Socially Interstellar

One thing I love to do over the Christmas break is indulge in a binge fest of my favourite movies.

One of them I love to watch over and over. Is Interstellar. It’s a beautiful loveletter to the concept of time and relationships.

Ultimately it’s a simple story about a father and daughter. And his journey to get back to her.

The plot is fairly simple. In Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. Professor Brand (Michael Caine), a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth's population to a new home via a wormhole. But first, Brand must send former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of researchers through the wormhole and across the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be mankind's new home.

I think a lot of the time what I’m doing through my content isn’t just sharing knowledge, it’s maybe trying to communicate to my children how important they are to me in way that I can do with words.

They are the next generation and they get to carry some small part of my story with them into the future. I think sometimes we get so stuck in the now, we don’t stop and zoom out and appreciate just how big all of this stuff in work and life that’s happening around is. The sheer scale of the cosmos reminds us just how small and yet infinitesimally?interconnected we all are.

Cooper - Once you're a parent, you're the ghost of your children's future.

It’s a stark reminder about time and how taking the long road (whilst harder and more dangerous) means you win on the long tail.

I sit and watch other business owners and entrepreneurs fly past me.?

And I used to think how are they doing that. Now I don’t care.

All I care about now is not taking shortcuts. Building out the BEST possible products and services so my customers and clients experience actual transformation and joy from using them.

That’s a long road.?

And one that's stood the test of time.?

I want to go deep and build out sets of products which are deeply aligned with my purpose and vision.?

And that isn’t (nor should it be) easy to do.

By taking the long road, what you’re doing compounds over time. All that determination and grit you put in, comes out in your user experience.

And it’s that, that truly separates you from the herd.?

The experience, wonder and joy of products that have the stood the test of time.

Creating a genuine human experience. Over time.

Thomas Edison famously said - "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." "There's a better way to do - Find it." "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." "If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."

So here are a few of my learnings of dealing with the long way of doing things and why it’s important to me.

Mental preparation?

Going this route isn’t easy. It requires a thick skin and some serious focus.

Morning Walks - They say own the morning, own the day.?

And I know it's true. Carving out some time for yourself first thing is probably the most important thing you can do.

It give me time and space to actually process how my day will go. Map things out in my head and maybe let go of some of my preconceptions of how my day should go.

Do focused time

I have a little focus app I use called Focus Traveller. I set 30 minute sprints and do deep work such as content writing or sales conversations/ nurturing. I find it really helpful to block out the noise. Combine that with focus modes on iOS and Mac OSX and you can really get a lot done.

Habits

Create good habits - Content should be one of them. Creating and embedding small, sustainable log terms habits is what gets you too the long tail goal quicker than you’ll realise.

Listen to your customers.

Really and I mean REALLY listen to them. Get as much feedback as you can from them. Ask why they bought from you, what was good and more importunely bad about your offer or service. Ask them to fill out questionnaires and incentivise them.

Look after them and they’ll be much more likely to open up and be honest.

Building something awesome is a continuous feedback loop of improvement and reiteration that can take years.

Build the best possible things you can.

Test, reiterate, improve and take a long hard good look at what doesn't work and be prepared to see what you can throw out (be merciless with that). And be open and honest enough to admit what’s missing. This can be hard at first. Especially if you’re like me. I have poured literally all of myself into my products and services (which I’ll talk about in a minute). So get an objective third party, someone you trust who can be brutally honest with you. For me it's my wife. She never sugar coats it and will tell me EXACTLY what I don't want to hear.

Which is gold as far as I’m concerned.?

Cooper - We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.

The economy of YOU

I have a theory that over the coming decade. The entrepreneurs who will win, are the ones that infuse WHO they are with WHAT they do. Almost at a DNA like level. This creates a?set of products and services that are uniquely you.

I believe this so much (and heck I’m building my business this way) ?that I’m including a chapter on it in my new book.

Understanding who you are and what you stand for and what makes your story unique and infusing that with what you do creates alchemical gold dust which is literally impossible for a competitor to replicate. It's almost like a digital fingerprint.?

I guess what I’m doing in a way is telling my story on a large enough scale that i'm infusing myself with it. So that my children can see it in everything I do. It’s my way of me showing them who I am, rather than telling them.

A bit like realising that we are all made of the same stuff as the stars.

"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."? ― Carl Sagan

I guess what I’m trying to say in a roundabout way, is don't forget who you are. The real beauty of building a business is in the moments of slow growth and the hard work. That’s really where you find yourself.

And that’s really where you’ll make an impact. The cosmos and time is bigger than we will ever know. So surrender to it and stop trying to move faster than you need to.

Live in the moment as much as you can and eventually you’ll make your mark on the universe. Just give it time. You have more than you realise.?

Thanks for reading.

Dr Brand - Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.