Business

Continuing our chat about How to Prosper, let’s talk about another facet of our session on the subject with our Mastery-Coaches.

In our last +1, we took a very quick, high-level look at the growing recognition of the fact that businesses can (and I’d say must!) be used as a force for good.

In our last couple +1s, we opened up The Economist and chatted about the rise of purpose-driven businesses in general and Public Benefit Corporations in particular.

John Mackey created Whole Foods Market and captured the principles of how he deliberately created a purpose-driven business at scale in his great book Conscious Capitalism.

Jim Collins is arguably the greatest business thinker alive. He’s written classics like Good to Great, Built to Last and Great by Choice in which he applies rigorous research to what makes great companies great.

Brian Tracy is one of my favorite old-school self-development teachers. I can still remember listening to his CDs back in the day when I was first getting into all this stuff. And, we’ve covered a number of his books including Maximum Achievement, Eat that Frog, Goals!, Focal Point and No Excuses.

In our last +1, we talked about Phil Stutz’ great phrase: “Endlessly evolving process.”

In our last +1, we talked about setting your “work-down” alarm so you don’t need to set a “wake-up” alarm. (For what time did you set YOUR alarm? :)

When I worked with Steve Chandler, one of the themes of our work together was “creating wealth through profound service.”

Peter Drucker is known as the “Father of Modern Management.” Basically, he was the greatest business thinker of the 20th century.

In our last +1, we talked about mastering Ownish and noticing when we slip into Victimese. (We also talked about going all in and mastering the dialect of Extreme Ownish—which, I’m told, is where it’s REALLY at. 🤓)

Steve Chandler has a new book called CREATOR. It’s awesome.

In our last +1, we did some severe pruning with Steve Chandler and Ralph Waldo Emerson. (How’d that go for you? More specifically: What went for you? 🤓)

Way back in the day, we talked about Rick Snyder’s wisdom on The Science of Hope.

In our last couple +1s, we took a quick look at some of my recent attempts to cool-ify and kid-ify the idea that delaying gratification via saving/investing money is awesome. 🤓

In our last +1, we revisited our Spiritual Economics dictionary to redefine some key terms. Specifically: Affluence + Security + Prosperity.

Not too long ago we talked about the fact that the word prosperity literally means “to go forward with hope.”

Not too long ago, we hung out with my friend Tripp Lanier who helped us gain perspective via a little thought exercise that included us looking through the Hubble telescope at distant galaxies.

Marcus Aurelius once wrote to himself in the journal he never intended to publish that we now know as Meditations that “The impediment to action advances the action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

Vice Admiral James Stockdale was shot down during the Vietnam War. He spent seven and a half years in a brutal prison camp. He spent four of those years in solitary confinement and two years in leg irons. He was tortured fifteen times.

So, let’s say you’ve decided to embark on a heroic quest. It’s time for you to leave the normal, routine life and really go for it—stretching yourself to dare greatly and do what you’re here to do.

Let’s talk some more about how to become Antifragile.

In our last couple +1s, we’ve been talking about Agency. I promised we’d get into how The Power of Agency guys tell us we can build our agency.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole idea of “neutral” thinking since I first read about it in Trevor Moawad’s It Takes What It Takes.

Josh Waitzkin is a fascinating guy. You know that movie Searching for Bobby Fisher featuring a little chess prodigy kid?

In our last +1, we entered our World Champion You Training Camp.

Georges St-Pierre is one of the greatest mixed martial artists in the world. Ever.

Imagine this: It’s your first day of art class. You signed up for an intro class on pottery. (Nice! Go you!)

Ray Dalio is one of the most successful people alive. Time magazine says he’s one of the 100 most influential people on the planet while Fortune magazine says his company (Bridgewater Associates) is the fifth most important private company in the U.S. and Forbes tells us he’s one of the 100 wealthiest people alive.

Ray Dalio shares a ton of wisdom in his epic book Principles. Here’s an idea I come back to often in my coaching sessions and in my own strategic thinking.

In our last +1, we talked about zero-based thinking and reflected on the powerful question of asking ourselves whether, knowing what we now know, we’d have started doing some of the things we’re doing.

In our last +1, we met one of my heroes, Mrs. Kristie Kuehnast. I smile with joy (and in awe) every time I imagine her fifth-grade students coming back into the classroom after their mile run to sit down and watch a new +1.

Matt McCall is one of the leading venture capitalists in the world. He also happens to be a friend and advisor and personal investor in Heroic. (And, perhaps most importantly, his license plate says “KARMA” which I think is pretty epically cool.)

Peter Drucker is considered the father of modern management. The greatest business thinker of the 20th century.

We’re on the home stretch of our quick sprint through Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits.

As we’ve discussed a few times, I went to UCLA. First generation college student. Studied Psychology and Business.

This morning I’ve been working on a Gordian Knot in our business.

Continuing our theme of spending time with some of the best productivity thinkers on the planet, let’s cruise on over to Harvard Business School and spend some time with its head of research, Teresa Amabile.

Alison Wood Brooks is a researcher at Harvard Business School. She studies the most effective strategy for dealing with acute stress.

The other day I was reading a great book called Company of One by Paul Jarvis. Sub-title: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business. Alexandra got it for me. (Thanks, Darling! 😘)

​​A few +1s ago, we had fun chatting about the starting and finish lines of my first business, eteamz.

In our last few +1s, we took a very quick, high-level look at the growing recognition of the fact that businesses can (and I’d say must!) be used as a force for good.

Today we’re going to talk about ink blobs and emptiness.

Continuing our Antifragile theme, let’s talk about another way Nassim Taleb tells us to approach things if we want to avoid being fragile. He’s using this example in the context of investing but I love to apply it to EVERYTHING.

A couple +1s ago, we talked about the power of buoyancy and the optimal ratio of positive to negative.

In our last +1, we talked about Twyla Tharp’s great book The Creative Habit. In addition to seeing who she thinks wins the philosophical tug of war on what makes people creative (effort for the win!), we also talked about establishing our own creative habit of doing some Pre-Input Deep Work every morning.

In our last +1, we hung out with Mister Rogers and his barrelful of songs.

Not too long ago, we spent some time with my Yoda (aka Phil Stutz) and he taught us the power of what he calls “stringing pearls.” (It was Part 2 in our Yoda’s Law of Action series. 🤓)

Continuing our Productivity 101 theme, here’s another gem from the 4DX guys.

Daily Rituals is a fascinating book that features brief vignettes of the idiosyncratic habits of 161 of history’s most iconoclastic writers, scientists and other great thinkers—ranging from W.H. Auden, Charles Darwin and Carl Jung to Stephen King, Benjamin Franklin and Mozart.

Gay Hendricks tells us that we need to make a big leap into our Genius Zone.

Many moons ago, very early in our +1 journey together, we talked about Gay Hendricks’ wisdom on your Genius Zone.

A couple +1s ago, we had some fun hanging out with Trevor Moawad and discussed some wisdom from his great book: It Takes What It Takes.

Today’s Day 1 of our Heroic Mastery Series and Coach-Class II certification programs.

In The Science of Getting Rich (best title ever?), Wallace D. Wattles (definitely best name ever) tells us that, if we want to enjoy the process of creating abundance in every facet of our lives, we need to make sure we focus on CREATING not COMPETING.

In our last +1, we talked about the importance of goals as they relate to having high hope.

Back in the day, we chatted about Cal Newport’s Deep Work Equation.

In our last few +1s, we’ve been spending some time with world-class fear wolf-tamer, Mark Divine as we explore wisdom from his new book Staring Down the Wolf.

In our last +1, we spent some time with an Academy Award-nominated documentarian who reminded us that we need to be willing to fail.

Matt Fitzgerald wrote a great book called How Bad Do You Want It?

In Born for This, Chris Guillebeau tells us that, according to legend, Warren Buffet once gave a struggling friend a three steps process for setting goals. Here’s the quick look.

In our last +1, we spent some time with Tim Ferriss, setting some unusually large goals and thinking about the fact that those jumbo goals can often be, paradoxically, easier to reach than the “realistic” goals that everyone else is going after.

Continuing our abundance theme, let’s talk about WHY we may be trying to make money and create wealth.

In our last +1, we briefly chatted about John Harrison’s decades-long (!!!) quest to bring the world precision timekeeping.

In our last +1, we had fun hopping in the Optimizing River of Flexibility for a little CANOE-ing fun. (Constant And Never-ending Optimizing Experimentation for the (joyful!) win!!)