Chaos is always a bad thing.
I've heard amazing athletes talk about their success via the ability to slow everything down, alleviate the chaos, so they can make rational decisions inside the mess.
Great army generals have the ability to step out of the sheer madness that is battle and understand tactics and strategy when everybody else is just trying to stay alive.
I hate chaos probably the same as everybody else, but I hate it so personally it feels like it's just me and it. I think when you've dealt with poverty it makes your hatred of chaos worse because there is nothing more out of control than the life poverty foists upon you. Violence and chaos often go hand in hand just like violence and poverty.
We lose a little bit of our humanity when there is chaos. We call it animal instinct or mob mentality or just reacting but we never call it human.
When we think about emotions there is always a foil for any emotion, two sides of a coin. Many people believe the opposite of happiness is sadness, but its not. The next time you lose somebody close to you go to an amusement park and see if you feel better. No the opposite of happiness is boredom, that's why strapping yourself into a fake car crash called a roller coaster makes you happy, it cures the boredom. The opposite of sadness is stability. You lose somebody and you need to be near somebody you know and love, you need to feel safe and in control.
Chaos breads fear and sadness.
God uses chaos all the time and when spent some time with us a person he was totally untouched emotionally and physically by chaos.
Once there was a storm so bad that everybody on a ship thought they were going to die, Jesus just napped.
Once there was a mob that wanted to kill Jesus and so he just walked through their thronging midst and left.
Once there was a guy who ran around screaming and cutting himself and hurting anybody near him, Jesus just sat down with him and they had a conversation.
An army general was once leaning on God's advice on how to win a battle where he had thirty thousand troops but was facing an army of a hundred and fifty thousand. God told him to send everybody home but three hundred soldiers. Then in the middle of the night those three hundred solders took torches and covered them with jars to hide the light. The spread out late one night around the enemy camp. In unison they all uncovered their torches and smashed the jars on rocks. The enemy had five thousand troops for each of the one soldiers fighting against them, but in the chaos they all resorted to their instincts and turned and killed the person closest to them. The entire enemy routed itself.
God uses chaos.
Out of the darkness comes light, out of the sound comes silence, out of death comes life.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Monday, November 7, 2016
But those guys suck
I was speaking with someone who was starting a new business. It was in a field where there is a very defined market leader. I brought up the market leader and his response was "Those guys suck". Outside of the fact that we have lost our eloquence I was moved by multiple different feelings.
1) When you go negative you make people feel negative. There are very few times in life where you should goal to make the person you are talking to feel negative.
2) When somebody a company is better than your's in every respect (size, profitability, offerings) you should probably keep your mouth shut about them until you do something. Let people know you want to provide better service, price, anything. Just don't say the way they are doing it isn't working because guess what, it is, until somebody breaks it.
Be eloquent and be thoughtful. Google is better than Yahoo, we now know this. Back in the early day's of Google though the founders used to say that they were not really concerned with growth because every day later you found Google you found them a day better. They probably didn't say Yahoo sucks, they just worked to better and let customers decide.
A great current example of this is Microsoft. They are not making commercials hating on Apple, they are just quietly trying to do things better than Apple and people are starting to notice. It turns out the only way to dethrone the leader in any industry isn't to tear them down but to build yourself up.
1) When you go negative you make people feel negative. There are very few times in life where you should goal to make the person you are talking to feel negative.
2) When somebody a company is better than your's in every respect (size, profitability, offerings) you should probably keep your mouth shut about them until you do something. Let people know you want to provide better service, price, anything. Just don't say the way they are doing it isn't working because guess what, it is, until somebody breaks it.
Be eloquent and be thoughtful. Google is better than Yahoo, we now know this. Back in the early day's of Google though the founders used to say that they were not really concerned with growth because every day later you found Google you found them a day better. They probably didn't say Yahoo sucks, they just worked to better and let customers decide.
A great current example of this is Microsoft. They are not making commercials hating on Apple, they are just quietly trying to do things better than Apple and people are starting to notice. It turns out the only way to dethrone the leader in any industry isn't to tear them down but to build yourself up.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Chaos
Story telling and story listening are who we are. It is fundamentally human. You can talk about needs, pain, relationships but even penguins have life long relationships and feel bad when an egg rolls off their feet. Story telling is what makes us human. Every major religion is built around a story that is thousands of years old. Even young religions like Mormonism needed a story teller to get up and off the ground. We are humans and we need stories.
The thing is, what makes a good story?
The most important book written on the subject is "Story" by Robert Mckee, the famed Hollywood writing coach. Read it, love it, become better at telling stories.
The backbone of every story ever told is the inciting incident. Eve bites the apple. ET meets the boy. Grendel kills Beowulf's friends. Every story has an inciting incident. Sometimes they are quiet, more often they are loud, but they always exist.
The best inciting incidents are one that don't directly affect you, your just listening to a story, but that matter to you personally so you get pulled into the story. I feel like God is trying to control me sometimes too Eve.
In the world, day to day, we are rewarded internally by our emotions and externally by our peers for inciting incidents because they give us new stories to spend time on.
This is why saying something crazy on Facebook gets things moving. The issue is, are you just inciting a riot?
People too often get hooked on inciting and forget what they are inciting. Even the best stories warn us of this peril. You shouldn't have made Samson angry, he is going to tie foxes together and light them on fire in your grain fields. You shouldn't have made John McClane angry by taking a high rise hostage, he's going to lose his shoes and then kill all the bad guys.
Be very careful of people who just walk around inciting in their lives, there is literally not a single animal in all of nature that does that. Every story needs an inciting incident, but not every incident needs to be incited.
The thing is, what makes a good story?
The most important book written on the subject is "Story" by Robert Mckee, the famed Hollywood writing coach. Read it, love it, become better at telling stories.
The backbone of every story ever told is the inciting incident. Eve bites the apple. ET meets the boy. Grendel kills Beowulf's friends. Every story has an inciting incident. Sometimes they are quiet, more often they are loud, but they always exist.
The best inciting incidents are one that don't directly affect you, your just listening to a story, but that matter to you personally so you get pulled into the story. I feel like God is trying to control me sometimes too Eve.
In the world, day to day, we are rewarded internally by our emotions and externally by our peers for inciting incidents because they give us new stories to spend time on.
This is why saying something crazy on Facebook gets things moving. The issue is, are you just inciting a riot?
People too often get hooked on inciting and forget what they are inciting. Even the best stories warn us of this peril. You shouldn't have made Samson angry, he is going to tie foxes together and light them on fire in your grain fields. You shouldn't have made John McClane angry by taking a high rise hostage, he's going to lose his shoes and then kill all the bad guys.
Be very careful of people who just walk around inciting in their lives, there is literally not a single animal in all of nature that does that. Every story needs an inciting incident, but not every incident needs to be incited.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
That First Day Thing
As I finish my first day at a new job I consider some of the extremely simple hurdles I faced because I am:
1) New
2) Will never experience them again
By default, nobody at a company is either new or experiencing the issues of the new. This is true for the fortune 500 company I am at and true for the two person non-profit I run with Kelsey.
But another critical place it is true is for users. I tried to login to the Frontier Airlines webpage from my phone to check in to a flight. It told me I needed to use their App. I downloaded the App which told me I needed an account I could only get by signing into the webpage. I sighed and quit, instead using the ticket counter when I arrived at the airport.
Nobody at Frontier has been a new user in a very long time. Assuredly the steps have gotten more complicated as bells and whistles have been added. Those complications where layered on top of each other to now create a system that possibly no actual person at the company has ever used.
It is worthwhile every now and then to be new to the old thing you are doing.
PS. Also extremely true for parents relationships to kids.
1) New
2) Will never experience them again
By default, nobody at a company is either new or experiencing the issues of the new. This is true for the fortune 500 company I am at and true for the two person non-profit I run with Kelsey.
But another critical place it is true is for users. I tried to login to the Frontier Airlines webpage from my phone to check in to a flight. It told me I needed to use their App. I downloaded the App which told me I needed an account I could only get by signing into the webpage. I sighed and quit, instead using the ticket counter when I arrived at the airport.
Nobody at Frontier has been a new user in a very long time. Assuredly the steps have gotten more complicated as bells and whistles have been added. Those complications where layered on top of each other to now create a system that possibly no actual person at the company has ever used.
It is worthwhile every now and then to be new to the old thing you are doing.
PS. Also extremely true for parents relationships to kids.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Marketing and Purity
Sometimes we feel as though if we create the perfect mousetrap people will find a way to our door. At Google they had a belief early on that they were unconcerned with growth because every day later that you found them was a day better that you found them. These two belief systems are polar opposites.
The first is pride based. It says that I can decide all on my own that I have created the perfect product. That I know the market better than anyone else, including the market itself. The second, we can call it the Google belief system, says that all I can do is work every single day to try and make my product a little bit better. This says that I've never created the perfect product and I don't plan on it, I'm just at a the most current iteration that's as good as I can make it for now.
Sometimes these two meet, think Steve Jobs at Apple. He said don't ask the market what they want because they have no idea. This may be true, but the market still gets to decide if it's any good or not after the thing is made. This kind of arrogance can create the Iphone but it can also make the U2 Ipod. Remember in 2004 the Ipod you could buy that was exactly the same as the other Ipod but it had the U2 members signatures carved on to the back and only cost $50 more...
So you are probably not Steve Jobs or Larry from Google. You should be humble about your product and not humble in the sense that I quietly believe what I have created is the best thing the world has ever seen and I will just sit quietly while the entire world sings my praises. Humble in that you work every day at getting better. But you should also market your product. There is no loss in purity to put signs along the path to your front door.
Google was two single guys who as billionaires still dress like only Walmart exists. You need money, you need to exist.
We will continue the thought on purity in marketing but understand the belief system behind it. Its pride and pride is just fear with makeup on.
The first is pride based. It says that I can decide all on my own that I have created the perfect product. That I know the market better than anyone else, including the market itself. The second, we can call it the Google belief system, says that all I can do is work every single day to try and make my product a little bit better. This says that I've never created the perfect product and I don't plan on it, I'm just at a the most current iteration that's as good as I can make it for now.
Sometimes these two meet, think Steve Jobs at Apple. He said don't ask the market what they want because they have no idea. This may be true, but the market still gets to decide if it's any good or not after the thing is made. This kind of arrogance can create the Iphone but it can also make the U2 Ipod. Remember in 2004 the Ipod you could buy that was exactly the same as the other Ipod but it had the U2 members signatures carved on to the back and only cost $50 more...
So you are probably not Steve Jobs or Larry from Google. You should be humble about your product and not humble in the sense that I quietly believe what I have created is the best thing the world has ever seen and I will just sit quietly while the entire world sings my praises. Humble in that you work every day at getting better. But you should also market your product. There is no loss in purity to put signs along the path to your front door.
Google was two single guys who as billionaires still dress like only Walmart exists. You need money, you need to exist.
We will continue the thought on purity in marketing but understand the belief system behind it. Its pride and pride is just fear with makeup on.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Big Break
There are two ways to have a big break:
1) Luck
2) Cheating
This is probably offensive because for a hundred years we have been hard sold that we are the reason everything happens. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, be a self made man, make sure not to be born a woman or ethnic.
Now the problem is that it's easy to look at somebody who is a really good person, who is really talented and point to their hard work. You would be right to do that. Hard work puts you on top and hard work keeps you on top. But your big break is what allowed you to play in the game in the first place.
Lebron has an almost perfect body for basketball. Phelps for swimming. Mentally Kasperov had something when it came to chess. Mozart with music, Shakespeare with words.
Now all of them worked hard. They crafted and perfected their bodies, minds, hands and imagination. They pushed themselves and tried new things. This is why they were eventually on top. But they all got in the game because of a big break.
If you choose you can create your own big break. Maddoff figured this out and stole twenty thousand million dollars. Ben Johnson wasn't happy just being in the game nor was Lance Armstrong. Being the 44th best cyclist in the world is actually pretty amazing. You get paid to ride a bike!
The problem with luck is that it makes you less important. It makes your accomplishments a little less than if you just created them all by yourself. I get it, pride is the number one disease on planet earth (white men are particularly prone to catch it). That's why cheating is so easy. Because all of the cheaters have a reason. Lance said everybody else was doing it, and they were. Maddoff gave a ton of money away to charity. Ben Johnson was Canadian, Canadians can't be evil!
Hating luck and cheating are oddly tied together, they are both belief systems that you are special. And guess what, you are special! You are lucky and I am lucky. Look around and see where you are lucky, where you are blessed, where fortune has smiled upon you. Then seize that and work, work hard. Maybe you will be the 44th best cyclist in the world and you get paid to ride a bike and you can break the wind in stage eighteen of the Tour de France for somebody who was lucky enough to be gifted with #3 talent. That doesn't take anything away from you, you are amazing.
Just be careful of catching the disease of pride.
It's not that pride comes before the fall, pride leads the way to the fall.
1) Luck
2) Cheating
This is probably offensive because for a hundred years we have been hard sold that we are the reason everything happens. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, be a self made man, make sure not to be born a woman or ethnic.
Now the problem is that it's easy to look at somebody who is a really good person, who is really talented and point to their hard work. You would be right to do that. Hard work puts you on top and hard work keeps you on top. But your big break is what allowed you to play in the game in the first place.
Lebron has an almost perfect body for basketball. Phelps for swimming. Mentally Kasperov had something when it came to chess. Mozart with music, Shakespeare with words.
Now all of them worked hard. They crafted and perfected their bodies, minds, hands and imagination. They pushed themselves and tried new things. This is why they were eventually on top. But they all got in the game because of a big break.
If you choose you can create your own big break. Maddoff figured this out and stole twenty thousand million dollars. Ben Johnson wasn't happy just being in the game nor was Lance Armstrong. Being the 44th best cyclist in the world is actually pretty amazing. You get paid to ride a bike!
The problem with luck is that it makes you less important. It makes your accomplishments a little less than if you just created them all by yourself. I get it, pride is the number one disease on planet earth (white men are particularly prone to catch it). That's why cheating is so easy. Because all of the cheaters have a reason. Lance said everybody else was doing it, and they were. Maddoff gave a ton of money away to charity. Ben Johnson was Canadian, Canadians can't be evil!
Hating luck and cheating are oddly tied together, they are both belief systems that you are special. And guess what, you are special! You are lucky and I am lucky. Look around and see where you are lucky, where you are blessed, where fortune has smiled upon you. Then seize that and work, work hard. Maybe you will be the 44th best cyclist in the world and you get paid to ride a bike and you can break the wind in stage eighteen of the Tour de France for somebody who was lucky enough to be gifted with #3 talent. That doesn't take anything away from you, you are amazing.
Just be careful of catching the disease of pride.
It's not that pride comes before the fall, pride leads the way to the fall.
Monday, June 27, 2016
I'm Been Failing at That for a While...
It feels really bad to say you've been failing at something for five years. It feels ok to say you've been trying something for five years.
I've been trying to write a novel is not a true statement. I've been failing to complete a novel is what I'm actually saying.
What if we replaced the word trying with failing. It changes where we place the blame.
I've been failing to workout is very different from my workouts have been failing to get results. Failing squarely places the blame where it needs to fall. If your workouts have been failing then change them. If you have been failing to workout then start.
This is not a negative stance either, it should push us towards clarity. If you know you've been failing to workout then you don't need to find a better workout. Different workouts are designed for different results. Not starting to workout has nothing to do with results. You have no idea if you would get exactly the results you wanted from the first thing you tried. Now when I want to google "workouts that help you gain muscle faster" I know I'm hiding. The workout I try, whatever that may be, may get me muscles the fastest.
Hiding hates clarity. In a clear anything there is no hiding. I've never lost something on a clear desk. I've never forgotten something during a peaceful quiet day.
When I find myself "trying" something I need to do two things.
1) Find out where the failure is: starting or results.
2) See where I'm creating chaos to hide in.
That chaos is probably not the problem either, but we will attack that in the next post.
I've been trying to write a novel is not a true statement. I've been failing to complete a novel is what I'm actually saying.
What if we replaced the word trying with failing. It changes where we place the blame.
I've been failing to workout is very different from my workouts have been failing to get results. Failing squarely places the blame where it needs to fall. If your workouts have been failing then change them. If you have been failing to workout then start.
This is not a negative stance either, it should push us towards clarity. If you know you've been failing to workout then you don't need to find a better workout. Different workouts are designed for different results. Not starting to workout has nothing to do with results. You have no idea if you would get exactly the results you wanted from the first thing you tried. Now when I want to google "workouts that help you gain muscle faster" I know I'm hiding. The workout I try, whatever that may be, may get me muscles the fastest.
Hiding hates clarity. In a clear anything there is no hiding. I've never lost something on a clear desk. I've never forgotten something during a peaceful quiet day.
When I find myself "trying" something I need to do two things.
1) Find out where the failure is: starting or results.
2) See where I'm creating chaos to hide in.
That chaos is probably not the problem either, but we will attack that in the next post.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Early Indicators of Success
The best early indicator of success is success, go youtube video's of Lebron highlights from high school. It looks like Lebron James playing a bunch of highschoolers.
Galen Rupp is the best American distance runner right now. He has run a 12:58 5k and won a silver medal in the 10k at the 2012 Olympics. That 12:58 is a forty second improvement from his best time he ran, in high school.
There are so few examples of people that are huge successes that started out as failures in their field. Sometimes you hear stories of JK Rowling who wrote Harry Potter. She finished the first novel on her severance pay and government assistance and is now literally richer than the queen of England. But let's be clear, she was not fired from writing novels.
It's probably more clear with athletes than anybody else but I think it still holds true for many, many professions.
Somebody once asked me where I learned to tell such great stories. I remember telling stories when I was five and I kept telling them ever since because people kept listening.
I think the hidden agenda behind failing your way to success is the fact that we want to be able to get what we WANT whether or not we are good at it or it is good for us. We hope that our desire for something is enough to get it. We have faith in our desires.
Maybe we should stop buying into marketing and start enjoying the lives we have right in front of us. In the Bible Paul refers to kicking a thornbush. That's a fitting analogy. You may not have found what you are best at yet, but you probably have found what you are not best at yet. Enjoy the journey of life but don't get caught up kicking thornbushes because society says being x, y or z is more special.
Galen Rupp is the best American distance runner right now. He has run a 12:58 5k and won a silver medal in the 10k at the 2012 Olympics. That 12:58 is a forty second improvement from his best time he ran, in high school.
There are so few examples of people that are huge successes that started out as failures in their field. Sometimes you hear stories of JK Rowling who wrote Harry Potter. She finished the first novel on her severance pay and government assistance and is now literally richer than the queen of England. But let's be clear, she was not fired from writing novels.
It's probably more clear with athletes than anybody else but I think it still holds true for many, many professions.
Somebody once asked me where I learned to tell such great stories. I remember telling stories when I was five and I kept telling them ever since because people kept listening.
I think the hidden agenda behind failing your way to success is the fact that we want to be able to get what we WANT whether or not we are good at it or it is good for us. We hope that our desire for something is enough to get it. We have faith in our desires.
Maybe we should stop buying into marketing and start enjoying the lives we have right in front of us. In the Bible Paul refers to kicking a thornbush. That's a fitting analogy. You may not have found what you are best at yet, but you probably have found what you are not best at yet. Enjoy the journey of life but don't get caught up kicking thornbushes because society says being x, y or z is more special.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Right and Wrong can be Wrong
"Yah, that's the hard part".
Tim Ferriss was talking to Malcolm Gladwell about how he decides what parts of the story are interesting. He goes on to say that writing is not a math equation, there is no right or wrong.
I've never thought about the fact that right and wrong are easy. Math, no matter how complicated is easy because you either get a right or wrong answer.
What's really hard is things that are very simple but not right or wrong.
Taking a paint brush and dipping it in paint and putting that paint on a canvas is not complicated. Why is a Picasso worth millions? Because he did something and to this day we still don't know exactly what it is that he did. Not only do we not know there is no way for anybody else, with a lifetime to study his paintings, to take what he did and build on it and do better than Picasso at being Picasso.
Newton said he was standing on the shoulders of giants. I think we are in love with science in the modern era and we are all running around looking for a giant's shoulder to stand on. But the hard stuff is just taking a story and deciding which parts are important and then telling that story really well.
The Mona Lisa is not wrong for not being cubist, because there is no right and wrong there.
The lazy person is dying for right and wrong as much as they are dying for shoulders to stand on. Tell me what to do and either I will tell you that you are wrong or I will do it. The lazy person want's an algorithm that spits out the right answer when you put something in it. That machine by default makes the person useless.
This is as true for writing a novel as it is for building a spiritual life.
Tim Ferriss was talking to Malcolm Gladwell about how he decides what parts of the story are interesting. He goes on to say that writing is not a math equation, there is no right or wrong.
I've never thought about the fact that right and wrong are easy. Math, no matter how complicated is easy because you either get a right or wrong answer.
What's really hard is things that are very simple but not right or wrong.
Taking a paint brush and dipping it in paint and putting that paint on a canvas is not complicated. Why is a Picasso worth millions? Because he did something and to this day we still don't know exactly what it is that he did. Not only do we not know there is no way for anybody else, with a lifetime to study his paintings, to take what he did and build on it and do better than Picasso at being Picasso.
Newton said he was standing on the shoulders of giants. I think we are in love with science in the modern era and we are all running around looking for a giant's shoulder to stand on. But the hard stuff is just taking a story and deciding which parts are important and then telling that story really well.
The Mona Lisa is not wrong for not being cubist, because there is no right and wrong there.
The lazy person is dying for right and wrong as much as they are dying for shoulders to stand on. Tell me what to do and either I will tell you that you are wrong or I will do it. The lazy person want's an algorithm that spits out the right answer when you put something in it. That machine by default makes the person useless.
This is as true for writing a novel as it is for building a spiritual life.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
The Last Box
When you are moving you can prepare, pack, label and de-clutter for weeks. But on the final day, there will always be a few last boxes that have random things in them.
If you do a good job there are only one or two, but it seems that no matter how good of a job you do there are always one or two. They look like that box you see people carrying out of an office the day they quit. It's a plant, some pens, a watch, a picture and a sponge.
Getting the literal last things out of a house when you are moving tends to be a little messier then we were hoping when we started preparing.
Maybe we should prepare for that.
When you are leaving a job there will always be a few strings left hanging. When you kids leave for college, right after they go there will be a junk box of some things you wish you had said or done.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like tidy and neat are things we work for in general but should be willing to let go of at the extreme (the very last box).
If you do a good job there are only one or two, but it seems that no matter how good of a job you do there are always one or two. They look like that box you see people carrying out of an office the day they quit. It's a plant, some pens, a watch, a picture and a sponge.
Getting the literal last things out of a house when you are moving tends to be a little messier then we were hoping when we started preparing.
Maybe we should prepare for that.
When you are leaving a job there will always be a few strings left hanging. When you kids leave for college, right after they go there will be a junk box of some things you wish you had said or done.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like tidy and neat are things we work for in general but should be willing to let go of at the extreme (the very last box).
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Right vs Worth
Doing things the right way is very often not the most fun way. So we complain about people ruining the fun, taking our freedom away, etc.
What if we changed from doing it the right way to doing it the worth way.
It's not the most fun to be fiscally conservative and stay away from debt, but it is worth it. It's not the most fun to study and prepare, but it is worth it. It's not the most fun to abstain from sleeping around but it is worth it.
Most of the time we don't like to think about worth. When we think about worth we have to think about the negative consequences of something we've already chosen to do. I don't have to think about the negative consequences of heroin because I've never chosen it. But I have chosen to not exercise. And not exercising leads me to be more sedentary. Being more sedentary leads me to be overweight and not feeling great in the future.
Only when I think of all of those consequences do I start to realize the worth of something.
Religion has failed over and over because they slam on the right way. If you follow the last six of the ten commandments you will find that most of them are worth it, whether or not they are right.
Not coveting your neighbors wife turns out to make your relationship with your wife better and since you've gotten rid of the comparisons makes you like your wife better. That life is worth it, whether or not you think coveting is right or not.
Parenting challenge to myself, don't tell your kids what's right, tell them what the worth of the actions are, and if you can't think of any besides "because I said so" maybe you shouldn't have.
What if we changed from doing it the right way to doing it the worth way.
It's not the most fun to be fiscally conservative and stay away from debt, but it is worth it. It's not the most fun to study and prepare, but it is worth it. It's not the most fun to abstain from sleeping around but it is worth it.
Most of the time we don't like to think about worth. When we think about worth we have to think about the negative consequences of something we've already chosen to do. I don't have to think about the negative consequences of heroin because I've never chosen it. But I have chosen to not exercise. And not exercising leads me to be more sedentary. Being more sedentary leads me to be overweight and not feeling great in the future.
Only when I think of all of those consequences do I start to realize the worth of something.
Religion has failed over and over because they slam on the right way. If you follow the last six of the ten commandments you will find that most of them are worth it, whether or not they are right.
Not coveting your neighbors wife turns out to make your relationship with your wife better and since you've gotten rid of the comparisons makes you like your wife better. That life is worth it, whether or not you think coveting is right or not.
Parenting challenge to myself, don't tell your kids what's right, tell them what the worth of the actions are, and if you can't think of any besides "because I said so" maybe you shouldn't have.
Making $46,000,000 A Day
They just published the highest paid hedge fund managers for 2015. The highest paid is surprisingly a white man, and that man made forty six million dollars a day, every day of 2015. Seventeen thousand million dollars. 1.7 billion in income.
I read that and it made me feel things, probably the same things people felt right before they stormed the Bastille.
But then I felt something totally foreign: freedom.
Even if the super wealthy are running away with most of the economy they don't live much better than I do.
That guy owns a plane, for $150 I can hop on a plane and go almost anywhere in the country. I have the same phone that guy has. I have a car and he can only be in one car at a time. In the mornings to feel special I jump into my pants, that guy probably puts his pants on one leg at a time like everybody else (especially because he's pretty old).
That guy literally earned more than Kobe Bryant, before lunch, on January 1st.
Why am I so stressed about making money? It may seem silly but I will almost certainly never earn that much money. So everything less than it is less than it.
I know so many people who think they are amazing because they earn a few hundred thousand a year. I even know a couple who earn a million dollars a year, many of those people think they are little dynasties all to themselves. It only took Dr. Hedgefund thirty one minutes to earn his first million in 2015.
There really are headmasters sitting in mahogany rooms looking over the school yard as we fight in the sandbox's below. We will never build a big enough sand castle to get into their mahogany rooms.
All that freedom I felt was realizing that we don't have to play by their rules, inside their sandboxes, propping up their buildings with our sweat.
It's time to get out of the sandbox and go make something for ourselves. Two billion dollars can buy a lot of art, but it can't make any art. Two billion can't write a poem, choreograph a dance, drip paint on to canvas.
You want to level the playing field? Time to leave their field.
I read that and it made me feel things, probably the same things people felt right before they stormed the Bastille.
But then I felt something totally foreign: freedom.
Even if the super wealthy are running away with most of the economy they don't live much better than I do.
That guy owns a plane, for $150 I can hop on a plane and go almost anywhere in the country. I have the same phone that guy has. I have a car and he can only be in one car at a time. In the mornings to feel special I jump into my pants, that guy probably puts his pants on one leg at a time like everybody else (especially because he's pretty old).
That guy literally earned more than Kobe Bryant, before lunch, on January 1st.
Why am I so stressed about making money? It may seem silly but I will almost certainly never earn that much money. So everything less than it is less than it.
I know so many people who think they are amazing because they earn a few hundred thousand a year. I even know a couple who earn a million dollars a year, many of those people think they are little dynasties all to themselves. It only took Dr. Hedgefund thirty one minutes to earn his first million in 2015.
There really are headmasters sitting in mahogany rooms looking over the school yard as we fight in the sandbox's below. We will never build a big enough sand castle to get into their mahogany rooms.
All that freedom I felt was realizing that we don't have to play by their rules, inside their sandboxes, propping up their buildings with our sweat.
It's time to get out of the sandbox and go make something for ourselves. Two billion dollars can buy a lot of art, but it can't make any art. Two billion can't write a poem, choreograph a dance, drip paint on to canvas.
You want to level the playing field? Time to leave their field.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Control
I was wandering through the maze of uber-moms hovering over their three year olds as I dropped my own three year old off at preschool and I saw one kid say hi to another kid. The first child made eye contact with the second child who said hi, smiled and nodded at him. The mom, quickly looked down at him and snapped "Did you say hi back?". The kid twitched a little and said "hi".
To say that we love control as modern adults is a vast understatement. We want to control everything, down to how our children interact in menial conversations. I would not say I am a hover parent, I am more of a pouncer. I'm off doing my thing and then I will pounce all over my kids for doing something.
It stinks.
One of the things I pounce on is if I think they are doing something wrong. I jump in, save the day and do it myself. I believe that is called enabling. But I don't enable because I love them or I'm covering for them. I enable because it puts me back in control. And it reenforces my control moving forward. A slightly useless person needs you to do things for them, and whenever you are necessary you are in the control position.
Any person in any company who is irreplaceable knows that power and it feels great.
Jon Stewart, previous host of the daily show and mentor to half of the employed comedians on television right now, was amazing at empowering people. He empowered multiple people to move beyond him, get their own shows, and then even get shows that were better than his (Steven Colbert with the Tonight Show).
The scary part about truly empowering somebody is that they may be better than you. We all say we should surround ourselves with smarter people than us, but do smarter people than us want to be surrounded by us?
How many people could you name in different circles of your life that you could confidently say are better than you? More importantly, how many people in different circles of your life are worse than you but you are willing to let them do it anyway?
Jon Stewart was famous for bringing in young comedians and putting them on the show within 48hrs of them joining the team. There was no way they were as good as he was. But he gave them the space and freedom to grow. And then one day he looked around the room and it was filled with amazingly talented people. And we all looked into that room and said "Must be nice".
To say that we love control as modern adults is a vast understatement. We want to control everything, down to how our children interact in menial conversations. I would not say I am a hover parent, I am more of a pouncer. I'm off doing my thing and then I will pounce all over my kids for doing something.
It stinks.
One of the things I pounce on is if I think they are doing something wrong. I jump in, save the day and do it myself. I believe that is called enabling. But I don't enable because I love them or I'm covering for them. I enable because it puts me back in control. And it reenforces my control moving forward. A slightly useless person needs you to do things for them, and whenever you are necessary you are in the control position.
Any person in any company who is irreplaceable knows that power and it feels great.
Jon Stewart, previous host of the daily show and mentor to half of the employed comedians on television right now, was amazing at empowering people. He empowered multiple people to move beyond him, get their own shows, and then even get shows that were better than his (Steven Colbert with the Tonight Show).
The scary part about truly empowering somebody is that they may be better than you. We all say we should surround ourselves with smarter people than us, but do smarter people than us want to be surrounded by us?
How many people could you name in different circles of your life that you could confidently say are better than you? More importantly, how many people in different circles of your life are worse than you but you are willing to let them do it anyway?
Jon Stewart was famous for bringing in young comedians and putting them on the show within 48hrs of them joining the team. There was no way they were as good as he was. But he gave them the space and freedom to grow. And then one day he looked around the room and it was filled with amazingly talented people. And we all looked into that room and said "Must be nice".
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Paradox of Owning Part II
Importance and owning used to go hand in hand. There was no real way of being the most important person in the company, church, non-profit, school without being at the top of the pyramid. I'm the owner, I'm the most important.
I was sitting down for breakfast with an x-CEO. He had retired a year previously and was enjoying his mid seven figure buy-out he had received. He told me that during his two decade tenure he had never once been late to a meeting. I told him I understood that punctuality was important. He laughed and said no he wasn't always on time, it just so happened that every time he walked in the room the meeting started. He then looked down at his bacon and eggs and sighed, "nobody waits for me to do anything anymore" he said.
Have you ever seen a babies face when you walk in the room and the meeting suddenly starts. Or your dogs sheer excitement at your newfound presence after a day of work. Importance is, as it turns out, very important.
So one way we strive to fill our importance tank is by owning things. If I'm at the top of the pyramid than I am important, even if I really don't want (or am incapable) of filling that position.
Wanting to own a business without wanting to run a business is foolishness. When you say things like "I could hire somebody to do that part!" what you are really saying is "I want the position without the responsibility".
The oddity is that importance is available. Go be a big brother or a big sister and become the most important person in somebodies life. Go work in a shelter where you know the work you do matters.
But most of all, get into a relationship with God, it turns out that it feels pretty important to be important to the most important person in the universe.
I was sitting down for breakfast with an x-CEO. He had retired a year previously and was enjoying his mid seven figure buy-out he had received. He told me that during his two decade tenure he had never once been late to a meeting. I told him I understood that punctuality was important. He laughed and said no he wasn't always on time, it just so happened that every time he walked in the room the meeting started. He then looked down at his bacon and eggs and sighed, "nobody waits for me to do anything anymore" he said.
Have you ever seen a babies face when you walk in the room and the meeting suddenly starts. Or your dogs sheer excitement at your newfound presence after a day of work. Importance is, as it turns out, very important.
So one way we strive to fill our importance tank is by owning things. If I'm at the top of the pyramid than I am important, even if I really don't want (or am incapable) of filling that position.
Wanting to own a business without wanting to run a business is foolishness. When you say things like "I could hire somebody to do that part!" what you are really saying is "I want the position without the responsibility".
The oddity is that importance is available. Go be a big brother or a big sister and become the most important person in somebodies life. Go work in a shelter where you know the work you do matters.
But most of all, get into a relationship with God, it turns out that it feels pretty important to be important to the most important person in the universe.
Friday, March 18, 2016
A Job Well Done
Some things are more important than other things, or so mothers believe as they push their children to get real degrees in college. A great doctor is more important than a great dancer. A great scientist is more important than a great writer. A great teacher is more important than a great athlete.
A great doctor add years to your life, watching an amazing dancer can add life to your years. A great scientist can uncover new things about the universe that were hidden, a great writer can uncover things about you that were hidden from even you. A great teacher can inspire a student to push their minds potential, a great athlete can inspire you to find your own bodies potential.
In a world that seems finite, we live for a few years and then we die, we want to do things that go beyond us. This lures us into believing some things are more important than others. But in a world that is infinite, we live in what we know as life now and then we will live in what we know as life then, what we value starts to shift.
Jesus is the best example of a self aware infinite being living among us. He did not disregard the small things, rather he seemed to enjoy them all the more. He drank wine and ate food. He handcrafted wood tables and chairs. He had one on one conversations with people who were insignificant. He drew in the dirt. He cried.
Whatever it is that you do, if you do that job well, it has significance. Our goal is to one day hear "well done...", it is we who put the emphasis on the what.
All that matters is that no matter what the "it" is, we do it well.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Paradox of Owning
So much of what we do is tied to ownership.
We work hard to save money to buy things, to own things.
We quit jobs to work for ourselves, because when you act like an owner you act better.
We sell things to others to help them become owners.
We work on self betterment, and the easiest way down that road is good habits that we've earned, habits that we own.
We degrade renting.
We don't like to borrow things.
Marketers know this better than anybody. The reason a 30 day free trial or a money back guarantee work almost 100% of the time is because once it's in our hand, in our garage, in our life, we own it. When we pay for it is of little consequence.
And yet we are not good owners. Almost nobody I know is great at owning all the things they own. There is that juicer that I never use. That car I should change the oil on more often. That house that needs to be painted. That closet full of clothes that needs to be organized.
This is just the tip, maybe there is an iceberg, we will see in later posts.
We work hard to save money to buy things, to own things.
We quit jobs to work for ourselves, because when you act like an owner you act better.
We sell things to others to help them become owners.
We work on self betterment, and the easiest way down that road is good habits that we've earned, habits that we own.
We degrade renting.
We don't like to borrow things.
Marketers know this better than anybody. The reason a 30 day free trial or a money back guarantee work almost 100% of the time is because once it's in our hand, in our garage, in our life, we own it. When we pay for it is of little consequence.
And yet we are not good owners. Almost nobody I know is great at owning all the things they own. There is that juicer that I never use. That car I should change the oil on more often. That house that needs to be painted. That closet full of clothes that needs to be organized.
This is just the tip, maybe there is an iceberg, we will see in later posts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)