“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –Calvin Coolidge

Go. Go. Go. 

Action. Action. Action

There is a concept that Jocko WIllink talks about often which he refers to as a “default aggressive mindset”. When I would hear him talk about it I would nod along thinking I understood it, but I did not fully grasp it until recently. 

Around May of this year my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym moved locations which forced me to try out a new gym which I didn’t get around to until July. In July I was feeling RUSTY and it certainly showed in my technique, but even two months later I am constantly being caught on my heels when sparring with my new partners. Then last week our instructor shed a little light on their philosophy, which has a direct impact on the students who have been training there for a long time. At this gym they don’t like to practice escapes because they do not want you to be comfortable in bad positions and get used to being there. They teach a baseline level of fundamentals for escapes and then focus all the efforts on offense. They want their students to be default aggressive. This was a lightbulb moment for me.

Beyond martial arts, this is the same concept you will find in The Ship It Journal, The War of Art, and The AltMBA. In its essence the AltMBA was about developing the skill of shipping good work. As Seth says in the Ship It Journal, “ When you ship things change. Your project interacts with the world and the market changes. You change. Your relationship with your team changes. There is a mark in the calendar – there were days before you shipped and then there are the days after you shipped.” 

My friend Nick and I have been working on a business plan for the last 9 months. Plans are fine but plans cannot change someone, the plan needs to ship. In order to get this project out the door and into the world we have adopted a similar approach to the projects in the AltMBA. Multiple deadlines per week. Do the work. Reflect. Iterate. 

As Derek Sivers so eloquently said: “If more information were the answer we would all be billionaires with six pack abs.” 

Go time.

bow and arrow by Ealancheliyan s from the Noun Project