Viktor Frankl wasn’t just a prisoner of war or a Holocaust survivor or a refugee.
He was a neurologist and a psychiatrist.
And that was the hat he chose to wear.
Regardless of the circumstances, he had a role to play, a need to fill.
The opportunity to do great work is never limited by our circumstances.
When pushing my 3-year-old on a bike without training wheels, she asked for me to quit holding her.
As I let go, she would fall over. So, I picked her up and we start again until she says again let go.
This time, however, I tell her I can’t until she learns to ride by herself. Quickly, she lost interest and went for the scooter.
Couple things:
1. There is a separation of what we believe and our abilities.
2. Despite this challenge, we don’t need someone over our shoulder reinforcing what we can’t do (yet).
3. Yet is important here. Perhaps today, we can’t ride a bike. But that isn’t forever. Tomorrow is another opportunity.
Lesson learned: I should of let her keep falling and keep trying. Squashing believes only leads us down a road of what we believe are safe choices.
In 1961, The Tokens produced a duet of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” that would become a #1 hit in the US.
Except they didn’t write the song. And the neither did the singers before them.
It was originally written by Soloman Linda 30 years prior to The Tokens. And to this day, he still doesn’t receive credit by companies for the countless remakes. Including the likes of Disney.
Perhaps, one of the greatest thefts of all time when you consider the millions of dollars it has generated over the last eight decades.
To feel cheated would be justified.
And really, we have all felt taken advantage of in one way or another. Some worse than others.
But if we are to change the narrative, if we are to heal from these injustices we need to remember that we are still in control. We still have a choice to make.
What other people do is never the cause of how we feel.
It’s easy to talk yourself into believing you are an imposter.
That you can’t be one of the greats.
That you don’t have enough skills or experience.
You lack the “talent” or don’t have a voice.
Internally, you will never be good enough. There will never be enough reassurance to silence the voice in our head that incessantly reminds us that you’re not ready.
This fear is never going away.
But when we decide to take action anyway, we are acknowledging that there are more important things than fear.
You have a job to do.
When there is pressure to grab more attention, instead go earn trust.
When there is pressure to go faster, be deliberate.
Where there is pressure to take a shortcut, choose the long cut.
When there is pressure to race for the bottom, make things better.
When there is pressure to look the other way, stand up and speak out.
When there is pressure for efficiency, build resiliency.
Where there is pressure to squeeze more profit, make a difference.
When there is pressure to speak, listen.
It’s a natural reaction to tell ourselves a story that shrinks the challenges we face. We do this to create bite-size chunks, to make things digestible.
Yet, with this pattern, we begin to believe that our problems are not worthy of being problematic. I mean look at the state of the world? This economy? Why should anyone care? We have bigger things to deal with.
This train of thought overtime makes us feel worse and worse about ourselves. Perpetuating the downward spiral of negative thought patterns.
The alternative is we can expand our vision.
When we begin to see that the world/universe is much bigger than the world we operate in, our problems have this ability to fade.
Perspective changes everything. Same problems different lens.
Pillars of Creation captured by NASA
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to pivot means to change your opinions, statements, decisions so that they are different from what they were before.
I can’t think of a better skill to have right now. We didn’t know the future before Coronavirus and today it is filled with even more uncertainty.
So…
If you are laid off? Pivot.
Global recession? Pivot.
Cat explodes? Pivot.
The time to be nimble is now.
It’s easier to paddle when the wind on your back.
It is widely reported that Harvard will receive millions of dollars in federal aid due to the Coronavirus. (And is now possibly told to give it back.)
The problem is that Harvard has a 40 billion dollar endowment. And it isn’t just Harvard but companies like Amazon and even Shake Shack are now under scrutiny.
We have to understand that money is a story. And it is a way for some people, a lot of people, to keep score. The problem is, there is never enough money unless…
The story you tell yourself is one of sufficiency. “I have enough” is not something we hear in our culture very often. Because there is always one more thing we could have.
The digital bits on our screen is a reflection of the number of dollars we have acquired, not whether we have had success. That number can keep going higher and higher forever.
So, pick a number and be happy with it.
There is no difference between 100 billion and 124 billion except the narrative that surrounds it.
It’s difficult to start any adventure.
Our brains are quick to remind us, “Who do you think you are?” for starting something so great and daring.
But nothing good ever came from sitting in the stands.
Ultimately, we accept the love we think we deserve. Perhaps then, one answer to our problems has been that we are not thinking big enough.
Dream big.
…
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt
In the age of unfettered capitalism, we must stop and ask:
Is this about making money or making a difference?
It’s possible to do both. More importantly, we must understand, not everything we do needs to improve the bottom line.
The house you buy doesn’t need to be a good investment. It’s about establishing roots, being part of a community, having a space to raise a family, to make memories…
The business you start doesn’t need to be featured in Fortune.
Money is one axis. One unit of measurement. There are far better ways to measure success. Act accordingly.
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