Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. [Mark Twain]
The thing about writing, building, inventing, designing, or creating (essentially anything that requires leadership) is this: it’s not safe.
Not only do you expose yourself to the dangers of a foreign environment (leadership by its nature takes the unknown path), but you expose yourself to the most dangerous element of all: the tribe.
The tribe is a great thing when you’re in the majority – when you fit in, comply and keep quiet.
For the nonconforming leader – for the outlier in the minority – the tribe is a detriment to success, freedom and happiness.
When you fit in, comply, and keep quiet, the boss rewards you.
Your peers, likewise, accept you as an equal. And rightly so because you ARE an equal; quiet, compliant and agreeable like everyone else.
On the other hand, when you don’t play by the conventional rules, when you challenge the way things work, and when you speak up when there’s something immoral, unethical or just plain illogical, there is no reward from the tribe – in fact, there is only punishment or exile.
If you do any of those things – when you expose the weakness of the status quo - you undermine the authority figure. When you undermine any authority figure, you necessarily insult their tribe of followers.
Not only will your boss punish you, your peer group will reject and scorn you (they are, after all, the quiet compliers that, for their own safety, didn't speak up to begin with – why would they speak up to support you now?).
In an environment like this – essentially every bureaucracy that has ever existed – it doesn't pay to think creatively; it doesn't pay to be brave enough to speak up when things don’t seem right; It doesn't pay to challenge and lead and move outside the tribal boundaries.
If you do, you will be ostracized.
Because the system perpetuates itself this way, what you’re left with is an org chart of followers, safety seekers, and non-disrupters. They make very good robots for the robot factory.
You can stick with the tribe.
You can find strength in numbers.
You can reassure yourself that quiet, compliant and agreeable is a worthy existence.
Or you can step outside the tribal boundaries.
You can choose another direction.
You can decide your own path, determine your own pace and packing list, and design your own life’s journey.
The tribe won’t like it.
But we don’t need more tribes – we need more individuals.
The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap. [Ayn Rand]
What will you choose?
p.s. what are your thoughts on the tribe and the individual? Leave your comments below.
"I hope they like it."
"I hope it works out."
"I hope they will buy it."
The problem with hope isn't hope itself, but rather when we use the word hope as a replacement for "I wish someone else would take care of this problem for me."
When we "'hope" for things that way, we might as well throw in the towel and get out of the ring.
Here's the thing; you don't have ownership over the reaction, response, or results.
BUT...
You do have 100% responsibility over your actions.
Set a goal. Commit. Follow through.
That is what you have control over. This is what you own.
Don't hope you will do your best - DO YOUR BEST.
What happens as a result is a result and will happen how it does.
Remember, the only thing you control, the only thing you OWN, are your own actions.
Don't hope they will be great, make them great.
Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. [Goethe]
Be bold.
The project you’re working on; the goals you set this year; the strategy you spent months planning – all of it will break.
This goes for everything tangible in this life:
The factory you built: at some point in the future, time and the elements will collapse it - another will come and take its place.
The product you crafted: someday the hardware will degrade and stop working correctly; the software will become buggy and obsolete; your brilliance will be a used trinket in the back of a storage space.
Those relationships you developed when you were in middle school: people change; you and your friends will move apart, or, if you do stay connected, your relationship will alter and morph.
People, places, projects: they all eventually break.
This shouldn't come as a shock – it’s simply restating a simple principle of life, one that we all intrinsically understand: nothing stays the same.
But – and here is the thing that might shock you – this is a good thing.
Life is good because things can break.
What would be the point of setting a goal with 100% certainty of its attainment? With the steps all laid out? With a guarantee that there will be no hiccups, setbacks or failures along the path? That everything you see before you is precisely how it will be when you get there - perfect, safe and everlasting?
If this were the case, if uncertainty (and thus the possibility of things breaking) were taken out of the equation, you would be left with exactly what you see, no more, no less.
There would be no struggle. There would be no dragons to slay. There would be no risk.
And if there were no risk there would be no need for courage or boldness.
In a world without dragons, there would be no heroes or champions.
In a world with no breaking, no uncertainty, no possibility of failure, there would be no struggle, no need to try (it would already be a guarantee), and ultimately no need for virtue.
We don't read the story of St. George because we know he wins.
We read the story of St. George because he might lose - things might break - and because of this his actions are courageous and bold.
If there were no chance of breaking, there would be no dragons to slay; just imitations easily ignored.
We don't build empires because we expect them to turn out exactly how we planned.
We don't build empires because they are guaranteed to work.
We don't build empires because we expect them to last forever.
We build empires because deep down in our hearts there is something goading us, something compelling us, something pushing us...
We build empires because deep down we must build...
We build empires because deep down we were made to be heroes and champions.
there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear. [G.K. Chesterton]
This something might just be our ability to struggle for something worthwhile, to fight and slay our dragons while they try to destroy us, and to build our empires even if they might break.
What empire are you building?
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Never fight alone. Join The Resistance.
The beginning of every year starts with reflection.
We reflect on the past year, on what we’ve done (or not done), on what we’re proud of (or not so proud of), and how we intend to make this year better.
When we reflect, it’s common to see a multitude of failures: failure to start, failure to finish, failure to ship. Sometimes it hurts to think about. Of course, with the right resolve, we quickly commit to something bigger and better for this year.
As with the start of every year, plenty of books, blogs, newscasts, and TV shows will talk about this commitment to something bigger and better for the new year.
They’ll explain you need to set goals, but not just any goals: you need to set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented goals (or some variation of this).
They’re right; setting these types of goals will increase the likelihood that your next venture is successful.
They’ll tell you that this time you REALLY need to commit; no half-hearted, wishful thinking. You need to commit and make sure you stand by your commitment. They’ll suggest you announce your intentions to someone else or that you make a contract to yourself that you personally sign.
And they’re right – getting something or someone to hold you accountable will increase your chances of success.
They’ll suggest getting a journal to record your daily progress, stocking your bookcase with productive content and filling your MP3 player with motivational podcasts.
And, for the most part, it’s all right and should help you realize your goals.
But you already know that.
So there is no reason to reiterate the information that is already out there – not on any of that stuff at least.
But I will ask for 1 minute of your time.
In 1 minute write out every answer you can think of to the following question:
The REALLY hard part about commitment isn’t the grit needed to keep going when things start breaking, or the focus needed to finish and ship; no, the really hard part is all the things you must purposefully ignore if you really want to be successful.
If you want to be successful, you must commit, and when you commit, you close doors.
Closing doors is the hard part.
So I’m asking you to do the hard part – close doors this year.
Identify all the things you WON’T pursue this year; list out all the projects you WON’T start; write down all the things you WON’T agree to; determine all the ideas you WON’T develop this year.
“But what if…”
Stop.
That’s the Enemy talking.
The Enemy wants you to keep your options open because if they stay open, you’ll never focus on one thing long enough to ACTUALLY instigate (start, finish, AND ship).
The Enemy wants you to keep all your doors open because when things start breaking (and they will), the Enemy will have an easier time goading you into changing direction, quitting on your project, and moving into one of your many open doors (available options).
The worst part: you won’t even recognize this is the Enemy because you’ve been taught to never put all your eggs in one basket.
Somehow, instead of that phrase reminding you to diversify your investments, it has mutated into an excuse for idealness, non-commitment, and retreat when things start breaking (“live to fight another day” right?).
This is scary.
Don’t be a victim of The Enemy this year.
Don’t waste away another 365 days building someone else’s dream, slaving away just to slave away, or living a life of quiet desperation.
This year you can instigate your great project, begin building your empire, and continue (or start) creating your life’s work.
The power is so completely in your control it is painful to mention because more than a few will ignore it.
They will ignore that delicate inkling in their heart that tells them to start, finish and ship their great idea; the one that pulls at them every so often and asks to be considered; the one that that quietly begs to be given a chance.
They will ignore it and the spark will fade.
And another year will go by with nothing but reflections of what you did (but mostly didn’t do), what you’re proud of (but mostly what you’re not so proud of), and intentions of making this next year better.
Don’t wait another hour to close some of those open doors: close them now.
Don’t wait another day to start on something worthwhile: start today.
Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what to do and how to do it: draw your own map.
We think pain and pleasure or love and hate are opposites of one another.
We think of these emotions as opposite ends of the spectrum, as if each lies on either side of a single line.
pain --------------------------------- pleasure
love --------------------------------- hate
This couldn't be further from the truth.
In either case, they are simply variations of one another; unique but related; two sides of the same coin.
But they are not opposites.
In both cases, we are experiencing some kind of emotion. Whether you experience pain or pleasure, love or hate, you are still experiencing something. So the opposite of pain isn't pleasure, nor is the opposite of pleasure pain.
The opposite of both is numbness – it is indifference – it is nothing.
When a project breaks, we might experience anger at ourselves because we failed, fear that this case isn't unique and that we might never succeed, or jealousy of others for effortlessly accomplishing that which we suffer for daily to create.
When a goal comes to fruition, we might experience joy in its realization, pride that we have accomplished so much, or gratitude that we were given such an unlikely opportunity, with such an unlikely skill set, in such an unlikely environment, to make our dreams reality.
In either case, we are experiencing the emotions of someone who cares.
If you want to experience the latter, you must be willing to experience the former; that's the price you pay when you care, when you're invested in the outcome, when you're committed. But if you'd prefer to never feel the anger, fear, or jealousy of failure – the pain of failure – then you only have one option: become indifferent.
Stop caring.
Avoid commitment.
Indulge in the emotional morphine of indifference and all the pain goes away; and so does all the pleasure, all the happiness, all the joy.
You can't have one without the other.
That's the paradox; that's the battlefield; that's the choice.
"The opposite of love's indifference." [The Lumineers]
Never fight alone. Join the Resistance:
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BreakingYour life will get busy.
If not this week, then next week, or the week after that, or sometime in the future.
It's inevitable that things will eventually unhinge, problems will occur, or something unexpected will happen: life is uncertain.
And at some point in the future, your focus will shift entirely to the few urgent things right in front of you, and the less urgent (but often more important) projects will fall by the wayside.
When things get busy, projects and plans start breaking.
There are lots of people starting things every day.
This can seem overwhelming to the person looking to enter the arena. After all, with all this competition, what are the chances that you can make it - that you will succeed where so many fail?
Simple: there are lots of people starting, but very few finish, and even fewer ship.
The reason? Most people don't commit.
When things start breaking, they quit.
And because most quit, there's a lot less competition than you might imagine.
The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence... [Think and Grow Rich]
To build your empire, you don't have to be the most talented, the smartest, or the most creative.
All it requires is that you take one small action every day, no matter what.
All you need is grit - the resolve to finish, even (especially) when things start breaking.
The weakest person with grit will always outlast the strongest person with zero resolve.
So don't focus on creating the perfect schedule or setting up the most efficient and productive routine - life will get in the way.
Instead, focus on the one thing that really matters - the one thing you have complete control over - your work.
Do it every day and see your project through to the end, regardless of what life throws at you.
When things start breaking, have the resolve to finish; have grit.
Your life's work depends on it.
Never give in, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to a force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. [Winston Churchill]
Here is the 2nd episode of “In the Trenches: The Resistance Broadcast Interview Series” and today I had the honor of interviewing Clay Hebert.
[Listen to the Interview by clicking this link]
Clay is an entrepreneur, blogger, multitasking ninja, and all around instigator.
Clay began his career at Accenture. After ten years at Accenture, Clay left corporate America and got his MBA from Seth Godin.
Currently, Clay is building Spindows.com, a new startup that will change the way organizations collaborate (think of it like speed dating + skype + your organization).
Clay has created a number of startups, including: Tribes Win, a marketing strategy and innovation agency, where he helped brands lead their tribes. More recently, Clay began a new project called Work Hacks, where he helps people live a more productive, efficient, and streamlined lifestyle.
You can read Clay’s blog and find out more about him at Daily Sense.
Clay is a sought after speaker, writer, and entrepreneur, and this interview is essential listening for anyone looking to start their own project (book, business, or blog).
In this interview, we cover:
You can read more about Tribes Win here, Work Hacks here, and read Clay’s blog here.
Be sure to check out Spindows here, and read up on some of the interviews Clay has done regarding the new platform he is developing (very interesting stuff).
If you liked this interview, share it with everyone you know and reach out to Clay and thank him!
***
Some other highlights from our conversation:
Purple Cow: The essential guide on marketing and creating remarkable products.
War: A nonfiction work that follows a group of soldiers in Afghanistan - not for the feint of heart.
Crush It!: If you want to dominate in the online arena, you need to leverage the connection economy.
The Lean Startup: An incredible book on the power of validating an idea before you begin, failing fast and scaling fast (with minimal resources - great for the solopreneur).
Launchrock: Starting a project? Validate it first.
Skillshare: Have something worth teaching? Make money sharing your knowledge!
***
If you haven't had a chance, catch In the Trenches: Episode 1 here.
Starting down the path to success is simple.
To be successful at anything, you must commit.
But committing to anything means you make a transition.
When you commit, you transition from someone who dabbles to someone who goes all in; from someone who quits when things break to someone who takes it all the way; from someone who lets the claustrophobia of determination keep them from pursuing something worthwhile, to someone willing to face the loneliness of creation without hesitation.
When you commit, you make the transition from Hobbyist to Professional.
This transition changes everything.
Transitioning from Hobbyist to Professional changes your priorities.
When you finally take yourself and your work seriously enough to sell your product, you will find that things in your life start to prioritize themselves organically.
The things you thought were important - like watching the news or knowing pop culture trivia - fade to the background and become superfluous.
The things you had initially avoided as unnecessary discomforts – waking up early, writing every day, or never ending the day without a sale – become your lifeblood.
Transitioning from Hobbyist to Professional not only alters your priorities, it forces you to identify your focus.
In order to instigate (start, finish, and ship) successfully, you will need to focus entirely on one end-state, and this end-state will require all your time, energy and creativity to bring to fruition; it requires everything you've got.
To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence. [Turning Pro]
Becoming a Professional is no joke.
Nothing great is created by half-hearted commitment, lack of follow through, or someone unwilling to take it all the way.
The Professional understands this and acts accordingly.
Success requires commitment and only the Professional, not the Hobbyist, is ready to take on the pain, heartache and seriousness of commitment.
Committing itself is simple: all you have to do is choose one end-state and make sure you get there (no matter what).
The difficult part of commitment isn’t the focusing on one end-state, nor the grit it takes to bring that end-state into existence (although that requires something special too); the difficult part is what focusing on one end-state means for everything else in your life.
Commitment means purposefully ignoring other end-states, other projects, and other courses of action.
Commitment to anything (a healthier lifestyle, a new project, your life’s work) means you discriminate; that you choose one goal over another.
Commitment means you close doors; that the only door you leave open is the one that leads to your chosen goal.
Wishing never solved the problem. If you wanna get it big time, go ahead and get it, get it big time. [Yeasayer]
When we commit, we inevitably lose out on other paths, other ambitions, and other goals.
Sometimes it even means losing out on the people closest to us.
To do that willingly is tough. It’s scary. It's madness.
There’s nothing easy about commitment, which is exactly why most people don’t commit and instead “keep their options open” into eternity…
But here’s the catch: We think keeping our options open gives us safety, or power, or certainty.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
The only way to guarantee failure is to never close any doors at all.
All you have to do to make sure you never build your empire, or develop that healthy lifestyle, or create your life’s work, is to keep all your options open, to never close yourself off to anything, and to stay available ad infinitum; to seek and scan for success, but never focus to bring it into existence.
Closing doors is scary; you might choose the wrong one, miss a great opportunity, or regret the choice you make.
Close a door and something bad might happen.
You might fail.
Keeping all your doors open is comforting; you never have to live with the pain of second-guessing your choice, the regret of choosing wrong, or the responsibility of creating your life's work.
Keep all your doors open and nothing will happen.
You're guaranteed to fail.
There is no scarcity of opportunity…only scarcity of resolve to make it happen. [Wayne W. Dyer]
The choice is yours.
Creating anything takes guts; I explained that in depth in my book The Art of Instigating.
It takes guts because you're going to take a hit (no question about it), and taking a hit isn't pleasant.
Nobody WANTS to take a hit.
But the person unwilling to take a hit might as well stay out of the arena.
The boxer not willing to get knocked down shouldn't enter the ring, just like the creator/producer/writer/inventor not willing to fail should avoid creating art.
When you step into the ring - when you enter the arena - you will take a hit.
If you’re not ready to deal with it – to take a hit and to hit back – you’ve lost before you even started.
Most people don’t commit.
Most people don’t go all in.
Most people don’t burn the boat.
As soon as you make up your mind to do all three, you’ve just eliminated 90% of the competition.
Why? Because most people don’t commit, when things get difficult (and they always do), they throw in the towel.
After all, what’s the point of going through the pain of taking another hit when you had no intention of making it to the last round in the first place?
Most people dabble – most people are hobbyists – and when the real pain of creating, building and inventing sets in, they throw in the towel and walk away.
Eventually you’ll get hit.
No matter how good a boxer, no matter how great a writer, designer, builder, entrepreneur or inventor, you will experience rejection, setback and failure.
You can’t avoid taking a hit, but you can train yourself to take a hit (and hit back).
The hobbyist spends his energy trying to avoid taking a hit. When the hit comes (and it always does), he's done.
The hobbyist never commits.
The professional – the person serious about what he's doing – is willing to take a hit and knows how to hit back.
The professional commits.
And because the professional commits, he has very little competition from the hobbyists.
The professional will inevitably find success - he’s in it to the end.
The hobbyist is done before he starts.
Which are you?
In the first part of this series, I described the conventional forces of the Enemy – the Army of Bad Habits (the largest of Enemy forces)
In the second part of this series, I explained the unconventional force of the Enemy: Negative Self-Talk Propaganda (the most insidious of Enemy forces).
In this third part of the series, we will examine who leads these Enemy forces, why he is invincible, and what we can do to outwit and beat him.
The leader of the Enemy forces isn't your boss or your competitor; it’s not the world conspiring against you; it’s not your bad luck or your genetics.
The leader of the Enemy is nothing external at all.
The leader of the Enemy is the battle-hardened, combat-veteran Commanding General: your brain stem.
The brain stem is that small part of your brain, way in the back, which connects to the spinal column.
“The brain stem is the Commanding General of the Army of Bad Habits, and it will stop at nothing to keep you from creating your life’s work.” [The Art of Instigating]
The brain stem is the conduit from your brain to the rest of your body, and it controls life-sustaining, essential functions, including your heart beat and central nervous system.
That’s right: the same thing that is essential for your existence controls the Enemy, seeks to destroy your worthwhile project and will put a halt to your life’s work if you're not aware of it.
Without the brain stem, we can’t live (hence, the brain stem is invincible).
But without outsmarting the brain stem, we can’t create our life’s work.
Outsmarting the brain stem is simple if we understand two basic facts:
1) The brain stem’s existence is to preserve itself
2) The brain stem is living thousands of years in the past
When we understand these two basic facts – that the brain stem’s motivating factor is self-preservation and that it’s living in the past – we can develop a fighting style that outwits and beats the Enemy.
Since the brain stem’s purpose is self-preservation, it hates anything that might expose us.
That’s why it’s so hard to produce creative work; when we do something extraordinary, when we become the outlier, we stand out from the pack.
And standing out from the pack does not improve our survival rate.
Because the brain stem is living thousands of years in the past, it doesn't understand that standing out from the pack today is actually nonlethal.
Today, we can separate ourselves by being great at what we do with no threat of being destroyed by wild, man-eating animals, but our brain stem doesn't understand that.
No amount of rational thought will convince it otherwise.
The brain stem is unforgiving and irrational.
For the brain stem, shipping your product to market and exposing yourself to criticism is like taking on a monster-sized, man-killing wolf with nothing but your bare hands.
It’s hard; it’s scary; you might not make it.
So how do you outsmart and beat the Commanding General of the Enemy?
You do it anyway.
To beat the Enemy, to outsmart the brain stem, all you have to do is get to work.
When you take action, go to work, and start creating, the bull**** of the Enemy goes away.
But it will come back.
It always does.
And that’s why taking action every day is so important.
No matter how many times you go up against a monster, it never gets less scary.
But every time you willingly go up against the monster, you become stronger.
When it comes to instigating your life's work, creating something worthwhile, and building your empire, your goal is to become the strongest.
So go be the strongest.
Get to work.