you SHOULD follow me

i humbly honestly submit myself as a leader you should follow.

As i previously mentioned, my definition of bullshit is half-truth. And, spreading half-truths is the act of bullshitting. It is a very real problem.

I know this blog can sometimes seem a little nerdy, but there is a good reason. As Peter Drucker says, leadership is about results.

Have you ever thought about the fact that knowledge is defined by results? It is true. Think about it, if you cannot prepare edible food you don’t know how to cook!

In other words, quality leaders are highly knowledgeable and capable of producing results. They are the anti-thesis of bullshit.

Allow me to share with you a couple more of my favorite modern leaders, both of whom happen to have been born in the country called Bharat.

One is Sadguru. And like he says, “There is substitutes for everything in the world, but there is no substitute for competence.”

The other is named Satya Nadella, he is the CEO of Microsoft, and though i cannot recall Satya talking about bullshit, he has a good recipe for its cure. The cure is complete thoughts.

As mentioned last time, i also love Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

Though i have never heard Jimmy use the phrase “complete thoughts,” he is talking of that exact thing with the lesson Steve Jobs taught him about operating at the intersection of technology and the arts.

Maybe you can get Sadhguru, Satya Nadella, Jimmy Iovine or Andre Young to mentor you, but i doubt it.

So, yes, you should follow me. If you are sick of all the bullshit out there, you should follow me. And since i am a master of both technology and the arts, you will have fun and learn a ton. Reach out, i am easy to find.

Hustle culture is a problem... Curriculum is the key

Today, i would like to mention a couple of my favorite real world leaders.

i make no secret about my devotion to the genius of Peter Drucker. When it comes to business and organizational wisdom, he is the GOAT.

As far as real world leaders who built real businesses, two people i admire are Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young (known to the world as Dr. Dre).

They are both music producers who evolved into company owners.

In 1990, Iovine founded Interscope Records.

And in 1996, Dre founded Aftermath Entertainment.

Then, in 2006 they teamed up to create a headphones company called Beats by Dre.

While running Beats they saw a big problem, namely that the technologists and the artists spoke different languages and had difficulty working together.

So, in 2013 the two donated $70 million to the University of Southern California to begin an interdisciplinary school that would teach both technology and the arts.

Nowadays we hear a lot about the importance of an attribute called hustle, and it is largely bullshit.

But, don’t take my word for it.

Listen to what Jimmy and Dre had to say…

Bullshit advice

Last time, we discussed the way Tony Robbins tends to tell his audience only half the story. To me, spreading half-truths is the definition of bullshit. A good person to follow is Warren Buffett, who famously said “Never ask the barber if you need a haircut,” because of course the answer will be Yes.

As we discussed last time, Robbins sells tickets to in-person events. So, unsurprisingly, he loves to say “proximity is power,” and he insists you need to be in the flesh to learn from your mentors. See video below.

The claim is obviously bullshit. My main mentor is Peter Drucker and, in addition to never once meeting him, he has been dead for 20 years. Another big mentor of mine is Abraham Lincoln, and there isn’t a person on earth who has met him.

A related and transparently silly ploy is people who want you to purchase their education course, and insist you cannot learn to ride a bike by reading a book. See video below.

The obvious problem is the fact that learning to ride a bike only contains one barrier; gravity. And, gravity is something we are familiar with because we have interacted with it every second of our lives.

Conversely, entrepreneurial effectiveness, psychological development and thriving are things most people are very unfamiliar with, and they are orders of magnitude more complex than gravity. So a good leader, a leader you should follow, is a person who is competent with complexity and can teach you exactly how to thrive in a complex world, not just sell you bullshit half-truths.

Tony Robbins is a problem

If you are a student/follower of Tony Robbins, more power to you.

i would rather study and learn from people like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. And, one thing Warren and Charlie are clear-eyed about is the importance of diagnosis. For example, when dealing with complex things they ask the question “What the hell is going on here, and why the hell is it happening?”

Here is the answer.

Have you ever heard of inspiration junkies? If so, do you think they are a real thing? i don’t think there is any question that inspiration junkies are a thing, and that is because inspiration is functionally equivalent to a drug. Being a “drug,” people can get hooked on inspiration, and Tony Robbins is only too happy to continue selling doses.

For example, to enact change Robbins says people need to get into “state.” And guess what, he isn’t wrong. The main problem is he is only telling you half of the story. To get into state, Robbins wants you to attend his in-person retreats. But, is that the only way? And, is it the most productive way?

Let’s be clear on two things. For one, the “state” Robbins is talking about is what the literature calls positivity or positive emotion. And two, productivity is a combination of effectiveness and efficiency. So to circle back to the questions we are asking, is attending the Robbins in-person events the most productive path to enact change?

I think the clear answer is No.

Here is why. While on the one hand, yes, attending a Robbins event is probably an effective way to get into a state of positive emotion, the enormous problem is the efficiency of the process.

It shouldn’t be controversial to claim the key to learning and change is repetition. And the bigger the change, or the more complex the skill, the more repetition is required. So, hopefully the problem is obvious. Due to the cost and the relative infrequency, attending a Robbins event isn’t an efficient path to change/growth.

Is there a more productive path to lasting change?
The answer is Yes, and here it is.

In a previous post, i introduced you to a professor at the University of North Carolina named Barbara Fredrickson. Professor Fredrickson is well-known for her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which says positive emotions help broaden our awareness and build our resources. Fredrickson’s work is a much more elegant, accurate and clear explanation of what Robbins calls “state.”

And, here is the best news.

Professor Fredrickson has published a book for a general audience about her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. The book is titled Positivity and you can easily get a copy for less than $20. And i am very confident, your odds of affecting change are much better with Fredrickson than with Robbins.

But, again, if you are a student/follower of Tony Robbins, more power to you. Please just know how clear it is that a reliable way into “state” is openness to experience. So if you are willing to have an open mind, i believe studying Fredrickson’s book is a much more reliable path to where you wanna go.

Allow me to predict the future

Are you ready? Are you ready for me to predict the future? Okay, here we go.

Two predictions:
– The cryptocurrency market will collapse
– Liah Greenfeld will be recognized as the Charles Darwin of the human mind

The first prediction is easy because, as we learned in the last post, it takes 40 years for new ideas to replace old paradigms. History clearly demonstrates that the way the blockchain will be used won’t be figured out until its 40th birthday or so.

There is no way the hype of the current investment bubble can be sustained for 40 years. Furthermore, it isn’t even clear blockchain technology will create a sustainable market as a currency. It likely won’t. Thus, the crypto investment market will surely collapse.

The second prediction is slightly more speculative but, as of yet i have been unable to disprove Professor Greenfeld’s thesis. Testing this second prediction will take a while, because Greenfeld’s theory was only published in 2013. But, i fully expect her theory to begin to become commonplace around the year 2050. And, it will fundamentally change the world.

So, in reality, i haven’t predicted the future. Predicting the future isn’t a respectable business. LOL! What i have done is highlighted two areas where the future has already happened. Big difference.

Identifying the future that has already happened is extraordinarily powerful. It is what we do in my business.

Happy 40th Birthday !!

Last time, we spoke a little about Carol Dweck and her theory of “growth mindset.”

Technically this area of research is called “self-theories,” it is an area of research that began in 1985, so this year is the 40th birthday/anniversary.

One thing very few people understand is that new ideas take about 40 years to displace old ideas (see the video below for another example from Peter Drucker).

It is perfectly predictable that we will hear more and more about the growth mindset in the coming years.

Another beautiful theory celebrating its 40th birthday this year is Self-Determination Theory, a theory created by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan.

Both Dweck’s theory and the theory of Deci and Ryan have stood up to scrutiny over the past 40 years, and they have proven their mettle.

In my organization, we teach these two theories at scale.

So, you should probably hurry and join us.

Just sayin

Theory > Practice

Today’s post is largely an extension of the last couple posts.

I know the title of this post is technically a math equation, so let us start by stating the equation in plain English “Theory is more important than practice.” This is important to know because a lot of people get tripped up with their resistance to theory. Admittedly, much of that resistance is well-earned because many theories are dogshit.

Now, let us quickly touch on two slightly opposing quotes, as we simplify complexity. It has been said “In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is.” Of course, the quote is accurate. But, it has also been said “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” And, that quote is also accurate.

As a general rule, practice precedes theory. Meaning, people repeatedly do a thing and eventually others come in to codify the practice, meaning explicitly organize the theory implicit within the practice. That said, this general rule has at least one important exception.

This exception pertains to something psychologist Carol Dweck calls “self-theories.” The name Carol Dweck (pictured below) is becoming more and more well-known because she is the person behind the research on something known as the “growth mindset.” Simply defined, the growth mindset is the belief that our skills and abilities can be grown through effort and practice. The growth mindset exists in contradistinction to the “fixed mindset,” which is the belief that our skills and abilities are fixed and cannot really change.

Why does this matter?

It matters because we live in the time of the knowledge society. And while knowledge has always been valuable to humans, today it is becoming more and more imperative. In the current context, it has essentially become a requirement that people be lifelong learners. This doesn’t mean we must attend formal schooling for our entire lives, but it does mean we need a growth mindset.

Hopefully you can see how the growth mindset is a self-theory, that is a theory about the self. And as professor Dweck has convincingly demonstrated, whether or not people grow and improve depends first on whether or not they believe they are capable of growth and improvement.

So, another way to verbalize today’s math equation title is “Theory precedes practice.” Because if your theory is the skills and abilities of the self are largely set at birth, you are very unlikely to practice. Perhaps you can see how the fixed mindset becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, we will have to save a discussion of self-fulfilling prophecies for another day.

Yes, in at least one critically important way → Theory > Practice

The barrier to the existence of business prodigies

Last time we covered my belief that there will never be a business prodigy. And if you read that post, you know I believe the claim is a fact. Today, I want to dig a little deeper.

Ever since it was created and popularized, many people have heard of Malcolm Gladwell’s so-called 10,000 hour rule. The 10,000 hour rule says, in any field it takes 10,000 hours of “deliberate” practice to achieve an expert level of performance. If you aren’t aware, the majority of the research which led to Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule was done by the late Florida State professor Anders Ericsson.

First, allow me to point out two small but important clarifications. For those of you aware enough to know it isn’t a rule, you are correct. It isn’t a rule, it is an average. And second, in his research Ericsson found expert performance required approximately 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. So, while Gladwell spoke mostly about the hours, Ericsson spoke mostly about the years. At any rate, neither of those two clarifications get to the most critical things to know about expert performance.

By the way, if you recall from last time we have defined a prodigy as a young master. And to integrate our verbiage with Ercisson’s, a master can be considered synonymous with an expert. As stated, Ericsson found expert performance required approximately 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. And a key thing to know is, Ericsson made a clear distinction between what he called “deliberate” practice and “purposeful” practice.

Before we understand deliberate versus purposeful practice, we should know what the practice of experts is not. Expert practice isn’t simply repetition. For example, many people go to the driving range to hit a bucket of golf balls, and often they call it practice, but it wouldn’t qualify as Ericssonian practice.

To qualify as the practice that builds masters and experts, first the task must be differentiated into its constituent parts. Not for a moment would I call myself a golf coach, but let us stay with the golfing example. Although it isn’t the only element, clearly a key element of golfing performance is your swing.

Again I am a novice golfer at best, but it isn’t controversial to say a golf swing consists of things like: stance, weight distribution, grip, back swing, weight shifting, point of contact, follow through, etc. If you break down your swing on your own, and diligently work on each part, you would essentially qualify for what Ericsson calls purposeful practice.

To illustrate purposeful practice, an example Ericsson often used is one of his research subjects named Steve Faloon. As part of his research, Ericsson would bring people into his “lab” to test how long of a number they can memorize. Ericsson found the average person could memorize a number containing a maximum of seven digits. Incidentally, it isn’t surprising telephone numbers have seven digits.

So, you could imagine Ericsson’s surprise when along came Faloon who could memorize up to 82 digits. A more than 10x improvement! Obviously, Ericsson asked Faloon how he did it. One of Falooon’s main techniques he called “chunking.” Instead of trying to memorize the number one digit at the time, Faloon chunked the digits into groups of four and associated those groups with common things in his existing memory. For example, if the number included the digits 1-2-5-1, you could simply remember the legendary song of the same name by the band The Strokes.

Listen, to me memorizing long numbers sounds utterly boring and useless. But, the reason I gave you the example is the following. The main difference between purposeful practice and deliberate practice is whether you are utilizing a proven, effective training system. Steve Faloon created the memorization system on his own, which means he was doing purposeful practice not deliberate practice. But when Faloon taught one of the research subjects his proven, effective system, that person was able to do deliberate practice. And, unsurprisingly, that person broke Faloon’s record of a number with 82 digits.

To switch back and finish the golf example, most golfers might be called weekend warriors who are stitching together their own practicing system. For a golfer to qualify as doing deliberate practice, s/he would need a golf pro to teach them a proven, effective training system. And when you are doing deliberate practice, it will take 10,000 hours to achieve an expert level of performance. It is the shortest path to mastery. Purposeful practice takes longer.

Another example Ericsson often used for deliberate practice is the famed Suzuki method for learning to play the piano. But one main thing to consider is the fact that, compared to business, golf and piano are relatively simple tasks. In fact, business is so complex there exists few if any proven, effective training systems. This is why I so often speak of Peter Drucker. Probably only Drucker’s system could take you from purposeful to deliberate practice. Or, perhaps you can hire Satya Nadella to coach you. But I doubt it. Better to ride with me and Drucker.

You shouldn’t be surprised to learn deliberate practice is a faster path to mastery than purposeful practice. Right? Because, while both are very difficult and taxing, with purposeful practice you also have to invent an effective training system. It is for these reasons I can confidently state there will never be a business prodigy. Even if I taught them a proven system, they would have to start practicing at age 8 to achieve mastery before adulthood. Do you know any 8 eight years trying to practice business skills?

There will never be a business prodigy

In the social sciences it is often repeated that you should never make a never statement. The reason is because never is an awfully long time, and if the event does occur your credibility is damaged. Fair enough.

Having said that I will repeat the title of this post, there will never be a business prodigy. So, obviously, if there ever is a business prodigy my reputation will be damaged. And, I completely welcome that day.

The reason I invite being disproven is two fold. For one, I am a scientist and the scientific method revolves around a concept called falsifiability. In other words, if you live by facts and truth you must remain open to being disproven. But secondly, I am very confident my claim will never prove wrong. I shall explain.

First, we need to be clear with our semantics. In my claim, the only non-obvious term is “prodigy.” I don’t believe it is controversial to define a prodigy as a young master. But an immediate problem arises, namely the definition of the word young. So, hopefully you can agree with me that children qualify as young.

So to restate my claim, there never has been and never will be a child who has mastered business. The reason? The skills needed to master business simply cannot be acquired in the first 18 years of life.

I say this because free enterprise often incentivizes deception and bullshit. Specifically, there are lots of talking heads on the internet who promise they possess a super secret, revolutionary breakthrough shortcut, that can get you to business mastery in no time (if only you fork over $998 to join their inner circle mastermind lol).

The whole premise is built on bullshit. What they are really selling is a childish version of hope, because they can argue the inspiration alone is worth $1,000. So, when the promise of business mastery doesn’t materialize you don’t necessarily feel cheated. The obvious problem is inspiration rarely builds a successful business. Skills build successful businesses.

What will Ai do?

The hype and fear surrounding artificial intelligence (Ai) is truly something to behold. Right now, the main thing we know about Ai is it will be used to deceive. It is a future that is already happening. We all know about deep fakes and voice cloning, and all that jazz. And it is a real problem. Strong caution is obviously warranted.

Another future that has already happened, full of humorous irony, is Ai taking on an increasing share of the job of computer programming, with the obvious irony being that computer programmers created Ai, which is now reducing the need for computer programmers.

Last time we discussed the skill of mentalization, and it is definitely an important skill. Building off that idea, one compelling possibility is Ai’s ability to help you and i develop our mentalization skills. In other words, it does seem to be the case that Ai can help you to better understand yourself. As an example, i have attached a recent interaction i had with Microsoft’s CoPilot.

What Would Jesus Do?

I trust you have heard the question “What would Jesus do?” It is often relayed as the acronym WWJD, and I think it has a great idea. Today I am going to explain the most important, yet hidden, meaning of the question. To do that we will take a brief journey into the world of psychology.

Nowadays there is an awareness of the importance of an ability called empathy. A simple definition of empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another,” and I agree it is an important skill. That said, there exists a larger and more valuable ability called mentalization.

In the 1990s in England, two psychologists named Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman created a treatment modality called mentalization based therapy. A simple definition of mentalization is “the ability to understand one's own and others' mental states.” Better yet, here is Peter Fonagy himself to define mentalization.

Hopefully you can see how the question “What would Jesus do?” is excellent practice, helping you develop the ability to mentalize. But, of course, the question can be used with any person.

I will use myself as an example. In addition to Jesus, when making an important decision, I often ask myself what Peter Drucker, or Warren Buffett, or Liah Greenfeld, or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would do. And as the last three posts on this blog should have made clear, I sometimes even ask myself “What would Gary Vaynerchuk do?”

Yes empathy is important, but mentalization is even better. Mentalization is an important part of both effectiveness and entrepreneurship. So as a friendly piece of advice, I recommend you study your mentors and customers until you are able to think, feel and act the way they do.

Gary Vee is human, too

I am a long time student of Gary Vaynerchuk and felt compelled to comment. On a recent live stream, Gary told a caller to stop overthinking the name she was planning for her LLC. The advice is sound, but Gary missed some important context.

If you are a student of GV, you know one of the main things he teaches is the importance of branding. And because branding can be so valuable, it is completely understandable that people overthink what to name their LLC. The solution is two fold, and the first solution Gary did explain on the live stream.

The first part of the solution is to understand something called DBA, or "Doing Business As." If you aren't familiar with DBA, it means you can operate a business under a name that has nothing to do with the name of the LLC which owns said business. Gary gave a personal example where one of his LLCs is named "Attention At Scale," which isn't the name of any of the companies he runs.

But, unfortunately Gary overlooked a second and more important lesson. Before I explain, I will note this oversight is completely understandable in light of the fact that his live stream interactions are necessarily short. Had Gary had a more lengthy conversation with the lady, he surely would have explained the second part of the solution. The second part is very simply this, as a general rule, less developed entrepreneurs wildly overestimate the importance of their company's name.

Again, this mistake is perfectly understandable because of the importance of brand. I look back with amusement (and a bit of embarrassment) at the way I too overthought the name of a company. And again, Gary's story sheds some useful light on the subject. Apparently, Gary's dad's (Sasha) small business was doing about $4M in annual sales when Gary joined. Doing $4M in sales certainly qualifies Sasha's business as a success, and yet the name of the company wasn't great for branding. The name was "Shoppers Discount Liquors."

Here is the moral of the story, today that same company is called "Wine Library" and is doing on the order of $60M per year. But don't get it twisted, the name of the company wasn't the main cause of its increased success. The real cause of success was delivering long-term value to its customers. For example, Gary has never sold Kendall Jackson chardonnay nor Santa Margherita pinot grigio. The reason isn't because Wine Library doesn't carry those labels, the reason is because Gary knows better chardonnays and pinot grigios, usually at lower prices. The point being, as an entrepreneur your focus (indeed your obsession) should be delivering real value to your customers. That is what will determine the success of your company, much more than its name. And at any time, if necessary YOU CAN CHANGE THE NAME OF YOUR COMPANY. So don't overthink it!

Again, I am a serious student of GV. In fact, I am enough of a student to know one of his blind spots. As a recent Instagram post about "Just Do" indicates, Gary learns by doing. But, believe it or not, lots of people aren't like that. Lots of people learn by listening to people like Gary! My point is this, if you were fortunate enough to spend ten years working in your parent's successful small business, you too would probably do most of your learning through doing. But, if you never had that sort of role model (and few people do) give yourself some grace and understand successful entrepreneurship takes a lot longer than you imagine.

I have lots of love for you, Gary. So much so, I felt compelled to write this lengthy post to help some of your students. OF COURSE you have to take action to succeed as an entrepreneur. But at the same time, learning by doing isn't always the fastest path. I end with advice I think GV would agree with: Go as fast as you sustainably can, while remaining patient with however long it takes to arrive at your promised land.

Truth > Positivity

Believe it or not, I actually like Gary Vaynerchuk. Haha! Last time, I disagreed with Gary’s insistence on the importance of humility. And this week, I will disagree with Gary’s insistence that we be positive.

Unlike the humility thing, I didn’t talk with Gary about positivity. But perhaps I should. Because, again, I think truth is more important than either humility or positivity. In reality, there are probably few things more important than truth. As the Bible famously says, the truth will set you free. So, please allow me to derive the importance of positivity by explaining its relationship to truth.

A core truth is that life is fundamentally about growth. And, while every other animal basically only grows physically, humans have another dimension called consciousness. And consciousness is open to unlimited growth. Whether you call it mind, soul or spirit, the most miserable people I know have stopped growing.

Now, let me bring in the work of Barbara Fredrickson (pictured below) who is a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina. Top among her many accomplishments, Fredrickson is best known for her broaden-and-build theory. More thoroughly, it is called the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.

Psychology has long identified and addressed negative emotions, so back in the 1990s Professor Fredrickson began asking “What is the point of positive emotions?” And while the question may seem rhetorical, the answer is worth knowing.

Fredrickson has rather conclusively demonstrated that positive emotions facilitate growth. More specifically, positive emotions broaden our mind and build our resources (aka grow us). Perhaps you can start to see why I believe truth is more important than positivity.

As stated, I think there is no question humans must grow. And as Fredrickson has shown, positivity is a precondition for growth. Now, perhaps you think I have argued in a circle and disproven myself. Nope. Watch this.

Just because positivity is a precondition of growth, doesn’t mean people utilize positivity to grow. In fact, a lot of people turn into what I call “inspiration junkies.” There is no question inspiration (and positive emotions generally) feels good. And a lot of people stop there, which is understandable because growth hurts. In other words, growing pains are a real thing, which often causes avoidance.

Given the choice between painful growth and remaining in delightful positivity, many people, understandably, choose the latter. This is essentially what it means to remain in your comfort zone, and it easily creates inspiration junkies who keep coming back for another "hit."

So, am I just a Negative Nancy? Of course not. As stated, positivity is required for growth. And while positivity is pleasurable, growth is enjoyable. If you aren’t familiar, the difference between pleasure and enjoyment is growth. Delightful experiences such as a wonderful meal are pleasurable, but they don't cause our soul to grow. Conversely, life’s enjoyable experiences do involve psychological growth, but they aren’t usually pleasurable while they are occurring.

That last paragraph is a synopsis of one of the main takeaways from Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi's legendary book Flow. The subtitle of the book is “The psychology of optimal experiences,” and Csikszentmihalyi does a great job of explaining the important difference between pleasure and enjoyment. But, we shall have to save a deeper dive into Flow for another day.

For today, I simply hope to make it clear that I love positivity. The thing is, I just love growth more. And if you have had flow experiences, I trust you would agree.

P.S. It is also rather clear that the best way to ignite positivity at work is through progress. More on that will be coming in another post.

Truth > Humility

I was recently speaking with Gary Vaynerchuk. We were discussing the importance of humility.

Usually known as Gary Vee, GV runs an advertising agency in New York. Additionally, he has a large social media presence. If you follow GV you have probably heard him exclaim the importance of humility. His and my particular conversation began when I said “Humility is overrated.”

After our conversation, it is clear to me that Gary and I are in agreement. And, the reason I am writing this post is because I think it is bullshit to tell people to be humble. If you don’t agree with me, allow me to give you my definition of bullshit. My definition of bullshit is “Knowingly or negligently spreading half-truth.” Before I continue, let me share with you Gary’s bio from the Twitch website.

GV’s bio on Twitch:
Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX, the CEO of VaynerMedia and the Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. Gary is considered one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, relevance and the internet. Known as “GaryVee” he is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business – he acutely recognizes trends and patterns early to help others understand how these shifts impact markets and consumer behavior.

Now, if I asked you to give me the top ten adjectives describing that bio, I highly doubt “humble” would be one of them. That isn’t a humble bio. Nor should it be! Let me explain.

Whether we are discussing mammals or electrons, there exists a well-known phenomenon called pair-bonding. And though we didn’t say it this way during our conversation, Gary and I agree humility is pair-bonded with confidence. In other words, you show me a truly confident person and I will show you a truly humble person, because the two things go together.

I think a big part of the confusion stems from the human ability to bullshit and make pretend. If you tell a person to be humble, most likely they will fake it. At the same time, if you tell a person to be confident, most likely they will fake it. The same goes for happiness, gratitude, and many of life’s most valuable virtues.

Though I didn’t say it at the time, I wish I would have told Gary truth is more important than humility (Truth > Humility). Because the truth is humility and confidence are pair-bonded, and a person cannot achieve real confidence without humility. And since people often fake humility, better than telling people to be humble is telling people to know their limits. In other words, know the truth.

I will end with this. Though she was before my time, I think Israel’s former prime minister, Golda Meir, would agree humility and confidence are pair-bonded. Below is the way Ms. Meir put it.

New Day's Resolution

Now that we are in February, apparently many people have abandoned their New Year’s Resolutions. And while this is understandable, it is also regrettable.

Speaking for myself, I abandoned New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago. The way I look at it, resolve is so important, why would you only do it once a year?

If we are being honest, many people use New Year’s Resolutions as an excuse to procrastinate making changes they want to make. I know I have. And so, I came to find that much better than New Year’s Resolutions are New Day’s Resolutions.

By resetting and resolving everyday, I have been much more pleased with the outcomes. And if that seems like too much effort, let me give you an even more extreme example.

Judith Beck is the daughter of the late Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive behavioral psychology. One of the books Ms. Beck has written is called The Beck Diet Solution, where she applies cognitive behavioral psychology to dieting.

The book discusses no foods in particular, rather it focuses on the way we think about our diet and eating habits. Since many people struggle with overeating, I highly recommend Judith’s book. And even if you don’t, the book can be a great introduction to the world of cognitive behavioral psychology.

In the book, Ms. Beck, who has counseled many dieters, tells the story of a common pattern. If you have ever attempted to lose weight, you can probably relate.

To lose weight, most people will have to create and stick to a food plan. And though things may be going well for a time, one day you will probably screw up.

A lot of times the mistake is the result of lack of rest, or being stressed, or any of a number of problems. But regardless of the exact cause, sometimes dieters fall off the wagon and eat food forbidden by their food plan.

What Dr. Beck found is when a dieter stumbles and eats something “bad,” they often tell themselves something to the effect of “Since I have already screwed up, I might as well enjoy the rest of the day. I can restart my diet tomorrow.” I know I have been guilty.

But Dr. Beck specifically calls out the flawed logic, saying just because you messed up doesn’t mean you can’t get back on your food plan. There is no law that says you have to wait until tomorrow. You can give yourself some grace and forgiveness, and get right back on the wagon. You might call it a New Minute’s Resolution, and it makes a lot of sense. Especially the grace and forgiveness part.

I guess what I am saying is, waiting for the New Year is silly and wasteful. But whatever you choose, don’t beat yourself up. Life is challenging and nobody is perfect ❤️

Entrepreneur or Solopreneur

Are solopreneurs entrepreneurs? Or, is organization building an element of being an entrepreneur?

I am a pretty big fan of Seth Godin, and I know he says he is a proud freelancer. Having built three different companies Godin says he is better off being a solopreneur, because he says he takes being a boss too seriously, and suffers when people’s livelihoods are dependent upon him.

I don’t know about you but I find Godin’s honesty refreshing.

So while I am a fan of Godin, unlike him I rather quite enjoy building organizations. And regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or solopreneur, you are well advised to be a lifelong learner and to consume wisdom wherever it is being dispensed.

Regular readers of his blog already know Peter Drucker is on my personal Mount Rushmore. If you wish to better understand organizations, I can think of no one better to study than Drucker.

That said, I recently stumbled upon an interesting person named Fabiana Lacerca-Allen. Ms. Lacerca-Allen grew up in Argentina during the so-called Dirty War, or Guerra Sucia, a time of rampant corruption and strife.

But as the old cliche says, pressure makes diamonds. And today, Ms. Lacerca-Allen lives in the USA and works with large organizations on compliance and risk management, and she recently published a book titled Crisis Capable.

In a brief eighteen seconds, below you hear Ms. Lacerca-Allen give a nice little summary of what to look for in a team member.

The Business of America is Business (or not)

Happy New Year! A time of renewal and optimism. And to that end, today many people are well along the path of their New Year’s resolutions. I don’t know about you, but I don’t mind if our plans are a little flexible. And as it turns out, today is an interesting and relevant birthday.

It was exactly 100 years ago, in January 1925, when President Calvin Coolidge famously said “The business of America is business.” A lot of people know the statement, but is it true? The reason I ask is because Coolidge said other pertinent things during that same speech. Things which usually get overlooked.

Coolidge also said “Americans make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things we want much more. We want peace and honor, and charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever give any strong and lasting reaction.”

What do you think? How do you make sense of this apparent contradiction? And, perhaps more importantly, do you see value in grappling with contradictions? What are you resolved to do this year?

The Holiday Spirit

As we enter the holidays, I hope you revel in good spirits and cheer.

In the United States, obviously the main holiday is Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ.

Due to his profound wisdom, Jesus is widely considered a prophet.

To state a few obvious examples:

Jesus repeatedly taught the importance of love when instructing that we love our neighbors as ourselves.

He taught the heart of service through the Gospel of Matthew with the affirmation “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

And during the Sermon on the Mount, he taught the importance of forgiveness and compassion when he said we should “Turn the other cheek.”

But today, I wanted to relay one of His lesser known teachings.

From the Gospel of Thomas…

No, seriously, do NOT follow your passion

In the last post, I wrote about the advice to follow your passion. And today, because we are approaching that time of year when people make New Year’s resolutions, I am making a follow-up post to reiterate the point that the advice is actual dogshit. If you don’t wish to agree with me, let me put the words in the mouths of two other people. The two people I will reference are Robert Greene and Jensen Huang.

I have heard it said that all of your heroes should be dead, and the point is well taken. The reason for that advice is because the verdict is in and it is final. For example, if you study the entire life of Henry Ford you will discover only the first half is worth learning from. Today’s examples are both still alive, so let us stay focused on their advice in this particular domain of passion.

Mr. Greene is an author and clearly a highly intelligent person. He has written a number of books, including an entire book on the subject of mastery. Mr. Huang has built one of the current darlings of Wall Street. The name of his company is Nvidia and they are known for making the computer component called the GPU, or graphics processing unit.

People who tell you to follow your passion are usually trying to sell you something useless

What should your contribution be?

At a Stanford commencement address, Steve Jobs famously advised the students “Follow your passion.” While the advice can feel exciting, I have found it to be almost useless. I have spent years trying to identify my passion, and I have finally figured it out, but it isn’t what most people think.

For example, if you think your passion is a particular line of work I think you will run out of steam, because most jobs will eventually become mundane. So, let me tell you how to follow your passion from the perspective of Sadhguru and Stephen Covey.

Very simply, Sadhguru says you can be passionate about anything and everything. Underwhelming, I know, because the advice doesn’t help narrow things down.

So let us switch to Stephen Covey, who said all people want the 4 L’s from life. All people want: to live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy. And when you really think about it, you can probably get passionate about all four of those things. So, Covey’s advice does help narrow things down.

Show me a profession full of loving service, where you are constantly learning and can leave a legacy, and I will show you something you can probably get passionate about. But make no mistake, the passion isn’t the job, the passion is the 4 L’s.

Lastly, you know I have to mention Drucker, because he always seems to break things down clearly and concisely. Drucker died before Jobs’s “follow your passion” advice became a meme, but he addressed the related phenomenon of people in the 1960s wanting to “do their own thing.”

In this 2008 book Management, Drucker writes “To ‘do one’s own thing’ is not freedom. It is license. It does not have results. It does not contribute. But to start out with the question, ‘What should I contribute?’ gives freedom. It gives freedom because it gives responsibility.”

And he adds “The decision that answers ‘What should my contribution be?’ thus balances three elements. First comes the question, ‘What does the situation require?’ Then comes the question, ‘How could I make the greatest contribution with my strengths, my way of performing, my values, to what needs to be done?’ Finally, there is the question, ‘What results have to be achieved to make a difference?’ This then leads to the action conclusions.”

In support of the notion that great minds think alike, Sadhguru said something very similar to Drucker. SG recommends that everyday we joyfully do what needs to be done. I agree. For example, though it was an enormous amount of work, since my company needed leadership development training, and since it matches my strengths, I created it (joyfully, most of the time) 😂

What should your contribution be?