Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
– C. S. Lewis
For me, there are two things that keep me humble.
The first is Drift’s customers. Because no matter what, there’s always going to be a customer who’s upset about something. And that’s what keeps us growing and learning. That’s why it’s important to lean into criticism. It keeps you humble. And why it’s important to constantly spend time with customers, no matter your role.
Even for engineers and designers, who aren’t typically customer-facing, spending as much time as you can learning from customers will not only give you great insight into what about your product or service could be better, but it will tune you into a customer’s likes and dislikes. So you can build better product, faster the next time.
Customers are a great guardrail – a great source of humility. (You can read more about this in my book, HYPERGROWTH).
The second source of humility in my life? My kids. If you have kids, you know they’re the ultimate source of humility. And it doesn’t matter if you’re the Queen of England. In her kids’ eyes, she’s not that special. Having kids keeps you humble. Because they don’t care about titles. They don’t care what your job is. Or how big your company is. Or what you do day to day.
These guardrails keep me humble.
What are your own humility guardrails? You need at least one in your professional life and one in your personal life. Customers can be a great guardrail at work. And at home, think of friends, public service, your partner or your kids to keep you honest, learning and most of all, humble.
– DC
PS What’s something you’re struggling with right now? I’d love to help if I can or write about my own struggles with similar challenges in my next newsletter. Reply here to let me know.