Early this morning, I woke and wrote a blog post. One of my best ever; if you ask me. Here’s the thing: You’ll probably never get to read it. Shelby’s response upon editing: “Wow, just wow.” I’ve worked with Shelby long enough to know that wasn’t a “wow.” That was a “hmm” kind of “wow.”
I read the post to my wife. She’s my counter-weight and I could tell she wasn’t a fan of all the passion in the post. I asked Shelby what she really thought and she said you should keep a journal and that belongs there; not on your blog. It’s too strong.
I trust them and happy endings only happen in Hollywood
The judgment of these two ladies has seldom (if ever) led me down the wrong path. To not listen to them and to not trust their judgment would have been just plain foolish on my part. It made me wonder what Jerry Maguire would have done with his manifesto if he had let just one person he trusted read it?
My guess is Jerry wouldn’t have distributed the document. (And, of course, there would have been no happy ending with my favorite movie line ever: “You had me at ‘Hello.'”) A manifesto that is not shared with the world can still change you. I’m pretty sure that was Shelby’s point as well.
Trust your team
You can only grow so much as a person and a business on your own. At some point, you have to trust the judgment of others when yours is not on target. I’ve missed the mark twice in the past week on writing projects. Twice, Shelby has called BS and the result has been significantly better work.
It’s actually easier to push the envelop and make mistakes when you know those closest to you have your best interests at heart and will reel you back in when you push the envelop too far for the current environment.
I thought you where talking about telling the client “Show me the money” LOL.
I think next meeting where I have a client making me lose my time i will kick off the meeting with that Jerry Maguire moment!
On the other side you are lucky to have two advisors I also have one excellent one. Just like you said when I don’t listen I get ito trouble!
Raul,
I think of that other line often. Was in a meeting with a client earlier this week. There was general and overall excitement for the opportunity to partner that I was showing them. As the excitement calmed down I asked, “Is there budget for a project like this, and what will be the approval hurdles we need to get over?”
Back to the story at hand. I’m just a big softy mush ball and heart. But it’s also a good reminder. Learn when to shut up or you might un-close a closed deal. If Jerry had her at hello he could have saved all the other mushy stuff for Valentine’s day right? 😉
Good point!
Interesting. Tantalizing.
And yet, you should head the advice of your trusted crew.
But test them on occasion. Ask them again. Maybe it’s not time today, but next week, who knows?
Of course, it might be just the thing to publish somewhere else . . .
Randy,I’m sure the post in question will see the light of day in some other form. It was just written with too much of “today” in it. In a few months with some minor re-writing it could be a good post. I think that’s part of what Shelby was trying to tell me, not today Jim. Cheryl, on the other hand basically said, you really want that out there? And I do, just not in the form it was in. As you said, great to have people I trust who truly have my best interests at heart when helping me make decisions.
Interesting. I never get any outside censoring. I just post.
Then again…my internal censor KILLS me and there I sit…paralyzed with fear, uncertainty and doubt…
Gotta love creative tension.
Phil, I don’t view Shelby as a censor or Cheryl for that matter. Neither one was stopping me from hitting the publish button. They simply advised against it with compelling arguments.
My internal censor is pretty damn sure the whole world wants to read everything I am thinking. Maybe that’s what it takes to write a blog post almost every day. Who knows.
“creative tension” Yep, dealing with it now.