Month: June 2020

Everything changed after the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. That is what historic moments do. Life was happening one way and is now shifted on a different trajectory.

Here’s the thing, historic moments make historic people.

Like Dr. Li Wenliang who sounded the alarm early about COVID-19 and then not much later died from the virus. And now you have scientists working around the clock for developing a vaccine. A vaccine that no one was interested in producing just a few months ago.

We don’t like to think of ourselves as revolutionary people because we are not part of the Renaissance. But in a roundabout way, this is what is going on here. We are at the start of a revolution in the way we work, the way we go to school, the way we interact with other people—nothing will be the same.

While COVID-19 has clearly closed a lot of doors, there is a smaller one that is opening. One where a few can go through who are looking to make a difference. But we have to be clear here, you don’t have to develop the next Salk Vaccine to make a difference. You can still choose to walk through this door and help those around you in a big way.

Later we will look back and say, “Where were you when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic?” What we should be asking is How did you contribute during this moment?

How will you be remembered?

Woody Allen used to say, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

Everyone has plans. And everyone wants to know about them.

People want to know what you are studying, where are you going to work after graduation, when are you going to settle down, when are you going to have children…

2020 has changed everyone’s plans. And has made us look quite ridiculous to think we had this much control over our lives.

In these times, it is an act of courage to say, “I don’t know what I am doing yet. I am taking it day-to-day.”

Day-to-day isn’t someone without direction. Day-to-day is saying that you are surveying the field.

We don’t have to consume in order to be productive. Observing and having the ability to pivot is a great place to be.

Before COVID-19, there were plenty of folks making noise about a digital revolution. Sadly, working from home was just too much responsibility to give to the masses.

And then, all of a sudden, the pandemic forces us to work from home. In a matter of weeks, all of a sudden we are doing it.

For many, it has created more time and opportunities when you start factoring in things like a commute.

While what we do during this downtime is what ultimately defines us, it is also important to remember to not beat ourselves up for not being in go mode all the time.

You can’t sprint forever. No matter how much you try.

Instead of beating ourselves up, learn how to shift gears. Know when to sprint and when to slow down. When you need to perform and when you need to prepare.

Your speed is a choice. No need for guilt or shame behind the decisions you make. Moving slow is not weakness.

Be deliberate.

Every marathon runner at the start of the race is feeling great. Optimistic about the challenge ahead and the ability to meet it.

As the race goes on, your bum knee gets sore, your get thirst. The narrative changes. You have to come up with a game within a game.

Run to this _____________ (mile marker, tree or post), don’t think about the rest of the race yet. Just get there. Other parts of the race, you find your flow and you feel like you can accomplish anything.

It turns out, other projects have the same ebb and flow. You start out feeling pretty good but not too long you have push through the dip.

There is no shortcut through dips. It requires grit, imagination, a narrative that people like us can do stuff like this.

There are not many tricks to go through tough situations. But finding a game within a game, another purpose while things are falling apart, can be sufficient to help you on the push.

You did it!

That book you always wanted to write, it’s done.

The business you started is now thriving.

The habit you wanted to kick is gone.

Now?

Start something else.

Today.

The work is never done.

That is what professionals do.

Keep going.

They say that a person is smart and people are dumb.

That’s because everyone views themselves as a rational actor.

Our narrative has us believe that we are victims of outside forces—circumstances out of our control that has led to our shortcomings.

Yet, people are simply not as malicious as we think they are.

We develop stories and watch for the behavior to amplify it.

Incompetence is the narrative about how others inconvenience us.

Einstein said that compound interest was the eighth wonder of the world.

If it works in your favor, it can be a wonderful thing. 2 dollars turns to 5 dollars, then to 10 dollars, and then to 100, and so on.

If you are on the debt side of this equation it is almost impossible to get out. However, consumer debt isn’t the only debt system we have created over the years. There is also intellectual debt.

Intellectual debt is this idea that we trust the system that has been built once we have seen how it works and ignore why it works. And like any other debt system, it grows exponentially. So, if you are not paying attention you can get lost in the noise rather quicky.

So, what is going on right now? What do people mean when they say that the system is working exactly how it was designed to be?

Let’s go back a couple hundred years when the 13th amendment was ratified after the Civil War. It states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Emphasis is mine. That’s sentence is a problem though because once we introduce this into the structure you now have a loophole that policymakers can exploit. And that is what has been happening for a long time keeping the cancer of slavery alive.

Since 1865, we have moved from slavery to convict leasing to disenfranchisement to Jim Crowe and to the modern problems of today. Mainly, declaring the war on drugs as a criminal problem instead of mental health issue, the prison industrial complex and the militarization of police forces.

The data is completely clear. 1 and 3 black Americans will be incarcerated in their lifetime. By contrast, 1 and 17 white Americans will be incarcerated.

The gap is simply too large for anyone born without advantage to ever catch up anymore. We may not have built the system but too many of us have benefited from it.

We cannot stand in ignorance any longer. We have to see why the system is working this way in order to change it. Now is the time.

HT 13th.

In the 1950s, there were only 9% of American homes that owned a television. But by 1966, that figure spiked to 93%.

What’s important to understand here is that 58% of US citizens said that they “got most of their news” from television.

This is why television became the most important source of news for American people during the Vietnam era.

And that continued for a long time after. Until smart phones.

According to the Pew Research Center, 55% of U.S. adults now get their news from social media either “often” or “sometimes”. This means the medium has shifted in how we consume our news in the last ten years or so (no surprise).

We are now seeing live coverage of conflicts with police and protesters. For many, this is the first we have seen such coverage like this for the masses.

It is the same as dropping a TV into people’s living room for the first time.

It isn’t difficult to find footage of someone dying on the internet. That shock is powerful. Powerful enough to spark a movement, to get people off the sidelines.

We have got to be careful and be sensitive about this type of content. The social media rules on this hasn’t been written. More importantly, we don’t want people dying in vain. The cause is too important.

Media played a huge role in public opinion with the Vietnam War. Now, we are the media. You are a news channel and you can help shape the narrative going forward.

We must understand, once we know someone personally who has been affected by racism, we are more inclined to act.

Share your story so we can hear your voice.

There are plenty of incidents where police have escalated protests. There are reports of radical groups doing this too.

At this point, many of us have already made up our minds about the protests.

But to the few on the fence:

It is difficult to separate the shadows from the light. No matter how long you stay glued to your screen. You just can’t.

However…

You can instead ask the question What are they saying that I am not hearing?

Listen and resist the urge to rebuttal. Can you sit with that tension?

Because that is real vulnerability. That is what emotional risk is.

Do you have the guts to do that? To not say anything and just listen?

It appears that this is what escalated the Salt Lake City Protests this week. (You can also watch him brandish a knife.) Somehow this person gets interviewed by Fox afterwards and starts spinning the story. At the time of writing this post, he has not been detained.

Let’s be clear here, this is not a few people misbehaving, this is a systematic problem. Systems are what set the guardrails on how people operate. But…

The system is not broken. It was built this way.

At the center of this is white privilege. The kind of privilege where you can go about your day and not be able to see that there is a problem.

Back in 2013, we saw a tipping point when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free. Since then, we have seen grass-roots organizations like Black Lives Matter stand up to change things.

Which has paved the path for other groups like Me Too, Occupy, Sunrise…

We can’t have things stay the same. The data is too bleak (from redlining to mass incarcerations). When white people rebuttal and say all lives matter. Yes, they do. That is already implied.

And

This isn’t about you right now. We are talking members of the black community who are in pain and you are ignoring it with this kind of comment. 

The problem with advantage is that after a while, you get used to it. It goes to our heads rather quickly too. Born on third base, thinks they hit a triple.

Instead, sit with that tension when someone who has experienced real pain about living with disadvantages because of the color of their skin.

Sit with it before you try to dismiss that uncomfortable feeling. That is what vulnerability is: Emotional risk.

Vulnerability leads us to empathy. Empathy leads to change.