What's the difference between executive A and executive B?
Executive A:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Executive B:
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
The difference?
Constraints.
Seth Godin often talks of constraints:
"Every project worth doing comes with constraints. Our natural inclination is to fight them.
"When we fight constraints and eliminate them, we often gain access to new insights, new products, and new solutions. It also makes it easier to compete against people who don't have those constraints.
"'Give me constraints' is rarely heard, except when talented and passionate designers go to work."
In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Godin went on about the power of constraints:
"Constraints used to frustrate me so much, and now they are the core of my useful working life.
"I've set up constraints all around me, constraints about how I choose which projects, constraints about what I eat, constraints about what a project can entail and what it can't entail, constraints about how many people work with me, constraints about which media I'm going to be in and which ones I'm not going to be in.
"They're all arbitrary.
"I just made up rules because having constraints lets me get to the edge. It lets me get to the boards without breaking my nose."
Consider your favorite sport if you don't think constraints are powerful and productive.
Sport is all about constraints.
Size of the playing surface.
Length of the contest.
Equipment for the game.
Number of players allowed.
Sport without constraints would be a pointless mess.
This post is riddled with constraints.
So I will stop now.
I will embrace the constraints.
-Marc
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