Neil Pasricha blogged 1000awesomethings after his marriage fell apart.
After the blog’s success, it became a book - The Book of Awesome.
A couple of books later, Neil Pasricha wrote the book - You Are Awesome.
This book is a collection of Nine life lessons that have served Neil Pasricha well.
Here are three of those life lessons that genuinely resonated with me -
- Add a Dot Dot Dot
- Shift the spotlight
- Find Small Ponds
Adding a dot dot dot
Pasricha shares the story of his Mom’s immigration to Canada as a beautiful way to illustrate the concept of not being a defeatist. She had to rebuild relationships from scratch in a new country. Rather than view her situation as the end state, she considered it as an evolving situation - TBD - to be determined - a dot dot dot.
She kept her options open.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is simply making the decision to keep going.
The author shares his approach to dealing with situations where he is stumped -
Adding the word Yet to any sentence that begins with “I cannot.”
I cannot do XYZ … yet
Changing the Spotlight
It’s actually egotistical to think it’s all about you.
People often hesitate to take action for fear of embarrassment. This decision paralysis is caused by the fear of - what people think of them.
The truth is that people are generally too busy caught up in their lives. Modern-day information overload and short attention spans make any spotlight on their actions and judgment - temporary.
Niel describes his Imposter Syndrome upon joining P&G and constantly feeling like he had to do a lot to catch up. He was hard on himself and pointed out that this hurt his work.
Your image of yourself may be projecting outward in your actions in potentially nonsensical ways.
Benign Envy
As a supplement, the author brings up why it is necessary for group members also to discuss their failures, as it can result in better group unity by creating benign envy.
Benign envy actually motivates others, lets people see you as a role model. Benign envy is contagious in a good way. It motivates others to improve their own performance
I am not entirely sold on this idea, as it could backfire in unsupportive groups or organizations. It can also serve as fodder for your company's performance review.
Find Small Ponds
This is a good life lesson for anyone starting or seeking a career change.
Neil learned this essential lesson from the Dean of Harvard Business School when discussing his potential prospects at the job fairs on campus. Students would be vying for top jobs in various leading companies. If accepted, Neil would compete career-wise with some of the brightest minds in the company. There is no doubt there is much to learn from people more intelligent than you, however -
Would it make sense for him (mentally) to be a small fish in a big pond? (Or, would he repeat his mistakes at P&G)
Neil instead got a position at Walmart following an internship there. While it wasn’t a leading business consulting company, it helped him flourish.
There are far more problems and opportunities in the world than there are talented and hard-working people to solve them.
I resonated with this chapter. It took me back to when I started my career in smaller contracting jobs, which nourished me and helped me grow.
You’ll participate in meetings instead of just taking notes. You’ll learn faster, gain experience quicker, and make changes to help a place that actually needs help.”
This blog post is also cross-posted on my notion page here.