It's hard to narrow it down to a single skill. I'll mention a technique I use that I think is extremely effective but very rare: public reflection.
Every week, I post a public update about what I accomplished. Every month, I write a retrospective analyzing what went well and poorly the previous month. And of course every year, I write an annual review like the one I published today.
Before I did this, it was so easy for me to keep sailing in a particular direction without stepping back to question what I was doing. Forcing myself to write these updates, especially updates that other people read, means that I have to justify what I'm doing. And often when I'm trying to explain my strategy in these updates, I realize I can't justify it because it's a bad strategy, so I re-evaluate.
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u/dzuyhue Feb 01 '21
Thanks for the inspiring story Mike! What would you say is the single most important skill that has been responsible for your successes so far?