If you don’t push yourself to pass your own limits.
If you don’t wake up every morning with your dreams between your eyes…It’ll be ok.
I mean, you won’t be happy. You will not feel accomplished or fulfilled, but it will be ok.
It’s not like the world needed you to become a paradise.
When you die, you will become part of the evolutionary story, as Dalio says. Hell you already are.
But what a goddamn wasted opportunity, isn’t it?
An Australian winery owner smiling with his baby.
An American former navy seal joking about Santa being an intruder.
A Mexican family smiling while eating like there’s no tomorrow while the kids open presents by the tree.
Call it whatever you want, the truth is, Santa delivering presents throughout the world in a single night, is a global human execution success.
More than just a habit or something few people do, it is now engrained in humanity’s culture.
It brings together people and joy to a huge percentage of people around the globe.
My point is, capitalism or mercantilism aside, we can build a worldwide story.
And if we came as one to build other global stories that change our lives for better and bring global smiles, just imagine what the world could be.
Broadcast what you passion is.
The minute you begin talking passionately about something people start getting excited. They will smile and feel your passion.
If they feel moved enough, perhaps they will immediately volunteer to your cause.
They could also tell somebody else about you and your passion. Then they would spread the word being your advocates. Passion is contagious and it is fun to talk and listen someone thrilled by something.
Even if they can’t or won’t do anything to support or join you right now, your message will be imprinted in their minds and hearts and someday their memory could be triggered. And the passion will arise again and be transmitted.
After sometime, the number of people touched by your vision will accumulate.
A critical mass will form around the idea and the momentum will grow. Then it will come to you. The help, support, opportunities, resources. It will come back like magic.
And it all started because you talked excitedly about your passion.
Mediocrity is a comforting lie.
It will keep you unharmed. You are not one of “those outliers”, They are the ones who get hurt.
It will keep you from dangerous changes. For a mediocre not taking any risks is not just acceptable, but a good move.
And if anything ends up changing you will be allowed to curse, damn and complain endlessly, after all, nobody asked you. You are entitled to feel victimized.
There is also security. Safety in numbers, you know? There are more mediocre people out there, so in this sense, It will also keep you alive, well… barely, more like undead.
And indeed, he who is a generalist, through the approaching tsunami of changes, will endure.
In a rapid changing world, if you are a generalist (having a broad set of skills and mental models) will be determinant to thrive.
What the specialist wins in effectiveness and depth of action, he looses in flexibility.
If she devotes her time and efforts to become the best at one thing, her skills will be more valuable in one single field, in one industry, one single position,etc.
So you can see, the more depth in knowledge and insights she gains, the more valuable her input and the bigger the odds at making an impactful contribution.
However, if one thing changes, it will not longer be the project, position, industry or field she was used to be in, and this person will become obsolete overnight.
Just think, is the world approaching stability or does things look like a hurricane is just arriving?
Who would you rather be when the coriolis storm is upon us?
It is so much easier to know your target if you are inside of it. If you are one of them.
Funny to think that I have always consider myself as an outsider. Maybe that’s why it have found extra challenging to for me to build an audience.
Then again I have always thought I could and can understand anybody through a deep research and empathy. If I perform those tasks for some brand or project I excel at it.
It is so much easier to analyze and categorize someone or something else than oneself, but the moment you practice introspection and figure out some basic insights in yourself, then you will be able to define your target.
And only then you will find lots of super valuable opportunities to satisfy unmet needs in your peers. After all it will be your tribe, your clan you are taking care of.
We all want to be liked. People will answer your polls and surveys accordingly.
“Of course I would recommend your brand.” That is my default answer when someone ask me if I would recommend something to a colleague or friend…
We all just want to be polite and be liked. That is why our answer will be, most of the time, what we think they want to hear. And to think brands keep asking that.
That is just silly.
If you want to know if someone would promote your business for free just ask them to.
That is all you need them to do, and that is all it takes to know if you are indeed of any value to them.
It takes courage to pour yourself into creating something that didn’t exist before you made it happen.
It just might not come up as you wished (almost never does). It is very likely it won’t end up looking anything like you dreamed it. And that is scary.
You could end up investing days of not years into something that could or could not work. And that is scary also.
But what is the alternative? Remain forever stagnant? Stale your growth just because fear has showed up in the scene? Forever quitting on your dreams? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. That is not even on the table, right? Right?
It is addictive. You will want to breathe, eat, read and dream your passion. You will have endless energy to research, think and create around your passion.
Sounds beautiful, if you only knew what your goddamn passion is.
Sadly, the vast majority of people keeps waiting for that moment when everything will make sense. They will have find their passion and all things will come easy. So they wait, and they wait and they wait.
Instead of waiting for perfect conditions where you find your true passion and actually execute on it. You must come to a point where you decide what to do…and THEN then develop this passion. It will only come if you are consistent and show up everyday for that passion to arise from the practice of whatever you chose to do. Committing to excel at it is how you do it. You must research, learn and practice…that’s how you do it.
And then you will become addicted to feeling passionate of that particular craft nobody can do like you can.