Get Tuesday! - September 3, 2024
It’s September – and football is back.
I spent Saturday morning walking all around Michigan Stadium hearing the Marching Band, traversign the tailgates on the golf course and feeling the energy echo through our veins.
Then, on Sunday, my USC Trojans got a big win over LSU out in Vegas. Maybe the Trojans are back????
I have been writing on my website on a weekly basis for nearly two years. It’s nothing crazy, but something I am proud to accomplish.
I'm finally decided to make this a newsletter and push to your inbox. There is still some work to do on the tech side, but I invite you to subscribe today.
Just go
We can always analyze more data and write more decision trees, but we never have 100% confidence in how things are going to turn out after making a decision.
There’s always a leap of faith at some point.
Just go.
The difference a brand can make
Here’s a quote from Warren Buffet: 'if you have the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you have a very good business'
This aspect continues to be my favorite way to define “brand.,” although Buffett is more broadly referring to any situation where a company has enough of a competitive advantage. This could be through brand, technology, scale, or other factors as a way to raise prices without immediately losing customers to competitors.
This ability, regardless of its source, is what Buffett sees as a hallmark of a great business. It suggests the company has a strong market position and the potential for sustained profitability, which are key factors in his investment philosophy.
Looking for the “miracle moment”
“Everyone looks for the miracle moment – the moment when success happens.
We are drawn to these moments because we want to know the secret. We want to know the ingredient that we are missing. The ingredient that makes the recipe.
The problem is … there is no miracle moment. If you want to understand success, you can’t focus on what’s visible.
Results are simply one more step in a long chain of steps that led to that moment.
Nature offers a great example with bamboo, which takes ups up to 5 years to develop its roots. For years, to the outside observer, no visible progress has been made. Meanwhile, the bamboo grows below the surface, developing its roots and storing energy. Then, all at once, it starts to grow. Years of stored energy result in exponential growth, sometimes reaching over 50 feet in a matter of weeks.
That’s how results happen. Slowly and then all at once.
Everyone wants the results. No one wants the process that leads to them. That’s boring.
There are two main lessons to take away:
Not all progress is visible. Don’t beat yourself up when things aren’t visible. One workout won’t make you fit, but it is better than no workout. A small deposit in your bank account today won’t get you to your goal, but it moves you closer. The daily grind is part of the process.
Consistently doing boring things well leads to extreme outperformance. Most of the time, we know what we need to do. The problem is because we don’t immediately see the results, we stop. It’s as if we tell ourselves, “I ate healthily and went to the gym all week, and I’m still not as fit as I want, so what’s the point?”
You have to be smart enough to know you’re making progress without any obvious signs of progress.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was built one brick at a time.”
New goal
I’ve borrowed this from countless other leaders in the past.
But I’d like to strive to "MAKE 6 MONTHS AGO BRIAN" LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT
I've now learned to embrace this as a great way to continue to grow and push myself.
