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The Key To Happiness
Happy Friday! We are bouncing you a basket of the perfect business treats this good Friday.
This week's masterpieces:
The Key To Happiness
A Historical Moment
Unlearning
1. The Key To Happiness
You probably know that person who seems eternally happy.
That person who thinks everything is “awesome” and when something bad happens it was for a reason and there is something good to follow (my mom…love you Kathi).
One of my favorite storytellers Shaan Puri told an allegory about the key to happiness.
His allegory is told through a story of an unhappy prince and a reclusive guru.
There are three cornerstones to happiness.
In the story, the guru helps the prince of Atlantis recognize how easily he is distracted by the happenings of the world around him.
It made me realize how my day is a maze of distractions, and I easily trade my attention for so little. I allow apps, a child’s mess or a challenging email from a customer to distract me from what’s important. These things are vampires that suck away my attention, distract me from my focus and steal my happiness.
The guru in the story’s wisdom to the prince is that if he wouldn’t trade his castle(something of value) for so little why would he trade something even more valuable, his focus and attention, for so little.
Second lesson was that events are neither good nor bad.
The guru taught that the Prince’s reaction to events make them good or bad. He challenges the prince to go to the market the next morning and react emotionally to everything. But then after lunch try to react to everything with a neutral or positive reaction. When someone steps on your foot, give them a hug. When someone tries to get a higher price, he got excited by the prospect of negotiating a deal.
The prince of Atlantis shares how his ‘state’ made all the difference in how he perceived the world and how the world perceived him.
The final key to happiness…
The guru tells the prince to bring 1,000 gold coins. When he arrives he offers to trade a unimpressive, everyday, picked from the beach stone for 1,000 gold coins. The prince is reaction… no way it's not worth it.
The guru then tells him that the stone was the prince’s deceased father’s stone and that his father too came to see the guru and left the guru this stone from his favorite beach in gratitude for the lessons the guru taught him.
Once the prince heard the stone was his beloved father's it was almost priceless and he offered all 1000 gold coins for the rock.
The guru told him that he did not need the gold coins but this was the final lesson in the pursuit of happiness.
The same rock at first was worthless but the story made it priceless. It is story we tell ourselves that give things in our lives weight and meaning. The story that turns a disaster into a triumph or a set back to launching pad or something worthless into something priceless.
The guru congratulated the prince on learning the lessons of happiness and left him with this final summary.
“Your focus will determine what you seek, your state will determine how you feel, the stories you tell yourself will determine the meaning. If you master these three, you master the art of living.”
2. The most historic moment in a lifetime
This is one of history's most important inflection points.
This isn't a wait-and-see moment.
Inaction could lead to devastation
Best-case scenario, trade agreements will increase costs with minor disruption to the supply chain.
The worst case scenario…I hate to even imagine.
Every small business needs to act on what they have control over and have a plan.
Here is a 6-point plan I heard an entrepreneur of an 8-figure e-commerce business set in motion.
I found his method as important as his plan.
He created urgency and made it the utmost priority by hand-selecting a SWAT team. He gave the SWAT team a name (a brand). Maybe the Tariff Titans or the Tariffinator Task Force.
He cleared each member’s to-do list and made this their only priority.
And they meet daily until the plan is done.
Now, here is a practical and action-oriented six-point plan that every small business owner could adapt to their business.
Pricing tariff surcharge - Figure out the impact on the price of goods and how much they can pass along to the customers without grinding demand to a halt.
Research sourcing inventory or supplies from other lower-tariff countries
Lower the cost of goods by negotiating with suppliers and getting them to share in the impact of the increased tariffs by lowering their costs.
Get advice from lawyers about handling inventory and supplies currently en route in the Pacific.
Get Lean. Reduce purchase orders for future supplies and inventory.
Get a line of credit. What was once $10M in inventory or supplies is now $23M. The best time to get access to credit and cash is when times are good. Extend credit or take out a loan to have cash to keep the business afloat. This was Ford Motor Company's playbook and helped them avoid bankruptcy in 2009, unlike the other big automakers.
Whether you are e-commerce, HVAC or an electrician this plan applies to any small business
What else are you doing to avoid disruption?
3. Unlearning
These are my three little homeschoolers.
Homeschooling is not easy. My wife is amazing.
It's emotional, we feel the pressure from our family.
“are they getting the time they need with other kids their age?”
“are they going to be behind?”.
Fear weasels its way into my head, and the question pops up “Can we teach our kids all the things they need?”
Then I look back on my own life and experience, I realize two key things that inspire me to keep going:
First, I've spent most of my adult life unlearning what was ingrained in school; there is only one right answer, and the wrong is a fail.
The most successful chapters of my life were when I met moments where there wasn’t an answer that I had memorized. I had to figure it out by trying, failing and adapting.
I’m not an inventor but James Dyson and Thomas Edison are the ultimate example of trying and failing to create a breakthrough. They don’t teach this stuff in school.
James Dyson, vacuum guy, built 5000 failed prototypes before he reinvented the vacuum.
Edison took 6000 failed attempts to get to a working light bulb.
The second truth I remind myself is that success doesn’t operate on a 9 to 5 schedule with neat little increments like 45 min classes, 4 quarters, 2 semesters and 4 year degrees.
That is not how learning happens in the real world.
Real learning comes from deep focus that knows no ringing bells.
Learning happens when interest drives focus and time becomes non-existent. Have you ever had those moments when you got lost in a topic and the next time you looked at a clock it was 3 hours later.
Sitting at the edge of technology, I am reminded that nothing moves in 4 year increments. In today's world, driven by technology, our world changes rapidly. And even weekly.
And the adults of the future must embrace constant change by always learning (and not memorizing) and adapting.
Even if our experiment doesn’t work out, their early childhood (6, 5 and 3) will benefit from more family time, more time outside and more play.
I love these three!
Happy Friday ya’ll!
👋 Know a small biz owner who’s thinking of selling in the next 5 years? Hit me up—I’d love to connect.