Josh Allred's Blog

It’s hard to change the world all at once.

Making a difference to the masses is painstakingly slow, ineffective and ultimately a waste.

(Projects become so big and audacious, of course, you could never ship. How could you? You’re trying to change the world. Remember?)

A simpler, and more effective way, is not to make a difference to everyone but to someone.

One by one.

Drip by drip by drip.

One act of generosity for one person.

Over and over. Again and again.

People are made up of a set of individuals. Average products for average people doesn’t work anymore. Because there is no connection.

And you need a connection.

Maybe that’s what makes all of the difference.

People in organizations change: the CEO, management, even the mailman. And so do laws and markets and politicians.

When your environment changes, you are left with policies and procedures from the previous regime.

So the question you need to ask is: What is it for?

If you don’t know the answer, then (like most people) it’s probably because someone was trying to please their boss not their customers.

Just because this is the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean this is the way it always has to be.

[I’ve kept this story about Five Monkeys hung on my wall for ten years. It has served as a great reminder to question the status quo. I hope it can do the same for you.]

Luck is a tool used by Resistance to diminish what God has done to bless our lives.

I don’t think the universe just magically picks us.

I will grant you there are things we can’t control when we are born: talent, family, neighborhood, country, time period.

That’s fate.

Luck, on the other hand, is a figment of our imagination. It’s made up. A cop-out. A thing we say to get us off the hook.

By saying someone was lucky, we fail to acknowledge the hard work and choices and sacrifice people made.

In most cases luck has nothing to do with success.

It’s about twenty year commitments and grit. It’s about leaping, leaning in and leading. Most of all, it’s about generosity and love.

People are in search for clarity.

So if you’re upset about the results of the election and you feel pressed to write a Facebook post about your thoughts, write with clarity. Don’t use 100 words for what can be said in 10.

In 2004, Facebook was invented. It wasn’t very long ago, we didn’t have platforms to raise our voice, our opinions and observations that could reach a million people. Not everyone is going to agree with what you have to say. It’s okay to disagree but not to be disagreeable.

The goal is not to have your message heard by everyone, it’s to be heard by someone. If it’s not for them, it’s not for them. That’s okay.

But just because you took the time to write something down doesn’t mean I have to even read it. You need to earn trust to get attention.

We now live in a world where 3 billion people are connected. So what should you do with this connection?

Try solving interesting problems.

Here’s one: It’s a hard pill to swallow if your candidate had more votes and still lost. What an opportunity to fight the system that allows that to happen. But changing the system from an electoral vote to a popular one seems impossible. Yeah, that’s my point.

Doing the impossible takes guts.

It takes guts to ignore the trolls. It takes guts to put aside hurt feelings. It takes guts to stand up and say follow me. Or you can choose to hide. (Social media is a great place for that.)

That button you press to close the door on an elevator doesn’t actually work.

It’s fake.

So are the buttons on cross walks and office thermostats.

They’re all placebos.

That’s okay because it makes us feel better to exercise control in a world that is seemingly out-of-control.

The question is: Is it ethical?

I think so.

Most people don’t get upset when a magician reveals his secrets. Maybe a little let down because we want to believe that magic is real.

(It’s manipulation when your customers become angry.)

But if a placebos makes you feel better, gives you more confidence and helps you perform then why not use it?

It’s story telling.

So if we want people to change—the kind of change you are seeking to make in the world—you need a better story.

Because the story controls how we feel about things.

Logic and math and science isn’t enough to change people’s minds.

[The better the package, the better the taste. (And vise-versa.) So what would happen if we called the Affordable Care Act, the Expensive Care Act? What would change if we called Global Warming, Atmosphere Cancer? Would things be different?]

In 72 days, we will have a new President and Congress in office.

It will be a peaceful transfer of power.

There won’t be a military siege or coupe or militia or blockade.

We get a chance to set an example for the rest of the world once again.

Instead of starting a new beginning.

Create a new ending.

150 years ago, young men would grow their beards and mustaches to appear old enough to vote. They were referred to as“virgin voters” or “twenty-onesters”.

To the new-comers: Welcome.

Enthusiasm for voting has been down for several decades. I’ve talked about the media’s role in a previous post and about the voting predicament many are faced with.

With all that aside, today is the day you get to choose to get in the game. Or will you sit back on the sidelines?

No one is going to pick you though. You have to pick yourself.

Sure, it’s nerve racking. You might pick the wrong candidate. You might get blamed.

That’s what happens in an ugly election.

Time will tell if we made the right decision. (No one will know for at least a few decades.)

But the right play today is to vote. I hope you have the courage to stand up.

[If your not sure who to vote for, I have one suggestion: Try prayer.]

Fauja Singh was the first 100-year-old to complete a marathon. He picked up running at 89 years old and hasn’t stopped. Objects in motion stay in motion.

That’s why management tends to give the most important projects to the busiest person in the room. Not because he can’t find someone else with more time on their hands. It’s because there’s no need to motivate the busy person—she’s already in motion.

The flip side is: Objects at rest stay at rest.

Pushing a boulder is difficult at the beginning. The boulder doesn’t want to move.

Which explains why it’s difficult to do something that has never been done before: moving from the industrial economy to one of connection, traveling to Mars and back, creating artificial intelligence. Or why it’s difficult to do something for the first time: riding a bike, voting, marriage.

But once you get the ball rolling, it’s easier to keep the ball rolling.

There are lots of outside forces trying to slow us down. Steve Pressfield calls it Resistance. Resistance is the voice in our heads telling us that we are not good enough and who do we think we are. But we can use Resistance as a compass. To guide us. If you are feeling Resistance, you are the verge of doing something daring and great. You should follow that.

My advice: Pick the right boulder (not too big, not too small) that you can start pushing today. Keep it rolling for the next 20 years.

Can you name one in the last 10 years? 20?

Geographically, there isn’t much left to explore on this planet.

(President Obama has gone on record to say that in the 2030’s we will be able to send someone to Mars and back.)

It’s been a while since we’ve seen someone like Neil Armstrong or Percy Faucet or Reinhold Messner dominate the news.

Going out to the edges is what we do. It makes us human.

We have to preserve the spirit of exploration by expanding our definition. It’s not just about how far you physically travel. It’s going to unfamiliar territory through places or art or science or religion or music or whatever.