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Luke’s 3 Big Pieces of Life, Career, & Leadership Advice (Resources)

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How can you get what you want out of life and work? I tried to answer that question with the 3 important principles I use.

🤔 Main Takeaways

1. Consistently Do New & Uncomfortable Things

  • It builds empathy
    • New experiences builds touch points for you to connect with people. You can better understand what it’s like to be in their shoes because you’ve done something similar. You can relate to them. You can understand them. It helps you meet more people where they’re at.
    • You need to know people’s current status, future goals, and internal motivations to get them to change.
    • Your life will be filled with more stories, friends, and helpful teammates because of it.
  • It helps you find your “natural drift”
    • Find the Golden State Warriors to your Andrew Wiggins. Where’s your natural fit?
    • Leadership looks different for everyone. If you keep using an inauthentic style of leadership, you are going to be a shitty leader
    • Life and careers look different for everyone. If you try to be someone who you’re not, you are going to have a shitty life and career.
    • You may confidently pick a path, commit months or years to it, only to realize it’s just not for you. That’s normal! You won’t know until you do it. So, keep trying new things & iterating!
    • Do not settle or think you are set after you get an internship. You are a human with complex desires.
    • Use college to experiment and find your natural drift in every facet of life (social, professional, personal, spiritual, etc).
    • Do not let people corner you into a certain type of person. They will try to box you. Resist! Fight the good fight!

2. Know Your Measuring Stick

  • You’re following some measuring stick (whether you want to admit it or not).
  • For your career & personal life, your measuring stick should be aligned to your authentic self.
  • Some measuring sticks (like salary) are easier to measure than others. Naturally, people bias towards those numbers. Not because it’s the best measuring stick, but because it’s they only one they know. They haven’t defined their own measuring stick.
  • People are unfulfilled and unhappy because they don’t even know what they’re working towards. Or, once they pick something that sounds good, they never go back to question it
  • Optimize for a typical tuesday. Not for the glamorous resume titles or big moments.
  • You shouldn’t do the job you want to tell other people you do. You should do the job you want to do.
  • My professional measuring sticks
    • Opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, have creative ownership, contribute to overall mission, & be recognized for achievements.
  • My personal measuring sticks
    • Deep relationships with people, internally driven self worth, consistent presence, & helping others.
  • Your measuring sticks determine how you spend your time which determines who you become.
  • If you keep these things top of mind, it’ll be pretty hard to look back at 80 with big regrets.

3. Play Offense, Not Defense

  • The safe & traditional route can be the right route for you. Just remember it is not the only route.
  • You don’t get paid for being well-rounded, you get paid for being an expert. The only way to be an expert is to put in a lot of work. And the easiest way to put in a lot of work is to do something you actually enjoy.
  • The only way to find something you enjoy is to play offense in life.
  • A deep sense confidence that you’re on the right path is priceless.
  • The easy route is to ignore what your mind is telling you, to not confront the tough questions, pursue certainty, and play defense.
    • I’ve met way too many unhappy and lost 27 year olds who ended up there because they played defense.
  • Do not pursue a path because you’re scared of the alternative.
  • Remember you’re a badass. Bet on yourself.
  • We’re too damn priviledged to not take risk at creating a great life for ourselves and the people around us.

💥 Challenges

Challenge #1

Answer the reflection questions below
  • FYI: You don’t get good ideas from brainstorming session. You get them in random moments (in the shower, on a walk, during class, etc).
  • The more time you let your subconscious mull over something, the more good ideas you’ll have.

Challenge #2

Each week, commit to doing something new that pushes you out of your comfort zone.
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Specific Examples

Challenge #3

Identify a passion or interest you’ve been hesitant to pursue. Take one concrete step towards exploring this interest.

🗨️ Great Quotes

“Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” - James Lane Allen
"Great things never came from comfort zones." - Neil Strauss
"Growth and comfort do not coexist." - Ginni Rometty
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin
The coolest humans are those who define success for themselves and then make it happen. - Shaan Puri
“Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life." - Steve Jobs
"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened." - Lao Tzu
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." - Mark Zuckerberg
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - William Bruce Cameron
"Work is not a series of words on a LinkedIn profile. It’s a series of moments in the world. And if you don’t enjoy those moments, no sequence of honorifics will dispel your misery.” - Derek Thompson

🏦 Resources

Consistently Do New & Uncomfortable Things

Play Offense, Not Defense

Know Your Measuring Stick

❓Reflection Questions

  • What’s your “natural drift”? What’s your natural leadership style?
  • What type of person will people box you in to be?
  • What’s your ideal Typical Tuesday? Personal? Professional?
  • Where are you playing defense?

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