Why My Barber Being Closed was a Blessing in Disguise

Why My Barber Being Closed was a Blessing in Disguise

by | May 18, 2020 | Uncategorized, Life Style

There’s a barbershop right under my apartment. It’s pretty convenient to call down and head over there. No driving. No looking for parking. walk downstairs. It saves me about 30 minutes or so. The catch is that it’s almost double as expensive as other places. It’s so convenient that I never looked elsewhere. Why would I? The haircut was good enough and it was convenient.

Well, one day I wanted to get a haircut and it was closed. What did I want at that time? Just for my normal haircut place to be open. So I can get the same convenient haircut that I always got.

I reluctantly looked for another haircut place. I was pretty surprised to find one a block away. It was half the price and a much better haircut. Now I always go to this new haircut place and would have never known about it if the first one wasn’t closed.

It made me wonder where else in my life was I willing to take good enough since it was convenient? It’s so easy to go with the flow. Stick to something that works. I did the same with a laptop that was showing signs of aging. Getting a new laptop improved my workflow. But I was stubborn and keeping to my old, slow laptop.

I decided to do an audit of some of my normal activities. Have I looked at this recently? Is there any way I could improve it? Could it be cheaper? Better quality? Or take less time? Do I even need to do it at all?

This last one is the most important. I used to spend an hour or two grocery shopping every week. This was would also lead me to buy a bunch of unhealthy food because I happened to run into it at the grocery store. Instead, I discovered I could order from pretty much anywhere and have it delivered. Get exactly what I need, and not end up buying a bunch of junk food. I was able to save time and money instead of the grocery shopping myself.

When was the last time you took a look at your normal activities? Could you find a cheaper, higher quality, or more efficient alternative?

Start at the Very First Step

Start at the Very First Step

by | Mar 30, 2020 | Uncategorized, Learning, Productivity

During college, I started a club for people interested in working for a pharmaceutical company. It was my first time starting anything. I had a pretty decent job working at Pfizer and was still deciding if I wanted to go into medicine. The club sounded fun and something good to put on my resume.

 

I asked a couple of my smartest friends to join. And somehow got the courage to ask my favorite professor to be part of it and he even said yes. I was ecstatic. I already had visions of the club being on the biggest at school. Unfortunately, it never got anywhere close to that. It only lasted a few meetings before it fizzled out.

 

What did we talk about for those meetings? The name of the club. That’s it. We couldn’t come up with a name. And each person wanted it to be something different. It was my first venture as a leader. Looking back, I’m thankful that it was something with such low stakes.

 

I was with my smartest friends. I didn’t feel I had the right to change the subject. I wanted everyone to have their say. Everyone was so excited to start the club. We lost all our momentum. The club never even got started.

 

Thinking back, we lost the forest for the trees. A name? It didn’t matter. Just look at some of the biggest names out there now: Google, Uber, Facebook. Their names don’t mean anything. Nothing profound. If instead, we would have gotten a few easy wins the club may have survived to do something meaningful.

It did lead me to learn some lessons:

 

 

1. True leadership means looking at the bigger picture and choosing priorities

2.Don’t waste the momentum and excitement you have when starting something new. Do something.

3. Remember that not everything needs to be right in the beginning, you can always change or pivot.