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Success with Soul: Align Your Goals with Your Values
This week's guide to finding meaning and maximizing your impact
Connor Sell
April 07, 2024
5 Minute Read
Hey there, welcome to the 36th edition of the Airplane Mode Newsletter! Tried something new last week with a founders-only angle, but you guys let me know that wasn't quite the vibe. No worries, we're back on track. Think of this as your weekly dose of the good stuff on success – the practical wisdom that actually matters. Let's get those gears turning! More signal, less noise!
The Bedrock of Success
Warren Buffett likes to keep things simple: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." That kind of long-term focus starts with a strong foundation. Here are the nine essentials:
Raw Talent/Intelligence: A natural head-start is always nice.
Hard Work: The most reliable ingredient for turning promise into results.
Differentiation: Don't follow the herd. Chart your own course with unique ideas.
Process/Discipline: Systems make ambition repeatable. Boring, but oh-so-effective.
Talent Collector: Surround yourself with A-players, then get out of their way.
Patience: Big goals take time. Play the long game.
Ability to Take Pain: Mistakes are tuition. Learn, adapt, and keep going.
Temperament: Cool heads prevail when the going gets tough.
Luck: Fortune cannot be commanded, but preparedness invites it.
Challenge
Don't obsess over weaknesses. Instead, analyze where your existing strengths lie within these nine pillars. Double down on becoming exceptional in those areas.
Practical Insights For The Daily Grind
Tech Trap for Operations: New tools are great, but don't lose sight of your true purpose.
Focus on the Customer: Elegance is useless if it doesn't solve a real problem.
What Makes You Tick?
Steve Jobs understood that customers connect with why you do something, not just what you do. It's about the values you stand for, the problems you solve uniquely. What's your driving force?
Remember that we are constantly marketing ourselves and our capabilities to the world. Values-based marketing is the most effective kind:
"Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear what we want them to know about us. One of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think about nike …. In their ads they don’t ever talk about the product. ... What does Nike do in their advertisements? They honour great athletes. That’s who they are. That’s what they are about. Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it we stand for. Where do we sit in this world. What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done … "
Knowledge Key
This book will shake you up (in a good way)
Ever feel like you're capable of more but keep getting in your own way? David Goggins' "Can't Hurt Me" messed me up. His story is a gut punch of what's possible when you stop making excuses. Changed my perspective big time. Grab it here if you need that push:
Why it hit me hard:
Anti-woke-mind-virus look at mental toughness.
Forces you to re-evaluate your limits.
Might seriously make you want to go for something BIG.
Heads up: This is not your typical self-help book. It's raw and intense. But if you're hungry for a change, it'll light a fire under you.
Ace
Ace strolled on down to his local farmer's market and watched as his neighbors haggled over baskets of peaches. The free market at it’s finest - a little hustle, a little compromise, and everyone gets a piece of the pie.
"The successful warrior is the average man,
with laser-like focus."
Thank you for reading Airplane Mode! If I can be of service to you, feel free to connect with me. I mean that, I am happy to help out, even if it’s to brainstorm or just a chat about geopolitics.
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