Figure it Out, or Make an Excuse for Why you Can’t
If I could go back to my 18-year-old self and give one piece of advice, it would be this:
Figure it out.
Figuring out how to figure things out is the simplest, hardest, most important skill (attitude, mindset, call it what you want) that you can develop to make yourself better.
Don't let your lack of specific hard skills keep you from committing to something exciting. We move from ledge…
The “Figure it Out” Mentality
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I was pitching a customer, and it was going better than usual. I was on top of my game today. With every objection she threw at me, I had the perfect answer and communicated it without a hitch.
Not ready to get the house painted? “If not now, when? You’ve got me here, now, and you know I’m going to get it done right. Why risk waiting until it gets worse?”…
A Graph About Success and Patience
Success, however you define it, takes a lot of time. If you're impatient like me, this can be frustrating. Today I sat down to figure out why I always underestimate how much time it'll take me to do the things I set out to do.
When you set a goal, you look straight towards it, but the actual path is never linear. There's always a long learning curve. Our growth and progress are always…
Ep 15 – Chandler Bolt on Launching 6 Books and Growing a 7-figure Business
I met Chandler through an internship we both did in college. He’s an example of someone who just doesn’t quit. He’s always moving, always grinding, and always having fun doing it.
Chandler is the author of 5 bestselling books including “Book Launch” and his most recent book titled “Published.”. He’s also the founder & CEO of Self-Publishing School, the #1 online resource for writing your…
Why I Dropped Out of College
Once upon a time, I was an International Baccalaureate student. This was an elite group of students within my high school. We had more homework, read more advanced books, and were held to a higher academic standard than the rest of the students.
While I despised the schoolwork, I quite enjoyed the social atmosphere of it - this was ultimately what made it bearable.
In high school, I got to…
Story #03: Climbing Mount Rainier
I don't remember exactly when I decided to climb Mount Rainier, but it was sometime after I saw the movie Free Solo. I had always been interested in mountaineering, but more as an outsider looking in than an active participant. Something clicked after seeing Jimmy Chin's award-winning documentary, and I decided to take my interest more seriously. After some research, Mount Rainier revealed itself…
Chasing Instability for Stability’s Sake
What do you want?
This can be one of the hardest questions to answer. Success, money, happiness, love, freedom? Those are some real but vague answers.
I preach a lot about going out of your comfort zone and stepping into the unknown. There is no better way to learn and grow than to do something you’ve never done before and be forced to figure it out.
But why do you want to learn and grow…
Building a Business Day 5: Ideas
Everything starts as an idea. The process of turning that idea into reality is difficult, messy, and inefficient. You can't even be sure it will work before you try it.
Today, I spoke with a lead for a business who needs their social media completely managed. So far, our business mostly creates video content optimized and packaged for social promotion. Managing social media hands on is a new…
What’s Next for Simon?
As a kid, my curiosity brought me to an old camcorder. I spent my days in school writing stories and my evenings filming them with my friends. I often rallied the neighborhood kids together to bring my visions of quirky characters and entertaining plots to life.
At that time, questions like these drove me:
How do I work this camera? How do I convince my friends to play these characters? How…
Are Managers Irrelevant?
I was in a McDonald's earlier today ordering a coffee. The young lady at the cash register was clearly in training. I could tell because she kept calling her manager over for help with small questions.
After I said my order, the cashier called her manager over to help her enter it into the POS system. The manager rolled her eyes, pushed the young lady aside, and did it herself. “Make sure to…
Certainty is Boring
Certainty leads to stability. Stability is boring. Uncertainty leads to growth. Growth is exciting.
I grew up around parents and authority figures who valued stability over uncertainty. Doing risky things like dropping out of school, going skydiving, quitting my stable job, or vagabonding around the world weren't worth the risk from the perspective of the people who cared about me.
The…
Work Will Solve All of Your Problems
I paced back and forth on the sidewalk, looking at my feet. I glanced up--this was a cookie-cutter neighborhood in the heart of the suburbs. Every house looked similar, and they were lined up along the street no more than ten feet from each other.
It was a nice day. It was cold, but the sun was out. That was rare for February in Ohio. I could see my breath.
My heart was pounding so hard I…