My First Philosophy

No, I don't know it all

  It is only half way through my second week as a PM and I'm already losing my sleep. Have you been there?
  All I can think of is when I get to do some meaningful work and radical changes? How soon can I learn everything that entails about this business? How soon can I become a better writer and use proper words to express these ideas? The problem is the more I think about these things, the more anxious I get and the more blocked my mind becomes.
  I only have one option is to rely in my own ability to overcome any obstacle, whether the obstacle is within or from the outside, by doing this I let myself "go with the flow" and allow others to exercise their ability to help me grow in this new position.

Major Setback

  I know! 10 days in this new job and I can already foreseen something in me that will prevent my ability to deliver: "My own ability to resolve issues". One of the beauties of being a developer is how much fun it is to figure a solution to a code that is currently not compiling, there is a satisfaction that only developers will understand on seeing a solution compiled and run, unfortunately PMs can not work like that.
  The success of a PM does not depend on its own performance but on the performance of others. A PM has to able to analyze his peers and know their language, their expressions, their approaches and gather valuable information out of each one of them in order to create a meaningful story.
  I have come the conclusion that my success depends on the ability of others and this can be a little bit frustrating for some people, because it is also the goal of a PM to deliver successful products.

Awesome Opportunity

  It is commonly known that with every challenge there is always an opportunity, so it is important to realize that as PMs depend on many factors for a product to be successful, they also have the capability to impact the process by creating an environment that will make those factors succeed or change, in this case, other employees be more efficient than ever.
  PMs must have the ability to influence people around them for a sole purpose: "The success of a product", and I don't mean this in a cold and emotional detached way, but in a intentional and truthful way. People, for the most part, tend to perform better in environments in which they feel comfortable, so it is the job of the PM to provide the environment. Now, this might look different from job to job, but the concept remains the same.

How do we keep a "bullish" environment?

  This is going to sound familiar and maybe you heard this from one your parents before but: "This one you have to figure it out on your own". Why? Because every case will be different and we all have different personalities and characters. So, every job environment will vary from one to another, however, the end goal remains the same, as a PM we need to find out what people like or dislike, what are they prone to say no or yes, what are their "good" hours and their "bad" hours during any given day and personal life is not excluded from any of this. If we want our product to succeed we will do what it takes to learn those trends in people and what we have identified them then we can certainly act accordingly.