The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
Tim FerrissRead
It isn't enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.
Interpretation
Merely thinking differently isn't sufficient; action is essential to implement those ideas.
This quote emphasizes the importance of taking initiative and translating innovative thoughts into tangible actions. While creative thinking is beneficial, it must be paired with decisive action to achieve real change and progress.
In practice
In a team meeting, you could use this quote to inspire colleagues to stop overanalyzing and start implementing their ideas.
The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
It's just astonishing to me, but not surprising in some respects, how dependent we are on the somewhat meaningless and certainly ephemeral feedback that we get from strangers on the Internet. I think that's a dangerous dependence to develop.
I always point people to the article '1,000 True Fans' by Kevin Kelly. If you choose your thousand ideal customers or readers properly and find the single author blog that targets that audience, you never have to do any more marketing. You're done. That is a lesson that very few product developers and marketers have learned, and it's unfortunate.
By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves to do otherwise: 'John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life, the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do! I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling prospects who said 'no' yesterday. Gotta run!
Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
The quickest way to kill the human spirit is to ask someone to do mediocre work.
What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle.
Instead of being afraid of the challenge and failure, be afraid of avoiding the challenge and doing nothing
Anytime someone tells me that I can't do something, I want to do it more.
Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.
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