Josh Richards "jrichard"

Common sense and a sprinkle of self-confidence is the best way to succeed in a new business, project, cause, or other change in our lives. It has far less to do with prior experience, schooling, etc. than many think.

A great way to insure we stick with the common sense approach is to ignore what the industry norms are. That doesn't mean defy them just to be defiant. But it does mean defy them when we understand why we want to (put the other way: when we understand that the norm doesn't actually make any sense in and of itself -- at least for our goals).

Most of us have common sense, but it's easy to miss the forest for the trees when we're caught up in the middle of an industry or a particular problem, emotionally reacting, discussing a situation within a group setting, letting the client's past approach to a situation guide our approach, or unsure of ourselves.

Seek out ways to detect when you may be falling into this trap. Then experiment with ways to knock yourself out of it when it happens. Since it's a re-occurring problem, well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to test and refine your detection methods and remedies.

-jr