring Self in that rather than being individualistic and competitive, it is more relational and collaborative. When at this higher level, you engage in collaborative relationships for the sake of transformation. All parties have their own perspectives, beliefs, and agendas. Yet they come together for the purpose of having their own views, and even their own identities and sense of self expand. The whole becomes new and greater than the sum of all parts.
AQ's take: Collaborative level calling. Solo authoring drained my soul.
Jul 16, 2024“The only way to make your present better is by making your future bigger.”
AQ's take: Shrinking futures kept present miserable. Bigger vision fixed it.
Jul 16, 2024“Ben, the thing that would make Dan happiest is if you, as the primary Who, would fully own the How. So go own it!”
AQ's take: Handed off How, team exploded. Pure magic watching.
Jul 16, 2024Not only must the Who fully own the How, but they must have complete permission to do so.
AQ's take: Trusting Who ownership 10x'd speed. Micromanaging regret city.
Jul 16, 2024If you’re going to apply higher levels of teamwork in your life, you’ll need to relinquish control over how things get done.
AQ's take: Letting go control multiplied results. Addict no more.
Jul 16, 2024As Albert Einstein has said, “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”
AQ's take: Freedom unleashed my best team's sparks. Boxes killed mine.
Jul 16, 2024A core aspect of leadership is being explicit about the vision. The more explicit you are in what you want, the faster you’ll attract the right Whos to help you achieve that vision. The leader explains the “What” and “Why” and then allows the “Who” to execute the “How.”
AQ's take: Clear vision pulled killer Whos. Vague dreams got nobodies.
Jul 16, 2024“Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.”
AQ's take: Hell version of me haunts my regrets. Wasted potential stings.
Jul 16, 2024“How” is linear and slow. “Who” is non-linear, instantaneous, and exponential.
AQ's take: Exponential Who crushes my linear How struggles. Game changer.
Jul 16, 2024Today Is My Everything.
AQ's take: Today owns me now. No more tomorrow excuses.
Jul 16, 2024“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
AQ's take: Seneca nails my time squander. Finite hits hard.
Jul 16, 2024Time is finite. We all have 24 hours. Before you can master any of the other freedoms, you must become a master of your own time.
AQ's take: 24 hours masterclass woke my lazy ass.
Jul 16, 2024“Creators don’t complain; complainers don’t create.”
AQ's take: Complaining killed my output. Creators create. Lesson learned.
Jul 16, 2024If you’re focused on doing everything yourself, then you are dramatically limiting the resources you can direct toward your goals.
AQ's take: Solo everything? Bottleneck city. Delegate or die.
Jul 16, 2024“Our eyes only see and our ears only hear what our brain is looking for.”
AQ's take: Brain bias explains my blind spots perfectly.
Jul 16, 2024“You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” —Meredith Willson
AQ's take: Tomorrows piled into empty yesterdays. Brutal truth.
Jul 16, 2024As Dan has said, “Personal confidence comes from making progress toward goals that are far bigger than your present capabilities.”
AQ's take: Big goals built my confidence from zero.
Jul 16, 2024Research has shown that the number one deathbed regret for most people is that they never took steps to do what they truly wanted to do with their lives. Instead, they procrastinated when it came to realizing their deepest dreams and settled for less.
AQ's take: Deathbed regrets mirror my procrastination sins.
Jul 16, 2024“A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.” —Charles Darwin
AQ's take: Darwin shames my hour wastes. Value life now.
Jul 16, 2024Procrastination is a very powerful signal telling you that it’s time to get another Who involved. You’re stuck. You need help. The question is: Will you find that help or just sit by yourself?
AQ's take: Procrastination screams for Who. No more solo hell.
Jul 16, 2024#1: BE RADICALLY EXPLICIT ABOUT YOUR GOALS
AQ's take: Explicit goals unlocked my vague fog.
Jul 16, 2024“When you speak of what you want, and even one person hears, it may begin a generative loop.” —Joshua Wolf Shenk
AQ's take: Speaking goals summoned Whos instantly.
Jul 16, 2024The Impact Filter, as a one-page document, solves this most pervasive leadership conundrum, and is comprised of the following questions: What is the project? Purpose: What do you want to accomplish? Importance: What’s the biggest difference this will make? Ideal Outcome: What does the completed project look like? Best Result: If you do take action? Worst Result: If you don’t take action? Success Criteria: What has to be true when this project is finished?
AQ's take: Impact Filter sold my vision in one page.
Jul 16, 2024As a rule, most people do not take the time to 1) clarify their goals or 2) adequately explain their goals. Rather than being explicit about their aims, it is common for people to keep those to themselves. By answering the Impact Filter questions, you’ll be equipped to explain to other people what you want, and why it is so important. Being able to articulate and express your goals is one of the most important and fundamental skills necessary for success. Only when your goal is clearly defined and persuasively expressed can you start getting the support you need to achieve your goals.
AQ's take: Secret goals got zero traction. Explicit wins.
Jul 16, 2024# 2: ASK YOURSELF: “WHO CAN HELP ME ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL?”
AQ's take: Who question freed me from How prison.
Jul 16, 2024Dan often says, “The purpose of the Impact Filter is first to sell yourself on the vision, because you can’t sell other people unless you’re sold yourself.”
AQ's take: Filter convinced me first. Now Whos buy in.
Jul 16, 2024I’m not entirely sure of her process for hiring because it’s her process, not mine. That’s part of the magic, I don’t need to do it because I don’t want to do it. I’m not the Who for that job. Therefore, I would never tell Whitney “How” to do this. She’s brilliant at it and loves doing it.
AQ's take: Hands off Who magic. Whitney crushed it.
Jul 16, 2024That’s one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs and leaders make: micromanaging their Whos and insisting that they do their jobs in a particular way, when the only thing that matters is the end result. Once success has been defined, restrain yourself from needing to know or care “How” it gets done. Your only concern should be that it gets done.
AQ's take: I've micromanaged teams to burnout. Results rule. My control died here.
Jul 16, 2024“Having a capability is not an obligation to use it.”
AQ's take: Old skills haunt me. Ditched FrontPage guilt. Freedom.
Jul 16, 2024Procrastination is the by-product of having a goal and asking “How?” instead of “Who?”
AQ's take: How? paralyzed my ADHD brain. Who? unleashes it.
Jul 16, 2024Procrastination has many negative effects, such as decreased well-being, frustration, and ultimately, a loss of ambition.
AQ's take: Procrastination crushed my drive. Woke up ambitionless.
Jul 16, 2024