The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk Ryan Hawk

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Notes:
John Quincy Adams once said, “Gratitude… when it takes possession of the bosom, fills the soul to overflowing and scarce leaves room for any other sentiment or thought.” Ask yourself the question, “What good shall I do today?” When you’re upset that your social media post didn’t get as many likes as you thought it would stop and think, ‘What good shall I do today?” It can reframe how you approach others and be more servant-based (which is a mark of a great leader) The fox mindset versus the hedgehog mindset. A hedgehog has a single lens. It’s more rigid thinking. A fox sees the world through many different lenses. It’s more flexible and adaptive. That is a theme of this conversation. Be open, be less judgemental, and be more curious about the way others view the world. “The older I get, the less certain I get of my opinions.” “It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting.” AJ shared that when he was dedicated to the thank you project even on a bad day when he was focused on saying thank you, his mind eventually caught up to his body. Change Your Mind – the founding fathers did this a lot. Daniel Kahneman said, “No one enjoys being wrong, but I do enjoy having been wrong because it means I am now less wrong than I was before.” Be Humble In Your Opinions – Ben Franklin told a short parable. He said, there was a “French lady, who, in a dispute with her sister said, I don’t know how it happens, sister, but I meet nobody but myself that is always in the right. The point is that we are all that French lady. We all believe we have a monopoly on the truth. (Remind yourself that you’re wrong sometimes) Flexibility of mind: Many of the Founding Fathers were open to the idea that they might be wrong, and more willing to change their minds than leaders are today. At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin summed up this open-mindedness: “The older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment.” Think Slow – There are parts of modern life that would benefit from an enforced speed limit. We need fewer hot takes and more cold takes. We need more slow thinking. Writing in depth letters by hand forced ideas to be more nuanced. Thumb-texting acronyms have the opposite effect. Slow down consumption. Forced self to read the news just once a day. The value of slow thinking: For the year, AJ wrote a letter with a quill instead of using social media or texts. It was a revelation. It led to a less impulsive, slower style of thinking – a waiting period for his thoughts. Embrace Virtue – In the founding era, virtue was a cherished ideal (now it’s often used in the phrase virtue signaling which is not a compliment). “A virtuous person puts the interests of others before their one. They focus on those two key words in the Constitution’s Preamble, “General Welfare.” We Control the Sun – The sun carved on the back of George Washington’s wooden chair at the Constitutional Convention. The sun was cut in half by the horizon. Was it rising or setting? At the end of the convention, Ben Franklin said he was convinced it was rising. America had a bright future (the world is built by optimists) Whether the sun sets or rises on democracy, that’s up to us, we the people. In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin tells a story about his father criticizing his writing."About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator," Franklin wrote, "I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it." AJ’s goal was to try to understand the Constitution by adopting the mindset and lifestyle of the Founders for a full year. He committed to living as the original originalist as a new way of searching for answers to one of the most pressing questions of o

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Craig Robinson is the host of Ways to Win. He’s the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). From 2017-2020, he served as the VP of Player Development for the New York Knicks. Previously, he was a Division I head men’s basketball coach at Oregon State and Brown. He also is the brother of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Notes:
What Craig learned from Coach Pete Carill about recruiting: There is a sales element to it. And one of the most important skills to develop is to become a great LISTENER. Ask questions, listen, and ask more questions. Curiosity is the ultimate form of respect. Coach Carill won over Craig’s dad because he was curious. That’s a good lesson for all of us. President Obama (Craig's brother-in-law) said Craig’s discipline and diligence enhanced his presidential campaign. “Craig doesn’t profess to know the specifics of politics the way he knows the X’s and O’s of basketball, but I think what he does understand is the need to wake up every morning doing your best and having a positive attitude. And him communicating that to me was always very helpful.” When (future President) Barack Obama was dating Craig's sister (Michelle), he told their family at Thanksgiving dinner that he had aspirations and a plan to be the President of the United States. It seemed crazy at the time, but he made it happen. What are the "must-have" qualities to be a coach on Craig's staff? Connect with people Lifelong learning Curiosity Fill in gaps (be strong where Craig is not) Must be a good listener What Craig looked for in a player when recruiting: Baseline talent (table stakes) 2-3 "bucket-getters" High IQ Flexible After graduating from Princeton, where he played for Pete Carril and was twice named the Ivy League player of the year, Criag wanted to coach. Instead, he went to graduate school and succeeded in the financial world, including spending seven years as a vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Then, he pivoted away and took an assistant job on Bill Carmody’s staff at Northwestern. That job eventually led Robinson to Brown, where in two seasons he overhauled the program with his work ethic, tough love, and relentless demands on his players. He put a dictionary in the locker room for players to look up the words he used, a tradition that has continued at Oregon State. What made him not immediately go into coaching? Pete Craill telling him to get a real job. It’s amazing the influence the people we look up to can have on us. Craig's fondest memory? January 20, 2009. He went to President Obama's inauguration in Washington D.C. He then flew to a game on the west coast (as the head coach of Oregon State). And received a standing ovation from the visiting team's crowd as he walked out!

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Making decisions – Decisions aren't hard — it's the moments after that are. Whenever I make decisions, I don't think about now, I think about eventually. How will this feel then, maybe a year from now. When it's real, not raw. When the complications around the concern have cleared, and distance has done its job. Goal setting - 37 Signals does not set long-term goals. Jason (as the CEO) helps set the direction and they work in six-week sprints. Think, "What am I optimizing for?" 37 Signals does not have a board of directors or advisors. Is it more helpful to have a chip on your shoulder to prove someone wrong or to be motivated to prove your supporters right? Both can be useful. Keys to a great partnership? Jason works with his co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson (a previous guest on The Learning Leader Show). Mutual admiration Have complementary skills (Jason is design, DHH is engineering) A company is essentially two things: a group of people and a collection of decisions. How those people make these decisions is the art of running a business. Maxims: Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Whenever you can, swap “Let’s think about it” for “Let’s decide on it.” Momentum fuels motivation. Just ship it. You'll figure out what needs to be fixed as you go. Mark Zuckerberg is coming into his own... There are lots of reasons for it. One of them (maybe)? He's working out, in great shape, fighting MMA style, and surrounding himself around others who are doing the same. All leaders should have a writing practice. Hopefully, you don’t feel the need to send it to a lawyer or a comms team before publishing it or sharing it with the people you’re leading. Write like you talk. Write what’s in your head. Think about what you want to say, and say it. You never know who is watching: Jeff Bezos sat in the front row for one of Jason’s keynotes and was so impressed that he asked to invest in his company. When you have the guts to put your thoughts and beliefs out into the world, it can work as a magnetic effect to attract people to you. It's refreshing to hear Jason talk about one of the core qualities he loves most about Jeff: he is overwhelmingly optimistic. The world is built by optimists. You don’t create culture. It happens. A company's culture is a 50-day moving average. It's what you've been collectively doing as a company over the last 50 days. How do you treat people? Who have you hired (or fired) and why? Company off-site events: They do two per year (one in the United States, and one abroad). Members of Jason's team meticulously design them. One day of business followed by time for the team to hang out, do activities together, eat together, and bond. Does Jason have plans to sell 37 Signals? "No, that would be the demise of the company."

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
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Notes on this conversation with Cal Newport
(Obsess over quality). Jewel obsessed over the quality of her work so much that she turned down a 1m dollar offer (even while living out of her car) because she needed time to make her work excellent. Obsess over the quality of what you produce, even if this means missing opportunities in the short term. Leverage the value of these results to gain more and more freedom in your efforts over the long term. Benjamin Franklin – He hired David Hall to create time freedom. He needed time to think, time to experiment. He gave up money in the short term to gain time freedom to create something for the future. There’s no guarantee that it would pay off, but we all should think about how we can make investments that our future self would thank us for. Have fewer concurrent active projects. Instead of focusing on 10 things, focus on 2 or 3. Make it public. Share with your team. Be known as a leader who focuses on a few important objectives instead of 10 of them.  Match your space to your work – Be in nature, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton in the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest surviving house in Manhattan (served as headquarters for George Washington during the Battle of Harlem Heights, and home of Aaron Burr when he was Vice President), Neil Gaiman built a spartan, 8 sided writing shed that sits on low stilts and offers views on all sides of endless trees. Do Fewer Things: Limit Daily Goals – Cal learned this from his doctoral adviser at MIT. She was incredulous about Cal’s attempts to switch back and forth between multiple academic papers. She preferred to get lost in a single project at a time. Cal was convinced that the slowness of working on just one important thing per day would hold him back. Work at a Natural Pace Don’t rush your most important work. Allow it instead to unfold along a sustainable timeline, with variations in intensity over different timescales, and, when possible, executed in settings conducive to brilliance. Slow productivity emphatically rejects the performative rewards of unwavering urgency. Grand achievement is built on the steady accumulation of modest results over time, and you should give your efforts the breathing room and respect required to make them part of a life well lived, not an obstacle to it. Obsess over Quality By focusing intensely on the small number of activities that matter most to our jobs, you can find both the motivation and justification for slowness. Improve your taste. It’s in the uneasy distance between our taste and our ability that improvement happens – aka in our drive to meet our own high standards. To combat the potential paralysis of perfectionism, think about giving yourself enough time to produce something great, but not unlimited time–focus on creating something good enough to catch the attention of people whose taste you care about but relieve yourself of the need to forge a masterpiece. Gather with people who share similar professional ambitions. When you combine the opinions of multiple practitioners, more possibilities and nuance emerge, and there’s a focusing effect that comes from performing for a crowd. It’s easy to mistake “do fewer things” for “accomplish fewer things” – but this understanding is backward. We work roughly the same number of hours each week regardless of the size of our task lists. Having more commitments simply increases the hours lost to overhead tax – the coordinating activities, such as meetings and email, needed to manage what’s on your plate. The pandemic “zoom apocalypse,” in which many knowledge workers found themselves in Zoom meeting all day long, was caused in part by reaching a state in which overhead tax crowded out almost any time to actually complete tasks. Doing fewer things, in other wo

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Never Miss a Day – In the summer, going into Paul's freshman year of high school, he was at a lacrosse camp at Loyola University… At the end of the morning session, an all-time coaching legend, Tony Seaman spoke to the group. He told them he could guarantee that they could earn a college scholarship. All they had to do? "Take 100 shots per day. Here's the catch. You can never miss a day. No excuses." What are your 100 shots a day? Goal Setting – Most people don’t set goals because the act alone is both a major and personal step in the direction of commitment, and it invites hope, fear, and the possibility of regret.  Focus on what you can control – John Wooden was 5’10. Below average for a basketball player. He was really good at “understanding the things at which he had no control and things over which I had some control.” Let Go of Outcomes – Archery master Awa Kenzo told his students to pay no attention to the target. Success and failure come from the same place, so that’s where the archer should point all of their attention: not on the outcome, but the effort. Therapy– Dr. Lindsey Hoskins once said that when we hurt someone we love, it’s because we fear disconnection from that someone. We hope that by lashing out, they’ll show us love, and as a result, we’ll feel safer in the relationship.” The Difference Between Self-Promotion and Passion - "I’m not going to convince you to like what I do. I’m going to show you how much I love what I do.” You won't achieve ambitious goals if you don’t set ambitious goals. The legendary Michael Ovitz shotgun pitch to Coca-Cola. He and his team outworked the competition, flew in a day early, practiced in the actual room the pitch would take place, bought new suits, and over-delivered during the pitch meeting. Their competitors took the meeting for granted, flew in the morning of, and didn't perform. Michael and his team won the $300m contract and earned the business for years to come. A true champion is intensely focused on the things they can control. Being coachable is rare—it’s being curious, eager, self-aware, and ambitious. Discover and harness your unique learning style. What might appear as an inability or perceived disadvantage could be your greatest asset in mastering your chosen field. For example, Paul grew up with a learning difference called Auditory Processing Disorder. The only way to learn from failures is to feel it, study them, make adjustments, a new commitment, and put it behind you. The Voice No One Else Hears – Performance psychologist Jim Loehr has worked with some of the top athletes in the world. He has them wear a microphone during a competition, and he asks them to honestly articulate what the voice in their head says and thinks. Whatever the circumstances, Loehr said he asks, “Is this how I would speak to someone I deeply care about? Or, if I were speaking to someone I deeply cared about, what would I say?” "I've been here before." "I've taken 35,000 shots." Rebound... Bounce back. Paul loves the "up and down" statistic in golf. It refers to a golfer recovering from a bad shot and still making a par on the hole. In life, it's all about how you choose to respond. Paul’s Brother, Mike - “One of my favorite chapters in this book is about planting “little acorns.” (p.174) Had it not been for the biggest acorn in the family, who left his job to build the PLL with me... well, I’d just be a retired athlete, continuing the pursuit of my next professional life. Thank you for everything, Mike.”

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The 5 Journal Prompts - What am I grateful for? Where am I winning? What will I let go of today? What does my ideal day look like? What needs to be said at the end? Avoid the old person flaw – Sometimes you meet an old person and they spend hours in conversation living in the past. Don’t ever believe that your best days are behind you. Have a “never peak” mindset with an upward trajectory… Always. Go see people in person - In Italy they say, “We are not friends until we’ve eaten together.” Release the energy vampires – “We feel guilt when we no longer want to associate with old friends and colleagues who haven’t changed. The price, and marker, of growth.” - Naval Ravikant Stop salting your food before you taste it. Happiness is an inside job. See Solitude as the new status symbol. A sweaty workout is never a silly idea. Ask Yourself the 10,000 Dinner Question: That’s how many dinners you can expect to share with your chosen mate. Does that thought thrill you, or give you the shivers? If the latter, you may not have found the one. Be a Perfect Moment Maker: Focus on making magical memories with those we care about so we feel rich when we’re old. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same. “Your "I CAN" is more important than your IQ.” “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” “You can’t make someone feel good about themselves until you feel good about yourself.” “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. it will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.” Start a mastermind alliance… For years, every Friday at 6am, Robin met with his mastermind partner at a coffee shop where they’d chat for 2 hours. “Success occurs in the privacy of the soul.” - Rick Rubin – Success is about YOUR definition, not whatever society says it should be. It’s about understanding your purpose, your values, and the critical behaviors to match those values. The cool part about it, is you get to define it. That isn’t easy work, but it’s worth it. Ski instructors aren’t rich, “but we have a rich life.”