GOOD, the ENEMY of GREAT – Don’t Be BUSY. BE VALUABLE. BE EFFECTIVE! – 041

When you focus on the good, you’ll miss the great opportunities in life. – AUDIO NSFW

I am inspired today guys to talk to you. I’m inspired today. I really am. I had a great day so far. This morning I woke up with I just had this feeling in the morning that I needed to burn it with fire. Some of you guys know exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, absolutely guys, I started the day off burning it all with fire. I started my day going to the sauna, going to the gym, and I burnt it with fire for two and a half hours exactly. 

I spent time under the scalding water, scraping everything off all the dead skin, getting rid of all the nasties, then sitting in the suffocating heat of the hot tub, and then moving from the hot tub to the freezing Arctic fucking blast in your face, you know, when everything’s dying, okay? Everything’s dying when you move from the scalding, suffocating water to the absolute Arctic freezing water. And you go in there and you start losing your breath because you’re moving from suffocating heat to absolute Arctic chill, Arctic freeze. You start like not being able to breathe because your body’s just like what is going on and so I burnt it with fire today, feeling great. After I burnt it with fire, I went out and had lunch, meatloaf and mashed potatoes with my kids at school. And then after that, I went to Trader Fucking Joe’s where I got inspired.

Today, I want to talk to you guys about good, being the enemy of great. Now, I’m sure that you guys have heard like good to great, these types of things, and good being the enemy of great. I’m sure you’ve heard this before! I’m sure you’ve heard this before. But I want to give my flavor to it and I would love for you guys to stay a while and listen. 

You see as I was at Trader Joe’s, I picked a corner. My wife was out doing her thing and I just don’t interrupt. Trader Joe’s has nothing there that I want to consume so I just I pick a corner and I just hang out. And as I was in this corner, I was watching people. I was people-watching. I don’t know why it happened today, but today was the day when as I was in that corner, I must have seen 50 easily, easily 50 women all in fuckin’ yoga pants at Trader Joe’s, fighting themselves literally fighting themselves over trying to pick out healthy foods when clearly, most of them have given up or gave up years ago, decades ago. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

Let me paint the picture if you ain’t know. We have 50, all these women walking around in yoga pants you’re clearly overweight, you’re clearly out of shape. I sat there with this one lady. I wrote this down. She was fighting herself about a 15-calorie differential between two cranberry salads that she was talking to herself. She was like I don’t know if I can eat this. This one has 295 calories. This one has 280. 

I was like fuck! Lady! You gave up! You gave up years ago! I know it feels good to mentally placate yourself and go through the entire rationalization process in feeling validated and feeling good that you’re trying to fight the good fight over a difference of 15 calories, but lady you’re fighting the wrong fight. I know you got the yoga pants and I know you spent all that money making sure that you look like you’re part of the social elite of moms who workout after they drop their kids off at expensive ass schools. But you gave up, woman, years ago! 

You gave up years ago and then as she was finishing the deliberation over a 15 calorie differential in cranberry fucking salads, she picked up two calls hours as I was standing there. One of the calls seemed like she was loud, seemed like she had to discuss some party issues and helping out with some party and the other one was some other event that she had to talk to and she was dishevelled. She was all over the place.

You know what this reminded me of as I was standing there watching the shenanigans at Trader Joe’s and all these broken ass women trying to pick out healthy food when clearly, they gave up years ago? I wrote this down in my phone. I said people are distracted from bullshit. People are distracted from bullshit! People have chosen the good which is the enemy of great. They’ve chosen good, the enemy of great. 

Are you distracted by bullshit? Do you get caught up in the nonsense of the world? Have you moved away from your sweet spot by good “good enough” things? This is what came to mind. You see everyone that’s asking for your time, everyone that’s asking for your time, guys, their agenda does not equal yours. They have different expectations of the outcome when they’re asking for your help. Their needs might be great. Their needs might be great, but their needs never need you. You’re never that required. That’s one I watched. 

That’s what I watched when I was looking at all these ladies in Trader Joe’s. This must have been just the atmosphere of the place. It just seemed like everyone there was scattered. Everyone seemed agitated. Maybe it was just me standing there watching this gaggle of women flying in and out of these doors, grabbing shit off the shelves in hoping that that would help them lose some weight or make them feel good when again, clearly, the vast majority of them gave up decades ago. 

Are you scattered? Are you scattered with a lot of activities? Have you chosen the good which is the enemy of great? You see, the problem with good is that when you focus on the good, you’ll miss the great opportunities in life. 

Are you busy? Let me take you back to my consulting times guys. I used to and if I were to get back into consultancy, I would still do it because I have no fear. That’s why people called me. Well, the reason why people called me is they know that I was one of the only and few consultants that they’ve ever met that would never bullshit them, that would never bullshit them and risk offending them, risk pissing them off, and risk losing maybe the relationship based on what I would say. 

People call me because I’m willing to tell them the real shit. You know one of the things I used to say a lot when I was a consultant, we talked about being busy, being busy. How all the employees are busy and there’s not enough productivity. There’s not enough output coming from these software development teams and these product development teams and I would ask a rhetorical question. I would say, oh, you guys are busy? Well, just because you busy, don’t mean that you’re effective. Frankly, we can go even farther. Just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you’re valuable. 

For any of you guys working in the corporate world, take this to heart. Here we go. Just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you’re valuable. Actually, I’d go even farther and I used to say this to my clients. Some of you guys are so busy at being busy that you don’t actually do anything. Let’s be intellectually honest. Some of you guys in corporate slavery, in corporate America, in the job that you hate that you’ve been there for 19 years, you’re so busy at being busy that you don’t actually produce anything of value. You’re not even valuable! You’re just a medium of meetings. You’re a medium of information in which a system could do what you’re doing far more effectively and without $100,000 salary. 

So many people are so busy at being busy, they’re actually not doing anything in life! This is when I found at least from the outside as I was standing there in Trader Joe’s, this is what I came to believe. That a lot of these women are just so busy at being busy, that not a whole lot is actually getting done. 

You see, we have to we have to resist. We have to resist the temptation to be an inch deep and a mile wide. Drill down! Drill down! Focus on something. Focus on something great. See if the challenge of drilling down deep on something brings you alive. Don’t miss this, guys. This is kind of the litmus tests for me in any new endeavor. 

As I drill down deeper in research, as I drill down deeper in understanding, as I drill down deeper in understanding the market and the opportunities that exist in this new tech or this new market, this new demographic, I’m always asking myself does this challenge of learning? And do the opportunities that emerge and do the opportunities that are presented to me in this new thing. 

Is that challenge bringing me alive? Is it activating all my cylinders? Because you know how you’re wired. You know if you’re a mature and woke adult about yourself, somewhat self-aware. You know how you’re wired. You know how you’re gifted. So stay in that lane! It’s fascinating to me how many people are just consumed by being a mile wide and they haven’t drilled down on anything and so they become nothing. They become so busy being busy that they’re not effectively doing anything. 

So here’s a question I have to ask you. This is something that is important to me as well. Is what you’re doing now bringing all of you alive? Is it bringing you alive? Is it challenging your soul? Is it creating a good tension of the unknown and the excitement of the opportunity? 

Validate. If you have friends, I don’t have that many, but if you have friends, validate what you do best with others. Get feedback from them. Ask them, hey you see me doing X, Y, & Z. Where’s the chaff? What do I not need to do? Out of all these things that I’m doing, friends, chingus, which one do you think validates me? Which one do you think brings me fully alive? 

Often, our present predicaments are results of over a commitment and inability. Isn’t that true? Isn’t our often our current predicaments simply the results of over commitment and inability? It’s not that you wanted to be unable to do that thing or unable to help, it’s that you’ve over committed yourself and that over commitment has not given you the margin nor time to effectively do that thing. And when you have an inability, when you’re not able to do something with greatness, you know what that creates? It creates anxiety and stress. 

Guys, I have enough anxiety and stress just focusing on a couple things. Lord have mercy! I would hate to have an anxiety over 9,000 things and none of them of which I do effectively or well. Don’t miss this. You can always tell when you’re not operating in the vortex of your gifts. You always know! You’re an adult. You’ve been adulting long enough. You’re grown up. You know when you’re not operating within the vortex of your gifts. 

I’ll give you an example. It’s of a world that I have a lot of interest, but I don’t talk a lot because it’s not something that any of my friends care about. It’s Formula One. I’ve been watching Formula One for decades. I love this and one of my favorite Formula One drivers is Kimi Räikkönen. He used to drive for Ferrari, kind of past his prime, but now they’ve moved him to Alfa Romeo, which is kind of like the breeding ground for the getting promoted in to Ferrari. But also Alfa Romeo is kind of in the middle of the pack of Formula cars and Formula expertise.

Kimi being closer to 40 now than his younger counterparts has been moved to Alfa Romeo. What’s great about this and about this example is Kimi is one of those types of guys who doesn’t give a fuck about anything except what he’s good at. That’s the example. This guy like if you watch his interviews, his interviews are the best because people interview him, they ask him questions and he’s just like yeah, so what, doesn’t matter, don’t care, I need to do this. He’s so hyper focused on who he is and what he is good at that he just deal with the chaff and one of the things that I loved about his transition from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo is in Alfa Romeo, he can do exactly what he’s good at, which to just be a great and consistent driver. 

He doesn’t need the politics of the upper echelon of Formula companies like Redbull and Mercedes.He doesn’t need that shit. He’s too old for that shit. He’s going to team Alfa Romeo that understands that he just wants to stay in his lane. He’s an old man now. He’s not 19 years old. He’s not 20 years old. He’s an old man. He stays in his lane. And he knows when he’s not operating within the vortex of his gifts. He knows he needs to stay in the lane here. That’s where he does his best work. 

How do you know? How do you know when you’re not operating in the vortex of your gifts, the focal point of what you’re best at? Because well, how do you know? Well, it’s easy. I wrote it down here. 

Because good and worthy activities become chores and they are eventually despised. Is that not the truth? Is that not the truth? Is that when you’re not operating within your greatest gift? When you’re not operating in your greatest gifts, your greatest strengths, even the good and worthy activities that are often, maybe sometimes, required become chores and they eventually become despised by you because they’re not what you’re the best at. 

You end up being haunted that something is off, something is wrong. You’re not fully alive. You’re not fully running on all the 12 cylinders. You’re not fully there. You’re not fully engaged mentally, physically spiritually in this endeavor. So find replacements. Find placements. This is one of the things that that I have had to learn as a business builder in start-ups. It’s my job because I’m self-aware enough, my job is to find replacements for me as the company matures and grows because I don’t have the strengths. I don’t have the giftings to take it to the next levels where it needs to be. 

I’m a zero to one start-up entrepreneur. I’m a visionary. I’m a product guy, which means I like to build new shit, lay first brick, build it up to a level of sustainability, and then I want to build something else. I want to try something else, hand it off to someone who can take it from a small and medium company and I hope they’re mature enough when it grows to a medium company that they will find someone else to grow it to a large company. I am a zero to one entrepreneur. I need to stay in my lane because I get bored and the great things are the good things become despised by me. 

You know, others admire and rejoice when you are at your best, when you’re great. Don’t let the good, which is the enemy of the great, distract you. Others admire. They want to work with people who are great. They want to work with people who are at their best. Position yourself to excel in your clearest strength. Position yourself to excel in your clearest strength. Have courage and faith to say no to good people and even good things! They’re good, but they’re not great! 

Mature people will understand when you say no. Mature people will understand when you say, hey, that must be really great for you, but for me it’s just good. And I’m not down with good. I only want great for me because your agenda is different than mine. Yeah, you might think you need my help, but you don’t need my help. Because if you need my help, well, then you’re making a poor decision because I’m just gonna be good at it. You need someone that’s great at it. 

Don’t miss the opportunities because you’re picking up all the goods. Stop picking up the goods. Focus on the one great thing and be excellent at it. Here’s the thing, if you’re ever worried about it, you know what I found in life? The good always ends up taking care of itself. Let me repeat that. The good in life, the good opportunities in life, the good things, they always end up taking care of themselves. It’s the great things for you that require you and only you, no one else. 

There’s only gonna be a few great opportunities in life. Let’s be intellectually honest. Man, life is so short! Now, I’ve only lived half of life, so I don’t know the full story yet, but just play with me here. Track with me here. I believe that there’s only going to be a few, maybe less than two hands, maybe less than ten opportunities in life for great things for you, great things. Things that are life-changing, trajectory changing, history changing, family tree changing, world changing. There’s only gonna be a few of those for you. There really are. 

There’s gonna be a thousand good things, a thousand, millions of good things, but the good things always take care of themselves. The good things always take care of themselves and don’t let this good opportunities in life be the enemy of the great opportunities that you could miss. I’ll tell you again why. The great opportunities, the greatness, the great opportunities of life, they require you. And if you’re not ready, if you’re not listening, if your eyes aren’t open, your ears aren’t to the ground listening for those great opportunities, those life-changing opportunities because you’re so filled up to capacity being busy, being worthless, doing lots of good shit, then you’re gonna miss the great. 

So here’s the question. What good do you need to remove so that you can prepare and open for the great? 

This is Peter, the Bitcoin Lambo. If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to subscribe, smash the like button, and please do send this to someone in your network who you think might need it. Have a great day, guys.