Should I Start A Startup?

This is a big question and there are a lot of variables. We have to break this into smaller questions and check some boxes. There's also this B.S. lie that you have to risk it all and go "all in" to make something work--and that's not true. Let's break down the question "should I start a startup?"

Why do you want to do it?

If this is something you would work on anyway, regardless of whether you were paid or not to do it, it's a hobby.

Example 1:

Let's say you love making things out of wood and you want to build the most perfect Adirondack chair in the world. For you, the thing that gets you the most excited about building this chair is the building. It doesn't matter if it takes you 497 hours to make. It doesn't matter if no one actually ever sits in it. The thing that gets you excited is building the chair.

This is a hobby. Hobbies are work that you love for no other reason than you love the work. You're not doing it because it will make money or will have value to others. The work itself is fulfilling.

Okay, let's move on to another example.

Example 2:

You want to help people who grew up in disadvantaged communities. The thing you build itself doesn't matter. It could be a networking website or a resource fund. You're not occupied with the nuts and bolts of what's under the hood of the project. You're going to do whatever it takes and you're going to learn whatever you need to learn because you're on a mission. You want to help people who grew up in disadvantaged communities and that's that.

This is a passion project. You may be able to make money from this, but it's not going to be much. You may have to do some other work to make sure you can pay rent, but this is all about impact. It's not taking into account how much you love the work or if it's sustainable for you to work on it full-time.

Example 3:

You want to scale up and make a bajillion dollars. You want to buy a Ferrari. You have 5 kids to put through college. You have a dream of retiring at 35 and living out of a van in Morocco. You may even be willing to eat rice and beans and never see a movie for 5 years to lower your expenses so you can save faster.

Who knows? Maybe you love the "mid-century modern" look and know that filling a 3/br 4/ba house with West Elm is expensive. Whatever the outcome, the goal is accumulating resources and fast.

This is a job. You're not trying to change the world or disrupt a market. You're focused on compensation for time and effort. Since this is the primary thing you're after, the type of work and the product itself aren't that exciting to you. The thing that's exciting is seeing your Wealthfront account go up.

Example 4:

You want to be the next Instagram. You want to be the next Apple. You see glossy-white offices and meetings with shareholders. You feel like you're making a ton of money. You're developing products for tons of consumers. Plus, your ego is on fire because everyone loves and respects you for the incredible work you've done.

Let me stop you right there. There are only a few companies that make it here. Your odds are already insanely unlikely. You probably have a better shot at scratching off sequential numbers on your lottery ticket. I don't want to shoot you down, but I need to shoot you down. This is a bad goal.

So, let's recap these examples and organize them.

You're going to be working on a project because it has characteristics in some proportion:

1. You love the work and what you learn.

2. You love the compensation.

3. You love the impact it makes.

Let's be really, really clear about something.

DO NOT expect your job to give you 100% of all 3 of these things. That is too much pressure to put on your day job. This is why we have hobbies and social lives. There is no practical way to get the sum of your emotional, financial, and social needs filled by your job.

If you expect this, you will fail, bang your head against a wall, and feel the pain for a long time--like I did.

If this resonates with you, you may also want to read my post on why you should Stop Searching For Your Dream Job. It doesn't exist.

DO NOT try to go all in on one of these dimensions and sacrifice all the others. You might be able to do this for a little while but it's not sustainable. You might be able to spend 3 years consulting at Deloitte before you realize that you can't take it anymore. The culture or lack of impact accumulated and now you need to adjust.

That's fine. Plenty of people make this part of the plan. If you're planning to switch jobs later, make sure you develop transferrable skills. Martin Yate wrote an amazing book on getting a job called “Knock ‘Em Dead.” It’s definitely a little “get off the couch and go do whatever.” But there are some golden nuggets for you. Here’s a page that breaks from his website that breaks down some of these transferable skills.

Your job here is to tune into the ratio of these things you need. Also, understand that the ratio you need today will absolutely not be the ratio you will need later on in life. It's going to be a lot harder to convince your family to eat rice and beans. When you have more people in your life, you need to consider what they want. They're called stakeholders. That's a fact.

Getting back to our main point, why do you want to do it?

You will need to be really clear about why you want to start a startup. Make no mistake, there will absolutely--100% likely--be times when you want to stop.

I don't mean like when you're running on the track and you're tired and you feel like your body is low on energy. So, you stop and recover and then get back out to the track tomorrow. What I mean by "you're going to want to stop" is that you'll face scenarios that seem impossible to get out of.

For instance, a common one entrepreneurs face early on is not being able to make payroll. It's scary to have checks to write without being sure how you're going to make them happen. Are you (and your co-founders) willing to write personal checks to the company? Are you in that kind of financial position? Are you willing to lay everyone off in that situation?

That's what I mean by scary. It's not for everyone. You will feel scary things like this if you go down this road. It doesn't mean you shouldn't try and it doesn't mean you won't succeed. We just need to be clear and honest about what you're getting yourself into.

I'm not trying to scare you straight. I'm telling you about the things you'll need to have in place to set yourself up for success.

So, let's think about this again. What are you actually trying to achieve? Chances are, there are other options you can choose that aren't as scary and risky as starting a startup. Is what you actually want a hobby or a passion project? Is what you actually need a job? Whatever you decide, you're going to need some combination of these.

How do you do it?

Okay, you've decided you're in. You're too obsessed. You can't sleep at night. You're still not sure if it's the right thing or if it'll work but you can't NOT do it. You have to try. You have to check this box off your list or you'll never forgive yourself. So, how do you do it?

Guess what? Before we get into this, we actually need to break this down into a smaller question, again. I know, it's a lot but stick with me.

We need to distinguish if what you're doing will classify you as a freelance or an entrepreneur.

A freelancer is someone who trades time for dollars. This is someone who may be filling job orders or may be doing more "white collar" strategy or consulting work. Either way, you have a job, you get it done. It doesn't matter if you're the world's most renowned expert. You're getting paid for your work.

An entrepreneur is someone who builds an asset that produces value. It should keep producing value even after they've let go of the handlebars. They built the company and can sell it. They built the database and consultants pay to use it. They built the website and employers pay them to post jobs on it. They are getting paid by the thing they built (the asset). The asset becomes big enough that the entrepreneur can walk away. Plus, when they walk away, the whole thing doesn't crumble. Entrepreneurs build things bigger than themselves.

If you want a more detailed description of this see Seth Godin's Startup School. I've stolen quite a few concepts from this useful podcast.

Okay, now let's talk about how you start a startup.

There are a few ways I know and I've seen. This isn't an exhaustive list and I'm not prescribing that you try only one of these methods. A hybrid method is likely what you'll end up with. This is just a list of "knowns" to get you started.

The Runway

This method requires you to save up money (or receive a significant windfall). Having cash affords you the ability to quit your job and work completely on your project without other distractions. You can lower your expenses (rice and beans, no movies and all that) to increase your runway, or you can save up more money. If you're able, you can also bring in investor money but that has a new set of variables and risks.

Pros:

• Fewer distractions.

• You have a deadline.

Cons:

• You may take the whole runway when you don't need to.

• You may put your partner or family in a difficult financial position if you don't take off.

• You may convince yourself to go past your runway because you've invested so much already. (See: Sunk Cost Fallacy. If you're a human and you have a brain, this applies to you.)

This works best if you have already outlined what success looks like at the end of your runway. If you can define it now, you'll avoid the temptation to keep going past your runway if you're not gonna make it. If you have a partner or a family who are invested in your success (or impacted by your failure) you need to get them on board with this, or any, plan. There is no room for negotiation, here.

The Runway method works if you can outline a very clear plan that explicitly states:

"If I get to $X in spending" or "if I work on this for 8 months and I don't have X customers" I will quit.

Define your terms for quitting, now! It will be harder later when you've invested your time and money into building this thing. You will absolutely convince yourself to keep working past your deadline.

The Night & Weekend Warrior

I think you get this one already. You have a job that allows you to maintain your lifestyle and you work nights and weekends on your project.

Pros:

• Less risk if when things break (they will).

• Pressures you to work with less time.

Cons:

• There's no deadline so you could drag this on and on.

• It is insanely exhausting and you won't know how long you can last.

• It will reduce family and social time.

This is a good strategy for "bootstrapping" your startup if you think it's not going to take that long to get running. You may also like this option if you just want to test a small, limited scope project. If you have a deadline or a fixed list of parameters, this approach can work well. Just don't let it drag on. Burning the candle at both ends means you will be stealing time from your calendar. This time will come from areas like "social life" and "sleep." Make no mistake that this is a sacrifice that you won't be able to keep up.

The farthest I've gone using this method is running 5 x 100hr/weeks in a row. By the end, I was making silly mistakes that ended up costing me more time to fix. This is not a long term strategy.

The Freelance and Build

This is similar to the Night & Weekend Warrior. The difference is that instead of having a steady job, you're freelancing. It's the hardest of the three but it can give you some key benefits.

Pros:

• You have more flexibility with your schedule.

• Pressures you to work with less time.

Cons:

• You have to spend non-billable hours generating new clients.

• You're burning the candle at both ends.

• You're at the mercy of the freelance market.

Do not attempt this if you're starting out your freelancing business, too. Remember, you don't just get new work, you're a freelancer, you have to work to get new clients. Then you can bill those clients for your time. This means you have billable and non-billable hours. Time spent generating leads is non-billable. Time spent on the project is billable.

You're also competing with every other freelancer out there who is working 60hrs/week. Freelancing 20hrs/week so you can fit in time for your project puts you at a huge disadvantage. You're setting yourself up for failure.

This works best if you have already been a freelancer and have a client base that continues to come back to you. Having a client base means you have clients who regularly come to you for work. You don't spend much of your time convincing new clients you're trustworthy. You've already done that work and there's plenty of paid projects to go around.

This also works better if your clients are already used to paying you a lot of money. If they pay you enough so that you can reduce your time with them and you can still pay rent, you're in a great position. This means you can spend more time on you project and maintain your expenses.

This is not a formula

Okay, those are just three ways you might execute. This isn't prescriptive and you may end up doing some combination of these. If you have other thoughts or ideas on this, please post them in the comments.

My goal is for this to be a resources for people to continue coming back to. My goal is to make this document so useful that when someone asks you "how'd you do it?" You'll know that the best thing to do is send them to this post.

I hope this helps. If you know someone else in your life who needs to read this, please share it with them.

What else do you feel is missing from this article? Let me know in the comments and I'll make this more robust!

The Important Difference Between Aggressive and Assertive

There’s a weird line between aggression and assertiveness that some folks have difficulty negotiating.

People who conflate the two tend to be either way less assertive or way more aggressive. Neither of these is any good for you or the people around you.

Let’s use an example.

When a client asks you to make more edits on your project:

The Non-Assertive: “Yes.”

The Assertive: “Yes, I can do that extra work for $xx.xx”

The Aggressive: “No, and don’t reach out to me again.”

The Passive-Aggressive: “I don’t have to do this on other projects.”

Here are some commonly held

Where do you fall?

If you’re not sure, it may help yo use this reference guide from the Assertiveness Handbook. You can download this to your computer or GDrive from this link.

The Punchline:

The Assertive style defends your rights without overstepping others’.

This successfully helps you treat people with respect while also treating yourself with respect.

2 Minute Action You Can Take Right Now

Here are 2 ways you can spend 2 minutes improving:

Read the Handbook for 2 minutes.

Reply or comment here to let me know where you think you are in the battle.

Pro Tips:

I revisit this document several times a year.

If you are like me, you may need to read it a few times to really internalize it. I recommend setting iOS or Google Calendar reminders to do so. You’re more likely to take action if you have outlined a time and a place to do it.

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s a great reference document when you find yourself in unfamiliar situations.

I hope this benefits you as much as it’s benefitted me.

For more tools and resources like this, you can check out the Resources page to see the personal VAULT of resources I’ve been putting together for over 10 years.

Please consider thinking of someone else who needs to read this and sharing this resource with them. The more we lift each other up, the further we will go together.

Stop Searching For Your Dream Job

I was sitting on a panel at Penn State in front of a bunch of students and I couldn’t believe what came out of my mouth. “Stop searching for your dream job!”

I said it and I was a little annoyed. I was partially annoyed because of how many people I felt needed to hear it, but I was also partially annoyed because I was one of those students who needed to hear it long ago. To be honest, I was pretty stubborn, so maybe I heard it and I didn’t listen.

I kept hearing students talk about what job they wanted. How they wanted to change the world. How they wanted to start the next Google. How they wanted to start the next Apple. Some of them were spending tons of time developing the perfect product that they would release to change the world. Some of them were totally incapacitated at the magnitude of their own ambition and couldn’t figure out what the first steps were.

Stop searching for your dream job.

It doesn’t exist.

Even if it did, your needs and dreams will evolve over the next few years and you’ll walk away from it to find the next dream job. You’re not always going to want to live in a studio apartment. You’re not always going to want to work hard for no recognition. You’re not always going to want to spend 80 hours a week on someone else’s dream.

The trick isn’t figuring out all the characteristics and traits of your dream job, finding that job out there in the wild, applying, and then landing it. That’s impractical. The trick is learning a little more about yourself and the experiences you want to have in your life.

When people think about “what they want to be” when they grow up, they usually have a list of job titles in industries.

They want to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher or a soldier or an entrepreneur. Those are titles. They have nothing to do with what you actually want. Understand that your perception of that title might not be completely real or accurate. Accept that you could be wrong in your interpretation—or at least that you might not have the full spectrum of what’s involved on your radar.

So, you want to be a doctor? Do you know that this means you might be spending lots of nights and weekends away from your family? Do you accept that this means you might miss big events in your kids’ childhoods? Do you accept that this means you might not be able to do the right thing for your patient because a hospital administrator said you can’t?

I think you get the point, here. There are some things that will be amazing about a job and other things that will drive you insane.

The trick isn’t figuring out what you want to do, it’s figuring out what you absolutely cannot do and what you absolutely can’t not do.

In her book “Big Magic,” Elizabeth Gilbert calls this the “shit sandwich.” Everything you do is going to have a nasty, smelly, shit sandwich you’re going to have to eat. It doesn’t matter what kind of work it is. One helpful way to think about your work is to evaluate what kind of shit sandwich you would be happy to eat if it meant that you got to do the other parts of the work you enjoyed. That’s a great test to see what you’re obsessed with and will stick with over time versus what you will quit on because the upside of your work isn’t worth the shit sandwich.

This is another way of thinking about and evaluating our personal and professional values. By paying attention to how we feel in these situations we will learn more about what we actually value instead of what we say or think we value.

Consider writing these lists.

1. What kind of work makes you feel most alive and fired up?

2. What have you worked on in the past that made you proud or excited?

3. What kind of work makes you feel the most numb or dead inside?

4. What have you worked on in the past that you remember hating with a firey hate?

Stop reading. Write out these 4 lists. I’m serious. Retrospecting on these experiences will help you identify what characteristics and traits exist in the kind of work that will put you in the best position for success.

While we’re thinking of experiences, let’s recognize that we think about our lives (the future and in retrospect) in experiences—not as job titles.

Here are some experiences you may want to have:

• I want to live and work in another country for several months.

• I want to be recognized for my social impact work.

• I want to work for 6 months and then take 6 months off to travel.

Make your list of experiences. You will want to reverse engineer your work to map to the kind of experiences you want.

The bad news.

Understand that you will most likely not be able to get this right for a while. The goal isn’t to find your dream job, remember? The goal is to find something that has some of the traits you want and is directionally aligned with where you want to go. The worst thing that can happen isn’t that you journeyed in a slightly wrong direction, the worst thing that can happen is that you find yourself stuck at the starting line never having moved because the idea of going in the wrong direction was too overwhelming.

Part of this process is evolution. Your needs will change and the experiences you want will change. The goal isn’t to get to your destination in one perfect arc, the goal is to constantly evaluate and recalibrate the course trajectory.

Zig Ziglar used to say “when a plane takes off from New York and is heading for Chicago, it doesn’t stop and turn around if it’s off-course. It just adjusts the course.” In the same way, you’ve got to take off.

When I graduated from Penn State in Neuroscience, I thought I wanted to be a researcher. Actually, I knew I wanted to be a researcher, but what I didn’t know was if I wanted to go through grad school to get there.

So, I joined the Psychology club and called together a group of grad students to speak on a panel to our club. They answered a few questions about grad school that were super impactful to me. They said scary things like “you will never get your early 20s back,” and “even if you are 150% sure you want to finish grad school, you are going to question your own drive.”

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

This rattled me enough that I started looking for alternatives. They suggested that I find a job as a project director for a lab. It would give me insight into the grad school life and it would also allow me to keep working in research. So, that’s what I did. I started managing a developmental neuroscience lab. It was amazing.

When I realized later on that I wanted to transition into education technology, I was able to transfer my management skills to a new industry with relative ease. I was so lucky that I was able to have so many people help show light on the future of my path. It’s so critical!

Don’t miss this important step

Recruit mentors and coaches to help guide you in your life.

A mentor is someone who has gone through the path you’re on and can tell you about what will likely happen to you along your own journey.

A coach is someone who will ask you good questions, challenge your ideas, and will never stop rooting for you. You need both of these people in your life and don’t underestimate the catalytic power of their influence. Don’t get one of them, get three of each.

Stop searching for your dream job.

No job in the world is going to make you happy unless you’re already happy.

That’s a different blog post, but I hope that sentence resonates with you as it did with me.

Stop searching for your dream job.

It’s not out there. What is out there is work that is a good fit for you right now at this time in your life. What is out there is a group of people at a company or on a team or who are part of a collective who believe what you believe. What is out there is a long, evolving journey that will be imperfect for its lifelong entirety.

Stop searching for your dream job and start noticing the experiences and moments that make you feel alive and make work feel less like work—and go follow those.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

- Howard Thurman

If you are currently on the search, try reading this other post I wrote on How To Get A Job.

While you’re searching, you may also want to have a look at the post I wrote on Mission-Critical Job Interview Questions. I hope this helps.

Before you go, please consider sending this article to someone in your life who needs to read it.

I hope you got something valuable from the time you spent reading this.

4 Life Lessons And The Psychology of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Before we get to the turtles, we have to take 2 minutes to understand the root of the Ninja Turtles’ personalities and the archetypal formula that is used — and has been used — many, many times before.

The Four Humors:

Back in the day, a bunch of old greek guys came up with the idea that the balance of fluids in the body had something to do with your personality and behavior. I’m not going to tell you about Alcmaeon of Croton, no, you can look that up for yourself if you want.

It might sound ridiculous at first, but it’s not that crazy if you just swap out the word “fluids” for “hormones.”

Of course, the old greek guys didn’t articulate it that way, but I digress.

Here’s the breakdown of the 4 main “humors” and the temperaments with which they supposedly correspond:

• Blood: Enthusiasm, intensity, social.

• Yellow Bile: Aggression and anger.

• Black Bile: Melancholy.

• Phlegm: Apathy.

Later on, Aristophanes (another old greek guy), started using these 4 different humors in dramatic theatre. Today, these are known as “The Comedy of Humors” and have been replicated again and again.

While we can confidently say that your balance of blood doesn’t change that much, and the amount of phlegm in your sinus doesn’t really alter you personality — we do know that hormones can dramatically impact human behavior and biology.

Here are some somewhat modern examples where you may have seen these archetypes already:

• Sex and the City

• Seinfeld

• Scooby-Doo

• The Fantastic Four

• The 4 Houses in Harry Potter

Personality

But what about the ninja turtles?

Although personality is a very complex concept, an assessment that is commonly used is called the DISC. DISC is an acronym for the four personality categories it measures.

Dominance. Influence. Steadiness. Conscientiousness.

Let’s place our turtles into the four DISC categories and see why they landed there.

Raphael

DISC Type: D

Raphael is a classic D in the DISC assessment. He is primarily motivated by anger, which isn’t always a bad thing. It charges him up and prepares him to face challenges with intensity. It also means that Raphael is the most straightforward, blunt, and confident.
 
Of course, this doesn’t win him any friends, but it does make him an effective voice of reason (on occasion) since he can focus on the bottom line.
 
Raphael is focused more on the outcome of the situation than how he got there — which is where he needs help from his brothers. Even though he’s fighting for good, he can rub people the wrong way with his consistently bad attitude. This means he relies on his brothers to recruit allies.

Raphael picking a fight in a trench coat from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

On the flip side, Raphael struggles with managing his anger. Anger is one of his primary motivators for fighting and improving, but he does not always effectively channel it. When he makes mistakes, Raphael turns his anger inward, causing him to separate himself from his brothers making him vulnerable to self-doubt, self-criticism, and external threats. He and Donatello seem to be the introverts of the bunch. In the 1990 live-action movie, Raphael makes a mistake in the turtles’ first fight. Instead of reconciling this with his brothers, he impulsively walks out on his own and gets into trouble with Casey Jones.

Our society worships this personality type. It’s believed that the challenger is the most desirable. For men, especially, the emotion of anger is the most socially accepted and normalized of all the emotions. Our society sometimes misconstrues kindness as weakness and values strength over all other traits.

“Raphael is cool, but rude.” 

The lesson here is that while anger can be a useful emotion, we can also easily lose our grip. We can lash out at others and we can beat ourselves up. Raphael reminds us to manage our anger and benevolently channel it. If you follow the Harry Potter universe, Raphael is likely a Slytherin — likely due to his decisions to do whatever it takes to complete the mission.

Mikey

DISC Type: I

Michelangelo is seen as a goofball, but his role in the team is critical. He doesn’t like conflict in general since he’d rather just be having fun, but sometimes a well-placed gag can diffuse stressful situations. Mikey is also typically the first of the four to win over new allies. Since he values relationships he prefers to use social influence to achieve collaboration instead of hard-hitting assertions like Raphael.

Sketch of Mikey hitting a punching bag in the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

In contrast to Raphael, Mikey channels his anger effectively. When discussing the thought of losing their sensei, Splinter, in the 1990s live-action film, Mikey avoids the conversation and hits a punching bag. In fact, for nearly the entire retreat at the farm, Mikey is silent.

It’s slightly unknown but somewhat important that Mikey is also a master of one of the toughest weapons in ninjitsu; the nunchaku. It’s an illustration of his ability to make something extremely difficult look easy when he dedicates his attention. If you didn’t already know this about nunchaku, this detail would likely slip right by — just like the value of the friendships and relationships, he creates with the world outside the sewer.

“Michelangelo is a party dude.”

On the flip side, Mikey’s biggest weakness is that his interest in fun and pizza can mean a lack of interest in what’s important for the mission. This sometimes gets the team in trouble — but his brothers can’t help but forgive him when he delivers comedic relief. By Hogwarts standards, Mikey is a Hufflepuff.

Leonardo

DISC type: S

Leo has a difficult role. He is his brothers’ peer, but he is also their leader. Raphael sometimes resents that Splinter chose him to lead, but this is because Leo is the most loyal and focused of the four.

Sketch of Leo from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

Leo is driven by ambition, honor, and loyalty. In this sketch from the original 1990 live-action turtles movie, April O’Neil’s character depicts Leo waiting faithfully over his injured brother, Raphael.

His commitment to his family and mission also makes him arguably the most skilled of his brothers. When faced with free time, Leonardo chooses to spar with Raphael while Mikey and Donny split for some fun.

It’s important for a leader to be calm, focused, and dependable. Leo takes his job very seriously. He gathers information, usually from Donny, and makes sound decisions that benefit the team as a whole — not just his own self-interest. It’s this characteristic that earns Leo respect with his brothers. Despite the occasional eye-roll, Leo is sincere in his pursuit of justice. This, and his ability to mediate disagreements mean his team can confidently go into battle together.

We love watching leaders like Leo in movies. Calm, collected, steadfast, they give us a sense of stability during chaotic and uncertain challenges. Leo is totally a Gryffindor. 

Donatello

DISC type: C

Smart, creative, and thoughtful, Donny is the philosopher of the bunch. He’s usually tied up in a challenging technical project, meticulously improving existing tools or inventing something new (like the time scepter in TMNT III). Donny cares about accuracy and likes to think things through before making a decision. In fact, without Leo, Donny might have a hard time making things happen fast.

Sketch of Donny from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

Since Donny is usually wrapped up in his own projects, he can sometimes have similar avoidance behavior like Mikey. He’d just rather be building or evaluating something than arguing with Raphael. He also prefers to talk or think things through and tends to use violence as a last resort.

Donny is inspired by knowledge and deep expertise.

Though Leo is the most serious about their mission, it’s Donny who sets the standards, evaluates performance, and provides the quality assurance that Leo and the turtles need to continuously level up. If Donny were placed under the sorting hat, he’d absolutely land in Ravenclaw. 

5 Life Lessons From The Ninja Turtles

Now that we’ve covered all the personality profiles of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, let’s highlight some main takeaways from their interactions as a team.

1. Teamwork requires the diverse skills/talents/input of everyone. 

You don’t all have to agree on what to do as a team, but you do have to align on what you’re going to do.

Just look at the fractured United States and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a great example. We don’t all have to agree on the protocol, but we do need to align with one and start acting like a team.

“Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines.

Raphael is cool, but rude. Michelangelo is a party dude.”

2. Make strategic allies.

It’s tempting to want to do everything yourself and there’s a small, small chance that maybe you could — but a more feasible approach is to put people around you who supplement your weaknesses. The turtles, living in the sewer for many years, had no platform to speak out against crime or to show the world that they were the good guys. By creating allegiances with characters like Casey Jones and April O’Neill at Channel 4 News, they afforded themselves the ability to have influence and get new information to which they might not have had access.

3. Have mentors.

We haven’t talked much about Master Splinter. A mentor is someone who has experience in the domain you’re in and can help guide you strategically and tactically. A coach serves a different purpose. A coach asks good questions and can help you work through problems, but they might not have domain expertise. Get a mentor. Get a coach.

4. Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince was the voice of Shredder.

I’m not sure there’s a really great lesson to be learned but I felt it was worth noting how ridiculous this fact is. James Avery, the actor who played Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also played the voice of Shredder on the original 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

---

That’s it.

What did I miss? What’s a life lesson you learned?

For more regular posts like this, get The Daily Drip. The Daily Drip is a mostly useful, sometimes funny daily newsletter. From there, you can also join a private slack community to have conversations about posts like these with other people who are making things happen.

Can’t wait to see you there.

Mission-Critical Job Interview Questions

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

So do you have any questions for us?

 We all know that dreadful panic at the end of every job interview when you’re scrambling for something smart to say, but then your brain goes: “nope.”

But what else could you say? They explained everything you need to know, what more could you want to ask? 

But then what is that feeling in your gut? The one that's shouting "Agh! Say something smart!" 

Here's what ends up happening:

The fear of saying something stupid prevents you from thinking about the details of the interview. It's impossible to see what the natural followup questions are when you're that nervous! 

It's totally normal, but here's a way to give yourself the little edge you need. I've written a list of interview questions that you'll need to ask at the end of EVERY job interview, whether you're trying to be a cashier or a CFO.

 Before you read the list, you'll need to follow this rule of thumb:

DON'T SHOOT TO IMPRESS THE INTERVIEWER.

Only aim to get the information you will need to be awesome. This will, in turn, let them know you are actually awesome. 

This means you need to do 2 things:

1. Be unique enough to stand out from every other candidate.

2. Ask them the hard questions. 

These questions can also help you sniff out the signs of a dysfunctional department. Something you'll want to know before you sign anything.

For instance, if you ask what the goals of the department are for the next 90 days, and no one can answer you; you might want to think twice about accepting a position where you're responsible for the outcome.

Job interview questions:

• What is a typical day like?

• What will I have done in 6 months from now to be successful in this job?

• What kind of person succeeds in this job and why? Are there specific personality traits you can think of?

• What kind of person fails in this job and why?

• What do you consider the most important day-to-day responsibilities of this job?

• What will be the first projects I tackle?

• What are the biggest challenges the department faces this year? and what will be my role as a team member, in addressing them?

• What are the challenges you are facing right now?

The mother of all interview questions:

“Are there any weaknesses in my candidacy that I might address right now?” 

This last one will give you the chance to look pragmatically at how you shape up to the other candidates. If the interviewer is being honest with you, they'll tell you exactly where they think you'll fall short.

At this point, it's your chance to tell a story about how you'll exceed expectations.

A comprehensive resource:

Check out Martin Yate’s “Knock ‘em Dead” guide to career success. It's definitely one of those “get off your ass and get a real job” kind of books, it has some absolute gold scattered inside it. It’s definitely worth hacking through the motivation-attempts to score some insightful gems. (This is where I stole the Mother Of All Interview Questions bit.)

What interview questions do you like to ask?

Share the love in the comments so we can create a living resource document for others like you.

Does Minimalism Work?

Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash

If you've seen Matt D'Avella's documentary on Netflix called "The Minimalists," you'll know what I mean by minimalism. It's the idea that if you have less stuff, you're going to be happier. That begs the question if you're a shoe-hoarder or you have a ton of tools or gear, does minimalism work?

The first part about understanding minimalism is realizing that it does NOT mean that you have to be a monk or an acetic wandering through the desert with one shirt and a pair of sandals. Maybe that would work for some people, but it would probably drive most people insane.

Minimalism is about realizing what provides value to your life.

If you have a ton of books, but you don't read any of them, it sounds like they're not really adding value to your life. If the intention of the books was to learn something new, it's not working. If the intention of the books was to show them off to guests so you could talk about how smart and well-read you are, well, that's different. It's not ideal, but I get how that could feel good and thus be valuable.

Minimalism is about finding the things that bring you a lot of bang for your buck.

I have a hoodie that cost me a lot more than a regular hoodie. I wear it almost every single day of the year. I love that hoodie. I get a ton of value from it.

For some people, choosing what clothes to buy and wear is a hassle. That's me. For others, choosing what clothes to buy and wear is fun! That's my partner. Does minimalism work for both of us? For me, minimalism doesn't mean only wearing one shirt and one pair of pants--it means finding my favorite shirt and getting enough of those so that I can wear my favorite shirt every day. For my partner, it's about expressing herself in different ways. So, yes, minimalism can work for both of us.

That's just a small example, but I think it outlines the values of minimalism really well. It's not about having no stuff, it's about having only the stuff you love and letting go of the rest. From a finance perspective, this might feel a lot like getting rid of depreciating assets and focusing only on the assets that put money in your pocket. Like beanie babies.

There was this great photo in some publication that showed a couple breaking up in divorce court and splitting up their beanie babies. Here's the image and the super short post I sent to my newsletter audience about it.

This goes for work and career as well. What are the skills you love developing? It's probably worthwhile to invest more in those if you're able to make a living with them. If you can't make a living with those skills, maybe you can turn it into a hobby that brings you joy.

The focus is not on having less stuff. The focus is on having only important and meaningful stuff.

If you have a musical instrument on the wall that you don't play or use, you're probably not getting very much value from it. In fact, it might even be hurting you! How many times will you walk past the piano and say "gosh, I really should play more?" Does minimalism work for ambitious people?

If it's not serving you, let it go. It will lift pressure off your psyche and you'll be able to focus more on the things that matter most to you.

Minimalism is, at its core, about noticing what you value and giving yourself more of it. If you value playing music, you'll notice because you enjoy playing it and so your behavior follows suit. If you don't value playing music, it might feel like a chore or routine. If you're noticing how you feel about these things, you'll be able to adjust your lifestyle to double-down on what provides you value and eliminate what doesn't.

Minimalism is a feedback loop that gives you space to welcome new things into your life and test them out. Minimalism is a value system that encourages you to be really clear about what brings you happiness and then take action!

If you're like me, you've probably changed since you were younger. I'm 32 and I am definitely not the same person I was 10 years ago. My values have changed and so have the things around me. If you are mindful of what you value, it will be easier to notice these changes and recalibrate your life to suit them. You'll be much happier if you can let go of the old you and make space for your new, evolved self.

Does minimalism work for "just in case" scenarios?

To evaluate "just in case" items, just consider this:

If it's a commonly found commodity that doesn't cost a lot, consider letting it go. If it's a rare and useful thing, or if it will become rare and useful in the "just in case" scenario you're imagining, it might be worth holding onto. This isn't perfect--just look at the rarity of toilet paper after the COVID-19 outbreak. That certainly wasn't on many people's "just in case" lists.

A good, all-around safety net for these "just in case" scenarios is good ol' fashioned cash money. If you hop off a plane and your luggage is lost, having an emergency stash of money will help you keep moving without too much worry.

If you're still asking "does minimalism work," here's a quick little summary:

Minimalism works for those people who are willing to consider what they value and let go of what they don't. Remember, you're not just getting rid of EVERYTHING, you're getting rid of the stuff you least value. This makes room for more stuff you DO value. This means you're not walking around your house seeing the piano you never play and thinking "oh, I should be practicing piano more" and instead you're seeing the sleeping bag and tent in your closet and thinking "oh, I can't wait to go camping again!"

The day-to-day feeling of being surrounded by important and valuable things will have an impact on your psyche and will give you the space to focus on the parts of your work and life that matter most.

If you're still not sure, here's another post I wrote about minimalism but reframed a little differently. It steals from Greg McKeown's book on "Essentialism."

Thanks for reading.

If you liked this post and want to know when I publish more, hop on my newsletter.

In each email you get, you can expect to read about neuroscience, empirically-based learning models, and frameworks like Agile and Lean. I also write about the school system and the mechanics of how we’ve been taught to think.

Here's what you get:

• You will immediately get a 7-Email Productivity 101 Crash Course.

• After that, you get a short, daily email with tips, tactics, and cheat codes to be more productive in your own life.

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I'm in.

The Difference Between A Good Work Ethic and A Workaholic

Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash

What is the difference between have a good work ethic and being a workaholic?

For years, I've been proud of my work ethic. I've sacrificed, I've worked 100 hour weeks, and I've always asked myself "how can I do more?"

Isn't that what we're supposed to do?

Gary Vaynerchuk encourages "hustle" nonstop. Ben Franklin invented multiple service-based government agencies. And, let's face it, every American entrepreneur built their company by picking themselves up by their bootstraps, right?

Unfortunately, what's modeled for us by successful people isn't always the whole truth.

I actually wrote a post about Gary Vaynerchuk's success a few years ago.

Gary Vaynerchuk's audience is mostly "wannabes" and complainers so his message is directed at them. Ben Franklin was speculated to be horrible father and no entrepreneur can do everything by themselves.

Here are some guidelines for helping to scrutinize the difference between a good work ethic and a workaholic:

A Workaholic:

• Hedges on personal values to accommodate work demands.

• Feels like if they don't do their work, there will be a catastrophe. (In psychology, this is called "compulsion.")

• Typically is motivated only by the urgency of work, not necessarily the importance of work.

• Doesn't take breaks or allow for recovery time.

• Often deals with great anxiety.

• Doesn't say "no" to new work and treats most tasks as priorities or fails to delegate effectively. (This is sometimes tied to perfectionism.)

• Is unlikely to cancel due to illness.

• Doesn't "turn it off."

• Competes with others on how many hours they've worked.

• Ties their work success with their personal worth.

• Is focused on output quantity and tasks completed.

Someone With A Good Work Ethic:

• Makes the most of the time available.

• Says "no" to non-essential or low-impact work.

• Says "no" to work outside their capacity or ability.

• Is willing to change their work based on feedback because improvement is paramount.

• Can provide quality work consistently because work-in-progress is managed effectively.

• Makes time for fun and personal enjoyment and isn't afraid to "turn off."

• Tend to be high-performers and is passionate about work.

• Competes with their own work and achievements.

• Actively manages burnout symptoms.

• Is focused on quality and output value.

2 Minute Action:

Take this quick Risk Assessment to see if you have symptoms of workaholism or if you're at risk.

Additionally, you can take 2 minutes to reach out to someone in your life and check in with them. It's up to each of us to care, not only for ourselves but also for each other.

If you found this useful, here's another post I wrote on hustle and when to apply it.

The Hidden Economic Genius Of The Tequila Guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCC0MBT6bE

Now, if you've already seen this video, I'm sure you're wondering what I could possibly be talking about. How could the Tequila guy be a genius? And more strangely, how could he be an economic genius. Stick with me and I will explain the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy.

First, have you seen this?

Tequila Guy On America's Got Talent: On YouTube

Here's the TL;DR:

This guy gets himself onto America's Got Talent with his karaoke act. He then proceeds to sing the song "Tequila."

The punchline is that there's only one word to this song.

The audience loved it.

But how? How could this be?

I know what you're thinking. How could anyone see the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy? He isn't doing anything special! Anyone could do that!

Here's the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy:

Are there other people more talented than him? Of course.

Are there other people who developed the skills to be amazing singers? You bet.

What the Tequila guy did was master what I call his "productivity ratio." (I wrote about this in another post, here.)

Without doing much work, he had the audience rolling over laughing.

For the amount of effort he put in, his results were off the charts.

This is the definition of efficiency.

This should translate into your life and work pretty clearly.

Getting paid $2,500/week isn't cool if you're working 80 hours.

Getting paid $2,500/week is much cooler if you're working 10 hours.

Anyone can scale up the amount of time they work. What's more important is focusing on increasing your output, earnings, or whatever "results" you're chasing while also reducing your effort.

In economics, this was originally known as the Pareto Principle (wiki). It stated that 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. This was brought into business jargon as the "80/20 rule."

If you're a consultant or a contractor, you probably have a few clients where you make most of your money. Then you've probably also got a few clients who are a pain in the neck, take up most of your time and energy, and are the least profitable.

Whatever you're working on, it's up to you to reduce your input while simultaneously increasing your output.

2 Minute Action:

Take a look at all your work.

Where are you spending the most time and effort?

Now ask yourself, what work is giving you the most return on your effort?

Today is one of those days where, with the power of reflection, you can choose what your future looks like.

What path with you choose?

How To Get A Job

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A lot of people have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

A few days ago I even asked each of you to help in some way.

Then, I realized, some of you might be in a difficult position where instead of being the helper, you might need to be the helpee.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had a number of people reach out to me about this.

I've been looking at resumes, connecting candidates with opportunities, and doing my best to support my network in this crazy time.

This means that I've been writing emails, notes, and recording little videos to communicate and encourage.

After a few weeks of this, I basically realized that I'd written a white-paper.

Here it is:

This is a link to a Google Doc titled "How To Get A Job."

I posted this on LinkedIn, as well, so you can share it there if you prefer.

This is a public document. That means that anyone can read it and comment on it.

Please consider having a look and adding to it where you feel you could. If you know someone who would be a valuable contributor and would also value contributing, please share it with them.

If you contribute comments, I would also love to add you as an author at the bottom.

We are all responsible for helping lift each other up.

This is just an accumulation of actions that I've taken over the past few weeks, organized into what I hope is a useful document.

I also wrote a blog post on Mission-Critical Job Interview Questions. Check that out if you’re prepping!

Linear Growth vs. Exponential Growth

Small sprouting plant in pot of coins shows difference between linear growth vs. exponential growth. Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

Evaluating linear growth vs. exponential growth sounds straightforward, right?

How could they possibly be similar? They look so different on a graph!

Let me show you how, because it seems like everyone wants exponential growth in pretty much every category.

Fitness. Finance. Productivity. You name it.

And if we just listened to all the advice on the internet, we'd all be billionaires with 6-pack abs, right?

Photo by 

Luke Chesser

 on 

Unsplash

Here's the tricky thing:

Exponential growth looks a lot like linear growth at first.

In fact, they look the same for a while--but they're completely different.

If you've ever tried to lose weight, build your investment portfolio, or learn an instrument you may have experienced this long linear line as a plateau.

But do you remember when you started to finally see results in the mirror? Remember that feeling when you actually could play the first line of Beethoven's 9th without messing up and it felt good?

That's the moment you started seeing the separation from the linear growth path and the exponential growth path.

We experience these moments as "breakthroughs."

Here's a quick/dirty graph to explain what I mean:

Just keep this in mind as you move toward your goals. Most effort compounds.

If you're learning to "walk the dog" with a yo-yo, that early stage is probably about 45 minutes.

It's not that long, but for 45 minutes you're banging your elbow, whacking your head, and considering quitting because you're not seeing the improvement you want.

You're experiencing linear growth vs. exponential growth--or so your brain thinks!

If you're learning to play the guitar, it's more like 2 years, not 45 minutes.

Different skills and goals will have different curves with different timelines.

So, how do we find that breakthrough moment and get the huge dopamine rush that comes with it?

We need to . . .

1. Measure our progress

2. Set expectations

3. Adapt when things aren't working.

How will you measure your improvement? Are you logging pushups in a fitness journal?

How will you set expectations? What is a typical amount of time someone needs to lose 15 lbs. at your age with your health conditions?

How will you adapt what you're doing when it's not going to plan? Do you know someone who's done it before with success? Can you call a friend to brainstorm some ways to shake things up and try something new?

If you're serious, you'll measure your progress.

If you're serious, you'll be patient with yourself.

2 Minute Action

When was the last time you quit?

How do you know if it was a good quit or a premature quit?

One way to tell is by when you quit. Was it before you started or when it got hard?

If you quit in the "Early Stage," you might want to try again or look honestly at what happened.

I bet it will take you 2 minutes or less to assess this and try again.

If you loved reading this, click here to get more posts like it in your inbox every day.

You're Going to Die And That's Great News

Right this second, I've estimated I've got about 2,876 weeks left in my lifetime.

The truth is that you’re going to die and that’s great news. Let me explain a bit about why this is great news and then I’ll break down how I got to this number.

Whether I'm right or wrong, that's the number I'm looking at. I have 2,876 weeks left to make an impact. I have 2,876 weeks left to do something meaningful. I have 2,876 weeks left to live. I update this number in my journal every time I write.

Why?

I don't want to negotiate with regret when I'm on my deathbed, looking back at the journey I took. I don't want to second guess myself, wish I'd taken more chances, or say "if only." I want to look the end of my life straight in the face and say: "I spent my energy wisely. I did everything I could. I left nothing on the field. I'm spent. I made the world a measurably better place. I know I did because I can see the evidence in front of me."

It’s created urgency, which is something that motivates people to take action.

I urge you to make your own estimate and look your Death Bed Timer right in the face.

It will help you reprioritize things in your life.

Don't we all want this?

Then why isn't anyone training for it? This is called being deliberate. I know I'm afraid of death. So the only way to alleviate my fear is to stare down death every day until it's as common as a sneeze.

No one has ever said, "man, I'm really glad I played it safe."

No one has ever said, "I’m really glad I gave up my dream to work on someone else’s dream.”

So, assuming all goes well and you live a full-length life, what will you say at the end?

2 Minute Action:

Do a quick estimate.

1. Google your average life expectancy.

2. Subtract your current age.

3. Subtract any additional health predispositions.

Write this number down every day/week/month.

Look at it. Don't back down. It's one critical key to avoiding regret and living the life you actually want to live. Funny, how death can really jolt the life into us . . .

These 2 minutes could absolutely change your life.