Most people who know me would consider me a “glass half full” kind of person. Regardless of what’s happening, I always tend to see the positive outcome that can be achieved. Working with great companies, we have many dialogues about the “future of possibilities” and all of a sudden I am seeing myself become the one who questions all the big limitless ideas. So I ask myself am I becoming a pessimist or just a realist?
I appreciate the energy behind the next big idea as much as the next person but I tend to immediately jump to the reality of how close or far are we from being able to accomplish that goal and what the impact will be. This thinking is very much a result of the years I’ve spent in marketing being held accountable for demand generation. Everyone has the next great idea on how to pitch a story or market to go after but we all know it’s really about the ability to execute and the results you can get.
I think the real key is to find your own middle ground or a counterpart who can balance it out. When I look at ifridge and working with our co-founder, Daniel, the two of us do just that - balance each other out. Now if you ask the team I am sure they’ve enjoyed some healthy debates that can come from keeping this balance, but in the end it works really well.
“An optimist with a passion for all things new”
Daniel is a visionary, his mind is always racing, and I am never short of amazement with how he sees possibility in continued innovation. His ideas are always well founded and researched but sometimes the path from where we are today to how we get there can be overshadowed by sheer optimism.
“Inspired by vision with an appreciation for pragmatism”
Here is where I come in. How will we get there? What hurdles will be need to overcome? What results do we want short and long term? I believe that you can find success if you stay focused on achieving your goals but not every success will warrant results. So I question, I dig deeper, play devils advocate, whatever you want to call it - but I call it balance. Balance out the vision with the smartest path required to find success.
So what would you say, pessimist or realist?
