What I’ve been up to

It has been a while since I have written anything for this site, so here goes! What have I been up to since May 2023 when I last wrote a post here? Well, 2023 was a busy year! I got married, was incredibly fortunate to enjoy a fair number of vacations in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Greece!

On the professional front, I am still heavily involved in a large, interesting, and more importantly challenging project for Points, now Plusgrade’s “Points Business Unit” since the 2022 acquisition has now kicked in.

While I have not had a lot of time to write about fun and interesting projects, what I have spent a lot of time on is learning. Being involved in more complex projects has given me the opportunity to stay out of my comfort zone, and more importantly, learn and grow.

That being said, here are my three core lessons I’ve learnt over the last year:

Your strategy is only as good as your ability to articulate it.

This is a wonderful line from Bob Iger’s Masterclass avert I constantly get served that. You can have the best plan in the world, but if you can’t communicate that plan to others in an impactful or meaningful way, the plan is useless. Take the time to refine your idea into a clear message, and think about how to communicate it with almost the same level of importance as the strategy itself.

Don’t sweat the small things

Also known as not dying on every hill. Not every argument, disagreement or quarrel deserves your energy. Perfect is the enemy of the good, so don’t sweat it, and focus on what you can change. Then move on.

Balance decision-making with their cost

Making small decisions quickly. Don’t spend a lot of time making decisions that are not expensive to undo. This is a small part of the book “Clear Thinking,” by Shane Parrish. The part that stuck with me was using “the cost of undoing a decision” as the key driver, for how long you should wait to make a decision. Easy to pivot and change the direction later, make the decision instantly and learn. The higher the cost of a decision, wait as long as you can, gathering as much information as possible before commiting.