Author / Nathan Coumbe

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Posts by Nathan Coumbe

My mission is to learn, inform, inspire, and improve. I am a passionate teacher, an avid writer, a leader of people, and a strategic thinker. Wherever I am, whatever the work I am called to do, my goal is the same: make my little corner of the world better for everyone in it. To do this, I ask better questions and solve more interesting problems for those I serve. Think deeply. Think often. Keep exploring. Always be curious.
by Nathan Coumbe

Monopoly jail

Think about how the “going to jail” feature works in Monopoly. 

You’re sent directly to jail if you draw a bad card or land on the wrong space. 

And you’re stuck there. You can roll doubles with the dice and get out quickly—sort of a “parole” option.

Or you sit and serve out your sentence. And with that comes numerous additional punishments we often don’t consider. 

You don’t collect $200 dollars from moving around the board, so you’re worth less with each successive turn. 

And you can’t keep up with the other players. They quickly get ahead of you in terms of cash, properties, rent, and overall wealth.

When you finally get out, you’re just expected to pick up the game as if nothing ever happened. But in reality, you’re starting from a severe disadvantage compared to the rest. 

It’s not unlike what real former inmates face when they’re finally released. They spend years or decades isolated from the rest of the world, and when they finally get out, they’re expected to “figure it out.”

Get a job, even though no one will hire them. 

Find a place to live even though they’ve gone years without the ability to produce income. 

Sometimes, the games we play give a glimpse into real life.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Music in restaurants

Every single restaurant that you go to has music playing in it now.

Have you ever thought about that? 

And not just background music. Or elevator jazz. That would be subtle. 

No — I’m talking full-blown classic rock cranked up to 11. Or top 40 pop music blaring at dance club volumes. 

For thousands of years, humans used meals to bond with friends, connect with mates, and recover from the day. 

That’s not so easy to do when you have to shout at your husband from across the table. 

What’s the music for?

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by Nathan Coumbe

Drowning it out

Maybe that’s what it’s for. 

The endless hours of “Seinfeld” reruns…

The mindless doom scrolling on Instagram. 

There’s something inside you that wants to get out—an idea, a business, a work of art. And it’s just too difficult to get started.

Not difficult — terrifying. 

So you choose to drown it out. 

Is that fair to the rest of us?

What’s the first step?

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by Nathan Coumbe

Helping people get what they want

Zig Ziglar had a saying:

“You can have everything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”

And as many times as I’ve heard it, it’s always meant, “help people get more stuff.”

That’s what 150 years of industrialism has taught us—what people want is more stuff. And that’s what we’ve built a lot of our businesses around. 

But I’ve realized his saying can (and does) mean so much more. Think of all the people who don’t want “stuff”. Instead, they want:

  • Clean water to drink
  • Access to quality, useful education
  • Freedom from fear
  • An end to diseases that plague them
  • Roofs over their heads
  • Fewer catastrophic effects from climate change
  • A way out of insurmountable debt
  • Hope for their futures and that of their children

What if we focused entrepreneurship on ideas like those instead of selling more stuff?

What would a business like that look like for for someone like you?

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by Nathan Coumbe

We aren’t trying to save the planet…

There are those of us working hard to stop and (hopefully) reverse climate change.

You know—that exponential increase in carbon in the air? You might prefer to call it atmosphere cancer instead (h/t Seth Godin). 

Well, here’s the thing:

We aren’t trying to save the planet. 

Planet Earth doesn’t need our help. It can take care of itself.

Mother Nature is a powerful force. The Earth (and life itself) was here long before we were… And it will be here long after we’re gone.

We aren’t working to save the planet.

We’re trying to save humanity. 

The next generation, all future generations of the human species, are in danger from the changes coming from atmospheric carbon build-up. 

  • Famine
  • Flooding
  • Droughts
  • Extreme weather
  • Massive population displacement.

Those are the dangers we’re facing and fighting.

So maybe the problem is one of semantics (the meaning of our words). 

Maybe we need to stop talking about “saving the planet.” Because nobody really seems to care.

But people do care about themselves and their own survival. It’s human nature. And the words we use matter, especially when we’re trying to change minds (or the world). 

So, just remember, when someone talks about saving the environment, what they really mean is this:

“I’m trying to save the human race.”

Make sure to check out all the awesome work the volunteers are doing over at The Carbon Almanac to keep the world habitable for future generations.

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by Nathan Coumbe

I don’t like the word “talent”

“Talent” is something you’re born with… It’s innate, unchanging, and implies that if you don’t already have it, you never will.

“Skill” is a more accurate term. Skills can be learned, and most everything we consider to be talents are actually skills.

  • Musical abilities
  • Public speaking
  • Leadership
  • Writing
  • Painting
  • Inventing
  • Salesmanship
  • Teaching

People aren’t born to do these things. They try them out and persevere through the poor quality and failed early efforts until they get better.

Calling a musician “talented” might actually be an insult. Why?

Because it dismisses all the hard work they put in to develop the skill of musicianship.

by Nathan Coumbe

If I do nothing else…

I hope that I can inspire other people to find their voice and make the impact they were born to make on the world. 

There are few ideas I’ve come across that have resonated more with me than Stephen Covey’s 8th Habit:

“Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.”

I want to help make people better. That is all. 

by Nathan Coumbe

It’s hard to write when…

…you don’t have any way to write!

I apologize to all my loyal readers for my absence these last few days—my computer was being repaired, and I found it impossible to blog using my phone.

Sometimes, you really just can’t follow through with your commitments. But rest assured, the blog posts are beginning again.

As always, thanks for reading! You’ll hear from me tomorrow.

by Nathan Coumbe

The mark of an educated mind

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

—Aristotle

We have the ability to see and understand each others’ points of view, even if we disagree with them. 

But until we actually begin to practice this—to entertain their thoughts—we will be unable to influence anyone. 

by Nathan Coumbe

The silent woods

Henry David Thoreau wrote:

“The woods would be silent if no bird sang but the best.”

If all of us waited around until we believed ourselves to be the best at what we did, the world would stand still.

Stop waiting to be the best—heck, stop waiting to get better—and start doing something instead.

“Better” will come with action.