Painting an Activator Mindset
“Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.” — G.K. Chesterton
Imagine wanting to create a piece of art. You can picture the full creation in your head. In front of you lies the paintbrush and paint cans to bring that vision to a reality. Instead, however, your mind becomes riddled with poisoned thoughts. You ask yourself, “What if I’m not a good enough painter?” Slowly, your magnificent vision gets torn into a thousand shredded remnants.
It’s what happened to all painters in the past. Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, all of the greatest masters you can name. Everyone has suffered from a feeling of inadequacy before. It’s a universal struggle that we’ve all faced.
Because we’re human and we have our doubts, it’s most likely that you’ll have to live with them for the rest of your life. But there’s a way to defeat their influence: through being an activator.
Who is an activator? Simply put, a person who takes action where it’s needed. Instead of being consumed by thoughts of what could possibly go wrong, an activator takes initiative right away. By placing faith in their ability to bring change, they take a radical step towards making the world a better place. You don’t have to found an award winning NGO to be one. It’s not about impact, it’s about belief. Believing in yourself enough to try.
This week, a few of my friends and I met to discuss ways we could be activators. Using examples from some of the world’s most famous activators, including Jack Ma, Helen Keller, and Nicola Tesla, we asked ourselves what it meant to truly have a bias to action and why these people were so successful in implementing that in their lives. Let’s take Jack Ma. Growing up, he accomplished a bucket list of failures that most people wouldn’t even dream of.
Jack Ma:
- Failed his elementary school exams twice
- Failed his middle school exams thrice
- Failed his college entrance exams thrice
- Got rejected by Harvard 10 times
- Got rejected by over almost 30 different jobs
- Wasn’t able to make a success out of his first 2 ventures
And yet he still founded the ecommerce company Alibaba at the age of 35. Alibaba won over $25 million in a foreign venture capital investment from Goldman Sachs and Softbank. It went on to become a billion dollar company.
So why should you care? At his lowest point, Ma could have told himself, “What good am I?” and quit. He didn’t. Instead, Ma persevered through the tough times with fiery tenacity and held steady. He knew that there was a better future out there, that if he simply pushed through and never stopped, it would all be his. We can learn from Ma that your first, second, or third try doesn’t need to be your last. Rewards come over time with strong patience.
Let’s take a look at Amazon’s original website. Born out of an online bookstore, to our eyes it looks like a meteorite delivered straight from the dinosaur age. “Absolutely horrendous!” some Karen would exclaim today if they saw it. Even though the original site looks like garbage, it was Amazon’s initial attempt at testing the waters. After receiving positive feedback on the service, they realized that Amazon had a legitimate market of people just waiting to be unleashed. Bezos recognized the promising future lying ahead. Rapidly, the team pivoted and added onto the site. Because of their willingness to iterate via each feedback loop, we now have the mammoth corporation that we know so well today.
Karens wouldn’t be happy.
What a journey!
It isn’t just if you activate an action, it’s how you activate that action. We can examine the leadership styles of two world class leaders to gain insight: Ma vs. Musk. Jack Ma once famously said, “I know nothing about technology.” He claims that the most he can do is send and receive emails. Instead, Ma focused on developing a well rounded and familial company culture. In stark contrast, Elon Musk is well known for sleeping on the floor of his Tesla factory. His employees know him for having a tendency to micromanage in order to get every detail down pat. Musk’s focus is clearly on results.
Which one of these two approaches is better is subjective (I personally say Musk, skeptical how one can build a tech company with minimum knowledge of how the tech works). What matters is that you find the best approach that works for you. No matter the path, know that your actions will be strongly influenced by your priorities.
There’s one African proverb that states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” As one person, you can only do so much. There are limits to what can be achieved. But by working in a team with other people, the opportunities are maximized. With an open mind and honest communication, you will be able to 10x your growth. And the best part about working with people you trust? Good memories that will last a lifetime.
I’ll leave you with one last quote from my favorite activator, world famous hedge fund manager Ray Dalio. Ray explains how in order to become your best self, you have to first overcome your lower level emotions in order to harness your higher level reason. A.K.A. harness your emotions to give yourself a major confidence boost. One of the most memorable quotes I’ve internalized from his book is, “So what if you don’t have all the skills you need to succeed? Don’t worry about it because that’s true for everyone. With practice, you will eventually play this game with a calm unstoppable centeredness in the face of adversity.”
The time is now. Visualize your vision so intensely that you can picture every detail. Then, pick up that paint brush and start painting. The world is waiting for you, dear friend. Failure catalyzes success.
If you liked this article, kudos to you for giving it a chance. I’m Amanda Sherman, a 16 year old Innovator studying blockchain and mindsets at TKS, an accelerator for the world’s future unicorn people. I’ll be publishing more articles to come. In the meantime check out my LinkedIn and Portfolio. I’m aspiring to be one of the world’s next big entrepreneurs.
