Greatness can’t be planned

I recently caught the March 19, 2025, episode of The Tim Ferris Show with EV Williams, the Co founder of Twitter, Blogger, Medium, and currently working on Mozi.

He has definitely left his mark on the internet and I loved his ease in sharing what excites him.

He discussed a book that I can't wait to read, “Why Greatness Can't be Planned, The Myth of the Objective” by Ken Stanley and Joel Lehman.

This book appealed to me because over and over in my coaching calls, I see clients want to know the formula - the tried and true method - to make their business successful.

For years I've observed clients spend tens of thousands of dollars to work with a coach to show them how to replicate the success of others.

Remember as their accountant, I see their numbers.

For the most part, I don't see the income increase as a result from the money spent on coaching.

Believe me, I don't think coaching itself is bad.

It's just too hard in today's Amazon and ecommerce world to think one person's luck can be replicated for others.

There may be a few tips that are helpful, but I believe that how you interact with your market is what attracts your customers to you.

A person that did great selling their fitness product likely will not have the secret sauce for you and your baby niche.

Not to mention what worked yesterday is old news in today's ever-changing ecommerce and business landscape.

If you follow me at all, you know I think creativity is each person's superpower.

It's the way we can connect authentically to our customers with our product development and marketing.

The way we connect to our team through our leadership, and ultimately ourselves as we continue to discover who we are and our purpose in life.

If you want to grow in business and life, you have to start with an idea and the intuition of what's the next step.

Make a hypothesis of what will happen, then run the experiment and see if it works.

Realize if it doesn't, you'll have more data and be ready to try the next new thing.

There is no formula. Or metric. This isn't lazy, it's far from it.

It's rigorous to constantly be making a hypothesis and running the experiments.

But it's also freeing.

Why hold yourself to a goal that achieves mediocrity and marginal improvement at the expense of what could be great?

I read the last sentence of the earlier mentioned book listing on Amazon and it really struck a chord, “Considered life without a destination and discovery without a compass.”

If this sounds like an invitation you're waiting for, check out the book.

I'll be reading it in the coming weeks, and I'd love to know your thoughts.

If you're ready to grow your ecommerce business from this discovery mindset, ourEcommerce Business Performance Assessment

Use your results and the free guide to determine your weak spots, then schedule a call to see how we can help.

Cyndi