Why am I so critical of people who are trying to make an impact?

We live in a very strange time in human history. Collectively, we've started doing this thing where we criticize people who are trying to make an impact for not making enough of an impact. Or sometimes we just don't like they way they are making an impact.

Instead of supporting those contributors or even contributing ourselves, we've created a finger pointing, cancel culture that is skeptical of every move.

We look at Bill Gates and say he's not doing enough. He's one of the greatest philanthropists the world has ever seen and his foundation is saving millions of lives. He could be doing more we might say.

It's not just Bill Gates. He was the hot topic last week.

Dave Chappelle gets put through the grinder for telling jokes that point out racism, sexism, and hypocrisy because they can be offensive. Elon Musk is driving innovation in rocketry, solar energy and automobiles, but he smoked weed on a podcast. Greta Thunberg has hate and criticism thrown at her from every direction and she just keeps doing her thing. They could be doing more.

And here's the thing. I'm not finger pointing at the finger pointers. I get why they write and think those things. I do it myself. All the damn time. I see a non-profit or public benefit company, and my immediate reaction is to judge them. How effectively are they using their funds? Are they really interested in making a difference or just doing it for marketing purposes, I might ask on a rather feisty day.

I'm not saying that we can't be critical of people, ideas and methodologies that don't align with us. Critical thinking is how we get better innovation. Challenge the old way to make room for the new. But...

The step before critical can always be curious.

Instead of judging how non-profits might hypothetically use their funds or if a company is "mission driven" for marketing purposes, I can look it up and find actual answers. If I don't like what I find, I can ask a trusted friend if they see what I see. Curious first. Critical second.

Even if someone doesn't live up to our definition of perfect, which of course they never will, we can still be grateful that are making positive contributions to our society in their own unique way.

After getting curious about what is not being seen, if you still don't like the way they do it, great, go out and do it better.

How do I know if this is the right path for me?

I woke up on this lovely Saturday morning with plans of doing one thing and then ended up doing something completely different.

Part of that emergent plan took me into a small, bustling local bookstore. In the process of leaving with 5 books to add to the ever-growing pile of future reading material, I found a new quote that I very much enjoy.

"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt." — John Muir

It can be extremely difficult at times to trust that the path that we are on is the right one. There's no way of knowing the consequences and repercussions of making a left turn instead of a right turn 47 days ago. I could have won the lottery or gotten hit but a bus with every other multiverse in between. So why sweat it?

That quote opened up this internal dialogue of inviting in more trust. Of course this is the right path because I am on it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be on this path. I'd be on different one.

Also. Bonus points to this emergent Saturday for allowing me to experience over a dozen animals in their natural habitats including dolphins, elk, deer and some badass hawks and birds. I have this loose theory about a dozen animals correlating to a day well spent.

Before I even knew that this quote existed, my path was making room for the dirt paths. Just another example of the future me laying the groundwork for the present me. How fucking cool is that?

What is my process to answer really difficult questions?

I had a fun call with a friend this morning who has a difficult career decision coming up. I asked him what his process was for figuring out the answer. I had not thought about my own answer to this question until he asked me what I would do.

The initial response that jumped out to me and that I shared with him is one of the most powerful and under utilized tools that we have access to when creating something new.

"Who has already had to answer this question, and what can I learn from them?"

With very, very rare exception, there is almost always someone on this planet who has gone through what you are going through right now.

Whether it's starting a new company, figuring out a career move, or even working through some personal stuff, someone else has been there, done that. We have the opportunity to learn from them.

Figure out a way to get access to these people and ask them a few questions to help you on your journey. What did you come up with when you had to answer this question? What was your process like in making the decision? What would you do differently / what have you learned since?

Simple stuff, but it can be critical in your future decision making.

There are two reasons why this tactic isn't utilized more often:

1. We buy into our own story that we're so unique that no one else has ever had to deal with something like this

2. We are worried about what will happen as a result of asking

One is easy enough to overcome. Two is a bit trickier.

What if I talk to a competitor and they steal my idea, you might say. I'm sure I'll write more in the future about protecting your idea, but for now, let's just say it is incredibly rare for someone to steal another person's idea. If they've been around long enough, they've already thought through your idea at some point. And even if they're a competitor, in my experience they are still more likely to help than not.

I've discovered a few other ways to help me answer difficult questions I'll again save for another time, and yet this will always the starting point for me.

If you are fortunate enough (or crafty enough) to have access to someone who has been through a similar situation or dilemma, one of the most useful things we can do is to learn from their experience. Learn from the past to accelerate the future.

How can I think differently?

It's so easy to get caught up in my own bubble. It's comfortable there. It's known and certain. And it's also very dangerous.

I was in my own bubble for most of my two years in San Francisco: the environment, the people, the conversations and information, my own schedule and routines. All of it. And even when I recognized it, I didn't really do very much to change it.

If we want to think differently, we have to get out of our own little bubbles that we've created. We have to change things up.

To change how we think, we can:

• Stop reading what everyone else is reading (Twitter, books, news, blogs)
• Stop listening to what everyone else is listening to (Music, podcasts, keynotes, thought leaders)
• Stop watching what everyone else is watching (Netflix, TV, Sports, Instagram, YouTube)
• Stop going where everyone else is going (popular coffee shops, social clubs, networking events, Napa, Tahoe, Hamptons)

I didn't say it was going to be easy and I didn't say you were going to like it. But if you want to think differently, change up your damn patterns.

Walk a different way to the office. Start listening to a totally new genre of music or podcast. Pick up a hobby that seems weird. Get lost in the woods. Make new friends way out of your age range and with very different upbringings. Read some early 19th century transcendentalism even though you despised it in high school. It all works.

If we want to think differently and unlock new levels of innovation, we have to mix it up.

Why is simplicity so damn sexy?

One of my self-described super powers is bringing simplicity to the complex, and yet I continue to find opportunities to simplify my own life and environment.

My personal website was one of those areas that wasn't so simple. I had a hero video with the tech stack from The Avengers (it was dope), artistically photoshopped images, beautiful backgrounds and color patterns. And as much fun as it was to create it, it felt like too much. If people didn't see how creative my website could be, am I still creative?!

My website wasn’t inspiring me to write more, it felt stale, and it felt forced.

So I spent some time recently redesigning it down to the essentials. It's easier for me to write and publish more. There's no fluff or theatrics. No proving. Just an outlet for my Thoughts and an easy format for people to follow along.

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Spending two years in San Francisco, I've built relationships with some amazing visionaries and futurists.

They would share these beautiful ideas of where we are going and what's possible, and it's incredibly inspiring. Almost without fail, the more forward thinking they are, the more difficult it is for them to express what was going on inside their head. 30 minutes into the conversation and I would finally start to get it.

All of that complexity makes it next to impossible to get started. It's too far out in the future. Where do we even begin?

We as Creators and leaders have to do our best to simplify. Bring things back to the present moment in tasks, ideas and bite-sized chunks that can be manageable. The complex, future visions are important, but the beauty is in the simplicity.

I would often use the "my nephew" test with people. He's 8 years old. If he can't understand what you're talking about or figure out how to use your app or what problem you are solving, then there's opportunity to simplify. When he was 3 years old, he opened up snapchat and figured out how to post a snap. That's an admirable benchmark for ease of use.

Keep it simple. It is more effective, better for engagement, better for retention, and easier to build, iterate and improve.

We have to fight the urge to believe that more features, more complexity, bigger words and jargon make us look smarter and more sophisticated. The only one we are trying to prove that to is ourselves. Let it go.

Simple works. Be comfortable and confident in the simplicity and the results will speak for themselves.