How do I grow?
Two key questions that helped me navigate a better life: How do I grow and how do I manage risk?
Heavily influenced by my experience in tech, my initial vision was growing careers just like we grow Products.
Conversion Hotel, Texel, Netherlands, 2022.
Grow your career like you grow a product
We work tirelessly on growth models for our companies, focusing on creating sustainable, predictable, and defensible tactics to ensure lasting success.
Yet when it comes to our careers, we let luck and intuition guide our decision-making process.
If we are evaluating ourselves as a product or business, we are either terrible or absent, CEOs who hold our career decision-making process to a lower standard.
It's part of my playbook mapping business model canvas, growth loops, and value propositions, so I challenged myself to use these tools for more clarity in the roadmap of life.
Back in Sopot, Q2 2021 Think Week, the first holistic flywheel was created, to visualize the steps, and understand how my actions connect and compound.
From Think Week Q4 2022 ft. Alicante
The Flywheel effect is a concept developed in the book Good to Great.
No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or a life worth living, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, and no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.
In my experience, these are the key activities to push the flywheel
Intentional networking, meeting in person, capturing memories, and generating opportunities.
Pay me first means managing income as an investor, cash is first invested then spent.
Use freedom to plan, get adventures, and pursue flow.
Share and give back through a Product Ecosystem.
Grow stronger, and smarter, the 1% better every day.
I review and refine this artifact every quarter. This is the 7th iteration.
Think Week Alicante, Q4 2022
The magic loop
A different version of the flywheel came to my attention years later through Lenny's interview with Ethan Evans.
During his 15 years at Amazon, Ethan helped invent Prime Video, Amazon Video, the Amazon Appstore, Prime Gaming, etc, he led global teams of over 800, holds more than 70 patents, and helped draft one of Amazon’s 14 core Leadership Principles, “Ownership.”
This framework helped him rise quickly in his career and now helps countless mentees and direct reports rise in theirs.
The games we play
Life is shaped by a series of games we play. Some are thrust upon us, others we choose.
Recognizing these games allows us to be intentional, play them more skillfully, or opt out entirely.
We are all collecting experience points and leveling up our main characters in multiple games, the career game, wealth building, status, family, etc.
Consider the roles you've adopted, the goals you pursue, and the habits you've formed. Are they aligned with your values? How are they serving your growth?
For each game, understand how to win and the rules of how to play.
1. I’m going to do the best that I can
2. To acquire the resources that I’m good at acquiring
3. To direct them to the investments that I have access
It reminds me of Robert Greene's pitch on acquiring skills.
Budapest, 2018
