Mindset

Professor X

Andre Wright is a genuine father, designer, visionary, activist, and community builder. He was inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame in 2021, with work featured at New York Fashion Week, and collaborations with Politico, NPR, Target, Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group, and Facebook.

Whether it’s Wright House, Humanize My Hoodie, or having dinner with Banksy, Andre has dedicated his life to the underrepresented. Listen as we jam on the hope for our youth, telling the story of a project to expand trust, and uniting a movement.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

By Ben McDougal, ago

Horizons

While the foreground of daily activity occupies so much attention, our cumulative culture has always looked to the edge for answers. Whether it’s cresting through the clouds on a flight, an inspiring rooftop view, or a simple walk around the neighborhood, we love the view of hope-filled distance. Beyond momentary charm, how can we embrace the edges of any horizon to stay sharp?

Action is obviously required, but staying wild and thinking big takes practice. Being busy can be addictive, and limited resources often make everything feel pressing. The closer the deadline, the more attention it’s given. This means devoted attention needed to analyze our own thoughts can easily be replaced with yet another task. If busy is boss, perhaps it’s time to meditate, to thoughtfully think. This mental exercise nurtures awareness and guides exploration. To avoid exercising in isolation, collide more wild ideas into weird conversations. The edge awaits explorers who have clarity, thanks to honest self-reflection, and then show up geared to get interested.

As boundaries come and go, avoid energy drains, shortcuts, mind-melting media, debt, addiction, and jail. There’s also no need to rush. Skyline views await us all from anywhere.

As boundaries come and go, avoid energy drains, shortcuts, mind-melting media, debt, addiction, and jail. There’s also no need to rush. Skyline views await us all from anywhere, and horizon hunters will remain indispensable. We go beyond the circular talk of brainstorming, and instead, edgecraft ideas into reality. We flirt with action, lean into Playforce Principles, and continue to ship on the timeline of now. As we poke the box, trust takes time to flourish but can be lost in an instant. Those who thrive on the edge adhere to prerequisites but see rules as suggested guidelines, while maintaining an extended range to see momentum that converges toward the next horizon.

Extra Shot
Elevation makes us all feel successful.

This riff is abstract, but the thesis is explicit: Opportunities await leaders who find answers on the edge. It’s also a reminder that one horizon is not the only endpoint.

From the ground, our view to the horizon is three miles. Peering atop the highest observation deck in the United States, humans can see up to 50 miles on a clear day. Each extent is just too cosmic to ever be the same, and gratitude ensures we don’t become numb to the raindrop of time we have.

This awareness creates a capacity to observe, trap, and sequence distant views as we hug curves and find the edges to appreciate all the horizons that keep us wild.

Brewed From Within
#95 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Visualizing Variety

For leaders who play 80 hours instead of working 40, a diversified career portfolio often emerges.

Popcorning between activities will keep vanguards ahead of innovation curves and when such variety is strategically adjusted over time, diversification also provides a powerful combination of stabilizing flexibility.

Extra Shot

It’s easy to discount our potential, but nobody can compete with being you.

As we diversify career portfolios, perpetual learning, patience, transparency, rationality, and sincere feedback from an engaged network are critical to maintaining balance. Serenity awaits those who find an equilibrium without complacency. When leaders apply this practice over time, progress is achieved on multiple fronts and awareness helps us reduce the risk of diluting ourselves to mediocrity. Dilution from diversity must not be ignored. Stretching too thin mutates the value of diversification into fragmentation.

This devolved state can be seen in people who always seem to be doing something different but never last long enough to establish trust, financial freedom, or true impact. The unwanted flywheel effect of diluting oneself to mediocrity incites uncertainty from others, which makes future moves harder to assemble. The remedy for overextension is self-respect, intellectual humility, reduced diversity, and an increased focus on (re)building long-term trust. When change is constant, visualized assessment helps track how time is used. One easy exercise to remain fastidious with your personal bandwidth is found in the Side Hustles chapter of YDNTB,  and it’s worth revisiting here.

First, think about how you invest, spend, pass, and waste time. If it’s not obvious, consider what you did today, this week, month, and year. Look ahead too, but not far. Now, narrow this personal assessment into activities you consider to be work-related. Assign an imprecise percentage of time dedicated to each activity. Plot this data into a spreadsheet and visualize 

it into a pie chart. Lastly, add logos or other visuals to represent each portion of the pie chart, and save the graphic as a shareable image. This conversation piece now visualizes how you expend your personal bandwidth.

The allotment of different activities will always be evolving, so revisit this exercise as needed. An annual effort provides a safe cadence that will ensure ongoing awareness.

Brewed From Within
#65 📖 Leadership

 

BONUS EXAMPLES

By Ben McDougal, ago

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