Of Heroes, Villains and Me, V2.0

Chapter 2

The COVID lockdown was a frightening, perspective altering time.

For my wife and I, family life was turned upside down.  Our families live far away, some in Europe.   We could no longer easily get on a plane and see the people we loved.  

Work was also extremely challenging.  In addition to learning to lead a team in a completely virtual environment, COVID raised numerous unique and fundamental issues in my industry.  

But tough times bring opportunities for reflection and inflection.

Questions about my satisfaction with work and how long I might continue on the same course bubbled up incessantly, with increasing frequency (remember the tick tock of the clock in Chapter 1?).

I needed to find some heroes to guide my thinking.

Which was when I bought Tim Ferriss’ “The 4 Hour Work Week”.   

The title had me skeptical and intrigued.  Diving in, I learned Ferriss had already been an outwardly successful entrepreneur but found the professional life he’d built unsatisfying.

How could this be?

Well, he was working himself silly.  He’d constructed a successful business, but one which depended on him over-functioning to keep things moving.  

He was burning out because he had no time to scratch other itches.

The day after became just like the day before:  dissatisfactions replicated and compounded.

Ferriss is a deconstructive thinker, breaking problems down into actionable components.

As such, he took on the problem of reconfiguring work to fit the life he wanted. Some examples:

Problem: he discovered his choice to involve himself in immaterial decisions was the root cause of bottlenecks.  Simple solution: build a delegation scheme empowering others and forcing himself away from the trivial.

Problem: a small number of customers caused a disproportionate amount of pain.  Simple solution:  fire the “bad” customers and focus time instead on the “good” ones.   

With these and other adjustments, he improved his bottom line AND liberated time for outside activities to feed his soul.

And a moveable feast his soul did find.

He became a champion tango dancer, champion kickboxer, learned Japanese, learned Japanese horseback archery (yes, it's a thing and yes he did it), wrote best-selling books, launched an eponymous, award winning podcast, etc, etc, etc.

I'm no polymath and my ambitions were less, well ambitious.  Mostly, I wanted a different pace, with more space to feed my own curiosity and interests.

I wanted out of the Powerpoint creation business and out of the meeting & bureaucracy feeding business.  I was willing to trade corporate goodies (security, salary, corporate benefits, perceived prestige etc.) for freedom.

Perhaps another reinvention was in order:  Professional ME, v2.0.

Which segues nicely to the next book I read during lockdown which altered my thinking: a lovely volume called “The Practicing Stoic, A Philosophical User’s Manual,” by hero # 2, Ward Farnsworth.  

We’ll pick up with Farnsworth next time.

If you would like to discuss your personal growth or ideas for your own, YOU v2.0, then Let’s Talk.  Please feel free to schedule a Discovery Session with me by clicking on the attached link.

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Until next time.

Be well everybody,