Forget Being The BEST, Be The ONLY
Leveraging Your Perspective To Lead
Seeking greatness isn’t easy but it is simple and anyone can do it; from anywhere in the world, with any background, anytime, at any stage in their life. It will take every ounce of energy and purpose you have but if you want it, it’s yours..
- Pick a cause, something you care about, that excites you, that you want to learn more about for a long time.
- Invest all the time, money and resources you have into being a student AND in other people who are better, smarter and more hard working then you; people that challenge you, that you want too work for, not just with.
- Spend 5–10 years doing this, eating life’s dirt and taking responsibility for every failure of your business and team. Do so while giving as much gratitude and appreciation you can out every single day and practicing radical open mindedness, empathy and self-awareness .
- When you’re all done and have finally “made it”… Give it all back, and then some. Because you love this sh*t and are in it for the purpose of contributing to something greater than yourself.
The weak rust out, the impatient wear out and the rest of us go to bed and wake up with the same level of excitement and vigor they had when they first decided to go our own way.
A LEADERSHIP MANIFESTO
Be responsible for the failures, learnings and growth. Praise everyone else for everything else. Own only the process and clarity of purpose, distribute gratitude for the rest.
Facilitate optimal conditions for your people to produce at their best. Contribute and challenge them through empathy and persistence.
Take less than what you give. Contribute all time, energy, attention and resources and fearlessly risk your pride, reputation and personal identity for the people you serve.
Aim to be not the best, brightest or most creative designer, artist or engineer but the most empathetic and radically open-minded how you perceive and react to obstacles and circumstances.
Seek to be the ONLY, surrounded by the BEST. And give them everything they need, everything you have.. and them some.
Raw Thoughts To Chew On…
“We’re A-to-Z thinkers, fretting and A, obsessing over Z, yet forgetting all about B through Y.” Ryan Holiday
WE WILL CREATE GOD
Maybe we weren’t created from “GOD” but we may very well create it as the singularity and the universe of all things remains a possibility. Intelligence does not require consciousness and we are building more intelligence than we can consciously conceive. Although we won’t be alive to see it, we will fundamentally change the way organisms, energy and the entire universe interacts.
“We’re too busy being “busy” that we forget to actually do work that matters.”
LET THINGS HAPPEN
When you let life unfold in front of you, let it unfold for you, it will. Random events will come our way, into the void and create something new, unforced and authentic. Leaning into spontaneity and serendipity creates opportunity. Rather than forcing false positives, fluffing the bad stuff off and framing it like it’s not a big deal or playing the avoidance game take life as it comes. Just sit with it. Rushing only hinders experience and the opportunity of potential.
“Build character and delight through curiously seeking the opportunity of the unknown.”
MAKING OTHERS FIT
When new people come into your life, and you force it, you get excited and try to find a way to fit them into your life, into your narrative of what and who they could be to and for you, you’re setting up for failure.
We are who we are, they are who they are and the more we try to imagine and perceive them in a way that fits our narrative, the further we detract and divide us from them, from understanding, empathizing and seeing them for them, for who they really are. We try to force shape out of what’s already of shape, however imperfect we may perceive it.
STEP INTO THE CHALLENGE
Step into the challenge, into resistance and lean into the obstacles what the world is putting right in front of you. Build character and delight through curiously seeking opportunity of the unknown.