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#367: Ozan Varol - How To Think Like A Rocket Scientist

• Sustaining excellence =
  • The ability to learn from failure - "Failure sucks and shouldn't be celebrated. We must learn from it."
  • "Learn fast, don't fail fast. We need to get better with each iteration.
  • Breakthroughs should be evolutionary, not revolutionary
• How success can lead to failure
  • The Challenger Explosion - A string of successes discounted the role that luck played in the process
  • "Just because you're on a hot streak doesn't mean you'll beat the house."
• Post mortem - A Latin phrase for "after death." Instead of a post mortem, do an "after action review."
  • Review after all actions whether they succeeded or failed.
• The "Kill The Company" exercise
  • Ask the people within your company what they would do to compete and beat your company... And then do that.
  • Mark Zuckerberg does this with acquisitions (WhatsApp, Instagram). One of his greatest fears is becoming the next MySpace.
• As a mid-level manager: Put yourself in the position of your customer. Why are customers justified in buying from our competitions? "They see something we're not seeing."
• Growing up in Istanbul, Turkey. It was a culture of conformity. Ozan did not fit in. In fact, he was assigned a number in school and that was used to call on him instead of his name.
  • His parents let him choose which school he went to and he remembers feeling so empowered by them for having a choice. He wanted more of that.
    • So he decided to come to the United States for college and attended Cornell.
• Ozan blindly applied for a job that didn’t exist by emailing Steve Squyres (he was in charge of a NASA funded project to send a river to Mars). And he acted on his dad’s advice, “you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.”
• “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” - Carl Sagan
• In the modern world we look for certainty in uncertain places. We search for order in chaos. The right answer in ambiguity. And conviction in the complexity.
• We should be fueled not by a desire for a quick catharsis but by intrigue. Where certainty ends, progress begins.
• “The great obstacle to discovering was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. - historian Daniel J Boorstin
• It takes courage... Often times there is a failure of courage. Have the courage to take action when the rest of the world is standing still.
• Ask yourself two questions:
  • What's the worst that can happen?
  • What's the best that can happen?
• Adopt an experimental mindset - Frame your actions as experiments. Don't be afraid to try new things...
• "The way you figure out what's right is to try to prove it wrong."
• The goal? "Find what's right, not to be right."
  • Ask people who disagree with you... Why? Have a mindset to learn from them.
  • "Tell me what's wrong with this..." Be a work in progress.
• "All progress happens in uncertain times."
  • "It's bizarre. People prefer certainty of bad news instead of the fear of the unknown."
  • "Be curious about tomorrow."
• Think: "What problems can I solve right now?"
  • It is not helpful to try and solve something that you cannot control.
• Diversify your identity and services -- This allows you to be flexible and not depended on one stream of revenue.
• "All of our differences are minimized when we zoom out." The Apollo 8 mission gave us an opportunity to look at the Earth from afar (mission to go near the moon). Jim Lovell could cover up the earth with his thumb. It put things in perspective.
• Rocket science teaches us about our limited role in the cosmos and reminds us to be gentler and kinder to one another.
•  

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #366: Laurie Santos - 

Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She has been a featured TED speaker and has been listed in Popular Science as one of their "Brilliant Ten" young scientists in 2007 as well as in Time magazine as a "Leading Campus Celebrity" in 2013. In January 2018, her course titled Psychology and the Good Life became the most popular course in Yale's history, with approximately one-fourth of Yale's undergraduates enrolled.

Notes:

• Sustaining excellence:
  • Good habits: Form consistent routines
  • Healthy: Exercise regularly
  • Socialize with others
  • They "offload dumb decisions"
• Create a morning routine - Limit the wardrobe (limit mental energy spent on trivial things).
• Harness the power of habits - "Set you exercise clothes out the night before."
  • Do it at a consistent time each day no matter what. This decreases anxiety.
  • For writing: Stop in the middle of a sentence. This will help you get started the next day (and avoid seeing the blank screen)
• Laurie is the head of a college at Yale. She lives and eats with the students in the dining hall.
  • She built her class based upon hearing the complaints of students daily (they were unhappy)
• Important behaviors:
  • Gratitude
  • Social connection
  • Random acts of kindness
• Students didn't realize their misconceptions about happiness
  • It's not about your job, house, or money.
• Happy people are:
  1. Socially connected - They spend a lot of time with others. They prioritize connecting with others.
  2. They don't focus on themselves - "Others oriented." They do more for others.
  3. Grateful - They look for the good. They have a mindset of gratitude. They write down 3-5 things they are grateful for everyday. They are mindful.
• The GI Fallacy - It's more than just knowing... "You must DO IT."
• Be deliberate about connecting with others. Hang out with people you care about. Set up Skype calls with others.
• Do NOT complain - It's awful.
• Laurie's class has become the most popular class in the history of Yale...
  • Her lectures have been filmed for the Today Show
  • Created The Happiness Lab
  • It's given more meaning to life
• Advice for mid-level managers:
  • Doctors find happier workers use less than 15 sick days a year
  • Work with your employees to do what they're best at
  • Find out what they're getting out of the job
  • "Your emotions can be contagious. If you embody calm, they will be calm."
  • Affective spirals - The leader can turn emotions positive
• How to run excellent meetings:
  • Infuse it with gratitude - Say what you're grateful for. Grateful team members are more productive.
  • Regulate your emotion. Don't transmit negative energy to your team.
• At home: Regulate emotion. Take time to pay attention to your emotion. What are you bringing home?
  • Be present. Express gratitude to your family. Shift from complaining to being grateful.
  • Say what you love about each other at your family dinner table
• The best way to learn is to teach it.

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#365: James Altucher - How To Become An Idea Machine

• "Vulnerability equals freedom."
  • "You need to say something interesting. You need to step outside of your comfort zone."
• James started writing in 1990 after a girl he liked chose to date a writer instead of him.
  • He wrote 3,000 words a day and yet didn't publish anything for 12 years.
• Why write about your flaws?
  • Watch the movie 8 mile... "Eminem shares all of the negative aspects of himself. He left his competition with nothing to say about him. He beat him to the punch."
  • "I don't hit publish unless I'm worried. Am I afraid? If yes, then publish."
  • "All good writing has to have a story."
• Commonalities of people who sustain excellence:
  • Physically healthy - They are in shape
  • Emotionally healthy - They have good relationships
  • They are extremely curious - "Ken Langone came in my comedy club and asked tons of questions. He's so curious."
  • They are very creative
  • They have a "ready, fire, aim" approach - Sara Blakely started Spanx and got a $300K order and hadn't figured out how to manufacture her product yet.
• Creativity/Idea generation is a muscle - If you don't work it, it atrophies.
  • Write 10 ideas a day.
  • Quantity is more important than quality. "He who has the most ideas wins."
    • You'll have a lot of bad ideas. You have to get through those to get to the good ones. Quantity is important.
    • "Writing 10 ideas a day changed my life. I wasn't depressed anymore."
• Write ideas for companies and share with them... They might call you.
• Being an "intrapreneur" within your company - Think of ideas that can help your company and share with the CEO.
  • "Success is always on the other side of can't."
• Great entrepreneurs focus on reducing risk
• How to speak to powerful people?
  • Realize they are just people
  • Humor is key. "Laughter is the way to level the playing field."
• Developing a skill - Deliberate practice
  • The "10,000 Experiment" rule
  • The key to getting good is to experiment
  • Be in the top 1% of doing experiments
• Work your idea muscle every single day - The neurons will be re-wired
  • Share your ideas to help other companies
• Over-promise AND over-deliver. Do both. Everyone else under-promise with the hope to over-deliver. Don't do that. Overpromise upfront and over-deliver.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#364: Derek Sivers: Derek Sivers is a writer, musician, programmer, and entrepreneur best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians. A professional musician since 1987, Sivers started CD Baby by accident in 1997 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby went on to become the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients. 

Notes:

• The similarities between becoming a Dad and starting a business:
  • The transition from being "me" focused to becoming focused on others first. "That happened when I started a business... Long before I became a dad."
  • "As a dad, I learned to be fully present with him. To shut everything else down and focus on him."
• "Adults are always looking for amazing superlatives. Kids are happy with tiny details."
  • "Stop wasting hours... Learn to have a blast where you are."
• Making big decisions:
  • There is a difference between theory and in practice
    • "Don't consider anything decided until you've tried it."
• Why you should keep your goals to yourself:
  • An identity goal makes you a different person. If you announce it to others and they give you social satisfaction, that feedback you receive gives you internal satisfaction. That could lead to you already feeling satisfaction and thus less likely to achieve the goal... Receiving the satisfaction from others before you've done it is not helpful.
  • (NOTE - There is additional information to read about this nuanced topic. THIS is helpful.)
• Sustaining excellence:
  • They hold themselves to high standards. They set high stakes.
  • They have amazing self-control
  • "Excellence is setting high standards and living up to them."
• Excellent leadership is being selfless... Doing what's in the best long-term interest of the people you're leading.
• Selling CDBaby for $22m and giving the proceeds away to charity.
• The power of writing:
  • "I journal my ass off."
  • Documenting your daily thoughts is a very useful exercise -- It's fascinating to look back on how you felt at that specific time.
• Create "Per Topic" Journals
  • Journals that focus on a specific topic (Singapore, Interviews, Language Learning)
• Values = Learning... Remaining flexible and creative. Answering the questions, "What did I really want from that?"
  • Derek's values evolve and change over time
• Being a monomaniac - Obsessed with one thing at a time
  • Currently: Writing a book called How To Live
• The stress of replying to 7,000 emails vs making a genuine connection with each person...
  • Being a longterm thinker
• Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...

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#363: Admiral William McRaven - 363: Admiral William McRaven - The Bin Laden Raid, Saving Captain Phillips, & Leadership Lessons For Life

Notes:

• Sustaining excellence:
  • Great listeners - They value the opinions of others and listen
  • Decisive - The leader must take responsibility and make the call
  • Measured - Calm. Staying cool under pressure is vital
• Importance of coaching in Admiral McRaven's life… and being pushed by them. He pushed himself  to his physical limits to set the school record for the mile with the help of a phone call from a coach. (Jerry Turnbow).
  • Write letters to the parents/spouse/kids of the people you want to recognize. "Love on the people who love them."
• Failure can make you stronger —- Being assigned to “The Circus” in SEAL training helped him build resilience and a "never quit" attitude.
• Writing ­– He was a journalism major at Texas. Admiral McRaven has consistently worked to become a great writer. It is critical for leaders to be exceptional communicators... Both of the written AND spoken word.
• In July 1983, he was fired as a SEAL squadron leader for trying to change the way his squadron was organized, trained, and conducted missions. His response was the difference between a long, successful career, and quitting. Georgeann (his wife) offered him encouragement and said, ‘you’ve never quit at anything in your life and don’t start now’. 
• Admiral McRaven has always had great respect for the British Special Air Service: the famed SAS. The SAS motto was “Who Dares Wins.”  He said that even moments before the Bin Laden raid, his command sergeant major Chris Faris, quoted it to the SEALs preparing for the mission.
  • To him that motto was more than just how special forces operated. It’s about how each of us should approach our lives… Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present…
• Admiral McRaven walked us through the strategy development and the decision making process for the bin Laden raid:
  • It was a team effort - Leon Panetta could have done it only as a CIA mission, but he reached out to Admiral McRaven because the mission was what was most important, not getting credit.  Great leaders recognize that it’s never about them. If you think it’s about you you’re probably not a good leader.
  • It was still an extraordinarily difficult decision to green light the mission. Admiral McRaven described that conversations he had with President Obama. "If we got there and the guy on the third floor was just a tall Pakistani man, then President Obama would have been a 1 term president."
  • The SEALs on the mission rehearsed and practiced  A LOT. No matter how much experience you have, you ALWAYS need to practice.
  • The night of the bin Laden raid, Admiral McRaven was in charge of 10 other missions! He didn't have time to celebrate, he was focused on identifying the body, telling the President, and then paying close attention to the other missions he had going on that night.
• Courage — “without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots. Without courage,  no great society can flourish. Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up.”  Over the course of a month he visited Saddam Hussein in the jail where they were holding him, he would rise to meet Admiral McRaven. McRaven would motion for him to go back to his cot. The message was clear, “you are no longer important.”
• Rise to the occasion.  Be your very best in the darkest moments – Think about the moment we are in right now. Great leaders rise to the occasion in the midst of a pandemic
• Books Admiral McRaven recommends- The Speed of Trust- Stephen M.R. Covey, It’s Your Ship - Michael Abrashoff
• No plan survives first contact with the enemy- things will go wrong and you need to plan accordingly. Be prepared, think through worst case. "Have a plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected."
• Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. Don’t ever say “that’s not fair.”  The story of Moki Martin - bike accident that left him paralyzed