Video I’m Trying to Make Sense of
Davis Clarke (Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan). This man is an enigma, someone who is legitimately excited and fulfilled by his exceedingly typical 9-5 corporate job as a “Capital Management Manager” (what?) at a bank. He chooses to see the bright side of his situation – that he’s blessed with an opportunity to learn and help people every day – instead of dwelling on the pessimistic, stuck-in-my-cubicle-for-40-more-years point of view. His perspective is simply fascinating, and I (and clearly many others) appreciate his refreshing and positive message.
I present a few quotes that might fully encapsulate his rise to micro-stardom on social media. First, a mantra of corporate excitement:
We don’t have to go to work on Monday, we get to go to work on Monday!
Paired with a sentence that many people would interpret as sarcastic and humorous (but is in fact authentic, though maybe a little tongue-in-cheek):
Let’s get absolutely locked in and hammer those excel spreadsheets.
Contrasted with a respectable statement about his personal beliefs:
I stick to the same core values: help others, do the right thing, and enjoy life every day.
Definitely check out the video if you haven’t already – it’s a trip.
Podcast Episode I’m Loving
Jocko Willink and Sebastian Junger (#744) on The Tim Ferriss Show.
Jocko is a man to emulate. A Navy SEAL commander turned leadership consultant. I don’t keep up with his content regularly, but after listening to his first episode with Tim, I read his book (Extreme Ownership). The principles he espouses, in short, are to never blame someone else for your failures and always take ownership of the situation at hand. Even if someone else is actually at fault, the mindset of “how could I have taken control of the situation to make the outcome better” is far superior to that of “there’s nothing for me to learn from this situation because I did my job and that other person messed up”. His mental models about self-discipline and leadership have had a lasting impact on me.
Sebastian Junger is the other featured guest – journalist, author, and film maker perhaps best known for his documentary Restrepo, which highlights both the grim realities of war and the beauty of brotherhood through hardship. Junger has some powerful ideas about purpose, belonging, and what it means to be human.
Blog Post I’m Pondering
(Which compliments last week’s discussion about agency nicely):
The Most Precious Resource is Agency, by Simon Sarris
Here’s a direct quote to noodle on:
Agency is the capacity to act. More subtly: An individual’s life can continue, with a certain inertia, that will lead them on to the next year or decade. Most people today more-or-less know what they are going to be doing for the first twenty-or-more years of their life—being in some kind of school (the “doing” is almost more “being told what to do”). Beyond that age there is of course the proverbial worker, in modern stories usually an office worker, who is often so inert that he becomes blindsided by a sudden yank of reality (that forces him out of his inertia, and in doing so the story begins).
Gaining agency is gaining the capacity to do something differently from, or in addition to, the events that simply happen to you. Most famous people go off-script early, usually in more than one way. Carnegie becoming a message boy is one opportunity, asking how to operate the telegraph is another. Da Vinci had plenty of small-time commissions, but he quit them in favor of offering his services to the Duke of Milan. And of course no one has to write a book, or start a company. But imagine instead if Carnegie or Da Vinci were compelled to stay in school for ten more years instead. What would have happened?
That’s all for this week. If you liked any of these or have suggestions for future posts, please let me know below! Thanks for reading along.
Stay curious,
Walker
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