Josh Allred's Blog

It used to drive me crazy to get a suggestion to solve a problem once it has been decided how to solve it.

That’s because what I often hear was someone telling me how they would do it. That their way must mean it is the correct way. But there are a lot of methods to skin a cat. There’s simply a path or a choice. Sure there are choices that are more efficient. Others are shortcuts that pollute the environment or hurt people around you. There are choices that think about the bottom line and others that lead to change. And others that are simply sufficient to get things done. “This is how I have done it for years.”

Perhaps spending your time fitting a square peg into a round hole is a worthwhile endeavor if you are on the edge of solving interesting problems. Innovation only comes when we notice things that someone else doesn’t. After all, Joseph Priestly didn’t invent oxygen, he discovered it.

There is no right answer. There are many solutions to problems.

Don’t ship junk.

Don’t make average stuff for average people.

Don’t spam.

Don’t show up unannounced.

Don’t call from an anonymous number.

Don’t buy fake followers.

Don’t leave inauthentic reviews.

Don’t tell people their call is important and put them on hold.

Instead….

Ship the best work you can do based on the constraints.

Make something remarkable that will have people talking about it.

Ask for their email.

Invite.

Make the CEO available.

Create something relevant that has value.

Write from your heart.

And give your attention to people you seek to serve.

In 1900, there were over 2,000 companies producing cars. And by 1929, there were only 44. What happened?

Well, Henry Ford developed the assembly line and promised his worker that if they come to the Ford factory, he will pay them five dollars a day instead of 50 cents.

Not only that, a car went from a thousand dollars in 1900 to $850 by 1908 thanks to Ford’s assembly line. By 1924, that number dropped to just 250 bucks.

That is what happens when people work together. That is what industrialism has produced and what Taylorism has perfected. We have created a world of wealth. As a side effect, stuff is now cheap and abundant.

But there are other side effects.

One of those is the indoctrination that this stuff can fill our souls. It isn’t enough to own artifacts. If we are going to find meaning in our lives, we are going to have to step out of this system and re-evaluate what it means to be human.

Because if we are going to define value by a dollar amount or who has more stuff or by a number of likes–we will never be satisfied. Even the richest people in the world lack something.

This is one of the challenges of our time.

It is scary to stare into the void. It freezes us because it just feels overwhelming to have so many choices. Until you create boundaries and constraints. Once you do that a whole bunch of things begin to open up.

Hence why it is critical to creating a practice.

Once you decide you are going to be vegan, you don’t then head to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.

Once you decide to become a runner, then every day you wake up and ask when am I going to run today.

Once you decide to become a writer, you are looking for something to write every day.

You won’t be stuck deciding to go or not. You already had the meeting and made the decision. The question isn’t whether to go or not. Instead, you get to decide if you want to go right or left but you are going.

No one goes to bed, closes their eyes, and then instantly falls asleep. Instead, you fake it. You fake it until one moment you are awake and the next you are sleeping.

Most of the time, especially creators and artists, feel like a fraud. We often don’t feel like we are in the mood to do our best work.

The alternative is to build a practice. Faking it until you make it. Every day, I sit down to write a blog but it doesn’t mean every day I feel in the mood. On those days, I fake it. I write bad writing until something is worthy of publishing. The best I can do that day.

Build your life around a practice. And when you do, you will soon discover that what you do determines way more how you feel rather than how you feel determines what you do.

For thousands of years, people made music because they wanted to. They made music because they could.

This is a modern notion that our art needs to be paid. To be clear: I am not saying artists shouldn’t get paid, they should.

What I am saying is no one owes you anything for doing something that brings joy and meaning to your life. No one owes you a living to share with them something that you are proud of.

Yes, we want a connection. The artist brings together the tribe. But that can also be separate from making a living to pay the rent. We have confused this idea if it doesn’t get paid, then it must not have value. That is so far from the truth. Because what’s good is subjective. What’s good is about taste. And just cause someone gets paid doesn’t mean they automatically are better.

The reason I bring this up is that the paycheck hangs us up so much from ever starting something. It is a trap of comparison.

Do it because you love it.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have learned how to play guitar at an earlier age.

I picked it up as a senior in high school, and unfortunately, didn’t keep practicing with it after a few years. That was almost twenty years ago. Imagine if I would have stuck with it, how good would I be today?

I continue to make the same mistake when I regret not learning how to play the guitar instead of actually practicing.

The lesson here is this: Don’t make the same mistakes today as you did yesterday. The key to moving on from regret is action. Start doing that thing you always wanted to do.

It’s funny when a presentation ends and everyone dismisses, you leave to start your car, and all of a sudden you thought of a really good question you wished you would have asked.

That’s because the pressure is off. No one is sitting next to you. No one is there to judge you. There is no risk or exposure.

Of course, there is no chance for anyone to be better informed or better connected because you didn’t have the guts to think of a question in the first place.

A lot of work is done behind the scenes when no one is watching. But also there is the work that is essential when everyone is. We need to have the guts to stand up and say what we believe in. You will always be judged, regardless of what you do.

I used to get very anxious every Sunday night. Without realizing it–until I left a toxic job–I was dreading the Monday morning meeting. The meeting that often left me feeling insufficient. That I wasn’t doing good enough.

Now I realize something…

Most of us don’t actually hate the day of the week Monday. Monday just exists for us to keep track of the dates. What we don’t like is that we are committed to showing up on Monday morning.

That takes a ton of work to build a life you don’t wake up and dread living. Not everyone is so lucky to have that chance.

Now looking back, it wasn’t an ideal situation and I should have just quit sooner. But the days would have gone better if I would have learned early on that it is far more productive to love what you do rather than do what you love. Because despite our best efforts, we still have to do things we don’t want to do often.

If you have to show up to the Monday morning meeting, you might as well find a way to enjoy it instead.

Humans are better together. Thousands of years ago, if you broke your leg, that would be a death sentence. There would be no way to get food or to outrun sabertooth tigers. Until we started working together. Because if the role was reversed, we would be so grateful to have a hand.

Since then, we moved to tribes, then to communities, to towns, and now to major metropolitan areas. With so many people around yet, it can still feel lonely. Almost like a wilderness, minus the predators. We forget that the culture works better when we stop and notice someone in need and act. We are not alone, we just act like it.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”