johnmaconline

You and I have walked through the one-way gate.

Twenty-five years ago, I’d get dressed, have breakfast with the morning paper, kiss the kids on the forehead, grab my coat, and commute to the office with the morning sports radio guys. When the whistle blew, I’d turn off the machine, grab my coat, commute home with the afternoon sports radio guys, and kiss the kids on the forehead on my way back through the front door.

Your workday probably looked similar.

That daily procedure transformed us from our family identity into our work identity and back again. Two different identities split by time and space but linked by a commute.

But we didn’t stop there. On Tuesdays we’d grab our whistle and transform into coach. On Wednesday nights, we’d grab our notebook and transform into committee member. On Sunday mornings, we’d grab our shirt and tie and transform into pew-sitter. On the first Saturday in August, we’d stuff the car and head to the beach for a week.

All of these separate me’s were me, of course, but somehow compartmentalized. We sought and gained balance through the separation of time and space.

The internet, smartphones, and remote work blurred the lines. Now we check on work between innings. A quick email reply to the committee from the beach. The Sunday service from our couch.

The gate’s shut. Wishing won’t help.

We’re no longer looking for healthy balance. Now we need healthy integration.

To find it, look ahead, not behind.

A billion seconds feels like a lot. It’s about 31 years.

I’m in the middle of my 53rd year, which means that I might no longer be a time billionaire.

Let’s assume that my healthspan is 70 (aggressive, but I work on it daily), and my lifespan is 80 (statistically, also a little aggressive). That gives me half a billion seconds of healthy living left and 0.85 billion seconds of total life. 

One way to look at this is, “Damn, I used to be a multi-time billionaire and now I’m not. What have I done so far?”

Another is, “Damn, half a billion seconds is a lot of time left. What can I do?”

Still, a third is, “Damn, I’m grateful for the time I’ve had and the time left to come.”

All three are valid. 

Either you are or were a time billionaire. The time is yours. 

It’s not exactly your fault.

The System coerced you into misunderstanding the hiring process.
Don’t feel too bad. The System is a master marketer.

The System tells you that the hiring process is about finding the best candidate. The best candidate presents the best System-certified credentials. And that the best evidence for qualifying the best System-certified candidates is through past performance.

But what if…

The hiring process isn’t about finding the best candidate but eliminating the worst.
The worst candidates are just as likely to have System-certified credentials.
The worst candidates are just as likely to have outstanding past performance with relevant experience.

Eating your fill is easy if you’re the big fish with big teeth in an ocean full of small fish. You have your pick of candidates to fill your belly. If one isn’t filling enough, you just eat another.

But if you’re one of the small fish, you gotta think and act differently to keep yourself fed and healthy. If you miss one, you may go hungry for a while. You must make each one count.

Start by thinking differently about the hiring process.

I hate complainers, but I love complaints.

Complaints don’t necessarily come from complainers, and complainers don’t necessarily generate (the right kind of) complaints.

Complaints from the right people, though, are magic bullets. It’s all about proper context.

When you’ve made something new — something that might not work — and someone complains about it, you’ve just had the eureka moment. They care enough to take time and effort to make the complaint. They care enough to say, “I want, no I need this to be better.”

They care because they can see themselves using it, and once they see that, you’ve won the war’s first battle. It means you’re on the right track. Your thing strikes a nerve. That’s all you want and all you can know for version 1.0.

Now your job is to listen and determine how you can make it better. Not necessarily to “do what they say,” but to take in what they say, align it with where you’re trying to go, and do the work.

Go out and seek complaints because most of your competitors are looking for compliments.

This is how you win.

“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 

– Mark 11:22-24

Maybe you think Jesus is bunk. OK, what about Joe Dispenza and Bruce Lipton? Deepak Chopra and Louise Hay? Or perhaps Oprah and Tony Robbins? Napolean Hill and Zig Ziglar? Heck, even Lance Armstrong. 

It’s finally starting to sink in. 

Belief. Faith. Disbelief. Doubt.

Thinking and acting as if. Believing it is before it is. Faith creating. Mind over matter. Ask, and ye shall receive. 

I’ve read that passage from Mark a thousand times. I’ve read the books, listened to the podcasts, and watched the YouTube channels of the other names above a thousand times. 

The light bulb is starting to glow. Dim, but the filament is warming.

Knowing that it comes from God, the universal energy, through you, into existence. 

So simple yet so difficult for this engineer to…believe. 

(If you have any personal stories or connections to stories of mind over matter or faith, please share them with me. The more we share, the quicker the compound interest kicks in.)

My youngest son, a budding entrepreneur much smarter than me, recently asked me what was the best financial decision I’ve made.

Well, in a career filled with questionable, hazardous, and just plain dumb financial decisions, it wasn’t that hard.

“Started putting the maximum allowed in my 401k from the moment I started working.”

OK, I cringed a bit when I said it because that’s not a sexy answer. A part of me knew he’d be disappointed in stodgy old dad because he’s got friends whose parents did this smart thing or made out on that opportunity over there.

And in this day of YOLO, instant access, and systemic distrust, good ol’ fashioned long-term savings is out of favor. I get it.

But for me, it’s still my best financial decision.

Why?

Compounding interest.

Compounding interest is a snowball rolling downhill. It starts small, but if you keep feeding it, the longer you give it, the more it picks up and the faster it grows. Bigger and bigger as it takes on a life of its own.

And compounding interest applies to many things in your life besides finances.

Your relationships. Your health and fitness. Your knowledge. Your career or business. Your worldview.

You always have a choice, and you should always be on the lookout for opportunities. But even though it ain’t sexy, taking the long view is sometimes the best decision you can make.

My wife and I are coming up on our 30-year anniversary. 

Thirty years ago, for our first anniversary, we decided to explore the finger lakes region of upstate New York.

We mapped out, via AAA paper trip-tick, a route around Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, with stops in Ithaca, Seneca Falls, Watkins Glen, and many of the little wineries along the way. A week or so of sightseeing, hiking, tasting, and generally just being together. 

We also had very little money.

I grew up in a camping family, but I describe myself as camping agnostic. Our vacations weren’t exclusively camping, but many of the 15-20 vacations I took as a kid were camping. 

For example, we camped at Disneyworld…in August. I’m still not over it. Even as a kid in the magical land of Disney, I was miserable. I remember the constant steam bath interrupted by quick ducks into the gloriously air-conditioned bathroom or trinket shop in the park, but unfortunately, nowhere to hide at the campsite. 

So here we are, planning our first little vacation together, and given what we’re doing, where we’re going, and the lack of funds, I suggest, 

“Hey, babe, you know if we camped, we could save some money and we’d be more on our own time schedule.”

And she turned to me and said quite earnestly, 

“Let me be clear. If you wanna go camping, that’s fine. But never confuse camping with vacation, and this is vacation.”

We’ve never been camping in our 30 years.