Teaching Tools vs. Teaching Skills

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There’s a difference between teaching tools and teaching skills. Skills are focused on the outcome. Tools are focused on the process. In some fields, learning the tools is extremely valuable. Trades like electrical, engineering, plumbing, automotive, and other fields require a deep knowledge of tools.

But tools change. If you want to be really good, you need skills. Any designer can use Photoshop to create an ad. It takes skill to create an ad that sells products. Anyone can use an oven, but it takes a great chef to cook the perfect steak.

Unfortunately, today’s higher education system isn’t very good at teaching skills or tools.

On Studying Leadership

Business, Life Lessons, Nonprofits, Politics, Start Ups 0 Comments

I used to think you couldn’t study leadership. I made fun of the people who were leadership majors.

But I’ve changed my tune – a little.

I’m still convinced you can’t study leadership. But you can study aspects of leadership. Things like:

  • Communication
  • Empathy
  • Public speaking
  • Writing
  • Dreaming
  • Vision casting
  • Focus
  • Motivation
  • Encouragement

And that’s just the service. So no, you can’t study “leadership”, but you can study things that make you a better leader.

On Being the Best

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In order to be noticed, you have to be the best in the world.

Let me rephrase that – you have to be the best in your world.

That means, if you build websites, you have to figure out how to be the best that:

  • Your customer knows
  • Your customer can afford
  • Your customer wants to work with

If you want to play in a rock ‘n roll band, you have to be the best drummer that:

  • Your band knows
  • Your band can afford
  • Your band wants to play with

There’s value in always trying to be the best. And we need to keep pushing ourselves, but to start with just focus on being the best in your world.

Then expand your world.

What Would You Change?

Business, Life Lessons, Living Like Jesus, Making a Difference 0 Comments

Every month or so, I stop and ask myself: “If money, time, talent, and resources were no object, what would be the top 2-3 things I would change in my life?”

This is a great question because it moves me out of the “status quo” of life and helps me think bigger.

And the truth is, there isn’t a lot I would change. Here are the three big ones (in no particular order).

  • Deeper relationships – I want to learn to go deeper with friends and family.
  • Financial independence – I’m getting out of debt very quickly, but there’s still some debt left. I hate being in debt.
  • Spend more time in prayer – I need/want to spend more time in prayer. The most healthy and spiritually full times of my life were the times of deep commitments to prayer.

And really that’s it. Those are the things that I would like to change. What are yours?

Observe the Greats

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One of the most valuable things we can do is to observe the greats. This is especially true in any artistic or creative endeavor, but it also applies to athletics, business, and virtually anything else.

For example, if you want to be a great filmmaker. Don’t start by going to film school. Start by watching the best 100 movies of all time. Sure, this won’t tell you how to hold a camera, write a screenplay, or direct a scene. But it will show you what a great movie is. And that’s the most important point of all.

Jack of All Trades?

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Our culture has an obsession with the division of labor – this idea that we separate tasks and projects into specific duties. We believe there are people who should spend their lives cooking, other people selling, other people making things, other people doing counseling, etc. The idea is that if each person is good at just one thing, they’ll get really good at it, and we’ll be using people and resources in the most productive manner.

By and large, this is a good thing. Much of our current civilization is based upon this idea. The problem occurs when we tell people (usually starting as kids), that they can only do 1-2 things in life really well. That’s simply not true. We can learn to do a lot of things well (if we learn to learn…which is a whole other blog post). We aren’t limited to doing one or two things well. Most of us will get 70+ years. To only learn 1-2 things well seems like quite a waste.

There’s a phenomenon called the 80/20 principle. When learning a language, we can communicate about 80% of what we want with only 20% of the language. It’s the same in most other areas. 80% of the points in athletic events are scored with the same 20% of moves. To get good at a lot of things, find the 20% that matters and learn that really well.

Plus, we aren’t robots. We are human. We aren’t designed to sit on an assembly line all day and do the same thing. We are meant to have variety. When we specialize to the extreme, we are often fighting against our very nature.

So learn to do a lot of things well. Chances are you already do 3-4 things pretty well. What is one more you can add to that list this year?

Asking Good Questions

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As a rule, we don’t ask very good questions. This is true in relationships. It’s true in business. It’s true in reporting. The way we ask the first few questions of any conversation can drive the conversation forward or kill it in its tracks. I’d never heard anyway address these issues quite so thoroughly as Tim Ferriss and Cal Fussman in this interview. It’s over 3 hours long. But it will be worth every minute. When I listened to it, it only seemed like 20 minutes.

Listen to the interview and you’ll learn to ask better questions. I promise.

Apple vs. FBI

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If you read the news lately, reporters talk about how Apple is now feeling “the pressure”. In case you’re not caught up on the conversation, the FBI put pressure on Apple to unlock an iPhone. Apple said no. FBI took Apple to court. Meanwhile, the FBI figured out how to unlock the phone themselves and dropped the case.

This is actually to be expected. Apple has only recently began to really increase their security in a dramatic way. Plus, you have a team of some of the most talented hackers in the world trying to break into a device for months on end. They were almost sure to find a flaw somewhere.

At some point in the near future, Apple will find and patch this hole. Then we’ll begin the conversation all over again. In a year or two the FBI will find another hole. A few months later Apple will patch it. Etc.

Regardless, I’m proud of Apple for taking a stand. For making the statement that your information actually belongs to you. Few other major tech companies are doing that. Instead of criticizing, let’s be glad they are making a stand. And let’s continue to understand the cat and mouse game that is cryptography. The game that started in earnest in the 70s and is going on today.

Why Travel the World?

Life Lessons, Making a Difference 0 Comments

This past Easter a group of us hiked to the top Horsetooth rock. Nearly everyone else who went was from the area. And about half the people there hadn’t done the hike and another third hadn’t done it in the past years.

We all talk about how we want to travel the world, see new things, go new places, and find grand adventures. But we often miss the adventures that are right in front of us.

Before you go on a missions trip, meet the needs of people in your town. Before you spend thousands of dollars on a plane ticket to travel the world, do a staycation and tackle adventures in your area.

Simply make a difference where you are. Then go somewhere else.

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