PROMISES, ACCOUNTABILITY. CAPABILITY, MISERY. - 009

what is so great about the cytosol what is so great about entrepreneurship is you can become infinitely capable without constraints because of the education opportunities of today given to us by the internet thanks to the internet you can learn you can become literally a PhD in almost anything almost anything I've built many startups muscle than the fan so bitcoin is exactly the place that I like to be we're gonna end it right there [Music] today I would like to talk with you guys about promises accountability capability in misery whoa what are you talking about Peter promises accountability capability and misery and I came about this particular topic and the reason is is because I have been promised things in the past have you have you ever been promised something in your past they promised you something they told you that they would deliver on this

promise they you assumed them to be truthful you assumed it to work out you assumed that they would do right by you they promised didn't they I think all of us everyone listening has been in a position where a promise has been broken and sometimes deeply broken and deeply wounding sometimes these promises are of the most insidious nature in terms of how they are broken and I don't need to go that far to let your own imagination run wild with this particular idea and I certainly don't want you to be in a context where you're thinking about this whole time where you're thinking about a promise that has been broken for you forget about it for just a second I want you to focus on you and the promises you make or the promises that I make and I want to talk about this this

cycle now this is something that I have talked about in my previous life as a consultant to large companies is this promise accountability capability and misery cycle the promises accountability capability and misery cycle now the reason why it was this is one of those exercises and this is one of those exercises that I facilitate with leadership at at large companies is is this is one of those exercises that I created born out of my own frustration of being an engineer at a fortune 50 company in my early early days I did experience corporate slavery I was there clocking in clocking out sitting in the grey cubicles wondering where I'm gonna be eating lunch at and wondering what my homies are over in the marketing department are doing what's up man do I remember you bruh back in the days Mehcad m9d CEO corporate slave in

the 90s and so this is born out of out of out of a cycle that I had experienced as an engineer and that I was often required to give commitments promises dates in which things needed to be completed and thereby putting me immediately into accountability and responsibility for the often pressured promise to make a date or to complete something in which I knew even as a young child at a fortune 50 company I said you should see me maybe I could have said young man but I was a child and who in their first job ever knows what they're doing all I knew what was I could code right and so they're asking me to promise things there's there's no way that I could know like haha when are you gonna finish this complex functions like well 15 minutes and so this forced promised cycle

child at a fortune 50 company I said you should see me maybe I could have said young man but I was a child and who in their first job ever knows what they're doing all I knew what was I could code right and so they're asking me to promise things there's there's no way that I could know like haha when are you gonna finish this complex functions like well 15 minutes and so this forced promised cycle that was forced into that gets me into having to be accountable and being responsible for what I promised always put me in a rough spot because promises make you accountable like that's the problem and a problem is the another problem with promises is that they're weak they're just words they're really just words and and to be accountable to words I mean that's where my mind began to

wander more it's what is this thing called a promise like maybe I should define this thing so of course going to the DuckDuckGo I typed in promise Devine : promise and what did I come up with a declaration assuring that he or she will or will not do something a declaration assuring that someone will or will not do something or a vow the second entry which is so funny on dr. go was an example of the unkept political promises I mean ain't that the truth ain't that the truth now we all need to talk about politics but look have we not been sold the same bill of goods over and over and over and over again has not the generation previous have they not been awoken to the point where they would remind the younger generation that this is a clown Fiesta of a political

world and that nothing that anyone says that's coming out of that boob tube nothing they say is true nothing they say is actually going to happen because the promises are just words it's week there's nothing to it and and the accountability therefore by if it's just words is week promises Doudna do not ever do not ever replace the need for real preparation and real capability that's the third part promises accountability capability misery this is the cycle that I taught and told to leadership and executives you force an engineer developer to make a promise they are accountable to that promise as they continue to break that promise right it'll be demoralizing but even more so is if they thirdly aren't capable to do their job effectively then they become miserable that's the cycle the cycle is that an engineer let relive this with me guys relive

this with me in my context my previous context right an engineer is forced to make a promise on a date in which he cannot truly know he is therefore responsible and accountable to that date but he's also doesn't have the capability to meet those dates often because of organization organizational constraints human constraints systems constraints or maybe an independent individual capability issue maybe he doesn't have the capability and there's a lot of reasons why and when you are accountable and you are not capable you end up being miserable that's what I want you guys to think about today if that is where you are in life if you are in one of those positions in which you are constantly don't going through this cycle of I kind of have to promise a date I kind of have to be accountable to this thing that I made

and there's a lot of reasons why and when you are accountable and you are not capable you end up being miserable that's what I want you guys to think about today if that is where you are in life if you are in one of those positions in which you are constantly don't going through this cycle of I kind of have to promise a date I kind of have to be accountable to this thing that I made up out of my ass and I don't really know because of the due to the complexities of the system and to the complexities of the culture and due to the complexities of this organization as a whole I mean how the hell do I really know well you know what I've been somewhat forced to make a promise there therefore I'm counting and responsible but I don't fully have

the capabilities to do my job effectively because of Janice because of Joe because of Steve because of Peter and because of these organizational systems and organizational processes that are so frustrating and so some optimized and so terrible in nature that there is no way in hell that I have the capability to meet the promise that I made and now like I do usually am I am miserable because I have made a promise I was accountable to I did not have the capability to fulfill that promise and I am miserable you see this is often the cycle not at all the time but this is often the cycle that engineers in large corporations struggled with and for 12 years for 12 years as a consultant I spent time working with organization has helped helping them understand the plight of engineers so that we could reduce organizational

deficiencies reduce organizational process issues reduce organizational dysfunction so that the IT the information technology the development group could be a value add to the organization not a cost center to the organization and you say well Peter then is utterly depressing that you've just revealed to me a powerful cycle thank you for reminding me of the cycle that I'm in no that's not where I want you to be one of the number one reasons why individuals within large organizations are not capable of fulfilling the promises that they've been forced to make and thereby become miserable one of the primary reasons why individuals become miserable is because they're not capable in that they are not fully resourced so that they can be capable now resourcing could be education it could be training it could be time to learn it could be mentorship internally it could be being

shadowing another individual within the company so that they can learn quicker there's so many ways to increase capability within an organization but the organization being as it is often become so focused on the end goals that it forgets the education necessary the preparation necessary the learning necessary to be capable to effectively build create do this new strategy tactic program initiative of the organization one of the greatest things one of the greatest things that I have found and this is I hope this is an encouragement to those that are out there those that are looking to create something new try a site house get promoted get to the next level that's what I'm asking about if you're in the position where you want to get to the next level and you don't want to be in the cycle of forced promises accountability you know lack of

things one of the greatest things that I have found and this is I hope this is an encouragement to those that are out there those that are looking to create something new try a site house get promoted get to the next level that's what I'm asking about if you're in the position where you want to get to the next level and you don't want to be in the cycle of forced promises accountability you know lack of capability and then being miserable in a stuck position what I would ask you to think about is where can I become capable where can I grow what is something that I am naturally drawn to what is something that I'm naturally good at what is something that naturally piques my interest so that I have enough energy it may be just enough momentum to become more capable in that

area now for those that are listening you'll see that on what I'm really asking you to do is to take one more step towards something to growing yourself one more step to growing yourself and I hope tomorrow you'll take another step you see one of the biggest frustrations of Corporate America is the fact not the fact that you are forced to be and make promises and have accountability of those promises because because we've made so many of those promises is a corporate America that we are no longer we are immune to the negative effects of this promise accountability issue the real issue are the last two steps capability and misery right if you aren't capable an organization you become miserable because you're constrained all the time you cannot do what you've been tasked or asked to do what is so great about the cytosol what

is so great about entrepreneurship is you can become infinitely capable without constraints because of the education opportunities of today given to us by the Internet thanks to the Internet you can learn you can become literally a PhD in almost anything almost anything yeah right you literally can you can go deep in whatever you want and thereby making you more capable you see forget the promises forget the account forget the misery you won't have misery when you're extremely capable and and if you're if you're ridiculously like high performing capability I mean then the misery only comes when you don't win the Stanley Cup when you don't win the trophy because you're so proficient or so it's okay you're ridiculously capable your ultra capable but most of us will never get to that ultra capability where we're or gives us to the point where we can you

know have trophies in these types of things but what we can have is a level of mastery of capability so that it can begin creating income and so if you're in a corporate system or promisses accountability capability and misery a lack of capability and misery because you're constrained consider where can you begin becoming more capable what's an interest that you have what's something that where you can spend a little bit more time invest a little bit more time what do you improve that one step that one percent every day don't promise yourself because remember promises are cheap go and do it let me know in the comments what you're doing [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] spend a little bit more time invest a little bit more time what do you improve that one step that one percent every day don't promise yourself

because remember promises are cheap go and do it let me know in the comments what you're doing [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]