Don't settle for best practices
Most people blindly follow common best practices as prescribed.
It feels safe. And for a long time, I had the same mentality: “surely, if it’s been written about in a book, it must be the best way”.
But I’ve discovered that the practices that can most significantly propel you forward are the ones that no-one ever talks about.
Maybe they’re just too good to share. Or perhaps, the people who discovered them are so successful, they have no desire to write the book.
But, common best practices are just that. Common. And they are only a potential list of practices to choose from, they're not ALL the practices.
For me, the practices that have consistently delivered the best results are the ones I discovered on my own, through my sheer curiosity and willingness to experiment.
I’ve never had any investors. I’ve also never had a mentor. But what I’ve always had is the freedom and confidence to challenge the status quo – without fear of failure.
As a result, I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years. But it has been those mistakes that most often led to my greatest successes.
The truth is – no great success was ever achieved without failure. And no failure was ever suffered without pursuing the discovery of best practices.
I’m excited to use this newsletter to share my personal best practices with you, through short, actionable nuggets that you’ll be able to implement right away. At the same time, I’ll be showing you how I’m using them to get my new business off the ground.
Thanks for following along!
– GH
P.S. If you’d like to learn more about this mental model and why you should challenge common best practices, check out this podcast.
⭐️ 5 Stars Only
Welcome to 5 Stars Only, where I share the 5 things I’ve been loving, learning, and loathing.
A thought I’m pondering
“There is no failure except the failure of trying.” – Elbert Hubbard
What I’m loathing
Clubhouse. Maybe loathing is too strong a strong word, but the way it exploits FOMO and exclusivity to steal people’s attention is a little unsettling. Plus, I’m just not a huge fan of synchronous communication!
What I’m reading
Favourite quote from the book: “If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind. A word that nobody else owns.”
The product I’m loving
Readwise.io. If like me, you read a lot of business books on Kindle and want to come back to your highlights, this app will send you 5 random excerpts from your book collection every day.
What I’m listening to
I’ve been thinking about getting a vinyl record player, so was researching the best albums to buy. Rumours by Fleetwood Mac seems to be at the top of many lists, so I’ve added it to my Spotify. Now I love hearing Rumours!