It is funny, being a parent and raising four kids teaches you a lot of life lessons (imagine that) that can be applied to various situations, both personally and professionally. One of the things I have been working on lately with my children is the notion of continuing to try harder and you will eventually succeed.

I am reminded of a time when I was in kindergarten and the year end play was “The Little Engine that Could”. Back then, it just seemed like a fun story about a little engine that was trying to make it over the mountain top, but could not get any help from any of the passerby trains. So, to his (or maybe her, I am not sure what the “actual sexual orientation of the engine was and I am not even sure that it mattered) delight, he / she continued trying and finally made it over the mountain, hurray! What I now know is that fun and innocent little story has great meaning when applying it to life and especially in raising children.

In “The Pursuit of Happiness” there is a point where Will Smith tells his son never to let someone tell him that he cannot do something or accomplish something (my paraphrasing there, sorry if I did not get the quote exactly right). Little tidbits of advice and guidance like this go a long way in shaping the confidence of your children, it also teaches them that in order to achieve / obtain certain things that you have to work really hard at them. I know that it seems trivial and common sense, but it is amazing at how powerful these little lessons can be.

So the next time that you are feeling like you are ready to throw in the towel, remember back to your childhood and the story of The Little Train that Could and keep chugging away, you will eventually cross that mountaintop.

This is a term that we use often in our office, and more generally in product management and marketing conversations. It seems to sometimes baffle people as to it’s meaning; but once explained, you are like no shit, I get it. It seems that most of the time that we use the expression, we are using it in terms of product features or functionality that are simple and easy to implement, would not take a lot of effort or development time and produce a good return on investment.

Seth Godin has a great post recently on the magic of low hanging fruit, and he focuses on the marketing side of it and how attacking and implementing the marketing side of low hanging fruit, you can accomplish quite a deal of good. See, often times in the product feature decision making process, we look at the things that we can accomplish with minimal effort and it may be a feature that has been requested by an influential group of users, or it may be a feature that could drive more traffic or usage. According to Seth, it makes more sense to go after those features that would drive more traffic and usage by the masses rather than those features that may have been requested by that group of influential users. Looking at it from that perspective, it makes sense. By going after the low hanging fruit that could convert the average or passive user into a more active user is more worthwhile that trying to make the already amazing users even more amazing. Seems simple in theory but a little harder in practice.

Just something to keep in mind the next time you sit down for your planning session to determine what the next features should be, take a look at the whole picture when you are picking that fruit .

NOTE: sorry Doug, this post was not inspired by you

Even though I can sometimes come across as being one who enjoys being in the limelight (well perhaps that is a misconception on my own part about myself), I would actually prefer not to be front and center, getting any attention. I fashion myself a team player, I do not need to be the quarterback or the star receiver, I am content being part of the offensive line, getting the job done so the team can win (sorry for the football analogy, you tend to go with what you know). As a result of this mindset, I am quick to give credit to others when they do a good job, and even if I am responsible for something, I still like to look at it as a team effort, the credit really should go to the rest of the team.

There are others that are on the other end of the spectrum. They like to swoop in at the last minute, just as something is about to be finished and claim they were a critical part of the overall success. Bad move on so many levels, but I have seen it happen time and time again. Why are people that way? Why not roll up your sleeves and get dirty and be part of the team and make the magic happen? Don’t try to steal the thunder of those that have put in countless hours, sweat, and dedication to make something a success. If you are not going to be part of the team, then stand to the side when the credit is being doled out and let those that deserve it take it.

There have been several instances lately for me where I have been part of something, but I have not been the major contributing factor in it’s success. To those that have been the major forces behind it, I say THANK YOU. You know who you are and if it were not for you, we would not be on the brink of something truly remarkable. You have poured your heart and souls into this and for that I am thankful. For others, thank you for having the blind faith that something great was going to come of it, if it were not for you, it would still just be a thought. My success throughout my career has been the result of some amazing work by some amazing people. I have been privileged to work with such greatness.

Success breeds success and something as simple as giving due credit can go a long way in continuing that success. Many a great leader have recognized that in order to be truly successful, you need to ensure that your team is successful. This is a lesson that is easy to understand, but sometimes extremely difficult to implement.