by Nathan Coumbe

Police escorts & football

What does it say about us as a people that we assign police escorts to every college football coach in the nation? At every game!

It’s a football game… It isn’t a debate between future elected leaders. These are football coaches!

Are we really a nation of people ready to attack our football coaches at a moment’s notice if things don’t go our way?

Do we really want to be? It’s just a game.

And if we aren’t that kind of people, then what’s it for? 

To show status? “I’m important enough for a police escort, and you’re not.” Is that it?

At what level does one become important enough to warrant a police presence at all times?

Wouldn’t security guards be enough to protect these men (yes, they are almost all men)?

Surely the police and state troopers have better things to do than this…

It just goes to show how much importance we’ve put on certain trivial institutions in our society. 

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by Nathan Coumbe

Copy the masters

If you want to improve your drumming, copy musical phrases from masters like Elvin Jones or Tony Williams.

If you want to learn a new style of art, copy the sketches and brush strokes of da Vinci and Van Gogh.

If you want to  become a world-class copywriter, copy the best, most successful ads from people like David Ogilvy or Claude Hopkins.

From medieval apprenticeship practices to their modern-day equivalents in universities and 1-on-1 mentorships, the best creatives know you must first start by copying the masters. 

You learn the fundamentals of most everything first by imitation. Only then can you add your own touch to create something wholly your own.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Don’t be offended

That’s easy to say when you’re in a group that’s doing most of the offending. 

It’s harder to be someone who must constantly shore up his defenses to take offense without suffering harm. 

Inevitably the latter leads to a reaction against the offenders. Because people want things to change. For their children and the rest of posterity.

“No offense, but…” means someone’s about to be offended.

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by Nathan Coumbe

The joyful life

No original thought today… Just sharing some wisdom on how to live a joyful life.

“Many people view their habits and routines as obstacles or, at the very least, obligations to get through. Making the morning coffee, driving your kids to the next activity, preparing the next meal—we often see our routines as chores to be completed.

But these are not moments to be dismissed. They are life. Making coffee can be a peaceful ritual—perhaps even a fulfilling one—if done with care rather than rushed to completion. It’s about the amount of attention you devote to these simple moments, and whether you choose to appreciate them or bulldoze through them on the way to the next task.

Find the beauty and joy in your daily rituals and you will find beauty and joy in your daily life. To love your habits is to love your days, and to love your days is to love your life.”

—James Clear

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by Nathan Coumbe

What you want to work vs. what actually works

Most of us often go about a task in a way that we want it to work…

Rather than by doing the things that actually get results.

It seems counterintuitive. Why wouldn’t we do things that work if the things we’re currently doing don’t work?

It’s not because we don’t want to succeed.

It’s because the things that work are hard.

Getting a job is like that. What people want to do is shotgun resumés to hundreds of companies, hoping they’ll pick us for a job. But your chance of success with this approach is almost zero.

It’s just easier—and less scary—than what actually gets jobs.

  • Making connections at companies in which you’re interested in working.
  • Cold-calling recruiters or team leaders.
  • Walking into businesses and asking to speak with the managers.
  • Asking friends for leads.

These strategies actually get jobs more often than not.

But to do them, you have to put yourself out there. You’re on a limb. Operating without a net. Whatever metaphor you want to use.

It’s scary because it’s hard.

But it also works.

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by Nathan Coumbe

The ladder is gone

Many of the greatest business and self-help books of all time are woefully outdated.

And I don’t mean the examples used in the books. The working world has changed so much that the underlying assumptions on which the books are based no long apply.

Work hard and get promoted. You’ll make more money.

Move up the ladder for more responsibility, greater impact, and a nicer life.

Specialize in a certain field or department. That’s how you win.

The problem is the ladder is gone. There’s nothing to climb anymore.

Middle managers on are the way out. You’re either a doer or a leader (and often both at the same time).

Specialists are getting replaced by AI. We don’t need as many of them anymore.

Hard work doesn’t really matter much anymore. A computer can work harder, faster, and cheaper than you.

What matters now are remarkable results, unforgettable impact, and connection with other people. And being able to use AI and all the other technology available to us as tools to achieve those three things.

It’s the rare person who stays with one company and gets promoted over and over, making more money each time.

More likely, you’ll bounce around to 15 different companies over your working life, becoming a generalist that can synthesize tons of different fields.

And before you know it, you’re making your own field, your own specialty job that combines everything you’ve learned into something new.

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by Nathan Coumbe

The mindset of the truly unbiased

“This is what I think in this moment… but I could be completely wrong.”

Being unbiased doesn’t only mean willing to hear another side of an argument. 

A more complete version of it is:

Being willing to change your mind in the face of new evidence.

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by Nathan Coumbe

You can’t control the weather. You CAN wear a coat.

Seth Godin wrote on Medium that knowing what the weather forecast is give us the illusion of being able to control it. 

Of course that’s not true. 

We seek control in our lives and settle for these illusions without actually being able to do anything about it. 

You can’t control whether or not it’ll snow, but you can prepare by putting on coats and boots.

You can’t control whether or not it’ll rain, but you can stick an umbrella in the car just in case. 

You can’t control whether or not a post you write will go viral. But you can write the post and ship it. And if it doesn’t, you can write another one tomorrow. 

In short, if you want to control something, you can control yourself. Your actions, reactions, words. 

But that’s all you can control. 

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by Nathan Coumbe

If you want to be a teacher…

Teach. 

Make videos. Write blog posts and articles. 

Host a workshop or a live social media “conference”.

Teach what you’re learning and you’ll get better at it. 

It’s a practice. And you don’t need permission.

(Though it helps if you know what you’re talking about.) 

The same holds true for just about any other practice or identity you wish to adopt.

“Just do it” isn’t a slogan reserved only for Nike.

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by Nathan Coumbe

My math teachers lied to me

All my math teachers told me growing up that I had to learn arithmetic, algebra, geometry, all these formulas… but for what? 

Their sole argument when I pressed them with “why?” Because I wouldn’t always have a calculator in my pocket.

Well, the joke’s on them. Not only do I ALWAYS have a calculator on hand (sometimes literally in the case of my smart watch), but it can do a lot more than basic arithmetic. 

The phone in my pocket, the watch on my wrist—both of these have scientific calculator qualities (real TI-84 stuff) built in. They can do just about everything but graph. 

But you know what else? I’ve never had to use that power for anything in the real world.

I’ve never once had to calculate the slope of anything. I’ve never had to use linear equations for my job.

What I have needed to do was quickly figure out percentages in my head to help a customer.

Use probability to make a decision.

Measure off a table and do complex fraction stuff to get the merchandising in an Apple Store as close to perfect as possible. 

None of this was learned in a classroom. I learned it all doing work in the real world. That’s why I always ask, “What’s the project?” when learning something new.

(And I still have that calculator in my pocket. I wonder what they tell students nowadays why they have to learn those seemingly abstract facts?)

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