Something didn’t sound right and it got me thinking.

There are two kinds of execution.

Execution externally directed when you just have to follow instructions. That one’s easy…until you have to make a decision.

“That’s not my responsibility”, “I’m not sure what the boss wants”, “let someone else decide that…in the meantime I’ll slack”.

We have plenty of these. Ironically, it’s not what we need the most and it’s not where the value is anymore.

We need the second type of execution: the internally driven one. The one that focuses on the big picture, the end result, the one that’s not afraid to take risks and assume responsibility.

Often times we want to be on that team but just watch the game from the bench.

Come out and play.

At 7 in the morning I went to bed feeling inspired, tired, somewhat angry, happy….and better from the food poisoning. Most of all I went to bed thinking that there are a few lessons there, especially for those of us in the “business / corporate” environment with all it’s “should be’s”, “better not’s”, “if I were you’s”.

1. WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

I’ll come back to this one later. It’s the part that got me inspired and angry at the same time.

2. It’s your life. Live it.

Had Dave Grohl’s listened to and obeyed all those pundits who damned him for starting a new band 9 months after Nirvana the Foo Fighters wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t get to enjoy their music.

Just imagine the drummer of THE band of the decade in their scene (which they defined) changing roles and being a front man for a new band. Come on! Get a job! Exactly. Well, he didn’t. He just went to a recording studio and created a demo tape with 8 – 10 songs that would become their first record. Great record, by the way.

Our time in this Earth is limited. Might as well make it count. For you. There are no life templates. You need to create your own.

Does the work you do inspire you?

Is it scary to answer this question?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

2. Work in your own voice.

Soooo….you start this new band and…..how’s it supposed to sound?????

a) Like other people want it so sound (Nirvana-ish)

b) Like whatever comes out of Dave’s head

Turns out Dave went for b). Yes, he hired Nirvana’s former guitarrist, but they haven’t been making A F D songs eversince.

Are you limited by your “roles and responsibilities” description / by your title? Are you being a good dog and singing in the key you’re told but it doesn’t resonate with you?

Is it scary to answer this question too?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

3. Money comes later

When Pat Smear joined the Foo Fighters he was broke. I bet you he has a cool car and money in the bank now after they’ve sold out Wembley twice, but at the moment money was just an accessory (which he didn’t have). I bet he wasn’t happy about it, but he was definitely not freaking out. He just went and played music, his passion. Money came in later.

Easier said than done. I know.

Money comes when “your right people (anyone you like and appreciate who likes and appreciates you)”, as Havi Brooks likes to put it, appear. And they WILL appear.

What’s your relationship to money? Do you feel less than your peer down the hall because he’s “made it” and he’s driving the Mercedes?

Do you feel stuck in that position because you need the six figures a year even though you’re not feeling any realization from the work?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

4. Create something!

Like Hugh MacLeod says “we are all born creative. We are all given a box of crayons in kindegarden”.

The Foo Fighters are in their seventh album. Step by step. Little by little (touring their butts off, too).

What are you planning to create beyond that Excel report? (nothing wrong with Excel, I love it)

What legacy would you like to leave? Have you ever asked yourself this? If not, how uncomfortable do you feel now? Why?

“Yes, but how!!!?” you might ask.

Well, do like the Foo Fighters did, or as Pam Slim likes to say: Blow up traditional careers in favor of bodies of work

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

 

5. Trust other people

So they finish this GREAT album “Wasting Light” and here comes Alan Moulder to mix it. He’s a legend but the songs already sound a certain way in their heads. They have to leave this “baby” to this guy and let him do his thing so every instrument sounds at a certain level in each part etc. without freaking out because “oh my god! he’s going to screw this and our work will go to waste, oh my god!”

Are you leading a group of people? How scary is it to delegate and see what they can come up to? How sure are you that the result will not be better than what you are envisioning?

Is micromanaging your religion?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

6. You also have to trust the process / Enjoy the ride.

When Dave Grohl created that first cassette in 5 days he had no freaking idea where this would take him. It went much farther than he’d ever wished for. Hey, HE.SOLD.OUT.WEMBLEY!!!!!! TWICE!!!!!!!!

How’s your thinking small preventing you from going all the way to where that voice inside you tells you you’re capable of going?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

7. People come and go / There’s life after your current gig

Drummers and guitarists have come and gone. At some point someone realized things just weren’t ((clic!))ing.

So someone left the band. Good times, bad times, resentment. Sure. But the band went on and people too.

Are you attached to your Company? “I can’t leave because this company is such a part of me”; “I’ve dedicated 20 years of my life to this”; “they won’t hire me anywhere else!”; “I don’t know how to do anything else”.

Is this you? Why?

What could be a very small first step to get over it?

WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

8. Work on something bigger than yourself

Sorry, the market for egos is saturated (have you watched E! online lately?).

Create and put something out there that is bigger than you.

Foo Fighters is bigger than Dave or Taylor or Nate. They all contribute to it and create great music. Each one has a role and understands they couldn’t do it without the others. Heck, they couldn’t even do it with others.

What is it that you contribute to? Company’s mission, vision, blah, blah…

What is it that YOUR work do that you go to bed at night with that sense of purpose and alignment with your calling?
WHERE’S YOUR PASSION????????  SHOW IT!!!!!!!!

Ok, the passion thing. I couldn’t get this out of my head when I went to bed. I was inspired and angry at the same time at us, “the business people” for not showing enough passion on a daily basis. It’s just not there. Agendas, egos, politics, regulations, whatever, get in the way of us really putting our hearts into what we do.

No, our Marketing campaigns can’t disguise it. Neither can a well-written and hollow meaning mission statement.

It’s what we do everyday and how we do it.

If we are to achieve whatever it is we are set to do on this Earth and have a fulfilling life (which I think is in the intersection of meaning and productivity) we in the “business world” ought to take a look at rock bands like these and be inspired by the way they approach their craft.

There were these and many other things in that documentary.

Thank you Foo Fighters.

- We agree that we are enerty

- We know that low energy gets us nowhere

THEN:

- Why are we content with low energy states?

- Why do we keep telling ourselves things that deplete our energy? (everyday examples: “I’m not good enough for that”; “they won’t like what I have to say”; “I haven’t figured it all yet so I better postpone it”; “That project will never succeed”)

Is low energy addictive?

Or else, can we learn to ask ourselves the right questions that lead to higher energy states?

I’m with this last one.

YOU ARE ENOUGH ALREADY.

The challenge is being able to contemplate the extraordinary in that one small step you’re taking today.

Go ordinary. That’s extraordinary.

This morning something happened that made me write these down.
They’re choices we face everyday. At work and at home. “Either or” situations.

Hopefully one or more of them make something clic in your head and help you move forward with what you’re struggling with:

- Expected vs. Unexpected
- Process vs. Result
- Gossip vs. Reality
- Focus vs. Distraction
- Mindless vs. Mindful
- Simplicity vs. Complexity
- Power struggles vs. Collaboration
- Opinion vs. Silence
- Shared responsibility vs. Ownership
- Own vs. Delegate
- Strength vs. Weakness
- Getting it done vs. Excuses
- Blame vs. Accountability
- Doing vs. Will do

Supongo que en honor a esa idea me vino sin querer este pensamiento esta mañana:

“Las respuestas están en las preguntas que aún no te has hecho.”

‘The web changes everything. Or nothing.’ by Dennis Howlett

“…become smarter…”

“I sense that this dumbing down, this slow motion march to the lowest common denominator is instilling a fear in people.”

“..commoditization is going to put you out of business.”

http://accmanpro.com/2011/01/20/the-web-changes-everything-or-nothing/

New favorite quote: “To require perfection is to invite paralysis”, from Art and Fear: The Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orlund.

Via Evelyn Rodríguez.

More here:

“To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly. You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do – away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.”

“To the critic, art is a noun. To the artist, art is a verb.”

“Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

Empieza por dos preguntas tan sencillas como frecuentemente olvidadas:

1. ¿Quién es mi audiencia.?

2. ¿Qué quieren obtener de la charla?

Lo que está detrás de estas preguntas es olvidarme de tí mism@ y pensar en las personas que te van a pagar con su atención (“pay attention”; estamos en la economía de la atención, como dice Enrique Dans).

“It’s not about you, it’s about them”, que dicen por ahí. Estas dos preguntas te ponen en el lugar adecuado.