This is Optimal Living Daily, episode 296. I'm doing something a little different and jumping straight into the two posts today, so here we go. Confidence required by Derek Sivers, entrepreneur who sold his business for over $20 million and gave away the proceeds to charity, and author at Sivers.org. Most of the time, we are working hard, head down, using what we know.
We get better and better at it. We make little improvements and keep working. Our expertise and confidence keeps increasing. We can't afford to stop and question everything.
We can't go back to school. We have work to do. Until we don't. Last year, I left my company and decided to start a new one.
I wanted to replace my old thoughts with new ones. I'd been working hard doing one thing and one mindset for 10 years and needed to install a new operating system in my brain. I read a lot of books on business, social psychology, management, behavioral economics, investing, cognitive biases, crowds, marketing, networking, learning, and communication. But each book that made me feel smarter, aha, I think I understand the world better now, also made me feel dumber.
Wow, I've been an idiot. It's surprising I survived at all. For example, when I read What Got You Here Won't Get You There, I realized what a horrible manager I'd been, how I've been dealing with people all wrong. It felt like the author had been hiding under my desk, making a list of what not to do, and he was right.
I've got so much to learn to be a good manager. Business experts like Ram Charan, Clayton Christensen, Adrian Sawatzky, and Charlie Munger made me feel like a court jester next to a samurai. I longed to have their insight and expertise. I could study hard for decades and barely catch up.
Plus, an ex-employee I had fired and an ex-girlfriend I'd broken up with made sure I knew what a horrible, horrible person I am. Not only am I an idiot, I'm dangerous, destroying others in my path. It was all very humbling, so humbling that I found it hard to do anything at all. I had designed and announced my new company.
I was psyched for it to exist. But when it came down to doing the necessary work, I hesitated and procrastinated. Who am I to be starting another company? I'm just going to fizzle up like last time.
After all I've learned, I can't believe anyone actually thinks they'll succeed in the complex world of business. Don't they see all the really smart people who have tried and failed? I can't believe how foolish I was to start my first company. Just me in my bedroom with no experience, making a little website when I was up against giant IPO-funded competitors.
I was an overconfident punk, thinking I had the answer and everyone else didn't. But it worked. And in fact, isn't that kind of confidence absolutely required to get anything done? Is it the role of the entrepreneur to be the bold, daring, audacious one?
The overconfident, reckless one who says, screw it, let's do it. Yes, of course. It's the essential final lesson that all this learning means nothing until you make something happen. Whether you think you'll win or not, you need to jump in the game and say, let's go.
Whether your confidence is naive, inspired, or crafted, you need a high horsepower engine to get uphill and go anywhere. And no matter how humbling the lessons of life are, this final lesson is the most important of all. And thus, I graduated from my self-created Entrepreneur 102 class. Time to go make something happen.
Character Predicts Your Future by Derek Sivers of Sivers.org In 1991, when I ran the tape room at Warner Chapel Music in New York City, I had an NYU intern named Nick Ruchel from Germany. He was a few years older than me, had recently moved from Cologne to New York, and seemed really driven to do whatever it takes. He was a very hard worker, but also great at befriending the managers at the company. He put himself in the center of existing success, the company, the managers, and both learned and worked to earn his place in that world.
We lost touch for 17 years, but I knew he would be successful at whatever he chose to do. It was just in his character. He had the right approach. So it was no surprise when I met him in New York this week and we caught up on the last 17 years.
He had thrown himself into photography, assisting increasingly successful photographers, learning everything he could, until he got the best possible job, first assistant to Annie Leibovitz for over three years. Now he's a successful freelance photographer, specializing in portraits of jazz musicians, happy and healthy, of course. See nickruschel.com. We compared notes about our other colleagues at Warner Chapel Music and where they were 17 years later.
Again, no surprises. One manager, Jocelyn Cooper, seemed so clearly destined to rise to the top. She was very effective and just a little aloof, so that she really came across like a natural leader. Back in 1990, I could tell she was going to be very successful, and sure enough, she is.
Another manager, though he was a fun guy, seemed too moody and unfocused. Sure enough, he flamed out of the company and is now bitter, unfocused, and unhappy. In March 2009, at the South by Southwest music conference, I was on a panel called Artist as Entrepreneur with successful independent artist Rachel Sage. The moderator was asking her about specific tips and techniques.
How did she get the word out? Where did her big breakthrough come from? What was the key to her success so far? At the end, I had to say, quote, I've known Rachel since 1996.
She was the first artist on CD Baby. She's so driven, ambitious, and hardworking that she would have been successful no matter what industry she chose. It's her nature, unquote. To be fair, I've noticed the same thing about myself.
So what does this mean? It's just fate? Nothing you can do? You're either the successful type or you're not?
Of course not. But it's true that how you do anything is how you do everything. Your character or nature just refers to how you handle all the day-to-day things in life, no matter how small. And luckily, it's completely under your control and seems to be a great indicator of future success.
You just listened to the posts titled, Confidence Required and Character Predicts Your Future, both by Derek Sivers of Sivers.org. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it. One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers and their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins.
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Have a great rest of your weekend, if you're listening in real time, of course. And I'll see you in tomorrow's show, most likely Minimalist Monday, where your optimal life awaits. Hey, this is Dan from the Optimal Finance Daily podcast, which is a lot like this show, except more focused on personal finance. Justin handpicks the best posts he can find from blogs and authors like Ramit Sethi, Mr.
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