What Happens When You Add Up All The Work.

That’s a photo of me in 7th grade. I’m in the center, wearing the fireman’s hat. I was shorter then. When I went for a checkup in 8th grade, the doctor said I’d probably top out at 6′.

Then I grew 6 inches in a year. And kept growing.

But a funny thing about that: No one really noticed. Not my family. Or my friends.

Growing 6 inches in a year is a lot, but it happens incrementally. A quarter of an inch here, a half an inch there. The change happens so gradually that you don’t notice what it’s all adding up to.

So we didn’t notice anything — until some cousins from out of town visited, and noticed that I had obviously grown a lot. The news came as a shock to everyone I knew. (Even me, kind of — I had spent the winter complaining about how my entire body hurt all the time, but I wasn’t quite sure why.)

We go through these changes all the time. Little things and alterations that add up, tiny changes in the way we work and the types of work we do. Eventually, they add up to something big.

But when we wake up in the morning, we don’t feel like we’re making big changes. We don’t notice what’s happening all around us. We look at the little picture, and never the big.

Often, it takes an outside force for us to take stock of what’s been going on.

But if you’ve been doing great work, and you’ve been putting in a lot of work, you start to notice what you’ve been building all along. It could be something really great.

10/24/201310/24/2013

It’s So Great To Be The Dumb Guy In The Room.

I am writing this on a plane, about 30 minutes from landing in London. I’m headed there for a conference. I’m speaking. While I’m there, I’m also going to write a few things for the site, and I’m really excited about that, too.

And I’m realizing now: This is the first time I’ve been really, REALLY excited about a work-related thing a little while.

Here’s the thing: I love my job. I love the people I work with, and I’m fascinated by the little world that I work in.

But this week, I’m stepping outside my normal routine. I’m giving this talk, which should be a blast. I’m going to learn a lot at this conference that I can bring back to work. I’m going to do some writing, which always makes me happy.

But above everything else: I’m going to be spending time talking to new people — new people also happen to be a lot smarter than me. That’s hugely exciting. I’m stepping into a room this week that is a few notches above my head, and I’m going to have to be on my game. It’s going to be a good place for me to be.

And it reminds me, again, how important it is for me — for all of us — to surround ourselves with amazing people. They challenge us, they push us forward, and that’s how we learn to do better work ourselves.

Thanks for the reminder, London.

10/14/201310/14/2013

What One Thing Would Screw Up Everything?

So a question I like to ask myself:

Could one single thing screw up everything I’m doing?

If a key part fell through… if a plan didn’t work… if the modem at my office crashed: would that mess with everything?

Right now, I’m dealing with Day 5 of an unexpected internet outage at home. It crashed, and the internet company sent a guy, and he kinda fixed it, and then it crashed again 24 hours later.

Of course, I’m still writing this — because after years of watching the internet crash at inopportune times, I wisened up and bought a backup 4G card.

What I’m saying is this: Plans go to shit rather quickly. And if one little cog in the machine can cause everything to stop functioning, that’s a dangerous thing. Having a backup plan really matters when you’re doing the work.

There’s no excuse for being caught off-guard by a small failure. Have a plan, and then know what happens when that plan goes bad.

10/07/2013

What Can Happen When You Put Things Out There.

So here’s what I love about that story, above, from the very talented Kishi Bashi:

Sometimes, you stumble into amazing things. Sometimes, you make a snippet of a thing, and people like it, and they ask for more. Sometimes, you unintentionally put something amazing into the universe.

Our world is full of happy accidents, of the times that you stumble onto something great. But the only way to get there is to put something out into the world first.

Go. Make. Share. It’s the only way to really know.

10/03/201310/02/2013

The Next 10.

Two nights ago, I saw Lorde, a 16-year-old singer from New Zealand, play a sold out show here in New York. Yesterday, her first single hit no. 1.

Lorde is very good, and very talented, and also — she’s a decade younger than me. Which makes my head hurt a little.

And all I could think about at the show Tuesday was this: What’s she going to do with the next decade? What choices will she make? What moves will she make? And will she be able to put the right people in her life to make some amazing music?

But it occurs to me, too: There are 36-year-olds out there who’d like at someone my age and ask the same questions. (Minus the music part.)

I don’t know what the next 10 years hold for me. I don’t know what happens next. But I’m trying to put the right people in place, and I’m trying to get into rooms where smart conversations are happening. With that and work, I’m optimistic that things will work out.

I wish the same for Lorde — and everyone else trying to do something amazing with the decade ahead.

09/30/2013

Going Above And Beyond.

There’s a saying you’ve heard before: “That person went above and beyond.”

And I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people go far beyond what should be expected to deliver something amazing. It really does happen.

But I’d argue that for the most part, going “above and beyond” doesn’t require us to go as far as we think.

What we expect out of people is… well, often not much. We don’t demand incredible things out of most people. Our expectations are low.

And so when people go just a little out of their way to help, we’re often amazed.

It really doesn’t take as much as you think in this world to get someone’s attention. A small act of kindness. A commitment to putting in the work each day.

We don’t demand as much as we should from other people, but that gives us a huge opportunity. Little things often make a huge impression. Going above and beyond isn’t nearly as hard as we think.

09/19/201309/18/2013

Following Up Matters.

I’m going to brag about my little sister for a second.

A few years ago, my sister announced to me that one day, she was going to move to Colombia and do… well, she didn’t know. But she was going to move there.

Okay, I said.

And then she graduated from college and moved to New Orleans. She worked at a school. She had a lot of fun. We weren’t sure if she was going to ever leave.

And then she decided that Colombia was back on her radar. She was going to go.

Okay, I said.

She applied for jobs, and applied for visas, and she waited. I don’t know how qualified she was for any of these jobs — in college, she majored in Spanish, and being fluent in Spanish in Bogota isn’t all that impressive — but she actually got an internship at an art museum. She got her visa, and we got her on a flight to Bogota. The internship was supposed to last six months. We didn’t know what would happen after.

And then she announced that she was going to stay in Colombia and get a new job as a teacher.

Okay, I said.

She applied to more jobs and more places, except this time was different. She was in Colombia, which let her interview in person — and that does make a difference.

And after each interview, my sister decided that she’d send a thank you note in the mail. Not an email — a hand-written note thanking each place she’d interviewed at for their time.

A few weeks later, my sister got a job at a school. They’d interviewed a bunch of candidates for the job, but they loved her note. It stood out, they told her, and they figured anyone who’d take the extra couple of minutes to write a note like that was the kind of person they’d want on staff.

I’m still amazed by this. A few hand-scribbled words made a difference for my sister. There were lots of candidates, but a thank you note got her the job.

Why aren’t we all doing this, again?

09/12/201309/09/2013

Stop Worrying About Endings. Just Keep Going On.

A lot of things have been kicking around lately, and it started with this tweet:

Everything works out in the end. If it's not working out, it's not the end.

— Tim Van Loan (@TimIsHungry) September 3, 2013

And I thought: Well, that’s not right at all.

I don’t think about endings that often. I think about the journey a lot, and I think about the next steps, but I don’t think about endings. That’s for another day — somewhere far off, I hope.

But I do think about the journey. I think about the steps I take every day to get somewhere, and the goals I keep setting and resetting for myself as I go. There are a lot of steps — but no true endings in sight.

And when I read a quote like the one above, I think: What’s the flip side of that? If things are working out, does that mean this must be the end? And what happens at the end, anyway? Do I quit? Do I give up on the work I’m doing?

That doesn’t sound like much of a happy ending to me.

So that’s the first thing that’s been kicking around in my head.

And the second is this video that’s been on the internet for a long time. It’s from a Texas high school football playoff game in 1994. One team is up 41-17 with three minutes left in the game, and that’s when the comeback begins. There’s a touchdown to cut the lead, and then a recovered onside kick. And then another touchdown. And another onside kick recovered.

And then another touchdown. And another onside kick.

And then one final touchdown — from 41-17 down to 44-41 up in just three minutes.

Which is where the story should end. Which is where we want it to end.

Except… that’s not where it ends.

Because life isn’t about where it ends; it’s about where you go. It’s about what you do along the way. It’s about what you make of all of this — the good, the bad, the everything else.

We search for endings because stories must end eventually, and each of us is writing our own story. But our stories are not over yet.

We keep going. We keep pushing. We resist the urge to write that ending.

There’s still more to do.

That image at top comes via @_michelada44_.

08/27/2013

I Missed A Monday.

“Put what you want to do last and what you need to do first.” — Mike Orren

I missed my Monday blog post for the first time in… well, I don’t know. I’ve been posting here twice a week for months — since at least the start of 2012. And to miss a Monday? It feels weird.

But worst: Missing a day because I was “too busy” is an alarm sounding, reminding me how easy it is to let a good routine go. The longer you let things slide, the harder it is to get going again.

So here I am on Tuesday morning, hacking out this post. I don’t like missing a Monday. I don’t plan on missing one again.

Time to get back to work.

That random image of a stoplight comes via.

08/12/201304/15/2018

Just Remarkable.

“What’s amazing about a leap of faith is how everyone around you is so sure it’s gonna work out, when deep down, you are so sure it won’t.” — Tess Vigeland

Back in July, I went to Portland for a conference, and I saw this talk. I have been thinking about it a lot.

It’s the story of an NPR reporter who quit her job because she wanted more. She wanted something else. She wasn’t sure what the something else was, but she wanted it.

But listening to it, I don’t really hear her story.

I hear her words, but I remember mine.

Because I, too, have felt ambitious. Really ambitious.

And scared.

And confused.

And lost.

And hopelessly broke.

On that journey, I spent a lot of time, too, just asking myself: What the hell am I doing?

I look back now on that point in my life. Yes, I had faith in my ability to do something great, and enough desperation to want to do something that wouldn’t suck. But at the exact same time, I had this overwhelming sense of terror. I was so, so scared.

Doing what I did — and what many others have done, and what you’ll see Tess Vigeland talk about in a second — was insane. It was crazy. But also: It was a fantastic thing that changed me, and changed how I think about everything.

And to see it echoed back to me? I felt all of it all over again.

It’s gotten me thinking again. I’ve spent the last few weeks wondering if I’ll ever find the courage to do something that crazy once again.

I hope I will.

Anyway, for now, just watch:

That image of Tess at top comes via.