TLR Quotes

Question 1

TLR - On careful targeting

Answer 1

You don’t want to shoot from the hip when the target is that small

Question 2

TLR - On measuring the value of specific information

Answer 2

The value/weight of data ultimately lies in the decision it enables

Question 3

TLR - On broad vs narrow messages

Answer 3

“Broad segmentation leads to shallow penetration, similarly, broad messages lead to shallow penetration.” - TLR

Question 4

TLR - On paying attention to right now

Answer 4

“I have to look at the future for the now to make sense. But we also have to look at the now… because you always only live in the “now” at any specific point in time. Pay attention to every moment if you can.”

Question 5

TLR - On fear

Answer 5

Fear knows no challenge rating

Question 6

TLR - On trying to do everything

Answer 6

You can sometimes do anything… But not everything

Question 7

TLR - On changing your mind

Answer 7

If you keep constantly changing your mind, you will forever continue running into yourself and getting in your own way. Think, then commit. Feelings change, and if you live and make decisions by feeling, you will get in your Own way in life a lot more than anybody else will.

Question 8

TLR - On choices vs decisions

Answer 8

There’s a difference between choices and decisions. You are offered choices, you make decisions.

Question 9

TLR - On anger

Answer 9

Anger is a sword without a hilt - there is no safe way to grasp and yield it/ there is no way to yield it without cutting yourself, and if you’re enemy dodges your blows, you bleed alone

Question 10

TLR - On learning from mistakes

Answer 10

There is no such thing as learning the same lesson twice

Question 11

TLR - On trying to be everything to everybody

Answer 11

“Trying to be accountable to everyone ends up making you accountable to nobody”

Question 12

TLR - On the “objectivity of facts”

Answer 12

There is no such thing as an objective fact. Every report on facts is only someone’s opinion. Opinion gives meaning to facts.

Question 13

TLR - On disappointment vs breaking trust

Answer 13

There must be a clear distinction between a break in trust and disappointment. Disappointment is measured in relation to expectations, trust in measures of boundaries

Question 14

TLR - On the effect of uncertainty

Answer 14

Uncertainty always leads to the path of least resistance.

Question 15

TLR - What does uncertainty look like?

Answer 15

Don’t mistake uncertainty for mistrust.

Question 16

TLR - On realising when to quit

Answer 16

The problem isn’t just that this won’t end well, it’s primarily that there won’t even be fun in the middle parts either.

Question 17

TLR - On the “stop doing” list

Answer 17

People who are unable to abandon anything they are currently doing, will likely fail to produce any change. You can’t have a “to do” list if you don’t have a “stop doing” list.

Question 18

TLR - Features vs advantages

Answer 18

Don’t tout features, tout advantages. Features can be viewed in isolation, advantages cannot.

Question 19

TLR - On Marketing success being a systemic success

Answer 19

If you sell and “increase in sales” you are selling a systemic success… so systems theory is ALWAYS going to have to dominate your thinking, methodology, and application.

Question 20

TLR - On what you need

Answer 20

Everything you need is more than you need

Question 21

TLR - On succeeding at the wrong thing

Answer 21

Success can be worse than failure if you succeed at the wrong thing.

Question 22

TLR - Feel good vs feel happy

Answer 22

There is a caveat in thinking that what makes you feel good will also make you happy.

Question 23

TLR - On choosing actions

Answer 23

You can choose your own actions, not your own consequences.

Question 24

TLR - Relationships need both sides equally

Answer 24

In any type of relationship, you need Both parties to make it want to work for it to work, but only one party to Not want it to work for it to fail, regardless of the effort of the other party. It like a line stretched between two people, both are needed to keep it taught, but only one is needed to drop it, regardless of the effort of the other.

Question 25

TLR - On when the “art” in writing occurs

Answer 25

The performance and art in writing occurs in creation, not rendition. You are only performing while you are writing.

Question 26

TLR - On hidden and misunderstood work

Answer 26

What is not understood, while at the same time not admired, will invariably be undervalued and not appreciated.

Question 27

TLR - Cause vs reason

Answer 27

Everything has to have a cause, but everything does not have to have a reason. Patterns, not purposes.

Question 28

TLR - Disclose vs inform

Answer 28

Disclosing information is not the same as informing and enlightening people.

Question 29

TLR - Creating anger

Answer 29

You can’t please everybody, but you can piss everybody off.

Question 30

TLR - Logical role of trust

Answer 30

“Trust, however, has a critical and sound logical aspect: it reduces uncertainty. Trust is built when behaviour matches expectations and involves consistency in motives and accountability for actions.”

Question 31

TLR - Movement is not progress

Answer 31

Walking in circles is not progress, even if it involves movement, even if it involves effort. Now insitutionalise this “process”, and you have systemic organisational waste that gets you nowhere, and the harder the work, the more you stand still.

Question 32

TLR - What makes something important?

Answer 32

The import of a thing lies in its entanglements with other things.

Question 33

TLR - On ignoring facts

Answer 33

“Imperfections in a plan are always a problem, but they are a devastating problem only if we do not acknowledge them. You can’t adjust for it if you don’t acknowledge it.”