Introspective: Systems and Serendipity

I recently met with a fellow alumnus of my Alma Mater, BYU (go Cougars!), who had sought out my advice. As I walked him through my brief career to-date, I commented on how serendipitous it sounded when the key events of the past six years were rattled off in quick succession. It's difficult to explain the hard work I put in; the difficult decisions I had to make; and the misfortunes that selective memory has edited from the easy retrieval section of my mind.

What I was able to tell him was that I have not landed where I thought I would have six years ago. My biggest take-away from my experiences is that goals are mostly useless; more specifically, the longer out the goal is the more useless it is. What got me where I am today is a system of looking for opportunities that would put me in a better position for luck to find me. I noted how fortunate I was to have recently read Scott Adams' book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big", where he talks about this exact concept; otherwise, it would have been much more difficult for me to articulate my journey without using the word "luck" a lot.

"Avoid employing unlucky people. Throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them."

What I've taken away from that experience is that I need to do a better job of documenting my journey. Without something I can reflect on, it is very difficult to explain to those unfamiliar with my journey that my success is not just a "fortuitous happenstance", a.k.a. serendipity, a.k.a. dumb luck. I feel the same way about luck as Peter Dinklage does, which he explained after making the remark that he felt "really lucky":

Although I hate that word—“lucky.” It cheapens a lot of hard work. Living in Brooklyn in an apartment without any heat and paying for dinner at the bodega with dimes—I don’t think I felt myself lucky back then. Doing plays for 50 bucks and trying to be true to myself as an artist and turning down commercials where they wanted a leprechaun. Saying I was lucky negates the hard work I put in and spits on that guy who’s freezing his ass off back in Brooklyn. So I won’t say I’m lucky. I’m fortunate enough to find or attract very talented people. For some reason I found them, and they found me.

"I hate that word -- lucky. It cheapens a lot of hard work."

By looking for opportunities and making choices that put me in a better position to find luck, I happened to be in the right place at the right time when opportunities presented themselves. I want to be able to tell my story better so that others can better understand and learn from it. This blog will be my primary vehicle for that, along with Twitter and LinkedIn, but I may end up looking at other options as well.

New Year's Resolution: Kaizen!

If old acquaintance be forgot and never thought upon then you're not holding retrospectives correctly.

I've never been a fan of making New Year's Resolutions - their short life spans are clichéd for a reason. I've also been reading Scott Adam's new book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big", and one of the major themes in the book is that goals are for losers; winners use systems. This resonates with the Agile principle of continuous improvement through inspecting and adapting.

So my New Year's Resolution this year is not a goal, but truly a resolution. I resolve to exercise personal Kaizen. Continuous improvement has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, but it hasn't always carried the urgency associated with Kaizen. I'm going to experiment more so that I can fail more so that I can learn more. I'm going to schedule Introspectives (1-person Retrospectives) on a regular basis whereby I can challenge my own personal status quo.

I wouldn't be an Agile Coach if I didn't encourage each of you to adopt Kaizen as a New Year's resolution as well. If you don't like the commitment associated with that term, can you commit to trying it just for January? Each Friday in January, I challenge you to hold your own Introspective. Ask yourself what you did well and what you could have done better. You may have made good decisions, but did you make the best ones? Did you have an answer for each time you were asked "Why"?

I'll be sharing the results of my own Introspectives every Friday this year. What I share may not be comprehensive, seeing as how I don't have the time to write out all the context for my results, but I'll share as much as I can within reason. I'll also work hard to blog frequently between Introspectives in an attempt to get more of a dialogue going than I've been able to in the past.

If you decide to take on my challenge, please share your results with me. You can comment on my blog, message me on LinkedIn, or tweet me @MLCarey321. I'd love to see the effects of personal Kaizen in your life!