Time and time again I’ve learned this lesson, so I thought I’d share it.
In my 10 years working with my brother Andy, I’ve taken on many many projects myself. Usually I work in solitude, hammering away with extreme vigor in insane spurts of 10, 15 even 20 hour shifts. This goes on for days or weeks and when I’m finished, I believe 100% that I have created the absolute best masterpeice of entrepreneurial magic ever. Ever.
Then I proudly unveil it to Andy, who is very impressed at first. After a few minutes of use it happens. Every time.
“What if here we did this instead?”
“Why doesn’t this have a call to action?”
“This part may be confusing to 1st time users, needs some usability tweaks.”
“Ooooo! I’ve got it, let’s add a do-hickey here to _______.”
- At first I’m offended, insulted. How could he attack my masterpiece?
- Then as I begin to step back, I see SOME merit in his silly ideas.
- Then after a day or so and a little sleep I realize that dammit, he’s right on all accounts.
And so I begin to make the adjustments and I’ll be damned if the masterpiece was slowly becoming a MASTERPIECE.
And once again, I learn the lesson. I rock, ya. Hell, I’m brilliant. But by myself, I sorta suck. I need someone to look at my work from the outside, with fresh eyes and give honest intelligent criticism. I’m lucky that my go-to guy for that job is Andy Swan, who is no internet entrepreneur slouch himself.
Maybe you’re not lucky enough to have team Swan in your corner. But you need to find someone, the best person(s) you can, to critique your work. Don’t pick your mother. Make sure you select someone who can honestly tell you when you suck. Cause I have bad news for you–without outside eyes looking in giving that honest constructive criticism, you do suck. With it, you can dominate.
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Thakilla
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andyswan
