Rejecting A Cold

And just like that, Brendan Iribe, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, and Jan Koum. They all left. Facebook lost them to their own ambitions.

Who knows who will really come out on top. Truly, all four of them could colossally fail, be an absolute success, or most likely be some mix there in-between.

No matter what, Facebook is leaking founders.

They are leaking starters

They are leaking innovators

They are leaking leaders.

It is well above my pay grade to guess the nuanced reasons as to why they are leaving. But the reality of it is, they are leaving. Much like your body will reject a cold, flu, or stomach bug. These people are leaving. Again, I do not know why, but the body of Facebook could continue as it was and keep these people a part of Facebook and so they left.

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Similarly, when you are leading, when you are a part of a group, when you are doing the work that matters. Pay attention to the people around you. You will be attracting people like you and people unlike you will not stay around. When people do not resonate with you or engage with you, stop and assess what the difference was.

When someone does not stay around, stop and assess a few things in yourself, your group, and your organization/family:

What did I not resonate with them about? What is so different between us? What is so similar between us? What quality would they add to us? What can we add to them? How can we help them? How could they help us? What would I want them to add to the team? What should change about the team so someone like them can connect in the future?

These are a few ideas. You, your team, and your group is not for everyone but you should be intentional about who your group is trying to attract.

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Change

Dimes, nickels, pennies, quarters, fifty-cent pieces, Sacajawea dollar, silver dollar, and Susan B. Anthony’s to name a few.

Change, I have some in my pocket most of the time. It is heavy, cumbersome, and ladening. For the most part it is even on the way out as we transfer to a more digital currency and transactions. Long gone are the days of cashing a paycheck, for better or worse.

All the same, the change once so common and regular is now becoming more burdensome than fireman carrying a human sized sack of potatoes all day. It is dirty, germy, easily lost, rarely do we have enough to cover the exact change we need and more often than not, I end up with my change leading to more change.

And life is no different. Change is burdensome. I do not deal with it well. I especially do not deal with it well when it is brought into my life by other people. I want to be in charge of what I do or do not change.

And usually, if something changes, then something else is going to change too. Or whatever just changed will need to be changed further to make it work better for more use cases.

By the end of it all, there are enough changes to necessitate a full on retooling of the whole system.

Whether we like it or not, change happens. It is necessary. And we need it. We cannot expect the same system to work forever, we can expect to have to work together to make it work well.

How do you deal with change? What changes are going on for you at work? How are you dealing with them? What changes are going on for you personally? How are you dealing with those?

What changes do you need to make, but you have been putting off?

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Who I Am

I was recently discussing with a friend about music, electronic drums, and computer generated drum beats. He was telling me about how recently scientific study began to produce results indicating we do not like to hear a computer generated drum beat. Our ability to appreciate these drum beats had nothing to do with the natural sound, synthesized sound, or composition of the beat. The issue was the perfection. 

People did not like the perfect beat. 

They did not like how perfect it was. 

How sterile the beat was. 

People did not appreciate the inerrancy of the beat. I assume the beat was presented to the common person and they were given a double blind test to see which one they preferred. 

However, is it not peculiar as we continue our way towards mimicking robots mimicking humans? Does it stand out to you how we continue to push closer to being more like robots and we push robots to be more like us?

Maybe, my goal should not be more like the robot. To live more like the robot sheriff of legal town. Should my goal to be more like who I am and continue to be me?

I think I should be a better version of myself. I should be a healthier version of me. I do not need to be a more perfect person. I need to be a more human person. I need to be who I am and be a better version of me every day. I do not need to be like the robot computer in the movies who decides what the law says and how to follow it. I need to be a better version of me every day. 

Who are you trying to be? What does it look like to be a better version of you tomorrow? 

Me,

–JT

Different Strokes

There are people I have met in my life who are truly different from me. Whether they are so harsh and to the point and I cannot be around them because I feel steam rolled and manipulated. They are so creative and artistic, I cannot understand what is going on in their minds. There are also people who might also rub me the wrong way, their voice, the things they say, their vernacular, clothes they wear, or simple the way they smell. They rub me the wrong way and I am immediately driven nuts the moment they walk into a room.

I have met a handful of people in my life who fall into one of these categories. They don’t mean to cause my toes to curl, but they do. I can think of a few now. I have dealt with them poorly at times or completely avoided them in the most ridiculous of manners. 

I now realize I have never been intentional about consistently celebrating these people. I have never seen the difference and called it out as an amazing part of who they are. The harsh person will get things done, the artist will create beautiful work, and the people who grate on my nerves are loved and valued by many. When have I taken the time to call out their differences as something to be celebrated?

Valuing diversity,

–JT

From the Outside, Looking In

I love the community I get to be a part of. I’m a part of a group of people who love each other. They want the best for one another and they genuinely want everyone to succeed. They have their priorities in order and they aren’t bent on silly things. This community is far from perfect I assure you; but, we are all more focussed on the well being of one another than we are each others’ flaws and flukes. I can say all this because their actions align with their words, especially in my life. However, I’m beginning to see how different the community I get to be a part of is different from so many other communities. This is not a statement that my community is better, it is a statement that my community goes about things differently. I’m so glad we’re different too. 

Our methods work well in our area, better than they would someplace else. The methods of other communities works better in their areas, better than they would in my area.

The striking part of my observations is, when I am visiting a different community, it is better for me to take part in their methods and processes and encourage them to pursue their goals than it is for me to insert, discuss, or force my own ‘tried and true’ methods. I am excited about this realization. 

I now see that the guilt and weight I’ve always carried when visiting people who do things differently than I do was as unnecessary as I felt it was, even though I could never put my finger on why it was unnecessary. I’m can celebrate the differences wholeheartedly. 

How will you celebrate the differences between you and whoever and wherever you spend time this holiday season?

Excitedly,

–JT