Level Up Your Skills
The Mission Newsletter, 8/9/18
“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” — Ralph Nader
Level Up Your Skills To Do More With Less
Episode 72 of The Mission Daily
Behind just about every “overnight success” are many, many other nights and weeks and years of early attempts, failure, and getting back up to try harder. You learn by doing and on the way to success.
In today’s episode, Chad and Stephanie explain that advancing your skills and learning more about what you can do will define how far you can go.
Listen to Episode 72 of The Mission Daily.
The Mission Daily is a podcast dedicated to accelerated learning and helping you become healthier, wealthier, and wiser. It is designed to help you learn — as fast as you possibly can.
Becoming A Monopoly Of One With Skill Layering
The standout men and women of history have all been self-taught, skill layering, life-long learners. Consider Leonardo DaVinci, Lucius Seneca, Ben Franklin, Mother Teresa, Elizabeth Holmes, and Elon Musk. Many of these people started far behind where we are in terms of resources, familial love, and technology that we now have access to.
Each of these monopolies of one suffered through adversities and were able to prosper without all the advantages we have in front of us today. They managed to become self-taught masters of many skills. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in right now, others have triumphed over worse.
Read: Becoming A Monopoly Of One With Skill Layering by Chad Grills
News That Matters
Health
A study by researchers from Oxford University and Queen Mary University of London has shown that living on or near a busy road can lead to dangerous enlargement of your heart and other health problems.
The enlargement was linked to breathing in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or PM2.5 — the small particles of air pollution that can be absorbed deep into the lungs.
Although those who were found to have heart abnormalities showed no symptoms of anything wrong, a closer look revealed that their hearts were similar to those in the very early stages of heart failure. It’s important to note that this study was paid for by The British Heart Foundation, and more testing will need to be done to prove causation. However, these new details are still worth paying attention to for your own heart health.
Wealth
Conde Nast is one of the most successful publishing companies in the world. However, in order to stay viable in a slumping print market, recently it was reportedthat Conde will put three of their well-known brands up for sale: Brides, Golf Digest, and W.
The once bustling business lost $120 million last year, much of it due to a sharp decline in ad revenue brought in by print magazines. A portion of the loss was offset by the continued investment in digital sales and advertising, but as the market for print continues its downward trend, companies like Conde Nast must adjust to stay afloat. A shift to video production has been the way forward for Conde, which reported that for the first time in company history, video revenue had surpassed print.
Wisdom
In the workplace, women are much more likely to endure incivility from other womenthan from men.
Women who strayed from “stereotypical gender norms” — those who were assertive, took charge, delegated or spoke up, “behaviors we view as being characteristic of good leadership,” Gabriel pointed out — were more vulnerable to rudeness from female coworkers than women who showed sympathy, complimented others or smiled, the study found.
Dealing with such incivility can be hard, but there are some strategies you can use:
- Speak Up: confront the person directly
- Address the situation in the moment: don’t let things linger
- Be direct and honest: don’t go behind anyone’s back
- Don’t take it personally: and don’t ruminate on things
- Realize it might not be about you: everyone is struggling with their own problems, sometimes you wind up in the crosshairs
Join us at SIGNAL!
SIGNAL celebrates the developers, the builders, the innovators, the doers, and the dreamers who are reimagining how the world communicates.
Be a part of it with us! Go to signal.twilio.com and get your ticket for 20% off by using the promo code: MISSION20.
Tech Trends
A recently-released patent shows that Google is working on new facial recognition software that combs through social media and uses users’ profile pictures and other photos to help identify people.
The system would bring in data from a user’s social apps and examine “social connection metrics of social connectivity” to guess identities. … The system analyzes the visual query image and looks for other images that are both visually similar and relevant to the searcher’s social networks. Upon finding a match, the system presents its best guess about the identity of the person. It also could provide information such as the person’s occupation, group memberships, and other details.
Before making this software available, Google will have to navigate various privacy laws and regulations that have generally made facial-recognition more regulated.
Marketing Trends
According to Google Trends data, podcasts are surpassing blogs in popularity. Both consumers and creators are searching keywords and phrases associated with podcasts more than those associated with blogs, and creators are increasingly using Google to search for ways to monetize their podcasts.
Catching onto the trend, Google has itself gotten into the podcast game by developing a dedicated podcast app and promoting certain podcasts. The search engine is also developing a guidelines page for those looking to create podcast content.
The number of people delving into podcast creation is also skyrocketing since word got out that ad revenue from podcasts grew 86% in the last year, and the Internet Advertising Bureau projects that by 2020 podcast revenue will be at $659 million.
Education Trends
Changing the world requires a special outlook. At Babson College, an entrepreneurial approach has helped students stay ahead of the pack.
Among many other programs, Babson offers Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® (ET&A™) methodology that teaches undergraduates, graduates, and executives to balance action, experimentation, and creativity with a deep understanding of business fundamentals and rigorous analysis as the ideal approach to creating economic and social value.
By advocating action through reasonable steps, Babson believes that entrepreneurs who leave their program will be better equipped to change the world in a business sense, as well as through social change. Along with ET&A, Babson also offers a highly-ranked business school and a Social Innovation Lab, where ideas are fostered and incubated.
The Social Innovation Lab employs Babson’s Uncommon Table methodology, which fosters “smart action” by bringing together diverse audiences with unique strengths and perspectives to address critical dilemmas facing the world.
The Best of What We Are Reading
Do you have the courage to stand out?
From the inventor of cubism Pablo Picasso to Spanx founder Sarah Blakely, the people we admire most in the world are original, unique, different. They take risks, claim new ground. They do not fit in, they stand out.
And they do not compete for attention in the traditional sense.
Most of us are tricked into believing that achieving personal and professional success means fitting in. What it really takes is the courage to stand out.
