#9 Exponential And The Truth About Potential
Emergent Properties and Stuff
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”
Albert Allen Bartlett
The Monkey Mind loves linear (straight lines). So much so that it has a strong propensity to extrapolate all data into a straight line.
Simultaneously, it desires things that cannot be achieved linearly. For example, you cannot 10x your income by working 10x more hours, working 10x harder, or taking on 10x more jobs.
You cannot lose weight 3x faster by exercising 3x more or eating 3x less.
You’re welcome to try.
Exponential outcomes are emergent properties. They don't come from doing individual things more frequently, harder, or better. Instead, they emerge from doing them in a way that best compliments the entire system they are a part of.
That system, when harmonized, creates an entirely new thing - or return on effort - that did not exist before A thing that you cannot find, no matter hard you look, because it does not exist somewhere to be found. It must emerge from the harmony of a system; what we often call "synergy."
A super simple, tactical example:
If you're too lazy to click the tweet it's pasted below.
If you show up best on email, show up via email.
Don't copy and paste the same message on other platforms. Instead, use other platforms to get people to go open the email, where you show up best.
Example: If you show up best on video and your entire strategy is based on retargeting video viewers on Facebook...
1. Show up on video and get it onto Facebook
2. Send an email with a link to that video so that they fall into your optimized strategy
3. if you care about your open rates, you can SMS people to check their email for something powerful instead of just linking them to the video.
If you don't care about the open rate, link directly to the video. Use other platforms to get people into SMS, email, or directly to the original video. This is optimizing the synergy between the components of a system.
"Exponential" is an emergent property, it rarely exists in isolation. Getting parts to work together > getting more individual parts working.
Hopefully, that makes sense.
It's different for everyone.
You have your skillset. Your unique abilities and your unique disposition. Which means you have an advantage: there is only one of you in all existence. The greatest potential for exponential will be figuring out what you do best, how you show up best, and what you are most interested in...
And then building a system around it, iterating it over and over and over again.
This is where it gets tricky.
Each iteration is not more detailed, working harder, adding more things, or more hours. Instead, each iteration is sanding down or smooth out the friction points so the system runs with more harmony.
It's the theory of constraints; remove the most immediate constraint. But focus on the constraint preventing the system from being synergistic.
Marketing, product, sales, etc will all improve at the right time: when they are the biggest constraint limiting the harmony of the system. They will improve the appropriate amount; enough to no longer be the constraint.
More importantly...
If you try to perfect one component of the system you will get diminished returns. If you can stay zoomed out enough to focus on harmonizing the parts, a new property emerges that can only emerge through this kind of synergistic thinking and implementation...
Exponential.
The Monkey Mind will fight it.
It will try and get you to obsess over each detail of each component.
It will demand linear strategies while simultaneously expecting exponential growth.
When the Monkey Mind in charge we can be sure of one thing: reality will not meet expectation.
Remember:
Exponential is an emergent property.
It cannot be found with more effort, harder work, or a fancier vision board. It must be created and drawn out by increasing synergy one iteration at a time.
The Truth About Full Potential
This is a little bit of “inside-baseball” - which means you are one of the first people to hear it. It also means that’s it’s not entirely ironed out for the public yet.
I spend a few hours a week with Dr. Jeff Spencer.
We’re going on four or five years of weekly deep dives.
Sometimes he helps me. Sometimes I help him. We just show up and do the work - whatever needs to be done.
He is preparing for his Ted Talk - which will be a brain melter. Dr. Jeff has coached over 41 Olympic Medalists and world champions. He is an Olympic medalist himself. He’s a master of helping people reach their full potential.
He’s a a boots-on-the-ground kinda guy. Until faced with this Ted Talk, he never had to explain how full potential is found and harnessed.
After peeling back layer after layer, this is what he found.
There are three potentials.
Known Potential: This is what can be observed, tested and measured. Height, weight, speed, IQ, etc. Reaching your known potential can be done with hard work and a little bit of focus.
Unknown Potential: Unknown potential is an emergent property. You won’t be able to tap into it with more work or longer hours. It is something that is already inside of you, dormant. Unknown potential is awakened through exposure, proximity and receptivity:
Exposure to people, places and things that tease it out of you
Proximity to those people, places and things.
Receptivity, because it’s not going to be something taught directly to you. Sometimes it’s overhearing a conversation between two people that awakens your unknown potential - and they don’t even know you heard it. Sometimes it’s just seeing how a group of people interacts.
When you do the work to reach your known potential and get the exposure and proximity to awaken your unknown potential the result is:
Full Potential: Exponential growth, impact and progress.
Dr. Jeff will say it much better than I just did. But hopefully you get the gist of it. Here’s a top secret slide from his forthcoming Ted Talk:
This is why as the world gets more digital and disconnected, in person connection will become a bigger advantage. It’s a big reason why we are moving to more in-person events.
To tap into the unknown potential.
It also means we need to continue to curate the room with the right people, in the right places, around the right things.
Today is July 18th, on July 21st and 22nd we have a small get together in Phoenix, Arizona. If you’re in TGA you should already have your invite.
If you’re not, but want a little exposure to some really incredible humans, let me know and we can see if it makes sense. Just harass me on IG or Twitter or something.
Onward.
Nic