Simplify: The cure to living life on the defensive
Hello Uncommoners,
Here's your random dose of intrigue — a collection of content, ideas, and resources that I've recently found mind tingling. Consume, skim, or skip at your leisure. Enjoy.
PERSONAL:
Every year I create a guiding theme — a loose, but meaningful guiding ideology that I apply to every decision I make. 2016’s theme is “Clean up & Simplify.” Why? Because today’s world is a complex one. And that complexity leads to many choices and opportunities. It’s frighteningly easy to say “yes” one time (or a few dozen times) too many. Soon enough you find yourself on the defensive, reacting to life and tirelessly trying to protect the little time and freedoms you have left.
In some cases, saying “yes” more often is what’s needed, but done thoughtfully over time, that strategy is no longer wise or effective. I often tell young people and new entrepreneurs that intelligent “yes’s” set the foundation for opportunity in your twenties or in the early stages of business, but in your 30’s and secondary stages of business, “No” is what creates the best sources of opportunity and income. This idea, of course, is much easier to understand than apply. To the vivacious soul, “yes” is an addictive preference. Perhaps I’ll write a more extensive blog post on this at a later time.
Nonetheless, I’ve been on a crusade this year — both in business and my personal life — to redefine boundaries and more effectively systemize the many projects in perpetual orbit. The struggle to adhere to the theme is real, but as we near the end of Q3 2016, the results and rewards are undeniable and extremely satisfying. The sense of being in a state of reaction is waning. Control and peace of mind are returning while offering a surge of creativity and general happiness that I didn’t even know was MIA.
My theme this year has been pivotal. I know I will look back in 10+ years with immense gratitude that I somehow managed to marry ambition with strategy and restraint. As a closing note, I’d venture to say that most ambitious people could benefit from “Mission: Simplify” — at least for a year.
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QUOTED:
“We’re seeing a widespread Bradley effect, which is when you tell a pollster you’re voting for someone, but you vote for somebody else.” – Josef Ansorge
“It’s a paradox … The unemployment rate is too high. Yet we’re seeing some tension in the labor market because unemployed people don’t have the skills employers demand.” – Valentin Bote, head of research in Spain at Randstad, a recruitment agency via Bloomberg (This problem is, of course, not limited to Spain. The “skill gap” will only become more exacerbated as AI and robots compete in the marketplace. I hope you’re ready.)
“What I can tell my daughter is that the world of unknowns before her is not so frightening as she thinks. Or, more accurately, it is less frightening than it is limiting – every choice freighted with the responsibility of eclipsing another choice: every road chosen a path not taken.” – Marina Benjamin
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INTERESTING READS:
Six secrets to true originality – A McKinsey & Co interview with Adam Grant
How the U.S. Patent Office Got So Screwed Up – Rocked by the velocity of tech change & roiled by “patent trolls” – via Popular Mechanics
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FASCINATING FACTS:
“The fact that U.S. consumers racked up a record-setting $34.4 billion in credit card debt during the second quarter of 2016 therefore represents serious cause for concern,” WalletHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou said in the new WalletHub Credit Card Debt Study. “This [was] the largest second-quarter debt build-up since at least 1986, when quarterly statistics first were logged.”
Today, sixty-two percent of millennials say they prefer urban living and by 2050, 60% of all people will live in cities.
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COOL TOOLS:
Planning to download iOS 10? Here are the 11 iMessage Apps You Should Download First via @WIRED
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FOR FUN:
We Take a Ride in the Self-Driving Uber Now Roaming Pittsburgh via @WIRED
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Hello Uncommoners,
Here's your random dose of intrigue — a collection of content, ideas, and resources that I've recently found mind tingling. Consume, skim, or skip at your leisure. Enjoy.