johnmaconline

The benevolent monopoly can make life easier and better for customers. That’s why they’re benevolent.

Bell Telephone, Standard Oil, and Microsoft all were benevolent monopolies. The efficiencies of their monopolies were passed on to customers in the form of lower prices, standardized practices, and consistency in quality.

Walmart and Costco are not technically monopolies, but they kinda are, and they’re benevolent. If you’re a widget or foodstuff (and I use foodstuff in the very loosest way possible) producer, you want to be on their shelves. They are also benevolent. Consumers love both of them, mostly because of price.

But is it really better?

What innovations never see the market because they decide? What supplier doesn’t get a chance to make a difference because they can’t get in the door? What ideas never see the light of day because they don’t fit their vision?

The problem with benevolet monopolies is the same as with plain-ole monopolies.

Boeing has pedigree. SpaceX is the young upstart.

Boeing is slow and steady — do it right the first time. SpaceX fails fast and fixes it later.

Boeing conjures feelings of pride, trust, and safety. SpaceX’s CEO pisses off the public regularly.

Boeing is inclusive. SpaceX is divisive.

Currently, Boeing has stranded astronauts at the space station. SpaceX may be the one to rescue them.

Who do you want to be?

James Hetfield said that when he found Lars, he had finally found the other person who was just as committed as he was to making it work. Everybody else was just f’n around.

That’s who he was looking for. Someone else who was committed. He knew this was who he was going to hitch his wagon to, regardless of their differences.

You know the difference. You see it in others. If you’re honest with yourself, you see it in you. You know when you’re committed or just f’n around.

Commitment overrides differences. It engages complementary skill sets. It makes 1 + 1 > 2. It breeds trust. It pulls through.

Just f’n around is fine. We can’t be committed to everything in our lives all the time. Nothing wrong with that, but don’t kid yourself.

Success, whatever that looks like, requires committment — marriage, startups, bands, hockey teams, congregations, communities.

Are you committed or just f’n around?

Anybody who can read a map can lead when you’re on the perfectly mapped grid of the city streets. “We want to go over there. To get there, we walk two blocks north and then 5 blocks east.”

But what about when you’re off the grid?

If your spacecraft is in peril, you’ll want a leader who can assess quickly, keep the team focused and prioritized, and command clearly.

If your Church community is faltering, you’ll want a leader who cares about and cares for the people.

If your startup just launched, you’ll want a leader who has a vision, creates a followership, and remains open to possibility and opportunity.

Not all leaders are equipped to handle the wilderness. To navigate off the grid, you’ll need one who assesses the terrain, gives a shit, digs in, anticipates, adapts, and rallies others around a common goal.

If you’re stuck off the grid, you can look for that kind of leader.

Or you become one.

I had a special moment this last weekend.

Shared it with my youngest son, which both made it more special and has me reflecting on it. 

Daily life is a procedure. Wake up, do these things, go to bed, do it again tomorrow. A pattern. The grind. A script we follow without much thinking.

The magic, of course, is in the “do these things.” If you’re aware, you can be present. If you can be present, you can appreciate. But yeah, it’s hard. Hard to appreciate when you’re neck-deep in it. Plus, I’m a destination guy, and I’ve got a destination on my radar right now. As I’ve aged, I’ve gotten much better at awareness and presence, but old dog and new tricks, ya know. 

But this weekend broke the script in the best way possible.

Thank you, Luke, for not only forcing me out of the grind but sharing it with me. I’m still processing how special it was. May never fully process it.

For sure, I won’t ever take it for granted. 

(P.S. We went here. I’ve seen them 5 times now — 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992, and now again in 2024. That’s 32 years between shows 4 and 5. 32 years of build-up discharged in one 36 hour period.)

Knowledge is facts, figures, and theories. You’ll find the path to knowledge in books, museums, and YouTube.

But knowledge doesn’t get you anywhere until you turn that knowledge into learning.

Learning happens when you take that knowledge and act on it. You try stuff. You build skills. You turn book smarts into street smarts. What to do into how to do it.

It’s the practice — the behavior — that matters.

Knowledge is useful at a dinner party, but learning is how you change your life.

Your skins cells are replaced every 2-3 weeks. Your red blood cells get replaced every 4 months. Fat cells every 8 years. Skeletal muscle cells may take 10 years.

The whole process adds up to a full replacement of your cells approximately every 7-10 years. You’re an entirely new you every 7-10 years. But are you?

Stand next to a stream and watch the water flow. The stream exists in perpetuity, but the individual water molecules flowing through are replaced every few seconds. The contents of the stream is entirely new as each second passes. Is the stream the same?

You are not a static being but a dynamic process, continuously evolving, never truly the same. If you don’t like who you are right now, just wait a bit.

Your opportunity to replace your current self is just around the corner.

Many people just want to be told what to do. That’s not a judgment or a bad thing. It’s just a fact.

If you’re a listener, be careful who you’re listening to. A hack that faux-leaders have used since the dawn of time is to be the one who talks the loudest. Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Hitler gained power partly because they were the loudest talkers.

On the flip side, you can stand out by being the one who does the telling.

Use that power wisely.

The speed of sound. The four-minute mile. The top of Mount Everest. The 2-hour marathon. Human flight. Splitting the atom. Cloning a mammal.

All invisible barriers that were once thought impossible to cross. It makes sense, though, because we like barriers. Especially invisible ones. Barriers make our lives more understandable, deterministic, and easier. We like to live inside the box.

But we crossed these barriers. How?

By being open and willing.

Open to new beliefs. Willing to challenge. Open to possibilities. Willing to try new paths. Open to other ideas. Willing to put in the work. Open to (apparent) magic. Willing to believe.

This works for you personally as well.

What are the invisible barriers that exist in your life? Are you open and willing to overcome them?

It won’t be comfortable, but it will be worth it.