This week's book: "Beyond Belief" by Nir Eyal and Julie Li.
"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
Marcus Aurelius
One of my favorite ideas in this week's book is what Eyal calls the third power: agency. The first two are attention and anticipation, and he and Julie Li do a great job bringing each one to life with real stories and research.
Agency is the belief that you can influence the direction of your own life. It's choosing action over excuses and taking responsibility for what happens next. That one resonated with me.
Years ago, I had the chance to help start a commodity brokerage firm. Looking back, I didn't have the experience I thought I needed. I didn't have every answer. Honestly, I had very few. But I decided to move forward anyway.
That was agency. And I wasn't just taking ownership of my own career, I was taking responsibility for helping other people build theirs.
My first step was admitting my inexperience to the group that would become the core of the firm. They could see I didn't have the usual background. But they needed to know one thing: I would always be honest with them, and I would do everything I could to help them succeed. The way I saw it, I worked for them, not the other way around.
Over the next couple of years, I learned, adapted, and solved problems as they came. It became one of the most rewarding chapters of my career. It's easy to look at people who've succeeded and assume they had a perfect plan. Most didn't. I sure didn't. I made plenty of mistakes and had more bad ideas than good ones. But I kept moving, kept communicating, and kept learning.
I wasn't successful because I had all the answers. I was successful because I took responsibility for finding them.
One thing to try today
Don't wait until you feel completely ready. Pick one thing you've been putting off for lack of certainty, and take the next step anyway. Learn from it, then take another.
Where in your life could you exercise a little more agency today? Hit reply, I read every one.
I'll go first: mine is this newsletter. I didn't know if anyone would read it. I decided that wasn't the point, and started writing.
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Talk tomorrow,
Mike
Practical wisdom for the life you're building