Last week I shared the Radiolab episode titled “Dinopocalypse Redux” (it’s an awesome listen, check it out), which offers an entertaining version of the terrifying story of the end of all life on earth 63 million years ago.  Well, 99.9999% of life on earth died according to the New Yorker version of the story, “The Day the Dinosaurs Died“.

According to Quartz, June 30 is Asteroid Day because:

…on this day in 1908, an asteroid exploded over Tunguska, Russia, destroying hundreds of acres of forest. There are more recent examples: Last December, a larger asteroid broke apart over the Bering Sea with force 10 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It wasn’t tracked in advance, but a NASA satellite accidentally captured imagery of the fireball from space:

Space is super cool because it makes me feel small and life entirely random. More importantly, it’s frightening to note that we humans can not currently track asteroids that are life-threatening or species-killers.

Speaking of randomness, Rock, Paper, Scissors…I’ve wondered why we call this game: Ro Sham Bo. I’ve read it dates back to the Comte de Rochambeau, a French nobleman who fought against the British during the Revolutionary War, but I’m not so sure. According to the Anthropocene Reviewed Podcast, this game dates back to ancient China. The game has had many variations over the centuries, and it is likely a mispronunciation of a Japanese name for the game.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Anthropocene Reviewed Podcast, it’s where John Green reviews all manner of things on our human-centered planet on a five-star scale. John Green is the critically acclaimed author of “The Fault in Our Stars.” Listen to his review of Rock, Paper, Scissors (spoiler, he gives it 4/5 stars). I also recommend listening to his review of the Lascaux Paintings and the Taco Bell Breakfast Menu.

Notice the link above to the Rock, Paper, Scissors episode is to Castro.fm. I’ve been a podcast listener since before the first iPod was released; meaning, since before they were called podcasts. I’ve used a lot of podcast apps and I’ve been a long time user of Downcast. Castro.fm is my new absolute fav. Here’s another podcast tip for those of you in tech, “The Techmeme Ride Home” is an absolute can’t miss podcast.

Switching gears, Bessemer published “The 10 Laws of Cloud.” These are some great points. In particular, pay attention to the “5 Cs of Cloud Finance.” and it is a fact that “customer success is company success.” However, first-time SaaS entrepreneurs need much more basic advice. I usually advise them to: stop thinking about customer pain and product features; rather, figure out your distribution model. How will your distribution model provide you a competitive advantage? To figure this out think about who your key partners, influencers, critical first customers, and broadcasters. Befriend these people and create a disruptive distribution model. Otherwise, you better have access to $500 million to burn in order to get your business to scale.

Simon Sinek is the creator of the Golden Circle, which I’ve found to be enormously helpful over the years. I saw his tweet above this week. If you wish to have a successful team, trust is the most important ingredient.

Sinek studied the United States Marine Corp for insights on leadership. I recommend following my friend Matt Reiley. He’s a former Lt. Col. in the USMC and currently an executive at one of the world’s largest financial institutions where he runs cybersecurity. He recently wrote a series on leadership and transition where he shares his learnings from his military career that are relevant to the private sector in a series of useful and quite shareable lists.

I’m re-reading William Somerset Maugham’s “The Razors Edge“, which I selected for my book club (January 2018). I read this first when I was 13 or 14 years old and it profoundly impacted how I think about life. I watched the movie with Bill Murray again this week too and while no movie is as good as the book, it does have Bill Murray and I love it. Check it out, it’s on Amazon Prime and Netflix. Come to think of it, I take that back. In my opinion, “Game of Thrones” on HBO is better than the original books. I just do not need to read 40 pages describing people eating.

While on the topic of people who have profoundly impacted me, Alan Watts. I saw the above quote on Instagram and shared it with my daughter who loves music. This is why we love music because it creates an expanded present. If you’re looking for a good taste of Watts get “You’re It!: On Hiding, Seeking, and Being Found.” It’s only in audiobook, which is why I’m recommending this; Watts is a terrific orator.

Finally, according to the Morning Brew Newsletter:

• U.S. markets: Wall Street just closed out its best first half to a year in two decades, and the Dow hasn’t gained this much in June since 1938. What could go wrong?

Subscribe to Morning Brew because it’s really worth the 5 minutes read, but be sure to use my link. I want a coffee cup or t-shirt.

I’ll leave you with this thought:

Hanlon’s Razor—the idea that one should “never attribute to malice what can easily be attributed to stupidity.” Meaning that most of the bad things people do are not done out of evil…but simple incompetence. Not everyone is as well-educated as you, not everyone was raised to be responsible like you were, not everyone is as talented as you, and it is in this gap that you can find the explanations to most errors, most bad driving, most of the litter you see on the street, and most of the wrongs you feel have been done to you.

So, relax. Not everything is out to get you.

Throughout the week I capture notes on ideas that I find interesting, evocative, or thought-provoking. Here are my notes from last week.

——

I’m a student of leadership. One of the most educational reads, which is not about leadership, was “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”. I often recommend this book when someone asks for a great read. While it is not about leadership, It helps provide the context for how we humans are hard-wired to behave in groups and there are a lot of learnings about leadership to be found in looking at the history of our species.

Leadership, for me, is about serving those people whom you lead and I’ve written a lot about this in the past. I can’t recall what I was reading when I took these notes last week, but here are some thoughts on leadership that really struck me as being useful.

Great leaders inspire others to be their best selves, to have more confidence. Great leaders make others more comfortable to take risks, more willing to say something controversial. You can tell when a group has a great leader because they’re more willing to play. In short, great leaders create an environment that makes others better.

Often, people confuse charismatic leaders as being great leaders. These are two completely different things. Charismatic leaders inspire others to feel good about them, the leader. Great leaders inspire others to feel good about themselves, their ability, and instill confidence in those who follow them.

——

 

The Cynefin framework (/kəˈnɛvɪn/ kuh-NEV-in)[1] is a conceptual framework used to aid decision-making.[2] Created in 1999 by Dave Snowden when he worked for IBM Global Services, it has been described as a “sense-making device”.[3][4] Cynefin is a Welsh word for habitat.[5]

(Excerpt from Wikipedia)

What are the parts of the place that make it the place? The predictable ordered systems and random parts. HBR has an interesting article on this: “A Leaders Framework For Decision Making”

——

There are two kinds of people:
1. Good people
2. Good people in pain

——
Episode #518 of the Art of Manliness Podcast: The Quest for a Moral Life with David Brooks is an excellent listen. His latest book: “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life” is about the first mountain most humans attempt to climb is a career driven, ego-driven, materialistic one. The second mountain is about a spiritual and social journey many humans strive to climb near middle age. There’s a lot of great ideas in this podcast, I haven’t read the book yet.

Brooks speaks about one’s vocation and the importance of having one. He does not consider a vocation to be a job or career, but rather the unifying and organizing passion in a person’s life. To arrive at this he suggests writing down the four most beautiful moments in your life and drawing a line through them. What’s your vocation?

He also speaks about we, as individuals, facing a greatest generation moment. It’s not a world war, but rather more complicated global problems. For example the breakdown in the social fabric. I would add climate change as another global problem. that’s confounded by the break down in the social fabric. We should ask ourselves: what giant problem does society need to be solved? And what am I uniquely suited for helping with?

More information at the Aspen Institute: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/weave-the-social-fabric-initiative/

———

Dinopocalypse Redux by Radiolab is incredible. Imagine the world ending in less than three hours. Imagine every living thing on earth having their blood boil and die within 120 minutes. Turns out, this is actually the end of the dinosaurs and all most other life on earth about 63 million years ago. Dinosaurs lived for 100s of millions of years. Whereas, we humans have been around for a couple hundred thousand…It makes you feel pretty insignificant.

———-
A couple months ago, I started a new job at ServiceNow. I’m responsible for the Customer Workflows product. This is the first time I’ve worked in a matrix organization and the first time I’ve had a boss. So far, it’s been terrific. I’m learning a lot and it’s been great fun. One book that helped me get ramped up quickly was: “The First 90 days”. If you’re transitioning to a new company or a new role, it’s a useful read.
———
Ray Dalio has a terrific book I frequently recommend titled: “Principles: Life and Work”. They’ve been unpacking the principles outlined in his book on Instagram and it’s wonderful.

workprinciples

 

“This helps assure the quality of the probing (because others can make their own assessments), and it will reinforce the culture of truth and transparency.”
———

 

This is a repost of a podcast interview from Aug 31, 2016 that does a good job communicating how I think about business and sales.

Today’s episode features Aaron Fulkerson,  founder and the CEO of MindTouch, a provider of cloud-based software that uses product and support content to drive customer engagement and success. Aaron joined us to discuss how to crush it at sales through a no-selling approach, how to hire teams focused on doing “important work,” building a culture of sales leaders and why companies should approach the sales cycle as a “success cycle”.

Be a founder, even if you’re not the one who started the company. Do not be an employee. Why? Being a founder creates a more fulfilled work life for you and turns you into a high performer.

What do I mean by being a founder? It means you take ownership of your role. Do not just do what you’re told, but rather understand why you’re doing your work and why it matters to the organization. How is your impact being measured? Why is that important? What board-level initiative are you advancing? Understand the challenge or opportunity your work is addressing. If you understand this, then you can inform the solution you are delivering.

An employee shows up and does what she’s told. She doesn’t take the time to understand how her work advances the mission. She does her assignment and waits for the next. An employee is a victim of circumstance. An employee owns nothing and optimizes for minimal accountability. “I did what I was told.”

How many times have you witnessed an employee complete a project to the letter requested and completely miss the intent of the mission? A founder would never do this because founders take ownership.

There are two types of people. Those who float at sea and those who swim toward a goal. Obviously, the founder is in the latter group. Swimming toward a goal while always course correcting for the water’s currents.

How to be a founder:

1. Choose to be one.

2. Act like it.

How do you know that you’re acting as a founder?

You know the mission, your “managers intent,” and you’re actively tuning your actions to maximize impact.

You care less about what your work colleagues think about your importance and more about the impact you have on the mission.

You understand how your efforts compliment and fit with others, even those in other departments and teams.

You take risks and fail more than the employees.

I met Ed Viesturs, heard him speak, and had dinner with him. Ed summited Everest seven times (eleven attempts). He’s an incredible human who climbed the world’s fourteen tallest mountains — all over 8,000 meters, or 26,000 feet. He also created the highest grossing IMAX film in history ($300M). If you’ve read “Into Thin Air”, you know Ed. He also has several great books of his own.

Ed approached his expeditions as an exercise in risk management. He was hyper-focused and passionate about the process of climbing the mountain and getting back down. He learned that his successes were a “boring success” because he was able to consistently perform without tragedy and drama due to his focus on planning, preparation, and an ego-free approach to the expedition. When the conditions did not permit summiting, he didn’t perceive it as a failure. Failure was dying. He says: “it’s not a failure; it’s a non-success.” Where can you apply this concept in your life? Your business? Try it, it will liberate you.

Ed summited K2 with Scott Fisher and climbed with Rob Hall. Ed has accomplished what only five other people in the world have achieved (the fourteen tallest peaks), and he did this without supplemental oxygen! Ed racked up a more consistent record (two-thirds success rate compared to one out five) than the average mountain climber. However, because he has been a “boring success” story free of tragedy and drama, he’s lesser known. He’s what Brad Feld has called a “Silent Killer“.

Would you rather be a “boring success” or a well-known tragedy? I know which I prefer and this informs how I approach business and life.

Ed’s approach reminds me of a core value I hold dear: zanshin. James Clear does a terrific job explaining this Zen Buddhist concept, and I recommend the book “Zen in the Art of Archery“. Also, here’s a great summary of Zanshin: http://www.zen-buddhism.net/zen-concepts/zanshin.html 

Another inspiring statement Ed shared that pierced me to my core was:

“Impossible is good an excuse not to try. Think ‘barely possible’.”

Man, I love this guy!

I want to thank Eric Otterson of Silicon Valley Bank for organizing this event and dinner. Eric might be the most connected, and influential people in the tech industry in San Diego and SoCal. He’s also a great human.

Finally, here are choice quotes from Ed that I jotted down because they were just too good to forget. Ed, forgive me if I’ve inadvertently reworded some of these.

Don’t let ego or sunk costs kill you.

Summiting is only half the journey. #zanshin

People who succeed are those willing to pay the currency of toil.

It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Plan. Prepare. Do it well. Do it without ego. It’s what I call boring success.

If you don’t want to try something, impossible is a good excuse. We thought barely impossible.

Once you and your team make a decision, stick with it. Don’t be influenced by others’ group think.

Patience pays off.

Listen to the mountain.

The number one ingredient for success is passion. Because then you’re willing to be patient, persistent, and suffer.

Don’t regret your decisions. You can’t change it; so, there is no point in regretting.

It’s not a failure; it’s a non-success.

There’s no talent here, this is hard work

Americans believe too much in talent. We are the “Michael Jordan Generation”. People think Jordan was inherently talented, but what most don’t realize is that Jordan simply WORKED HARDER than anyone else. Everyone is looking for an excuse or a shortcut.

Of course she’s better at that than me, it’s “genetics” or raw talent. The flipside of that coin is: I’m inherently talented, reward me because I showed up and wrote some sh** on the whiteboard.

Bullsh**. They’re better than you because they worked harder than you. It’s tough to realize you’re not special, I know, but it’s true. Moreover, just showing up and thinking you’re talented doesn’t earn you a ribbon. You have to actually work. And if you want a ribbon, you have to work harder than anyone else.

Ideas and “whiteboarding” aren’t work. That’s direction finding. Thinking about a route west is not the same thing as pioneering a path through the wilds to the goldfields of California. You have to actually put in the work and take the risks. You have to actually make the arduous journey. And when you arrive, you’ve just begun. That’s when the real work begins.

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I love to read. Mostly I use Audible.com because my travel and exercise schedule make it easy for me to squeeze in as many books as possible. Every year I have a couple stand out books that I enjoy gifting to key advisors and mentors as a token of my gratitude for their help and advice over the year. 2015 was a great year for reading and there were so many great books that I had a tough time making my selection. While there were many stand-outs last year the two that topped my list were:

• “Sapiens; a Brief History of Humankind“, by Harari
• “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” by Wu.

Excellent reads! Both were mind bending. These books changed how I think about human nature, the nature of “progress” and the macroeconomics of business empires.

Here are some other great books from last year that stand out in my memory:

• “Elon Musk” by Vance
• “The Snowball” by Schroeder
• “Leonardo’s Brain” by Shlain
• “Zealot” by Azlan – wow, this was unexpected!
• “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Sinek – good read–it’s basically USMC–not as outstanding as “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Action”, but still a good read.

I hope you enjoy the reads. Please let me know your best reads of 2015 too.

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Having a creed creates a center or compass. It provides a true north for your efforts. There’s no point in working hard unless you know what you’re working for.