Win the Week

It’s Monday, which is enough to give us some kind of anxiety, whether creative or otherwise. But never fear, we have one tactic to help you win this week, taken straight from the advice of one of our interview subjects.?

Below, Taamrat Amaize , Chief Strategy Officer, COLLINS , shares with us a story about why preparation, first impressions, and gratitude are never beneath you. Work into your own pursuits as you see fit:

There’s a point that one reaches, seemingly the mid-point of one’s career, characterized by a sense of complacency. An intoxication of expertise. I remember observing it at the start of my career. Me, a wide-eyed twenty-something working with colleagues who were 15+ years in. It seemed like they had encountered every problem, like they’d seen it all before.

I observed how quickly they made assumptions, often the wrong ones. I observed what seemed to me like passivity in the face of opportunity-seeking. That passivity effectively shut down exciting strategic and creative avenues. Worse, it dulled the curiosity and hunger of more junior team members. We were taught the wrong short-cuts. I vowed to never let myself get complacent. And most recently, I remember getting to a point in my career, scared that I had gotten complacent.

I’ve learned so much from Brian Collins, but the most prescient for me is this: Hubris is insidious. It will creep in, masking itself as experience and know-how, only to lead you to a destination of lazy thinking. There is no amount of preparation that is beneath you, no first impression that you should take for granted. He oscillates between the mindsets of Sage and Beginner, seamlessly and humbly.

Recently, he invited me to speak alongside him onstage to a crowd of two thousand people. The morning of the keynote I admitted that I was scared. His response then is now a reminder I hold dear. “You’re scared? Good. That means you’re alert.”?

Read the full interview here.