Brewed From Within

Linear

We default to linear thinking in an exponential universe. If linear thinking is status quo, opportunity awaits those who augment their work through an exponential perspective.

When signals of traction, product-market-fit, and lasting momentum emerge, seek to understand how each part of your business affects the overall system. This awareness helps us to understand and optimize what must continue to work. This alertness also leads to stability that tempts most to coast along a linear path, but the goal is not more of the same. While it’s important to respect past success, such nostalgia does not guarantee the same results within a neon future characterized by constant change.

As discussed in the Community chapter of You Don’t Need This Book, the most accessible way to go beyond our own linear capabilities is through community. The collisions of so much unknown capacity is how community allows us all to do more with less. As we invest time into accelerating others, our generosity, curiosity, initiative, and adaptability activate diversified trust channels. Fresh feedback from more perspectives then rewards a willingness to experiment.

When we apply integrity long-term, the combination of new variables formulates an exponential equation. New opportunities emerge, with less activities that trade time for money. As we rent less time to others, our capacity grows. Each time we find a new gear, the system unfolds to release personal bandwidth, and the rising slope of impact, sense of peace, and happiness is set free to rapidly ascend.

Converting a slope of work from linear to exponential is not done all at once. Fortunately, we play for 80 hours to avoid working 40, and the creative spirit is nourished by a peculiar lack of routine. As we find more ways to earn with our mind and not our time, The Headline Trap will remain a distraction. This makes it easy to assume it takes luck, but we make our own luck with every action.

Extra Shot

Work Hard = Get Smarter

Learn to maintain what works, then build non-linear lines betwixt time and revenue by feeding new ideas, talent, collisions, and experiences into the system.

Brewed From Within
#63 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Decisions

When questions linger, they get heavier. Paralysis can even set in, especially when a decision feels important.

Ambition fades and holding desire invites unhappiness until a future state is achieved. Thinking through the idea maze, strategic planning, and talking tactics is wise, but mental jams are usually not from a lack of choices, but instead, too many. Thoroughly consider the options, then maintain momentum by simply making each decision.

Extra Shot

The best decision is the one you make.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Big or small, a fear of making the wrong decision is ever present. Fortunately, while life or death decisions do occur, most of the time, a wrong decision only requires resources to make it right. Poor decision-making adds up, but if it’s just one decision that’s part of a longer sequence, even slight missteps can move us closer to where we want to be.

Brewed From Within
#50 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Goodnight Moon

Star parties assemble people who are curious about the cosmos. Let’s set the scene. Imagine a remote place with dark skies and very little light pollution. Each campsite includes 1–3 telescopes. The astronomy equipment ranges from homemade to expensive. There are scopes made for visual observations and others geared for astrophotography.

Extra Shot
Explore my cosmic creations.

Daylight is relaxing, but the heavenly show starts as the sun begins to set and the first observations kickoff an evening of exploration. Tonight, our first stop is our own setting moon. From there, we spin the scopes to target a transitory comet. Planets in our solar system are next, then we go deeper. Globular clusters form dimensional shapes, with distant galaxies that look like eraser marks on black paper. The Milky Way can be seen all night, as constellations help star gazers navigate the rotating sky.

Space is for everyone, and astronomy makes everything feel small. Star parties remind us how we are all weird. Not an alienating type of weird, a wonderful weird that bonds people who care about anything together.

Brewed From Within
#106 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Real Skills

Talent is natural.
Skills are learned.

Instead of abstracting, even nerfing the value of what makes us indispensable by using terms like soft skills or power skills, “real skills” invite the new reality. Knowledge, action, and persistence are still required, but real skills help us connect, communicate, and collaborate as we pursue peculiar work fueled by significance in our connected era.

As Seth Godin writes about, real skills help students, founders, intrapreneurs, and people-centric organizations activate humans working toward shared understandings. This updated term removes the optional vibes out of subtle superpowers that help us go beyond the status quo. To close his 2023 manifesto for teams, The Song of Significance, Godin shares this working encyclopedia of categorized real skills.

SELF-CONTROL

Adaptability to changing requirements
Agility in the face of unexpected obstacles
Alacrity and the ability to start and stop quickly
Authenticity and consistent behavior
Bouncing back from failure
Coach-ability and the desire to coach others
Collaborative mindset
Compassion for those in need
Competitiveness
Conscientiousness in keeping promises
Customer service passion
Eagerness to learn from criticism
Emotional intelligence
Endurance for the long haul
Enthusiasm for the work
Ethics even when not under scrutiny
Etiquette
Flexibility
Friendliness
Honesty
Living in balance
Managing difficult conversations
Motivated to take on new challenges
Passionate
Posture for forward motion
Purpose
Quick-wittedness
Resilience
Risk-taking
Self-awareness
Self-confidence
Sense of humor
Strategic thinking taking priority over short-term gamesmanship
Stress management
Tolerance of change & uncertainty

PRODUCTIVITY

Attention to detail
Crisis management skills
Decision-making with effectiveness
Delegation for productivity
Diligence and attention to detail
Entrepreneurial thinking and guts
Facilitation of discussion
Goal-setting skills
Innovative problem-solving techniques
Lateral thinking
Lean techniques
Listening skills
Managing up
Meeting hygiene
Planning for projects
Problem-solving
Research skills
Technology savvy
Time management
Troubleshooting

WISDOM

Artistic sense and good taste
Conflict resolution instincts
Creativity in the face of challenges
Critical thinking instead of mere compliance
Dealing with difficult people
Diplomacy in difficult situations
Empathy for customers, co-workers, and vendors
Intercultural competence
Mentoring
Social skills
Supervising with confidence

PERCEPTION

Design thinking
Fashion instinct
Judging people and situations
Mapmaking
Strategic thinking

INFLUENCE

Ability to deliver clear, useful criticism
Assertiveness on behalf of ideas that matter
Body language (reading and delivering)
Charisma and skills to influence others
Clarity in language and vision
Dispute-resolution skills
Giving feedback without ego
Influence
Inspiring to others
Interpersonal skills
Leadership
Negotiation skills
Networking
Persuasive
Presentation skills
Public speaking
Reframing
Selling skills
Storytelling
Talent management
Team building
Writing for impact

What a provoking collection of conversation starters! This encyclopedia is a guiding light for when we are being honest with our own abilities, filling gaps on the team, considering session topics for an event, or working to reform educational curriculum. Special thanks to Seth Godin for granting permission to share these real skills as they were written. Real skills are regularly updated to meet emerging demands as well.

Let’s add inclusivity, curiosity, showing up, content creation, systems thinking, accelerating others through the art of connection, identifying founder-market fit, thinking big, mindfulness, following up, pure wonder, and having fun.

What will you brew into the mix?

Brewed From Within
#13 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago

Uncertainty

Comfort with the unknown is not common. Uncertainty feels heavy when we’re not used to the mental weight. This makes juggling uncertainty a healthy exercise. Start with small things that don’t matter. Let the chef select your dinner, say yes without a plan, or try new ways to stand out at a public event.

What’s the point of such preparation? The freedom to build your own reality requires sacrifice, and the sense of certainty holds us back from where we want to be.

This appears to be dramatic, but when it comes to our work, certainty is often an illusion contrived by the industrial age. The “safe” position in an existing organization is one decision away from a broken promise. The employee’s willingness to play it safe may extend a sense of temporary security, but that choice makes anyone easy to replace with cheaper labor, faster tools, and advancing technology.

Reliable outcomes seem safe, but indispensability thrives when comfort zones are expanded. This does not mean irrational decisions loaded with risk. This is showing up, keeping a promise, and remaining consistent to honor the time we have on stage. It’s feeling what others cannot see. It’s inviting a challenge, gradually leaning into what’s hard, and coordinating momentum, even when uncertainties exist.

Extra Shot
Comfort in the unknown creates space
to see potential cloaked by uncertainty.

As we find rhythm by sequencing simple steps, more complicated moves can be introduced. With practice, contentment combined with confidence will have us dancing with the uncertainties that hold others back.

Brewed From Within
#92 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago