Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Diarrhea obliges you to simplify with great results
|
Many people and many businesses only do things for external validation. The complicate themselves too much. They make everything flashier, more eye-catching, and overly complicated. Of course… results reflect the trend. Why do people do this? It seems that they need to impress others and prove they can also implement those "high-level" systems and strategies. Buahhhh. Excuse-me, I’m cleaning some vomits… Sorry to tell you that nobody is going around patting you on the back because you did this or that. Or overload yourself with tasks. Or with new problems. Or fires to put out… Etc. While doing that, the most basic aspects of your work or your business (sales, cash-in, etc) are left buried and forgotten. Sorry for those trying to justify fees by overcomplicating stuff. The simpler and faster, the better. And let me put you an example. Have you seen the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark? One of the most memorable moments is when Indiana Jones faces off against an expert swordsman. The script originally called for a big, action-packed fight. The swordsman would showcase his skills in a spectacularly choreographed duel. The scene was supposed to demonstrate Indiana’s resilience and wit in a tough, drawn-out battle. But on the day of filming, both Harrison Ford and the cast and crew were suffering from dysentery—a severe diarrhea caused by bacteria—due to the conditions of filming in Tunisia. Ford was so sick that he could barely stand for long periods, let alone perform an intricate fight sequence. When it came time to shoot the scene, Ford approached Spielberg and said something along the lines of: "Can’t we just shoot the guy?" Spielberg agreed and changed the scene on the spot, where Indiana Jones encounters the swordsman and casually shoots him. That scene not only delighted audiences but became one of the most iconic moments of the saga. Beyond the humor, this shows that in business, and in life, the simplest decisions are often the ones that lead to better and faster results. For simple ideas delivered easily and fast, you can click below.
PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Some time ago I talked about a kind of message. One like this one: "It’s interesting what you say, I even read you every day, but I would never buy anything from you because I don't believe I can learn what you know without going through what you've been through." OMG… And then, you wonder why there are adults that cannot tie their shoes… or get any success in life. I'll tell you something crazy: knowledge can be recorded. And another: it can be transmitted. And the last one: whatever you...
Most contractors enter a negotiation with the wrong assumption. They think: “The agency has the money. The agency has the power. The agency has the contract. So the agency has all the leverage.” Not in their dreams… In PPPs and major infrastructure projects, agencies also carry something very heavy: Loss aversion. They do not want a project failure. They do not want the Minister asking questions. They do not want the newspaper headline. They do not want the contractor collapsing. They do not...
January 2009. Tropicana, PepsiCo’s orange juice brand, was the undisputed leader in the US. Its flagship product, Pure Premium, was generating more than $700 million a year. A beautiful business. So what does a company do when everything is going really well? Sometimes, it overthinks. And screws it up. Someone in an office decided that the old packaging, the iconic orange with a straw stuck into it, was outdated. It needed to be modernised. It needed to be brought into the present. You know...