Tough decisions

The other day having been Super Bowl Sunday in the US, the NFL’s Point of View: League first, team second.

It’s not like the alternative (team first, league second) is a 100% bad idea. In fact, the tension between the two (league, team) will go on forever. But when there is a fight, you resolve the fight by doubling-down on your POV. You believe in your POV so much that you are willing to pay a price for it when you have to, and that is why people trust you.

With almost every good POV, there will always be tension and disagreement. IKEA with “build your own furniture,” not “convenience is king.” Coca-Cola with “soda-makers don’t have to bottle their own product,” not “vertical integration is good.”

Your POV will have tension too. Do not look at the tension as a bad thing, or as something to be resolved and disappeared. The tug-of-war is a feature, not a bug. Embrace it. It’ll be around forever.

This message was inspired in part by what is, hands down, my favorite podcast: Acquired. And, as you can hear described in that podcast, the NFL’s “league first, team second” POV is not dominant in the league 100% of the time. Sometimes the individual teams win, and they do it for years.

So remember this for you and your POV: The tension, the tug-of-war, will never go away. It will always be there. The story of how you referee that tension will become the story of your life. Not the story of how you made it go away, but the story of how you refereed it.

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