Disruption to Fuel Your Fire and Calm Your Soul
The tech industry has been using the term “disruption” for many years now to describe the effects of digital evolution and law. Whether that disruption is a good or bad thing, and how big an impact it has on you, depends on where you sit. For many companies, the idea of disruption — either creating it or reacting to it — has been a driving force to transform their operations, offerings, investments, and business models. But we are all in the middle of a very different kind of global disruption right now. It’s a pandemic, not an industry shift, and it affects everyone both personally and professionally, not to mention emotionally, financially, physically, and psychologically.
At Virtana, like many other organizations in the industry, we have been working hard to ensure our technology is helping our customers navigate this disruption. And we’re all adapting to a protracted work-from-home strategy. Recently, that meant re-imagining our sales kickoff, an event traditionally meant to physically bring together a far-flung group of reps to learn, share, and bond. And who better to bring in as a guest speaker than travel writer (and, I’m honored to say, my friend) Pico Iyer. Pico has published 15 books, translated into 23 languages, on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism, from the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism. Who better to help us navigate this disruption, provide us with the benefit of his wisdom and experience to find a path that gets us through intact, and maybe even emerge on the other side a little better off? Pico graciously agreed, delivering an eloquent talk packed from start to finish with moving stories and advice. Pico’s impact on our sales team and extended leadership was profound.
It’s difficult for me to summarize the inspirations I gleaned. If I could, I’d post a word-for-word transcript (I wouldn’t even need to edit it for ums, uhs, and other foibles of verbal discourse — he’s that eloquent). But here are my humble interpretations of his wise words, as well as lessons I’ve learned in the five-plus years I’ve known him by watching his example.
Navigating Disruption (and, Spoiler Alert, “Normal” Life)
Instead of thinking about what you’ve lost, take the opportunity to reorient your priorities, to refresh your habits. In this Coronavirus season, it can feel like the lights have been turned off. But has it perhaps turned on some lights? For most, it has given us several hours back in our life each week because we are not commuting or traveling. Just think about how much you coveted those hours when they were not forced on you. Make the most of the new time, explore the hobbies you saved, invest in your own development, or take the time to share your experience. You don’t have to write King Lear or discover the theory of gravity, but it’s a good time to make changes, even small ones, that have a positive impact on your life and those around you.
Re-discover your own backyard. Pico is a world traveler by profession and by choice. He lives a life of what he calls permanent motion. He has been everywhere. Except now he’s stuck at home like everyone else. And, like many of us, he’s been taking long walks. He and his wife have lived in their apartment in Japan for 27 years and only just discovered mere blocks from his home an amazing bamboo forest, with flowering cherry trees and nightingales teaching their young to sing. It was this virus moment that brought them to the unsuspected neighborhood treasure.
Your life is defined not by what happens to you, but by what you make of what happens to you. Or, as Hamlet put it, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” How do you “spend” your thoughts? You can concentrate on all the things you don’t have, which creates exhausting frustration, or you can concentrate on all the things you do have, which creates calming gratitude.
Adopt the 3% rule. Take 3% of your life for quiet time to recharge. It’s completely doable — 3% of your waking hours is just 30 minutes a day, and 3% of a season (or a quarter if you want to think in business terms) is a mere three days. J. P. Morgan, the preeminent financier who was a very busy — and very productive — man, would famously give himself two months off every year and said he could never achieve in 12 months what he achieved in 10. Taking that 3% for yourself doesn’t take away from your productivity in the other 97% of your time, it adds to it.
Don’t be afraid to disrupt yourself and your notions of what’s “acceptable,” even in very small ways that may seem insignificant, but could crack wide open something meaningful inside you. Pico spoke of the correspondence he’s been receiving from friends, and even strangers, and how they’ve changed from the more superficial topics like celebrities and sports that they used to write about, making those notes simply written chit-chat, to now becoming serious, thoughtful missives about solitude, uncertainty, hope, and other really fundamental things they had been too shy to broach before. And in today’s world of bumper-sticker sound bites and snackable content, and much to his editor’s chagrin, Pico revels in meandering language, crafting sentences that start in one place and end somewhere completely different, gliding the reader through a multitude of vistas along the way, connecting them with the subtle comma rather than tossing in fistfuls of periods which result in a minefield of unruly full stops. What are the constraints you’re conforming to without even thinking about? Breaking them can help you find something new that satisfies you in a very personal way. (Life beyond 280 characters.)
Remind yourself of the deep connections you’ve made. Pico’s wife, Hiroko Takeuchi, once made me some origami birds from wrappers she had in her purse. Those small pieces of paper are inherently worthless, but to me the little birds which sit in my office as mementos of our visits together are priceless. It reminds me of a story about the late minister, Billy Graham. He was an amazing golfer and would place bets with his golfing buddies. At the end of a round, he would have them pay him with a personal check, but he believed gambling to be a sin, so he never deposited them. Instead, he kept his friends’ uncashed checks (memories) on full display in his office, page after page in a family-style photo album to remember and relive the stories. My advice (to myself as much as anyone else): Surround yourself with reminders of all of those interactions with family, friends, and even customers — of meaningful discussions, meals, shopping, hobbies, and all the light, enjoyable moments that create a deeper connection. And for your friends, partners, and customers, go the extra step to establish the memories. As an example, if you go golfing (or any friendly competition), make small bets and sign the money at the end of the day with the hope of earning the victor’s signature back on the same note. I’ve won countless small-cash bets from my buddy, Steve Asche. He framed a five-dollar bill on a special loss, and a decade later that same five dollars sits in a frame next to Hiroko’s origami wrappers.
Strive to be a powerful and personal voice. The impact Pico and Hiroko had on me after a few professional and social engagements back in 2014/15 was so profound that when I read an email from him, or one of his books, I hear it in his voice. As all our communications have accelerated into increasingly digital and asynchronous modes, I often think about what I can do in my own personal and business relationships to maintain those voiceprints that we take for granted in the “live” world so we can hear them in the e-world.
Don’t stop reminding yourself to stop, look, and listen. When you’re in the middle of your everyday grind and everything’s coming at you fast and furious, it’s easy to get caught up in the wave of busyness. Find ways to nudge yourself into a more mindful state every now and then. I follow Pico on Twitter (@PicoIyer) and have alerts turned on for him. His Twitter feed is rich and a great once-a-day reminder of the bigger picture that I use as part of my mindfulness practice.
No one knows what the future will look like. While that’s true every single day of our lives, it feels more true right now when we’re all in the midst of massive disruption. While COVID-19 is unique in that it’s global, this will not be the last disruption in our lives. We all have faced (and will face again) personal and career disruption that we have survived (and will survive again). Pico serves as a reminder that we can find our focus, energy, and happiness in the disruption, whatever that may be on any given day and use it as a foundation for a better tomorrow.
*I Hope you are all happy and healthy. Please, during this increased time of need, remember to give back to your community as you can. Any money earned from this post will be donated to The Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley.