Insight #8:
Imagine a u-shaped graph. You can’t? Look inside your empty beer or wine or champagne glass. You don’t have one to hand? Well, off you go. Get a full one. Now drink. I’ll wait.
Done? Look into your empty glass. Notice how one side goes down, reaches bottom, flat lines for a bit and goes up the other side. That’s a u-shaped graph. Have another drink as I explain why your job or project is like your favorite drinking glass.
Remember how at the start of your new job or new project, you had high expectations of amazing performance? (So did your boss, but that’s another story.) But then reality crashed the party. You discovered you were not as good as you thought you were.
Notice how similar this is to drinking a new brew. As you sip it, or gulp it enthusiastically, you often notice it’s not as good as you’d hoped it would be. But you don’t give up. Of course you don’t. You keep drinking until you see the bottom of your glass. That’s when you see that the bottom flatlines for a bit before it goes up the other side.
And then? And then you don’t give up on the new brew. You have another, just to be sure, one way or the other. You give it a second chance.
Always do the same with your job or project. Don’t give up when it feels like you’ve hit bottom. Because that’s where you find the curve that takes you to the top. (Now you know why it’s called a you-shaped graph.)
Yes, yes, I know my metaphor makes little sense when you’re sober. But use your imagination. After all, if you can’t use your imagination to fantasize success, you won’t recognize it when it hands you a celebratory glass, one with a curvaceous bottom.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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