What separates the instigator from 99.9% of society?
It's not being the smartest - plenty of entrepreneurs and artists will freely admit they're not the sharpest tools in the shed.
It's not connections - there are plenty of people with connections that never go on to do anything great.
It's not luck - plenty of people get lucky and throw it all away (stories of lottery winners going bankrupt come to mind).
No, what separates the instigators from the rest is much harder than any of that:
In a combat zone, the "wire" is a reference to the perimeter of an operating base or outpost. If you're inside the wire, you're often surrounded by friendly forces, gate guards, walls, and concertina wire. For survival's sake, inside the wire is the place you want to be.
Instigators, starters, and leaders step outside the wire.
They understand the danger and they accept the risk. When they step outside the wire, they are stepping into the unknown - there are no guarantees of success and there is a very real possibility of failure.
They are fully exposed.
The instigator understands that if it wasn't risky, there'd be no payoff:
"If everything is known and certain, that means it's all been done before." - Uncertainty
Recognizing the unknown is the instigator's greatest asset.
When you step outside the wire often enough, you will make contact with the enemy.
For the instigator, the enemy takes many forms: critics, naysayers, unhelpful advice from people inside the wire, superficial support from friends and family, and worst of all: your own negative thoughts (self-talk, status-quo propaganda).
Instigators know that when things get gamey, they need to stay calm and collected, and transform their fear into fuel for the fight:
"The ability not only to endure but to invite, amplify, and exalt uncertainty, then reframe it as fuel is paramount to your ability to succeed as a creator. Visionary innovation and creativity cannot happen when every variable, every outcome, every permutation is known and has been tested and validated in advance.” - Uncertainty
Instigators know that the middle of a battle is not the time to question why they’re doing what they do. It is at these moments when it is most important to buckle down and do the work.
Followers respond.
Leaders make choices.
Making a choice is one of the hardest, most uncomfortable and most unnatural things we can do as human beings. Making a choice – ANY choice – is psychological warfare:
“It’s not because it’s easy, it’s not because it’s trivial, it’s not because we don’t care. It’s the opposite. It’s because we care, it’s difficult, and it’s complex – and it’s so complex that we don’t know what to do, and because we have no idea what to do, we just pick whatever it was that was chosen for us.” - Dan Ariely
The instigator understands this weakness in others and recognizes it as an opportunity to lead.
It takes real courage to start something from scratch.
It takes bravery to step foot into the unknown of creation.
Trying to capture the elusive and ephemeral images from your imagination so you can put them on paper in such a way as to elicit a meainingful reaction from the reader is hard (way harder than sideline critics realize).
Trying to build a sustainable business that improves the world (your world, meaning your clients, your customers, and your community), while simultaneously affording you a healthy living is hard.
Trying to create and lead an organization is hard.
It’s hard, but the instigator chooses to do the hard thing anyway.
“The warrior knows that he is free to choose his desires, and he makes these decisions with courage, detachment and – sometimes – with just a touch of madness.” - Warrior of the Light
What separates the instigator from 99.9% of society?
Instigators do the things that scare them.
What have you done recently that scared you? Share your comments below.
Starting is hard work.
I mean really hard.
And I don’t mean “starting a million-dollar startup” is hard, or “starting a best-selling book” is hard…I mean STARTING is hard.
The act of starting – of initiating a project on your own accord, with the expectation to finish, that no one told you to start, with no map to follow – is HARD.
It's hard because it means, by its very nature, that we lead.
And when we lead, we can't hide behind the boss or coworkers. You're in front and people are watching.
It’s hard because it means we need to figure out where to go.
Choosing a direction isn’t easy.
What if you choose the wrong path (and never get there)? What if there’s a faster way to get to your destination and you waste days (or months, or years)? What if you put it all on the line for years and the destination isn’t what you expected?
That’s on you.
It’s hard because it means we have to figure out why we’re doing it.
In the beginning, “just because” works.
After months of travel, when you’ve experienced setbacks, injury, and loss – when the fatigue sets in to cloud your judgment – and the break in the jungle isn’t a quiet river but a monstrous ravine with an abyss below and nothing but more jungle beyond…
“Just because” doesn’t work so well.
It’s hard because it means we have total control (and therefore, complete responsibility).
Where will you go? What will you do? How will you get there? Who will you bring?
When you decide to instigate, the success and failure of your project is firmly in your hands. You decide the direction, the gear, and the company you bring. You set the pace, manage the resources, and decide the path.
If you succeed, good work. If you fail (or worse, let your team fail) that’s on you - no one else.
It’s hard because it means we need to make a conscious choice to do something that other people aren’t doing.
Going against the grain is not a survival mechanism. Society only exists because people follow, stick close together, and don’t stray from the pack.
When you instigate, you’re literally fighting thousands of years of biology. When you initiate, you’re fighting your very nature down to the molecular level of your being.
You think war is hell? Try starting something.
It’s hard because you wouldn’t be doing it if you didn’t care.
And when you care, and you instigate, and you put yourself out there, you expose yourself to criticism.
And how many great things fail before they even start because of that most insidious critic of all (the one in our heads)?
Do me a favor: start something today.
And if that voice starts to creep in to let you know it’s just a pipe dream, or it can’t happen, or you must be mad to try something so bold or unreasonable, remember this:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw
So Instigate.
Be unreasonable.
Progress depends on it.
p.s. please leave a comment below and tell me what you’ve started in the last 1 to 3 weeks. If you haven't started anything yet, what do you plan on starting in the next three weeks?