Learn: Business terms, Dr. Dre strategy, Oprah

Read: 3 mins

Greetings from Rio, 

This week I learned the difference between two (seemingly) obvious concepts: 

• Self-improvement: finding energy through getting somewhere
• Self-acceptance: finding peace where you are

Here are 3 goodies to give you both energy and peace. 

🏗️ Simple Business Terms

Every business is just a combination of:

• Strategy = doing the right things
• Execution = doing it the right way
• Consistency = doing it for a long time

So do the right things, the right way, for a long time. Easy peasy right?

But here's the thing, consistency is HARD.

So let's simplify. Given that consistency is near impossible if we don't nail the strategy and execution...we can remove it, for now, and focus on the first two.

Strategy is upstream of execution & consistency.

Then our execution uncovers the feedback required to reinforce or update the strategy. Let's look at a few examples.

These same principles apply to personal projects, businesses, creative pursuits, etc.

How about when we (inevitably) are unsure?

Just insert the word "current" before each, knowing they'll change and just keep moving forward for now.

Ex: "Current strategy is x, and current way to execute is y."

TLDR: Improve the plan (strategy) by testing stuff (execution) along the way. Which makes it possible to stay in the game for a long time (consistency).

🎵 Straight Outta… 

The hit album Straight Outta Compton ignited a revolution in 1988. 

Dr. Dre says, "The craziest part about this revolution that we started is this album Straight Outta Compton was only done in six weeks."

They made the entire album in just 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, over 6 weeks. That's only 90 total hours!

The crazy part is that Dre didn't even like the album.

“To this day, I can’t stand that album,” he said in a 1993 interview, “I threw that thing together in six weeks so we could have something to sell out of the trunk.”

This makes it a perfect example of how our strategies change.

• Dre (a perfectionist) had an initial strategy to quickly ship the album in just 6 weeks to make money
• After great execution, the album popped and started a revolution
• With new feedback, Dre creates a NEW strategy to put more time and energy into music

But he needed the first strategy and 90-hour execution to start.

Takeaway: focused execution sprints can go a long way. Especially in today’s world that's straight outta attention. 

🚗 Thinking Time 

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” - Oprah 

I keep coming back to this quote recently. My girl Oprah with a truth bomb worth revisiting (especially around the halfway mark of the year)!

Abrazos, 

Mitchell

Ps. What's 1 goal you have for H2 of this year? (Hit reply and let me know!)