The instigator is the author, the dreamer, the writer. She creates a screenplay, founds a non-profit, says what needs to be said.
The editor curates. Picks and chooses. Amplifies the essential and deletes the rest.
And the publisher scales it. Turns it into a business or a success on some other metric.
Throughout the ages, there have been world-class editors. Sometimes they get the authors they deserve, sometimes not. And there have always been great publishers, turning worthy (and sometimes less than worthy) ideas into successes.
If you’re a maker of change, you might resort to being your own editor and your own publisher. After all, the ideas must be brought forward. If you can, though, see if you can find the editor and the publisher your work is worthy of.
We spend some of our time building things, from scratch. New ideas, new projects, new connections. Things that didn't exist before we arrived.
We spend some of our time breaking things, using them up, discovering the edges.
And we spend some of our time fixing things. Customer support, maintenance, bug fixes… And most of all, answering email and grooming social media. The world needs fixing, it always does.
You've already guessed the questions:
a. where do you personally add the most value?
b. how much of your time are you spending doing that?
[If you want to spend more time in building mode, I hope you'll take a look at the altMBA. It's designed to upgrade and recharge your commitment to building things. Final deadline for applications for our next session is tomorrow, Monday, the 19th.]
Last week, a small group of our worldwide coaching team got together. It reminded me of how much Kelli, Marie, Alex, Sam, Fraser, Anne, our extraordinary coaches and our thousands of alumni have contributed to evolving the altMBA. Thank you.
Every time you pick up your quickphone, you stop inventing and begin transacting instead.
The flow of information and style of interaction rewards your quickness. It helps you make decisions in this moment. Which route to drive? Which restaurant to go to? Which email to respond to?
Transactions are important, no doubt. But when you spend your entire day doing them, what disappears?
Of course you are. You're selling connection or forward motion. You're selling a new way of thinking, a better place to work, a chance to make a difference. Or perhaps you're selling possibility, generosity or sheer hard work.
It might be that the selling you're doing costs time and effort, not money, but if you're trying to make change happen, then you're selling something.
If you're not trying to make things better, why are you here?
So sure, you're selling something.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, "I'm not selling something too aggressively, invading your space, stealing your attention and pushing you to do something that doesn't match your goals."
The reason is obvious–when you're hungry, you're likely to buy things. The risk is that you'll buy something you don't need, because, of course, all that buying isn't actually making you less hungry.
The same thing is true for just about anything we seek to sell. Selling water to a thirsty person, education to someone seeking enlightenment, goals to someone eager to move forward—this is dramatically easier and more satisfying than first having to persuade someone that they should actually care about the difference you're trying to make.
Obvious? I think so.
But most marketers make this mistake on the very first day and keep making it for their entire career.
You might be in love with the change you are trying to make in the world. Best to begin with an audience that's rooting for you to succeed.
Akimbo is a posture of strength and possibility. The chance to make a difference, to bend the culture.
It's at the heart of my work. Your work too. The work of making change that we're proud of.
And so, a new podcast. A different kind of podcast. No guests, no fancy production, it won't remind you of NPR or sports radio either. 100% organic and handmade.
And yes, I'll be answering your questions about each episode, submitted at our showpage.
More than a hundred billion people have ever lived. Perhaps 1,000 have been widely heralded as artistic geniuses who painted in oils.
And perhaps there were another thousand genius physicists and just one Nobel-Prize winning folksinger.
We sell ourselves short when we argue that there's something magical about creative work, something that can only happen if we're born to do it.
It's not that different from the thesis that there's something in the DNA of Spanish-speaking people that makes them good at soccer. I hope we can agree that people from countries that speak Spanish are more likely to be soccer stars because they grow up surrounded by soccer, with the expectation that they too can be good at it.
It's not too late for you to be a genius. It comes at a price, but it's not based on your DNA.
Newton was right about physics, but in organizations and cultures, the opposite is true.
You're either the person who creates energy.
Or you're the one who destroys it.
You might be the one who initiates projects, who asks, "what if?" or eagerly says, "I'll do it." The person who finds and amplifies and supports the good work of others. The spark.
Or, it's possible you're the passive one, the naysayer, the bystander, the one who manages to eat the donuts at the meeting but not actually add much in the way of energy, kinetic or potential.
You can choose to be the generous one, putting in more than you take out, surprising everyone with a never-ending flow of generosity.
Or, you can find any of one hundred perfectly acceptable explanations/excuses/reasons why you're merely an absorber of it.
I know it's worth a lot to the recipient, but what is it worth to you?
We all know what normal contribution looks like. It's what happens when a qualified person does the job, meets spec and keeps a promise.
But extraordinary contribution is rare. It's when we surprise the system, and perhaps ourselves, by showing up with something unexpected, far beyond the common standard. Extraordinary contribution creates careers. It's a breakthrough in the status quo, a shift in a previously accepted power dynamic.
Extraordinary contribution changes not just the recipient, but the giver as well.
So yes, it's worth quite a bit. The chance to do a stage in a professional (and generous) kitchen is priceless. The internship or the summer job where you quite recklessly level up, showing the world and yourself just what you're capable of–that's worth far more than the money you spent going into debt with college for.
The hard part isn't working for free. The hard part is figuring out that this is your chance to do more than you're asked, to resist being unpaid labor for an organization too cheap to pay you properly. Instead, this is a rare moment to leap.
Now that more and more is ordered online, or experienced online, the only trips we take are special trips.
If your offering, your service or your place isn't worth a special trip, it's likely we won't be coming by any time soon.
February 10, 2018
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