Don't focus on being good, but on getting better — plus a SPAM story

Whether it's a skill, a product, a business, or anything else, we often set the goal to?be good at it. This is a trap, because we begin to measure our current state against arbitrary and unhelpful standards — what does "good" even mean? Invariably, we use the yardstick of other people, other products, or the machinations of our self-doubt.

But we're not "good". At least not yet. That tends to provoke in us thoughts that either we have the ability or we don't. We have a good product or we don't. That we're?good at it?or we're not. This is false and unhelpful.

Instead of focusing on trying to run a good business or having a good product or being good at something, what if we focused on creating a better one? Not on?being?better but on?getting?better? If we think of a dial that goes from where we are to our audacious goal, what if we focused on getting?one click of the dial better?

The science backs this up. Not only does focusing on getting better make it much more likely that we reach our goal, it tends to make the experience of getting there both more enjoyable and more interesting to us.

The lesson? Don't try to compare you, your business, or your product to the arbitrary standard of others or to metrics from dreamland. Compare you and your business to your past performance. Where were you yesterday versus where are you?today? The only question that matters is: are you improving?

Question of the week: In thinking about yesterday's performance, what can you do?right now?to get just one click better? Because the rest doesn't matter.

Innovation frivolity: SPAM (the meat kind)

And now for something completely different. SPAM was an innovation.

It's 1937 — the height of the Great Depression — and the Hormel meat company is faced with unbearable market pressure. Instead of laying off their employees, they innovated. They cleverly (I think?) created a new canned "meat product" from all the parts of the pig that weren't being used much. They made a canned product cheaply — and retained their employees. Say what you will about the product, but that's a fantastic story.

But it's not the story I wanted to tell you.

During World War II, it was given to U.S. soldiers with such frequency that they began to hate it, and would trade it and/or give it away to local populations throughout the Pacific theater. To the people of war-torn countries, it was valuable and impactful — it literally saved lives. And so, perhaps inevitably, it also became part of the culture. Even 80 years later, SPAM is a symbol to many communities of hope, family, freedom, and support.

And, of course, diabetes.

There are metaphors aplenty, but I leave them as an exercise to you. Check out the podcast The Experiment for a two-part special on SPAM. It's a lot more interesting than I thought.

Oh, and one more freebie —?we have Monty Python to thank?for calling junk mail "spam".

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?? New podcast episode: doing the right thing before doing things right. It's 15 mins on the "efficiency trap" that kills innovation, & how design thinking can get us out.?Listen here?&?discuss on Twitter.

?? Speaking of killing startups, I'm gearing up to rant about six epic ways to absolutely destroy a startup. Join Startup Shop Talk?live today at 11am, or?subscribe to my channel?for later.