In Chapter 11 of 16 of his 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, Joe Stump sets personal challenges to continuously plan and pursue new goals. He cycles to put himself to reflect and plan on what comes next. When traveling, he tries to read books set in his travel location to embrace the moment and more fully engage the experience away from home.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How do you find quiet time to pause, reflect, and plan?
Joe Stump: I went through this awesome stage where I was reading novels in the places where they were set for a while. So, if I was traveling, I would pick a book…for instance, I ready Elvis Huckley’s “The Island” while I was in Thailand. I read both Brave New World and 1984 in London. I read Catcher in the Rye in New York. … So I’ve taken up reading.
I also do long distance endurance sports. I do a lot of cycling, running, swimming, and triathlons. That kind of stuff. I was talking to my dad about this the other day. I feel that there is no better opponent on this planet than yourself. When you are out playing a team sport like basketball or football or something like that, you have teammates that are goading you on.
They are either cheering you or telling you that you need to pick up the slack and calling you out. There is someone goading you on. There’s coaches in other sports goading you on. You know this, you run marathons. When you are on mile 11 and don’t want to go to mile 12, the only person standing between mile 11 and 12 is yourself. I really like that and a great by-product is the endorphin highs.
In Chapter 10 of 11 of her 2009 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author Rachel Lehmann-Haupt shares how acceptance, relinquishing control, and facing anxiety and doubt all contribute to her personal and career development. Haupt shares how these roles have impacted her life and work. Lehmann-Haupt is the author of "In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood." She is also a journalist, writer and editor. Lehmann-Haupt graduated with honors in English Literature from Kenyon College and earned a masters degree at The Graduate School of Journalism at The University of California at Berkeley.
In Chapter 16 of 16 of his 2009 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, "Start With Why" author Simon Sinek shares why passion is a result and not an action. Finding one's passion requires creating a process to make it actionable. Sinek shares why the first step is to identify what you love and then to continue to enable this root element through action.
Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.
Transcript
Erik Michielsen: What are your thoughts and what is your approach in finding and building upon passions?
Simon Sinek: Passion is not an actionable word. It is correct that those who do what they are passionate about do better, but it is not helpful advice. The question is where does passion come from? Passion is a result. Passion is an energy. Passion is the feeling you have when you are engaged in something you love. Passion is the feeling you have when you would probably do this for free and you can't believe someone pays you for it. We mistake that passion is something we do in our private lives but it shouldn't be done in our careers. I'm a firm believer in you are who you are and anyone who says they are different at home than they are at work then in one of those two places you are lying. The goal is to make everything you do at home at work something you are excited to do. So how do you find the thing that you are excited to do? It is easier than you think. What are the things you would do for free? What do you do when nobody tells you to do them? How can you recreate that feeling and be paid for it? I'm very involved in the art world. I love to go to museums and galleries and I love to go see dances and performances because I want to see how others are interpreting the world. That inspires me. New ideas, new thoughts, new ways of looking at the world are things that interest me, privately, and I seek it out and pay money for it. So, does that mean I have to have a career in the arts? No. That means I have to have a career where new ideas are explored, where people are experimenting and trying things out and I have to explore new ideas and try things out and I'm just as excited to go to work each day as I am to go do something on a Saturday night. The idea of finding your passion is ironically simple. You should be doing something you love sometime. What is the stuff that you enjoy and what is the stuff that you love? Who are the people you love and what do they all have in common?
In Chapter 4 of 13, Caroline Giegerich unexpectedly finds medical school an unappealing career option after a hospital internship. Learning the study of science does not necessarily translate to a practical medical career. Upon graduating from Brown University, Giegerich finds restitution and catharsis on a trip to Bologna, Italy. Ultimately, she resets and returns to New York for her next chapter, an entry-level job in direct marketing sales.
In Chapter 12 of 13, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie shares his approach to seeking counsel and advice on difficult decisions. McKenzie finds value both in independent decision making and in accessing pragmatic outside views. He highlights overcoming the challenge presented when others focus more on safety than on possibility. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.
In Chapter 11 of 13, Howard University track and field experiences shape Phil McKenzie's approach to priority and goal setting. Specifically, the mental preparation and fitness training provide McKenzie an orderly approach to set and top goals through perseverance, practice, and mental fitness. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.
In Chapter 7 of 7, Oregon winemaker Patty Green shares how staying positive while managing change allows her to be opportunistic. Green promotes a creative work culture that embraces, not shuns, change. She experiments with business partners, focusing evolving relationships. All the while, Green diversifies her thinking while maintaining a consistent winemaking style. A more positive personal and professional outlook results.
In Chapter 2 of 6, James McCormick shares how parental encouragement, openness, and support empowered him to make difficult decisions early in life. From this, McCormick has become comfortable making informed decisions alone. This has translated into his advisory work recruiting senior attorneys and empowering them to make decisions on their own.
Since 2009, Capture Your Flag has interviewed a cohort of rising leaders who share lessons from their journeys to help others plan, pursue and achieve life and career aspirations. The resulting 3000+ Near Peer Video Library can be licensed for commercial use.
