“…If you’re not doing that, you’re likely keeping busy with other things, but that’s not being a CEO.  Being CEO will probably keep you busy, but it’s not about keeping busy.  Busyness is simply a byproduct of doing what needs to be done, and many weeks that fills many hours.  But some weeks it doesn’t….”

“Think of what this means for the creative process, then.  We envision what is not real, comparing it to the perfect ideal, and then work to create it in reality.  But the moment it enters concrete reality it loses its timeless perfection, and that’s always really hard, because a part of it still lives beyond space and time, where all perfections meet.

A big part of us wants to keep it there where it will not be sullied by reality, and that is why, I believe, we drag our feet on creative projects, because that way they can stay ideal and we need never see them fall.

But, keeping things perfect will not help you…”

“When you want to change the results, you change the causes.  And to change the causes for the better, and consistently, once and for all we build systems.  Then we take stock of our new dissatisfaction, identity causes, and build or tweak the systems.  Always and forever.  That’s really all there is to it.

If you remember one thing from this post, let it be this…”

“…I had this thought: "Careers and organizations are built one deal at a time."  There are many different shapes to this.  Entrepreneurs need to find the deals, or create systems to do so.  But employment is only possible because their organizations make deals in some way shape or form…”

“…By the way, we’re getting to the end.  You’ll need to make a choice soon.

Will you re-read this?  That would solve your problem of existence for a little while.

Will you skim it?  That would solve your problem of existence for a little less while.

Will you sit with it?

Will you plan your next move?

Or do you know pretty well what you will do next?

Either way, the problem will never cease, for as long as you live.  And the greater problem will never cease as long as humans live.  We’re all in this together, solving it as best we can, through our different worldviews.

You’re blessed to be one of the problem solvers…”

"Systems are breaking down all the time.  Like, all the time.  Usually we don’t notice it, because we’re on the outside being served.  But it’s torment to see it happen and deal with it from the inside.  You feel like everyone is watching you.  In reality, people are just waiting to get on to their next thing and they quickly forget too once their problems are solved.  Yes, maybe some people would have had emails returned to sender, and maybe a couple even did.  But, you know what?  It happens.  It happens to all of us.  We know this and we show grace to the organizations to which it happens.

Even through the agitation and anxiety of this episode, I saw another part of my spirit and psychology operating.  And I knew it was correct, even if iI didn’t believe it..."

"What this means is that growing sustaining businesses, or organizations of any kind really, is actually a branch of social science.

It seems obvious really, at least now.  Management is the study and practice of coordinating groups for a purpose.  Marketing is the study and practice of persuasion through media.  And information science is the study and practice of how we track, analyze, and store the relational observations that we find significant.  Those are my own definitions of the moment, but that’s how I see them.

Think about it though…if we take a step back, wouldn’t EVERY area of human study be properly categorized as some kind of social science?  Humans do everything in groups and for groups.  Without group identity and allegiance there is no motivation to or validation for any of the work we do..."

"ChatGPT is a tool.  It won’t just do things for you.  But you can guide and shape its “thinking” process and it becomes a really flexible and powerful creative partner.  The images at the end of this sequence are quite wonderful IMHO.

I didn’t just ask it to visualize commerce.  That will give you a certain result, but not a particularly inspiring one that I’m not going to share.

Let me walk you through the process and show you what was returned along the way…"

“The only thing we know is that time will keep coming.  So, take that as a starting point and ask “what do I want out of this life?”, because it’s going to keep coming whether you want it to or not.  And everyone else is in it too.”

“We can’t stop our biological processes.  We can’t stop our thoughts.  We can’t stop time or collapse space back into the singularity from whence it expanded.  We can’t detach from society, and most especially the people we love.  The future is coming, whether we want it to or not.  We must at least maintain and at best build.  And that’s being human.”

“These are the 3 ingredients to any group, and it will rise or fall based on their success. The common thread is sacrifice, because all of these require someone else to offer their scarce resources in support, motivated by the promise of a better future. What is the better future you promise? Effectively answer that question, and your communication will attract people to fund, run, and advocate for your organization.

That, and only that, is how to go FAR ➡️”

“But what if you had friends everywhere you went?  Life would seem much more fun and worthwhile, wouldn’t it?

I think of friends as the leavening of life.  Everything is lighter and more vital with friends in the mix.  There’s something about friendship, and nothing else like it.

It can be complicated, because it’s harder to keep decisions and evaluations objective when friends are involved, although some might argue the best friends manage to do that too.  Some professions even have regulations that prevent forming friendships between certain kinds of people, so you’ll have to conform to the ethical and legal standards of your industry.

But watching these two dance…”

“While today’s information and media landscape may be pathological and contributing to greater dysfunction than in past eras (and I’m not so sure that I grant this for numerous reasons - the health of humans and society is a dynamic and ever unsettled conversation, due simply to the nature of the spacetime that we navigate in each moment), we have a perennial condition that seeks to reconcile what I have come to call “influence and outfluence”.  They will never be precisely balanced, and we must discern this constantly.  As social beings, we are constantly in communication, community, and collaboration with our fellow social beings.  As such, there is no self, and no other to speak of.  No me or you.  Just us, interfluencing one another.  Somehow we all have a vision of an improved world that we work toward together.  It can be no other way.  Take a broad enough view and humans ultimately become a hive mind, very much like ants.”

“When I think about human commerce, the exchanges we seek and enact, this is how I imagine it.  Many, many individuals and overlapping audiences, with limited attention that is always stretching in some direction or another, searching, seeking a goal.  I think the goal is a sense of completion, and you need to figure out how your product, service, and organization fits into that collective project of completion. Once you do, you will meet your goals.”

“Each and every choice is a turning point, an entry into a new container or set of containers (we inhabit numerous containers at numerous scales all of the time), all designed to limit your freedom in various ways, to constructively constrict your possible choices so that you can more easily structure your actions as you navigate each day so as not to become existentially overwhelmed.

And if you’re lucky you can choose many of these containers, because some we can’t.  And when you inhabit the right containers you will feel free.  And when you inhabit the wrong ones you will feel trapped.  But we all have to choose them at one point or another, because life is a container of containers.  And every container contains other containers, because this works at so very many scales.  Organizations, locations, relationships, groups, activities - all are containers oriented toward different ends that will allow you to align your actions to various purposes.”

“It’s a remarkable time for you.  Overwhelming.  Exciting.  Stimulating.  Demanding.  Requiring new levels of focus, intention, energy, commitment.  It’s super cool.  I love the energy of such people at such a time.  They are primed and ready, waiting for just the right combination of strategy and pep talk from just the right person to shift their thinking, clarify their vision, strengthen their resolve.  And then they’re off and running, having hard conversations, building new habits, carefully putting the pieces in place that allow them to jump to the next level.

I do this work with people in all professions, industries, organizational shapes and sizes.  And the pattern is always the same.  It comes down to these 3 steps…”

“The story I told may seem disjunct and episodic, and to some people I’m sure it is, but I see a clear line.  Perhaps not a straight one, but a thread that ties it all together.  A thread of essence.

Many of us do many things.  And sometimes we think we’ve found the *one thing* that will take us where we are going.  But often it’s a latest best guess, and there are new corners of reality to investigate, new dynamics we simply don’t and can’t have a concept of.  Corners that are remarkably fulfilling, and a good fit for our essence.”

“I have seen this my entire life.  Parents do it.  Mentors do it.  College professors do it.  Friends do it.  Business coaches do it.  They advise their advisees to do things that come easily to them without realizing that they have innate talents and aptitudes that those in their care may not.

Do you know how to spot an inborn gift or aptitude?  Here’s the secret. Listen for “just” or “simply”.  When anyone begins a sentence with “You just…” or “You simply…”, I can almost guarantee that what follows will be a description of some kind of activity or sensibility that comes easily to them.  It’s particularly pernicious and grating when it has the feeling of a humblebrag, which starts with “Well, you just…”

Start listening for it and I guarantee you will hear this evidence of low self-awareness all around you.  I am convinced that it is responsible for a great deal of misery and self-doubt quietly experienced by so very many of us.”