“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Steve Jobs

“When you have to make a hard decision, flip a coin.
When that coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you’re hoping for.”

This quote has hit home on several occasions. There have been a few times in life where I was pretty sure I didn’t want to continue. The problem was that it was easier to continue than to sit down and make the realization I needed a change.

For most decisions, you probably lean to one side whether you want to admit it or not. Have someone else ask you the decision and flip the coin. The answer now feels out of your control. Allow yourself a second to think before they show you the result. It quickly becomes clear that you want a specific result.

Decisions can be very hard. Especially when you can’t make up your mind.

Robbie Abed recently discussed a situation he was in previously at a job he didn’t like. This same situation happened to me several months ago. I didn’t want to come into work anymore and secretly wished I had a reason to leave. About a month after realizing this, I left as well.

In one of his many amazing blog posts, Derek Sivers talks about decision making by either saying HELL YEAH or no. Now this works wonderfully if you’re not making a decision about starting something new. It’s easy to dismiss this tactic when you’re miserable. When you’re doing something soul sucking, you sometimes can’t bring yourself to say “hell yeah!” anymore. Flipping a coin can help you realize what you want to say “hell yeah!” to.

The truth is you’re always better off

When it comes to making a decision about pursuing a new path or staying, it’s always best to go with your gut feeling.

Do you immediately lean towards staying? Then you need to bring it up to your boss and coworkers about changes that need to be made. Truth is, you’re happy where you’re at, mostly. Some things aren’t working, so bring it up and get them fixed.

If you lean the other direction, then quit. You’ve always wanted to build things? Then go. In the world we live in today, you’ve got nothing stopping you. You can travel around the world in a matter of hours. A team of 13 can sell their company for $1 billion after just 2 years.

There is NO REASON you shouldn’t be doing what makes you excited day in and day out.

Most companies (including web startups), he said, are looking to “wow” with their products, when in reality what they should be looking for is an “‘of course’ reaction from their users.”

Puzzled, I looked at him. And then it hit me: Great design means that one look and the end user reacts by knowing what to do with a knob or a button, without as much as even thinking about it. Of course this knob is what turns the volume up, or brings up the home screen.

This of course factor is at the heart of every great design — from the iPhone to the Braun alarm radio. And it’s an important lesson that every startup and entrepreneur should remember. Whether your company is making a physical product or a web service or mobile application, it’s essential for you to think about design.

Christian Lindholm

Source: http://om.co/2012/04/05/the-of-course-principle-of-design/

Successful people must have a property about them that makes them successful. The media likes to explain this as being magical. This is rarely the case. What you don’t see is the years of hard work put into learning the ropes.

Rovio spent 8 years developing games before Angry Birds was a hit. Zuckerberg spent hours upon hours getting good at programming before he could actually build the first version of Facebook. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple before he came back and turned the company around. Failure and hard work are things they embraced.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

Failure is just a part of life. Don’t fear it. Maybe you’re just making excuses.

Watching @deadmau5 live stream has made me realize how technology frustrates all of us including rock star dudes. live.deadmau5.com

— Cheston Lee (@Cheston) March 20, 2012

I came across this tweet earlier via my buddy Jacob and it got me thinking.

In life, we can easily fall victim to getting caught up in the moment. The specifics of your job and life can take away from your consciousness of the higher goals that you have. Do you want to change the world? Yes, we all do. But in what way?

For me, I want to make software simpler. One example of what I want to accomplish is the transition to a Macbook that my parents have went through in the past several months. Previously when I would visit, they would have a list of computer problems waiting for me. “The printer driver isn’t working.” “iTunes won’t sync.” “I don’t know where my files are from the camera after I transferred them via USB.” And then I gave them my Macbook. I haven’t heard a peep from them since. It was a seamless transition, and they have had absolutely zero problems and can do more now than they could before. Their lives are now simpler and much more productive.

To me, being able to make regular software simpler can have a profound effect. Nontechnical people will be able to accomplish more quicker using simpler software. This is what I want to do. I want to change the world by adding simplicity and minimalism to an overly complicated world.

Rails exemplifies this in the development of web applications. Steam does this for video games by removing the complexities around it. There are plenty of people with similar values in tons of different areas.

One of the keys to success is having defined your set of values. Things you believe in.

If you take a look at everyone who has been incredibly successful, they have had a specific set of goals and values. They made their decisions based upon these values, and stuck by them no matter what.

Every single president had strong beliefs that were unwavering. Steve Jobs had that. Every really successful company has grown out of a set of values . They weren’t without their enemies, but that comes with the territory.

On the other hand, if you analyze those who aren’t successful, you’ll notice that they have wavering beliefs. They are unsure of themselves which remove the ability for people to stand behind them. You can’t support someone who changes their mind month to month.

Which leads into my next point…

Defining your values makes you a leader

Sometimes people are searching for something to believe in. They’re questioning their beliefs and looking for someone to align themselves with. If you talk about your values, it is easy to attract people with similar values. The best tech companies write tons of blog posts about their values, and this grows a community of similar people. The potential employees with similar values are already exposed, so they know exactly where to go when they are looking for a job.

Knowing exactly what your values are puts you in a unique position. Most people don’t know what theirs are, and it is refreshing to see someone who does. TED Talks always have inspiring speakers. Everyone of them knows what they live for. We are attracted to this because it is inspirational. They are amazing individuals. We want to be like them.

And that’s easy. You’ve just got to become one yourself.

Write down your values

So what things do you believe in? What would values would you never sacrifice? This is important on both a personal and a career level.

Decisions are easy when you have a set of values. Does eating two cookies fit your personal value of a healthy lifestyle? Nope. Done, no arguing with yourself, no second guessing. Does arguing for 3 hours about the company color scheme help achieve your company’s goals? Nope. Look at your values. “We want to give the best customer experience we can.” Well then I guess the exact color of the website doesn’t matter when everyone could be answering customer questions and building the product features out.

Conclusion

It’s easy for things to be blown out of proportion. Stupid problems end up much larger than they should be. Having a set of values allows you to refocus and put them back into perspective. Oh this doesn’t really matter AND we can change it pretty much whenever? Then just pick one and we’ll fix it later if it doesn’t work out. No biggie.

So what are your values?