Quotes of the Week from Me:

“Are you a receiver or co-creator?”

“Perspective will blow your mind.”

“Being is often overwhelmed by thought.”

Quotes of the Week from Someone Else:

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

– Seneca

“There is nothing stronger than these two: patience and time, they will do it all.”

– Leo Tolstoy

“My philosophy is, it’s none of my business what people say of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.”

– Anthony Hopkins

Quick Optimism

Are you a receiver or co-creator?

There is no such thing as an original idea, including what I just said.

Mark Twain said, “…we can turn old ideas into new, curious combinations”, but he thought they are “the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

But by his logic, he was probably just the first person to put this thought into words. He was also probably the first person with the combination of fame and creativity to make a memorable impact with it.

When I studied at the University of Rochester, I ended up in a Creative Writing class during my junior year. My professor explained that we had all made it to the university and into his classroom one way or another. We had checked enough of the right boxes, completed the necessary tasks to get there. But so had others that never made it. He said that no matter what, there was luck involved in arriving in our seats that day and we should remember that when we feel we are better than other people. We should remember that when we feel lesser than other people. It was a Creative Writing class. The students before us and after us would probably have a similar work ethic, a similar experience with luck, and probably end up writing about similar things.

The craziest part of this story: someone else told it to me about a year ago. I started working at my current job, I met a woman who grew up in India and made it to UNC for her master’s degree in the 1980s. Fast forward to our paths crossing, she told me about the time her professor said the same thing. On day one her class was told that none of them were special and it was impossible to come up with an original idea. He concluded what sounded like a pessimistic first impression by telling them to work hard and make the most of the opportunity.  

In a way, we are all receivers of information and experiences. How we interpret them makes us all creative. How we share them makes us unoriginal creators; we are co-creators.

Full Newsletter

It’s all about perspective.

It is difficult to love everything about our lives. We love some things about our jobs, our friends, and ourselves but there is always something to improve on. If we aren’t careful, we might get distracted by a growing list of reminders that we need to get in better shape, make more money, do more in our communities, and so on.

Since starting this newsletter, I have had the opportunity to reconnect with a lot of former friends and colleagues and I am very grateful for that. I have also been fortunate to have a handful of people become truly invested in my work. It’s less about recognition and very much about sharing our exploration of knowledge and experiences. One byproduct of this exploration is people sending me other newsletters to subscribe to. If you are looking for an awesome new newsletter (a very long one at that), check our Ryan Holiday’s “Meditations on Strategy and Life.”

In one of his recent articles, he goes on about “spending more quality time’…”

“While it comes from a good place, there’s a disconnect: The perfectionist side of our brain, fueled by movies and Instagram, wants everything to be special, to be ‘right.’ But that’s an ideal the busy, ordinary, doing-the-best-we-can versions of ourselves can’t always live up to. The result? An inevitable sense of disappointment. A sense that other people are doing better than us. We feel guilt. We feel pressure… That’s not fair. And it’s also damaging.”

Holiday continues with mundane examples like washing the dishes or working on a farm and claims they can be forms of happiness. Finally, he concludes with the idea that every moment in front of us is a gift. All time can be quality time. As I said, it’s all about perspective.

His newsletter reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a student, Dhanush. He was born into the lowest caste in Karnataka, India. As Holiday referenced the movies and Instagram, Dhanush used those exact words to describe his arrival at Dartmouth College.

We were meeting to discuss different program offerings on campus. He wanted to get a better idea of the opportunities available for making the most of his time as an undergraduate. It is one the more common meetings I have throughout my day, but it is always one of my favorites. Students typically begin with a lot of questions. Rapid fire. We work through the formal answers, we talk about logistics and costs of attendance for programs. Then I end with a question about their background, how they got to Dartmouth, and where they want to go.

Dhanush’s perspective blew my mind.

“It was complete culture shock,” he said.

“What was the biggest change?” I asked.

“It might sound weird, but when I came to Dartmouth it was the first time I saw a bus. Actually, it was the first time I got on a plane, the first time I took a taxi, and the first time I left India.”

He had lived in the same small village his entire life. His parents were tailors. He does not recall why, but at age 3 he was selected alongside 23 other students to attend a boarding school 5 hours from his home. They were chosen out of thousands of applicants. To this day his parents don’t know how or why he was chosen. He attendee from age 3-18 and eventually ended up in our Zoom meeting as a Dartmouth student.

He made it a point that when he got to campus he had never heard of a research paper, he had never worried about a budget for food, and he had never been in a lecture hall. “My life really feels like a movie,” he said. “We had 1 or 2 movies that our whole town shared and it was always a dream to watch students on college campuses in those movies.”

I know we get caught up in what we are supposed to accomplish. Sometimes the stress and pressure we feel is a dream for someone with a different perspective. This week’s newsletter is all about perspective. It’s all about the next generation of impressive students I get to work with. And it is definitely about appreciating the quality time we get to spend on the things that we should love. Take a moment on Monday. Reflect and appreciate what you have accomplished. It made me feel calm this morning and got me excited about what I get to work on next.

Make it an astounding Monday.