Geoff Blades
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Here's to the Losers

Scanning the list of newly minted Goldman Sachs partners I had mixed emotions.

Seeing some familiar names I was delighted for those who made it, but I was disappointed for those who didn’t, particularly one buy-sider.

When I spoke to him he was devastated. Frustrated. Angry. Upset. Experiencing every emotion that comes with giving your best and failing.

But that didn’t stop me from vigorously congratulating him and suggesting a celebration is in order.

Surprised, he asked: “What do you mean? We failed, I didn’t get my result, you don’t get half your fee, what is there to be celebrating?”

“We are celebrating giving it your best shot. We are celebrating the tremendous progress you have made taking your career to another level. We are celebrating who you have become in striving for a goal that was out of reach.” I responded.

Michael Jordan said, “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” And that is exactly how my client thinks.

I first met with him eighteen months ago when I was stationed in London for a couple of months we began kicking around the idea of whether he might make partner this year.

It was an outside shot. Far from being a lay-up, it wasn’t even a long three-pointer, it was more like standing at center court throwing the ball backwards over your head hoping to land the shot.

Having been promoted quickly to managing director, it was highly unlikely he would be promoted quickly to partner. At first he estimated he had a 10% probability of success, and as we talked it over we thought we could get it to 25%, perhaps a 50-50 shot.

So I asked him, “Is that worth it?”

“Absolutely” he said, “I have never been the tortoise and I want to do everything I can to accelerate my career.”

And that’s what we did.

Unleashing all the angles, driving the three tracks you can learn more about in The Guide, we focused on his external track—building commercial success—his internal track—influencing the firm—and his development track, building him into the best he can be.

It takes guts to train your sights on what you truly want, especially when the odds are stacked against you. Yet often, it is not a matter of whether you succeed, but whether you are even in the game.

It is easy to hang back and take what comes to you. It easy to make up excuses as to why it wasn’t your year, yet there is no greater reward than going after a hard goal and seeing who you become in the process.

And although my clients don’t always get the results they want, particularly when we are targeting a low probability outcome, even when they lose, they still win.

If you are buying a security you want multiple ways you can win on your investment, and we designed our process knowing that if he didn’t make partner, he would still win.

By taking his game to an entirely different level, and elevating his stature in the industry, this year he received a number of lucrative job offers. Also, based on his incredible performance this year he will certainly receive a sizeable boost in comp.

Of course this is a consolation prize for the goal he failed to reach, yet when you go after it in your career your consolation prize can be a far better outcome than those who simply fail to reach.

As Norman Vincent Peale said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

In our society we celebrate success, yet those hard-charging losers who give it their best shot against the odds are just as surely winners to me.

Bonus Season Likely To Disappoint

Catching that headline in Dealbook, I thought, “what’s new?”

Bonus season always disappoints most people on Wall Street. It is only a question of whether this bonus season will disappoint you.

Now here’s the thing about disappointment: It takes adequate planning.

And while many people might be planning to be disappointed, how many people have been planning their strategy for getting paid?

Candidly, for most people it is already too late. If you haven’t been thinking ahead and laying the groundwork for getting paid, it is likely there is little you can do at this point.

Sure, you might be able to deploy a tactic or two here and there, but the best strategy for getting paid (and promoted for that matter) is to be planting and watering the seeds every day of the year.

It’s like the way an expert at seduction approaches a date. Whereas the average chump waits till he is dropping a woman off at her door to try and plant a kiss or negotiate his way inside, the expert is setting it up from the minute they meet.

Touching her innocently building intimacy, using emotionally-laden language, talking about unique and funny things back at his place, he’s subtly building expectations of where he expects the date to end.

You want to do the same if you are serious about getting paid.

Rather than waiting till the end of the year to make your push, you want to be sowing the seeds of what you are worth at the beginning of the year.

For instance, early in the year you might sit with your boss and say something like:

“This year I’m incredibly focused on doing everything I can to drive the business and deliver enormous value to the firm, and I would love your thoughts on ways you think I can keep driving the business this year.”

This is an example of what I call “Feed-forward,” which means, rather than wait for feedback at the end of the year, instead at the beginning and all the way throughout the year, feed-forward your expectations and performance.

This is easy to do when you are constantly planning your actions, and although this might seem like one random idea for getting paid, in fact, this is one part of the formula to building what I call a directed career.

A directed career means: know what you want and build your system for getting it. This is the entire purpose of The Guide.

It is the only book you will ever need for getting what you want in your career.

Get Paid

It’s comp season, how do you play it?

Do you keep your head down, make it clear you are happy to take whatever you are paid?

Do you walk into your boss’ office, guns blazing, holding them to ransom, demanding more?

Do you play Oliver Twist, all pathetic, bowl out, hoping they throw you a few more crumbs?

Do you have another approach you employ?

Some of the most successful folks I know on Wall Street never do anything to influence their comp because they figure if you do a good job your firm will take care of you. And while that works phenomenally well for some people, for others it is a perfect formula for being under-paid year after year.

What works for you and what works in your firm is particular, yet one thing is for sure, unless you take it into your own hands, you will be at the mercy of your firm to pay you however they choose.

In my book, Do What You Want on Wall Street, I share with you 20 pages of ideas on getting paid, which can be simplified into these four steps you can use for getting paid more this year:

1. Know what you are worth: Give up on the typical Wall Street BS of thinking you are worth more because you’ve occupied your seat for one more year. You aren’t like one of those fancy seat heaters you pay more for warming a seat, you get paid more for driving more value. So, ask yourself, what value have you driven this year?

2. Broadcast your value: Knowing your value is one thing, but to influence how you get paid, you must broadcast your value. You might broadcast your value directly or if that is too crass/blunt/inappropriate in your firm, you might broadcast your value more indirectly by talking in generalities about the type of year you have had. Successfully broadcasting your value is a function of knowing who to influence and how you do it.

3. Communications plan: You know my shtick by now: To get what you want, you want to develop a process designed to lead you to success. In Do What You Want on Wall Street I share with you a four-step, five page communication plan for getting paid. Thinking ahead by knowing your intent, framing your ask specifically for each person, and communicating with devastating impact is the secret to a good comp outcome.

4. Leverage: Like two pit-bulls facing off against each other, you are negotiating with people who negotiate for a living. And everyone who negotiates for a living is constantly asking one question: what happens if I don’t give you what you want?

Leverage is essential in comp discussions, yet the type of leverage you employ can make the difference between getting what you want and getting the boot. Just this year I know of a top-performing partner who walked into the division-head’s office to “demand” his “fair” share, and walked out without a job!

Getting leverage right is an art I share with you more in my book.

Fearful of getting it wrong, many people on Wall Street will end up settling for whatever their bosses choose to pay them, but those who get it right can easily add five to six figures to their bonus this yea

The Greatest Technology Investment

Recently on a trip to Silicon Valley I sat with a group of leading technologists and venture capitalists.

Casually I noted how ironic it is that here we sit at the center of technology innovation, yet right here in this room the most advanced technology on the planet is being used at a fraction of its capacity.

Like a honey badger had burrowed into the room, all attention turned to me, and the elder statesman asked me, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Imagine I told you that despite the trillions of dollars invested in technology the greatest technology known to man has been underinvested in for millennia.”

This technology is vastly superior to any machine we have ever invented and in fact it is so complex that today with our most advanced machines we have little idea of how it works.

I continued, “And despite the fact this technology exists right here in this room right beneath your noses, few of you have done anything to explore it.”

“What? What is it?” A young VC partner asked.

“Well in fact it is right above your noses, between your ears, that incredible machine known as your brain,” I responded.

It is by far the most advanced technology known to man yet few of you have invested even minutes exploring your own brain.

You of course use it. Like waking up in the morning, switching on the coffee machine, turning the handles that get the water dousing your body, and igniting the engine as you jump behind the wheel, you most certainly use this technology all day every day, but few of you have ever done anything to explore it.

Of course us humans have found many ways to develop this incredible learning machine, but like those waste of time apps and mind numbing games on the mini computer in your pocket it is built for much more.

Like the Internet and TV and radio airways us humans have found infinite ways to fill the capacity of this technology with absolute junk, but only a small number of the billions of humans who have ever walked the planet have ever truly explored this limitless machine.

Those few who have know that there is only one secret to exploring the brain, and today science is finally catching on to what the greatest thinkers in all of human history have known all along.

A great philosopher once observed, as above, so below. What he was describing was the greatest discovery of all existence. We live in infinite space and our greatest discoveries come not from only exploring the objects that consume space, but in exploring space itself.

Looking around the room and seeing their minds turning over, I paused. Coming back to this time they wondered, was I just thinking aloud or do I have a suggestion for how one might explore this space.

Those with ears of understanding will call me when they are ready.

Influence In 3 Joint-Busting Moves

6.58am, last Friday, I received a text:

Him: Are you awake?

Me: Of course. Are you?

Him: I just got off the red-eye. Can you talk?

Me: Call me.

This is how it usually goes with him. With almost every client I maintain a somewhat regular schedule, but he is far too erratic for that. Often we go weeks without talking, other weeks we talk three times, almost always unscheduled and at irregular hours.

There is always a lot of drama with him.

Somewhat reluctantly, looking at the screen, I admit my to myself I enjoy the drama. I’m quite addicted to it actually, like stepping in the ring with a new opponent, I like the unpredictable.

With him, it typically goes down the same way. He calls me in some sort of tizzy, I tell him why the tizzy is a good thing, I then help him re-direct his anger / frustration / disappointment / excitement / whatever in a direction that benefits him.

This I call conversational jiu-jitsu, and there are three steps to mastery.

Step 1. Take the weight: When someone comes to you with a problem, you begin by taking the weight off their shoulders.

In his case, he tells me about a dinner he had last night and how this person said this and that and how it made him think, “fuck this.” And now he wants to just do this and that. In taking the weight, I completely agree. I say, “I can’t believe it, what a prick, you are so right to be angry.”

Just in doing this, he feels heard, listened to; his grievance is valid. In jiu-jitsu, taking their weight is the first step to manipulating them…

Step 2. Re-direct their energy: After you have taken the weight off their shoulders, you are ready to re-direct their energy however you choose.

In his case, I begin to “re-frame” the dinner conversation as being a good thing. I talk about how much the information he learned benefits him, and start to strategize about how we are going to take that information and use it to get what he wants.

At this point I have him. All the anger and frustration has been vented and he is now being directed towards a positive end. In jiu-jitsu, this step is where I need him to be before I lock him up.

Step 3. Lock it up: Once you have someone away from their “problem” and where you want them to be, you need to lock-in their new way of thinking.

Now his energy is re-directed to a positive end, I have the opportunity to “program” his future actions, giving him scripts and a visual movie of how he is now going to take all this information and use it to get what he wants.

Now I am basically done. I have moved him from his frenetic place to exactly where he needs to be. Whereas ten minutes prior he was losing it, now he feels completely in control and has a strategy to use what he learned last night to get what he wants.

Done, he finishes with his standard closing comment to me: “You’re the best, thank you!” I respond with my standard closing comment: “You’re welcome, I know you can now see how to utilize this same process in different situations…”

Although I know there will likely be another situation just like this one, I know through practice you can automatically apply this process in every situation.

ACT

In Management in 10 Words, former Tesco CEO Terry Leahy shares a powerful story of personal accomplishment and, moreover, one of transforming a giant.

When Leahy started his career, he was stocking shelves, but by 1997, at the age of 41, he had stepped into the top job. Back then, Tesco was an industry laggard, dwarfed by its two larger rivals, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer. Concluding Tesco’s future was in leading the industry through market knowledge, Leahy set out to radically transform Tesco and the industry.

By the time Leahy left some fourteen years later, Tesco was six times the size of the former industry leaders and the third largest retailer in the world. An extraordinary transformation, yet Leahy makes it seem all too easy by summarizing management in just ten words.

One of his words is: “Act.”

As you well know, getting what you want requires taking action. It requires you take steps and keep taking steps all the way until you get what you want.

And here’s the thing: whereas many of us get stuck contemplating the right next steps to take, instead what you find is by taking just the smallest steps you build the momentum that keeps you moving.

As Dale Carnegie put it: “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

Another aspect to “Act” is you must be willing to think far enough ahead.

Constantly bombarded with emails and voicemails. All day every day engulfed in fire drills. Continuously looking ahead to what needs to be done today, tomorrow, and this week, few of us make the time to look beyond our weekly schedule, let alone be planning ahead.

It’s a shame.

And it’s one of the main reasons that few people will ever reach their potential and create the most magnificent version of their life.
Instead, with long bucket lists and idealized dreams for their future, most people will just keep pounding away, only to one day look back and see those things they once dreamed are no longer possible in their life.

The Chinese have a proverb that the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. So, while it would have been nice to have been thinking far ahead twenty years ago, the time is always NOW.

What is it that enabled a young man to go from stacking shelves to building one of the largest companies in the world?

In his book, Terry Leahy writes: “The words ‘long term’ ran like a thread through many decisions we took. For example, starting in a new country takes ten year to build the store network and probably another ten years to create a leading consumer brand.”

It is through thinking ahead and consistently taking actions that anything and everything becomes possible.

Do You Have The Balls To Go For What You Want?

Kirby Roy is a man with world-record setting kahunas.

On  this episode of Sport Science you can watch him take a world-record-setting kick to the balls (without even wincing).

You’ll see he doesn’t just take a misdirected graze as you often see in kick-boxing or MMA bouts, Kirby is ballsy enough to take a 1,100 pound blow from Justice Smith, a 6 ft 8 in, 290 pound American Gladiator and mixed martial artist.

While it is less important to know the two reasons he is able to take it like a super man—one physical, one mental—it is important is to know the secret to how Kirby has trained his mind and body to sustain such a devastating blow.

And here’s the secret: there is no secret!

Kirby doesn’t have balls of steel or any other hidden skill. He is just an ordinary fellow who has trained himself to do something extraordinary, by taking a number of ordinary steps.

Training his body and mind, Kirby has been kicked in the balls thousands of times over a period of five years. Like building muscle at the gym, he started off with light blows, and slowly over time worked his way up to being able to smile in the face of a ball-busting blow.

So although he is able to do something seemingly extraordinary, you see, if you are nuts enough, with a ballsy commitment and the right process, it is something all of us men can train ourselves to do. Not that you would want to of course, but it does get you thinking about what extraordinary things are possible if you simply work at it every day.

In my career books, I share with you the two secrets to getting what you want: First, you must know what you want. Second, you must build a system to get it, which means developing a process you can follow every day.

And while there is little secret to my two secrets, here is the real secret.

When once asked about what leads to success, famous oil tycoon H.L. Hunt said, “First, decide exactly what it is you want. Most people never do that. Second, determine the price you’re going to have to pay to get it, and then resolve to pay that price.”

Most people don’t have the balls for that.

And while that might seem all too hard for many people, the real secret to getting what you want is that rarely does it require doing anything extraordinary, as much as it requires committing yourself to take ordinary steps every day.

In transforming my career and life I did nothing extraordinary. I read books. I wrote ideas. I took basic steps every day.

Yet, what really paid off for me is that I did it consistently for a decade, reading thousands of books, writing thousands of pages of ideas, taking steps for thousands of days that eventually moved me from where I was to where I am today.

It wasn’t easy to do, yet because I was getting kicked in the nuts every day in my career, it was easy for me to stay motivated and keep taking the steps to creating the career and life I truly love.

Now, fortunately for you, having spent tens of thousands of hours on these ideas, today I have built a simple approach that you can easily get working for you.

Rather than putting your head down and working hard hoping it leads you to what you want, the approach I share with you in The Guide simply enables you to easily keep moving forward building the career and life you truly want.

This is something anyone can do, if only you are willing to begin taking steps.

Some three thousand years ago, the influential Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu, wrote: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

To get whatever you want simply requires you begin taking steps, and the question is: Do you have the balls to get started?

Why The Hell Are You Calling Me?

Like the W Hotel, I offer my clients whatever, whenever. I don’t charge by the hour, I work on retainer so I am always available to my clients to do whatever I can, whenever they need me.

So when my phone rang at 12.30am last Tuesday I wasn’t surprised to see it was one of my clients, but I was surprised by what he said to me.

Putting my big-boy iPhone to my ear, the first thing he said to me was, “crap, you weren’t meant to pick up.” Naturally, I replied, “then why the hell are you calling me?”

He said, “I hoped you wouldn’t answer and I would go through to your voicemail, because I had a massive revelation and I have a soliloquy I wanted leave for you.”

Intrigued, I first thought: “what the hell is a soliloquy?” So while he kept talking I looked it up:

“An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.”

I thought, now we are on the same page, we can get on with it. So I said to him, “you’ve got one better, rather than talking to the cloud, just talk and I will transcribe what you are thinking. Then, if you want, we can talk about it.”

And so for the next ten minutes while he spewed out ideas, with my eight fingers and one thumb I pounded away at the imaginary keys. By the time he had got it off his chest, looking at my page of mess riddled with typos, I knew we had reached a turning point from which he would never go back.

It was a big step for him. And for me too. The realization he had was ground-breaking in terms of our work together, and also helped me see how I can do what I do even better for others.

Over the few months we have been working together his career and life have been massively transformed, but there was still something missing. He had made a ton of progress but there was still something unnatural to what we were doing.

Like J. Edgar Hoover dressing up like a broad at night and dressing buttoned down during the day, our work had helped transform the way he plays his part at work, but he still didn’t feel like it was really “him” doing it.

A key branch of my work is the notion of building a powerful self-image.

This means, in order to imagine yourself doing miraculous things in your career and life, then you must be able to imagine that YOU are the person doing them. While you can do just about anything and pretend to play the part, there is an enormous difference between knowing you are playing the part, and really, truly, feeling you have become the part.

You might be aware that when Daniel Day-Lewis plays a part, he literally lives in the character for the duration of the filming. For instance, when he played Lincoln, not only did he of course take on the role of Lincoln in front of the camera, but off camera, and in his life, he stayed in character. So serious is he about the way he steps into a role, he even learned to write like Lincoln and a number of his fellow actors on set didn’t meet Daniel until filming had wrapped up. Up until that point they only met Lincoln.

Building yourself into the person who can get what you want means building the same type of self-image. Rather than seeing yourself as playing the role of the person who can achieve your goals, it means, literally, in every way imaginable becoming this person.

In my client’s ten minute soliloquy this is what I heard. In a dozen different ways, “coded” in different parts of his language, and resonating in all parts of his neurology, he had come to see himself not as playing the role of the banker he needs to be to take his career to the next level, but actually, he came to see he is now this banker.

It is an unstoppable formula for success because no longer does he see his goals as something he needs to aspire to achieve, but instead he sees he has already become the person who can easily achieve his goals.

From here, success is inevitable. It is merely a matter of time.

So, looking at my page of notes and having listened to him speak, I did what my clients expect me to do. Unlike the millions of people who pathetically reminisce of their best days being behind them, rather than let this moment pass as some revelation he once had that he spends the rest of his days trying to get back to, I locked it in.

Asking him a few pointed questions and “installing” in his mind a few “anchors,” I ensured his brain would only find ways to keep coming back to this massive revelation. Beyond that, like installing a trap door in a stage, I gave myself a way to keep sneaking into his mind and stimulating the “cue,” in case I need to help him get back to this thinking and feeling.

Some insecure people have told me they are fearful of what I do. To them it sounds scary I can help my clients have life-changing realizations and then “program” them to keep thinking amazingly.

But that is why exceptional people pay me the big bucks. I have the most advanced tools imaginable and I do whatever I can, whenever I can to ensure that my clients can do everything they can to get what they want.

Mediocre to GREAT

It is always good to have friends who call you out on your BS.

A few years ago, one of my former bosses, who is also a client and good friend, sat me down and talked to me about my private client business.

He said: “You know, it is one thing for you to work with people like me who are already at the top and performing exceptionally well, but that is a cop-out for you.”

Confused, I asked him, “What do you mean?”

He want on to say that although I had helped him radically transform his career, my work couldn’t just be about training “Jedi’s,” my duty is to also serve those who are under-performing.

I rejected his idea outright.

I told him that my work was not built for mediocre performers, but what I really meant was I didn’t think they would be into my work. Back then I was of the view that the vast majority of people would never be into my work because they are simply not interested in striving.

Unlike my client who has pushed his career all the way to the top and still works around the clock to be the best he can be, I thought that most people simply are not built that way.

Instead, they are happy-enough with the careers they have built. Their careers are good-enough. Their lives are good-enough, and doing what it takes to get to the next level just isn’t for them.

As Jim Collins put it: “Good is the enemy of great…Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”

But he left me with a lot to noodle on, so I pulled out my crackers and I started cooking.

I’ve never understood people who phone it in every day. I am happy for them to do whatever they want, but I have zero interest in surrounding myself with that type of mediocrity.

But in stepping back I began to see it differently. Whereas in the past I had figured most people give up on anything more, I began to see that some of them aren’t mediocre by choice, they have just fallen into becoming that way.

Anyone on Wall Street has been exceptional at some point in their career. Just to make it to Wall Street they must have been an exceptional student. Just to survive and succeed in their early years they must have been exceptional.

But, over time, most of them simply “lost it.”

With a career and life that was good-enough, they lost the urge to keep pressing forward. With other priorities they believed were in conflict with their ambition, they made different choices. With every year they got further out from school their skills became more stagnant, and they simply became one of the herd that the world depends on to keep spinning.

The truth is that firms need more mediocre players than exceptional ones. Most of what happens on Wall Street requires a large number of bodies to just get things done. And so rather than helping everyone aspire to be the best they can be, firms simply let everyone duke it out and wait for the cream to rise to the top.

It works well for Wall Street. It works well for the many people who just want to keep moving along in the middle of the pack, but it works horribly for those who have become mediocre performers yet who dream of more.

After noodling on this for some time, I took up my client’s challenge and began working with a couple of mediocre performers.

What I learned was both shocking and beautiful to me.

Those two clients became some of my most dedicated clients. Not only were they willing to do the work but they were highly motivated towards taking their career to an entirely different level.

While you would never know it by looking at how their career had slowly petered out, as I got close to them, I could see, like a racehorse stuck at the starting gates, just below the surface there was this animal just dying to break free and unleash that potential that had always been there inside of them.

They knew that something had faded in their career and life and they wanted it back. They knew they had what it takes to compete at the top of heap, and they wanted to get there. Unfortunately, with no good mentors in their careers, and no one showing them the way, over many years they had given up on their dreams, they had lost hope, and accepted their career and life for what they expected it to be.

In working with them I came to see the Circle of Mediocrity (above) was different to what I expected and I learned it was easy to set the right people on a new trajectory.

I could see that the motivation was there. It just required new ways of thinking and belief to ignite it. And belief was there as long as they had the know-how. And effort was there, as long as they had the motivation, belief, and the know-how. And by showing them they could transform their career without giving up the rest of their life, they began to see new possibilities.

With that I discovered it was easy to transform a mediocre performer and help them get to the top of their game.

My client was right, it is an important part of my work to serve those who many others give up on. And what he hadn’t told me and I had never anticipated was just how much it would change me.

Nothing lights me up more than being able to see people change and become the most extraordinary version of them they can possibly be. To watch someone surprise himself or herself and achieve incredible results is the drug that fuels me.

To see how they walk different, talk different, interact with others with much more certainty and confidence, that is not just transforming for them, it is transforming for me.

Influence

Relationship advice 101: Never give it.

Relationship advice 102: Suggest the opposite of what most people do.

A friend of mine is having a problem with her boyfriend. I won’t go into the nuances of how he is being a jerk (of course, according to her) but you can safely assume that most relationship issues go down the same way.

She wants him to do something. He doesn’t want to do it. She gets all up in his grill. He even more doesn’t want to do it.

Sound familiar. So what’s the solution?

If you want to get someone to do what you want, first begin by putting them in the emotional state of wanting to do it. So, while she has been nagging at him like a broken toilet, threatening to do this or that if he doesn’t comply, instead I suggested to her that she go the opposite way.

Rather than giving him grief, instead give him more love. Tell him how much she loves him and how important he is to her, shower him with affection, then, when he is feeling all warm and fuzzy, find a way to frame your “ask” so that he is amenable to wanting to do it.

Now, of course I’m not sharing this with you because I know you need help in dealing with your spouse, but because getting what you want in your career works exactly the same way.

The NUMBER ONE rule of influence is: to get someone to do what you want, they must want to do it.

That means, as Henry Ford once put it, “arouse in the other person an eager want.”

So, if you want to get your boss to pay you more or promote you, rather than trying to “get them” to do it, instead begin the other way by asking: What puts them in the emotional state of wanting to do it?

Now, here’s where most people on Wall Street get it completely wrong.

Because they [mostly poorly] negotiate for a living and firmly understand the importance of leverage in any negotiation, they figure the best way to get their firm to comply with their “demands” is to produce some type of leverage.

Look, that’s an important part of the equation, and you’ll soon see in my book that it is part of the formula for getting paid and promoted, but it is only a small part of it.

Instead, imagine seeing the world through the eyes of your boss. Imagine seeing you as an employee from the perspective of your firm. And, begin by asking yourself, if you were them, what would make you want to pay and promote you?

Would it because you are a good team player? Nope. Because you are a culture carrier? Nope. Because you drive more revenues than anyone else? Nope. Because if they lost you they would be destitute? Nope.

That might all be part of the equation, but remember, there is only one reason they will want to pay and promote you:

BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO IT.

So, ask yourself, what would make them want to do it?

The answer is relationship advice 103: Always appeal to self interest!!!

So, with my friend, I had her give her man the wonderful feeling of what it is like to have her fully loving him and giving him everything he enjoys. Not only does that create some sense of reciprocity to do something good for her, but it is giving him a drenching taste of what he has to lose from not giving her what she wants.

That is relationship advice 104: Use a carrot and a stick.

Getting what you want in ONE STEP!

Everything I teach I had to first learn for myself, and as these things go, most of the lessons I have learned the hard way.

In getting to Wall Street and successfully building my career, I have done a lot of hard things, but by far the hardest thing I have done is learning to write my first book.

At first I started with all this naivety and fervor. I figured, although I had never written anything of substance, if I just sit and do it, of course I will write a great book.

For us smart successful people who have a knack for making things happen, it seemed like a reasonable idea, right?

Wrong!!!

Writing was incredibly difficult for me and it wasn’t just the craft I needed to learn, it was the discipline it takes to sit and write. When you are faced with an enormous (and often over-whelming) task, it is simply too easy to find reasons to avoid doing it, and learning to write required me to first learn how to move through that resistance.

Of the many lessons I learned the most important is what happens first.

A reason most of us never get what we want is because we never get started.

In one of my favorite books, Think and Grow Rich, Naploleon Hill boils down success to two concepts. First, he says, you must focus on what you want. Second, you must develop a definite plan of action for getting it.

It is stellar advice, but unfortunately, it will fail most of us. Here’s why.

Although most of us can conceive some goal that matters to us and what is required to get there, because all of the steps required to achieve our goal can seem over-whelming, often we fail to even take the smallest step.

The problem with all the books on having a plan and taking action is that, like all those amateur business books that suggest crafting an elaborate business plan to start a business, you never need to know all of the steps.

Instead, you merely need a direction and a loose plan, and most of all, you just need to get started taking steps.

While it might be helpful to you if you can identify all of the steps required to get what you want, you only ever need to be focused on taking the next step that is right in front of you.

It’s like walking down a long and winding staircase. Sure, you might feel good being able to see the bottom and some people might like to count the steps as they go down, but, if you just focus on that one step under-foot right now, the next step will keep taking you where you need to go.

At every point in time you only need to be focused on one single step. In taking that step right in front of you, you build momentum, and it is through that momentum you are well on your way to getting what you want.

Like an avalanche gobbling up trees as it thunders downhill, once you get moving, your momentum builds more momentum. With that momentum, the next step, and the step after that, and after that, feels like a natural progression, and that goal that once seemed so far out ahead of you has merely become a series of small steps.

Looking back from that point, you see, really, all that mattered at every point in time is you determined your next step.

AND THEN YOU TOOK IT!!

So think about this right now. Just pick a goal that matters to you. Perhaps it is getting paid more, or getting promoted, or making a transformational move in your career. Now, imagine for a moment how it will be when you have reached your goal.

Really step inside the feeling of how you will be when you reach your goal. Imagine how you will feel when you get that whopping bonus or the list of promotions floats around with your name on it, or how you will feel when you have actualized your potential and you are sitting in the career you dream.

How does it feel? Is it exciting? Rewarding? Does it come with a sense of satisfaction? Do you get inspired by what achieving that goal enables you to do? Whatever it is for you, keep sitting with that feeling and really build up inside you the emotion of having what you want.

Now, with that feeling, just imagine the one next step ahead of you. It might be really simple and small, and seem insignificant, but by taking that step you are setting yourself up to keep moving.

Say for instance, if you are looking to transform your career and go after the job you truly want, you might begin by setting aside ten minutes to sit and scheme and dream. Then, after you have considered your alternatives and how you might take action, you might set aside another ten minutes to begin drawing up a couple of action steps. And, from there, you might see that, ha, really, you know, that career you truly want is actually in reach if only you can keep taking small steps every day. From there of course you’ll have more energy and excitement to take your next steps, and so on.

So, just for a moment, imagine having taken your first step and feel what it is like to be on your way. Then, take it. And, whenever you feel like it, repeat this process and take another step, and another, and another, all the way to getting what you want.

The best way to give yourself the discipline to take these steps is to schedule your time and set up a structure that works for you.

To build momentum and keep working on my writing, I began by putting in my calendar an appointment and reminder for 7.00am every day which reads: Start the day WRITE!

And I know that just by getting focused and getting started every day I am off to the races.

The same is true with my private clients. The reason they can easily make transformational change in their career and life is because over the year we work together, we set up a process that enables them to structure their time and make steady progress every day.

In this way, investing one hour per week, they are able to make enormous leaps. Literally, it is getting what you want in ONE STEP!

Courage is for LOSERS

A couple of years ago, sitting in an advanced training for public speaking, the teacher looked around the room and asked who was nervous about speaking in front of a large group.

Their faces told me that most of the room felt nervous, but along with only a handful of other people I put up my hand. Although, I only put it half-way up, which caught the attention of the cantankerous teacher.

A challenging fellow, he turned to me and said, “Why is your hand only half way up? Does that mean you are half nervous?” While the rest of the room giggled at my expense, I told him, I didn’t really know because I had never stood up to speak in front of a large group.

He looked at me strangely, and clarifying he said: “So you’ve never spoken in front of a group, but you decided to show up at an advanced training for public speaking.” I said, “yep, I hate the shallow end of the pool.”

He said, “well, you are either an idiot or you are very brave.”

He was right, but he was also wrong. He was right, I am an idiot and I do many things that I have no business doing.

When I started working with clients I had no idea how to teach the ideas that had worked so well for me. So, I began working with clients for free, learning along the way, and after proving I could create massive value for my clients, I began demanding some of the highest fees in the industry, working exclusively for five and six figure retainers.

But, he was also wrong. I am not very brave.

Sure, many people think it takes courage to make the moves I made in my career, quitting Goldman Sachs and the Carlyle Group, and today holding myself out as an expert, but the truth is I am not very courageous. And neither are most people who do hard things.

To some people it seems it would take a great deal of courage to walk across a tight rope without the safety of a net. Or it takes enormous kahunas to strap on a wingsuit and fly within meters of a rock ledge. Or it takes a ridiculous love of risk to climb a rock face without any safety ropes.

But study most of the people in the world who do seemingly courageous things and you learn that it is not bravery that enables them to climb or fly or walk tall, but it is the years of practice they go through, developing mastery in an environment in which they are safe to fail.

You see, whereas to many of the hundreds of people in that training session, it took courage to stand on the stage and speak because they were concerned about leaving a favorable impression, I didn’t give a shit.

Truly, I could care less what any person in that room or any room for that matter thinks of me. Why would I? Why would I possibly give a crap about whether a room full of people learning public speaking thinks I am a good public speaker or not?

Similarly, when I put out my videos or I stand in front of another group speaking, why would I be nervous? Why would I be afraid? Why does it matter whether the people in the audience are wowed by me, or are critical?

Of course I want to do the best job I can and all of my work is in the pursuit of mastery, but developing mastery only happens when you are willing to keep trying new things in environments in which you are safe to fail.

Years ago I watched a wonderful documentary by legendary comedian Eddie Izzard in which he talked about going to France and doing a show in French. With only basic French speaking skills and no appreciation for how to time his jokes, his show was a complete disaster. But, in failing, he set himself up to take his work to an entirely new level.

To learn to climb a mountain without ropes, first you must spend tens of thousands of hours on a climbing wall, falling down and getting back up again. To strap on a wingsuit, you must be willing to try soaring like an eagle while free-falling like a stone. And to learn to walk a tight rope you must be willing to fall into that net hundreds and thousands of times.

It is not bravery or stupidity that enables people to do exceptional things, it is the willingness to do hard things and fail, and then keep standing up over and over again.

What is Leadership?

Some time ago I watched a presentation by former Goldman Partner and current HBS professor, Rob Kaplan, on leadership.

Having built an incredibly successful career and been a trusted advisor to some of the world’s top leaders, Kaplan surprised the audience (and me) when he began his presentation with an interesting twist.

Recounting a conversation he had with one of his peers, although he had spent decades surrounded by top leaders and being a leader himself, he said, when he took up the role at Harvard he stepped back and wondered: What is leadership?

If you were Eric, the concierge in my building who delivers a constant stream of packages to my apartment, you would know I do almost all of my shopping online. Beyond that, you would know I do almost all of my online shopping from one store: The Everything Store.

There are many reasons I am a loyal Amazon shopper. From the one-click ordering to Amazon Prime to two day delivery, but what keeps me loyal is I like to surround myself with leaders. I don’t have any interest in doing price comparisons and I have too little time to shop around, so when it comes to getting what I want, I like to go straight to the industry leader.

In The Everything Store, Brad Stone gives a fascinating account of Jeff Bezos and the business practices and culture that has made Amazon the industry leader. There are many fascinating ideas in the book, but what immediately jumps out at you is the absolute focus on leadership.

At Amazon, the customer comes first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on. The entire business is built around providing exceptional customer service, which Bezos has groomed through building a culture of leadership, empowering every single employee to lead.

At every level his employees are leaders of themselves and the business, and I wonder how many of the following Amazon Leadership Principles you find apply to leading you and your business.

Customer Obsession
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

Ownership
Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”

Invent and Simplify
Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Are Right, A Lot
Leaders are right a lot. They have strong business judgment and good instincts.

Hire and Develop the Best
Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.

Insist on the Highest Standards
Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Think Big
Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Bias for Action
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

Frugality
We try not to spend money on things that don’t matter to customers. Frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

Vocally Self Critical
Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. Leaders come forward with problems or information, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

Earn Trust of Others
Leaders are sincerely open-minded, genuinely listen, and are willing to examine their strongest convictions with humility.

Dive Deep
Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, and audit frequently. No task is beneath them.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

Deliver Results
Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

When Do You Live For?

By his mid-twenties, famed TV producer, George Schlatter could see Robin Williams would go on to become a major force in show business.
He wasn’t wrong. With a collection of Academy Awards, Emmy’s, Golden Globes, and Grammy’s, Williams became one of the most celebrated actors and comedians of all time.

Then, at the age most people work their entire lives looking forward to begin living, with a small knife and belt he was ending his life.

It is sad and tragic, but at least we can say he was a man who truly lived.

Williams led a colorful and gifted life. And a person who can feel as much pain as he felt can also feel such extraordinary joy.

He really lived, but how many other lives are really lived?

I’m not just talking about the millions of people who sacrifice year-after-year living for their retirement and never making it that far, I’m talking about the many who fail to live the lives they have today.

This work began for me when the Internet bubble burst in 2000­ and Goldman laid off half my office.

Before that I was a lifer. I lived and breathed investment banking and Goldman Sachs and there was nothing else I could imagine doing, at least I thought.

But when the Internet bubble burst and my compensation expectations were slashed by two-thirds and my career track looked long, dark, and narrow, I began to see I had been fooling myself all along.

Whereas I believed I was a lifer, what I came to see was my definition of being a lifer was being “done” sometime between the age of 35-40. I figured Wall Street was a fast-track career and if I put my head down and worked hard for a couple of decades then at a fairly young age I would be free to live the life I truly want.

Realizing this wasn’t realistic today (and was a childish illusion to begin with), I began to think about my career differently. I thought, if I am going to be working in my 40s and 50s anyways, then is this how I want to spend the best years of my life?

And here’s the thing.

I really liked banking and Goldman and I could have easily imagined building a great career and life, but that wasn’t enough for me. I didn’t want to like and enjoy my career and have a great life.

I want to absolutely love what I do every day. I want to absolutely fucking love my life.

Some people tell me that is unrealistic that life doesn’t work that way, and when I meet these people I am grateful I am not them.

All the time I ask people: What do you live for?

I ask them, what matters to you so much that it drives your life? I’m fascinated by people’s responses, but it is really the next question from which you can learn more about how you think about your life.

When do you live for? That’s right, when?

You see there are three time-frames in which you can be living your life.

Some people live in the past, thinking about what is behind them, dedicating little time to the future and the present.

Other people live in the present. Some are hedonistic, like my ski-bum mate Tom and others are more zen-like, humming moment to moment.

Most people, however, live for the future, forever thinking about what will or will not or perhaps potentially maybe might happen one day.

Many people spend the majority of their life working towards some (often illusory) goal, giving up their living today for the hope of living sometime in the future.

In psychology, this is referred to as the deferred living plan, and many of us on Wall Street are living it.

The worst case example I call $20 and done.

$20 and done refers to the common question you hear on Wall Street. You know what I’m talking about, right?

When that guy comes up next to you, he puts on his serious voice, and says, “what’s your number?” I call it $20 and done because you can be damn sure if you’re enough of a sucker to ask him his number he will tell you that with $20 in the bank earning this or that return, you have this or that income, and then he will go get some board seats and teach…

No you won’t. We both know that day will never arrive.

Even if you can put away real dough after taxes, before you know it, $20 becomes $30 and $30 becomes $40, and you somehow need this house or that car, and this goal you believed would someday lead you to freedom is entirely elusive.

So, what is the solution?

A few weeks ago I was sitting in New York when I asked myself my standard question: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?

With an answer in hand, I poked around online and rented a house in Europe for a couple of months.

Easy, right? Yes, and no.

You see, part of the reason I’m today sitting in Europe typing this is because for nearly two years I have refused to do this. I’ve said, when I get my book done, then I will take the time.

But with draft after draft, and last month sitting down for another major re-write, I figured, enough is enough.

So, I asked myself, How long will you wait to do the things you love? How long will you wait to live the life you truly want?

In the next two weeks many of you will be heading out on vacation.

Some of you will escape, get a real break, and love indulging in your time with your friends and family. Others will be constantly on their phones and devices or in and out of the office, and even while relaxing will be thinking more about what needs to get done post Labor-day.

What will you be thinking about over the next couple of weeks? How much in your past, present, and future will you be?

How engaged will you be in thinking about those who are dead, relative to thinking about fully living your life that is slowly ending?

You can’t live your life like you will be hit by a tram tomorrow, but too many of us fall in the trap of living our lives like we won’t!

Shoot Through Your Career

A friend of mine is a fashion photographer.  He’d love to be able to just shoot, but he recognizes that while photography is his craft, it’s only one small part of his business.  Picking up the camera and shooting is how he gets paid, but it’s all the other things he must do that ensure he builds a good business.

That means being responsible for the entire process of doing photography.  It means surrounding himself with the right people – manager, agents, production assistants, and so on – building relationships, selling and marketing, as well as taking ownership of all aspects related to building a successful business.  The hard part is while he’s an expert with a camera, he’s needed to learn the others skills that drive success in his business.

While it’s easy to see in his case the difference between his craft of photography and building a strong business as a photographer, it’s not always easy to see the same is true in your career on Wall Street.

For instance, when you’re an investment banker, your job is to do investment banking.  If you’re an M&A specialist, your craft, doing M&A deals is your bread and butter, but that’s only a small part of success in building your career. While it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and desire to “just do deals,” you too must be responsible for managing all other aspects of your career.

That’s become harder to do.  In the old days of banking, many M&A specialists could simply be execution bankers.  There was less emphasis on their role in marketing and sitting inside powerful merger departments they also had less need to manage other aspects of their career.  Today, that has radically changed.  All bankers today are relationship bankers.  They must be just as proficient at driving relationships and revenues as they are at being able to drive a deal.  So, to be a successful banker you must, like my photographer friend, develop all the skills you need to drive your career.

For many bankers this can be hard to do.  I remember, in particular, after the Internet bubble burst and many M&A bankers were forced to become relationship bankers many of them failed to believe they had the skills. They were excellent in deal dynamics, but when it came to wining and dining clients and building long-term relationships many simply lacked the skills to build a strong business.

One way to do that is to see you are running a one man business inside your firm.  That although you might see yourself as “an employee” of your firm, in fact you can see yourself more as a partner.  You can see that you partner your labor with your firm, in exchange for your efforts, you get access to all the resources of your firm to build your business.  In this sense, you are not an entrepreneur, like my friend the photographer, but you an intrepreneur driving your business inside your firm.

One of the most successful Partner’s at Goldman is said to have managed his career this way.  It’s said that even as a first year Associate he saw himself as in effect renting the desk at Goldman.  He would come in every day, pick up the phone and start calling clients.  He is an M&A specialist, one of the best in the world, but his greatest value to Goldman is he’s paired his craft with building deep and powerful relationships and having driven his brand and business from within the firm.

Think about what that means in your career.  How can you see that you have all the resources around you to drive your own business inside your firm?  Can you see all the ways that your career success is distinct from your craft, and that like my friend the photographer, what matters is you develop the skills to drive your career? How can you see running your career as a business will have you shoot through your firm?

Stop The News

Years ago I stopped paying attention to the news.  As a kid I gave up the nightly news.  All the way back then it struck me as a terrible use of time.  An irrelevant indulgence into the misery of the world, other than those who enjoy misery and drama, I never understood why anyone would watch.

Then a few years ago I gave up all the business websites and other news.  Some of it was interesting, but most of it a redundant waste of time, a collection of pithy opinions and counter-opinions and sound-bites.  Some people think it informed to know all this junk; people who are truly informed don’t waste time on other peoples ideas, instead they are creators of ideas.

These days I’ve become far more militant about avoiding all mainstream news.  Not just because it’s miserable.  Or because it’s a waste of time.  But because I am extremely focused on the information I consume.  Like the way I eat, I only want to consume information that is good for me.  And that means avoiding most of the junk that fills the airwaves.

So, reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, this idea deeply resonated with me –

“Remind me,” Jubal said to her, “to write a popular article on the compulsive reading of news.  The theme will be that most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the  unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.  The title is ‘Gossip Unlimited’ – no, make that ‘Gossip Gone Wild.’ “

 

 

What Is The Movie And Soundtrack Of Your Life?

Think of talking to a person like listening to music.

More or less people are consistent.  what they talk about, how they speak, is mostly the same every time you speak with them.

It’s like listening to Nirvana.  The songs change but the theme is basically the same.  Or Dido.  Or anyone else for that matter.

Now think of that as it relates to the people you know.  When they speak to you, what do you classify as their music?   Is is soothing?  Cool?  Calm?  Angry?  Noisy?  Painful?  Energized?  Engaging?

You can also think of them like watching a movie or TV show.  What movie do they play when you’re  with them? Is it a drama?  Like watching ER.  Constant fuss?  Whacky and weird like watching Fringe?  What movie are they exposing you to when you’re with them?  Is it a movie which you want to continue to engage?

Now.  Think of yourself.

What is the song of your life?  Of your day?  Really think about it.  Hear it playing in your mind.  Like right now, as odd as it sounds, I heard Kenny Loggins singing Danger Zone.

What about the movie of your life.  What is it about?  What is the theme?  Action.  Adventure?  Drama?  Thriller. Scary?

Think about all that for a moment.  And perhaps close your eyes and really tune into it.

Now, here’s the interesting bit.

Think about what type of movie you want your life to be.  And the soundtrack that plays along with it.  Ask yourself, what might you change in your life and the people you surround yourself with for that movie to be playing for you every day?

Mind The Gap

The latest jobs reports exposed a major Skills Gap.

– http://www.cnbc.com/id/101012437

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

That the college system is failing.  That companies under-invest in training.

We know all this.

But there’s a problem to all this talk of skill gap.

It’s that it’s not the fault of the education system or companies.  It’s the fault of people.

It’s up to each of us to learn the skills we need to succeed.  You can’t rely on the system.  You can’t rely on someone else.  You have to do it yourself.

The problem is none of this Gap crap.  It’s like blaming growing obesity on poor food education.  No.  It’s on over-eating and under-exercising.  The same is true with the skills gap.

We have to become life-long learners.  If we’re to keep up in times of ever-increasing change we need to keep stepping it up.  We need to keep learning, growing, developing.

It’s that simple.  Unfortunately most people are being left behind because they are waiting for someone else to teach them what they need.  The winners know it’s always up to you.

18 Mins To See A Woman Transform

What’s so amazing about this speech is it brings together the best of western science with eastern spiritual tradition.

A problem many people face on spirituality and consciousness is it is too far off the track.  It’s one thing to hear the Dalai Lama speak of life and purpose and spiritual experience, yet few of us can associate with those ideas, let alone imagine what that would be like in our own lives.

Beyond that, the eastern traditions leave us with few tools to experience what they know.

They talk meditation.  Or yoga.  But few people can or will spend hours a day for decades in order to experience what the Dalai Lama talks of and knows.

What you see in this speech by Jill Bolte Taylor is the fast-track to enlightenment.  You see how quickly you can become enlightened if only you COULD DESTROY THE LEFT HEMISPHERE of your brain.

Of course none of us want to do that and you’ll see in this speech you wouldn’t be much good in the world if you did, but the experience of doing so was truly transformational and life changing for Jill.

I can talk till I’m blue in the face on the virtues of meditation, hypnosis, and the true journey of life, the journey of consciousness, but few people can open their minds to those types of ideas.

But what’s so powerful in this speech is you see it right in front of you on your screen.  You see a woman.  A researcher.  A brain scientist.  Transformed by an experience in consciousness.

Open your mind for 18mins and that’s what she delivers you too.

 

Puny Humans Fighting Over Dirt

There’s a scene in The Avengers where The Hulk beats down the demi-God, Loki, and as he walks away he murmurs, “puny God.”

That’s how I felt about us humans when I read this article on Japan unveiling it’s largest warship since WWII.

In our world this is normal, and moreso, something for a nation to be proud of, but when you step back it’s funny how pathetic all this is.

We’ve come so far yet look how un-evolved we are.  When we were apes roaming the trees fighting over food it was one thing, but now look at us, all the intelligence of the world, yet we’re still seeking out better ways to kill each other.

Pathetic.

Un-evolved.

Puny humans.

In this infinite universe we are ants fighting over a piece of dirt.  We’ve got so little perspective on existence that we still haven’t overcome our most basic programming to fight over territory and to seek bigger and better war machines as the natural evolution to beating our hairy fists on our hairy chests.

For centuries the world’s greatest thinkers have talked about enlightenment, presumably hoping it would catch on.  Clearly it hasn’t.  Will it ever?

Or are us puny humans simply destined to go extinct while fighting over dirt?

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