When Innovation Trumps Experience

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Many job postings today require a good bit of experience. 8 years here. 10 years there. And rightly so, they want hires who know what they are doing.

What you need to make sure however, is that experience doesn’t replace hard work and innovation. What happens when things change so fast your experience isn’t relevant anymore?

That’s the risk. Hire experienced people. But they also have to be hungry to stay on the edge – especially in any digital or tech industry. Otherwise they’ll be 10 years experienced in something that doesn’t matter anymore.

The Rich Young Ruler

Life Lessons, Living Like Jesus, Relationships, Spirituality 0 Comments

Recently I was re-reading the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10. One verse stuck out particularly.

“Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (emphasis mine)

Jesus didn’t want the young ruler to sell all his things because God is against wealth. Nor is God out to make us unhappy. Christ asks us to give him everything because he loves us. The things that we hold on to are the things that can keep us from following Christ completely.

 

Statistics, Lighting, and Hard Work

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Have you ever had a big dream (start a non-profit, run a business, change something in culture) and someone offers you some free advice like “you’re more likely to get hit by lightning than for [that thing] to happen”?

Besides being annoying, there’s one problem with this idea. Yes, it’s fairly unlikely you’ll get hit by lighting in your day-to-day life without any changes. But if you climb to the top of a skyscraper with a 35 foot metal pole, you can dramatically increase your chances. If you fly a kite in an open field during a thunderstorm, you can also increase your chances.

This may seem like a dumb analogy, but stick with me: Statistically, it is highly unlikely that you’ll get different outcomes from doing what everyone else is doing. In fact, it’s nearly impossible. But as soon as you start doing things that NO ONE ELSE is doing, you increase your likelihood of success greatly. In a year’s time in the midwest, I can almost guarantee that you could get hit by lighting if you try. In fact, you could probably get hit by 2 or 3 lighting bolts in just one year! You just have to do those things that no one else is doing.

Although I do not recommend trying to get hit by lighting, you can increase the likelihood of your dreams coming true by doing certain things. Position yourself properly, build a brand, work hard. Do things that other people aren’t doing and you’ll position yourself for success.

Don’t let statistics be a cop-out. As long as you’re swimming with the current you’ll be part of the statistic. As soon as you try something new, you’re much more likely to be an outlier.

The Casting Call for Your Movie

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“Most people wouldn’t even be the lead character in a movie about their own lives.”

If you let that quote sink in for a minute, it can be a little scary. If a famous Hollywood director came up and asked to make a movie about your life, what would it entail? Are there any battles you are fighting right now that are really making a difference? Are you serving or fighting for things that are bigger than yourself?

The trick to being an interesting character in a movie is pursuing a worthwhile goal. Luke needed to save the Rebel Alliance. Frodo needed to destroy the Ring. Indiana Jones needed to find the Ark. They were all pursuing bigger goals outside of themselves. And all of them took great risks to see it through.

If the biggest thing you’re pursuing right now is your own happiness, I can tell you it’d make a pretty crappy movie.

Boredom and Phones

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In case you haven’t noticed, our culture uses our phones quite a bit. Call it an addiction. Call it whatever you want, but ultimately, I’d argue that the reason we spend so much time on our phones is because our lives are often very uninteresting.

When you’re hiking in the mountains, meeting with clients, digging into intense projects, building a sandcastle on the beach, or having meaningful conversations with your favorite people, you probably aren’t very tempted to use your phone.

So do more of those things. Do more interesting, fun, exciting, and challenging things. The more of those you do, the less interesting Facebook will become.

On Salt and Yeast

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In many of the churches I’ve attended, there seems to be an utter fear of culture. Specifically, a fear of being in the minority. The fact that culture is often running contrary to our “traditional” beliefs scares some people immensely.


But when we read through scripture, it didn’t seem to bother Jesus. In fact, he seemed to expect that outcome.


We know this because Jesus compares us to both salt and to yeast. I’m no master chef, but what I do know is that when you’re cooking, a little bit of salt and a little bit of yeast go a LONG way. Salt when well mixed adds flavor and depth to the recipe. Yeast makes bread rise to give it the texture that we expect from bread. But often a teaspoon or less of each of these will do the trick. It doesn’t take much salt or much yeast to get the desired outcome.


God doesn’t compare his church to flour or sugar or water in these examples. If God was interested in us being the strong majority, I think he would’ve picked a different ingredient.


We are the underdogs. We will always be counter cultural. We’ll never be the flour. We will always be the salt. And it just takes a little salt mixed in to make a big difference.

Disagree

Life Lessons, Making a Difference, Politics, Spirituality 0 Comments

The best thing about having a good relationship with someone is the ability to disagree in a healthy way. The other day I had a really good conversation with someone who completely disagreed with me on a contentious issue. No insults were thrown. No personal attacks were mounted. It was just a really good conversation.

Having those conversations can be hard. But having them with people who love you and care about you is a good place to start. And decide that it’s not about being right. It’s about seeing the other point of view.

If you can learn this skill, you’ll be able to learn and understand so much more.

I don’t know

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In our culture, saying “I don’t know” has a bad reputation. Admitting we’ll be making something up as we go along is a tough thing to do. It rubs against our pride.

So we talk like we know what we’re doing. We pretend. We roleplay. And we always get through it. We don’t know how to do it when we start, but we’re committed to figuring it out, so we keep pushing.

When you need help with a project, with a business, or with an organization, it’s tempting to find people that have done something successfully before. And sure, that can be helpful. If you can find them, great!

But the people you want to find are the people who are committed to figuring out how to make it work. Whether they’ve done it or not before is basically irrelevant. If they are committed to seeing it through, hire them.

And if you want to be a person worth hiring, be the person who will figure it out no matter what. Those people are almost never out of a job.

Comparison

Business, Life Lessons 0 Comments

No matter who you are, comparison is your enemy. Everyone’s journey is different. Everyone’s path is unique. Get to know people, learn from them, and always push yourself to be better. Even use them as a benchmark. But don’t compare. It’s not worth it. Comparison leads to judgement. And judgement doesn’t benefit anybody.

If you don’t do it, no one will.

Business, Life Lessons, Living Like Jesus, Making a Difference, Marketing, Nonprofits, Relationships, Spirituality, Start Ups 0 Comments

At some point in your life, you realize that if you don’t do things, they won’t get done. If you’re trying to build a company, you’re the one that has to do it. If you want to ask that girl out, you’re the one that has to do it. If you want to start a non-profit, you’re the one that has to do it.

It’s easy to complain and gripe about how challenging something can be. It’s easy to wish someone else would do it. But you can’t control them. You can only control you.

So do it and stop complaining.

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