Author: Phil Garland

While checking out at Trader Joe’s I picked up a candy bar. It had the ingredients on the front, enticing the buyer with chocolate and nougat. I flipped over the bar to look at the actual ingredients. The bar had everything you’d expect in a candy bar. What piqued my interest was the ingredients that weren’t in the candy bar. Although the producer decided on the 15 or-so ingredients for that bar, there were definitely other ingredients that could’ve been added.

The Seen

In this example the mass-produced candy bar is in the checkout line of Trader Joe’s all over the country, the ingredients are on each wrapper, and the marketing trying to sell the bar to individuals. But that’s what we see, the seen. The seen is the end product. It is the culmination of many different trials without including the countless other “prototype” candy bars.

The Unseen

The trials and errors, the prototype candy bars, are the unseen. Although Trader Joe’s only chose to produce one bar, there were probably many other attempts of creating the bar. There were ingredients that were added, and there were ingredients that were taken away. Each trial helped create the final product, but only one “prototype” became the finished good.

The unseen can be applied to many different aspects in life. The poet who spent years writing five lines will be studied by literary students 100 years from now. Professional athletes spending their childhood, and early adult years, only play a game every so often. There are millions of entrepreneurs who work tirelessly to improve daily life, but many end up failing, or scraping by to make their business a success.

Appreciating the Unseen

It is really hard to appreciate the unseen. The work that goes into every aspect of our daily lives. The amount of practice professional athletes put their minds and bodies through in order to play a sport for the fans. How many tries it took the master baker of Trader Joe’s to make the candy bars in the checkout line? The unseen isn’t usually appreciated.

Our society appreciates the end result, the winning football play, the perfect poem, or anything else deemed successful to the outsider. But the people building the seen have gone through countless iterations creating what’s in front of you today. Next time you think about the products around you, think about the hours, days, and years that have been spent creating what you are seeing. The unseen is something to be appreciated and allows us to live in an amazing world.

Today an Oh Wonder song came on while I was listening to one of my Spotify playlists. I have listened to them quite a bit and really like their music. I had never researched anything about the band, but I’m glad I did. Their first album, titled “Oh Wonder” has a non-traditional method of creation.

According to Wikipedia:

Starting in September 2014, Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht wrote, recorded and released one song on the first of every month for a year on Soundcloud. They have described the creation and release of their debut album as nontraditional, stating that the album consists of fifteen singles and was never conceived as an entire record. The debut album consisted of all thirteen songs, as well as two additional songs, “Without You” and “Plans”.

On the first of each month West and Vander Gucht released a song, which culminated into 13 songs being released. Combining all 13 self-edited songs, and adding two others, turned monthly projects into a full-fledged album.

Monthly Challenges

This is very much in line with my mindset of completing challenges set for myself. Instead of setting lofty goals, like composing, recording, and editing a 15-song album, I set more reasonable goals, like a song a month. In a monthly mindset I don’t classify these as goals, but challenges. Once I complete the challenge I move on, either go for another month or deem it acceptable and do something else.

Challenges force me to plan accordingly. They shape the curriculum of my days, and weeks. If I set myself a month-long challenge then I know in order to complete it I have to touch it each day. Blogging is a good example. I have written nearly 40,000 words, over 90 posts, in the past 2+ months. I didn’t achieve those numbers by saying “I really want to write 40,000 words.” No, I achieved it by writing 200-500 words a day, sometimes writing even more words.

Arriving at Success

I don’t set goals for myself anymore, instead I set challenges. I say “I want to do X, Y, and Z, over the next month.” Then, I create a weekly, broken-down to daily, timeline/gameplan to complete the monthly challenge, and go about my business. Each day I’m checking something off my list that’ll help accomplish the challenge, but I no longer need to look at it as an insurmountable goal. Accomplishing challenges will help lead me to success. Pushing forward, even if only half a millimeter, is closer to my long-term success than doing nothing. Challenges force me to do something.

No matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing in life, you are never free of the suffocating veil of fog that can envelop your mind. The fog has many forms. It’s the “I don’t feel like doing ____” mindset or a gray mist that made once exciting tasks into monotonous routine. There is no catch-all solution to fog. You can’t focus your mind on cutting it out, and you can’t run from it, whenever given the chance, fog will take your mind hostage.

My Fog Experiences

Although fog may be a metaphor, I am not speaking about some far-out idea. I have had multiple experiences dealing with the gray veil that keeps the mind from moving forward. Sadly, it has beaten me many of times. It beat me when I quit my first CPA job. It also beat me while in my previous job. Being in the fog is the place where your mind convinces itself there’s no solution and the pessimist side takes over.

Before I started blogging daily the fog had enveloped my life. Without a visible exit from the mist, I started creating a downward spiral that I didn’t think I could get out of. Blogging became my lighthouse, the beacon that cut out the fog and created a path to safety.

Cutting Through the Fog

Lighthouses come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes the guiding light is a “carpe diem” moment when you tell your boss you are going to seize the day and do what makes you happy, quit. Sometimes the lighthouse is a voice inside you that rises above the fog to find your path forward. And sometimes your guide is taking action.

After being in multiple situations where fog has consumed me, I would say the best solution, when you are surrounded by the unknown, is to take action. It doesn’t mean diving off a cliff, or making a rash decision, but taking action means turning “I don’t want to” into “If I do what I don’t want to then I’ll feel accomplished.”

A little bit of feeling accomplished goes a long way. It starts moving your boat towards land, and guiding you through the fog bank. Whenever you get into a situation where you think there’s no solution, start creating, it will save you from yourself.

Here’s a link to a blog post titled “Having a job is riskier than you think.” It’s a post written by Paul Singh on www.resultsjunkies.com. As of the post I had never heard of Paul or the blog. But now I am a fan.

The message is pretty clear. In order to grow, and move forward, you need to think entrepreneurially, and develop an appetite for innovation. Freelancing on the side isn’t as hard as people think, and it’s riskier putting all your eggs in the employment basket, especially when you’re not on the revenue-producing side.

Burning the Boats Behind You

In Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” he talks about a great warrior who was sending his men into an outnumbered battle:

“He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, ‘You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice- we win- or we perish!’ They Won.”

Part of the winning mentality is putting yourself in a situation where you have to succeed. Burning the boats behind you isn’t about angering former, or current, employers, but putting yourself in a situation where you have some stake in your success. If you prop yourself up on a false sense of security due to employer loyalty, you’re bound without an exit strategy.

Entrepreneurship Isn’t That Risky

A lot of people think going off on their own is a huge risk. But it’s really not. Trying to find one person to pay for a service you’re offering is hard. Finding enough people to pay for your livelihood is even harder. But deploying a strategy to find customers isn’t a risky endeavor. If you put your mind to it you could probably launch a product in 24 hours. And you could probably get a customer within a month.

You don’t have to burn the boats behind you, i.e. you can have your cake and eat it too. After work, or on weekends, are perfectly acceptable times to launch your entrepreneurial idea. There’s time to make it happen, and there are tons of opportunities for new ideas in the market.

Although Napoleon Hill gives an extreme example, you can start small and achieve your dreams while fully employed. Entrepreneurship allows for an escape from employment dependency and if you ever find yourself outnumbered in a battle, you know you can win. It’s riskier to have a job with no escape than starting to build your escape through entrepreneurship today.

 

All praise the Kindle!

My go-to app right now is the Amazon Kindle app. I have it on my computer, my androird phone, and have a generation 2 Kindle. My books go with me everywhere.

Usefulness of Kindle

I read quite a few books at a time. Most of the books I read aren’t readable in a day, or a week, rather I read them over a month or two. Having the Kindle lets me have my entire library on me at all times. I can read a chapter of a book, reflect on it, and then switch to reading something else. It’s also beneficial while traveling. Instead of taking every book I might possibly read, I can bring my Kindle and have all the books I ever want.

Quotes/Insights

Having the search function at my hands is also extremely helpful. A lot of times when I’m reading, listening to podcasts, or thinking up something to blog about, I think about a passage I read in a book. Having the search function allows me to pull quotes and insights from books in a matter of minutes, which wouldn’t be possible with a book.

“My List”

I hate going to the bookstore. Not because of the smell, and all the books, I love that part! But I hate going because there are thousands of books I want to read. On Amazon I have my Kindle list. Whenever I get a recommendation of a book to read I add it to “my list.” Every week or so I re-arrange my list to the next books I’ll read. When I find it time to get a new book I go to Amazon and buy it. That’s where the magic starts! I press “Buy”, send  it to my Kindle, computer, and phone, and within seconds have a brand new book to read. The simplicity is amazing.

 

Thank You Technology

Thank you technology for giving me a library at my fingertips.

I’m a moose! The house is Zootopia themed! Lots of moose puns but no time for blogging.

Happy Halloween everyone!

 

Sorry Cubs fans, I’m not on your bandwagon, this year…

I am a Red Sox fan. I only had to suffer 14 years of my life for our first world series win in 86 years, but I understand the pain Cubs fans feel. It’s been since 1908!

Here’s why I don’t feel bad for the Cubs.

1. Theo Epstein (Check out this article from 2014 on the Cub’s future) – even Theo said 2017 would be the year
2. Because of Epstein, the Cubs are set up with an All-Start lineup and pitching staff for years to come
3. Chicago is a big market, now that they have a winning team they’ll be able to thrive in free agency

Maybe I’m Just a Tradiontalist

The Cubs will win one, or more, world series in the next few years. This year was an awesome story of the young Cubs winning more than 100 games and getting to the world series. But it’s not that easy. As a Red Sox fan I know of heartbreak. It took years of heartbreak, losing games at the end of the season or playoff games to the Yankees. It wasn’t until 2004 that we were finally able to break-through. The Cubs will have their glory, but as a traditionalist I believe they need to deal with setback.

Cheering for the Indians

I don’t really care that the Indians win. It’d be nice for Tito Francona to get a ring with the Indians, but besides that it’s not a big deal. It’ll be neat for a small-market team to have two champions in the same year (the Cavaliers already winning the NBA championship). My biggest fandom for the Indians is bringing a minor setback to the Cubs. And the fact that the Indians probably won’t be back to the world series anytime soon.

 

Self-Confidence and Self-Doubt are not antonyms, and they are not yin and yang. Yes, they ebb and flow, but it’s possible to have both self-confidence and self-doubt, as it’s possible to have no self-confidence and no self-doubt. Actually, as you’ll see later, I believe high self-confidence/high self-doubt is the best place to be. Where both are high is where your passions and desires will propel you furthest forward.

Self-Confidence

“A feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgment”

This is the first definition I found for self-confidence and I believe it to be true. I will leave it as is.

Self-Doubt

“Lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities”

This is also the first definition I found, however, it reads too much as the antonym to self-confidence. It is not. Self-doubt is the feeling of insecurity. We may not be insecure in ourselves or our abilities, but we’re insecure in our path forward. This insecurity is what propels us forward, what makes us crave to use our self-confidence to pull us from high self-doubt to low self-doubt. Self-doubt is the driver, and self-confidence is the motor. You need both to succeed.

Self-Confidence vs Self-Doubt Matrix

Low Self-Confidence and Low Self-Doubt

If you’re in this position you’re too comfortable. You’re not challenging yourself enough. This is the place for competency and no acceleration. Some people are happy in this position. The 9-5er who enjoys collecting a paycheck and 2 weeks a year time off. There’s nothing wrong with this, however, I believe everyone should put themselves in a position of passion and desire. If I were in this position, I’d try something outside of my comfort zone.

Low Self-Confidence and High Self-Doubt

This is not a happy place. I’ve been here, it’s not fun. Do something today that’ll give you a little more self-confidence or lower your self-doubt. Contact me, I’ll talk some passion into you (my contact info is on my homepage: www.philipggross.com).

High Self-Confidence and Low Self-Doubt

This one needs even more of an explanation. I believe your passions must lead you to high self-confidence and low self-doubt, but I think there are a myriad of levels once you get there.

Mastery Pyramid

Novice: High Self-Confidence, Low Self-Doubt

This is the first step in mastery. You had high self-doubt and high self-confidence, you used your passion and made it to padawan, you now have low self-doubt your basic understanding of something.

A good example for me is Bitcoin. Over a year ago I was extremely excited about Bitcoin. I knew about it for years but never dove into the thick of things, “What is blockchain?”, “Why are so many people excited about this?” I read a lot of articles, I watched a lot of YouTube videos, I read some books, and became proficient with how it works. If someone asks me today “What is Bitcoin?” I can make a very coherent, easy-to-understand, summary.

I would say I have mastered the novice level of Bitcoin understanding. I have high confidence in my knowledge and low self-doubt in explaining the concepts. Now, if someone came to me and told me to explain cryptography or how the Bitcoin algorithm maintains indisputable property rights I would be clueless.

To go up a level would require me from stepping out of my comfort zone, analogous to low self-doubt, and developing high self-doubt to expand my knowledge even more. With Bitcoin, however, I’m perfectly comfortable at novice level of mastery. To expand my knowledge would require what I call “mid-mastery.”

Mid-Mastery: High Self-Confidence, Low Self-Doubt

You were a novice master. You got complacent and wanted to grow. Instead of sitting there and being content, there was a spark inside you. The high self-confidence, high self-doubt “bug” bit you. Instead of being padawan you wanted more. Mid-Mastery is a position above a large portion of the population.

In the novice level, you might be 50-90% more knowledgeable than the public. Mid-mastery is a step above. Maybe 95% more knowledgeable than the average person. You didn’t get here on accident. It took time, it took novice mastery, and it took being aware of your complacency. It took growth. This is a place where I try to get to with the things that burn the deepest in me.

Once, you’ve conquered mid-mastery, developed low self-doubt at this level, and still want more, you move onto the expert/master level.

Expert/Master: High Self-Confidence, Low Self-Doubt

You’ve made it! You’re at the top 1% of whatever field you’re passionate about! You’re done, right?! Hell, no! Once you’ve reached expert/master and have low self-doubt you have one of two options:

1. Check the box and move on
2. Pop-the-top off the pyramid and build another layer

There is always more. You can always find more passion and more desire. And remember, low self-doubt is also synonymous with complacency. There is always someone smarter, more-driven, sexier, and about to knock you from your throne. There’s only so much room in the 1%. You must proactively eliminate comfort and try to grow even more, or check the box, be happy with your position, and move on to something else.

All the layer climbing can’t be done without passion and drive. This is where high self-confidence and high self-doubt comes into play.

High Self-Confidence and High Self-Doubt

I’ve talked about passion before. This post comes out of a lot of desire.

I believe you’ve found your next step once you get to a place of high self-confidence and high self-doubt. When the question “I’m not sure how/if I can do this” is answered with “I don’t know how, but I know I can.”

This is the position entrepreneurs thrive in. This is the position where you’ve found the path you’re taking next. The intersection of your passions, or your questions, that you must answer. This is the place you should always aim for, especially once you’ve become complacent.

What this all means

I have no idea what this all means. I know I had a lot of fire, and passion, in writing this post. I know I am going in the right direction. Hopefully if you find yourself in one of these four quadrants you are aiming for something bigger and better. If you’re not, try stepping out of your comfort zone or developing your self-confidence. You’ll figure out your passion, and you’ll find a way to get yourself to high self-confidence and high self-doubt. This knowledge is everywhere around us; you need to reach for it. Keep moving forward and remember, it’s a wonderful time to be alive!

 

Ideas, we have 50,000 – 70,000 (according to Google), a day. Lots of ideas never amount to anything, a lot of them are things we should remember and may jot down, and some of them are ideas we’d rather forget. Then there’s the materialized idea: A Pixar movie, a new iPhone (pre-Tim Cook), companies like Uber, AirBnB, or the restaurant down the street. At one point these were all ideas, starting from next-to-nothing to materializing.

Materializing an Idea

Turning an idea into something fully executed is the trick I’m still trying to master, I think everyone is. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of really good ideas that would improve the lives of the people around me. I’ve learned a lot about launching ideas, like the challenge mindset. But it still takes time. A good idea, one I am really passionate about materializing into something lasting, isn’t developed overnight. It takes time, effort, and a lot of self-knowledge.

Writer’s (“Materializer’s) Block

Writer’s block – the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.

I feel the same with materializing ideas. I will have the base layer of ideas, I may build on-top of that layer, inching a bit closer to materialization, but no matter how far I come I always run into a block. In a lot of instances I don’t mind about hitting a block. Usually when I get to the block I say “That’ll be enough for me” and I stop worrying about the idea.

But then there are those ideas. The ones I become passionate about. The ones that agitate me because I know the idea is revolutionary. Coming up with a solution will eat away at me. Maybe I’ll try doing stuff that get me through the block. Like shipping an idea and getting feedback. But sometimes that isn’t enough. That’s when I turn to fermenting of the idea.

Like a Fine Wine

First things first, I am not a wine-snob, I drink ~$7 bottles of Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon.

As we all know, the older wine gets, the more expensive wine gets. I honestly think this approach works with ideas as well. At any given moment in time I could easily jot down 5-10 things that I am truly passionate about doing and passionate about bringing them to fruition. A lot of these things go unsolved for a certain time period: a few days, a week, a month, a year, maybe longer. But eventually, as evidenced with a lot of the places I’ve gone already in life, these ideas bear fruit. They no longer are ideas but materializations.

I know I am onto something. Each day I inch closer. Each day I’m taking a chunk out of the block in front of me, and diminishing my self-doubt. The age of some of my wine is getting ripe enough to pop the cork and enjoy. I need to stay focused on continually materializing ideas and eventually they’ll become the sought after bottle of wine.

Tim Ferris, in 4-Hour Workweek, discusses cutting back on the amount of work while simultaneously making more money. Although he doesn’t explicitly make the statement, I read it as “You only have so much energy to spend.”

Expending Energy Leads to Burnout

When you go into work in the morning you are going to expend energy. 9-5ers need to expend 8 hours of energy a day. It might not all be good energy. You might start your day checking email, or catching up on Facebook. And by the time noon rolls around you’ll expend energy going to lunch, come back and expend more energy maybe getting a thing or two done.

The thought of working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and expending energy on sometimes-meaningless tasks sounds like a path to burnout to me.

Maximum Energy

Instead of taking 8 hours, what if you spent two hours expending maximum energy. Two hours producing something of importance. And spent the rest of the day building the life you want. You don’t have to spend it cliff-diving or traveling, but maybe you could spend it helping your community or building a business.

You aren’t born with a limitless engine. When you sit idle, or in 1st gear, burning energy, eventually you’ll over cook the motor and burnout. Instead, if you rev yourself up to 100mph but stay there for only an hour or two a day you’ll be just as productive but have many more hours doing what makes you happy.

Four Hour Workweek

To me, cutting working hours to Tim’s ideal, four hours, seems preposterous, but he might be onto something. If you can be super productive for those four hours of work it frees up time to do the things that’ll refuel your engine.