Life Lesson

Being smart or having money certainly helps you on the path of getting what you want.

Practice and care and intention do, too.

But nothing helps get you there more quickly and more meaningfully than people.

Connection is your most valuable resource. To make the change in the world you seek to make, you will have to engage with hundreds (maybe thousands) of people.

People who help with your idea and people who will criticize it. People who will be changed by it and people who will change it.

It’s a lie to tell ourselves we can get along just fine without vulnerably getting in front of people. Sure, there’s a minimum viable audience, but there’s still an audience.

If there’s a meaningful event that takes place and no one’s there to experience it, did it even happen?

Stay Positive & It’s The Connection Economy, Baby

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If you wait long enough, a better opportunity might present itself. There’s no arguing that.

There is, however, pointing out that waiting comes at a cost.

The best a leader can do is to act on the opportunities that are present and invest the time in making the most of them rather than waiting for “better” ones to arrive.

You could hire someone who qualifies for the position and train them to be the most remarkable hire you’ve had in the same time (probably less) than what it takes to wait for a better application to come in (all the while the team is being dragged down trying to handle the work load of being one person down while you wait).

There’s opportunity in action and cost with inaction.

Stay Positive & More Opportunity And Investment, Please

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If your goal is to offer someone a remarkable experience with your product or service, there’s only so much that can be done to continue meeting those expectations.

At some point, the rising expectations of those you seek to change will lead them to disappointment. Linearly, better is not infinite.

Different can be, though.

So, go ahead and deliver beyond expectations, but notice when you’re at the point of nearly over-extending yourself, when the expectations have risen too high and then rather than trying to zig harder than ever, zag.

Stay Positive & Better Then Different, Repeat

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Whether or not there’s something for you to lose isn’t the right rationale to perform (or not) from.

After all, the change you seek to make isn’t about you, it’s about others.

Before you back down from doing something that’s scary but you know is right in your heart of heart’s, remember what the world has to gain when you lean in.

Stay Positive & It’s A Lot, I’m Sure

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It’s a beautiful moment when you are yourself in a conversation, but then someone brings up something you’re passionate about or asks a question on the topic.

Something switches.

Vision narrows, dopamine’s released, excitement courses through you as you share your thoughts.

You share deeply and strategically and you say (and feel) it with confidence.

When we experience the switch, we know two things have happened.

1. We truly care.
2. We’ve accepted the chance of being wrong.

The second is extremely important.

It’s not that we’ve disregarded being wrong or that we’re stuck in our own ways.

It’s that we’ve learned enough in the past and understand that being wrong again will only make us smarter. And we do this because of 1. We truly care.

Stay Positive & When Have You Last Experience The Switch?

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To be the one who has to rally toward a goal … It’s stressful, taxing, and draining. We rally when there’s a deadline in front of us or when we don’t want to lose.

It’s equally not fun for those on your team. It’s an uncomfortable spot to see that you’re behind and know anything we do might not help you successfully rally.

For spectators, though, they love a rally.

Consider the 4-point comeback of the Sharks the other night or watching mini sail boat races on the water or a new business opening up down the street.

It’s fun to watch someone need to rally if they’re going to make it. The wind has to align, the team needs to be in lock-step, the business needs to care – it’s like a movie.

But your mission isn’t to produce spectators, your mission is to build a team and succeed in your own goals. And to do that, we have to thrash early so we don’t have to rally in the final hour.

Thrashing is energizing, uplifting and collaborative. Very different than rallying.

Stay Positive & Thrash Early, Thrash Often

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If you’re passionate about something, you’re bound to get too far into it.

And it’ll happen in either one or two ways.

Either the creativity will take precedence, you’ll be dreaming way outside of the realm of feasibility, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure by promising too much and you’ll break the borders of practicality and familiarity.

Or… or… you’ll have built your box, created too small of a promise, set risk aside and followed a simple recipe and everything is there to meet spec rather than to surprise and delight.

When we’re too far in, either we’re overly rational or overly irrational.

The hard work is to dance on both sides when pursuing a passion.

Do what works, sure, but also do what might not.

Stay Positive & Back And Forth, Art And Science, Yin And Yang

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