A friend in our circle recently asked if we could come up with "five things you wished someone would've told you before you were shot from a cannon out into the real world". These were my responses:
1. Your peers will hand you everything you need to get ahead
in a career; just listen to what they complain about (or fear) and act
heroically. Nearly every innovation, process improvement, and subsequent
promotion I've enjoyed came from running towards a fire everyone else was
running away from. There's little competition in solving hard problems, and taking
the initiative to even try is great material for your performance review.
2. Finding a companion should be viewed less like handing
someone a delicate egg and hoping they don't break it, and more like inviting
them along for a long morning jog. That
is- there's no real bond to be formed if you immediately outpace them, or if they
immediately outpace you. Piggy-back rides are cute precursors to long term
resentment, while real, healthy love comes from a jogging partner that has a
natural pace equal to yours. And true love? That soulmate shit everyone
desires? That's when you jog beside someone who makes it feel like you aren't
jogging at all and cultivates a positive feedback loop that improves your pace.
(And vice-versa- You should be providing these same boosting benefits for
them!)
3. In all failures, no matter the magnitude, rip the Band-Aid
off quickly and face the consequences with an explicit plan for correction. In
nearly every situation, the loss felt now will always be less than the sum of
the situation plus the delay in avoiding it, or worse, any extra steps taken to
try to hide it. Don't be afraid of failure. Failing (with a plan to resolve) cultivates
a resilient mind that embraces adaptation and suffers less the trappings of
anxiety, regret, and embarrassment.
4. The world is 95% NPCs. Your first goal should be to
strive to become one of the 5% active PCs. Your second goal should be to
surround yourself with the other 5%. What's an NPC? A scripted individual with
no real actionable dreams, and nothing of unique intellectual or spiritual
value to add to the mix. While there's nothing inherently "bad" about
being an NPC, if you want the most content-rich experience moving through this
reality, then seek and seek-to-be interesting, dynamic, helpful, and adventurous.
5. Limit, to the greatest of your ability, the number of
capabilities you outsource to others. Learn how to build stuff before you buy
them (where feasible). Learn how to perform basic maintenance and
troubleshooting on your vehicles and appliances before just sending them in.
Learn how to properly cook (not just reheat). Decide what your own first
response is in the event of an emergency rather than assuming 911 is the best
you can do. People will say that there's just not enough time in the day to
"learn all the things", and that preparedness is wasted in a modern
information and consumer age. This is a myth, but assuming it’s true, the
things you elect to outsource should be inversely related to the risks &
consequences of that dependency being severed. In the extreme, it’s better to be a warrior in
a garden, than a gardener in a war.
