A Personal "GAAP" Analysis
Originally published on my blog, Flexions: https://flexions.substack.com/p/a-personal-gaap-analysis
It has been a while, but Flexions is back with a lot queued up for the next few weeks and months… and it feels good…
Disclaimer: This article has exactly nothing to do with financial accounting using?Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) . It does however dive heavily into a personal accounting of our strengths and weaknesses in pursuit of our goals.
Lets dive in!
Have you ever had that feeling as you stare out at a big audacious goal – to start a business, or have your bosses job, or become an artist, or something else – where you think to yourself:?I am not at all qualified for this!?Good news: you are far from alone.
In this blog we will build a practice of evaluating our readiness to pursue our goals from an objective, analytical perspective in order to expose and address any personal deficiencies while bolstering strengths. We will use our analytical lens to compliment and augment how we?feel?about a looming journey and, hopefully, ultimately, help us advance toward realizing our big audacious goals. You should walk away with a plan for how to develop your skills, network, and resources to support you on this journey.
Building Your “Prototype”
If you’ve ever stared out at the abyss, telling yourself how unqualified you are, consider an invented fictional character – one with all the right training and all the right personal characteristics –?living out our life’s dream. They’re probably better looking too! Normally I would tell you “hey, this is?your?dream to live, no one else’s!” but just for a moment we’re going to let your obnoxiously well-suited fictional character live it – let’s call them “your prototype.”
I’d like to walk through the story of Cedric, who wants rather to be a full time Ceramicist. Cedric is a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at a successful tech company. He has 2 kids and a wife, very little free time, and a garage pottery studio. A lot of thought has gone into this decision for Cedric, who is very clear on what his priorities are. Cedric wants to:
The CFO life doesn’t exactly check Cedric’s boxes and he wants to hang up the pivot tables in exchange for ribs and loops (yes, I did have to look up the names of pottery tools but this is Cedric’s dream, not mine). Naturally, Cedric has a lot of self doubt about making such a big change. So Cedric asks himself:?What would make someone perfectly suited to jump into Ceramics and be successful? What is the prototype?
Cedric decides there are some distinct personal traits and some key business traits that the prototype would undoubtedly embody:
The prototype is ready to take on the ceramics game. They have commitment to their craft and apply that commitment consistently, robust technical skills to be able to leverage multiple advanced techniques, and a refined personal style that rings true to their audience. But personal traits will only get them so far if they want to mold a business out of their craft! Business success is going to demand a strong and recognizable brand, an easy and accessible buying experience, and distribution channels so that their work is sold in many places!
Self Evaluation
So how does Cedric stack up? In evaluating Cedric’s path ahead to becoming a renowned ceramicist, he shifts his gaze from his prototype, inward. He finds a focused window to evaluate his own readiness, starting with his personal attributes…
Commitment & consistency
Becoming great at any trade takes dedication. Cedric’s current life managing the balance sheet for a big company is not particularly conducive to spending his days throwing clay. He fits in his pottery time after his kids go to sleep a few days per week and when he can get an unburdened Sunday.
Grade: 1/5
Technical proficiency
Cedric has a knack for pottery. He even sold a bowl for $2000 at a charity auction last year! And while he undoubtedly possesses natural skill, most of his technical depth has come from watching YouTube late in the evening in his garage studio. I should also mention that it was his mom that had the winning bid on his bowl.
Grade: 2/5
A developed and honest style
Cedric has a clear sense of identity when it comes to his pottery. He loves building unexpected, impractical shapes. Tall narrow bowls. Short wide mugs. You name it. He has also spent the past 10 years collecting rocks, trinkets, and colors that have become the inspiration for his style. But still, he doesn’t have enough time to really spend refining his style.
Grade: 4/5
Cedric clearly has some work to do to address his personal gaps in becoming a world class ceramicist. But perhaps as a soon-to-be-former big shot CFO, he comes in with stronger bonafides on the business front.
Cohesive brand presence
Cedric has been lying awake for the past year dreaming of his brand:?Clay Fire. He already locked up his Instagram handle, @clayfireofficial aka “CFO”. Cedric’s best friend, Doug, is the VP of Design at his current company and Doug has already agreed to help Cedric build his website and brand.
Grade: 4/5
Well built e-commerce presence
When Cedric joined his current company, it was 10 people. He worked closely with the founding team to build the business from the ground up and, by necessity, worked very closely with the Marketing lead. In fact, Cedric was even responsible for building the website so that customers could easily pay through the site. Now he has to do it again for his ceramics business!
Grade: 4/5
Strong distribution channels
While Cedric does not have a deep roster of ceramics stores that he is personally connected to at this point, he does have an extensive background in business development and partnerships. He’s also spent a lot of his planning time over the past 6 months making lists of great ceramics shops and distribution avenues.
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Grade: 3/5
With a clear sense of where his strong points and gaps are, Cedric is ready to build a development plan to ensure that he puts himself in the best possible position to take on this journey!
Building a Plan
While more focus might may be required for the 3s, 2s, and 1s, Cedric’s plan is going to aim to up-level him across the board! Here is his plan:
Commitment & consistency
Plan:
Quit my job, commit to ceramics as my new full time job. Studio doors “locked” during the work day.
Technical proficiency
Plan:
Schedule 2 hours of learning every Monday morning, using the remainder of the day to practice new techniques. Spend the remainder of the week incorporating techniques into production. Seek out 2 advanced classes per month outside of the Clay Fire studio.
A developed and honest style
Plan:
Take my vast collection of rocks, trinkets, and colors –?my stylistic inspiration –?and organize them in my workshop to constantly inform my work.
Cohesive brand presence
Plan:
Plan full day onsite with Designer Doug to build brand mood boards and use the outputs from that onsite to kick off a weekly brand design sync meetings to move website & imagery forward for Clay Fire.
Well built e-commerce presence
Plan:
Allocate all of Tuesday and half of Thursday to setting up payment, logistics, shipping infrastructure on the website.
Strong distribution channels
Plan:
Spend Saturday mornings visiting the most prominent local home goods stores. Identify and register for 2 major ceramics shows. Begin calling on list of prospective distribution channels collected over the last 6 months.
Maybe Just Say “F*** it”
Sometimes I look at my self evaluation of where I am now vs. where I want to go and find it empowering.?I know what I have to do!?Let’s do it!
But self evaluation is hard. It is exhausting. There are other times, where my self evaluation is incredibly overwhelming.?There is?so damn much?to do.
It’s at these overwhelmed moments that I remind myself: I am constantly growing. And I am growing disproportionately in the direction of my focus. So F*** IT! It’s time to focus on where I want to go and move!
Summary
I find it valuable to use frameworks to organize my thinking. In this case, the Personal Gap Analysis helps me understand acutely where I would be best served to invest my time and energy to better position myself to pursue my big audacious goals. But it’s also important not to fall prey to paralysis-by-analysis. If you score 1/5 on an attribute for success, that doesn’t mean you’re unprepared to charge forward with full force. It only empowers you to be more precise about how and in what direction you charge forward.
We are constantly bending and growing. Identifying where you want to direct your focus and energy will empower you to grow in the ways that best serve you on this journey.
P.S.
Right now, I am working on a big audacious goal of my own. For the last few years I’ve been coaching and advising people on how to advance their careers and align their careers with their vision for life. I’ve been borrowing, adapting, and building frameworks to help people along this journey. And I am getting VERY excited to formally launch my coaching practice – Flexions –?in the next month or so.
Flexions is under construction at ???https://www.flexions.co ??? … go check it out and subscribe to the Flexions blog to follow along as I build!