Month: March 2020

In 1993, IBM laid off 60,000 employees.

In 2008, Citigroup cut 50,000 jobs.

The critics and the lizard brain (and maybe common sense) will tell you to find stable work. One where you can good enough and blend in.

But wouldn’t it be safer to be actively creating ways to make a living on your own without an employer?

There is no such thing as a safe and stable job anymore. The question is do you work per hour or do you get paid when the job is done?

Bertha Benz didn’t have permission to take the Motorwagon on the first long-distance road trip in history.

(Plus, it was illegal to drive in Germany back in 1888.)

There were no gas stations, she had to stop at local Pharmacies to get the petroleum products needed.

Her vehicle fell apart often and had to find ways to get it repaired. Again, there were no repair shops back then.

She didn’t have authority, but she went ahead and did it anyway.

That kind of bravery is what artists do. They know what they are about to do might not work but they step into the unknown anyway.

Look, chances are you know what you need to do next but it scares the hell out of you. The challenge isn’t going to be completely mapped for you. Ever.

May I suggest then, have enough to start and then see what happens.

There are sure to be hazards on our journey. It wouldn’t a hero’s journey without them. (Note: Luke Skywalker needed the Darth Vader and the Death Star to become Luke Skywalker.)

When people first came out, it felt like a moment.

Defenders of the status quo will have you believe that change is all but a small moment. It will pass and things return back to normal. Business as usual.

It’s difficult to see when we are in the middle of a revolution.

The question to ask ourselves is this just a moment or the start of something bigger?

The shortest path to becoming a doctor is to go through med school. And if you want to become a marine, you have to go through basic training.

No other way around it. It’s what separates insiders and outsiders.

Everyone is already on the shortest path. There are people out there that will try to sell us on the even shorter one. But they don’t exist.

People like us do stuff like this.

We don’t think of the internet as this place to gain reassurance. But that’s what it turns into.

Often, we treat it as a place to amplify the voice in our head.

Yet, we don’t have to. It can also be a space to contribute, to organize, to share your work.

If you are incessantly checking your feed it’s worth asking:

Am I coming here to amplify my fears or to dance with them?

If you could see a car accident before it happened, that would be really cool. It would change the decision you made getting in your car today. But alas, it doesn’t happen that way.

Most emergencies happen in a hurry.

COVID-19 is happening in a hurry. That’s what happens when we have airplanes traveling between countries every day.

The faster we choose to go, the more likely we are to hit an emergency.

In contrast, the slower we go the more likely we can see what is coming around the corner.

Perhaps then we should ask, “Is this an appropriate time for a sprint?” Or maybe we should be thinking further ahead.

[Worth asking: Do people perceive a sprint as panic?]

The best time to plant a tree was yesterday.

The next best time?

Now.

Now is the time to invest in a better, brighter future. Because the problems of today won’t simply go away on their own.

The next generation just inherits them. Compounded with more interest.

The good news is that next-generation also inherits the good decisions we make today.

Investing takes patience and imagination. Without it, how are we ever to create a better world than how we found it?

Are you an investor or day trader?

At Costco, I overheard a couple discussing if they needed more diapers. To which one replied, “I think they will have more in stock later. I have nine boxes anyway.”

What a shame.

Look, since no one was around for the 1918 Spanish Flu, we haven’t seen or been through an actual epidemic where it requires us to change our behaviors. So, we let fear in the driving seat. Why? Because we don’t have the experience to draw on.

Who knows what happens next? But I do know what’s changed in the last ten years is that we have social media to actively feed our fears. Because a rational person knows you don’t need 200 rolls of toilet paper to survive the next month.

The internet, used correctly, is also one of the most powerful tools we have available too. Choose wisely.

Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that by simply washing your hands you can reduce the spread of germs.

A remarkable discovery in the 1850s. And it helped lay the groundwork for germ theory.

Except, it took the medical community 20 years to change its habits.

The question is, was it painful to change or just uncomfortable?

The longer we wait the more painful it becomes.

[How many would have been spared if they simply washed their hands? Choose your metaphor.]

Last year, Americans spent more money on storage units then they did going to the movies.

Ironic really. Even the things we don’t ever use have a home while many others here in Salt Lake still struggle for a place to live.

What’s your narrative about the junk you have?

The more stuff you have the less valuable it gets.