Black Lives Matter
I haven’t known what to say this week. I’ve been stuck in the middle of not feeling educated enough about Black history to have any right to speak up. On the other hand, I’ve felt that this is also a part of the problem. Not speaking up and not showing support is also not helping anyone, either.
My heart really does break at what has happened and I really hope this can be a cornerstone to finally put right the injustice. I could never truly understand the pain and the suffering caused for centuries and centuries. Over the next few days, I am going to focus on educating myself more, and to share online, and offline, the powerful statements being vocalised in the world right now.
“It’s not enough to not be racist. We all have to be anti-racist.”
Coronavirus
Right now with the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, several questions are circulating in my head. Did it really require one more Black death for White people to open their eyes?
Then with the coronavirus, we hear about families coming together more from the lockdown period. Did it really require 383,000 deaths worldwide, and counting, for our relationships at home to improve? To be FORCED to stay inside so that we can finally communicate better with our loved ones?
It’s clear that when we are left to our own devices, we simply don’t think enough. We don’t question our own beliefs. We don’t consider new behaviours and ways of living and test them. We just stay comfortable. We are happy to stand still.
Considering remote working for a second, we’ve had the ability to do video calls for at least a decade. We’ve been able to communicate with people all over the world for many, many years. We’ve known that work-life balance could be improved from different working hours, yet the 9-5pm typical working day has still stayed in place.
I think this is why I am drawn to entrepreneurship and greatly respect the people who zag when the world zigs. Love or hate him, Elon Musk is a prime example of somebody who is quite literally aiming for the stars. He’s bringing together the right people to achieve unbelievable ambitions of self-driving electric cars, frequent space travel and connecting our brains to computers.
I’d like to end this email with some quotes and questions to ponder from Peter Diamandis, somebody I’ve been introduced to from Tim Ferriss’ book Tools of Titans. I’m not one to obsess over accumulating large sums of money. Instead, it is the big thinking here that inspires me and I hope it will inspire you too.
“A problem is a terrible thing to waste. I think of problems as gold mines. The world’s biggest problems are the world’s biggest business opportunities.”
“When 99% of people doubt you, you are either doing something gravely wrong or about to make history.”
“The best way to be a billionare is to help a billion people.”
“Are you working on something that can change the world? Yes or no? The answer for 99.99999% of people is ‘no.’ I think we need to be training people on how to change the world.” (Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google)
“Where can you put yourself into an environment that gives maximium exposure to new ideas, problems, and people? Exposure to things that capture your ‘shower time’ [those things you can’t stop thinking about in the shower]?”
“The day before something is a breakthrough it’s a crazy idea.”
Here’s to having more crazy ideas. Thank you for spending the time to read this email. I’d like you to join me this week in asking yourself better questions and taking the time to think properly through your thoughts.
Have a great week guys,
Joe