Living In Truth DNA
Edition #012
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done.
Free Agent Nation
by Daniel Pink
This is a fantastic book by Daniel Pink where he talks about the new economic icons of the future- free agent-men and women who are working for themselves. He writes that people are fed up with unfulfilling jobs, dysfunctional workplaces, and dead-end careers. In his engaging and provocative style, Daniel Pink talks about how people seek fulfilment in their jobs. A large majority of them tend to work for themselves in search of purpose, refreshed careers and value addition to themselves.
A Founder-CEO’s Guide to Company Building
Suresh is the Co-Founder and CEO of Crayon Data, a Big Data and Artificial Intelligence company with a vision to simplify the world’s choices.
Here in this conversation, he talks about how to spot trends and build a business out of ambiguity, how to align teams to your mission, understanding the craft of storytelling as an entrepreneur, bringing right-brained thinking to left-brained industries, and understanding the company building process through different personalities and lot more.
Listen to the full episode on:
Technology and Counterculture from World War II to Today
Stanford Professor Fred Turner's research and teaching focus on media technology and cultural change. He is especially interested in how emerging media have helped shape American life since World War II.
Throughout human history, new communication technologies have profoundly impacted culture. There is no doubt that digital technology and social media have already had a significant impact on culture. In this video, Fred Turner talks about how concerns about mass media in the 1940s set the stage for not only the psychedelic 1960s but also today's social media.
Living in Truth DNA
In this conversation, Reid Hoffman talks about his investment in Airbnb and during the conversation, he makes one statement on the importance of ‘Living in Truth’.
He makes this profound point, which is extremely important for professionals, founders, and businesses. When you are founding a company, there is always a strong bias towards the business idea, your confidence in its success, your ability and strengths to get it done etc. Since you are very often close and passionate about the idea, you start to live in a ‘make believe’ world where you don’t see signs of non-acceptance by the market, customers not being ready, different skills than what you have to make it a success etc. When you are ‘Living in Truth’, you tend not to miss these subtle signs that are thrown at you for you to tweak the idea.
Similarly, when you are a senior professional/leader working in a company or a founder of a venture, people around you don’t usually share their best solutions, suggestions or even honest opinions, observations, customer feedback, employee feedback or whatever is happening in the company or your department or even something as important as market feedback for your product. They say things that you want to hear.
But, when a problem, delay, or crisis occurs, a few of them say that they also felt so but did not bring it to your notice. Hence, senior leaders and founders need to imbibe ‘Living in Truth’ DNA in themselves.
What does this “Living in Truth’ do to you? It helps you:
Stay grounded, be more observant
Not overestimate your skillset and competence
Make a more accurate assessment of market acceptance of your idea
Understand customer adoption and product usage issues better
Change course early
Define market and customer segments precisely
Predict problems and address them with appropriate solutions better
Judgement and decisions are more rational and not emotional
See people and performance with a more open mind
Make better financial decisions about your business
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
The Creator Economy will drive the growth of the Free Agent Marketplace. Are you getting yourself ready for it?
Monoculture in companies doesn’t encourage Collaboration, Innovation and Learning.
‘Living in Truth’ helps you better assess the Market, Ideas, Customer Behaviour, Competencies, and People.