Josh Allred's Blog

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.

The path ahead is so unclear, unknown, untested and perhaps, never been done before.

There are no maps. No step-by-step set of instructions on what to do next.

We could choose to wait around until someone tells us what to do. But we will be waiting for a very long time.

The alternative is to find the courage to step into the dark. As we do so, the light begins to follow.

We need you to be a torchbearer and to lead us.

The question is: How far will you go?

This free eBook was made in collaboration with the prolific and talented Caleb Ceran.

We hope this helps you on your journey.

How Far Will You Go? eBook

“What really matters are the countless small deeds of unknown people who lay the basis for the events of human history.” — Howard Zen

We won’t remember the names of the health care professionals that helped (and perhaps died) treating patients with COVID-19.

And it’s not just health care providers who went to work despite the known dangers but we don’t know the names of the local grocery store clerks or the delivery drivers or law enforcement or fire department…

Make no mistake these are not ordinary people doing extraordinary things. But extraordinary people stepping up to the time and challenge. They were extraordinary before COVID-19.

No doubt that things will be different. The course is changing.

Drip by drip.

Two things I’ve noticed:

1) For me, they come while I am in the shower, laying down reflecting about the day, taking a walk, praying…Ideas come when I quit consuming.

2) I’m also extremely vigilant about writing ideas down. Good ones, bad ones—it doesn’t matter. If I don’t write it down then it will be lost forever.

[I write everything down using Evernote on my phone but a simple sticky note will do too.]

Difficult to influence the entire world.

Much more effective to focus on influencing the people in your world.

Even then, that can be a daunting task.

Keep shrinking it down and then all of a sudden it seems possible.

Change the world for one person.

One by one.

That’s how a community grows.

Ask yourself this:

Do the things people learn from me are they turning around and teaching it to other people?

As people all around the world fight the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to step up and also fight the infodemic we are facing.

Every moment of every day, we are being hit with a constant stream of information. Too many are willing to change the narrative for an extra click.

We have to recognize that we are not informed. No, we clicked an article that the Facebook algorithm spat out at us. That article already matched our belief. We click to confirm not to change our minds.

Information comes at us a map already drawn. Here are three approaches to smash this:

1. Be willing to change your mind. More difficult than we think. When we change our minds we have to admit we have been wrong in the past. Instead of trying to work through the shame and loss of status, a better approach is to be known as someone who changes their mind frequently. It’s a posture of “Knowing what I know now…” Knowing what I know now I can now see that this is a better approach.
2. Don’t be a passive player of information. Read more books on a subject. Become educated on why technology is irrisitable, how people sort themselves, how systems are made, what does history show us…It makes the media much more manageable to digest once we understand how the strings are pulled.
3. Who’s the source? We should always know the source of every fact, every meme, every claim.

This is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We have these amazing tools at our disposal, and yet, we are still learning how to use them.

It’s much easier to make your decision to take a leap on the ground in a safe location. If you are still undecided while standing on the edge, you are not setting yourself for success. The trick then is to decide before you climb the ladder.

Once we commit to the chaos of risk, we must then focus on the journey, not the destination. Because wishing to be back on the ground in the safe zone or for it to be over is a waste of energy.

In these stressful moments though, this is the opportunity to learn something new.

The difference between a high dive and COVID-19, however, is that we didn’t choose to be here. Yet, here we are standing on the edge of something terrifying and also an opportunity for something new. Most of us are still learning how we can respond. We are contemplating, having trouble letting go of what used to be.

Remember: There is no comfort in growing zones and no growing in comfort zones. We are now in a growing zone. Act accordingly.

Most of us are familiar with demographics.

Height, weight, gender, married, children, political party…

But this information isn’t very useful.

What’s important to understand is psychographics.

What does this person believe in?

What is their pain point?

What is their attitude about the world?

When we can begin to see what people believe, fear, want, we can begin to develop empathy.

Once there is empathy, we can change things.