My father (Big Al) has a favorite saying: “One of the secrets to success is to not let the shit-birds get you down.”
A shit-bird is someone that flutters overhead and drops negativity bombs.
He picked up this little gem at boot camp in the early 1960s; and he passed it along to me in the late 1980s.
I was a junior in high school, working as a bank teller.
This was before ATMs. So, at night, after the branch closed, the kids would work the drive-through windows.
During the holidays it was your worst nightmare. The line of cars would stretch down the street for hours.
By the time the customers arrived at the window, everyone was pissed off — and nasty.
One terrible evening, my drawer was off by $25, and I had to spend three hours tracking down the mistake. I got home at 11 o’clock totally exhausted; and I had school the next day.
I told my father that I was going to quit.
Big Al told me that quitting was not an option.
If I could learn to deal with shit-birds (like he’d learned in boot camp), I’d have a skill worth way more than the $5 an hour I was getting paid by the bank.
Our strategy was that when people got nasty, I’d match their negative energy with equal amounts of positive energy.
They’d get angry. I’d be really happy.
They’d blame. I’d apologize and tell them I totally understood.
They’d yell. I’d by magnanimous.
It became a game. I enlisted my friends at the branch. We started a betting pool to see who landed the worst customer.
And . . . we went from being really unhappy to laughing so hard we would fall to the ground.
It’s been over 30 years since I was a bank teller, and Big Al was right: “One of the secrets to success is to not let the shit-birds get you down.”
Oh . . . and make sure you tip well. People who do service jobs don’t get paid nearly enough to deal with all the assholes.
In the days before Jackson (my first child) was born, I was super anxious.
I remember reaching out to my friend, Jim Filkins. I worked for Jim when I was in college. He was a home builder, he paid well (and in cash), and it gave me the opportunity to learn construction.
Jim ended up becoming much more than a boss. He was a mentor and father figure. And, he was an incredible dad to his son Wes.
I reached out to Jim because I needed someone to tell me that I wasn’t going to screw up my kids.
On the call, Jim asked me to remember my first real high school crush.
I did.
He asked to remember how I felt so powerfully in love; and how it was totally out of control.
I did.
He told me that what I’d feel for my children would be 100x more powerful.
It has been.
I still catch rushes of the Dad buzz 14 years and three children later.
Successful people don’t just ride out the Dip. They don’t just buckle down and survive it. No, they lean into the Dip. They push harder, changing the rules as they go. Just because you know you are in the Dip doesn’t mean you have to live with it happily. Dips don’t last quite as long when you whittle at them.
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin
It’s been seven months since my office (and my kids’ school) went remote.
Humans are NOT meant to live like this. We are social animals. We are meant to be part of a community.
For the first several months of COVID isolation I definitely experienced the Dip.
While I love my team at ViacomCBS, 6 to 10 hours per day of Zoom calls with the same 30 to 40 people had really drained the color out of my work-life.
On the other hand, one thing I’ve learned over the past 30 years is that Dips can become the foundation (or base building period) of your next great phase of growth.
This blog post is about how I’ve leaned into the dip . . . and what I’m doing to turn my focus onto reconstruction, transformation and growth in a virtual world.
I’ve been blessed to lead a life (and career) that is about ideas — and execution of those ideas at scale.
What really motivates me is to be engaged in the pursuit of breakthrough ideas. I’m at my best when I’m obsessed with solving a problem . . . and I’m waking up at 3 AM to frantically write down the thoughts and insights that have arisen from my subconscious.
One of the models I’ve held up for myself to try to emulate is Jim Clark as described in Michael Lewis’s 1999 book on the founding of Netscape, The New New Thing.
Source: The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis
Early in the COVID Dip, I couldn’t find the gear that would get me energetically pursuing new ideas. I felt like I was just surviving; and not growing.
To begin to whittle my way up and above the plateau, I started to follow a process I developed back in 2018.
In April of that year, I exited Time Inc. I’d spent five years as part of the leadership team. We’d spun-off the business from Time Warner, led an IPO, positioned the company for a digital future, and then sold the company to Meredith Corp.
It was a natural end to that chapter of my career, and a great thing for me.
It was also the first time I’d taken a break in 23 years.
After a few months of rest, I started studying transitions. I read everything I could get my hands on. The three books that had the greatest impact on me were What Color is Your Parachute, The Start-Up of You and The War of Art.
What I learned from these books and being on the “outside” of the game for the first time in my career was that there was real power in defining where you want to go, reaching out to your network, and asking for help.
During that transition, I had hundreds of meetings and calls. I would tell my story, tell where I needed help, and ask if they or someone they knew could provide some insight or guidance. It became very clear to me that I had to forgo my normal stoicism of everything being perfect in my life, and I had to ask for help.
What was amazing was that as I went through that process, I grew to feel the clearest I’d ever felt in my life about my path and my course.
As I approached the end, I knew exactly where I needed to go; and I was totally focused on finding how to get there. I was totally in gear.
Let me be clear that I’m not looking for a new job. That’s not what this is about. In fact, for the record, I love the people I work with and I’m super grateful for the ViacomCBS platform.
However, during COVID I lost so many of the social tools in my arsenal that I’ve used to get inspired and motivated.
I believe this isolation is cutting us off from the creative forces of collaboration and from our allies. For me, it’s gotten really hard to tap into that infinite intelligence of my network.
So, here is exactly what I’ve done over the past several months to get back in gear.
#1 – Define where you want to go. Start writing.
In the early days of COVID, I saved a blank PowerPoint presentation, and I just started creating slides — pulling ideas from the air.
At first it was a toxic waste dump. My first really great idea was that buying a new motorcycle would help.
BMW R 1250 GS Adventure
Eventually, I realized that a motorcycle was an escape from my discontent; not the solution. Also, if I left my wife home to remote school our three kids while I rode the Canada-Alaska Highway, I’d probably just need to stay in Alaska. So, I didn’t buy the bike.
Canada-Alaska Highway
But, the process of creating slides really helped me to clarify and understand what was happening. Pieces of my mosaic started to come into focus.
I also went back and refreshed my goals and objectives. The best approach I’ve found is Warren Buffett’s Two List Strategy.
Source: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
#2 – Ask for Help. Reach out to friends and be real with them.
My next step was to work with a friend to bring together a COVID-remote-Zoom networking group. We meet monthly, and it’s an opportunity to connect and share ideas.
In our inaugural meeting, I talked about my COVID dip. I asked them to be a forcing function for me. And, I shared five different ideas that had come out of my PowerPoint dumping ground.
By sharing those ideas with that group, and committing to report back on my progress in a month, I’ve gotten super motivated.
I’ve also begun an experiment to create a virtual network of insights and creativity through Twitter (@jaisonblair), which I believe can be one of the most powerful learning and networking machines on the planet today (as long as you can ignore all the vitriol and hate).
#3 – Sit your butt in the chair and do the work.
Reconstruction and transformation are not an action item on a todo list. They are the bi-product of a daily practice of exploration, experimentation and testing.
This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Stephen Pressfield
What’s worked for me over the past two months of isolation is that I get up about three hours before everyone else in my family. I refer to this as my Deep Work time. I set the timer on my iPhone, I put on a great Spotify playlist or album (see recommendations below), and I complete 60-minute sprints of intense focus.
This process of writing and creating content for a manufactured audience (i.e., my network or Twitter) has become a major source of motivation, because I’m once again chasing ideas and inspiration.
Also, it feels great to be a novice again. I’m enjoying the thrill of being back on the learning curve.
The Dip as Base Building Period.
In investing, there is the concept of a stock (or market) forming a base before breaking out to new highs. And, that a sell-off (or dip) is the left side of that base.
I’ve been investing for 30 years, and I’ve taught myself to get excited when the market is selling off. Because it’s creating an entirely new set of opportunities.
My view is that we need to figure out how to get ourselves really excited by the COVID dip — because it’s potentially the foundation of our next big phase of growth. My hope and expectation is that by following these steps, I’ll be able to emerge from this period having grown and transformed.
I’d love to hear from you. Please let me know what you think; and please connect with me on Twitter @jaisonblair and subscribe to this newsletter.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
Jaison – October 10, 2020
PS – While I’ve written this post (primarily between 4 AM to 7 AM), I’ve been inspired by the following albums:
