Last weekend, I ran a 10k cross at Bucharest Half Marathon, 3 years after running my first one. While running, music blasting in my headphones, I realised something strange: despite a terrible night’s sleep, I was about to hit a personal best. And that thought stopped me in my tracks. Four years ago, I could barely get off the couch without back pain. Today, I run distances I once considered impossible, just for fun.
The contrast made me realise, once again, how much we underestimate the power of discipline, consistency, and showing up when things get tough. We love talking about talent, luck, and “overnight success.” But most extraordinary outcomes are built quietly, through thousands of unremarkable decisions repeated consistently over time.
As product leaders, our job isn’t just to solve problems. It’s to solve the right problem in the right way. This 7-step framework has helped me unlock untapped growth in the products I’ve worked on, hence delivering meaningful, lasting impact for the business. To bring it to life, let’s rewind to when I was at Uber and used it to 6x the conversion rate in one of our cities.
A couple of days ago, Henrique Dubugras published a new episode of the HD in HD podcast featuring Nik Storonsky, the CEO & Co-Founder of Revolut. The conversation is insightful and provocative – absolutely worth your time, I recommend you to check it out when you get the chance.
However, if you’re thinking of following in Nik’s footsteps to grow your own company, you might be setting yourself up for failure. And here’s why.
Our generation is busier than ever-before. We’re all time-constrained, facing ever-increasing pressures at work and at home. Staying on top of everything while adding learning to the mix is not an easy thing to do. It’s essential though, if we want to keep growing, personally and professionally. Lifelong learning is not just a sexy word. It’s what makes the difference between staying relevant in our line of work versus falling into oblivion.
Learning increases our mental bandwidth, improves our decision-making skills and helps us perform at our best. The brain is not a muscle, but it acts pretty much like one. Exercise it regularly and it will stay healthy and get fitter. Fail to train it properly, and it will atrophy. If we’re not learning, we’re not being stuck at the same level as before, but actually getting worse. This is because the world around us is moving ahead. Fast. Jump on the bandwagon or you’re left behind.
Resolutions time of year is behind us now, with most goals being put away as we’re drawn in the regular whirlwind of our lives. Contrary to popular belief, resolutions aren’t inherently bad. I’ve written about that here. Still, they are constantly mocked and have become the topic of seasonal jokes. This is because most resolutions are never attained. Quite on the contrary, plenty of people will forget about them or completely give up on them before February comes. Of course, this has nothing to do with resolutions, but with how they’re set and the person that’s setting them.
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