Why real fulfilment comes through commitment and community
Many of us spend our lives on what writer David Brooks calls the first mountain.
“The goals on that first mountain are the normal goals that our culture endorses – to be a success, to be well thought of, to get invited into the right social circles, and to experience personal happiness. It’s all the normal stuff: nice home, nice family, nice vacations, good food, good friends, and so on.”
Happiness here tends to be individual. Some never leave this place.
But it can feel hollow.
This is why for many people something shifts.
Either they taste success and find…
We loved our latest Fireside chat with researcher, podcaster and creativity coach Kendra Patterson last week.
She brought a refreshing honesty, warm energy and clarity of thought to the session. It appears others agreed!
Why this discomfort might be telling you something
The last 12 months have given us all a chance to reflect and perhaps get some perspective on where we’re going in life, and what’s really matters when the chips are down.
For many this has become an existential crisis, often asking questions like “Who am I?” “Why am I doing this?” and “What am I here to do?”.
If you’re feeling this way and think you’re going through a mid-life crisis, chances are you’re not.
Think of it as a mid-life wake up.
I felt it at 40, when I was being called by something deeper. The vision for…
Yesterday’s Fireside chat with William McNeely was up there with the very best since we started doing these 12 months ago.
In 2019 after finding himself days from death and facing a double lung transparent, William created an incredible foundation called Do Greater in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Hope you’re having a relaxing weekend.
I wanted to share some reflections from last Friday’s Fireside show where Beccie D’Cunha — a mediator, coach and the founder of Courage Lab – coached us live through our Lumina Spark portrait assessments.
Lumina Spark is a tool that Beccie uses as part of her coaching toolkit that helps us to listen inward and outward — to discover self and the other.
Why did we do this?
Well as Beccie said “We need to work on our relationships, not just in them.”
Carlos and I have run businesses together since 2004 (The Happy…
If you’re still trying to find your ‘thing’ in work or business and chart a more meaningful path:
- 🛣 Start by making choices that feel right, even if they don’t make commercial sense yet. This will give you energy and fuel your passion.
- ♥️ Get clear on your your values — and crucially live them don’t laminate them.
- 🧗🏼♀️ Search out kindred spirits that you can learn from, support (and get supported by) and have fun with. This will make the journey as rewarding as the destination.
- 🚀 Feel the fear and do it anyway. Write down what the worst…
Lessons learned from a Fireside chat with our business mentor Alan Wick
We know how it is. You’ve launched. You’ve got customers. And your business is growing… very slowly.
If you find yourself at a stage in your business where you feel like you’re putting more energy into than what you feel you should be getting back then maybe you need a re-think.
Do you have the right processes? Or the right people? Or even the right mindset?
What’s getting in your way of growing your business… in the way you want to grow it?
This week on the Friday Fireside we were joined by our good friend and mentor Alan Wick…
We had so much fun on our Friday Fireside today with Liana Wilson-Fricker.
There’s so much aligned thinking in Liana’s approach and ours. We could have talked for hours.
Here are the main takeaways from our conversation about what it takes to build a brand, company or community right now. See further down for a link to the recording.
- Entrepreneurship is not a science
As well as learning the methods and how to de-risk situations through experimenting, you also learn how to trust your instincts. As Peter Drucker says “it is neither science nor art, it is a practice”. …
Why 2–3 words can transform your business and life
In his memorable talk at Happy Startup Summercamp in 2014, serial entrepreneur Jack Hubbard talked about a book that changed his life.
Titled Will it make the boat go faster? it tells the story of Ben Hunt-Davis’s journey to Olympic gold in the men’s Rowing Eight at Sydney 2000. It’s a tale of talent, supremely focused preparation and hard work. But also the power of simplicity.
This question — will it make the boat go faster? …
An excerpt from Ash Perrin’s talk at Happy Startup Summercamp 2018:
Whatever it is you’re doing now, planning to do or are in the process of starting, do it with an authenticity, a pride, a poise and a sense of dignity and a commitment to being truthful.
Magic.
A product can be magic, a computer can be magic, but create magic, make it special, make it feel tingly when someone uses it.
Truth. Fun. Belief. Value. Love.
If those things are involved in your project it won’t fail.
You might have to knock back a few bits of dirty money but in the end you’ll get far more reward because it will be yours.
And it will be you that’s represented in what you’re offering.
