☕ saturday mornings - February 4, 2023
authenticity, doing what you love & the value of being unrealistic
Happy Saturday Morning!
I hope you’re having an excellent start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
Some quality family time before my Dad and brother country hop on the other side of the world this Winter.
I'm starting to learn more about the start-up scene. If you work in a start-up, or share a similar interest, I'd love to chat! Just hit 'Reply' on this email.
I'm finishing the digital writing course Ship 30 for 30 tomorrow. By the end, I'll have written 30 essays in 30 days. You can read them all on my Twitter.
Here's a recap of the most interesting ideas I've explored this week.
Pour yourself a hot beverage (especially if you're in Canada) and enjoy.
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
Michael Jordan on the value of authenticity:
"Success to me has nothing to do with how much money you have or what kind of car you drive.
I always wanted to know where I fit in with the best.
Authenticity is about being true to who you are even when everyone else wants you to be someone else. It is a lot harder to become the best you can be when you're focused on trying to be the best version of someone else. There's nothing authentic in that.
And if it's not authentic, then it's not going to last."
📚 Book passage I loved:
Don't decide too soon.
Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it's wrong.
A friend of mine who is quite a successful doctor complains constantly about her job. When people applying to medical school ask her for advice, she wants to shake them and yell "Don't do it!" (But she never does.)
How did she get into this fix?
In high school she already wanted to be a doctor. And she is so ambitious and determined that she overcame every obstacle along the way-including, unfortunately, not liking it.
Now she has a life chosen for her by a high-school kid.
― How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham
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💡 Idea from me: Be Unrealistic
In the summer of 1988, young Kobe Bryant joined a basketball camp in his hometown of Philadelphia.
A counselor noticed on his camp application form, under 'Career Plans', Kobe listed NBA Player. He pulled Bryant aside. "Only one in a million make it to the NBA," the counselor told him, "so you have to plan on a future other than basketball."
"Be realistic."
"I'm going to be that one in a million," Kobe replied.
He was 10. But, Kobe had a burning self-belief that silenced the voices of doubt around him. Driven by his ambition, Bryant became one of the greatest basketball players ever.
If Kobe took that advice, and became "realistic" with his future plans, no one would ever know his name…
In the winter of 1969, Shawn Carter was born and grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn, New York.
He was the youngest of four children. No Dad. Raised by a single Mom.
Who would think he would rise to the top of the hip-hop industry, which was just beginning, found and sell multiple companies for hundreds of millions of dollars, become a billionaire, and marry one of the most beautiful women on the planet?
If you didn't know, this is the life of Jay-Z.
But, think about how "unrealistic" his life is.
Imagine if you sat young Shawn Carter down and lectured him to be "more realistic". What would happen? Odds are, he'd give in, give up, and get nowhere near his potential…
Before committing to work full-time on her cosmetic business, Estée Lauder was cornered by her accountant and lawyer.
“Don’t do it,” they warned her.
The mortality rate in the cosmetics industry is high. It’s an impossible business. You’ll lose all your savings.
“Be realistic”…
Forces Will Push You Towards Realism
If the price of being "realistic" is your potential, why is it such common advice?
Why do people tell you to lower your expectations? Settle in your current spot? Lower your sights?
Often, it's because they care about you.
Family and friends tend to be more conservative for you than they would for themselves, simply because, as people who care about you, they share risks more than rewards.
No one wants to see your dreams get crushed under the anvil of reality.
If you set your sights on the NBA and don’t make it, they share the full weight of the heartbreak with you. Sometimes more. But, after a decade of grueling work, you get drafted by the Toronto Raptors, they share less of the excitement you feel.
They get all the downside if you fail but little of the upside if you succeed.
Don’t get me wrong, pursuing your unrealistic ambition is hard. It must be, if so few do it.
Running down your dream will be worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy.
(Note, people who don't care about you may also try to tamper with your dreams or pull you down. But, they're irrelevant so we won’t go there. Don't worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your family and friends.)
Be Unrealistic
“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.”
― George Bernard Shaw
Whatever you want to do, don't let the 10 cents of others limit your ambition.
Dare to dream.
And if people tell you you're being "unrealistic," you're probably on the right track. I can't guarantee you'll reach your dreams. But if you have the destination in sight, you'll be more likely to arrive at it, or near it.
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can—begin it,” Goethe wrote.
“Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
❓ Question I’m asking:
How much of my day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest?
📸 Photo of the week:
A lot of restaurants have cool decorations.
But this has to be in my top 5.
It's a replica of Atlas, a figure from Greek mythology, holding up the world.
He had been punished by Zeus to "bear the weight of the heavens on his shoulders" for trying to overthrow the Olympian Gods and win control of the sky.
A story that served as a warning to the ancient Greeks: Don't question the Gods, or else...
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Much love to you and yours,
Tommy