Get Your Sh-t Together: Reliability is King

I was quite lucky to catch my friend Paul Bragiel in Japan at the end of last year. A fellow traveler and wandering global investor, it’s always good to trade notes and this time in person in one of our favorite places in the world. 

I always tell people it’s important who you have in your tribe. You rise to their standards or you fall to all the default lower ones around you. 

One of the big things that we both value is reliability. That you “do what you say and say what you do”. Just by doing this consistently puts you in the top 10% of effective human beings. The bar is literally that low. 

We both do business all over the world and partner with people everywhere. I speak at countless conferences. The thing that distinguishes the best people and best conferences is tight planning and organization. 

It’s nice to show up in a place having all your logistics sorted already. Nothing worse than showing up in a new place, without knowing your schedule and or/ having to sort out your way to the hotel or wherever. This chaos and uncertainty drains your energy. It makes it harder to think, focus on important things or even plan your own schedule as there are always other things happening in parallel. It adds additional friction that detracts from your ability to perform and make your business partner look good at the meetings. 

I’m not saying you have to be ultra German or Japanese rigid & overly structured. Although I should note, this might be why I work so well with Japanese and German people. I know stuff goes wrong and schedules change all the time. That’s okay and should be expected. But some modicum of organization is critical for any well functioning business or for a relatively smooth living. 

So for everyone out there, Get Your Sh-t together, learn the basics of Project Management and get better organized. It will put you in good stead. Be a reliable partner. Life is complicated and messy enough already, without you making it worse.