"A man is the sum of his projects"
This has been my motto for the past year.
it doesn't matter if you're building rockets to go to mars or building model trains in the basement.
man is happiest when fully engaged in a project.
WHICH PROJECT?
picking worthy projects matters, but pursuing them with full force matters more.
What's a "worthy" project?
Simple answer: Just do the most interesting idea in your head right now.
As a kid, this might start with building a giant lego set. Or modding a video game.
You can start with goofy sounding projects (my first business was a sushi restaurant) -- Your "taste" in projects will improve as you go.
To get 3 michellin stars in "project taste" it needs to pass these 3 tests for me:
- it excites me to try
- it scares me to try
- the product is simply me, pushed out to the world (productizing a part of yourself)
My podcast is a good example. I was scared nobody would listen. I was excited to try it. And the podcast itself is literally my personality pushed out via RSS. 5 years later, we've done over 100M+ downloads.
The 2nd thing "pursuing the project full force" is much harder.
Most of us are tigers in the zoo. We have forgotten how to hunt. How to sprint. We become trained (by school, jobs) that weak action is normal.
half-assing projects takes many forms (procrastination, inconsistency, playing it safe, giving up, etc.)
it's very hard to break a weak-action habit alone.
The fastest solve is to find a group of high-action people and join their projects.
Their pace & intensity are very contagious. Humans are pack hunters, and you will learn to run at the pace of the pack.
This is why there are so many examples of "mafias" (Paypal mafia), coaching trees (bill walsh), and talent hotspots (dagestan's wrestlers).
Some people have wanderlust. They make lists of places to travel.
Here's my creative bucket list (projects I want to do before I die):
✅ make a podcast with 1M+ subscribers
✅ launch a restaurant
✅ create a clothing brand
🔳 build a creative/business school i'd send my kids to
🔳 write a killer book
🔳 Make a reality TV show (eg. love is blind, survivor)
🔳 Buy the rights to a book and turn it into a movie
🔳 Make a music album
🔳 Learn to play piano by ear
🔳 Create an event that's like Tony Robbins minus the cringe
Technology is amazing. 40,000feet over Saskatchewan communicating with my people in Edmonton and California troubleshooting a server issue. The world is so small!
And here we are, 2am and I'm coding again... addicted to this project, but making huge progress... Sleep time though, I'll come back to this tomorrow. 19 of 60 completed
Some things never change. In my business today, these are still topics, and much of what I pushed for at that job I've built into my Company. Long standing values!