No Peaking

Since today I am celebrating another revolution around the Sun, I thought I would write about a question posed to me earlier this year. At the end of an interview, a candidate asked: "You're at a red light. A school bus full of 12-years olds pulls up next to you. What advice would you give them?"

Caught off guard by the originality of the question, I responded reflexively with some "there's only one you" or "life is not a dress rehearsal" type platitude. (We did hire this person by the way and I'm glad we did!)

Dissatisfied with my initial response, I've thought about that question ever since. With time to reflect on what principles - whether stated or not - have governed my life up until now, the advice I would give to that school bus of 12-year olds is this: "No peaking".

I don't believe you want to live a life where your best days were playing high school sports. Or being college president or campus big shot. You don't want your best job to be the one you got right out of school. Or your wedding day to be the best day of your marriage. Even the best company you start doesn't have to be your first.

You want to go into each phase of life with the expectation that future chapters will be better than the one you just wrote and the drive and desire to make it so.

Clearly that does not mean every chapter of your life is progressively better than the next. As a close friend wisely once said, "To fly forward, an arrow must first go backwards." Nor will each chapter necessarily show demonstrable progress, advancement or growth, particularly on something superficial like a LinkedIn resume. Nor is this some passive, hopeful future state: "may the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows."

What it does mean, however, for those people who share this ethos - and you know who you are - is that you disdain the concept of plateaus or the status quo. You have an attitude of "what's next?" when it comes to accomplishments. You feel restless when you find yourself not challenged. While certainly at times it is tiring to fight the gravitational pull of complacency, you are willing to put in the effort to fight through that force because you can't imagine a more enjoyable or rewarding way to live your brief life on this blue marble.

Green light.