036: Podcast (II)

Excerpts from a conversation (Tareef).

Jeremy Finch

31 Aug 2020 — 3 min read

This is part of a conversation I had with my friend Tareef.

We talked about design, startups, time travel, b-school, and the creative process. This is some of what he said.

Edited for brevity 🎙
[ 2 min ]

Transcript :

[ Tareef ] "Being outside of business school, in the world right now, I am more scared to share my failures than in that kind of 'bubble'...

I was just on a call recently with my friends, who I consider to be the smartest people that I know. And they asked that question in the group: Who is happy doing the work that they're doing right now? And it was silent. I was the only one.

... I think that's the problem with doing creative work. You can't time-block it.

The biggest mistake that I've made in my career is setting a time in my calendar to 'be creative'.

The environment that we need to really thrive, and start, and fail, and try again and again: We just can't afford it for some reason. Not for 'some reason'. I understand why we can't afford that today.

I understand why a big corporation will let you try three times and, if you're not successful, you have to move on to something else. I understand that.

But I think the greatest things don't work out that way.

I love the Agile process so much because you frame everything that you're doing in user stories: As [a user], I want [this], so that I can [do this].

So it doesn't really scope you into how to solve a problem. You just understand who you're doing it for, what, and why. And then I gather as much information around that. And then I find a way to solve it.

Sometimes it's very small. Sometimes it's very large.

Whatever you do: Test and measure.
So that you know what worked and what didn't...

Sometimes what gets out there isn't what you had intended initially, and you made compromises along the way. I just enjoy that process. I want to be able to do that at least for the foreseeable future.

[ Jeremy ] If you could time travel to your past, what would you tell your past-self?

[ Tareef ] I would tell my past-self that things will end up ok.

I think I just needed to know that earlier than I did. I spent a lot of time being worried and anxious, depressed about how far I've gone, the lack of my progress. Where I would go, and what would happen if I didn't get there etc.

I'm not there yet.
I don't know if I will ever 'get there'.

I think just knowing that, whatever happens, life's good. You're lucky. Just keep at it. That's what I would have liked to tell myself earlier."

Season 1 Collaborations Business Creativity