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10 Ideas Worth Sharing This Week

This week’s ideas include everything from how Bruce Lee can increase your willpower, to how to become a better negotiator, to how clickbait can make you healthier.

Let’s do it…

1. THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK

“Somebody has to choose which ideas to pursue and which to scrap, has to kill a great idea to better serve another, and has to save an underappreciated idea.”

We’ve overpraised collaboration. The key to a successful collaboration is to stop obsessing over being a “good” collaborator and instead make sure there’s one person clearly in charge of the collaboration.

In this post I explain how to ensure your collaboration gets the leadership and decision-making it needs.

2. THE IDEAS THAT POWERED BRUCE LEE’S LIFE

“Realizing that my emotions are both POSITIVE and negative I will form daily HABITS which will encourage the development of the POSITIVE EMOTIONS, and aid me in converting the negative emotions into some form of useful action.”

Bruce Lee’s personal journals are going to inspire you.

This Brain Pickings post features incredible new excerpts from his writings that demonstrate his approach to life including his efforts to develop his willpower, reason, memory and imagination.

3. CLICKBAIT CAN MAKE US HEALTHIER (WHEN IT’S NOT ON THE INTERNET)

“It may be possible to harness the same phenomenon that makes clickbait work so well — human curiosity — and apply it to situations that encourage people to make healthier choices.”

It turns out those Buzzfeed headlines that pollute your Facebook feed may have revealed something beneficial after all.

This Science of Us article explains how researchers are adapting the curiosity gap created by headlines like “You won’t believe what happens next” to drive healthier exercise and eating behaviors in the real world — and it’s working.

4. A 41-YEAR-OLD’S ADVICE FOR HIS 21-YEAR-OLD SELF

“Figure out your unfair advantage. We all have something we’re naturally amazing at. Whatever you do so well that few others can match you, do more of it.”

This Edward Sullivan post has echoes of the post I shared a couple weeks agowith lessons learned from a 50-year-old, and it’s also worth a read.

In it, Sullivan outlines 11 bits of advice he’d have for his younger selfincluding to cancel meetings you’re not ready for, talk to the pretty girl, and choose friends who dream big.

5. HALF YOUR FRIENDS DON’T LIKE YOU

“Some blame human beings’ basic optimism, if not egocentrism, for the disconnect between perceived and actual friendships. Others point to a misunderstanding of the very notion of friendship in an age when ‘friend’ is used as a verb, and social inclusion and exclusion are as easy as a swipe or a tap on a smartphone screen.”

This one should spark some interesting conversations with your friends.

This New York Times article chronicles the recent results of a scientific study that found roughly half the people you think are your friends probably aren’t. Further, it points out that due to our limited time and emotional capital, we’re really not capable of having more than five true friends in our lives.

6. RAMIT SETHI IS A PERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW

“Ask people what they want, don’t tell them what they need.”

Ramit Sethi is an author and personal finance advisor who built a huge following for his no-nonsense advice about how to improve your financial standing.

In my profile of him you’ll learn how to charge what you’re worth, how to become a better negotiator, how to turn your hobbies into services that make money, and more.

7. HOW MARTHA STEWART CONQUERED THE INTERNET

“She is provoking, casually. She is trolling, winkily. She is chipping away, with systematic nonchalance, at everything [she] used to stand for: steely aspiration; thirsty perfectionism; homemaking as an art and a craft and a Darwinian struggle; gilt; guilt.”

Martha Stewart may seem an unlikely person to become an Internet sensation, but this Atlantic article explains just how she’s done that.

She’s been incredibly adept at using the medium to reframe her brand and is reaping the rewards — with a little help from Snoop Dogg.

8. HOW TO BUILD A 100,000 SUBSCRIBER EMAIL LIST

“Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Be inspired by successful businesses and people in your field, but use your own voice and personality unapologetically. That’s how you find your true fans; the people who will love you, and buy from you.”

This post from software company Groove shares the eight keys that helped them grow their email list beyond 100,000 subscribers, breaking them down into four big wins and four small wins that have made the difference.

The tips include how they found their niche, leveraged influencers, and ensured their content was useful and interesting, among others.

9. NAMING YOUR BUSINESS WILL HURT YOUR BUSINESS

“When you create a brand of you, you create the strongest brand in the world — because there’s only one.”

As somebody who recently launched a consulting business (contact me if you need some digital marketing help by the way), this Josh Hoffman post resonated with me.

In it, he makes a case that freelancers shouldn’t waste time naming their business because they’ll be better served building their own name and focusing on the experience they deliver to clients.

10. MARKETERS HAVE CONFUSED THEMSELVES AND IT’S GOOGLE ANALYTICS’ FAULT

“Almost any strategy can be executed over any channel — and it is strategies, not channels, that have associated best practices and deliver results.”

This Techcrunch article gets a little nerdy, but is worth a read if you work in marketing.

It explains how marketing strategy terminology has gotten all mixed up as people use misleading terms like “social media marketing” to describe tactics and blames Google Analytics for confusing people about the difference between marketing strategies, channels, and content.