The past week has been a wild one!
Last Thursday, I took a train from Amsterdam to Kortrijk, Belgium, where Guy & I were supported SILCA, Wahoo Fitness & Ampler (their launch in the Belgian market!) at Velofollies. Ott from Ampler even made it into Het Nieuwsblad. Amazing!
Saturday, I took a train over to London to meet my girlfriend Kristy and friends Rob & Nikoo. Sunday morning I got out on a Richmond Park loop with my friends Jack from Cyclist Mag, Petor from Dear Susan and my host, Rob of Quirk Cycles. Petor showed us a telescope in the park that you can see downtown London with!
That afternoon, I spoke at the Adventure Travel Show about the lesson I learned on The 1st Silk Road Mountain Race. (My deck is here on iCloud ...let me know if the link doesn't work for you.) I then rushed from the stage to catch a flight to Philly to connect to Tampa to pick up my kids Monday morning for a week here in Pinellas County, Florida.
Otto, Mira & I have mostly been jamming to & from school, after-school activities and finding time to have fun on my third trip here since they were taken from Amsterdam. Today we're visiting Profile BMX's factory & skating at St. Pete skatepark.
With so much going on, it is easy to get lost in the sauce. Keeping focus and getting things done with many moving parts, timezones and people to consider is easily one of my favorite and most challenging aspects to my personal and professional life. Sometimes it is overwhelming and sometimes I drop the ball.
Of course, you can't win em all but there is an art to losing well so you can win later. George Bradt spells out how:
- Accepting Defeat – You can’t lose well without losing. Failing fast is relatively easy when it’s a small-scale test. The bigger the impact, the harder it is to call the game.
- Living Your Principles – If your guiding principles are the things you choose to follow even if you must go out of business, then follow them in defeat. If you say your customers or constituents or people matter most, take care of them when it hurts most and matters most.
- Find New Ways to Win – This is about residual value. Having accepted defeat and honored your principles, Start anew, recovering and rebuilding off your strengths whether those are Russia’s environment, Germany’s youth, Jobs’ innovations, or your secret sauce.
As always, thank you for reading,
Jon
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Cycling
Marginal Gains Podcast
Check out the first episode of The Marginal Gains Podcast, presented by Silca — the show that makes a big deal about the little things, and how those little things can be a big deal.
In this first episode, Josh Poertner, Hottie (Michael Hotten) and Fatty (Elden Nelson) obsess over about what marginal gains are, why they matter, and the huge difference Josh has seen them make in building bike components, in pro cycling teams’ success, and even outside the cycling world altogether.
The home of Cherubim From Peloton issue 81
[Shinichi Konno's] father, Hitoshi, also a bicycle builder, is the founder of Cherubim. Hitoshi, by the way, is the oldest of six brothers. Two others also founded bicycle brands: middle brother Yoshi started 3Rensho and youngest brother Shin established Miyuki. In the 1980s and early ’90s, people talked about “the three Konno brothers of the competitive cycling world.
Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic
Fortunately, living in Amsterdam means I never sit in traffic. Ever. Conversely, frequent visits to Florida since October mean I am confronted with the repercussions of congested automobile traffic. Most of the time, I'm the only cyclist (especially commuting with kids) that I see here and the road rage we encounter is harrowing. I'm wrapping my head around the fact that there are literally 77 wrecks daily in this county.
Startups
Predictions for 2019
some spoilers:
- Convergence will trump digital in experience design
- A more holistic approach to brand touchpoints
- Brand-led customer experience design
What can we learn from people who succeed later in life?
By studying late-in-life success stories, network scientist Albert-László Barabási has come up with lessons that can benefit us all.
Blue Bottle Founder James Freeman’s Journey From Mozart to Cortados - Adobe 99U
James Freeman started Blue Bottle Coffee as a side hustle and the company has grown from a single espresso cart to 40 locations around the world today. In this interview, he discusses how he used negative space to create a signature design aesthetic, how Blue Bottle carved out its own space in a crowded industry, and how his previous career as a musician influenced his approach to business.
Sales
Want to Seem More Likable?
Way back in Issue 65 I share about How To Make Your Brand “Likable” and Win More Revenue. This time it is about you. ; )
Late-Night Tweeting Degrades Your Performance the Next Day
A new study of NBA players documents the cost of sleep deprivation.
7 Things to Look for When Hiring Sales Reps with No Experience
Even if a candidate doesn’t have a sales record, there are still plenty of ways to evaluate his or her potential to sell.
Radness
Covering 80's hits with potatoes & squash is pretty rad but teenagers getting pulled on stage to perform with their idols is even radder: