Saturday Cup of Joe: a lending and tech(ish) newsletter from Detroit
Saturday Cup of Joe #119.
Friends & Colleagues,
Week 119. How is your summer? Your week? Do you take time off? Do you take time off in the office when others are out of the office? The speed of the game is always changing, always accelerating. Seems summer is moving faster than ever.
How about your business? How do you respond to the speed of the game? What’s the plan to stay one step ahead?
Looking across the next few weeks, what can you accomplish before the end of the month? Can you use the quiet time before the holiday to move a big rock?
Hopefully this week’s newsletter is interesting and helpful to your business. It will be shorter and quicker hits.
Have a great weekend.
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“The very act of ritual helps people achieve peak performance.” Do you have any rituals? Do you find predictability to be comforting, to be happiness?
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Data visualization: The world’s 50 largest cities compared and contrasted in a new way.
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This week in true hyperbole. The Elon Musk Interview.
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Strategy in relationship to tactics. The idea of revisiting strategy (ongoing) to make sure the tactics still align is important. I like the definition of tactics as the proper ordering or arranging of activities. One quote from the post that particularly resonated: “A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength.” I think this is true for two reasons — first, the clarity and confidence that comes with knowing a greater purpose. Second, a good strategy means the organization is always getting some value out of the tactics. Even tactics that miss or don’t work, provide more information that still serve the strategy. That ability to find value in all our tactics even those that don’t work is important because it is one way my team can benefit the team and the company even if one of our research topics or proposals is not implemented.
Helping articulate the strategy/purpose.
Always adding value.
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“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
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I got so excited to see a Sheetz when I was traveling in Raleigh, NC this week that it was almost destiny that I later found this “gas station can be beautiful” article from Atlas Obscura.
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The 8 Habits of Highly Successful Cities (by Outside Magazine):
1. Pave (some) of your city
2. Reboot Urban Renewal
3. Leverage natural resources
4. Pay to Play — invest
5. Make the beer run
6. Spread out, it’s ok
7. Don’t fear tech
8. Sustainable is the name of the game
Does your city or your company in your city measure up?
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Living in the moment is harder than it sounds: “Any lack of satisfaction we experience in life is born from this predicament: We are so attached to an imagined inner story about who we are, causing both anxiety and fear, that we forget that the world in front of us isn’t at all dictated by this story; it simply is, in both its beauty and its simplicity.” — Zat Rana
In conclusion, the advice is what you thought it was — be more present.
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Incentivize the behavior you want: I’ve gone back and forth on CEO pay as a function of the free market (see: the John Thune scene in Too Big Too Fail). This article will bring many big issues to the forefront. Might be unrelated to your business or, to the degree Senator Warren moves forward with legislation, it might be relevant to your business or your investments.
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Advice for renters — do the hard work. Here’s a laundry list of renters’ concerns and issues. Also a great link to use for your social media feed if you are trying to convince renters to become buyers. Check it out.
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Did you ever feel this was true?
The subconscious, self-defeating belief that we’re not deserving of success can quickly make happy moments backfire on us.
If so, check out this Medium post.
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As Robin Sharma said, “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.”
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Luck be a lady: Is luck just a matter of perspective? “Brains really dislike bad news. Anything presented negatively is seen as a risk that must be avoided.” Fascinating look at luck.
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Location, location, location: This is rumored to be the most expensive piece of land on earth. Obviously that’s only because certain other plots are not for sale — think St. Peter’s in Rome. But this is a far cry from the cathedrals of Rome. This is a plot of land that overlooks the City of Angels with a view of a different type of cathedral. This open land in Bel Air/Hollywood Hills is possibly going to list for $1B.
The back story, of course, has all the drama you’d expect. Hollywood royalty (Merv Griffin) followed by the new money billionaire who through divorce and death embroiled the property in trust & estate issues to the new potential buyers like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. As a result many speculate the $1B price tag is just a publicity stunt to get attention to move the property along. In that case, it’s likely only worth $100–200 M. Either way, anyone have a couple of hundred thousand friends? We could crowd source this thing.
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Almost skipped this article, and then I saw this: “Asking questions that seem obvious isn’t a sign of incompetence.” I’ve tried to train myself to ask the obvious question to see how the room reacts. There is value is being the contrarian or asking the seemingly dumb question to see if you get treated like you are dumb. It may seem Machiavellian to some, but there is freedom in collecting information without fear of what others think. Here are the other 5 life lessons of successful business people.
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Where are you on willpower? I wrongly put way too much faith in the power of my ability to just grind through a change or a temptation. The problem is how much pressure it puts on your internal self talk, dramatically increasing expectations and then leaving only one explanation when you fail — you are just not strong enough. Ugh.
“You are who you are because of your environment. Want to change? Then change your environment, stop the willpower madness already.” — Benjamin Hardy
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“Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.” — Betty Smith
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It’s not always what it seems: Children might appear to be demanding the same activity over and over or the same song or the same book, but the reality is they are testing, watching and experiencing different aspects each time. Repetition is advanced learning. When you think of it like that, it might not be as frustrating when your 5 year old says “again, again” for the 236 time.
“What adults don’t see is that each time a child does something, they see something differently. Why is it that when people travel, they go to the same place again and again? You see something new every time. That’s how you get a true understanding of something.”
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Today’s thought: How do you evaluate the room? When you are in a meeting? In a presentation? In a 1:1 with leadership? Consider that it all matters. The timing. The way. The message.
Consider it all.
Do not underestimate the presentation, the tone, the whole thing.
Be thoughtful. Be confident. Don’t leave anything in the room.
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Quote: “Your life is controlled by what you focus on.” — Tony Robbins
Bonus Content: Mayonnaise is way more controversial than I thought.
Continued success and continue to answer well,
