The Uncommon Life by Kent Healy

2012 in review

Kent Healy — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:22:08 +0000

It has proven to be true for me: Every year appears to pass faster than the previous year. I felt ambushed by January 1, 2013. Maybe you can relate.

If you’re a regular Uncommon Life reader you’ll know that each year I reflect on the previous year. The process helps me internalize lessons learned and appreciate progress that I would otherwise overlook while setting my sights on new goals in projects.

A quick glance at my 2011 review reminds of what an incredible year that was for me. Thankfully, I don’t use previous years as a yardstick for the next. As a TUL reader posted on the last post, I too find that approach more overwhelming than inspiring. Instead I set out to create an entirely new adventure for the New Year.

There are many ways to reflect and review life, but I tend to begin the process with two simple questions:

What went well?
And what didn’t go well?

As with any year, there were smooth seas and challenging seas. Overall, however, the year was fantastic.

What went well:

Maxims 4 Mavericks: I converted my previously existing blog into an entirely new platform for what I’ve called, “Paradigm bending pop art.” I worked long and hard to design the site to make it interesting and fun — and I’ve been pleased with the results. The bounce rate is low, the art has been viewed and shared in over 60 countries, and the average time a visitor stays on the site is about 4 minutes (not bad for a blog). I’ve also been surprised to tally up the amount of art I’ve created in just over half the year totaling 118 pieces.

Take-away 1: You can’t take art of out of an artist. Since starting this blog, I’ve realized how much I have missed this creative aspect of my life.
Take-away 2: Artistic pursuits help me combat stress while also stimulating my brain in ways that have helped me approach all areas of my life with a new found creativity.

Commissioned art: Maxims4Mavericks opened up some great creative opportunities for me. Through Maxims4Mavericks’ proprietary process, I worked with several companies and CEO’s to commission custom artwork and company logos, the most recent project with Peach New Media (see the art here).

Take-away: Working with other thriving companies in a creative capacity is rejuvenating. Note to self: Do this more often.

Travel: I may not have reached as many new countries in 2012 as I hoped, but I certainly can’t complain. Towards the tail end of the year there was a stretch of 90 days whereby only 6 days of it were spent at home. I visited London, Hungary, France, Tanzania, and Kenya — not to mention some great domestic locations including New Orleans, Boston, New York, and many more. The highlight, I must say, was Africa. What I saw and experienced there I will never forget. As a lover of technology and photography, I challenged myself to make my trip an “iPhone Safari” limiting most of my photography to the use of my iPhone. It was fun. Check out some of the pictures here.

Take-away 1: The marriage of “travel and work” continues to be my preferred MO. My approach to traveling rarely, if ever, fits the common definition of vacation. Most often I am working (or as I prefer to say, “creating”) at the same time. As I wrote in a previous review, “Mixing travel and work is more gratifying than setting aside rare and infrequent trips with the purpose of idle relaxation.” Even while in my safari van, for example, I wrote about 25 blog posts on my iPhone. (I know, I’m strange.)
Take-away 2: I still don’t know where my travel tolerance maxes out. Living out of a suitcase for the majority of the year never tired me. This is both good news and somewhat scary news. If I truly had no reason to have a “home base of operations” would I ever stop traveling? I guess that answer is TBD.

Embracing life: In 2012 I set out with a philosophy in mind: Work hard; play hard. In other words, I wanted to be more “present,” whether I was working or relaxing. I feel I came leaps and bounds in this area after a crazed Type-A approach to life in 2011. I set many challenging work-related and leisurely goals and set out to transition between them with less psychological overlap. It was an interesting micro experiment in Zen. Some of my findings and techniques I share here.

Take-away 1: If you don’t create your own boundaries other people will. There will always be more work available to fill your schedule. Therefore, it’s imperative to schedule fun — and leave the work behind. I realize this may appear somewhat contradictory to my thoughts in the “Travel” section. I assure you, it’s not. Many times, my “leisure” is made of shorter bursts of time consisting of a few hours (not days, or weeks). But it’s up to each of us to find what meets own needs.
Take-away 2: Being more present means learning to grab hold of the emotions that serve you best. When we can hold onto and focus on a constructive emotion, it expands and intensifies while other less desirable emotions begin to dissipate. In other words, emotions are either fed and sustained or ignored and dissolved.

Real estate: I streamlined and simplified my Lost Boys Project business structure and operations, which has substantially cut expenses and freed up company time and resources. The same could be also said for my CA based real estate company, Healo Capital. We acquired several new exciting assets and strengthened our core-competencies setting the stage to scale well in 2013.

Relationship building: I’m happy to say I expanded my social network of fun, impressive, and inspiring entrepreneurs in CA and beyond. Spending more time with ambitious, like-minded people has placed a fantastic gust of wind in sails. Hat tip to The Young Entrepreneur Council for introducing me to many of them.

What didn’t go well:

The Uncommon Life: I feel disappointed that I could not produce more content for this blog over the past 12 months. I immensely enjoy exploring and analyzing topics in depth. The challenge is, it’s cognitively demanding and time consuming. Writing 1,000+ word analytical essays after my typical 12 hour work days is just… well, not feasible. I will continue posting content on The Uncommon Life, but I also must come to terms with the fact that I simply cannot post as much as I would like. I could make the posts shorter and less “polished” and thorough, but I am a firm believer in maintaining a high standard of continuity. With that said, I would still like to share more with you. So, I have decided to start a 3^rd blog that is better suited for my currently life. The posts will be shorter, more frequently, and also, more personal. I will be launching this blog very shortly.

Writing projects: Similar to my point above, I have found it troublesome to tackle some of my larger writing projects such as the final parts of Be Uncommonly Productive and a couple more ebooks I have partially written. It pains me to see books sit half written, but considering everything on my plate, some compromises must be made.

Life balance: I must be careful here. For the most part, I would not change a thing about how I chose to live 2012. However, there were several extremely demanding times, which resulted in high stress and degraded health. It’s a long known problem of mine: I overcommit to too many things — especially during times I feel great and have a temporary lull in my workload. I often underestimate the cost of diminished mental clarity/creativity and infrequent sickness.

Take-away 1: Understand that work is cyclical. Be prepared or you’ll catch yourself overcommitted and overworked.
Take-away 2: The cognitive switch penalty is real. While drawing upon multiple skill-sets (from real estate to writing to art) and pursuing numerous unrelated goals has it’s benefits, it is also something I need to be careful of.

E-commerce: With the new addition of Maxims4Mavericks artwork, I now have an even large repertoire of content available to share and sell with the world, but I fail to do this effectively.

Take-away: As I wrote last year, “I am a creator at heart, not a marketer. I need a helping hand with promotion.” It seems little has change here. Ideally, I should find a marketing person to who can help me in this area. Bringing someone else on board would help me create and share more content and art with more people. If you know anyone, please contact me.

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Final thoughts: I can safely say that 2012 was a very worthwhile and . A close examination of my activities in 2012 has made me realize something interesting: A solid 35-40% of the work I did in 2012 won’t be required or repeated in 2013. With the right boundaries and systems in place, this should allow me to scale all of my existing businesses and allow me to spend more time with my wife, my family, and my close friends. It’s going to be a great year.

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Enough about me. What went well for you? Any lessons learned? Have a theme for 2013? (Haven’t thought about it? Here’s an outline to help get you started.) Would love to hear all about it in the comments section below.

Be uncommon,

Have we connected on:

You might also enjoy:

Other Uncommon Life posts
My free Maxims for Mavericks ebook
My Maxims 4 Mavericks blog (for more frequent, concise insights)

The perils of personal progress

Kent Healy — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:53:13 +0000

Common: Attempting to play “the game” better than the person next to us.

Uncommon: We all want to consider ourselves a “winner” — to be great at something—and to have someone recognize that greatness. But embedded in this thought process is the belief that greatness is measured on a comparative scale and that fulfillment follows closely behind such accomplishments.

I call BS on both accounts. As I’ve written earlier, success has nothing to do with being part of an “elite” group. Instead of trying to play the game better than other participants, the happiest, most innovative and “free” individuals I’ve met work to change the game itself. They operate by rules that change the rules.

A friend of mine, Charlie Hoehn, not only believes this is true, but his life is an eminent example of this theory in practice. Charlie is a true “uncommoner.” He’s travelled the world, spoken at TEDx Carnegie Mellon, written the highly popular manifesto Recession Proof Graduate, and has worked closely with many Mavericks such as Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, Ramit Sethi, and Tucker Max. You can learn more about him here.

Along his relatively short (still in his mid twenties) but admirable journey through life, Charlie has learned that if you get stuck playing the wrong game with the wrong yardstick, progress itself becomes a liability (Tweet this quote). But I’ll let him take it from here…

ENTER CHARLIE:

There is a constant sense that you are missing something, that you are incomplete. That somehow, you are not enough.

Many people will happily confirm this for you:

“You are missing something. You are incomplete. You’re not enough.”

Some are trying to sell you something, but many of them have that same feeling too, and they don’t want to be alone.

You begin searching for that something that you’re missing. Your purpose is to get that something so you can eventually be “enough.” There are levels you’ll need to complete first, and this will give you a sense of progress. That thing you’ve been missing is within your grasp…

Then, after a lot of hard work…

…you finally get it! It’s here! You’ve arrived…

But you don’t feel very different from how you’ve always felt. Then you begin to wonder if there is another something that you’re missing, and people say, “You’re not quitting already, are you? You’ve come so far!” So you think, okay, perhaps I’m still missing something. I’m still not enough. I’m still incomplete. There’s more work to be done.

So you put your head down again and double your efforts, because you need to get that “something.” And if you keep working, you’ll get there someday…

Someday, you’ll have the right amount of money, you’ll have the right job, you’ll have the right possessions and the right body and the right thoughts and the right skills and the right accomplishments and the right spirituality and the right love and the right marriage and the right kids and the right life.

Someday, if you keep working hard and playing our games, you can win.

You can be better than everyone else.

Seeking (pointless) Membership

While you’re playing our games, you must always view yourself as a member of one of three groups:

Best
Average, or
Worst

If you’re one of the best, you must keep that spot. And if you’re average, or one of the worst, you’ll need to work much harder so you can be one of the best. Also, in each group, there are “good guys” and “bad guys.” You are, naturally, one of the good guys. In these games, people are your pawns, allies, and competitors. They are not fellow humans; it is Us (You?) vs. Them.

You only have a few years to play, so you must work quickly to become one of “the best.” You will spend all of your energy trying to make your life fit a certain image, while assuring others that you’ve nearly achieved it. Accomplishments will be your fetish (obsession?), and everyone will applaud as you successfully make your way through each level. Your spontaneity and openness and joy will be replaced with seriousness — the seriousness that’s driving you to achieve this ideal life you’ve mapped out in your head. You must not slow down, because everyone else is playing this game too, and they don’t like it when you don’t take it as seriously as they do. Remember: Your life is to be conquered and won. Enjoyment is incidental.

But the progress you make feels like treading water. Nothing is ever enough to feel like you’re truly a part of “the best” group. A feeling of guilt sinks in with the growing suspicion that you are permanently in debt, that you’ll always owe the world for your existence. There is a cost to being here, and your struggle to justify your entitled existence on this planet doesn’t feel adequate. No matter how you play the game, it’s not totally clear whether you’re doing it right.

You begin to wonder, “Do other people understand the rules? Is everyone just faking it?”

One day, you’ll decide that it’s time to buckle down and really commit to winning this game, once and for all. You’ll proclaim that it’s your duty to earn your place, and this is the noble way to become one of “the best.” Everyone will pat you on the back for embracing your insanity, and you’ll find yourself congratulating and admiring those who take the game even more seriously than you do. If only you could be so serious! You’ll convince yourself that this life is not supposed to be fun or spontaneous. It must be won methodically, with a well-executed strategy. Each day requires sacrifice, and you must remind others how good you are at making these sacrifices in order to become one of “the best.”

And slowly, you forget, and you start to believe that this is all very real, that the outcomes of everything you do just have to be leading to an important… something.

But you’re not sure what that “something” is anymore. It’s changed its shape so many times, and you don’t even know if these rules will get you there.

Everything starts to feel like a game, even people. You tell someone you love them — not out of honesty — but because you feel like it’s the right thing to say, or because it will help you win some other game. Perhaps you can win your own game of being the nicest person you know. Or maybe you want to win the game of not being alone. You become a genuine fake. And when you actually feel real love, you dare not say it because of the problems it could create. You’ve been told that once you say it, you need to follow through, and that’s one more game you’ll need to win. For the rest of your life, you must align your feelings and behaviors with those words. Those are the rules! And what if your words are rejected? What if they laugh at you? You will lose that game, and you’ll need to start over.

And as the years pass, you completely forget that they are all just games, that you’re playing by rules that someone else made up. The rules are only important because we’ve all agreed to abide by them and wear ourselves down in the pursuit of becoming one of “the best,” of finding our missing something.

You start to develop this dreadful idea that adults are refusing to allow themselves what they really want — to just play and laugh and help one another, without any of the games. You start to think we’ve all conditioned ourselves to take our rules so seriously because we want to not be average. We want to not be one of “the worst.”

So until we can become one of “the best,” we will hold our heads high, and strike down those who stand in our way.

The games start to get old.

They aren’t as much fun once you see you’re running through an endless cycle of bigger and louder. You know that participating in a relentless competition to be one of “the best” is crazy. You see that no one is better than anyone else; we’ve all just been growing in and reacting to different environments that are out of our control.

Still, we try to convince each other that these games are all heading somewhere really wonderful and important for us. So we keep playing and playing and playing…

It’s too late to stop, because you are afraid of breaking the rules. You’ve wanted to win these games for so long, but there are people who are ready to throw you into a lower group. They were paid to tell people they aren’t playing by the rules, and that they’re already losing the game.

A teacher writes in red pen on your paper, and you think, “I’m a failure!”

A boss fires you, and you think, “I’m a loser!”

A doctor says your body has turned against you, and you think, “I’m diseased!”

A police officer shows up at your door, and you think ,“I’m a criminal!”

A soldier fires a gun, and you think, “I’m the enemy!”

A priest reads from a book, and you think, “I’m a sinner!”

All of them reinforcing the notion that you’re still missing something, that you are still not enough. That in spite of all you did, you still managed to fail. And above all, to fear what happens to those who aren’t one of “the best.”

So you fall back in line. You keep trying to beat the scam, while you attempt to mend your now broken self. Then one day, the games finally beat you.

And that’s the moment, when you can see the whole scene for what it really is, and… it’s funny. It’s crazy and weird… but it’s actually funny.

But now’s not the time. You must be reverent and solemn and serious and you must not laugh at our seriousness. You must shed a tear for your sins to show how sorry you are. You must wear yourself out and take our pills in order to get better. You must feel guilty about breaking the rules and admit that you’re a son-of-a-bitch. You must believe that your life is being supervised by someone who is always disappointed in you.

And you must remember that you cannot win these games, because these games will never end.

But here’s the kicker…

You are not missing anything. You are not incomplete. You are not broken. The endless search for something more, for that thing you’ve been lacking, is like looking behind a mirror. You’re chasing your own tail.

And you are not winning or losing any sort of game. There’s no true “progress” to be earned by you or anyone else, because you have always been enough. You are fundamentally acceptable as you are. You are IT. You simply refuse to accept that there’s nothing more to become, EVER, because that’s the culture you were raised in, and the games are very important to us. We let them define who we are.

Every hoop you choose to jump through gives you a sense that you’re moving forward, but your chase will never end — there will always be a new game waiting for you at the finish line.

Eventually, you have to figure out how to free yourself from the struggle of becoming something more. To let go and just… be.

Life is not supposed to be viewed as an endless competition, and it’s not supposed to be taken so damn seriously, no matter what anyone says. There is no “best” way to live, you can’t make mistakes (even though you can still be punished), and there is definitely no such thing as “them.”

This is all just a crazy dream. It’s a ride. And not one second of it has ever been in your control, no matter how much your ego rationalized it or how convincing your life appeared. Every moment has been uncalculated; there is no past to regret, and no perfect future to carefully plan for. There’s only now.

When you can really remember that and feel it, you start to let go of the struggle. You can stop playing games and avoid the perils of personal progress. You can just be.

And that’s when your life starts being fun again. That’s when you can reclaim it as your own.

###

Charlie blogs at: http://charliehoehn.com/ Connect with him. You won’t regret it.

Be uncommon,

Have we connected on:

You might also enjoy:

Other Uncommon Life posts
My free Maxims for Mavericks ebook
My Maxims 4 Mavericks blog (for more frequent, concise insights)

One emotion at a time – A practical philosophy for conquering fear

Kent Healy — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:48:50 +0000

Common: To view one’s natural emotional tendencies as impulsive, fleeting, and simultaneous.

Uncommon: I grew up with what appeared to be several innate and undefeatable fears: Heights, claustrophobia (enclosed spaces), and public speaking among the worst of them. Perhaps you can relate to one or more.

After 12 years of willingly subjecting myself to numerous psychological theories and tests and observing the effects, the work in my mental dojo has allowed me to make what I feel is major progress towards mental liberation.

Some examples include giving hundreds of speeches in multiple countries, spelunking in dark, cold, wet caverns hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface, bungee jumping, and most recently, skydiving.

A few weeks ago I not only brought myself to jump out of a plane, I found skydiving to be one of the most serene, calming, and rejuvenating experiences of my life. Why (and how) the extreme pendulum shift? I’ll tell you.

But I should also mention the obvious: I am certainly not the only person who has triumphed over intense personal fears. If one is committed enough he or she will find a solution — and there are many different solutions. I simply want to share one technique amongst a world full of methodologies that has worked well for me. Well, to be accurate, it’s more of a philosophy.

One moment, one emotion (OMOE)

While psychologists remain relatively divided on the topic, I’ve chosen to adopt the concept that impacts my life in the most constructive way possible — and that is the following fundamental belief:

We can only experience one emotion in any given moment

This simple concept is the crux of this post, and the root cause of my emotional liberation. Personally, I have come to believe that while we may experience rapidly alternating emotions in hundredths of a second, emotions do not occur simultaneously. As a rule, emotions are solitary and pure.

For example, I don’t believe we can feel truly excited and sad or confused and certain or fearful and confident at the exact same moment in time. This is also true for more analogous emotions such as disappointment and anger or satisfaction and elation or fear and excitement. We may ‘label’ our emotions differently, but you get the idea.

More on this shortly, but first, a corresponding belief that helps us better understand and make use of the preceding principle:

Where attention goes, energy flows.

In other words, emotions are either fed and sustained or ignored and dissolved (Tweet this). This is a critical detail I’ll also revisit.

Serenity and gravity

When the opportunity to skydive presented itself several months ago, my instinctive response was naturally excitement and nervousness (independent of each other, of course ☺). I immediately recalled my bungee jumping experience. Using the “one emotion at a time” principle I brought myself to jump 192 meters off of a building in Auckland, New Zealand. It wasn’t easy, but I did it.

With that said, this bungee jumping event took place 5 years ago. After several years of practicing the “one moment, one emotion” (OMOE) method, I was curious to, once again, test it with an activity as intense as skydiving.

Sure enough, when I was finally sitting on the plane ascending 12,500 ft into the sky, I was able to fully grasp (and hold) emotions of excitement, absent of fear and apprehension. All internal butterflies had migrated elsewhere. In fact, to my surprise, they never showed up that day.

Admittedly, it was an eerie, but wonderful state of calm. My only unease came when I was critically aware of my lack of fear. The derailing thoughts began on a couple brief occasions:

Shouldn’t I feel at least a little bit concerned?
What if I’m not prepared to respond in an emergency situation?
Is this a bad sign/omen?”

Catching myself atop of this slippery slope, I pulled the reins by realizing my analysis was merely directing attention towards uncertainty — a philosophical territory on which nothing positive can be built. I reminded myself not to focus on questions and answers, but rather the feeling (or the one emotion) I wanted to increase.

This has nothing to do with some machismo state of denial or inflated egotism. I felt like myself. I was in the moment. And it was fantastic.

Specifics and disclaimers

Now for the important question: why are these two ideas important and how can you use them?

Accepting that we can experience only one emotion at any given moment allows us to identify the most constructive emotion in a sea of emotional noise. Then, we can hold onto it mentally, which leads to point number two.
When we can hold onto and focus on a constructive emotion, it expands and intensifies while other less desirable emotions begin to dissipate. Or to restate my earlier quote: emotions are either fed and sustained or ignored and dissolved.

There are few more concepts that may help you apply the OMOE method I will explore in the final part of this post, but the most common and immediate response I receive at this point is:

“But it’s just so difficult to hold onto one emotion when I feel so many intense emotions.”

Yes, it’s also difficult and frustrating to communicate with someone who speaks a language you aren’t familiar with. Emotions are a language of their own. But, like any skill, the ability to identify and cultivate an emotion is a learned ability. Not knowing this, some view the OMOE method as idealistic. The commonality among these individuals is a lack of existing mental discipline. As a result, without personal experience to draw from, the concept seems unrealistic.

With that said, I think we can all agree on one thing:

If you cannot control your mind, you’ll control little else.

(Tweet this quote)

Yet, unless you have decided to practice some form of meditation or the like, mental discipline is not a skill that is often taught. This is a real shame because without mental stability and mastery, there is no stability or mastery in other parts of life.

I’ll admit, “controlling our emotion” is quite an overwhelming prospect. In fact, it’s like trying to fasten a seatbelt to your shadow. But fortunately, attempting to “control emotion” would be a misinterpretation of OMOE. Many emotions appear naturally when we encounter unsuspected or significant circumstances. The OMOE method won’t eradicate rational or irrational knee-jerk emotional responses embedded in one’s personality, but it does offer a way to consciously cultivate a constructive or desirable emotion while under personal duress.

And need I even mention that the more often we enjoy mental clarity and fortitude the better off we’ll be in every pursuit in life? Anyone who has accomplished truly uncommon results or is routinely happy has achieved mental obedience using various tips and tricks they’ve mastered over time.

A final thought on defeating fear

Fear has been defined in many poetic ways over the course of history. To do so again here seems redundant. Instead, I’ll share one final observation about fear that has helped me master the OMOE method and conquer fear.

With the very, very rare life-threatening exception, fear resides only in the past (revisiting past memories) and the future (worrying about a possible negative outcome).

For this reason, OMOE teaches us to be more “present” — to build on the stream of present moments before they become history. When truly grounded in the present, fears from the past or future become irrelevant.* Fear creeps in from either side of the present moment (Tweet this).

What OMOE is and isn’t

OMOE is not about summoning reserves of personal willpower to perform acts of valor with deep reluctance. OMOE is not about controlling emotions we do not wish to experience. In fact, the opposite is true. It’s about ‘choosing’ the emotion we want to feel and fueling it.

OMOE capitalizes on the peace of mind that can only be summoned while being the moment. It’s about feeding the desired emotion so the negative alternative starves. It’s a philosophy that can help you guide your emotional experience through learned mental discipline that leads to authentic emotions.

Unless you are an enlightened Monk, life will never be devoid of fear, but that doesn’t mean you can’t replace a large percentage of those frightful moments with feelings of gratitude, excitement, and bliss. Whether walking on stage, asking someone on a date, or jumping out of a plane, you don’t need to be a victim of your own emotional storms. Instead, you can take the world by storm by grabbing emotional reins fastened to the present.

Your thoughts?

Do you agree? Disagree? What have you found to be effective in conquering fear?

Be uncommon,

* This should not be interpreted as a suggestion to never reflect graciously on past moments or disregard future plans. There is a time for reflection and long term planning, but putting the OMOE method into practice means choosing to be in the moment in that moment. And finally, it is entirely possible to focus on and appreciate the present moment while being pulled toward an exciting vision of the future.

Have we connected on:

You might also enjoy:

Other Uncommon Life posts
My free Maxims for Mavericks ebook
My Maxims 4 Mavericks blog (for more frequent, concise insights)

The unreasonable power of embracing paradox – How uncommon results are birthed

Kent Healy — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:03:01 +0000

Common: The belief that the path to great success is paved with compromises.

Uncommon: It’s my hope that this post unravels this common assumption about success because, left unaddressed, it becomes a subtle psychological gash that hemorrhages one’s hope (and chances) of producing extraordinary results.

I believe most readers of this blog want to experience an uncommon life of their own making. But such a pursuit is often met with common advice that, well, leads to a very common life. If you’ve shared your “unreasonable” ambitions with the world, then chances are you’ve likely encountered counsel that fits the following model:

In order to get ‘x’ you must be prepared to give up ‘y.’

It’s the classic case of a false dichotomy — the misleading presentation of a situation in which only two alternatives are offered. We’re taught that we can have one OR the other, but never both.

Bending the paradigm

For many of us, two things have been drilled into us. The belief that:

Exceptional rewards are found in the extreme commitment of a single ideal.
An extreme commitment to a single ideal creates an inevitable and uncomfortable tradeoff

So what often happens as a result of these two beliefs? Most people either:

Accept that a tradeoff must be made and move onward, or…
Change their goal (Beware the ‘reasonable’ dreamer: compromise begets compromise).

But fortunately, there are some who don’t see compromises as inevitable… these unreasonable few have given us much to be grateful for in our world. Essentially, they invent rules that change the rules. Accordingly, George Bernard Shaw made the following observation:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

But don’t misinterpret this quotation. ‘Unreasonable’ does not necessarily mean rebellious. And it doesn’t mean going against the grain for the sake of being oppositional. Nor does it mean making unreasonable compromises. In fact, it means quite the opposite: NOT compromising in the face of paradox. Read this carefully…

The unreasonable game-changing individuals in the world enjoy uncommon results because they have developed an ability to uphold seemingly contradictory ideals at the same time.

One of the greatest American writers of the 20^th century, F. Scott Fitzgerald, once asserted:

The mark of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in your mind at the same time.

Turns out, this has only become increasingly true in the fast-paced and fractured world of today (keep reading to learn why).

Values are not for trading

The only inescapable tradeoff of paradox (and life) is opportunity cost in the form of time (there are only so many hours in a day). But this tradeoff does not and should not need to be a tradeoff of values. In fact, unreasonable people don’t make such compromises. I would go so far as to say that if the pursuit of a goal requires abandoning one’s core value, then the goal itself is worth reexamining.

The truth is, values and success need not become inevitable contradictions. Indeed, it’s the synergy of many contradictions that produce extraordinary results.

Not surprisingly then, leading an uncommon life requires the co-existence of differing, but complementary, values. For instance…

We must be incredibly focused and flexible.
We must be imaginative and grounded.
We must be cautious and take risks.
We must be suspicious and optimistic.
We must appreciate a home base and venture away from it.
We must focus on profit and value.
We must embrace competition and cultivate community.
We must appreciate predictability and learn to live with chaos.
We must understand the facts and value intuition.
We must be incredibly driven and live unhurried.
We must seek growth and sustainability.
We must appreciate tradition and be innovative.
We must value choice and simplification.
We must evolve and embody timeless fundamentals.

Take any example from the list above, focus on ONE value in the equation, and imagine pursuing a meaningful life/business/relationship with the absence of its contrarian counterpart. What do you get? A common, tiresome, often unsustainable result.

How paradox changes the world

There have been countless people whose immense success can be traced to the embodiment of seemingly paradoxical beliefs and values. It was the apparent contradiction that separated them from the noise. Some examples…

Abraham Lincoln: Freedom and unity.
Tony Hsieh (Founder: Zappos): Exceptional service and profit.
Richard Feynman (Nobel prize winning scientist): Extreme discipline and fun.
Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix (founders of Cirque Du Soleil): Tradition and innovation.
Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley (Founders: Kiva Microfunds): Individual capitalism and International economic stimulus.
Albert Einstein (Nobel prize winning scientist): Science and imagination.
Jimmy Wales (Founder: Wikipedia): Egalitarianism and regulation.
Howard Schultz (Founder: Starbucks): Scalability and community.
Bill Gates (Founder: Microsoft): Paranoia and optimism.
Salman Khan (Founder: Khan Academy): Education and gratis (free of charge).
Blake Mycoskie (Founder: TOMS Shoes): Profit and charity.
Jeff Bezos (Founder: Amazon): Immense variety and low cost (the long tail).
Richard Branson (Founder: Virgin): Business and adventure.

Name any incredible leader or company, and you will likely find two seemingly contradictory beliefs and values at their core. For these individuals, embracing these dichotomies is not a source of considerable cognitive dissonance, but rather, immeasurable inspiration.

Your turn…

We should never assume that a paradox indicates an either/or scenario. In many cases, the best option could be ‘and.’

As Scott H Young wrote, “Sometimes tradeoffs appear to exist simply because you haven’t seen an example that violates your assumptions.” It may be time to revisit your assumptions about the origin and engine of uncommon success so your tradeoffs become trade-ups.

How can you turn the values you’ve been taught to segregate into an engine of unreasonable drive that changes your world — and perhaps, the world for everyone else?

Your thoughts?

Do you agree? Disagree? What has been your experience in marrying paradox?

Be uncommon,

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A recent collection of artfully uncommon musings

Kent Healy — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:38:31 +0000

I know, my recent absence has been abominable. But I have not been MIA without taking my creativity with me.

In fact, I’ve actually been quite busy creating and sharing thoughts for an uncommon life. Those who subscribe to my other blog, Maxims4Mavericks, know exactly what I’m talking about.

Roughly three times per week I have been sharing concise advice alongside a colorful, thought-provoking image — or as I call it, “paradigm bending pop-art.”

Below are some of those posts (all titles are links) I have shared in the past few weeks that may help you lead an uncommon life:

Nonconformity:

Creativity:

Success & Inspiration:

Business:

You can visit the Maxims4Mavericks site here and if you wish, you can subscribe to these Maverick posts with the click of a button.

Be uncommon,

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The raw truth about finding your passion

Kent Healy — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:10:25 +0000

Common: Believing that passion strikes us serendipitously and miraculously changes our life for the better.

Uncommon: Take a quick gaze into the world of non-fiction literature and there is one word that cannot be ignored: passion.

Authors, speakers, leaders, and gurus use this word with a near religious application – as though it’s the alchemist’s secret to wielding the famed Midas touch. They preach that passion is an indispensable part of personal success and happiness.

Based on this introduction, you might be surprised to read this next statement: I agree with them. Passion is one very important element (of many) that produces extraordinary results.

What frustrates me (and many people who read these statements about passion) is that the process to attaining this ‘transformational’ passion is often overlooked or described as though the Gods endow it. Either way doesn’t help.

The wrong prognosis:

Here’s the fundamental issue: We’re led to believe that we’ll find passion so long as we are hopeful it will one day arrive.

Not surprisingly, this belief or assumption is often behind the most common question (aka complaint) I hear:

“I know I could be successful, but I just haven’t found anything I’m passion about. I need something that makes me come alive. So how can I find my passion?”

And here’s this comment translated: “I don’t have the passion to succeed.”

Yes, I said it. I know this will sting for a few people out there. But I’m not sorry. Why? This is what needs to be said to eventually enjoy a life of passion.

Now let me explain why…

Searching vs. doing:

It’s time to stop ‘searching’ and start ‘doing.’ And no, they are not the same thing. Looking for passion is not akin to searching for a solution to a problem or a new business opportunity because passion isn’t ‘identified’ in the same way.

Searching for your passion is not ‘proactive;’ it’s actually quite passive, because embedded in the pursuit is the erroneous belief that when seen it will be immediately recognized. The reality is that a life-long passion is most often revealed through working passionately on something you have immediate access to. That may mean your less-than-gratifying job. And no, these are NOT words encouraging the sustenance of a lackluster status quo (more on this shortly).

Sure, some people do ‘stumble upon’ their passion in life… And if you believe the lotto offers favorable odds, then by all means keep believing that tomorrow your passion will appear.

For those who would like to increase their odds of living a passionate life, I suggest you stop indulging in the following traps:

Waiting for your passion to reveal itself by way of haphazardly observing your current daily life while you work half-heartedly on dispassionate things.
Doing things (anything and everything) half-assed because they don’t excite you.
Conserving your time and energy, believing that when your passion arrives you’ll be ready to grab life by the horns and start ‘really living.’
Believing that along with passion comes so much motivation that releasing it will simultaneously change all of your prior unconstructive habits.

The sobering facts:

Before passionate (and successful) people find their true life’s passion, they are passionate about doing great work – whatever that work entails. On but rare occasions is the subject matter alone the cause or origin of passion.

Instead, the origin of their passion can be traced to two related things:

The personal interest they have in being great that precedes increased competence and increased enjoyment.
The level of proficiency they develop that reveals worlds of new personal and professional opportunities for them to meet inspiring people and become exposed to options, alternatives, and ideas they didn’t know existed.

The worst thing someone can do is stay in neutral, waiting to ‘pull the trigger’ until they can pull it passionately. Waiting for the perfect moment to commit 100% to something they think they will be passionate about is the ideal recipe for passing life up.

If you already have an area of interest, then choosing your direction and choosing to commit shouldn’t be a problem. If, however, you’re not 100% sure what direction is ‘right’ (like the majority of us), then chose what you think or feel may be the best available option and throw yourself into the pursuit of excellence in that area.

You will be much, much better off committing to succeed in a single direction (even if it’s not as glamorous as your 5th grade visions of adult life) than you will be doing everything with a reserved effort in a pounce-ready position.

The critical factor here is remaining flexible and bold as you move ahead – to explore and attempt personally intriguing avenues and opportunities with enough time and effort to thoroughly test your level of engagement.

Yours for the taking:

So please…. stop waiting to be swept up by a Hollywood injection of divine inspiration.

Despite what we’re taught, passion can be both cultivated and created – but it’s far from the passive process of standing by observing life with dispassionate eyes.

Apart from the rare exceptions (that, for better or worse, also get the most exposure), one’s true passion in life is most often preceded by a passion to do excellent work.

And it all begins, somewhat ironically, with an often self-initiated passion to become passionate about giving your all. But what may begin as a rigorous, conscious effort, will most likely lead you to a life rife with what we all wish to have: passion.

Be uncommon,

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The ‘exchange of value’ solution – And something you may not know about me

Kent Healy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:24:06 +0000

Common: Listening to advice and temporary barriers that bury inner passions.

Uncommon: If you’ve read my work before you’re probably aware of my past in publishing, writing, public speaking, and if you know me really well, my real estate endeavors. But there is another part of my past that you probably don’t know about.

I love drawing and design. A lot.

I’ve designed most everything having to do with Cool Stuff Media, Inc., The Uncommon Life, and Maxims for Mavericks. What most people don’t realize is that this love for art began at a young age conquering coloring books and sketch books with an unusual fervor.

I wasn’t a natural born prodigy, but I was committed – and passionate. As a young teenager and mediocre academic student, I clung to my interest in art for creative stimulation. The pages of my schoolbooks were barraged with sketches and fictional company logos. Despite my math teacher’s disenchantment with my artistic efforts, my passion and tenacity began to pay off. In high school, to my complete surprise, I experienced national success and recognition for my efforts in art and design classes.

The passion paradox

I enjoyed art, but I also needed pocket money – and I had no idea how to capitalize on my new found ability. After hearing the many disappointing stories of struggling artists (even as a young teen) I almost wrote off my artistic interests as an impoverished hobby.

But I also had an another unrelated and, what soon became a surprising, complementary passion: Surfing.

At age 14 I had my heart set on a custom shaped surfboard. The problem? I couldn’t afford one. To add to my frustrations, I was well aware of the cruel irony these two challenges presented to me. I wanted to create art and surf, but I couldn’t earn money from one and could not afford the other. Sigh.

Turning goals into value-add opportunities

Finally realizing that my pouting only accentuated the lack in my life, I had an epiphany (unknown to me at the time). I was so focused on money itself that I had limited my perceived possibilities. As a young teenager, the observation didn’t occur to me in such explicit terms, but there was a shift in my thinking that helped me recognize I could accomplish my goals without money itself. “It may not be a long term play,” I said to myself, “but it’s definitely a stepping stone in the right direction.”

This mental shift allowed me to recognize an opportunity to create an ‘exchange of value’ (now my shorthanded definition of entrepreneurship). And what began as ‘bartering’ led to much more business opportunity later on.

When looking at things from a value-add perspective I started noticing ways I could use my abilities to create win/win outcomes. For example, the surfboard company I wanted to have shape my new custom board had a crappy logo (hey, it’s the truth). And I knew I could provide something better.

Business time

Drawing from my very limited knowledge of ‘business’ I pictured myself storming into the company wearing a black pin-striped business suit and an iron-pressed white button-up shirt to give my pitch: “A custom surfboard for a new brand logo. Capiche?”

In reality, I was scared to death (and I didn’t even own a business suit). But you can’t stand between a surfer and his passion to surf so the conversation between the company owner and myself was inevitable.

I remember staring at the old grey building from my parent’s car trying to summon the courage to approach their front door. I walked forth standing upright, hoping my body language would fool my mind into thinking confidently (thankfully for me, it worked). I flicked through my compilation of previous sketches and design work that I created to entertain myself over the previous year.

It certainly wasn’t my most dexterous communication at play, but my passion must have peered through my awkward verbal fumblings. I walked out with a deal. Two months later, still 14 years old, I was surfing my brand-new board, signed to me personally by the company owner. And I got to see my logo on the boards of those I looked up to as surfers.

To say the least, I was elated. I then sought out companies and organizations that I thought I could provide a new corporate identity at a very affordable price. My portfolio began to grow and getting more business (yes, for actual money) became easier and easier. It was a fun period in my life and a great way to earn money on my schedule.

This string of events taught a few simple, but powerful lessons that have since shaped my life tremendously:

You’re never too young (or old) to pursue business goals.
Passion trumps talent. You may not be born with the makings of a prodigy, but that has no bearing on your long term success if your passion for excellence cannot be extinguished.
Money can be motivating, but it also tends to limit what we perceive as possible. When focusing on how your existing talents and abilities can add value to others, many more opportunities reveal themselves. These opportunities may not be noticeable immediately, but with time and commitment, they always surface.
Just because you start small, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy large success later on.
Seemingly unrelated passions can work together. In fact, several times in my life, it was having multiple passions that has led to many of my most interesting life and business experiences.
There is nothing more invigorating than leading a life infused with passion that simultaneously adds value to others.

I hope that you too, can benefit from these simple life lessons in the same way I have. Now, more than ever before, thousands and thousands of people are discovering creative ways to capitalize on their passions. There’s no reason you can’t either. In most cases, we don’t need ‘more ability;’ we just need a renewed gust of wind in our sails to keep believing in the dream and to keep taking action.

Wishing you all the best in your own personal pursuit of the uncommon,

- Kent

PS: So what happened to my interest in art and design?

After staring my own surf company in my mid teens and enjoying it’s near immediate success, I painfully watched it fail 18 months later. This expereince taught me that my conventional schooling was not offering the important life-skills necessary to become successful in the real world.

Frustrated and inspired, I devoured hundreds of non-fiction books, attended seminars, and interviewed people I considered to be successful. Driven to share my profound discoveries, experiences, and life-lessons I teamed up with my brother to write my first book and start my publishing company, Cool Stuff Media, Inc. Engulfed by my passion to help other young people I somewhat shelved my artistic cravings… until recently.

In January, after almost a year of writing about creativity on my other blog Maxims for Mavericks, I challenged myself to be more creative. The result involved marrying my long buried love for art with my passion to share thought-provoking content. In a few days, I’ll be revealing the NEW Maxims4Mavericks (M4M) website and I hope you’ll check it out and perhaps join the M4M email list here.

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How playing dumb makes you smarter

Kent Healy — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:28:51 +0000

Common: Taking the initial and/or frequent comments as the whole truth and consequently being led astray.

Uncommon: Live long enough and you’ll likely agree there is A LOT of misinformation and misaligned incentives in this place we call the ‘real world.’ Sometimes the intention is malicious, other times it’s ignorance, and sometimes it’s a matter of stretching the truth. If we’re honest, we can all admit to being guilty of pretending to have the answer or backing our sentiments with baseless confidence.

Why? No one likes to be wrong. This predisposition is hard wired within us, so let’s explore a solution that helps improve our own intellectual prowess while simultaneously identifying half-truths and making course corrections.

The inability to remove the husk from the kernels of feedback, advice, and information we receive each day prevents us from achieving real success in our personal lives, relationships, and professional lives. There are several ways to extract facts from a soupy sea of fiction, but one of the most effective, benevolent ways to do this is by playing dumb.

Smart detectives play dumb

Of the countless non-fiction books and biographies I’ve read about powerful leaders, I’ve noticed a trend that is often glossed over: Successful people are excellent, but also sly, detectives. We overlook this because we slap an over-simplified label on the ability to make good critical decisions. Yes, there’s more to it than mere ‘intuition.’

Socrates, Einstein, Mother Teresa, JFK, Peter Drucker, and thousands more were very well known for their penetrating use of questions.

Another great example is Steve Jobs, who was often recognized for his ability to make insightful, high-risk decisions. Throughout his biography, the author cites many meetings and crucial encounters with members of team and his competition. This is not overtly identified by the author, but it is a recurring theme: Jobs was relentless in asking questions — but not necessarily the creative, cunning, and deep intellectual questions you would expect.

Many of his questions were so painfully obvious they initially stumped the people being asked the question. When Jobs sat waiting and listening intensely instead of elaborating, an interesting phenomena occurred… the person or group began coughing up their core assumptions behind their conclusion, outcome, or position on the subject. When Jobs proceeded with more simple questions such as, “But why” and making statements such as “Can you please explain what you mean?” he was able to reveal (to himself and the speaker) small, but significant pieces of information that helped him make critical course corrections.

Helping people be more truthful

People prefer to avoid complication and especially confrontation. Thus, it’s often a natural tendency to oversimplify or unconsciously ignore information that’s difficult to process or that might illicit a negative response from the listener. But in business and in all personal relationships, this behavior can be fatal. In these instances asking piercing and discerning questions can reveal buried truths.

“But asking such potent questions takes years of practice to master,” you say. Yes, it certainly does.

We should always work on developing these investigative abilities, but there is another, often equally effective and underrated path to revelation, which is – you guessed it – pressing upon the obvious. This is, in essence, what it means to play dumb.

How to play dumb the smart way

Playing dumb gives us the opportunity to ask these candid questions without being too aggressive, patronizing, or disrespectful. Any good business person and generally happy individual will like agree: Good questions trump easy answers. Always.

So how can you make an art of playing dumb? It’s a 4-tiered process:

Start by setting aside preconceived notions – This is less uncommonly known as Shoshin or beginner’s mind. “It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level…”
Slowly start to re-identify the assumptions at hand. You may ask yourself, “What assumption would support this/that statement or action or even this conversation or meeting?”
Ask extremely simple questions of others. The simpler, the better (examples below).
Repeat step 3. The more you ask someone the same question, the greater the chance the response will change.

Some simple, but practical questions

Contrary to what most people believe, effective conversations, meetings, and strategy sessions are not about answering questions; they are about asking questions.

Here are some sample questions you may find useful:

Why?
Why not?
Why is this important?
Why do we consider this the right/best way/answer?
What do you mean?
But what are you/we really trying to accomplish here?
Can you please rephrase that?
Can you tell me more?
Can you please summarize it one more time?
Could you please explain the idea using a different metaphor and/or set of terms?
How do you figure? OR Why do you think that?
Why does this appear obvious to you?
Why is this surprising?
Is this the best you/we can do? OR Is there room for further improvement?
Why did you come to that conclusion?
What would you most like me to know/understand?
Why is this time different?

Curiosity is the keel of truth

All great leaders ask great questions. They reveal introverted truths that allow them to make better quality decisions.

And this does not need to be a complicated process. It’s really a matter of probing the most evident presumptions at hand.

Still confused? Model a child. Just think of the last instance you spent time with a curious child. They likely asked the same banal questions again and again. But in doing so (if you’re brave enough to admit it) you likely found yourself questioning your own knowledge on the subject. This is because painfully obvious questions start to dismantle the most basic, foundational assumptions – and these assumptions are the glue that tie the real facts together. When these start to crumble, only truth remains.

And the more truth we have to draw from, the better our lives will be. I’m sure you’ll agree.

Your thoughts?

Have you had success with this concept before? Do you agree or disagree? Share your thoughts below…

Be uncommon,

- Kent

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Voyager beware: The journey to the unknown always appears longer, larger, and more difficult

Kent Healy — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:18:15 +0000

Common: When the stigma of the unknown creates overwhelm and inaction.

Uncommon: Surprise, I’m traveling again. I stopped tracking the specifics of my journey after visiting 10 states in 12 days. Don’t get me wrong, I love my vagabond lifestyle and wouldn’t change it for the world.

In fact, it’s been said that traveling offers an unparalleled life perspective. I agree. This benefit is not only cultural, but also founded upon the revealing of certain personal and general life truths.

I’ve been on the move since age 10, so I’ve grown to enjoy constant change. But still, I am human. And deep down I feel we all desire some certainty, predictability, and familiarity. This is a healthy tendency… except for when it isn’t.

The seemingly daunting…

Embarking on new trips is something I usually look forward to – especially to places I have come to love such as New York City. And with some less than impressive experiences at various hotels, I find myself opting to stay at places I’ve previously come to appreciate. It’s easy, convenient, and, well… familiar.

When I know my destination before embarking, suddenly the trip becomes less stressful. I’m sure you can relate. I spend little time and effort thinking about what-ifs (good and bad) when I have more real life reference points stemming from past experiences. I am definitely not one to dramatize life, but venturing into unknown, no matter how big or small, demands more thinking, more evaluating, more planning.

I experienced this at the beginning of my recent stay in Philadelphia when I couldn’t stay at my typical hotel of choice. Suddenly the game changed. It wasn’t a big issue in the larger picture, but it was enough to add more variables to what would normally be a reflexive process.

I found myself paying much closer attention to the environment. I was reading more signs, listening to the GPS more intensely, and even double-checking my instincts. But the most concerning observation of all was that my journey to my destination seemed much longer.

Consciously, I knew the flight was the same, the drive was the same, the roads were the same, but the ‘same’ journey with a few new variables was enough to distort reality.

When I slid my key card into the door, I felt a greater sense of relief and accomplishment than I otherwise would have. I was also ready to hit the sack feeling more drained than usual.

The crux…

I realized there are many short-term advantages to seeking familiarity, but it goes without saying: Do what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always gotten.

You need not be Marco Polo to appreciate that the greatest adventures, memories, and learning experiences are least often revealed during voyages of familiarity. Although the voyage to a familiar destination may make the trek slightly less stressful, it also becomes slightly less exciting.

And yet, the allure of familiarity is still difficult to defeat. But the more frequently we seek familiar actions and destinations, the more difficult and overwhelming new goals appear to be.

Travel or not, the same rule applies to all areas of life. We must be careful not to be swayed by the illusion of difficulty in the pursuit of an unknown destination. Apart from some additional planning, the workload to unfamiliar destinations is largely the same… but the rewards are not.

Your thoughts?

Have you noticed this in your life – maybe in areas other than travel? Do you agree or disagree? Share your thoughts below…

Be uncommon,

- Kent

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If you’re going to work, build an awesome sandcastle

Kent Healy — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:42:41 +0000

Common: Doing things quickly and sloppily because the outcome is unknown.

Uncommon: I live in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles – and with this coastal environment comes a unique beach culture and social protocol. But within every human sub-community lurk aspects of a larger behavioral code. One such example is what, as of this post, I call the ‘Sandcastle Effect.’

[Bear with me, this will be fun.]

Every day I run several miles down the beach in the sand, while sporting my peculiar looking Vibram Fivefinger shoes. What’s more peculiar, perhaps, are the remnants (or lack thereof) of the beachgoers’ sandy structures. Some sandcastles boast an impressive existence spanning several days. Others do not.

Why the difference?

Digging into details

This is no scientific act of heroism, but I did recall some elements of my middle school education and began with several hypotheses that, in time, I ruled out:

Timing: It wasn’t the time of year or the time of day (baring the occasional bad weather and mass influxes of beachgoers).
Location: Sand castles in BFE areas (off the beaten path) were outliers. I focused, instead, on the sandcastles in popular locations to retain some continuity.
Size: Bigger castles did appear to earn respect more often, but not enough to overshadow the final variable…

So, what did matter?

The short answer: A passion to create something awesome.

The enduring sandcastles shared an obvious commonality: They were apparent displays of deliberate effort and attention to detail. They were transformations of sand to art – and most people had no desire to destroy them. In fact, people gladly changed the course of their beachfront strut to avoid spoiling the frail creations. Others stood by in admiration and signaled their friends to take a closer look. Clearly, they had earned the time, attention, and admiration of the beach community.

With that said, these sandcastles, although impressive, were not textbook works of immaculate design. They were good, not perfect. But perfection was not the benchmark (when you think about it, it rarely is). Yet, these castles were still a recognizable work of awesomeness – and that’s what mattered.

It was the shoddy, slapdash sandcastles that were tackled and trampled first – sometimes within minutes. And it wasn’t just unruly, naïve children spearheading the destruction. People of all ages and backgrounds had no trouble trouncing a mediocre sandcastle to reclaim the valuable real estate.

Beyond the beach

The metaphors for everyday life are numerous.

Mediocre work is:

Common – therefore rarely valued
Ignored
Produced by anyone – thus easily replaceable/expendable and consequently wasteful
Wearisome
Mass-produced
Impersonal
Forgotten

Awesome work is:

Unique
Noticeable – and in many cases can’t be ignored.
Valuable – worthy of time and attention.
Contagious – worthy of conversation and sharing with friends
Creative
Thoughtful
Inspiring
Influential
Memorable

So why don’t more people produce awesome work? This is a two-part answer.

Reason #1:

This part is obvious: It takes effort – often over a long period of time as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in his book, Outliers.

Even though an enormous commitment doesn’t always lead to an awesome outcome, you can’t have an awesome outcome without an enormous commitment.

Hence, the ‘risk’ of wearing your heart on your sleeve and proceeding without the guarantee of success.

Reason #2:

This part is often less discussed: It’s risky. And very few people are willing to put passion into a risky outcome. Doing so is uncommon.

“Risky?” you ask? “How so?” Because ‘awesome’ is not a permit to universal acceptance.

Even awesome sandcastles are still targets of tyrants (just not as many as mediocre ones). But as every linchpin and leader knows, popularity need not be (and should not be) the gauge of awesome work.

There will always be what I call ‘destructivists,’ but the creators, makers, artists, and ‘constructivists’ always have the last laugh. Why? Because you can never completely destroy ‘awesome.’ Awesome work is impactful work that creates an irreversible impression. “A mind, once stretched,” as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “can never return to its original dimensions.”

This is what makes awesome work so important… even if the work doesn’t reach heights of mass popularity; it’s always legacy work because it leaves permanent and spontaneous “dents in the universe” as Steve Jobs may have put it.

Awesome work may not be cherished by everyone, but it does not alter the fact that it’s undeniably invaluable to someone or some group.

Start building – and do it well

It doesn’t take perfection, top-notch tools or world-class talent to do great work that’s recognizable and appreciated by others. It takes courage in the face of an unknown outcome and commitment of uncommon effort.

Whether you’re a CEO, entrepreneur, employee, parent, coach, artist, teacher, student or anything in between, you have a sandcastle – or many of them – to build.

If you’re going to work, to create something, make it awesome. Do remarkable work. That’s what matters. That’s what creates lasting impact.

In a sea of noise, awesome sandcastles not only stand strong and stand out, they serve as beacons to guide and inspire others to do awesome work too.

So build… the world is waiting.

Your thoughts?

Have you noticed this trend? Have you seen the Sandcastle Effect occur in other areas? Do you agree or disagree?

Be uncommon,

- Kent

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