Completely unrelated things, all pointing me the same direction.
A good friend, Elliott Stegin, sent me a post last week: for every grain of sand on Earth, there are something like ten thousand stars. Then I watched About Schmidt on the flight home yesterday — a man at the end of his career, terrified his life’s work added up to nothing, undone by one small human connection he almost missed.
A space stat and a 2002 movie. Both dragged me back to something I wrote last year: a chapter called “Keep Things in Perspective,” part of a collection Jennifer Bardot pulled together of business owners telling the honest version of what it actually takes to build something.
As is often the case, I may have gone a bit off script, but here’s the heart of my chapter: There are eight billion of us, on one planet, circling one star, in a universe with more planets than anyone can count. Against that, my wins and my losses are about the same size: tiny. The only things that have ever felt big up close are the people and the moments.
Another good friend and mentor who came to this country from Greece with virtually nothing gave me five words I’ve never shaken: life is short and unpredictable. Everyone we encounter is living their own short version of it. Including the people across our own table.
Which is what just gutted me. Two weeks, five cities, and what I couldn’t unsee was the phones. The perfect shot in front of something that took hundreds of years to build. Families at dinner, everyone on a screen, no one actually across from anyone. Me included at times. Getting the shot, half-present at my own table more than once.
Then this morning, a song came at it from another direction: “Just Livin’” by Sensi Trails. Three minutes of straight-up gratitude. The days are short, so be thankful for them and just live.
Different lenses. Same place. Relationships and moments are the entire point.
I’m home now. Back in the grind tomorrow, and I know exactly how that goes. The noise rushes back, the next thing starts pulling, and the easiest thing in the world is to let it all slide: to stop being present, to be short with the very people the grind is full of — the ones I get to build for and alongside.
That’s the catch. It’s the line I most want to pass on, and the one I keep having to relearn myself:
Be the nice kid. Be present. Help people enjoy their journey.
It costs nothing. And it may be the most important thing we do.
#ChipChats #Perspective #Gratitude #Leadership #Kindness