Be in the Arena, Don't be a spectator

India won the ICC T20 World cup yesterday and today social media is on overdrive with leadership lessons. Most of the lessons which has been put out are to be ignored. Real lessons are learnt when you are in arena and not when you are a spectator. Theodore Roosevelt inspiring speech on it is worth a read in its entirety.

We should be careful about whom we listen to and the reaction to yesterday's event is a good reminder of it.

Once we understand that we need to be in the arena the next challenge is how do we find the great work. Paul Graham wrote a famous essay "How to do Great work" and below is a summary poster on it. It is a fascinating post if you are ambitious and want to do the great work. It lays out four steps :

• Choose a field

  • Something which comes naturally

  • Work on your own projects

  • Be excessively curious

• Learn enough to get to the frontier

  • Seek out the best colleagues

  • Protect morale

  • Start small and be prolific

• Notice gaps

  • Break rules

  • Seek unanswered questions

  • Address unfashionable problems

• Explore promising ones
  

  • Don't chase vanity metrics.

  • Work hard

  • Focus on good work than chasing recognition

I would recommend reading the original post and is worth reading multiple times as you walk on this path.