In my first (and only) sales job, my boss told me to kiss the potential customer, and that’s how I’d make all my sales.
I looked at him and said, “have you seen my face?” While my aforementioned, 18-year-old, unkempt, patchy beard and oil-soaked face looked puzzled, I’m sure.
He smiled and said, “No. KISS. In all caps. Keep It Simple Stupid.”
And before I had the time to tell him he could have also kept it simple and just said that to start with - we were off harassing people by knocking on their doors.
Man, I hated that job.
But KISS was something that stuck.
😘 Mwah & Razor Blades
KISS applies to so much of what I do today.
It really is just an easier way to describe Occams Razor, a theory/principle that says: The simplest explanation or solution is likely the correct one.
And thinking back on my life, this is painfully true. So many problems could have disappeared if I had just kept simplicity at the forefront of my mind.
Work - do what you like to do.
Fitness - start with something easy.
Business - sell something.
Dating - be forward but respectful.
Learning - pursue what’s interesting.
But no. In all dimensions of life, I overcomplicated things.
Now, I’ve been fixing this, but lately, I’ve been seeing added complexity in crap that’s meant to stop us from adding complexity - that’s like deodorant that makes you stink even worse, think Axe/Lynx from your teenage days as a good example.
And what I’m talking about is an obsession with the tools.
👨🎨 The Tools
Example, you say?
Gym clothes, gym shoes, gym membership, fitness watch, and protein powder - all tools.
Bundled together in a neat stack, while the actual “working out” part never materializes. The irony being that going for a 30-minute walk in your regular shoes would do you more good than buying all that crap and putting it off.
It’s just another way to procrastinate because doing all that stuff is the easy part - when in reality, if we just kept it simple, we could make progress and gain some momentum.
And we’ve all lived some form of this - but fitness isn’t the only dimension here.
Lately, every single day, I feel the turkey slap of productivity and entrepreneurship tools against my face - not great.
Twitter, Reddit, Medium, and Youtube are the main culprits.
I’m not sure if I’m on some shit-list, but people keep sharing these elaborate Notion templates, Spreadsheets, Apps, and 99 by 99 Rubiks Spheres for organizing things, creating a “second brain,” or pick any number of other things meant to simplify your life when in fact they light it on fire.
All of this is noise.
It’s taking away from productivity and action by making us do “busy work” or obsess about the tools.
Tools are fucking amazing - when they help us build things.
But not when they stop us via distraction-inducing-busywork.
So here’s my puny war-cry 🐈 raaaeeeww!
Keep it simple.
Use your phone’s notes app instead of an elaborate all-in-one tool you’ll dump in 2 weeks.
Use a simple one-click deploy CMS for your blog instead of a 1-month setup before you even post a single article.
Use your phone’s camera and premiere rush to start that YouTube channel instead of maximizing that Amazon cart with $2k worth of equipment.
Start with the simple workout, diet, date, career move, etc.
Tim Ferriss likes to say, “What would this look like if it were easy?”
And that’s a phrase I say to myself often.
🔗 Link Dump
The theme of today’s dumperino is practical digital assets - so if you’ve been avoiding making them from scratch for your website, videos, or designs, I’ve got you covered with this one.
And they’re all KISS-worthy - both kinds ;)
🎨 Brett Williams, Solopreneur designer extraordinaire of Design Joy, has just made his scribble collection free - these will spice up your website.
🖌 This CSS UI Gradients generator has been a lifesaver for the web app I’ve been developing lately - oh yeah, you’re getting a sneak peek first, but it’s not at that stage yet, so hang in there 😉
⭐ Every web-person needs Font Awesome in their repertoire - unlimited minimalist icons for your site.
🐥 If you missed it, I’ve been focusing on growing my Twitter lately, and if you’re asking, “why do you need even more ego?” The answer is in my stats breakdown - if you’re trying to get an audience or customers, I’d definitely give it a look.
🤔 I also wrote about my favorite decision-making tactic of the past year in this article - if you’re interested.
Thank you for listening to my rant today.
Hope my pain puts a smile on your face ✨
Chat to you in the next one, and remember to let me know your thoughts in the comment section or by replying to this bad boy.
Chat soon.
Sah ✌