Last week, the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 was awarded to Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian women’s rights activist and former vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) organization. She has been arrested 13 times, convicted 5 and been sentenced to a total of 31 years in jai, all in service of championing women’s rights.
She once wrote from behind bars for the New York Times: “What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”
I found myself pondering the question “If I won a nobel prize, what would it be for?”
The story goes that Alfred Nobel, a prominent Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist, most widely known for his invention of dynamite, was accidentally obituarized by a french newspaper when his brother Ludwig died.
While his inventions had mostly been used in mining and other civilian activities, the obituary allegedly stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort (“The merchant of death is dead”), and went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”
On reading this damning report on his life, Nobel was so appalled that he would be remembered this way, that he left almost his entire fortune to found the Nobel Prize, which would annually recognize those who “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
So let me ask you.
What do you want to be written in the newspapers about you in your obituary?
What do you want your children to say about you at your funeral?
What’s your big idea that could win a nobel prize?
Can you imagine yourself standing on that stage?
And finally…
How committed are you to the legacy you want to leave?
Living an exponential life
I recently watched an amazing show on Netflix called ‘Undercover Billionaire’.
In the first series, Glenn Stearns, with a net worth of over $2 billion, was dropped into Erie, Pennsylvania. He was given $100 cash, a mobile phone with no contacts, and a beat up old truck, and his goal was to build a million dollar business, from the ground up, in just 90 days.
He bet himself a million dollars of his own money that he could do it, without using any of the influence, reputation or contacts from his 30 year career building one of the top 5 private lending companies in the US.
He started by finding old truck tires to sell. Then a car, and a second car. He used the proceeds to put a down payment on a house, and flipped it to raise startup capital for a barbecue restaurant and online shop.
One of the things that amazed me about it was that until day 89, the business was worth $0. By then, Stearns had a team of people working for him, almost none of whom had been paid a cent, all wondering who this crazy guy was who showed up in Erie wanting to take over the world, and feeling frustrated that they were working so hard and so fast they could hardly keep up. The restaurant opened on Day 90, the very last day of the challenge, and on that first day of business, an evaluator valued the business at $750,000.
If you haven’t watched that show, I highly recommend it.
One of the most challenging aspects of being a visionary leader driving big change is that most of the time, it can feel like you’re standing still.
You see, most people are willing to live an incremental and predictable life, a small salary increase each year, working hard to afford a bigger house next time, creating predictable, incremental results.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, in fact if everyone was a visionary we wouldn’t get very far! But there are some people who think exponentially. They don’t want to increase their impact by five or ten percent. They shoot for the stars.
I attended a talk by an event producer the other day. For the last 20 years he has been putting on huge parties for Halloween and New Years Eve, the biggest of which sells over 10,000 tickets.
The crazy thing? He knows, every year, that 50% of the tickets won’t sell until the last 2 weeks. When he launches the campaign 4 months out, he knows he is on track if he’s selling one or two tickets a week.
For three and a half months he does the work, holding onto the hope that those last two weeks will make it all worthwhile. For an event that has been running successfully for 20 years.
Living an exponential life often looks like nothing is happening. You’re not seeing any results. You’re putting in the work, but nothing is coming back. Meanwhile those who are living an incremental life seem to be pulling ahead.
The thing about being on an exponential curve is that you look ahead at what seems like an unending vertical cliff of challenge, but when you look behind you it seems like nothing has been achieved.
It’s easy to get frustrated at the lack of results, to give in and give up, to hang your head in shame and return to the safety of an incremental life…or you stay committed, because you KNOW it will pay off in the end.
And then BAM! Suddenly your family, friends, and the world are bemused by your ‘overnight’ success.
Big Magic
So let’s talk about that big idea of yours again.
My partner and I went on a trip this summer to Nelson, a tiny town of just 14,000 people, nestled on Kootenay Lake in the interior of BC.
It’s a gorgeous little town with a real sense of community, a bustling social scene and some pretty strong hippie vibes. We did our grocery shopping at the Kootenay Co-op, one of the best supermarkets or grocery stores I’ve ever been to, with its focus on local and organic produce. Seeing the quality of the food available there, I was struck (again!) by the insight that Squamish, my hometown, seriously lacks in that department, and we started playing with the idea of starting a “Sea to Sky Co-op”, that could champion local producers and provide access to high quality, reasonably priced food for the people in Squamish who I know would love it.
It seemed like a crazy idea, and something I have no experience in, but I did some research into what a co-op is, how to start one, and looked into some of the local farms that we might be able to collaborate with.
But after a while, I started to think that, while a great opportunity, it was probably a distraction from what I’m really here to do. And I let the idea go.
A few weeks later, it was announced that a new concept grocery store is opening in Squamish next year. Its focus will be local, organic produce, and in a press release the president of the company said “We understand the importance of our local communities and becoming an integrated part of the places we call home.”
In a lot of ways, its the same idea that I didn’t act on.
In her book, Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert Talks about ideas as living entities with a consciousness of their own. She imagines that they exist among us, as do the plants, other animals, and all the energies that make up our reality. Ideas, she says, have but one desire, to be expressed in the world, and the only way they have of doing that, is by partnering with a human collaborator.
She writes: “I believe that inspiration will always try its best to work with you, but if you are not ready or available it may indeed choose to leave you and to search for a different human collaborator…this is how it comes to pass that you open the newspaper one day and discover that someone else has written your book, or directed your play, or released your record…or founded your business, or launched your restaurant, or patented your invention.”
Maybe you’ve had an experience like it? I know I’ve had more than I can count.
She lists examples of the same thing happening in her own life, and the lives of others, while noting that if you commit to an idea, make a contract with it, and don’t let it out of your sight for a moment, then the idea might partner with you in which case you get to keep it.
In the science world, it’s known as ‘multiple discovery’ whenever two or more scientists in different parts of the world come up with the same idea at the same time. Gilbert lists Calculus, oxygen, black holes, the mobius strip, the existence of the stratosphere, and the theory of evolution as just a few examples of multiple discoveries.
What does this have to do with your big idea?
Well, it’s very likely that you’re not the only one who has it. It’s possible, just like I and countless others have experienced, that one day in the future you’ll wake up and find that someone else acted where you hesitated, and your vision became theirs.
So the only question is this…
…are you ready to commit?
Plus… Whenever you’re ready… here are 3 more ways I can help you knock 2023 out of the park as an adventure full of possibility.
1. Join ALTITUDE… It’s my facebook community of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I’d love to see you there. Join now
2. Game Changers. New for 2024, if you’re here to create BIG impact and create systemic change, or even win a Nobel Prize…THIS is the community for you!
3. Individual coaching. I have ONE spot open for the right person. If you are operating in the unknown, spiritually and/or professionally, creating something that doesn’t exist yet, and would like some help with that, then we should have a conversation. Make 2024 your best year ever…