The most wonderful and simultaneously tragic thing about tumblr is its ability to be forgotten. Much has changed since my last post but most has remained true: I am still hilariously young (and have much to learn), yet the last year has been undoubtedly moving. Hope all is terrifically well. x
This quote is an excerpt from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s newest book, Onward. It is ridiculously inspiring.
“There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.
This is the kind of passionate conviction that sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn’t dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold.
‘Life is a sum of all your choices,’ wrote Albert Camus. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.”
Everyone makes mistakes. In his book, Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T Hallinan examines how and why we make mistakes in the first place.
What I took from the book was less about mistake-making and more about widening perspective. Individuals have a very narrow view of the world. Bombarded by information, we’re forced to take shortcuts.
“The eye is not a camera. It does not take “pictures” of events. And it does not see everything at once. The part of the visual field that can be seen clearly at any given time is only a fraction of the total. At normal viewing distances, for instance, the area of clear vision is about the size of a quarter. The eye deals with this constraint by constantly darting about, moving and stopping roughly three times a second.”
While this passage is about visual understanding, I would argue that it also a useful tool to understand how we sometimes limit or compartmentalize our experiences.
For example, consider the following perspectives as they relate to invigorating the economy. This is just one example of a larger difficultly I have with transferring experiences. I get so excited about one project that it becomes the answer.
In broader consideration, these things are all important. But, as Joseph T Hallinan says, “the part of the visual field that can be seen clearly at any given time is only a fraction of the total.”
I have a tendency to first, compartmentalize experiences and second, to view my current work as the answer to a wider problem (not just part of the answer). Reading Why We Make Mistakes reminded me of the importance of carrying skills, experiences, and mostly perspective from one job to the next adventure. I need to remember to draw on past experiences and widen my perspective with each new experience or change. Otherwise it’s not growth, it’s just change.
Speaking of change, the next book is Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
After reading Godin’s Linchpin, I started wondering/doubting if I had Linchpin status! I work really hard at my job and make it conscious focus to constantly improve, but let’s just say that I was due for a little encouragement.
On the suggestion of a friend, I picked up Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book hinges on a quiz that analyzes your strengths. I took the quiz, and here are my top 5. It is scarily accurate.
Now the trick is maximizing these and overcoming weaknesses. Which is why BOOK A WEEK #3 is Why We Make Mistakes.
- - -
You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution. You may prefer practical problems or conceptual ones or personal ones. You may seek out specific kinds of problems that you have met many times before and that you are confident you can fix. Or you may feel the greatest push when faced with complex and unfamiliar problems. Your exact preferences are determined by your other themes and experiences. But what is certain is that you enjoy bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory. Intuitively, you know that without your intervention, this thing—this machine, this technique, this person, this company—might have ceased to function. You fixed it, resuscitated it, rekindled its vitality. Phrasing it the way you might, you saved it. Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet—lots of them. The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike. You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable. “Wouldn’t it be great if …” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.Restorative
Woo
Strategic
Input
Futuristic
How to be happy.
I remind myself of this everyday. Change is never easy, but change is the way to happiness and fulfillment.
As part 1 of my BOOK A WEEK Series, I started reading Linchpin by Seth Godin.
Quickly, let me back up. I’m really getting old. And by old, I mean mid-20s. Time for some self-improvement. Plus, I just really miss reading. Inspired by my friend Meg’s 52 cups blog, I’m going to try to read one book a week and post something about the message that I take away.
I might not finish all of the books (actually, I’m off to a rough start, I skimmed part of Godin’s), I might get off track, life might get in the way, but I’m going to give it a try.
Which brings me to Godin’s Linchpin. One particular passage truly struck me:
“Organizations seek out people who are fearless, but go out of their way to weed out the reckless. What is the difference? Fearless doesn’t really mean ‘without fear.’ What it means in practice is ‘unafraid of things that one should not be afraid of.’ Being fearless means… being willing to take intellectual risks and to forge a new path. The fear is about an imagined threat, so avoiding the fear allows you to actually accomplish something.”
Godin goes on to ask “If you seek to become indispensable… ‘Where do you put the fear?’ Most of us feel the fear and react to it. We stop doing what is making us afraid, Then the fear goes away. The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds.” (Seth Godin, Linchpin, pages 64-65).
Taking risks is difficult. The reason is quite simple in an organization: people are afraid of messing up, costing the organization money, and getting fired. The reasons for being risk adverse in life, though, are a bit more complex. For me, it is getting derailed from my goals. But, if you don’t have a little fun along the way, make a few mistakes, what’s the point? Godin argues that in order to become fearless (in work, and I would argue, life), you have to harness those things that make you feel uncomfortable, tackle problems, and make mistakes. But be smart about it.
Since graduating in May, Lansing has been more than good to me. I have enjoyed my job, my friends, and the wonderful community of ‘doers’ here. But, I don’t think that I have been truly challenging myself to achieve more and be risk taking. (And the reason I haven’t been blogging? Things have been stagnant and a little boring.)
Part of the reason I haven’t been challenging myself is that I have been trying to focus on getting adjusted to post-grad life and being an adult in a college town. Which, I think was extremely valuable and necessary. Now that I am adjusted, though, I find myself wanting new life challenges. I have been afraid of messing up, and afraid of taking risks.
So in work and in life, I am trying to actively harness fears, tackle problems, and most importantly, actively take risks and make mistakes. I’m 23, now is the best time to be fearless and expect more.
Fear is hard to wrangle, but if I allow it to stand in the way of personal happiness and goals, my biggest fear of all will be realized: my fear of average. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty typical for Gen Y, right?
So, in the immortal words of Emerson, “Do what you are afraid to do.” I’ll let you know how it goes.
Carl Sandberg
The following article was featured in the Lansing State Journal on Sunday, October 10 as part of the “Mapping Michigan’s Recovery” series. Many thanks to Louise Knott Ahren for her journalistic abilities! We chatted about my awesome job, why I stayed in Lansing, and the mis-match between perception and reality of opportunity in our community. There is also a photo at the link above.
Brain drain: Perception of Michigan a problem with some
When Amanda VanderMeulen looks out the window from her office at Biggby Coffee headquarters, she sees a different Michigan than the one so many other young people see.
She sees a place of potential and progress.
A place where young talent and passion can meet opportunity and success.
A place that offers the lifestyle, support and - most important - jobs to the very people that experts say Michigan needs to revamp its economy.
And her advice to the state’s future leaders on how to plug the “brain drain” - the feared exodus of young graduates to other states - is quite simple.
Show them there’s a reason to stay, says VanderMeulen, 22, business development coordinator for Biggby.
“There are great things happening,” she says. “Above all else, Michigan is a place where you can start something.”
VanderMeulen is a leading voice in the “Love Lansing” movement - a growing Twitter-fueled cache of young professionals who have adopted Lansing as their home base and are almost evangelical in their promotion of the region.
Look, she says. Michigan definitely has problems. But one of the biggest - at least when it comes to attracting young people like herself - is pure perception.
“A lot of students don’t understand that there are jobs here,” she says.
VanderMeulen graduated from Michigan State University in May. When she started college, her vision for the future was set someplace far away.
Maybe Chicago or Washington, D.C. - one of those big cities that seem so shiny from afar.
But then she took a course about entrepreneurship in Michigan.
Everything changed.
“I realized that this is a great state,” she says.
She decided to stay here, no matter what. She interned, networked, got involved with local groups of other young people - an effort that paid off when she landed a much-coveted job in franchise development at Biggby, one of Michigan’s fastest growing companies.
“Every day, I get to help people start a business,” she says. “It’s so fun.”
The critical mass is there, she says. The grassroots Love Lansing momentum has happened on its own.
So it’s up to the next set of elected officials to make policy that supports what’s already there, she says.
Build incentives for companies to hire young workers, she says. Find ways to encourage the redevelopment of downtowns, where young professionals want to live.
But also recognize, she says, when it’s time to back off.
“There are forces larger than the Legislature or governor that are making our community better.”
Henry David Thoreau
[Mantain Perspective]
