🌟 Winning at Everything, 🦖 Jurassic Park Wisdom, and 💸 The Algebra of Wealth
PROGRESSION: 2025, Vol 2
A client of mine—I’ll call her Joanna—is facing a very real challenge.
Joanna wants to start a business but struggles to find the time/energy to make meaningful progress on it. Here are the challenges in front of her:
She's a busy exec and doesn't want to put less time/energy into her day job.
She's a caring parent and doesn't want to spend less time with her family.
She's healthier than she's been in years and doesn't want to spend less time on her health.
She's spiritually strong and wants to keep her relationship with God a priority.
During a recent session, I challenged her assumptions. I asked her where she could find extra time in her schedule. I asked her to rank her priorities. But it became very clear that all those things were important to her. Yes, she wants to build her business and no, she is not willing to sacrifice those other aspects.
We created a game plan and agreed on action items, but I still felt unsettled. So I shared her situation on LinkedIn and asked for feedback. Here are a few of the comments.
“Candid feedback is that all of life is tradeoffs. If she's not willing to trade anything off, then not sure she can successfully start a business.”
“Maybe she doesn’t actually want to start a business. No shade here.”
“If those 4 things are the most important to her, and she is unwilling to budge on them, then she SHOULD NOT start a business.”
What I Missed in The Unconquerable Leader
In Chapter 2, Set a Clear Vision, I share how Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods set a powerful vision for their life at a young age, then used daily reminders to remind them of who they were and what they’d accomplish. Their examples are dramatic. They each had a singular vision and rose to the highest level of their respective professions. They set a BHAG and hit their BHAG.
But what if you want to excel in multiple aspects of your life? What if you’re not just wanting to be an excellent CEO/exec/professional, but also an incredible parent and spouse? What if you want to win at work while not losing your family, faith, and health? This is where it gets more challenging. And candidly, this is what I didn’t adequately cover in my book.
And there’s a good reason for that. The reality is that it’s much easier to throw all your eggs in the “work” basket and win big. I am confident that if you’re reading this and your singular goal is to get rich and find big success at work (promotions, prestige, etc.), you’ll reach your goal.
The bigger challenge is thriving in all aspects of our lives. Or at least in the areas that are important to us. To do this, you need to think long and hard about what you truly value. You can’t write a chapter explaining how to do this. There isn’t an easy five-step process to follow. You have to put in the work and figure this out for yourself.
Defining Success for Joanna
Let’s go back to Joanna. I think the three LinkedIn comments above are very fair. It will be near impossible for Joanna to hit a grand slam in her new business if she doesn’t invest a significant amount of time in it. Life is definitely about making tradeoffs.
But in our work together, Joanna has defined her success. She knows what she values. She knows that 80-hour work weeks aren’t going to work at this stage of life. She may not build a billion dollar company in the next few years. She may not raise capital from a top-tier venture capital firm. But I’m 100% confident she’ll make major strides on her business over the next year. She’ll make hard decisions about how she spends her time. She’ll be a loving spouse and parent. She’ll prioritize her health and spirituality.
This may be one of the most challenging years of Joanna’s life. She’ll be stretched in many directions. I don’t know how she’ll make it all work, but I’m confident she’ll find a way. She’s defined her success. She has a clear vision of what she wants to accomplish and who she wants to be. And I’ll be there for her, cheering her on, every step of the way.
Invitation to act:
What tradeoffs are you making in your life right now? Did you consciously choose these tradeoffs?
How are the tradeoffs aligned/misaligned with what you value most?
What I’m Learning
I’ve been reading The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway. Galloway has become a punching bag for tech workers, and I don’t agree with a lot of what he’s said, but I love how he challenges my thinking. This book is more about how to think about money than tactics and strategies. Here are my two favorite quotes:
“Strong character is a wealth accelerant…because it’s much easier to be successful when people are rooting for you.”
“Young people seem deflated when I tell them this, but working at an organization or platform offers better risk-adjusted returns. The reason the organization exists is it can pull together resources and be greater than the sum of its parts…If you have the skills and patience to navigate the obstacles and the politics, and the maturity to endure the guaranteed injustices, you will over the medium- and long-term reap rewards.”
I recently watched Jurassic Park with my two oldest kids. I love that movie. One of my favorite memes/quotes comes from Dr. Ian Malcom: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!”
Malcolm’s quote is a warning about what could go wrong when dinosaurs are brought back from extinction.
I’ve shared his quote with several clients. I’ve personally seen many ambitious people (🙋♂️) get so fixated on whether they could do something that they don’t consider the consequences or tradeoffs of their actions. We all need to pause and decide whether we should.
Gratitudes
I’ve found power in regularly expressing gratitude so I’ll continue the habit. I’m grateful for the incredible people in my life. I feel fortunate to have close friends/family who inspire me to do better. My brother’s example prompted me to cut sweets out of my diet (I’m nine days in). A caring friend recently challenged me to make changes in how I operate my coaching business. My wife’s selfless service makes me want to be better. I’m inspired by my parents’ ability to overcome adversity with optimism. I’m grateful for these good people in my life.
If I can do anything to help you, please reach out. As always, thank you for reading.
All the best,
Nathan
Read my book, The Unconquerable Leader | Learn about coaching
If this was forwarded to you and you'd like to sign up, click here