Month: April 2017

We are the dominant species roaming the planet. We are at the top of the food chain.

To get there, we built a narrative to be fearful of everything around us. We can’t shut it off. It’s what has kept us alive for thousands of years. It’s what gets us to duck when we someone yell fore.

But now, the narrative that runs deep in all of us is working against us. The challenge isn’t to figure out who is going to kill us today. No, it’s how do we stop ourselves from killing each other…

Poking holes and unraveling habits we have accumulated to get to the top isn’t going to happen overnight. Alas, it is difficult to change people’s minds.

There isn’t anyone left to conquer. What’s left is how are we going to take care of each other.

It takes more than a few clicks to cultivate.

It turns out human beings are excellent story-telling machines. We have thousands of thoughts that go through our heads everyday.

Occasionally, someone will pop up in our minds that we haven’t thought about in a long time. And then suddenly, we get a call from them. “What a coincidence.”

But it wasn’t a coincidence (perhaps low probability). We weren’t surprised when the other 100 people we thought about that day didn’t call us. But it is innate in our nature to ignore data and evidence to fuel an internal narrative—our story of how we see the world.

We can wait a long time until the future aligns with the stories we choose to tell. In other words, we wait to be at the right place at the right time with the right resources until the future has a predictable outcome and then call it luck, coincidence or chance.

What if instead we work to invent a future, one where we align our stories with what happens. We pause and think that’s interesting, why did this happen instead of being upset about an unforeseeable event or unfavorable outcome. Was there always a chance this could happen? Was it low probability?

We tend to blame out environment when thing go wrong. But we don’t give the enviroment any credit when things go right. We credit our personality. We credit ourselves.

Too many of us are seduced by the idea of waiting to have a self-fulfilling prophecy and, consequently, we ignore the evidence, the data, the work right in front us.

By putting ourselves back in the driver’s seat, we can move towards a future where we want to go. It enables us to do more work, to get out of our own way. It allows us to change something and make it better.

Ironically, we are at our best when we are working to invent a future (one that we can be proud of), we become better at predicting what happens next when we’re working towards desired outcomes. We’re not waiting for things to happen to us. No, we are busy making things happen.

Everyone should start a blog.

Even if no one reads it.

Making an observation, taking a position, admitting when you are wrong will help you see the world as it is.

And if you can learn to see you can become better at predicting what is going to happen next.

You won’t always be right, but you will be better than the rest of us.

I’m finishing up my first year of blogs. Number 365. Am I Pulitzer Prize winning author yet? Nope. Not even close. But I am better from when I started.

Blogging isn’t for credit or money or fame. It’s a gift. I hope it can be an ignition for someone to make something happen.

On the days that Resistance gets the best of me, I can always look to the blog to see that I made a contribution. I know I tried to make the world a little better today.

Speaking of Resistance. Writing something, publishing it for the world to see, shipping everyday can’t help but make you a better person. It helps you be more vulnerable. It helps you stand up to the critics and shun the non-believers.

It is really hard to change people’s minds. My goal has been to shine a light on a path for others to see that might provide an alternative to where you are currently going.

This blog isn’t for everyone. It is for someone. You. Thank you. Thank you for reading. I hope that it has brought us closer together.

It’s hard for anyone to overcome an environment of low expectations. The culture won’t expect much from people trapped in a different centruy. The worst thing we can do is to presume less of them too.

Expect more.

With a little push and a helping hand there is no telling what someone can do.

There is someone on your mind right now that you can reach out to.

Go to them.

50 years ago, doctors were prescribing cigarettes to get rid of a nagging cough.

Fake news isn’t anything new. What we are realizing though, is that it is a reflection of ourselves—of what we want.

And what we want is to believe that cigarettes don’t cause cancer. So we will search for “evidence” or “statistics” to support our narrative. That it’s actually not that bad for us. (The benefits outweigh the cost.) We can continue to do whatever it is we want to do—free of the guilt and shame. We can push the consequences further away.

Hence, the real problem with fake news is: Most people have already made up their minds about the world. Their opinions are formed. They are set in their world view. Which leads us down a dangerous road of picking your own truth.

The answer isn’t to make up our minds and then search for news to support our believes. The answer is to have the courage to say, “I don’t know.” The answer is to be persuadable. To be curious. To be a truth-seeker. And to be open to change when real evidence presents itself.

Most of the time, when we make a mistake it won’t cost us more than inconvenience. One cigarette won’t kill us today. 20 won’t either. But 20 cigarettes per day over a lifetime will cut years off your life.

It’s the accumulation of everyday decisions over an extended period of time that form our culture. Hopefully, it can be a culture that we’re all proud of.

[The best antidote for fake news: Before we send anything out ask yourself, Is this something you’re proud of? Would you put your name on it?]

The path of perfection isn’t about being perfect with every interaction we have with the world. The path of perfection is through progress.

• Becoming a little better with each mistake we make.
• Experimenting, observing and measuring.
• Listening. Really listening to someone without sharing our own thoughts.
• Looking people in the eye and telling them the truth.
• Being persuadable: A constant pursuit of truth.
• Doing something that might not work.
• Trying something for the first time.
• Being generous.
• Unleashing your ideas.
• Admitting that we’re wrong.
• Giving opportunities for those who don’t have them.
• Showing respect.
• Loving the un-lovable.
• Learning to push through the dip.
• Making better art.
• Being vulnerable.
• Flying higher (because flying low isn’t what we do).
• Making something that needs to be made. Helping someone who needs to be helped.
• Overcoming Resistance.
• Disagree with someone but not be disagreeable.
• Standing up. Standing out.
• Being missed when we are gone.
• Throwing away an old narrative and embracing a new one.

It’s a bold move to say you are going to change something for the better. Making a ruckus will draw people from the shadows, “How dare you! Who made you in charge? You’re not qualified. You’re not good enough…”

Progress depends on people like us doing stuff like this. It seeing people for who they and helping them become the person it is they are trying to become. It starts with separating the shadows from the light.

Thousands of years ago, the question on everyone’s mind was: How do we survive a world that is constantly trying to kill us?

The result, of course, is that the lizard brain has wired us to be afraid of everything. It has created a narrative that runs deep inside all of us. So deep, we have embedded it into our culture. A culture that amplifies and teaches that survival is for the fittest.

The world may still be trying to kill us, but we live in the safest and richest civilization in human history. We don’t have to worry about saber tooth tigers trying to kill us anymore.

The challenge isn’t how are we going to create enough resources for our survival. No, it’s how do we distribute them. Distributing them in a way to provide opportunity for those who are stuck in a previous century.

The new question now is: How do we save ourselves from ourselves?

Those who fall behind can’t be left behind. Not if we are going to build a culture that we can all be proud of. Winners can’t take all anymore. Taking everything doesn’t leave much for everyone else.

Too many people, too often, fold their cards at the wrong time.

They fold when they are tired. They fold when they are afraid. They fold at the dip.

The dip isn’t the time to fold. The dip is the time to hold. It’s the time to embrace tension. To dance with the fear. This is the time to have the guts to finish what you started.

The time to fold is before you begin any project. Fold early, fold often. But once the decision is made to ship, hold.

When we stress, it’s because we cannot see past the hand we have been dealt. We cannot see that we can move tables and try again. We sit there and obsess over and over again about how could this happen to us, how did I get here and how this isn’t fair.

There are far too many people out there without enough cards to play. We owe it to them to get in the game and make something happen.

You have more power than you think you have. Act accordingly.

We are never going to be prepared to look someone in the eye for the last time and say goodbye.

Indeed, life is filled with moments that we are never prepared for.

Life is tough.

Be tougher than your life is.