All in Life
I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Wall Street, which stars Michael Douglas, who plays probably the greatest white collar villain of all time, as well as a young Charlie Sheen as his impressionable apprentice.
It’s really an incredible film that provided some powerful social commentary on Wall Street (and, in many ways, America) in the 80s…
You might have noticed the uproar this week over a video of Sanna Marin, Finland’s Prime Minister.
It showed the politician dancing with friends at a private party (in someone’s residence) over the summer. She was enjoying herself and, as you might expect at such parties, letting loose. Well, somehow, the video was leaked online and the uproar it caused was relentless and global, as you might expect in today’s social-media driven world.
Taking on challenges can be daunting. We worry about the commitment and we worry about all of the potential outcomes. In doing so, we can be tepid in our approach.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the only way forward is as simple as it can be challenging to execute: we need to forget to be afraid.
We’re at that time of year when young adults emerge from college, armed with their degrees and ready to enter the working world. For most, this is their first real job and they’re both excited and nervous.
In addition, they’re also entering the workforce right in the midst of all the debates about work from home (WFH) has some real benefits but also poses real challenges for the new entrant.
So, if you’ve read the popular press recently, you’ll have heard about this practice called “quiet quitting” which seems to have entered our vernacular and become a bit of a thing among some folks.
The idea behind it, if you weren’t aware, was not that an employee leaves their job, rather that they limit what they do to only what is strictly in their job description.
It took me a while to understand that the idea of "learning" was not a one and done concept but an enduring, long lasting one.
There are a number of reasons for this as I discuss in today's episode and my key message or takeaway is that, while we've made progress over the years, the path is continuous - so long as we shift how we think about it.
At a commencement speech years ago, the author David Foster Wallace recounted a story of two young fishes who meet a couple of older fish as they’re swimming along. One of the older fish greets the young fish and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” The boys continue swimming and a short while later, one of them asks, “What the hell is water?”
Brad Pitt's film, Ad Astra, brought to mind an interesting point about the commitment and sacrifices we make in pursuit of our goals.
In such situations, we will give of ourselves fully, which is good. But, as I discuss in today's episode, when we don't get what we originally set out for, we can still take away valuable lessons.
At some point, I think we all have to decide if we’re “For-Profit” or “For-Purpose”.
Yes, we can and should be about both, but one has to take precedence in defining who we are and what we’re doing.
To be “For-Profit” is to be focused on the numbers.
We tend to think of successful people as alternate beings - people who come to their work with a mindset that is always on, always without doubt. In other words, not like the rest of us mortals.
The truth, in my view, is different. Successsful people are more like the rest of us than we think. There's just one intentional difference, as I discuss on today's episode.
In today's episode, I speak to the fact that respect isn't something that is bestowed, it's earned. It isn't something we can expect as a matter of course.
It's something that has to be worked towards and in the show, I discuss a range of ideas as to how to do exactly that.
I know it’s a cliché to say this but we learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.
The reasons are obvious, of course. Through our mistakes, we gain practical experience in what not to do - and it’s this experience that generates knowledge that is seared into our subconscious, often painfully so.
I think too many of us have this perspective that knowledge must be ‘absolute’ and expertise in a given field must be ‘complete’ in its nature.
What I mean by that is we believe being good at something and being able to speak to that expertise requires total command over that field. No questions, no doubts. Complete mastery.
In today's episode, I talk about how we make so many key decisions in our lives, not based on what we want, but on what others will think about them.
From the professional to the personal, we put credence where it doesn't belong, as compensating mechanisms, when really, at the end of the day, it's all down to us. We are responsible - no matter what.
From early on, we’re taught to be “good” at our work which typically translates to developing strong, technical expertise.
We’re required to learn the right processes, the tools to be deployed and the results to be achieved as a result of following that process.
If we do this well, we’re hailed as ‘process experts’ which, generally speaking, is a good thing.
Experience is a great educator. Over time, it teaches us and provides us with a reasoned view of life and all that makes us who we are.
However, as I discuss in today's episode, this isn't an automatic process. It's one that requires a strong sense of perspective, as well as the right mindset.
At the end of the movie, Jurassic Park, the lead actors are in an enclosed space, surrounded by menacing velociraptors. It looks like their time is up, until suddenly, out of nowhere, a T-Rex suddenly appears and attacks the velociraptors, allowing our heroes to escape to safety.
That plot twist is called a Deus Ex Machina, which is Latin for God From The Machine…
Labels are an everyday part of our language - to such an extent that we use them, often, without serious thought.
As I discuss in today's episode, because the labels we grow up with are often fraught with misperceptions and frankly, prejudice, such that we'd do well to rethink them.
Déformation professionnelle is the tendency to look at people, events and situations from the vantage point (or filter) of our own profession or expertise or training.
This is understandable because we put a lot of our lives into that training and development, and if we believe in what we do, we consider that worldview ‘defining’.
Tough times call for tough measures. But those tough measures can also be fraught with risk - both real and perceived. Biggest of all is the perception that we'll be overreacting.
But, as I discuss in today's podcast, that shouldn't worry us. The end goal and those we serve, matter far more.
