Hey guys- welcome back to another week.
It’s been a productive week. Lots happening last week. Gearing up to finish the 2022 year strong. It’s amazing to look back and see what we’ve been through and how resilient we are.
Which is the topic of today’s conversation: Longevity and playing the long game.
Growing up, I wanted everything quick and fast.
I was always impatient about getting to the next milestone, “making it”.
This ambition and drive no doubt helped me, but it also caused a lot of frustration and hiccups when things didn’t work out or turn out the way as I had originally planned.
Until one day, a mentor gave me some of the best piece of advice.
“Slow down. It’s not about the destination. It’s the journey”.
I know it sounds cliche, but we deal with this arrival fallacy every day.
We are conditioned by society and media to think that everything is going to work out if and when…
“When I become…”
“When I get…”
“When I achieve…”
“When I get a big, large house, salary, career, relationship, kids…”
“If only…”
It is endless, and we have to learn to tune that garbage out, and focus on the moment and the underlying fundamentals.
Most recently, the Houston Astros won their 2nd World Series Championships in the last 5 years. This was redemption as they had been accused of cheating in 2017. Baseball in and of itself is a slow and boring game, unlike basketball or American football. The games are extremely long, and with few exceptions can be extremely slow. They are great to have in the background, but there are sports that are over in the blink of an eye. Golf is the same way. Very slow. Not very exciting.
I have to imagine that the athletes have to focus on each moment in time and execute each moment to perfection, and that over the course of a game or series, will come out on top. If the players are impatient or force things, that’s when mistakes happen and it could cost them the game or their careers.
This reminds me time and time again to slow down, take a bird’s eye perspective. And play the long game. It’s about longevity.
What if you achieve everything you wanted in your twenties, only to lose it all in your thirties and never make it back?
What if you achieved your dream, only to be single, alone, burnt out, depressed, and angry?
What if you “failed” in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, yet made it big in your 60’s, and made up for all of that lost time?
What if what you were trying to achieve had to take 20 years instead of 10 years in order to prepare you to maintain and keep that success, and there was no other way around it?
The universe has its own timing. All we can do is set an intention, plan, prepare, and leave the rest to a higher power. Many times when we let go, we are able to manifest the Law of Attraction that much faster- it is known as the Law of Relaxation and Letting Go.
When we are desperate and need a particular outcome, it is repelling the Law of Attraction.
I tell my clients to stay in their lane, don’t worry about what other people are doing. Keep producing, keep adding value. Focus on the details and the fundamentals, and the results will follow.
Play the long game. Think longevity. Business, career, and life are marathons, not sprints. Someone who tries to sprint a marathon isn’t going to make it very far compared to a runner that is strategic with his-her energy and game-day race plan. They may look great in the beginning, but unable to finish by race end. It’s about finishing strong and getting to the finish line, not getting there first.
Latest podcasts:
The World is in Trouble if We Don’t Solve the Climate Crisis with Ethan Brown (The Sweaty Penguin) — climate change is a real problem. It affects everything from food, water, natural resources. It is the cause of droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, pandemics. Tune in to hear about how entrepreneurs and others are pitching in to do their part in solving the climate crisis.
Unleashing Your Potential By Rewiring Your Neural Pathways with Andrea Lukac — despite what is going on in your external world, your language patterns, feelings, emotions, perceptions, and attitudes go a long way in determining the outcome. You can have the best external circumstances and fall short if you don’t have the mental game right. Conversely, you can have the worst external circumstances, and come out ahead if you have strong mental framework, and resiliency.
Latest article(s) written:
The Importance of Self-Custody in Safeguarding Your Digital Assets — this article dispels some of the myths regarding safe handling and storage of your digital assets. Bottom line is that you should be storing your digital assets in cold storage (offline) on a hardware wallet such as Ledger or Trezor. You should not be storing large amounts of digital assets on centralized exchanges regardless of reputation (there is extreme counterparty risk in doing so). The best example that I can give is the storage of gold, cash, and other tangible assets in a protected vault or safe. Possession and storage of physical assets are some of the soundest forms of money out there and allows you to self-custody your assets as opposed to relying on third parties such as banks, governments, and other centralized entities.
The Real Reason Why Elon Musk Bought Twitter — it will be extremely interesting to see how Elon Musk takes the former social media company into the Web3 and Twitter 2.0.
Books I’ve read:
Great Leaders Make Sure Monday Morning Doesn’t Suck
Performance Driven Thinking
2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything
Things I’m paying attention to:
Great post on the future of primary care
Amazon’s latest healthcare play
Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors- She was touted to be the next “Steve Jobs” and was the darling of Silicon Valley until it all came crashing down. Another example of overnight success and not paying your dues result in colossal failures. Another example of hero worship in our culture and society today.
Twitter employees resign en masse after Musk’s ultimatum to work more and harder.
Great article on the fallibility of centralized and traditional finance players. In the end, it is not the technology or the innovation. Humans and bad actors ruin it for eveyrone. Surprisingly, the article came from JP Morgan, one of the largest players in the traditional finance space.