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

You’re fired. Now what?

Here’s a question I’ve been noodling on:

What if you got fired today? What would you do?

But wait, it gets worse…

Not only were you fired, but your industry collapsed and no longer exists. And to make matters worse, all the specialized skills you built up in that industry are now irrelevant (hypothetically, an AI could do them all now and for free).

And, you can’t hide by going back to school for another degree.

You have to start something of your own—you have no choice.

What would you start? What would you build? What problem would you solve and for whom?

Take a 20-minute walk and think on this today.

by Nathan Coumbe

Fear = excitement

The physiological reactions we experience when we’re afraid (racing pulse, sweaty palms, lightheadedness) are the same as those we feel when we’re excited.

Fear, therefore, can be reframed as a form of excitement.

How might you act differently if you told yourself you were excited about this new possibility rather than frightened by it?

H/t to Peter Shepherd and Jen Waldman for this idea.

by Nathan Coumbe

Virtue development and woodworking

“We become builders by building, and we become harpists by playing the harp. Similarly, then, we become just by doing just actions, temperate by doing temperate actions, brave by doing brave actions.” —Aristotle

Like any craft, virtue must be practiced. You get better at woodworking by doing woodworking. You get better at leadership by leading others.

Virtue is no different: You develop courage by being brave in trying or risky situations. You develop discipline through practicing self-control and keeping promises to yourself. You develop justice by doing the right thing repeatedly, especially when it’s hard (that’s where courage comes in). You develop wisdom through wise decision-making, intentional learning, and self-reflection.

Virtue isn’t something you “have.” It’s a part of you that must be cultivated.

This post is a follow-up to a previous one: What is virtue?

by Nathan Coumbe

If you don’t care…

Can you ever motivate yourself well enough to do the work?

If not, there are two options:

  1. Recognize that you no longer care about the work and find something you do care enough about to push through the hard parts.
  2. Find a different way to engage with the work, or use your strengths in a different way to make the work more engaging.

One might be the path you really want to take, but the other might be the more feasible option if you don’t have a lot of flexibility to radically change things.

by Nathan Coumbe

What is virtue?

Virtue is moral, physical, and mental excellence.

Most major religions and philosophies recognize four “cardinal” virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Each of these virtues helps us develop the aforementioned excellence.

Why are they called “cardinal?” The word “cardinal” comes from the Latin cardo, which means “hinge,” the things upon which a door pivots.

This is an apt description, as these are the virtues on which a life of excellence pivots.

by Nathan Coumbe

Deliberate practice and writing

Deliberate practice is essential for developing thinking and writing skills.

But how do you do that when it seems like such a nebulous skill to develop?

You practice by extracting the gist of an idea and writing it down in your own words. Then do it again tomorrow.

Now you’re a writer.

by Nathan Coumbe

Leaders must let workers work

The most beneficial thing a leader can do in 21st-century knowledge work is to allow employees to spend most of their working hours applying the high-value, high-return skills for which they were hired.

They should be allowed to do this without being encumbered or distracted by the “busy work” of modern knowledge work, such as email, Slack messages, and administrative overhead.

Imagine if it had been necessary for Charles Darwin to respond to 40 letters a day. How long would it have taken him to publish On the Origin of Species?

Or what if Mozart had to deal with five unplanned visits from other musicians every hour? Would he have become the musical genius we now know him to be?

Yet, between instant messaging software, email, and open-office pop-ins (for those not working remotely), these hypothetical scenarios are everyday occurrences for most of us.

It’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed, overworked, and chronically unproductive, even with all the stuff we’re doing.

The solution, then, is to build workflows and processes so that your teams can spend less time discussing tasks that need to be done and actually complete those tasks (while also having the slack necessary to think and rest).

by Nathan Coumbe

Victims are required for change

We need a victim to effect change, a victim whose outcome so outrages a vast majority of people that they clamor for reform.

It’s not right, but it seems to be the only way to incentivize people to create lasting systemic change.

by Nathan Coumbe

What if you couldn’t charge for it?

That dream job you think about.

That perfect business you think of starting.

What if you couldn’t charge for it? What if you had to make your living doing something else?

Would you still want to do it?

If so, that’s a good definition of a calling in life.

by Nathan Coumbe

The secret approach to bootstrapping

You can be an entrepreneur: someone who builds something big, hires lots of people to do the work, and gets a ton of start-up money from investors.

Or you can be a freelancer: a skilled craftsperson who does high-quality work directly for clients.

But there’s a third option: bootstrapping.

To bootstrap a business is to find a group of customers with a problem who are so willing for you to solve it that they will pay you up front to build the business that will solve it for them.

And the secret to bootstrapping that many up-and-coming business people don’t know is that you don’t necessarily have to have the solution to the problem.

You simply have to see the problem, empathize with the people who have it, and trust yourself to know that you can and will figure out a solution that works.1

Why does this approach matter? Because smart, solution-oriented people often get so bogged down in the details of how to solve a problem that they never do the hard work of finding customers with a problem that needs solving.

So, find people who need help first, then figure out how to solve the issue.

(H/t to Seth Godin and the folks over at Purple Space)

  1. Don’t lie to people and tell them you can solve their problem, then take their money and run. That’s not bootstrapping – that’s a con. ↩︎