Mistakes

(Narrated by Eleven Labs' Text to Speech AI)


I’ve been thinking a lot about mistakes.

I make a few of them. More than I would like, if I’m being completely honest.

In my first visit to Helsinki, on my first night, approximately 53 minutes into my trip, I put my Airbnb key in the wrong door.

Not a big deal right? Honest mistake. I tried to enter the wrong building (two metres away from the correct building) as I wasn’t really concentrating and I thought it was the right building. Didn’t feel like it would be an issue as I realized I made the mistake. However, the key got stuck in the door. Turns out Finland is known for having some of the most intricate locks in the world. Fast forward 6 hours - 3 (!) locksmiths had to come and try remove the key. One after the other, they failed. Apparently this was the toughest lock in all of Finland, arguably in all of Europe, possibly in all of planet Earth. They ended up having to remove the entire lock from this apartment building’s entrance and replace it. I replaced the lock of that building, and inadvertently invested in the infrastructure of Finland.

6 hours. 400 Euros. An expensive mistake.

A younger version of myself would have ‘beaten myself up’ about it. I would have started to overthink why I did something so silly. It would have affected my mood. I would have struggled to be fully present afterwards.

Over time, I’ve realized that doing ridiculous things is completely normal.

Making mistakes is completely normal.

In sport, messing up a serve, losing a point, conceding a goal - completely normal.

But…

The next serve? The next point? The next goal? The next door in Finland? That’s the one we have to get right. The mentality directly after. That’s the test.

In Roger Federer’s Dartmouth College address, he noted that he has won a staggering 80% of games in his career. That is absolutely incredible. However, the really jarring statistic he shared is that he only won 54% of the contested points within games. That means he lost nearly half of all points he played in his career - he made mistakes of some sort in nearly one in every 2 points he ever played - yet he still won roughly 80% of his matches.

As Federer says, “You want to become a master at overcoming the hard moments” .

Kevin Kelly’s line on this resonates:
“Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs;
They’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes”

I absolutely love that.

How liberating is it to know that mistakes are normal?

If we don’t close that deal? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Close the next one.
If we don’t win that point? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Win the next one.
If we don’t know that answer in the exam? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Answer the next one

If we put that key in the wrong hole. Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully.

Get it in the right hole next time.

Tribalism

Tribalism

In modern society, it has a place.

I am a Liverpool fan. It’s a zero sum game. No other team can exist in my emotional stratosphere. I am entirely immature in that 90 minutes watching that specific football match. 

By virtue of being a Liverpool fan, I “hate” other football teams. They are the enemy, and Liverpool must win.

This is a sports ideology. Your fandom is your identity. There’s something fun about the tribalism of it. We realize it’s ridiculous and non-sports-fans struggle to understand it. But we do it because it makes us part of a community - a tribe. We connect within seconds when we meet someone who is part of that same tribe. If I meet another Liverpool fan, I have hours (if not months) of content I can speak with them about. I know we will agree on most things and compound each other’s views. By virtue of being Liverpool fans, we are “the same”.

In sports, tribalism is fun. It’s an escape.

However - It’s dangerous to apply this tribalism to other parts of life.

Politics should not be tribal. 

Building views about what’s best for our country or the biggest societal issues of our times should not be tribal. It should not be a zero sum game.

I don’t believe our identity should be aligned with a political party. I don’t believe it’s in any society’s best interests to view politics as an “us” vs “them” battle.

Elections should be about values and approaches to solving key societal problems; who we believe will make decisions that will benefit the population as a whole. Each party will always have extremely complex challenges to deal with. Opportunity cost of every dollar. For every dollar they spend on one issue, that’s a dollar not spent on a different issue. We have to make our choices based on the issues we value the most at the time - the problems that need to be solved in our society. Acknowledging that things will change, and we’ll have more information over time to make our next decision.

I will be a Liverpool fan even if we lose 300 games in a row, get relegated, and only sign players I dislike. It’s a marriage. I made it through the “Roy Hodgson years” - I can make it through anything. Nobody can change my mind about being a Liverpool fan.

But if we apply the same ideology to societal issues, we will not learn from each other. We will not allow ourselves to have healthy debates and consider the various sides of the biggest problems facing our country and the planet. We need to appreciate that our current views are largely influenced by our upbringing, our friendship groups, social media, the news, and possible biases. 

We need to challenge ourselves and allow ourselves to be challenged. 

I should allow myself to change my mind on how I vote based on topics at hand, and which party will be for the greater good of the country. I should be open minded as I consider issues, and as I hear counter-arguments to my views.


Be tribal in sports. Be considered in every other part of life.

Think like a Scientist

I spent the weekend reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant. Organizational psychology has always fascinated me, and I always find books that analyze social behaviours probably more intriguing than I should - both from a perspective of reviewing the way I approach situations personally, and how I can use any learnings in a professional capacity. A few key themes stood out from this:

One line that resonated with me was “being wrong is the only way I feel sure I’ve learned anything”. There’s real value in admitting to being wrong. Whether that’s finding Product Market Fit in a startup, learning that the problem you’re solving is not the original problem you were seeking to solve (and adapting extremely quickly), or in a personal context where disagreements can either strengthen a relationship or damage it depending on the approach taken by both parties.

Jeff Bezos said “People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot - if you don’t change your mind frequently, you’re going to be wrong a lot”. This is a very challenging concept, as in the professional world we all have a layer of imposter syndrome and ego. Admitting to being wrong feels like it comes with a risk of exposure to the fragility that lies beneath the ego. In the context of sales and finding PMF, the difference between going out of business and achieving that tipping point of scale is listening to customers’ demands, changing your mind where appropriate, and admitting to being wrong based on ever-changing hypotheses. In fact, any professional leadership role has a variety of decision-making crossroads which require questioning options, making judgment calls, reviewing the judgment calls, and hoping for learnings and greater wisdom over time to make more effective judgment calls. It’s non-linear, and there will never be a point where listening and being open to changing your mind based on information at hand isn’t necessary.

Reading this book reminded me of the value of “thinking like a scientist” in all contexts of everyday life. The value of being humble in the face of new information and when reviewing progress, and always looking at what can be improved. Listen, admit you might be wrong and see if adaptation is needed. In the art of B2B sales, and in building a startup - Truly listen to the real problems that prospects have, and refine the proposition and approach accordingly.

Think like a scientist.

AI in Sales: The Balancing Act

I have been thinking about how AI and specifically ChatGPT can help me and our team in our day to day sales roles. I’m currently cautious in my view and am aware of The Law of Instrument bias- the idea that “if you only have a hammer, you see everything as a nail”. There will be temptations to over-use GPT for every part of the role and lose sight of the subtleties that translate into sales teams succeeding.A new outbounding campaign? GPT. Difficult negotiation? GPT. Objection handling? GPT. 

My view is likely to change, but I'm currently of the view that we should only use AI for up to 20% of the "art" of sales. I'm a massive advocate of sales being authentic and human in a world where everyone is bombarded with 1000s of automated sequences that read like poorly edited marketing templates. GPT puts sales teams at the risk of going deeper down this path- if we don’t use GPT with finesse, if we use it as “a hammer”- we will see sales teams with higher automation and higher volume; which on the surface level can be attractive, but at the risk of foregoing quality interactions and conversion. To keep the tool analogy going, we need to use ChatGPT as a screwdriver- showing precision and care rather than brute force. Keep the subtleties of the human approach of B2B sales; reading between the lines; relevant touch points at relevant moments; letting the empty spaces between contact points do the work. Nuance.

ChatGPT can, however, be the ultimate sales advisor, coach, and refiner. One exciting use case is that of an “onboarding companion”- we can ask GPT to take the form of a prospect, by giving it the prospect website so that it has context of the company, giving it the sales deck so it can ask relevant questions, and using prompts that guide it in the right direction on the type of questions that are appropriate. We can then use it for role play meetings ahead of meeting prospects in real life. I played with this today and am extremely impressed, and feel that for self-training, it can be an invaluable tool.

Zooming out from day to day sales, I see significant value in GPT regarding sales operations. Sales activity trend analysis- summarizing and analyzing bulk notes taken by the sales team. This will help sharpen ICP, getting a better understanding of stakeholders involved in the decision, who's budget it's coming out of, what problems are being solved, other solutions considered etc. This can save considerable time in helping find product market fit, and help refine the value proposition. In addition to this, giving GPT info from CRMs to do deal funnel analysis and helping provide insight into challenges around the corner could be invaluable to sales leaders.

This is not my definitive view, and everything I've said might be out of date in 2 weeks time anyway. It’s up to us to keep experimenting, and allow ourselves to be open to change our current approach while not losing sight of what leads to successful sales teams in the first place.