Well, the verdict is in: AI is here to stay and it's changing everything.
And not in a "Terminator rise of the machines" sort of way (I wish)...
But suffice it to say that everything you read, watch, or consume will be partially or fully created by AI in a few years.
Honestly, it probably already is.
(I mean, did you see Rebel Moon??)
If this is upsetting, and you hate me for saying this, now is a good time to close your browser (and go outside and practice your best grounding pose).
BUT!...
...if you get a little tingle in your loins that maybe this is true, and you're wondering what to do about it, keep reading.
So I've been working on a ***redacted***....
(super secret AI project)
...and in the process, I discovered some interesting things about AI...and business...and humanity, and I wanted to share them with you (well color me a modern-day Thoreau).
Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:
Whether you like it or not, every major brand, company, and organization is already using AI to improve efficiency, streamline workflows, and speed up solution implementation.
Newspeak translation: below-average white-collar workers are getting the axe (or will soon).
I don't see this happening quickly or all at once. And it will be more of a tightening up than a mass exodus. But already I can see that companies are looking to cut the fat and do more with less, and that's where AI comes in...
AI is a catch-all term. In our current lexicon, "AI" basically means anything you want it to mean.
This is amusing to me because all of these "features" have been around for years (decades?), yet here we are.
So while AI can be whatever you want it to be, here's what it's NOT:
AI is not AUTONOMOUS. And most 'AI' isn't even a 'learning computer' in any sense of the term...a better way to think about it is like a very advanced set of APIs that communicate with one another, and allow you to control them through the written (or spoken) word.
Practical? Sure.
"Artificial Intelligence?" Will Smith would slap you for a lesser claim.
The AI 'fad' is no fad. The significance and utility of these AI tools are REAL (unlike NFTs).
That being said, it's totally hyped up.
And like all major 'hype cycles', this one is most certainly engineered by a handful of powerful people who generate billions by such hype (but we can't name names because, well...that's just rude, you see).
So while the hype (gravy) train will end, AI will still be with us (not like his dead cousin who was found in a ditch a few months ago -- RIP NFTs)
There are ways to capitalize on AI in the short and long term.
In the short term: there are things that AI tools can speed up and do, that require a TON less manpower than they did before.
So if you're in the industry of creating social media content, or SEO, or transcriptions, or repurposing of materials, etc. -- basically, if you run an agency -- these tools can do all the grunt work for you.
Your job is just to be the Geppeto that puts it all together.
(and if we learned anything from that movie, it's that you should NOT send your AI off alone to do tasks in the world...or to public school)
In the long-term:
What can you do that is uniquely human? Lean into that.
AI won't replace people.
...It will replace lazy people. And maybe some dumb people...
But there's absolutely no way someone will choose AI over an experienced trainer, or coach, or consultant, or practitioner of anything. Not when serious money or life and death are on the line.
And it goes without saying that there's absolutely no replacing any blue-collar job that requires hands and brains at the same time (no amount of Boston Dynamic CGI could convince me otherwise).
So yeah, there it is.
AI is here. It's here to stay. And it's comin' for ya...
So the question is -- what are you gonna do about it?
Welcome to the meat grinder.
(but maybe not really...)
Tom "AI Ideations" Morkes
For more content like this, join the newsletter (it's good. and free. and written by a HU-MON BE-ING...see? no way an AI would get away with so many spelling, capitalization, and grammar errors - or be so... uncouth).
This past June, my wife and I spent 15 days exploring Ecuador.
Unlike the other countries we visited this past year, our Ecuador adventure involved a lot of bus travel.
On the plus side, Ecuadorian bus travel is cheap. We traveled by bus from the Pacific Ocean to the Amazon jungle, with a couple stops in between for good measure, all for less than $100 USD.
On the not-quite-plus-side, the bus system is entirely unpredictable and you never know how many buses you’ll need to change to get to a particular destination.
On one such night, after about 6 hours of travel (with a few more hours to go), we found ourselves stopped at a standard Ecuadorian bus stop:
As we waited for our next bus, we came in contact with two other gringos; a couple taking a 2 week vacation in Ecuador. They had spent the past few days in the Galapagos and were now headed to the Amazon jungle.
“Perfect,” I thought, as we were also on our way to the Amazon (and if there’s one thing my Human Geography studies have taught, it’s that foreign travel is safer in packs).
So we got to talking the usual traveler’s talk:
And of course, once these questions come to an end:
Our new acquaintances were grade school teachers. They spent the past year saving up for this trip and in about a week they were headed back to the States to teach and start saving again for another trip.
When it was my turn to answer, I told them I do a little teaching myself – on topics like pricing, product launches, and marketing / growth hacking – and that I basically collaborate on various projects and publish books for a living (my own and others).
“What school do you teach at?” she asked.
I don’t – I teach from a platform I created. It’s entirely online.
“So who do you work for?”
No one. I created the platform myself. I’m my own boss.
“Well, what books have you written?”
I mentioned one of my books, The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, and told her it’s all about an unconventional pricing technique that helps people increase their reach, impact, and sales.
“What makes you the expert?”
I paused.
What makes you the expert?
I thought about the answer she probably expected to hear:
As I thought about these socially acceptable answers, I realized something: none applied to me.
I teach what I know, and I share what I learn. Some people find that valuable. Because of that, I have the opportunity to make a good living with the flexibility to travel around the world.
So I answered here:
"The better question is: why aren’t you?"
I went on to explain what I meant.
Fundamentally, it comes down to:
What is stopping you from being the expert?
What's keeping you from being the go-to, subject matter expert in your field?
What's holding you back from shipping that book or blog or business?
Because the answer certainly isn't "I don't have a degree" or "I haven't won an award" or "I am still paying my dues..."
More than likely, it has to do with your actions; the action you take when you start, even if you're not ready, or feel under-qualified, or would rather concoct some other excuse instead of doing the work...
Once you decide to take action, the only question after that is: when?
I hope the answer is today.
---
Started, finished, and shipped in Denver, Colorado.
Total writing time: 3:41 hours
---
Myrmidons! My brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are, we are lions! Do you know what's waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It's yours!
Troy
We want the freedom to create whatever, whenever we want...
But the market will only compensate us for what IT wants.
This leaves your average creator (whether entrepreneur, writer, or artist) in a particularly uncomfortable position, with only two real options.
Many creators do just that. They build for themselves and completely ignore the rest of the world.
There’s only one problem with this: it rarely pays off.
Yes, there are outliers. But that’s exactly the point: they’re outliers.
If the market doesn’t like what you create, you bear the burden.
‘Do what you love’ sounds fun and sexy, until you realize you’ve been living on your mom’s couch for 3 years.
Many other creators (probably the vast majority) choose this route.
They ignore their curiosities, inspirations, and passions, and build widgets instead.
There’s only one problem with this: it comes at a cost.
How long can we supply the demand for something we don’t care about? How long can we commit to creating something personally valueless? How long until the money’s not worth being a robot in the robot factory?
Of course, this is a false dichotomy.
It doesn’t take a human geographer to realize there are other options besides ‘starving artist’ and ‘miserable cog’ when it comes to the life we choose for ourselves.
Just look at how many starving cogs and miserable artists there are in the world…
I kid (sort of…).
So why do we do it?
Simple:
We create this dichotomy, first and foremost, because it’s easier to process the world this way. The brain can only process so many things at one time, so simplifying things makes the brain happy (we avoid sensory overload).
Second – and much more insidiously – we create this dichotomy to create an out.
The Enemy wants to keep us stagnate. An ‘either / or’ dichotomy with seemingly brutal consequences is the perfect weapon to make this happen.
If the world is a zero-sum game, if it’s either win or lose, if it’s either me or him…well, better reason to just stay put, keep your heads down, and blend into the rest of the tribe…
Now that we have a good, rational reason to sit still, we are off the hook for not taking action. We have our out.
But of course, this out isn’t really an out.
It’s submitting for comfort and safety (or so we think…).
The real dilemma isn’t: do I do what I love, or do I do what makes me money?
This dichotomy doesn’t exist – it never did.
The real dilemma is: do we acquiesce to a life and lifestyle undesired because it’s comfortable and safe?
Or…
Or do we take the uncomfortable, uncertain, and difficult path…the one we know won’t be easy, clear, or guranteed…the one fraught with hardship, setbacks and failure…
Because we know it will be worth it?
You can do important work and make money from it.
It’s possible, I promise you this.
I meet new people doing it every day.
More importantly, they’re doing it their way: they’re picking the route, choosing their packing list, and drawing the map as they go along. No, it’s not easy - but it was never supposed to be.
The same reality can be yours.
It’s waiting for you, just beyond that beach…
The question is: will you take it?
p.s. interested in taking the beach, but rather do it with an army? I'm writing a new book that will teach you how to assemble and lead a team to take the beach (and own your market). Sign up here.
Start, finished, and shipped in Cape Town, S. Africa (after hanging out with penguins!)
Total writing time: 5:30 hrs
Today I want to talk about why the articles you read, the people you hang out with, and the media you consume directly shapes your life, for better or worse (and how you organize your environment to create your best life possible).
It was Fall of 1997, and my oldest brother was finishing up applications to a couple colleges.
I didn’t know much about them, except that they were military schools. I knew even less what that meant, but I was curious like a cat. So when my brother was invited to spend a couple days at West Point, NY, I tagged along.
So my dad, my oldest brother and I took a plane (my first plane ride ever!) to New York.
I spent a couple days walking around the most bizarre place I’d ever been to in my life: everyone dressed up like they were in a perpetual state of groundhogs day from 1850; students were always in a hurry, running from barracks room to classroom to everywhere in between (and they’d get yelled at if they weren’t doing it fast enough); and after classes, they’d have to walk in formations with their rifles for hours, or play some kind of sport (intramural or core/club squad sports were mandatory for all cadets).
It looked demanding. It looked uncompromising. It looked hard as hell.
I was hooked. I wanted in.
And so it happened that a rotund 11 year old set his sights on gaining acceptance into the United States Military Academy at West Point.
7 years later, I got accepted.
All freshmen had to – it was mandatory.
While most people looked at it like a haze (and it certainly was that), I loved it.
There was something about the adrenaline I got from entering the ring, the surge of excitement I got from standing toe to toe with a competitor with nothing but my fists to protect me, and the raw intensity of dishing out (or the threat of receiving receiving) a beating…I couldn’t shake it. I had to get better; I had to keep fighting; I had to make the team.
So a scrawny 18 year old set his sights on competing for a spot on a nationally ranked boxing team.
A year later, I made the team.
As a logistics guy, I figured I’d do some “Fobbit” job (forward operating base + hobbit…get it?).
Maybe I’d coordinate some transportation movements. I’d probably do a lot of paperwork. I’m sure there would be some danger, but mostly I’d be safe.
At the end of the day, I figured it would be a really long, hot, boring experience.
When I got on ground, our Battalion was responsible for not only the logistics of the Brigade, but making sure those supplies got where they needed to go safely. This meant securing the convoys that went out every night.
I immediately volunteered to stand up and lead the convoy security platoon.
Over a hundred missions later, and after getting called a “cowboy” more than once, my gun truck platoon of cooks, drivers and warehouse workers returned home without a single combat related casualty (for the record, I think this had more to do with luck / Divine Providence / the Soldiers I worked with than my own skills).
I share these stories to point out that it's easy to make any story into a story of "success."
But the reality is, these events weren't successes. They were just moments in time where I took responsibility, and then I did the work.
I spent thousands of hours hustling academics, sports and extracurricular leadership activities to get into the Academy (not to mention another 4 years hustling to survive and graduate the Academy on time). I got battered and bruised competing for a spot on the boxing team (and took my fare share of blows trying to keep my position on the team). In Iraq, I rode outside the wire almost every night of the week. My brain was in a perpetual state of alert, practicing in my mind what would happen if one (or many) of my vehicles got hit by IEDs, and how I and the rest of my crew would respond. It was exhausting.
This is the reality of victory. It’s also the reality of failure. And it’s most certainly the reality of life.
Life is hard.
We all experience our fair share of bruises, setbacks and failures.
The question isn’t: how do we avoid these trials and tribulations – how do we avoid the pain? That’s foolish and naïve (not to mention impossible).
The question is: how do you overcome the struggles you will inevitably face? How do you push through fear, pain and uncertainty? How do you conquer your wolf?
But most importantly, how do we do all of these things in order to create and live the life we want to live.
There are 2 techniques I personally used (and continue to use) that helped me get through the darkest, most painful parts of my life.
They may or may not apply to you, but for what it’s worth, here they are:
When I set a goal, I etch it into my brain (a lot like Edmond Dantes etched words of encouragement into his cell wall). There is no other option than achieving what I set out to achieve (or die trying).
No, this is not always pleasant. Yes, sometimes I commit to the wrong things and regret the decision.
Inevitably, however, I make it to the end (bruised and battered, maybe, but still standing).
It’s not a technique for everyone, but if you must achieve something, I highly recommend it…
This is essentially an extension of the first technique, but it’s so important it deserves individual attention.
The person who sets a goal but doesn’t change his behavior is done before he starts.
Setting a goal, by its nature, REQUIRES change. And it requires the right sort of change if we hope to find success. But to create the right kind of change, we need to immerse ourselves into the subject/topic/activity we hope to achieve success in.
Just like the fastest way to learn a new language is through immersion into the environment and culture of the language you want to learn, the fastest way to achieve a goal is through immersing yourself into the goal itself.
I immersed myself in the application process for West Point by reading books, strategically creating my resume, and learning from cadets who had recently been accepted. I immersed myself in the boxing world by jump-roping every morning, hitting the heavy-bag every night, and by watching “Gladiator” way too many times. When I became the Battalion’s Convoy Security Platoon Leader, I immersed myself in small unit tactics, mobilized and dismounted infantry strategies, and enemy techniques.
At the end of the day, immersion, more than anything else, helped me achieve my goals by forcing me to live and act as the person I hoped to become.
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” - James Allen
If you’re hoping to find success in any endeavor, the right mindset will be your greatest ally.
Conversely, the wrong mindset will be your greatest enemy.
Changing your mindset takes unreasonable commitment and immersion into the philosophy you want to live.
Which is why it’s essential you:
For the former: this isn’t something I can help you with directly. You decide the people you let into (and keep out of) your life. If you’re not sure who to keep in your life and who to avoid, my best advice: examine their character.
As for the latter, well, that’s the point of this blog, my books and my podcast: to immerse you in a mindset that could change your life for the better.
A few weeks ago someone expressed interest in having other ways to consume the material I create, in particular, by recording audio versions of my articles. I
figured I’d give it a shot, so here it is.
Below (or by clicking the image to the left) you’ll find my first ever Resistance Broadcast Audio Session’s CD. I took 8 of my favorite articles and recorded them into high quality MP3’s you can listen to on your phone, MP3 player, computer, or burn to disk and listen to them in your car or on your boombox at the beach.
Grab Your Copy of The Resistance Broadcast Audio Session CD 1 Today By Clicking Here
What's the point of it all?
Simple: to provide you an additional resource to immerse yourself into the right mindset to fight and win your inner creative battles and create your life's work.
Will this single CD change your life?
I doubt it - doing something once rarely changes everything...
But could listening to this CD (and others like it) more than once, reading this blog (and others like it) consistently, and earnestly putting into practice the philosophy you learn in this material change your life?
Without a doubt.
So I hope you enjoy today's article and I sincerely hope The Resistance Broadcast Audio Session CD 1 inspires you to keep going, even when things get difficult.
And things will get difficult...
Good luck and keep fighting.
p.s. the CD is free, so you can't lose 🙂
In the Army, soldiers have to zero and qualify with their weapon every six months.
This is a requirement for everyone, regardless of rank or position.
From cooks to pilots, Privates to Captains – everyone qualifies.
Qualifying with a weapon means hitting a certain number of targets from set distances with a certain number of rounds.
The point of qualifying is to validate that you know how to use your weapon and you can use it effectively.
To qualify with the M4, the Army’s standard issue rifle, soldiers are required to hit a minimum of 23 targets (with only 40 rounds of ammo), from 50 to 300 meters out.
To be honest, this isn’t a very difficult number to hit; even the weakest marksman can usually hit in the high 20’s…
If their weapon is zeroed…
Zeroing is the process of confirming your weapon will hit what you aim at.
The general practice for zeroing an M4 involves a process of shooting 3 rounds at a time to judge accuracy (rounds hit where you aim) and “shot group” (i.e. all the rounds hit close to the same area consistently).
A good zero means you’ve got an accurate site picture and a tight shot group.
Sometimes, zeroing a new rifle with a new shooter can take upwards of 50 or 60 rounds. But once the weapon is zeroed to the shooter, it’s possible to zero in six rounds (two tight shot groups of three to confirm your site picture).
You’d think a weapon would come zeroed – that it would automatically hit what you aim at - but that’s not the case. Every weapon is a bit different and you almost always have to adjust the sites if you want to hit your target (when you’re aiming at a target from 300 meters away, the room for error decreases significantly).
There are a multitude of reasons for this, but it ultimately comes down to your build, how you line up the shot, and how you’ve set your sites.
Since every person is slightly different, every person needs to zero their weapon before they qualify.
I’m guessing you can see where I’m going with this analogy…
Zeroing and qualifying applies to more than just rifles.
In the business world, if we hope to qualify an idea, we’d better have our sites adjusted and zeroed. Just as it would be impossible to believe someone could qualify if they’ve never zeroed, it’s impossible to think someone could hit the bull’s-eye with their business plan in one attempt.
Yet people try to make this happen, over, and over, and over again.
Instead of taking the time to zero, people go for bull’s-eye on their first attempt.
Inevitably, they fail.
More often than not, they quit.
These aren’t talentless people. They aren’t passionless or ignorant or unqualified. On the contrary, many of them have years of experience in their sector, some have advanced degrees, and others have even started successful companies before.
But when they get a new idea, they skip the time consuming process of zeroing their idea – who is this product for, what will they pay for it, how do I know they want this, where has this worked before, what are my sales channels, can I do this without going bankrupt, etc. – and they jump right into qualifying – building the product, leasing the space, creating scalable channels, etc.
Their desire is the same desire we all have - we want the win, we want the bull’s-eye, and we want it now.
And therein lies the problem – without taking the time to get a good zero, you’ll never qualify – you’ll never hit the mark.
Even the best marksmen in the world zero their weapons before they qualify or compete.
And they do this each and every time.
If you want to be a great entrepreneur (or author, or anything else for that matter), you need to get used to zeroing before you qualify.
This means progressively getting a better site picture and tighter shot group – understanding who you’re writing to, understanding what they want to hear and how they want to hear it, knowing the best way to deliver the most powerful message, etc.
But of course – and here’s the catch - zeroing means failing.
Every round that doesn’t hit its mark is a small failure. But it’s all for a purpose: with enough failures you can correct your shot group and qualify.
No one brings a single round to zero – that’s foolish. Even if you hit your mark, you can’t validate your site picture or shot group with one round – it could have been pure luck. And just because you miss the mark with one round doesn’t mean you’re completely lost or ruined – you could be a small adjustment away from hitting bulls-eye.
The point is this: you don’t know unless you shoot multiple rounds; you don’t know unless you’re willing to fail more than once.
Business and art are the same way.
You can’t expect to zero in one try. Your ideas need to be progressively validated. You need to take your time and adjust your sites. And if something is off, you need to meticulously correct and adjust until it’s on target again.
Sometimes, this requires many, many rounds.
In the conventional business world, your job is to take and execute orders. Eventually, you’ll be responsible for disseminating orders from above, but at the end of the day, you’ll never have to do too much creative thinking, nor flex your creative brain too much.
Your job is to not fail at taking and executing orders.
On the other hand, if you want to live a life dictated by you and you alone, you need to get used to failing.
Entrepreneurship, art, writing…these things require the creator to fail before he succeeds. It takes time to adjust a site picture and tighten a shot group. It takes a lot of failure to finally find success.
Connecting the dots is never easy. Putting something together from scratch is difficult. Succeeding is, well, rare.
But if you’re the kind of person who gets restless building someone else’s empire, or living on someone else’s terms, then you’ve got to get comfortable missing the mark.
Remember, trying to hit bull’s-eye on your first try is insane without a good zero.
Focus on your shot group and site picture. Focus on consistent, small improvement. Focus on failing closer and closer to your mark.
Failure is inevitable during this process, but stick with it long enough and you’ll discover something incredible:
Winning is also inevitable.
Because at the end of the day, you'll get your good zero.
And if you can get your good zero, you will hit your target.
What do you do when presented with an uncertain path?
Do you stick to what’s comfortable, to what’s safe?
If there’s something on the line (and there always is), this would seem the prudent choice.
After all, with uncertainty comes risk, and risk means danger - the reasonable choice would be to stick to what you know.
But what if sticking to the seemingly safest option – the certain path – isn’t so safe?
Sometimes (most times), committing to comfortable, staying on the tried and true path, and purposefully avoiding risks is the most dangerous thing we can do…
You’ve probably heard the parable of the talents, but I think it’s worth revisiting.
It all starts with an estate owner and 3 trusted servants....
One day, the owner of a large estate sets out abroad, leaving his property and gold in the care of three servants.
The owner divides up his gold (aka talents) - 5 talents to the first servant, 2 talents to the second, and 1 talent to the third – each in proportion to his ability. When the man leaves, the first two servants put their talents to work, trading, bartering and gaining more talents. The third servant, uncertain and frightened of losing the talent he was given, hides his in the ground.
Months later, the man returns home. When he goes to settle his accounts, he finds the first two servants doubled their talents, from 5 to 10 and from 2 to 4.
The man is pleased and gives these servants a share of his wealth: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”
But when the man goes to settle the account of the third servant, he is met with defensive excuses: “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.”
The third servant brings the estate owner one talent – the original talent he had been given when the estate owner left for his travels.
The owner of the estate gets honey-badger pissed. He calls the servant wicked and lazy and tells him how he could have at least made interest on the money by putting it into a bank. He doesn’t stop there – he takes the third servant’s single talent and gives it to the servant with ten talents. In a final finishing move, he throws the worthless servant outside into the darkness, banishing him from his estate.
And that’s the paraphrased parable in a nutshell (Matthew 25:14-30 for the actual text).
Pretty serious, right?
The clear take-away from this parable is that we should use our talents.
That’s a no brainer.
We’re each given talents in life (in the aptitude/gift way) – our job is to put them to work. Most would agree.
Yet it’s surprising to me how most people seem to grasp this, at least conceptually, but completely miss the other more subtle (and possibly, more important) lesson:
The talent the third servant gave to the master upon his return is not the same talent he buried months earlier.
This isn't due to something mystical or magical – the talent didn’t transform or shape shift or disappear – it simply became what it must become, buried in the ground all those months…
This is a lesson successful investors learn early in their careers that the rest of us could take a cue from in our own lives.
One of the most powerful ways to buy or sell investments is through the use of option contracts.
When we use options, whether in the stock market or in real estate (or in some other marketplace entirely), what we’re doing is purchasing the right to buy (or sell) something at a specific price on or before a certain date.
The beauty of option contracts is that they allow us to buy or sell, but they don’t obligate us to.
Want to know how people make a killing in the stock market or in real estate? They learn to use options.
Options are powerful because they give us leverage and flexibility.
But like with every financial instrument on this planet, even options have a weakness: Time.
You see, every stock option has a time limit. Once it hits that time limit, it expires.
If I don’t execute the trade or sell the contract itself before the agreed upon date, I could lose everything.
Simply put: as time goes by, an option contract loses value.
This is referred to as Time Decay.
And Time Decay affects everything in this world – including those talents buried in the ground.
Putting our talents to work is scary.
It means we can lose even the little bit we start with. It means we can crash and burn. It means we can fail.
The natural inclination to mitigate this risk is to protect our talents. To shield them from uncertainty. To bury them.
And while burying your talents outwardly protects them from theft or loss, there’s a catch; the talents are worth much less now than they were when we started.
This is time decay and it affects natural aptitude (our gifts/talents/aptitude) as much as money.
When we don’t use our talents, they waste away.
It’s as simple as that.
Are you a gifted singer? Refrain from singing for 40 years and you might still be talented, but that talent is worth much less. Why? Because you have less time now to develop it into something worthwhile. Not to mention those 40 years you spent NOT singing could have been spent creating high-impact albums, the kind of stuff that inspires us to be bolder, braver, and live better.
Because you waited, the world is short 40 years of life changing music.
That’s a shame.
Are you a gifted writer? Get a real job, work for 30 years, and then, when you’ve saved enough money for retirement, then start writing. Are you still a gifted writer? Sure, you might be, but your talent is worth much less, because you don’t have as much time to write all the great books you could have written had you started 30 years ago.
This world is short possibly dozens of books now because you waited to write.
Are you gifted at anything (even in the smallest, most marginal way right now)? Sports, marketing, military strategy, project management, design, leadership? Wait until retirement before you dig into your hobby and, sure, you might still have talent…well, you get the point...
We are each given talents.
You and I know this.
What we don’t recognize is that each one of these talents is an option contract – it has a time limit. It suffers from time decay.
Every day you wait to start, your talent loses value.
And months and years from now, that talent, if you bury it in the ground – if you wait to use it - will become a shriveled, bedraggled, weaker version of its once former glory – a mere shadow of its former self (its true self).
But if you put it to use, if you have the courage to take the uncertain path, to step into the unknown with boldness and purpose…
Well you already know what is possible, don’t you?
Don’t wait for tomorrow.
Execute your talent option today (instigate before it's too late).
Back in college, my boxing coach would remind us every day of the most important thing we needed to do as fighters.
It didn’t matter if it was heavy bag practice, sparring, or between rounds at an actual match, he would say over and over again:
Let your hands go.
The instructions were simple enough – throw more punches.
I didn’t really think much about it because I always threw as many punches as I could. I’d punch until I was exhausted.
That’s what letting my hands go was all about, right?
During my fourth year of boxing it finally clicked.
I was in a sparring match. 3rd and final round. 45 seconds on the clock. I got my opponent in a corner. I took a broad stance and started throwing. But something was different.
I was in control of my breathing and my strikes landed exactly where I wanted them to land.
I was in control of the rhythm and pace of the fight and threw combination after combination.
I was in control of the speed and strength of my blows - my opponent couldn’t do anything but cover up.
The bell rang. The sparring match ended.
For 45 seconds, I pressed the offensive without once worrying about my defensive posture. For 45 seconds, I controlled the fight and my opponent. For 45 seconds, I let my hands go.
It took me 4 years to let my hands go.
4 years, not because I didn’t understand, but because I wasn’t ready.
I wasn’t ready because I was too nervous to loosen up and fight calmly; I wasn’t ready because I was too scared to truly press the offense; I wasn’t ready because I focused on avoiding counter punches instead of how I could inflict damage.
But most of all, I wasn’t ready because I hadn’t reached the level of mastery I needed to take heed of his advice.
It took me 4 years to finally appreciate the advice given to me years before, but, just as importantly, it took me 4 years to actually execute the advice properly.
I tried in the past to let my hands go – throw as many punches as I could to take control of the fight, but it just didn’t work the way it was supposed to.
That’s the funny thing about mastery – it takes years to figure out the subtlety of the simplest things.
That day I learned something important: when you really let your hands go, there’s nothing your opponent can do.
If he tries to counter, he’ll leave himself exposed to your flurry of strikes. If he tries to pivot, you can adjust your own position and keep pressing. If he slips out of the corner, you can back off and get ready to let your hands go again.
They say the best defense is a good offense – that’s what letting your hands go is all about.
And you need to do the same with your creative project.
Let your hands go.
Write more.
Write every day. Write without inhibition, without worrying what others will think, without concern for the crowd’s reaction. Just write. And when you write, let others read.
Don’t wait to get chosen by a big publishing house. Let your hands go – publish yourself.
Let your hands go.
Create a product to sell – and start selling it!
If the first 100 don’t buy, try the next 100. If no one buys, try a different angle, a different pitch, a different unique selling proposition. Keep testing and experimenting. Entrepreneurship by its nature is uncertain. It’s a path fraught with danger, pitfalls, and possible death (of your product).
People will wonder why you don’t just get a respectable job with a predictable income, like a warehouse supervisor at the robot factory. Let your hands go – take your own path.
Let your hands go.
Start SOMETHING.
There are too many broken things in the world that need fixing. Falling in line, clocking in and clocking out, doing what you’re told – life’s too short and you’re too clever to waste your days this way. Do what matters to you. Don’t worry about the group you just left on the sideline, their job is to cheer (and jeer) accordingly.
Your job is to do the work. Let your hands go - start today.
It might be presumptuous of me to say, but it’s becoming more and more clear to me the type of readers who read and subscribe to my blog; you guys are the instigators of the world. You’re the map drawers, the path choosers and the disrupters of the world.
I’ve already highlighted a few of you – this barely scratches the surface of the hundreds of people who I’ve had the opportunity to correspond with directly, and the thousands of others who are doing amazing things but haven’t reached out to me (yet, I hope).
My point is this: you’re not alone in this fight.
While everyone’s struggles are unique and every path is different, we all share the commonality of the creative war itself. We’re all in the trenches together - it’s just that the trenches spread for thousands of miles and there’s a lot of dead space.
Don’t lose heart.
Keep blazing trails, keep doing the hard, creative work, and keep disrupting the standards set by the average majority.
It’s not easy, but it’s important.
And remember, when things get tough...
Let your hands go and be the disrupter this world needs.
Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com
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Creative work is hard as hell.
If you’re a writer, entrepreneur, or anyone else challenging and pushing boundaries (read: instigator), you know what I’m talking about.
In fact, creative work is probably the hardest work there is – something only those bold enough to create can appreciate.
But what makes creative work so hard?
Doing creative work means we can fail at any point.
All the hard work we do this week, this month or this year could end up being for nothing. No reward. No payout. No bonus.
In the beginning, most bootstrappers work 80 hour weeks and make sweat shop wages. To make matters worse, the majority of startups fail. And for the aspiring writer? The landscape is even bleaker...
Creative work requires us to be on point every hour of every day.
If we’re not doing our best work, if we’re not going as hard as we can, if we’re not constantly pushing the boundaries, then we’re at risk of being overshadowed by someone who’s willing to hustle harder. The fear is this: any moment we fail to capitalize on is a moment that could have been our tipping point – the thing that allows us to break out of obscurity.
Worse yet, the only thing more exhausting than putting our mind, body and soul into a project, day after day, is the anxiety we experience from the thought of wasting time or losing ground...
For most of us, creating something from scratch requires long periods of time devoted to working in solitude.
This requires a great deal of self-imposed isolation – something that inevitably becomes lonely over a period of time. This isolation is made even more painful when the few times we do interact with other people they don’t “get” what we’re doing.
The only thing lonelier than working in isolation is working beside people who don’t get what you’re doing.
Face it, if you do creative work, at some point the uncertainty, exhaustion and loneliness will make you want to quit.
I can’t tell you how many times a week (a day?) I want to throw in the towel and walk away.
This is the inner creative war we each have to fight if we want to do great work.
It’s at times like this, when things get darkest, you need to remember what's important.
The rest of the world probably won’t get why you do what you do.
But you didn't do it for them, did you?
Do the work. Do YOUR work. And do it for the happy few who want what you create.
Serve those people.
Ignore everyone else.
They're not worth a second of your time anyway.
Creative work is hard...
But here's the thing: life is hard.
Any course of action you choose in life will be hard - hard because you chose to enter the trenches, fight the creative fight, and do work that matters, or hard because you chose to avoid the trenches, insolate yourself from challenging, impactful work, and accept what life throws at you.
I'm sorry, but there's no happy medium, no painless compromise.
These are the only two options.
So what will you choose?
Call me a ruffian, but I'll choose the former.
I hope you do the same.
New to the blog? Join the Resistance and join me and an army of creative ruffians (artists, entrepreneurs and all around instigators) doing important work. Never fight along - join the Resistance.
This is the final post in a short series on great work.
To be honest, I originally wrote a short book’s worth of content on this topic.
But right before I hit publish, I decided to scrap everything and get to the heart of what I wanted to say: what great work means at the most fundamental level.
Great work is all about impact.
And sometimes, the best way to make an impact is with fewer words.
In the follow up post, I wanted to dive deeper into this concept of impact – why do some things impact us so powerfully and others don’t?
Love it or hate it, the messages, people, and things we remember are those that draw the line, that take a stand, that never compromise.
Easily said.
Not easily done.
In this final post in the series, I want to talk about a common misunderstanding of great work – the biggest mistake we make in life, actually – and leave you with a final thought on how to create your own great work – this instant if you want.
But first, the misunderstanding…
Is confusing doing great work with getting RECOGNIZED for the great work we do.
These are not the same.
When we set out to do great work, we put our heads down and create. Every now and then we share what we produce: 99% creation, 1% selling.
When we set out to get recognized, we stop creating and start plugging: 1% creation, 99% selling.
As long as we’re doing great work (truly great work), there’s no time to worry about recognition. It may come, it may not. That’s not for you to decide, nor for your great work to dictate.
But isn’t there some way to bridge the gap? Isn’t it possible to create great work that WILL get recognized? Surely, there must be a secret formula out there...
There isn’t one.
There is no 100% guaranteed 10-step model for creating great work that gets recognized. It doesn’t exist.
And anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you something.
The truth is there is no secret formula because it's not a secret and you already know the formula. You’ve known it your entire life, in fact.
It’s just hard to admit you know the formula because once you do it changes everything.
So why isn’t it possible to guarantee your work will be recognized?
Simple:
You don’t own the reaction to your work.
You can’t control the crowd’s opinion. You can’t dictate the feedback of the audience. You can’t determine the response of the client.
These aren’t for you to control – and trying to force it is either malicious or naïve. In either case, it detracts from your great work.
The reaction shouldn’t concern you because it doesn’t concern you.
You don’t own the reaction to you work, but you do own something much more important:
You own the actions that create your work.
You control the words you put down on paper; you dictate the effort you put into your art; you determine the love, generosity and humility with which you embrace each day and every person you meet.
Your actions are for you to control.
And your actions SHOULD concern you.
In all these empty plans / The ink stains on my hands.
And everyone saves / The best words for the grave.
Are these weary morning tones / I’ll probably save mine too.
[The Airborne Toxic Event]
In every minute of every day is the opportunity to put your mind, body and spirit into doing something worthwhile.
Every action is an opportunity to do something bold.
In every passing moment is the opportunity to change everything.
Want to do great work?
Serve the people closest to you, regardless of their rank, title or following. Put it all on the line for those who need you most, not those you think you need to impress. Speak to those who want to hear from you – ignore the rest.
This is generosity. It doesn’t scale. And it's what really counts, regardless of applause.
The recognition you think you want? It doesn’t matter nearly as much.
Stop saving your best words.
Spend them today on the people who count.
Would love to hear your thoughts...leave a comment below!
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In my previous post, I wrote about great work.
Great work is impactful work – the kind that resonates with a person (or a million people) for years to follow.
The sole criteria for determining great work is impact, and that’s specifically and uniquely determined by the person or people experiencing the work.
If you impact just one person, you’ve created great work.
So how do we impact just one person?
In my article on bootstrapping a business, my #2 tip was this: know your why.
But this isn’t a tip just for bootstrappers, it’s for everyone in life who wants to make an impact.
Why do you do what you do?
Why do you create?
Why do you sweat, bleed and suffer everyday over your work?
These are the questions we, the audience, the readers, the experiencers of your work care about. We don’t care what your product or service does until we know why you’re doing it.
“People don’t buy what you do – they buy why you do it.” [Simon Sinek]
Think about it: no one wants to be swindled.
As the consumer, the first thought we have when we encounter another person is if he or she is the real deal, if what they’re offering is legitimate and authentic.
The only way to assuage our fears is by telling us your why.
When we know your why, we’re on board.
If your why is nonexistent or superficial or doesn’t resonate with us, we move on to the next project.
And in a noisy world full of projects, moving onto something other than what’s being offered is very, very easy.
This next step is simple:
Once you know your why, live your why.
If you create art to make people happy, make your happy art every day.
If you take care of those who can’t take care of themselves, take care of them every day.
If you build products that change people’s lives, build life changing products every day.
You might be thinking this is so simple it’s not even worth mentioning.
But living your why cuts both ways...
When you live your why, you can’t cut corners anymore:
You can’t cut ingredients to increase margins.
You can’t cut out the personal interaction to scale your company.
You can’t cut effort to take on more projects at one time.
In the movie Watchmen, the upstanding, idealistic Rorschach is offered a chance to save himself but compromise his integrity in the process.
Rorschach’s response:
“Never compromise. Not even in the fact of Armageddon.” [Watchmen]
Maybe we're not superheroes and life's not a movie, but the principle applies:
If you want to do great work, if you want to make an impact, then you need to know and live your why.
And that means never compromising – not even in the face of Armageddon.
Simple…not easy.