All in Life
It’s amazing to me that the one subject that has had the most influence on our ability to get anything done in business (and, frankly, personal) life is also the one that is given the least attention (relatively) at Business School: working with people.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s not as if there isn’t any acknowledgement that it’s critical (there is) or that Professors don’t speak to its importance (they do).
Episode 10 of the podcast is now available and this episode kicks off this month's focus on the art of Communication, a subject that's integral to our ability to succeed in just about anything we do.
Conversations about great company cultures are almost always accompanied by talk of nice offices with modern conveniences, bring-your-pet-to-work days, free food and more. In fact, read about the latest hot startup, and modern media (conventional or otherwise) will be abuzz with stories about the lengths these companies are going to for their employees (from no dress code to unlimited vacations to relaxation pods).
It’s not surprising then that these ideas become comingled: that amazing work culture goes hand in hand with these kinds of tangible amenities.
The other day, I stumbled across a Reddit discussion where someone asked the question: “Everyone sees the world in a different way; so when someone dies, it is - in a way - the death of an entire world. So, Reddit…what unique world will die with you?”
As with all things reddit, there were a myriad of responses, but one of them was from a person who’d created an imaginary world - 4 books worth of content and characters in his/her notebooks and sketchbooks - and was working on getting it out, commenting:
Episode 7 of the podcast is out now, and in this episode, I close out this month's focus on "Story" and its role in our lives. I talk about how we use stories to define who we are and what we do and how we can begin tell ourselves better stories to change who we are.
Perspective is the ability to sit back and (more objectively) assess what a particular situation really means for your relationships, your work and your life. And it’s usually a very difficult thing to have when you’re right in the heat of the moment.
When you’re in the midst of it, things can seem like they’re do or die. Sometimes that may be the case but, more often than not, what’s happening is that we’re not actually processing all inputs effectively (or at all) so as to make an appropriate judgement, just the ones that are the most prominent to us at the time.
Episode 8 of the podcast is now available and, in this episode, I continue the exploration of Story in our lives, again diving into Donald Miller's phenomenal book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. I discuss character, sacrifice and what stories we should aspire to leave behind when we're gone.
When you’re growing a business, it’s no surprise that you need friends who will advocate for you. I’ve relied on more than my fair share over the last 15 years as I’ve built the business - friends both outside the firm as well as within it - and they’ve been essential to the success that we’ve achieved.
A subset of these friends have gone above and beyond - they’ve truly put themselves out there for us. These are individuals who’ve (certainly in our early days) put their reputations on the line, or gone out of their way to help the firm, or given materially of their precious time to further our goals.
Episode 7 of the podcast is now available and, in this episode, I continue this month’s discussion about story and it’s role in our lives. I talk about my first business trip and the book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years.
Presentations and pitches are tricky things.
By definition, the goal is to sell something to someone. It could be to get a business idea funded, to get approval to move forward on a project or, to make a sale. In all cases, we’re trying to convince someone to part with something valuable (usually, but not always, money) in return for whatever it is we have to offer.
If you like podcasts, I wanted to let you know that I’ve relaunched the omerisms podcast - after (more than) a little bit of a hiatus.
I've revamped the style of the podcast and will be speaking about key themes I've discussed over the last three and a half years on this blog. I'll cover older posts in audio form, adding additional commentary where appropriate.
A few weeks ago, I set up my home office, a small room in the basement where I can focus and get my work done. I’ve set it up with everything I need so that I can be productive and not get distracted by whatever else might be going on at home.
In the span of these last few weeks, it’s already become my ‘haven’, a place where I can tackle my most important projects, where I can do all of the things I’ve got planned. It’s something I’ve wanted even before we moved into this house.
I’m generally wary of celebrities offering advice on the complexities of life, but Meghan Markle recently made an observation that I thought was particularly insightful.
She was visiting a workshop at the Luminary Bakery in East London, which helps disadvantaged women and, in conversation, decried the culture of instant gratification that is so pervasive today. She observed that:
Epictetus’ words are easy to understand, but difficult to practice. Not surprising, given that it’s in our nature to be liked, to gain approval, to be considered valuable.
The problem is that when we accept these opinions, when we consider ourselves to be “important”, we think we’ve “arrived” and achieved some special end-state or level of wisdom.
We all have ideas about where things should ideally be in our lives. Our work should look like this, or our political situation should operate like that. Our relationships should function in this particular way or our personal friendships should manifest themselves differently.
We tend to pore over what these idealized end-states ought to look like - often in excruciating and emotional detail. But getting “there” can be extremely difficult, a journey where the path is entirely uncertain or, worse, impossible to traverse.
There’s a finality to endings that’s bittersweet.
The completion of the thing - especially something that’s absorbed us wholeheartedly and then come to some natural conclusion - almost always results in a mixture of emotions.
There’s the joy that comes from the experience (the good times, the contributions, the confirmations) which can be considerable and, at times, overwhelming. This joy is experienced both during but also in retrospect, once we’ve gained an appreciation of those aspects we may have taken for granted.
What it boils down to is this: there’s a legitimate fear that if we actually make something, we’ll have to face the true state of our skills and accept how much improvement we still have ahead of us” Chase Jarvis - Creative Calling
This is the hard part about creating - particularly for the very first time, when we’re trying something brand new.
A common question when I’m discussing what I do for a living is whether there’s much travel involved. My answer is always that, yes, there’s a moderate amount of travel involved.
Of course, the term “moderate” means different things to different people. There are those who feel being on the road once a month for a couple of days is a lot. And then there are folks( in consulting, for example) who get on a plane week in, week out, flying out on Monday AM and flying home Thursday or Friday PM.
The movie, Lost In Translation, is a cinematic masterpiece. Perfectly paced, thoughtfully crafted and backed by the perfect soundtrack, it explores the idea of human connection, isolation and meaning in a way that is real and emotive without being cliched or preachy.
So much of how we experience in the movie - specifically how we interpret those scenes - is up to us. The karaoke scene with Bob (Bill Murray) singing More Than This.
…Is not a phrase I’m entirely comfortable with.
Sure, there’s a maturity that comes with age - what we can refer to as wisdom. This experience also has a way of tempering our roughest, ‘least-rounded’ impulses which. in so many ways, is not at all a bad thing.
But the idealism of youth brings with it a daring, an audacity that has (more often than not) broadened our way of thinking, pushing our boundaries and forcing us to confront those things that hold us back yet we’ve taken for granted.
