YOML 159: Luck, Skill, or Something Else?
0Reflection Title: Luck, Skill, or Something Else?
Book – How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success From the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by Guy Raz
Book Description: Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture.
Reflection:
For the preceding few years before this Year of Magical Learning adventure began, most of my learning was done with Guy Raz through his podcast “How I Built This” on NPR. I was obsessed with this show. I tried to listen to 2 or 3 episodes a week if I could. I couldn’t get enough. The stories were captivating, fascinating, and I felt like I really learned a ton from these highly successful entrepreneurs. It is hard to put my finger on it, but the way that the host, Guy, is able to get these people to open up and share their intimate stories of struggles and triumphs captivated the hell out of me.
I wasn’t just listening for the stories though, I wanted to learn all the secrets of how to do this myself. I’ve always dreamed of launching a company that could one day have a massive impact on people in this world the way that founders of Slack, Canva, Whole Foods, AirBnB, Angie’s List, etc have. I imagined myself one day being able to be interviewed by Guy and feeling so happy to be able to share the story of the company I helped to build that made its on small dent in the world. This was my dream. I’ve tried and I’ve tried to build my own companies since I was 24, but just haven’t broken through yet. I was determined to make this dream a reality someday though and it would all be capped when I got to sit down with Guy.
This was my life before I met Emilia. After she passed away, everything changed literally overnight. All the dreams I had in the past evaporated into thin air. First on the list was this dream to build the next great start up and be interviewed by Guy Raz someday. I haven’t listened to a new episode of “How I Built This” since she passed, and I probably never will again.
Around 18 months after she passed away, I thought I owed it to Guy to take a trip with him one more time when he released his book called “How I Built This”. We had spent so much time together over the years that it felt like I was catching up with an old friend. Something was different this time as I consumed the book version of Guy systematically breaking down all his interviews and building them back up into an organized playbook of sorts. The thing that was different it turns out…was me.
I just didn’t care anymore about listening to other people’s stories about How They Built Something. The words just didn’t resonate at all for me because for the first time in my life, I had something truly special that I KNEW I had to do and that was all that mattered to me.
Instead of dreaming with others, I’ve spent the past year and a half of my life doing. I have manically focused on living for 2 for my daughter since the day she passed away. Almost every single action I preform in any given day these days has a purpose and a meaning behind it. That couldn’t be more different than my life before I met my daughter. In the past, the dream of building something great was all that mattered to me. Now, living my purpose for and with my daughter each day consumes my whole being.
Guy always asks each of his guests a final question at the end of each episode, “How much of your success do you attribute to your skill, your intelligence, your hard work, and how much of it to luck?” In the past, I had always dreamt of the opportunity to answer this question one day on the show, but I’d never really figured out what I would say. I know what I would say now…"Guy, my answer would be neither. My answer would be purpose."
In the past 2 years, I’ve technically accomplished more “achievements” than I probably have my entire life. I don’t want any of these things, but I can’t stop. These achievements don’t come from my intelligence, skill, hard work, or luck. The achievements come from living a life of purpose, but they are never the goal. I’d give back anything and everything if it meant I got to spend 1 more minute with Emilia. Since that can never be, this is all I have. Living for 2 to honor my daughter and the life she didn’t get to live is why I wake up every single day and keep pushing forward. I don’t call that luck, skill, talent, or hard…I call that purpose.
Purpose has the power to change the world!
Question: How much of your success do you attribute to your skill, your intelligence, your hard work, and how much of it to luck…or is it something else?