Riding across bumpy ground.

It is New Years Eve down under, and no better time to reflect on the past year than now.

It is a hot and muggy day, some might say this is how they feel 2008 has been. Hot under the financial blowtorch and feeling like you have been a little mugged.

Has it torrid for you? I can only sum up my year and by obvious extension the year @ireckon.

For me 2008 has been a big learning year. Yes even after running the good ship ‘ireckon’ for 10 years this year, I still encounter many learning experiences if not daily certainly weekly.

Learning is good right? Of course it is. The opposite is to sit in your cocoon and believe you know it all, or do nothing and hide from the experience that is life. Moreover, while the road is oftentimes bumpy and many times, you are heading up steep hills, when you hit the crest and then sail down the other side, breeze in your hair, it is always worth it!

So what have I learned this year? Here is 14 things which are a snapshot of what I have learned (in no particular order):

1. You have gut instincts that work. Use them! Where I haven’t in the last 18 months or so I have been bitten badly afterward. Spend 10 minutes morning and night to make sure you paid attention to your gut!
2. There just aint telling some people. For all the professional advice, we offer, some people just know better, until it goes horribly wrong and they wish to point the blame at everyone but the mirror. Avoid them types wherever possible.
3. Culture matters. Don’t fill gaps hastily in your crew unless they match your group culture. Poison Peeps in your room, make the whole air toxic! Clean it fast when the rot first appears!
4. The Web is still just the web. I love it, I live IN it, but ultimately it is still just the web. It is a conduit to life, not life itself. Communicate, invent, create, observer…but realise the principles of all development, on it, must work for humans and cater for their needs, not just for the technology itself. Use it for what it is.
5. Too many people STILL don’t understand how to use the Internet. I reckon that in 2008 there was a massive shift in the balance of how the internet is pervading our lives and business. Yet so many people I meet just do not get it, want to get it or see the relevance of how to utilise it. I can’t help them all.
6. Drink more coffee with your staff. Formal meetings and get-togethers just don’t cut through the BS like going to a coffee shop for a chinwag and some Java. By digging a little deeper, this year, I found some talent in obscure places and realised how much potential that there is tucked away. Make it a weekly habit or daily if small enough.
7. Some people just like to be an Indian. For me I have never understood this I always wanted to be a chief, or be in control of my own destiny. Others though just like to be given work to thrill them, that they can walk away from at the end of the day. That works just fine. Look for them we all need Indians to get the job done.
8. Sometimes you can try too hard to please. Set your limit of what you believe you need to deliver (to customers / staff / family) and then when you are at that line put your hand up. Providing service, jobs etc is a mutual process and there is a limit to both sides. Don’t go past your limit you end up resenting it when you do.
9. You can’t read everyone all the time. When you think you are walking into a firestorm sometimes you find the other side are more decent than they ever need to be. And on the flip side, those that should be happy and feeling they have great value don’t and are quite indecent. People have their own motivations. Live by your own guidelines and accept that you cannot please all the people all the time.
10. Breathe. It is a fast life. Day to day the pace of change is torrid. Our bodies haven’t evolved that much and we still need to breathe and breathe deeply. This year I got back into my meditation on a regular basis. When you breathe deeply you realise nothing is all that bad, and your brain seems to deliver you options it couldn’t when you were gasping for breath. Take a deep breath now.
11. There is a guru for everything. In our digital life, everyone can have his or her 15 minutes of fame. Interestingly while at times, it is hard to know who has something valuable to say, I have found everyone does, the trick is being around when they say it. Use Social Media Tools and Web tools to cut through the BS.
12. I don’t know that much. After all my time on this planet, I realise I don’t really know that much at all. I know many things about a broad area of items, and some specialties, but still overall, me, you and most of the people you see really are hardly scratching the surface. Drop your judgments none of us are any more special than each other. Yet we are all special! Remember what you don’t know.
    
13. Watch the numbers. You analytics nuts will know what I mean. It is important for your business though to watch every number carefully. I know better, but some months you can find yourself not paying as much attention to the numbers as you should. DO IT (or get someone else to do it for you). Numbers matter!
14. Make sure you enjoy what you do. I do and still do. Sometimes I create things that remove the enjoyment so it is really just a matter of fixing the ‘what’ rather than being miserable. This has become my quote of the year:

“Don’t take life too seriously – None of us gets out of here alive”

Ireckon 2009 is going to be a significant milestone in my life.

Lots of great things are going to happen around me and the people I know – I can just feel it.

While at times the road might be bumpy, I just invested in better suspension!

Happy New Year.

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