commitment, to the problem you want to solve & the life you want to lead

Lunch on Friday in the Financial District. We were sitting in a gorgeous courtyard, full of marble and light and San Francisco sun. I asked Charlie if he ever gets sidelined by the perception from inside a company that consultants come in uninformed about and uninvested in a company's goals and culture, suggest swooping changes and then leave the actual implementation - the hard part - to someone else.

Sure, he said. But that's what happens only when the tasks haven't been well-developed. When a company hires a consultant without knowing what problem they're trying to solve.

This isn't so different from product development. I get frustrated with how often requirements change. Of course, time changes things. Patients change. Procedures change. Technology changes. But what can't change is our commitment to the problem that we were originally trying to solve. That's the easiest way to kill a good product idea before it hits the market.

You can't design to a moving target.

Don't get me wrong. You can design to accommodate change. You can design with a vision of how that design can change. What can replace it. Apple's the classic example of companies that develop products with multigenerational product strategies. But the point is, commit to something. A set of requirements that may not last forever, but that last for right now and give you something to work towards.

Commitment is a whole separate topic. It takes courage. We're so afraid of it. We're afraid of what might happen if we commit to one thing and miss out on ten others. This is true in product development. This is true in life.

Thomas living his ideal life in Napa Valley.

I was reading Unclutterer yesterday when I came across this post. Erin's post is like Covey's second habit: begin with the end in mind. I think the hardest part of being young is realizing that it's ok to change your mind as you get more information. That the ideal life right now doesn't have to be the ideal life forever, that your life has its own multigenerational design strategy. What shouldn't change is your commitment to live according to the things that you value. 

goals, resolutions, and the new year

When I was about ten or eleven years old, I was doing a "family tree" project for school. Since I am a first-generation immigrant without the benefit of being surrounded by extended family, my choices for interviews were pretty limited (seeing as my older brother didn't really qualify as an expert on "family traditions and history"). I had written a set of questions to ask my dad, and a few nights before the assignment was due, we were sitting at the kitchen table talking through them.

We were almost done. He had told me stories about his childhood, his parents, about wrecking a car in the garage when he was no more than twelve or thirteen. About coming from a relatively poor family with nine siblings and parents that had retired by the time he started school. About putting himself through college as best he could, and moving to the United States to follow a dream.

The question I asked him was, "What is your greatest accomplishment?"

My father is a successful man. He has built a life for himself and his family - a life that straddles cultures and continents. He has earned a PhD, been tenured at a top-10 school of management in the world, lectured on three continents, started companies. But in that instant, he didn't hesitate. He looked at me without blinking, smiled, and said, "My greatest accomplishment is yet to come."

More than ten years later, I am still in awe of the kind of legacy that my father has left for me. The kind of unflinching resolve to do something better, to be more, than I was this year, this day, this moment. That's the kind of life I hope to design for myself.

Grand Canyon, Arizona - I was there. (feel free to use with credit)

In 2010, I learned to ski. Ran my first 5k (and then my first 10k!). Got a puppy and started a blog. I hiked through the hills of Palm Springs and rafted down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. Asked tough questions of myself, my friends, my family, and my coworkers. Launched two products. Spearheaded a partnership between Bard and MedShare to donate more than 500 volunteer hours to send medical supplies to the developing world. Flew almost 40,000 miles, deepened friendships, spent more time with my family, and had my first ever white Christmas. It was, to date, the best year of my life.

But just as 2010 was better than 2009, and 2009 better than 2008, 2011 lies ahead of me, and I'm excited. I don't do resolutions, but this I know - my family took some big risks to get where we are. And this year, I resolve to take some big risks myself - personally, professionally, culturally - to make this the best year of my life.

So ask yourself, what goals have you set? What pieces of your past are you calling on to make your future brighter? What risks do you want to take to make this the best year ever?