John Winsor

Nobody Cares

I've been thinking a lot lately about how egos get in the way of getting good work done. Sometimes, it's trying to hold onto to something that you should let go of, like a definition of yourself. While I was contemplating this I saw a bumper sticker:

"Nobody Cares if You Tele."

In this case, Tele means telemark skiing. As a long time tele-skier myself, I've been a victim of the self-righteousness that the sport breeds with sayings like "Free your Heels and Free your Mind."

The bumper sticker made me laugh at myself. Maybe that's the best way to get beyond your ego.

It's good to remind myself that nobody cares that I work at CP+B. It's about all about the work.

Belgrade Design Week

I've been hanging here in Belgrade speaking and attending at the Belgrade Design Week. What an amazing experience it's been. While I'm used to going to branding and advertising, this is was such a breath of fresh air. In fact, it's probably one of the most interesting conferences I've attended. I think it's because of the eclectic nature of the participants. Speakers came from all over the globe and from every discipline from architecture to industrial design to marketing.

And, Belgrade, itself, has been amazing. What a wonderful city and such amazing people.

If you get stuck with the myopia of your own industry, try getting out and exploring new areas.

It's All About the Work

Fellow CP+Ber, Todd Walker, writes a nice blog, Designing Innovations. I loved this Chuck Close quote he posted:

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work and the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will, through work, bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never dream up if you were just sitting around looking for a great art idea. And that a belief in that the process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel everyday.

I always get stuck at the start of a project. When tackling something, like a new book, the task always seems too large to get my arms around. I guess the best solution is to just get to work.

Going Slow to Go Fast

I’ve been feeling the need to get in shape lately. Sure, I’m in shape but not the kind of shape that I used to be a few years ago. You know the drill. To get a good baseline, I decided to go do a Lactic Threshold test with a VO2 max test. I had forgotten how painful the experience of taking these tests are. From getting your finger pricked every few minutes as you’re trying to push yourself hard to having to breath through a tube as your nose is plugged while you start to see stars from pushing so hard.

Well, the gratifying news was that I scored higher than I did 7 years ago. That made me feel good. But there was something more surprising when I really started to look at the numbers closely. It seems I’ve been doing what most other middle-aged, type A, males do. We train too hard. Every day, with limited time, we go out and try to see how fast we can go for 30 or 60 minutes. The result is we never get anywhere.

Since the tests I’ve got a new program. Ride slow 85% of the time and ride really fast (for me) 15% of the time. The slow riding is not only so much more enjoyable but it’s giving me the chance to rest up for when I really push myself. As a result I’m getting fitter. So, by going slower, I’m going faster. I’m not sure why this feels like a new revelation. I’ve heard it a million times when I used to train. It’s just that the results are so obvious. It creates such good momentum.

It’s the same thing in business. I have a tendency to go at the same semi-fast pace all of the time. Now, by going slower in business, I’m finding I can go so much faster.