Month: May 2014

I just finished reading Boomerang by Michael Lewis. As I was putting down my reflections, I was reminded of this idea from books on personal finance – every decade or so, there comes a craze where there seems to be easy money to be made. It happened with the dot com bubble, with cheap credit in Iceland, with the real estate bubble in Ireland, and numerous other examples from history. This lure of easy money results in the complete disregard of weakly held principles. Financial institutions throw away norms that have served them well for a hundred years to chase the new craze. Everyone gets caught in the insanity and the few who don’t look like fools.

The only thing that is a constant is that lows that inevitably follow are just as high as the highs that preceded it.

So, beware things that come easy. They are sure to go as easy as well.

Now let’s see how we all fare in the next bubble. :-)

..over leveraged banks without enough savings.

Savings come from a track record give have inherent credibility and trust. These savings work like real money – they are generally hard earned and easily lost or spent.

Once you lose that credibility and trust, you’re done. It’s a lesson we can’t take seriously enough given how easy talking is thanks to blogs and social media. Don’t talk about it unless you can walk the talk. Social media is like cheap credit and is really easy to over use without really showing any proof of savings. We all know how that story ends..

The good news (and yes, there is some)? Saving is a straightforward habit. It doesn’t take extraordinary skill – all it takes is some discipline and a will to keep on your path despite what “everyone else is doing.”

I watched “Rush” a few days ago – the movie that details the rivalry of Niki Lauda and James Hunt. It is a movie that explores the contrast between two top racers – a passionate dare-devil Britisher called James Hunt and a clinical German called Niki Lauda. They raced at a time when F1 was far from safe – a death or two every year was commonplace – and brought incredible skill to a challenging and often punishing sport. Rush is about an epic rivalry that pushed both of them to do better.

The crux of the story is in their differing approach to racing. James Hunt (painted as the more talented racer) approaches racing with passion, love, and possesses the sort of dare-devil instinct that allows him to put his life on the line. His life involves multiple highs and lows with alcohol, women, and substance abuse – he’s the flawed superstar. Lauda, on the other hand, works the percentages. For him, racing is a profession and he’s out there to win. He refuses to race in conditions where he sees more than a 20% chance of death. He also understands every aspect of the car and often helps the technicians with the engineering. It makes for a great contrast and a very interesting story and, as the movie goes on, they develop a grudging respect for each other’s talents.

James Hunt eventually does win the world championship he always dreamed of. However, things go downhill very quickly after that. He loses focus (despite Lauda’s attempts to push him) and he dies aged 44. His story reminds me of that of Manchester United and Northern Ireland legend George Best. Best was the best player of the world at 22 but no amount of talent could save him from himself.

It is a telling reminder that talent is only one part of the equation of excellence and happiness. There’s a lot more to life than that and the boring traits of discipline and consistency rarely get the credit they deserve.

Lauda sums it all up brilliantly after a conversation with Hunt just after Hunt’s world title.

“Of course he didn’t listen to me. For James, one world title was enough. He had proved what he needed to prove. To himself and anyone who doubted him. And two years later, he retired. When I saw him next in London, seven years later, me as a champion again, him as broadcaster, he was barefoot on a bicycle with a flat tire, still living each day like his last. When I heard he died age 45 of a heart attack, I wasn’t surprised. I was just sad. People always think of us as rivals but he was among the very few I liked and even fewer that I respected. He remains the only person I envied.”

There are 2 ways I know of understanding what drives us – our schedule and our track record.

The schedule is a short term measure while the track record is the long term measure. The track record functions as the real test while the schedule forms a check. A bit of soul searching might reveal what we’d like to think we’re driven by but the schedule and track record are the real answers.

If we haven’t done anything around serving the community ever, it is definitely not something we care about all that much. Words don’t get work done and only work done counts. And, if we haven’t spent much time with our family this week, it’s safe to say that’s not what drives us. The schedule reflects our priorities.

This doesn’t mean the answer to the “what drives us” question is set in stone. A detailed look might reveal things we don’t really want to talk about – free time, Facebook, television, etc.

We can begin to change it by fixing our schedule this week and the next. Over time, it’ll show on our track record.

Even the best performers receive 1 star reviews and boos when they try something out that doesn’t work. “She should stick to what she’s good at.” But, it doesn’t stop them. The best performers consistently reinvent themselves because change is essential. If every song follows the style of the first hit, it’ll mark certain death.

While there probably is art and science to making change without alienating those who follow you, this post is about the other useful skill – building immunity. A 1-star review on Amazon, a boo when you are performing, or an insult to your face never stops hurting. But, over time, top artists learn to be immune enough so it hurts a little bit but not too much.

How? By doing what’s painful.

When you start out playing the guitar, there’s no way to avoid the pain caused by cuts in your fingers. Over time, however, those cuts lead to hardened skin which in turn mean less pain. The pain doesn’t ever entirely go away. We just become immune to its intensity. The pain is important because it shows we still feel and creating art requires us to be in touch with those feelings. The immunity, however, reminds us that there are things more important than that pain.

So, if you’re worried about being criticized, go do something (it doesn’t matter what) – the criticism will follow. if you’re worried about failing, go do something (again, it doesn’t matter what) – the failure will follow as well. Action -> initial encouragement -> pain -> failure -> more pain -> immunity -> creating stuff we are proud of.

Time to take the first step.