mastery.fm – caffeine for the mind & spirit

Make Something Wonderful

There’s lots of ways to be, as a person. And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.

And you never meet the people. You never shake their hands. You never hear their story or tell yours. But somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something’s transmitted there. And it’s a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation. So we need to be true to who we are and remember what’s really important to us.

Laurene Powell Jobs:

The best way to understand a person is to listen to that person directly. And the best way to understand Steve is to listen to what he said and wrote over the course of his life. His words—in speeches, interviews, and emails—offer a window into how he thought. And he was an exquisite thinker.

Much of what’s in these pages reflects guiding themes of Steve’s life: his sense of the worlds that would emerge from marrying the arts and technology; his unbelievable rigor, which he imposed first and most strenuously on himself; his tenacity in pursuit of assembling and leading great teams; and perhaps, above all, his insights into what it means to be human.

Steve once told a group of students, “You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear.” He gave an extraordinary amount of thought to how best to use our fleeting time. He was compelled by the notion of being part of the arc of human existence, animated by the thought that he — or that any of us — might elevate or expedite human progress.

It is hard enough to see what is already there, to gain a clear view. Steve’s gift was greater still: he saw clearly what was not there, what could be there, what had to be there. His mind was never a captive of reality. Quite the contrary: he imagined what reality lacked and set out to remedy it. His ideas were not arguments, but intuitions, born of a true inner freedom and an epic sense of possibility.

In these pages, Steve drafts and refines. He stumbles, grows, and changes. But always, always, he retains that sense of possibility.

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Single Sentences

George Stoitzev:

Single sentences at critical points that change your direction are most important.

Looking back the last 6 years I see less than 10 sentences that made all the subsequent decisions.

It’s strange to think that a single sentence at the right moment holds so much power.

It’s because that sentence changes your track and you start making decisions within that direction, thereby removing optionality in others.

Alan Trapulionis:

Some time ago, I did an exercise where I tried to recall the key turning points in my life. After a while, I realized that it was never a “genius idea” or “an amazing realization” that shaped my path — but people.

I’d meet someone. I’d have my core assumptions challenged. We’d do something together that I’d never think of doing on my own. In the end, I’d be left with experiences and lessons that I never would’ve been able to get just by my own intellectual effort.

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Where can I find a small corner of stillness? – Liz Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love:

The first question you can begin to ask yourself, though, is: “Where can I find a small corner of stillness?” Because that’s where it all begins and ends. God resides in these pockets of silence. So where in your day, where in your home, where in your mind, is there some opportunity for a moment of silence? Or maybe even a few moments, during which you can start asking the questions you need to ask in order to find what you need to learn. Can you find the time to get out of your own way and try to step into your own light?

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Elizabeth Gilbert on Quests

Liz Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love:

What was the biggest surprise about your journey?

How well it worked. I found exactly what I was looking for during that year of traveling. In fact, I found more than I’d dared to hope for. Looking back on it now, though, I think that this amazing result was sort of inevitable. I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” Or so I’ve come to believe. I can’t help but believe it, given my experience.

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Elizabeth Gilbert on Writing

Liz Gilbert, of Eat Pray Love fame:

I believe that – if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression – that you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns. I made a vow to writing, very young. I became Bride-of-Writing. I was writing’s most devotional handmaiden. I built my entire life around writing. I didn’t know how else to do this. I didn’t know anyone who had ever become a writer. I had no, as they say, connections. I had no clues. I just began.

And:

As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck. When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.

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Once you understand the code, you understand why people do what they do

Interview with Clotaire Rapaille:

What are codes?

Once you understand the code, you understand why people do what they do. For example, the code for the French — once you understand the code, you may understand why [French president Jacques] Chirac reacted this way to Bush, because for the French, the code is “to think.” That’s it: to think. “I think, therefore I am” — not “I do,” “I think.” The French believe [that they are] the only thinkers of the world and that they think for the rest of the world. They believe that Americans never think; they just do things without knowing why. And so in this situation, where Bush say[s], “Let’s do it,” the French say, “No, wait, think; we need to think.”

Now, what you have to understand about the French culture is “to think” is enough. You don’t need to do anything with your thinking. The French philosopher would say, “I think, therefore I am,” where in America you have Nextel, this campaign, fantastic, “I do, therefore I am,” not “I think.” I think they’re right on target with the American code.

An example of how he helped Folgers crack the ‘code’ for coffee:

Now, the limit of what I do versus other marketing research is once I discover the code of coffee, [it’s] done; I cannot do it twice. I’ve done coffee for Folgers. Folgers owns it; it has been using it for 12 years. I can’t do coffee again. It’s done. It’s a discovery, and once you get the code, suddenly everything starts making sense, and now we understand why the Americans behave like this. Now we understand why coffee this way works and coffee this way doesn’t work. I understand why a small $29,000 Cadillac cannot sell. I understand why — because it’s off code.

How does Folgers go about owning it?

That’s a very interesting question, because at the beginning they told me: “Coffee is a commodity. How can we own something that the others do not own?” My experience is that when there is a code, it’s more complex than that. There is a code and a consistency checklist. Everything has to be on code. Everything you do should reinforce the code; not just the packaging or the communication should be on code. The leaflet, the brochures, everything should be on code. And if you are the first one to position yourself like that, knowing all the different aspects, you have a competitive edge. They might try to copy, but they don’t know the formula; they don’t know the code behind it.

For example, aroma is number one. Why? Because we imprint the aroma first, not the taste. Aroma is imprinted at a very early age, when you are around 2. Ah, and it means home, mother, feeding you, love and so on. A large majority, 90-something percent of Americans, love the aroma of coffee. Only 47 percent like the taste.
I don’t know if you remember this commercial, but it was really on code. You have a young guy coming from the Army in a uniform. Mother is upstairs asleep. He goes directly to the kitchen, “Psssst,” open the coffee, and the smell — you know, because we designed the packaging to make sure that you smelled it right away. He prepares coffee; coffee goes up; the smell goes upstairs; the mother is asleep; she wakes up; she smiles. And we know the word she is going to say, because the code for aroma is “home.” So she is going to say, “Oh, he is home.” She rushed down the stairs, hugged the boy. I mean, we tested it. At P&G they test everything 400 times. People were crying. Why? Because we got the logic of emotion right.

On Jeeps:

When I worked with Chrysler, for example, we discovered that Jeeps should not have square headlights. That’s a very practical thing: no square headlights. Why? I don’t want to go into anything secret, but let’s suppose the code for a Jeep is an animal like a horse. You don’t see a horse with square eyes. The Jeep people didn’t say that; they said, “Yes, I want round headlights, like a face.” And we use the face of the Jeep with the grille as a logo for Jeep. So when I discovered that, that was like a very reptilian dimension. And since then, no Jeep Wranglers have square headlights.

What is the difference between good and bad marketing research? It works. Good marketing research works. When we say it works, it means that marketers understand the real need of the customers — sometimes unspoken — and they deliver. Right now you have a whole industry — the airline industry — that doesn’t understand at all their customers. They’re making big, big mistake. They still don’t understand. Why? Because they have marketing research that goes to the people and says: “What do you want? Do you want cheaper or more expensive?” And of course people say cheaper. So they say, “You see, they want cheaper, so we’re going to give them cheaper airlines, cheaper, cheaper.” Now this is how, in terms of reptilian, [cheaper is interpreted]: “I can’t breathe; I can’t move; they don’t feed me.” This is awful, right? So I’m not flying anymore. I drive my car. Why? Because they’ve not taken care of my reptilian. And then emotionally they treat me like, you know, [I’m] checking [into] a high-security prison.

And:

How can I decode this kind of behavior which is not a word? My theory is very simple: The reptilian always wins. I don’t care what you’re going to tell me intellectually. I don’t care. Give me the reptilian. Why? Because the reptilian always wins.

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Make your life a book of stories

James Altucher:

How do I know what I should do?

Whatever area you feel like reading 500 books about. Go to the bookstore and find it. If you get bored three months later go back to the bookstore.

It’s ok to get disillusioned. That’s what failure is about. Success is better than failure but the biggest lessons are found in failure.

When you make mistakes fast, your brain learns. But when you get stuck, with no ideas, and no health, and nothing to push you forward. You atrophy.

Changing fast, creates more intersections, makes you the best in the world at those intersections.

Very important: There’s no rush. You will reinvent yourself many times in an interesting life. You will fail to reinvent many times. That’s fun also.

Many reinventions makes your life a book of stories instead of a textbook.

Some people want the story of their life to be a textbook. For better worse, mine is a book of stories.

That’s why reinvention happens every day.

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Where Does the Energy Want to Flow?

Steve Pavlina:

Simply using this model of energy flows has been super helpful on my path of growth. It’s helped me in pretty much every area of life. In fact, I often write articles by asking myself: Where does the energy want to flow today? When energy (especially creative energy) is flowing nicely through my life, I can co-create with it. I can summon and ride waves of inspiration instead of having to push myself. The energy carries me forward much of the time.

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Doing the Work

Steve Pavlina:

One of my key takeaways was an unspoken one – that if people want to transform their lives, it begins with taking 100% personal responsibility for doing the work. No one else can do the transformation for you, even someone you think may have caused or contributed to the harm you endured. That was a key theme I saw elsewhere in the conference too: We all have to do our own inner work, and if we don’t step up, no one is coming to rescue us. One reason people do psychedelics is that they really want to transform their lives, and they’ve often tried many other approaches before landing in psychedelic land.

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Graduating to Bigger Challenges

Steve Pavlina:

When you finally figure out your solution to the enjoyable work plus abundant income puzzle, what will that do for your tribe? Answer that question, and you’ll have some semblance of a purpose. Then if you work more directly on that purpose instead of staying stuck on the individual level of your personal needs and desires, you’ll really have something that can get you into the greater social flows.

The game doesn’t end there though. It’s not nirvana. You’ll simply graduate to other problems and challenges, but they’ll be more interesting than figuring out how to pay your bills. In fact, another really good source of motivation is to actually want to graduate to bigger and more interesting problems.

The problems I get to tackle today are harder than the ones I had to deal with when I was struggling financially. What kept me stuck was the framing that I needed to solve or escape my problems, so I could have an easier and more peaceful life. What helped me progress was accepting that I want to keep learning and growing, so of course I must keep progressing to harder problems. Life doesn’t get easier per se, but it can become more rewarding and inspiring. And on some level, it does feel easier when you invite more social support by setting goals that will be good for other people, not just for yourself.

How many more times do you need to iterate through your problems at the individual level before you’re ready to serve and participate in the social flows of the tribe?

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