To dare greatly, care deeply
I was living in LA, not really doing creative stuff at the time when I had an idea to start a production company creating music videos and producing music albums for international artists with Hollywood producers. I had contacts with artists internationally, and my wife Deb had contacts with producers in LA from her days working in production management for MTV and Universal/Motown.
It was just an idea; it felt like a pipe dream, but we both loved music so much that we thought it was worth a try. Most of us have ideas we’d love to turn into reality, and we ignore them as impractical and unlikely to succeed. Instead, we choose practical, rational, safe things that don’t inspire us. We think this is the less risky thing to do. I find the opposite to be true. The riskiest thing you can do is something you don’t care about because lack of purpose drains you of your creative capabilities—the one thing you need to build a better, brighter future.
You only live fully when you care deeply, so work toward spending as much time as possible on things you care about. Caring deeply opens yourself up to more suffering because if you care - you hurt when things don’t work out. On the other hand, you can only reach mastery, excellence, and true harmony with others if you care deeply. Caring drives us to overcome obstacles, persevere when things get hard, which they will inevitably do, and put in the 10,000 hours required for true mastery in anything: marriage, athleticism, writing, building, investing, performing, producing etc. etc.
Deb and I started a company with no clients, vendors, partners, or investors. A friend kindly helped me put together a basic website for free. Now what?
Out of the blue, an old acquaintance who managed an international artist contacted me asking if I knew anyone in LA who made music videos. I responded casually ( while freaking out inside) that, as a matter of fact, this is what I do and asked about the budget. It was 5-7 times bigger than I had envisioned. No problem, I said. Of course, we can handle that. Panic set in. We had no idea how to execute this. Deb called and convinced her former boss to help us assemble the team. Next thing I know, we’re on a Hollywood set producing a music video with almost 100 people between cast and crew, to a track produced by a musical hero of mine, George Duke, who became a good friend in the process.
This crazy idea gave us a good living for 5 years while we enjoyed working with some of the top songwriters, videographers, dancers, sound engineers, and studio musicians in the world. It became the foundational step toward starting our media and marketing company, Third Drive.
Was that first client and our ability to serve them at the highest level a fluke and a coincidence? When coaching my clients, I actually tell them this:
Lean into your purpose and passion and prepare yourself for two things:
1. All kinds of things will start going wrong. It’s called Resistance, and it’s a sure sign you’re about to have a breakthrough.
2. Expect supernatural coincidences, small breaks, and massive opportunities. I don’t know how these things will happen, but they will with 99% certainty. And they do—all the time.
I read this quote from Brad Stulberg recently, which describes both the tension and the opportunity of caring deeply and daring boldly perfectly:
It’s easy to sit on the sidelines.
To analyze the thing.
Talk about the thing.
Perhaps even dream about the thing.
But these are all just ways of protecting yourself from actually doing the thing.
When you step into the arena and give something your all, you make yourself vulnerable.
Things don’t always go your way. You could fail.
At some point, you will fail.
This is why caring deeply requires courage.
The word courage originates from the Latin root cor, which means heart. It’s fitting since excellence is not possible without caring, and caring is not possible without heart.
You can possess all the talent in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t care.
Caring drives everything.
Not every day will be great, but underneath it all, at the foundation of excellence, you’ll always find care. It’s what allows you to give something your all, to stay on the path through ups and downs.
- Brad Stulberg
From the Archives
Almost exactly a year ago, I posted this video on 5 Practices to Transform Suffering into a Superpower. This topic has been on my mind as I write a chapter on Anti-fragility for my Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America, which I plan to post around Wednesday. A huge obstacle to developing perseverance and Anti-fragility is our fear of suffering and failure. Both this video and the chapter I’m writing delve into why we should overcome this fear and how this pays off as a huge upside in life.
What I am reading: I am still finishing up Age of Revolutions by Fareed Zakaria and loving the Almanac of Naval Ravikant. Both books remind me that to understand life and learn how to navigate it wisely, there's no way around studying three disciplines: History, Economics, and Philosophy.
What I'm watching: I was hanging out with my daughters, and my wife Deb brought up a beautifully made film we will show our girls later tonight: Where the Crawdads Sing. It's a beautiful adaptation of the novel based on a bestselling novel produced by Reese Witherspoon with a soundtrack song by Taylor Swift.
Lenny Kravitz - an interview about his life and latest album, Blue Electric Light; it is an in-depth conversation with a true artist. As a singer and artist - I've always gained inspiration from discussions about the mysterious ways of the creative process. I believe we are all creators and artists. Most of us have just been convinced otherwise.
If you missed the latest HSLive - I talk Furiosa: A Mad Max Story - The Call that Changed My Life - How Pros Get Stuck.