When you encounter examples of people making a great effort in their everyday work lives, whether it is in fiction or non-fiction, take note. They are an excellent reminder to try a little harder, think a little more, and create better solutions. Here are just two examples that I came across this week that have inspired me:
- In a book called Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand
by Peter Arnell, the author describes how he came to devise the name and advertising angle for the clothing line DKNY: “I went out and began to photograph all the abbreviation logos of New York for inspiration. Late one night I was working in the studio…I spelled out DKNY in bold Helvetica letters…” He also states, a few pages earlier, “Whatever you take in becomes part of you. Give yourself permission to tap into that storage vault in your life and career. Your own capital grows from your constant aggregation of knowledge and experiences.”
- Lately I’ve been watching a lot of Poirot
movies. In practically every movie, the main character, the detective Poirot, talks about how he has to use his “little gray cells” to solve a case. In most TV shows and movies today there is mostly action. Not even mere references to the act of thinking are allowed.
Poirot, however, is a good reminder that all action and no thinking never gets you anywhere. In one particularly interesting scene Poirot leaves everyone in the middle of an unsolved case to go home and sleep. The other characters are angry at his lack of action, but in the end it is his “sleeping on it” that brings him the wisdom to nab the culprit.
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