Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

As I've mentioned before, one of my side-gigs in this portfolio career is doing customer support for a company I admire.

It doesn't take up much of my time, but people have asked why I trade time that could be worth £100 for time that's worth a lot less.

Of course, there are other ways than money to measure value. Working with the guys at TinyLittleBusinesses.com gives me a front-row seat to two of the guys I admire most in the world.

But also, I love supporting people. It's how I built my first business over 20 years, a relentless focus on helping people get what they want.

Writing is often a solitary business, connecting with people who need help – and helping them – is a value all of it's own.

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Years ago, a client of mine got a call from a journalist. The reporter wanted to sample her service and write it up for a national UK newspaper.

But there was a problem. The deadline was looming. Could my client fast-track delivery?

“Sure,” my client said. “No problem.” She knew that the exposure could make all the difference to her fledgling brand.

A month ago, a different client released a new course into the world. It was brave and personal … and honest about what it was (and wasn’t).

A week ago, a different client again, put a meme out on social media. It was an old time gag from a classic UK comedy – the kind of thing that had zero chance of offending anyone.

Except … someone was offended, and complained loudly on social media.

Just like the person who bought my client’s course, then demanded a refund when it turned out to be brave and personal.

Or the journalist, who used the fast-tracked sample to write a hatchet piece in the Daily Mail.

A couple of days ago I was speaking to a client about boxing, which I know nothing about. 

He gets into the ring from time to time, and said something interesting.

“To be a good boxer, you have to get comfortable with moving forward … even though you know you’re going to get hit in the face.”

Yes, I thought. I get that.

Episode home:

https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/814:-Punched-in-the-Face

Recently I've been stuck in a loop on a project, and when I step back and look at the issue ... the block comes down to one thing.

I'm trying to write the final draft first.

This is NOT a new issue for me, but for the next few days I'm going to focus on doing sloppier work.

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Last week, I was lucky enough to hear Andy McMenemy speak about his experience of doing 66 consecutive marathons across the UK.

Pretty amazing stuff, especially given the fact that he got a "challenge-ending" injury on day 2.

At least, according to his team physio.

But Andy pushed through the constraints to find another way. It was an intensely creative act.

Talking of which ... here's Paul McCartney pushing through the noise. This is the creative process in action.

https://twitter.com/tedgioia/status/1465049482933030913

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Decades ago, I noticed that I read the second half of books much faster than the first.

With apologies to Highlander (who ruined it anyway), I call this The Quickening.

It's my tendency to work harder when the rewards are imminent.

I bet you're the same.

But do you use this to slipstream life ... or are you more likely to be chasing The Big Swing?

One of my smartest dumb questions is ... "how can I bring the next reward closer?"

Because if I do that, I know that my attention and work rate will naturally increase.

Episode home:

https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/810:-The-Quickening

The human eye is designed to focus on specific object. As Jordan Peterson says, "Our minds are built on the hunting-and-gathering platforms of our bodies. To hunt is to specify a target, track it, and throw at it."

Outside of a small area of visual focus, the Fovea, our vision is low-resolution. Outside the small area of our intellectual focus, we are mostly blind unless something gets in our way. This is the inattentional blindness revealed by the invisible gorilla experiment, among others.

Peterson continues, "That’s how you deal with the overwhelming complexity of the world: you ignore it, while you concentrate minutely on your private concerns. You see things that facilitate your movement forward, toward your desired goals. You detect obstacles, when they pop up in your path. You’re blind to everything else (and there’s a lot of everything else—so you’re very blind). And it has to be that way, because there is much more of the world than there is of you. You must shepherd your limited resources carefully. Seeing is very difficult, so you must choose what to see, and let the rest go."

It may seem weird talking about the problems of too much focus, in this age of distraction, but I think it's worth talking about, because whether we are focusing on anything useful or not, our attention is constantly on the THING THAT'S IN FRONT OF US RIGHT NOW!

And that's a problem.

Years ago, I read an article about the release of Terminator 2, which back in 1991 was the most expensive movie ever made. One of the producers was asked what made James Cameron (the director) so special, and I've never forgotten the sense of what he said.

The thing that he picked out was Cameron's ability to simultaneously see the big picture and the tiny details, and how they worked together.

In other words, Cameron was equally comfortable at either end of the resolution scale, and moved between them with ease.

Most of us have no problem focusing on the thing right in front of us. That doesn't mean it's worth-focusing on, but it's how we are built.

But the problem is that with mobile phones, YouTube et al and social media ... there is always something in front of us.

And that means that we are fighting many problems at the wrong resolution.

What we need is the bigger picture, and that requires us to put down our phones, close our eyes, and let our thoughts unfold.

(Unlike our eyes, our thoughts have no problem moving from one resolution to the other.)

Episode home:

https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/808:-Picking-The-Right-Resolution

Two of the most powerful ideas in life (and business) are deceptively simple.

The easy wisdom of these words risks hiding their power – but think about this. We spend so much time, money and energy trying (and often failing) to change who we are from within.

It is often easier and more effective to change the world we live in.

Episode home:

https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/807-You-Are-The-Average

For a long time, I've been talking about the story layer that filters our experience of reality.

The problem is, it's never had a name.

I've decided to fix that, and have coined the word Anastora. In The BSG, this is defined as:

"The organic network of stories, values and associations through which we experience our ’reality’. This is where the magic happens."

Episode home:

https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/806:-The-Anastora