Poke the Box
We’re extremely adroit at hiding our fear. Most of our lives in public are spent papering over, rationalizing, and otherwise denying our fear. We go to war because we’re afraid, and we often go to spiritual events for the very same reason.
Sep 2, 2026If you can embrace the idea that your success and happiness are tied up in defeating the fear that’s holding you back, you’re 90 percent of the way to where you need to go,
Sep 2, 2026It’s easy to fall so in love with the idea of starting that we never actually start.
Sep 2, 2026We’re trained to fit in, not to stand out, and the easiest way in the world to fit in is to never initiate. Don’t speak up. If you see something, don’t say anything.
Sep 2, 2026There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth. Not going all the way, and not starting. Siddhārtha Gautama
Sep 2, 2026The seventh imperative is to have the guts and the heart and the passion to ship.
Aug 17, 2026Life is a buzzer box. Poke it.
Aug 17, 2026Dr. Souman, “Don’t trust your senses because even though you might think you are walking in a straight line, you’re not.”
Aug 17, 2026Human nature is to need a map. If you’re brave enough to draw one, people will follow.
Aug 17, 2026Ownership comes from understanding and from having the power to make things happen.
Aug 17, 2026No one has influence, control, or confidence in his work until he understands how to initiate change and predict how the box will respond.
Aug 17, 2026Soon is not as good as now.
Aug 17, 2026Risk involves winning and losing. We put something at stake, and it might pay off (or it might not).
Aug 17, 2026I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance . . . and if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.
Aug 17, 2026Steven Pressfield gives the voice of the lizard brain a name: he calls it the resistance.
Aug 17, 2026Zig Ziglar taught me this twenty years ago. Make your schedule before you start. Don’t allow setbacks or blocks or anxiety to push you to say, “Hey, maybe I should check my e-mail for a while, or you know, I could use a nap.” If you do that, the lizard brain will soon be trained to use that escape hatch again and again.
Aug 17, 2026There’s never a problem getting a posse together to fix the broken. The upside for you (and the challenge) is to find the energy and the will to challenge the mediocre.
Aug 17, 2026When in Doubt . . . Look for the fear. That’s almost always the source of your doubt.
Aug 17, 2026Initiative is a little like creativity in that both require curiosity. Not the search for the “right” answer, as much as an insatiable desire to understand how something works and how it might work better.
Aug 17, 2026The difference is that the creative person is satisfied once he sees how it’s done. The initiator won’t rest until he does it.
Aug 17, 2026“Pick me, pick me” acknowledges the power of the system and passes responsibility to someone else to initiate. Even better, “pick me, pick me” moves the blame from you to them. If you don’t get picked, it’s their fault, not yours. If you do get picked, well, they said you were good, right? Not your fault anymore. Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.
Aug 17, 2026Smart entrepreneurs understand that a thriving organization needs more than one person creating change.
Aug 17, 2026Excellence isn’t about working extra hard to do what you’re told. It’s about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.
Aug 17, 2026Please stop waiting for a map. We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.
Aug 17, 2026We all would be happy to follow a map if the map came with a guarantee.
Aug 17, 2026Is your work so serious and flawless and urgent that each thing you do, every day, must work?
Aug 17, 2026Change is powerful, but change always comes with failure as its partner. “This might not work” isn’t merely something to be tolerated; it’s something you should seek out.
Aug 17, 2026Starting means you’re going to finish. If it doesn’t ship, you’ve failed. You haven’t poked the box if the box doesn’t realize it’s been poked.
Aug 17, 2026To merely start without finishing is just boasting, or stalling, or a waste of time. I have no patience at all for people who believe they are doing their best work but are hiding it from the market. If you don’t ship, you actually haven’t started anything at all.
Aug 17, 2026The challenge is to focus on the work, not on the fear that comes from doing the work.
Aug 17, 2026One reason organizations get stuck is that they stick with their “A” players so long that they lose their bench. In a world that’s changing, a team with no bench strength and a rigid outlook on the game will always end up losing.
Aug 17, 2026Worse, the nature of the work is inherently unremarkable. If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low.
Aug 17, 2026I’m merely encouraging you to start. Often. Forever. Be the one who starts things.
Aug 17, 2026It’s impossible to have a “success-only” policy. That policy itself will guarantee that there will be no successes.
Aug 17, 2026The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.
Aug 14, 2026