Category / change

by Nathan Coumbe

Talk isn’t just cheap–it’s poor.

Proverbs 14:23 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible:

“Work brings profit,

but mere talk brings poverty.”

–Proverbs 14:23

Talking about your ideas – the job you want, the business you feel like starting, the person you are thinking of asking out – does absolutely nothing for you.

Action – taking steps towards a goal – is the only thing that brings reward. Waiting for some outside force – a company to find and employ you or a government to protect you – won’t get you anywhere.

Mere talk is impoverishing.

Work and take action today.

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by Nathan Coumbe

What are you afraid of?

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he could do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

–Henry Ford

In what areas do you doubt yourself?

What is the resistance telling you right now you cannot do?

Write it down; call it what it is. “Notice and name” as the folks over at Precision Nutrition like to say.

Don’t judge yourself; don’t feel guilty. Just say what it is. Then start asking why.

Why are you afraid?

You might find the answer surprising…you might also find that you have no answer and, perhaps, no reason to fear.

What one thing could you do right now to move away from the fear? What change do you desperately want to make but are too afraid to take the first step?

You can do it.

by Nathan Coumbe

Why are you REALLY doing that?

Years ago, the Toyota Motor Company created a system called “The 5 Whys.” It is a problem-solving technique that helps drill down to the root cause of an issue–in their case, manufacturing problems.

It’s also an excellent personal technique to help you figure out why you are doing, or attempting to do, just about anything.

Why do you want to lost weight? This is now an almost universal goal. If your answer is to look good at the beach or to feel better, you’re probably going to start binging the first time you see a pack of Oreos at the supermarket.

Why? The motivation from those bland, generic reasons are extrinsic (outside of yourself and your reasons for being) and, well…bland and generic. They have no real meaning to you. So try the “5 Whys.”

Why do you want to lose weight?

“So I’ll be strong and fit.”

Why does that matter?

“When I am strong and fit, I’ll be able to accomplish more with my body.”

Okay, and?

“When I can do more, I won’t tire out and break down like I currently am on a regular basis.”

Okay, why does that matter?

“When I am more resilient, I’ll be able to serve others better and longer: I will be able to go up and down stairs without passing out, or help my friend declutter her garage without hurting myself.”

And why is that important?

“Because I feel like service to others is one of the main reasons I’m here…”

Wow! Just like that you now have a deep, intrinsic purpose for losing weight and getting strong. You don’t only want to look good at the beach: you want to serve others at a higher capacity because it’s one of your values.

Now, when you see those Oreos or feel like skipping your daily movement session, you’ll remember that you are striving to serve others.

Your motivation doesn’t have to be service to others, of course. This is highly personal to each of us.

Think of a goal you want to achieve in some area of your life: physical, financial, family, career, personal development, social, or spiritual. When you have a goal, start asking why it matters. Drill down until you either determine that the thing you want is hollow and meaningless or you find the real motivation to accomplish it.

Find the real reasons for what you want in life. You might surprise yourself.

*Note: I first learned about this while being coached by the folks over at Precision Nutrition. I want to thank them for giving me something I can now spread to others.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Change is a skill

That book you read, the TED talk you listened to, or that seminar you attended–it’s only half of the equation. The materials you absorb will not, in themselves, change you for the better (if that is what you seek).

Change is a skill, which means it is something that must be practiced consistently until whatever you seek to change becomes a habit.

The materials available to you are great: in my opinion, they are vital to get you out of whatever rut you currently find yourself. We all need another voice, a voice we trust, reminding us of what better is.

But it’s up to you to change. It requires taking action.

What will you do to change today?

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by Nathan Coumbe

Praise the good. Ignore the rest.

If you want to create lasting influence with others, or change for the better, there is really only one way to do it:

Praise the good.

“So long as a person did anything good, he would praise him and use him for the service in which he excelled, but to his other conduct he paid no attention…”

–Cassius Dio writing about Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

When Emperor Marcus Aurelius wanted to influence other people, to reinforce the behaviors and actions he wanted to see, he would praise the person who did the good deed. This is actually quite Pavlovian in its execution.

Conditioning good behavior

Remember Pavlov from your introductory psychology class? Pavlov would ring a bell before he gave his dogs food; the food caused the dogs to salivate. Eventually the dogs associated the ringing bell with food and would salivate when the bell rang, even when Pavlov did not give them food.

Marcus essentially did the same thing with those in his service: whenever they did something of which he approved, he praised it. This constant reinforcement of the good conditioned his people to do more good work in the future. But there is a second part to Dio’s observation above…

Pay no attention to the rest

Not only did Marcus praise the good, he ignored the behavior and actions he didn’t want to continue. Why did he do this?

There is a wonderful little book who’s first chapter discusses this at length:

“Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.”

–Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

How often have you had a positive outcome after you criticized someone for doing something? I would hazard a guess at 10%.

When you criticize someone, they get angry, defensive, and emotionally illogical. He or she will justify the action rather than accept that it was wrong. It’s a natural human response. We don’t like to be wrong, and we definitely don’t like other people pointing out our poor behavior.

Therefore, the only way to get the results you want from other people is to praise them when you seeing them do the good deeds you want done. Criticizing the bad doesn’t work: it only causes resentment.

“We are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures brisling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”

–Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

(Of course, there are some behaviors that are dangerous, illegal, immoral, or that might harm others; these behaviors must be stopped immediately. Those sorts of behaviors are not the topic of discussion here.)

Be a model

How do let others know what good actions or behaviors are? You must be a model. Do the things you want others to do; be the kind of person you want others to be.

Seth Godin likes to say, “people like us do things like this.” Invite people to be “people like us,” whoever you think “people like us” should be. Then, do the things you want others to do, and when they follow, praise them for it!

Model good behavior. Praise others when they perform good work. Ignore the rest.

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by Nathan Coumbe

6 reasons why you should and should not go back to school

I wrote recently about why taking action is more important to your work and career goals than going back to school for more degrees. Today I’m going to give you 6 reasons why you should and should not go back to school.

Why Not?

  1. DON’T go back to school if you cannot afford it. No education, not even a medical or law degree is worth massive amounts of debt. You won’t make as much money as you think you will, and you may not even get the degree. Don’t go to school if you can’t afford it.
  2. DON’T go back to school if you don’t have a plan for what you want to try to do. No plan is full-proof anyway–you may change your mind halfway through and decide the field is not for you. Also, you may be able to get the knowledge and education you need without spending a fortune on a degree (which may be irrelevant by the time you finish).
  3. DON’T go back to school because you think the degree will get a job for you. It will not: your skills, abilities, projects, portfolio of work, and ability to sell yourself are the only things that will do that.

Why You Should

  1. DO go back to school if the field you’re entering is highly specialized and requires certain education or certifications, e.g., medicine, law, engineering, public school teaching or administration, etc. This also applies to those of you who wish to become higher education professors.
    • Keep in mind that the opportunities in higher education are limited. You will most likely spend years as an adjunct, competing with hundreds of other candidates who have the same credentials and publications as you, and there is no guarantee that college will be as it was when this pandemic is all said and done. Check out this video by Adam Grant on graduate education.
  2. DO go back to school because you love education and simply want to further develop yourself with an advanced degree (but only if you can pay for it. DO NOT GO INTO DEBT FOR EDUCATION).
  3. DO go to school if it is the only way to obtain the knowledge you seek. It is highly unlikely this reason is valid: with all the options available to you online, it’s easy to get an unoffical master’s degree in just about any field imaginable. It’s also easy and free to take real college classes online from Ivy League universities and other top institutions all over the country. (Click here if you want tips on how to get a useful education for almost no money. Dan Miller has another great article on the subject here.)

Learning is important. Well-educated individuals are in demand and in short supply in every industry in the United States and abroad. But well-educated does not mean letters behind your name or fancy degrees from famous colleges.

Well-educated means you have the real and practical knowledge, skills, abilities, and most importantly, the will and the desire to take initiative and execute on the work put in front of you.

You don’t have to go back to school, but you do have to continue your education.

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by Nathan Coumbe

You probably don’t need more schooling. You DO need to take action.

You are stressed, frustrated, angry, bored, or perhaps feeling underutilized. Your job isn’t satisfying, you’re treated poorly, or maybe you’ve lost your job during this crisis.

A common solution to these problems seems to be more education: another degree in a different field, a higher-level degree like a master’s or doctorate, or some other very expensive piece of paper. But is more education going to get you that dream job? Probably not.

Going back to school might actually be a way to hide: you don’t know what you want to do so you hide from making a decision by doing the socially acceptable move of going back to school. You are looking only at job postings online that ask for master’s degrees and Ph.Ds (when in reality you don’t need either in truth–they are simply trying to weed out applicants so the don’t have to look at as many resumes).

Action, not education, is the key to better work

What you really need to do is take action! Start doing work that you actually care about whether or not you get paid for it.

Do you want to move into marketing? Raise $50,000 for your favorite charity, the local zoo, or a museum you love. Run social media for some small businesses and restaurants in your area. This is how you create a portfolio of work that proves you can do the work that someone who is looking for a marketer needs.

Do you want to start counseling people on how to better communicate with their spouses, coworkers or bosses? Read books, attend seminars, create free guides and send them out to friends and connections online. Start creating videos with tips. No one truly needs to have a Ph.D. in Psychology to help people with their personal problems.

Do you want to become a teacher? Start teaching! Read literature, history, business books, magazines, whatever material you can on whatever subject you want to teach. Be a lifelong student. Start tutoring. Private schools don’t require teaching licenses, but they do want to know that you know your subject and know how to teach.

Do you want to be a freelance writer? Start writing! Create a blog, write articles on LinkedIn, pick up a book on copywriting and start making fake promo materials for real companies you care about or fake companies you made up.

A portfolio of work is better than an expensive piece of paper

You need a portfolio, not an expensive degree, to find work you really care about. You need a body of work, examples of what you have done and can do in the future.

You need projects behind your name, not letters. Companies care less and less about degrees with each passing day–just look at Apple, Google, Amazon, or Tesla. They want to know if you can do the work and take initiative on your own. A portfolio of work and projects will show them both. You might need to learn how to code, but you can do that for $40 a month rather than $50,000 for a degree that will be outdated in 2 years.

Schooling rarely gives you what you need to thrive in a career. Actual work, practice, and personal development is the key.

Get an education that pays

If you want some ideas about how to develop yourself without spending a fortune on a soon-to-be useless degree, check out this post I created recently. Another great resource is this article here by my mentor Dan Miller.

While you’re at it, surround yourself with people who are trying to level up and find work that is meaningful, purposeful, and profitable. Check out the 48 Days Eagles group, and surround yourself with likeminded people. Click this link here and get 3 months for the price of 1!

Create a body of work you’re proud of, and you will never want for jobs or income.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Make a huge difference with one small behavior change

In his second great book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, relates the story of Muhammad Yunus, an economics professor who founded the Grameen Bank – an institution that makes microloans to the impoverished citizens of Bangledesh. His story deserves to be quoted at length, but I will not do that here. What follows is a summary.

Muhmmad Yunus Saw a Need

Muhammad Yunus earned a Ph.D. and began teaching economics at a university in Bangladesh. While he was inside lecturing on macroeconomic principles, the citizens of Bangladesh were struggling to survive in a life of abject poverty.

One day when Dr. Yunus walked out of class, he passed a woman making beautiful, handmade bamboo chairs. Upon further discussion, he determined the woman was making two pennies per day.

Why? Because she was in a terrible arrangement with her supplier who only allowed her to sell the chairs back to him. Dr. Yunus then discovered that the woman only needed $0.20-0.25 cents to buy the materials herself, then she would no longer be in bonded labor to the supplier.

He discovered that other citizens were struggling in much the same way. His assistant went around asking how much money different people in his neighborhood needed to make a living: he reported back that all together they needed $27.

TWENTY-SEVEN DOLLARS! Dr. Yunus took that money out of his wallet, gave it to his assistant, and told him to tell those who were receiving the money simply to pay him back whenever they could (which they all did, eagerly and quickly).

Dr. Yunus Met a Need

There is much more to the story than that, including a long battle with banks in the area who did not believe anyone would pay back the money that was loaned to them (which they did). Dr. Yunus discovered, simply by opening his eyes and talking to people around him, that while he might not be changing the world with a $27 loan, he was changing someone’s world.

Dr. Yunus went on to create and found his own financial institution, Grameen Bank, which specializes in making small loans to people all over Bangladesh so they can create businesses, making a living, and pull themselves out of poverty. To this day it has loaned billions of dollars in microcredit to hundreds of millions of citizens, and it changed their lives.

Why am I telling you this story?

What You Need to Do

Change how you move through the world. Today, and each day for the rest of your life, when you drive around town, walk outside, or even scroll through social media, pay attention to the people.

What are they doing? What are they posting on social media? Can you identify a need in what they are saying? Are they struggling to accomplish a task or project?

Are they asking a question to which you know the answer or have a solution?

Assume, as Dr. Yunus says, “a worm’s-eye view” of the world. Don’t look for huge problems to solve: look for small, everyday problems. Find someone in need, ask yourself if you have the will and the skill to meet that need, and then do something about it. Show up, solve a problem, and keep doing that over and over again.

Ask yourself if you have the will and skill to meet someone’s need today.

You may not change the world, but you will change that person’s world. Do that enough times, solve enough problems for people, and you might begin to see a greater need that can be met by a business, service, or non-profit.

Find a need, meet the need, and make a difference today.

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*Note: some links on my site are affiliate links which means I make a small commission for purchases made. This does not affect you in any way.

by Nathan Coumbe

School can ruin a passion

It amazes me how much I used to enjoy certain things until I went to college. School ruined a lot of it for me.

Let me explain:

I have always had a passion for music and history. I loved them both so much I couldn’t decide between the two when I went to college, so I double-majored. I did all of my research on different historical periods and figures in music.

Interestingly enough I hated every second of it.

When I graduated, I quit researching history, and I quit researching music. I think in the back of my mind, the thought was if that’s what I was gonna have to do for a living, I wanted nothing to do with it.

I graduated five years ago and have been struggling to find my fit in a career ever since. I have had a lot of time to think, and I believe I’ve figured out the problem.

I didn’t hate the work: I hated having my hands tied.

College assignments are unrealistic

“You can’t write about or research anything you want – you are required to tie it back to this particular point and make an argument about how it conforms to this idea.”

“It doesn’t matter that your subject has very little source material – you have to make it 30 pages (rather than making it as long as it needs to be and no longer).”

How many of you went into college to study something you had a deep passion for, only to come out the other end hating what you once loved?

I don’t think you suddenly realized you hated the subject: I think you hated being boxed into unrealistic parameters and expectations.

Nowadays, if you want to do research on a topic outside of school, you can, and you can make it as long or as short as it needs to be. Also, it can be about whatever you want it to be.

Do you want to turn it into a podcast instead of writing? GO FOR IT! Do you want to interview people and draw conclusions from their ideas? Do that.

As long as you aren’t making stuff up and deliberately lying to the rest of the world, you can do whatever it is you want to do in whatever subject you choose.

You don’t hate learning – you hate school

You will never have your hands tied, parameters set, or asinine expectations to meet like you had in school. You don’t hate your subject, and you don’t hate the work you thought you wanted to do. You hated being boxed in, required to do things that bored you to death or robbed you of the joy of what you once loved.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If there was something you used to love doing, something about which you were insanely curious, I encourage you to pick it up again.

I don’t think you lost your love for it – I think you just got the wrong idea of what you were expected to do in the real world in your field of study.

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by Nathan Coumbe

A break with the Industrial Age

The COVID-19 pandemic has created rapid change in all areas of work. For those employees who showed up to an office location day after day, the lines between work and home have been blurred completely: work is now being done at home. School is now being done at home. And the amazing thing is that companies (and many schools) are realizing it works. Not only does it work, but it might also be better.

The Internet has made all this possible. Without it, this pandemic would have ground the world to a screeching halt rather than a frustrating slow-down. I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the final straws in breaking the world out of the Industrial Age mindset and unleashing human potential by fully adopting the Knowledge Worker/Information Age mindset.

These changes – the ability to work from home; meetings that are now (and should have always been) emails; genuine collaboration (because it’s the only way to get things done now); dictating results and trusting employees with the methods – will last long after this crisis is over. Companies will realize that their people are more productive than ever when given freedom and flexibility. More importantly, those that feel like their companies cared about them as people during the crisis will come out the other side more loyal and productive than ever before.

Those companies that are trapped in the Industrial Age – where people are things and less important than the machines they operate and the numbers they generate – will fail. Command-and-control, micromanagement, treating people as things – none of this works anymore. The failures may not happen immediately, but it will happen. Employees who feel their companies have failed to treat them with dignity and care, who have felt their health and wellbeing was seen as unimportant, will leave.

The coronavirus is terrible: people are dying; people are losing their income and their livelihood. But as with all great challenges in history, forward thinking, adaptable, flexible, and generous individuals, groups, and companies will learn from it, survive, and thrive in the new world.

Say goodbye to the last vestiges of the old world. I hope you are working for and with people who care.

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