Catalin Costea

I don’t believe in recipes. They don’t work and they create the false impression that by copying what someone else did will have the same result. The truth is that it never does and people end up disappointed. When someone tries to apply a recipe and they don’t succeed they will get depressed because there’s probably something wrong with them.

The problem with recipes is that they are made by one person based on their experience, their tastes, their way of being. Every recipe is personal, there is no one true formula that is going to work for everyone.

You won’t see any great chef telling you exactly the amount of ingredients you need to add. They will just tell you what to put in and advise you to taste it as you go along and work from there.

This is exactly how things should work in life. Learn from others, see what they did and what skills, aptitudes and knowledge they had and work from there. Never try to copy someone else, instead try to understand what they did and why. Then apply your observation on your own skills and style.

There is no recipe for success, but the key to failure is trying to be someone else.

People love stories. But more than that, people love stories about other people. It’s the power of example, the idea that someone had that experience, that someone was present when it happened, that someone was able to accomplish such a thing that creates a powerful emotional impact. It makes it plausible and personal.

This is how examples work. It’s not just some theory anymore, it’s reality. It takes it to another level, where the discussion is not about if it’s possible or not, but if you are willing to do it or not.

A good example for this is a penalty shootout from football (soccer) where coaches assign their best penalty taker to shoot first. He stands out as an example for his team mates that will shoot after him. He shows them it’s possible, it builds their confidence and morale.

The same thing applies to every single domain. So no matter what you do or want to do, search for that person that did it before you, get inspired and get to work. If there’s no one and you will probably be the first, then it’s up to you to stand up and become a leader, a model for others to come.

Get inspired and inspire. That’s how things keep moving.

I guess you have heard this at least once until now, but I can’t stress it enough. People still believe that if you make things more complicated, with more features or options, they’re going to be more attractive.

Actually the opposite is true. People want the simplest way that will solve their needs.

The trick is to find the needs and to find a way to combine them and offer a product to satisfy different needs, but which are similar and can be covered by the same product.

A pen will always be a pen. It solves a basic need and that’s all they do. On the other hand, phones have turned into smart phones that satisfy a lot of different needs right now. That’s because people love comfort and availability. But overdoing it, adding too many features and trying to turn it into something else, will probably ruin it.

There is no such thing as too simple. Find the need and create a product to satisfy it. If you can merge more needs into one product then it’s even better. But remember, keep it simple, no matter how many needs you address.

People are mostly afraid to fail, to be wrong, to make mistakes, but there are also people that are afraid to be great, to succeed, to make something memorable, to create, to innovate.

People who fear being great are doing it because once you have done something really good, something memorable, the next time you will have to step up and come up with something of the same value, at least.

Also, creating something great means that things will change, that you will have to adjust to the new situation. This means adjusting to something new, getting out of your comfort zone and exposing yourself.

Fear comes from the unknown, from the fact that something is going to change but no one knows exactly in what way. This is one of the things that success will do. It’s going to change everything and some people are too scared to even try it.

Doing something great will change your life. It’s up to you what it’s going to be like.

Not all the time. It’s not only about hard work, it’s also about working smart, about creating value for others, and being indispensable and memorable.

Many people still think that hard work is all that’s needed. Others will compensate by doing the same thing with less effort, with better technology, with creativity, and with innovation.

No one really cares about how hard you work, how many hours you spend creating your projects, or how much you invest. They care about how you meet their needs, the value you bring, the emotional implication, the way you make them feel.

The products you create are about your customers and not about the hard work you put in.

 

More involvement.

More knowledge and skills.

More risks.

More facing your fear.

More emotional connection.

Even if some might think that more is less, it turns out that the more you offer the better your costumers, clients, and partners will appreciate you and your work. People appreciate generosity, involvement and caring.

Instead of searching for ways to offer less and gain more, which rarely works, focus on offering more. The more you offer the more appreciation you will receive, the better the feedback and rewards.

The Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule, is quite simple. 20 percent of your effort is going to bring 80 percent of the results. If you judge your activity by this rule it means that almost everything you do is not going to bring enough results for you to spend time and effort on.

Some time ago Coca Cola representatives admitted that half of their marketing budget is a waste of money, but at the same time they admitted that they have no clue on which part they should cut. The same applies to every day activities.

When it comes to personal development everything influences our evolution. Everything, no matter how small it may seem, might have a huge influence in the long run. This is one reason why most people try to do as many things as possible, experiment, gain experience and skills that might turn out to be useful in a future situation.

It’s hard to find a balance between effort and results. Some will rather focus only on what will bring them immediate results while others will rather expand their knowledge and capabilities in order to profit from this in the future.

Either way, effort, even if now it may seem not to be worth it, will prove itself useful in the long run.

There are a lot of things going on each second. A lot of gigs, events, conferences, shows, meetings with a lot of interesting people to connect, ideas to share and embrace, and lots of projects to be part of. No matter how interesting and tempting all of them might be you will have to filter them, decide where to go and which of them to ignore.

Some people will ignore this and try to be present at every single thing that happens. They will sacrifice their free time, their sleep time and even part of their work time in order to be there. They go that far that they turn this into their mission.

No matter how interesting this might seem, the truth is that most events are not worth wasting your time being there. Even if ideas, projects, and networking are extremely important, they consume a lot of time and energy that you could dedicate to your work, to your art.

All of these events are important once you have done your part, created something, done the hard work and you need that extra something, that idea to help you improve or move on, the person that can help you improve. Until then, all of these are just a way of wasting time and staying away from the important work you have to do. It’s a way to let your fear take control and move you away from what you should be doing.

Instead of trying to be everywhere, try to be able to make the most of everything you attend. Focus on your art and only afterwards on other things.

You work.

Your free time.

Your art.

Your friends.

Your projects.

Your house.

No matter what you do, enjoy every single second of it. Once it stops being fun, stop doing it, change it, find something new, move on. Enjoying what you do is the biggest drive there is, the biggest motivation.

If it’s not fun, then don’t even think about it.

That’s a good reason for you not to do it.

If everyone is doing it then it’s nothing special, it isn’t hard to do, it does not require special skills, courage, creativity or innovation. It’s just another normal thing, and as any normal thing it won’t be greatly rewarded nor will it help you stand out from the crowd.

On the other hand, see what people are afraid of, find something that others can’t do and go do that. Do the hard work, face fear, create something that others can’t, make something memorable and then you will be rewarded.

The scarcer the things you can do are, the greater your reward will be.