The Ideas That Continuously Enter Our Field Are Not By Accident, They Are Our Reminders
10 thoughts, ideas & creative finds on not ignoring your calling, intellectual obsessions & building wealth
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We Weren’t Prepared For Uncertainty, We Were Prepared For a False Sense of Safety
Your First Idea Doesn’t Have to Be the Winning One… But It Will Lead To It
If You Have Ideas, Write… If You Have Taste, Design… If You Have Vision, Build
Hey Everyone,
The Rundown — Here’s what I found over the course of this week that has helped me, inspired me or gave me some creative pushes…
“Sometimes the most rejected ideas are waiting for the person with the most potential.” … Before Michelangelo completed the 17 ft statue of David, two other artists were commissioned nearly 40 years earlier… both abandoned the project after making only minor progress…
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in 1501 when Michelangelo was requested to continue the project, there was concern that the marble had been exposed to outside elements for 25 years, and many believed it was too damaged to be used. Michelangelo, however, saw potential in it…
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while previous sculptors who planned to depict David after his battle with Goliath, with the head of the giant at his feet, Michelangelo chose to represent David before the battle, tense and focused, capturing the moment of contemplation and readiness before the action. Moral of the Story -- sometimes the idea has to wait for the most qualified person to come along who’s destined for it… this could be you.
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If you want to hear more about how it all went down, I did a podcast on this…
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“If I look back on my life, almost everything great that I managed to pull off… has come from following my own, natural intellectual obsessions…” — “If you go deep into anything you’ll find the same kind of common threads. Self improvement really just comes from letting you be yourself, follow the things you really want to follow, figuring out the things you want to figure out, not worrying about what other people want or think and then you’ll kind of find yourself at the same place at the end no matter which way you take.” (Naval Ravikant)
It’s tempting to make ‘making money’ your Roman Empire when you’re starting out in business — because revenue seems like the right metric to measure your success. But it’s not…. What’s important isn’t some number you’ve plucked out of the air and placed in a fancy spreadsheet, it’s putting yourself out there and waking up each day with a plan to disturb the peace. It’s about racing towards the tipping point - the centre of the X – and collecting skills as fast as you possibly can. — Forget Sales Targets, Set Rejection Targets Instead)
On building wealth from your soul — Sometimes the opportunity isn't the money, but the ability to turn it down if it's not in alignment with your values, thus creating 2 opportunities...
To do the right thing & not compromise your vision.
Create the space for an even bigger payout based on your intuition & merit.
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Business, how we earn money and how we build wealth is more spiritual than you can imagine. (Full Carousel Post on Instagram)
On “a calling” — if you can’t stop thinking about it, you need to look deeper into deeper… the ideas that continuously enter our field are not by accident, they are your reminders… so many people keep looking “out there” for purpose, when what’s for them is calling them all the time.
If you were known for your natural curiosities and you could speak about them all day… what would you like to be known for 5, 10, or even 20 years from now? — I was watching a video on Instagram by Tom Noske and he said “your job is not to reinvent the wheel everyday… your job is to remind people of the ideas you believe in…” — I think it’s important to share what you cannot stop thinking about, creating and/or mastering because it ties you to a mission… your life is a mission, should you choose to accept that and then it’s what value you decide to share with the world while you’re here.
On mastering the first 2 minutes — James Clear has an exceptional excerpt in his book, Atomic Habits called the Two-Minute Rule — “Even when you know you should start small, it’s easy to start too big. When you dream about making a change, excitement inevitably takes over and you end up trying to do too much too soon… Instead, when you start a new habit, it should take less than 2 minutes to do.”
“Read before bed each night” becomes “read one page.”
“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”
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James points out that it’s not necessarily the habit that’s so hard, but the act of starting… get good at starting something, anything, take one step in it today, then another tomorrow and the next day, and what you’ll find is it’s more about consistency than anything else.
On your value and worth — “If you’re one of the best employees at your company, you should damn sure be building something for yourself on the side… When a company is willing to pay you for your knowledge and skills, the open market will likely pay you more… Maybe even 5x more. (Justin Welsh)
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Try not to think of “entrepreneurship” as having to building a massive company with massive overhead… try thinking of it as a way to earn more for your value in less time, with greater efficiency and on your own terms.
“We weren’t prepared for uncertainty, we were prepared for a false sense of safety.” — In a recent letter I wrote here on Substack — I wanted to remind all of you of the importance in trusting your intuition. In our youth we were told certain jobs and certain paths were “safe” because of money and external validation… what we should have been told is to trust our gifts, talents, intuition and calling… the fulfillment factor is 100x better this route and the returns are even greater (this may include financial returns as well).
Playlist — Chill Morning Deep House Mix ft. Lilicay — Another great list from @lilicay on YouTube of Chill House to work to… great for creating, designing, writing, computer work.
Start… you’ll figure it out from there.
If you feel an urge to pursue something… look into it.
If a curiosity keeps coming up… look into it.
If a company is willing to pay you for your talents and skills… the market might pay you 5x more… look into it.
As a general piece of advice and the reason I put James Clear’s two-minute rule reminder in there is because I’ve always found that if I can close the gap between my intuition and execution, everything works out…
if I don’t allow for too much overthinking, overanalyzing and procrastination… and simply execute on my gut instincts, everything turns out even better than I can imagine.
Clear was right, don’t be overwhelmed by the whole vision… start with a simple step and then replicate doing more steps daily…
We’re all just figuring it out.
Go create!
Matt
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What a line-up of great thought leaders and ideas. Thank you for including me ❤️