David Shepherd

The most celebrated and lauded leaders are usually very mediocre. They're C-players in the game of leadership and they don't even know it. Are you a C-leader? 🧵

@brookeleblanc I’ve listened to this book once every 6 months for the last 2 years. It’s incredible.

Have a great weekend.

Alan Watts:

I really like this.

@DaireManning No doubt I have an exaggerated belief in my ability but some books are just so good I don’t know how anyone could have written it.

@DavidWShepherd Great test, and a great example!

One of my tests for a great book is “Do I think I could write this?” I’m reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and there is zero chance I could write this book. I haven’t even finished it yet and I know it’s a masterpiece.

I’ve been a long time subscriber to @TheHustle Trends email and the newest one sucks. None of the content is in the email. I have to click links and submit my email to get the content. @HubSpot, my former employer and maybe the best company in the world, ruined a good thing. 😡

“You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.” ~ Maya Angelou

What if we - Western Culture - got meditation all wrong? I've said in the past that we inherited all sorts of strange Traditional views of spiritual teachers (transcended/ perfected humans, all teachings, even apparently dysfunctional behaviours, are divine etc) when they really took root in the 1950s and 60's. Now I'm wondering if the goal oriented approach we adopted to meditation is a function of the Orange/ Modern Achiever consciousness and distracting us from our meditation. Most of us believe that we are sitting down now, to accomplish some ultimate meditation goal - Enlightenment/ Realization/ Nibana - in the future. What if the only realization is the one you can have in this moment, the one you are having in this meditation? Between Now and "Enlightenment" there are a series of mini-enlightenments that you need to go through to have the ultimate one. If we sit fully present with what is, including our discursive mind, if that is what there, we experientially realize - "I have a discursive mind". That changes us and we sit in our next meditation, a different person. We sit with that full acceptance and watch our discursive mind. This sets us up for the next realization - "these thoughts states are impermanent", etc. And the cycle continues until there is nothing left between you and "the ultimate realization" (also a holdover construct from Traditional). The Tibetans understand that all mental phenomena, when fully accepted (experienced and expressed) is self liberating. That's it... be with what is, in this moment and you will have the full realization available to you in this moment. And then the next... and the next... So there is no future in meditation, future goals just distract us from the present potential realization. Sit with that... now... fully accepting who you are... now in this moment... fully accepting what arises... now in this moment... and follow that eternal now to Nirvana!

One of the highest forms of discipline is judging an idea on its own merits despite who is presenting it.

@JanetteJoyB One of my all-time favorite books.

The number of people opening prime future today who are like “what the heck are you doing giving a mouse a cookie anyway” makes me chuckle

One one hand you have the sacred individual created “in the image of his creator” and on the other hand you have the State as the supreme authority to be worshipped. Is there an alternative to the State? Are there other ideologies that attack the sacred individual other than Communism and Fascism?

fwiw rejecting the sacred connection between each individual and the transcendent places you into the same ideological orbit as both Marxists and Fascists. This is clear to those who––beyond the mere history of actions––understand the history, evolution, and embodiment of ideas.

“You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The beauty of a full calendar is you don’t have to think about what you really want. Your day is dictated to you and your biggest priority is the thing you’ve neglected the most over the last 90 days. You feel like your hair is on fire but that’s more comfortable than building in time to figure out what you really want and what is really important.

@MichePriest The book does not disappoint. Hits you right between the eyes.

“Self-evaluation and self-criticism are, basically, neurotic tendencies which derive from our not having enough confidence in ourselves, confidence in the sense of seeing what we are, knowing what we are” - Chögyam Trungpa

@StoryLuck That’s a great line. “You can’t put everyone’s life ahead of yours and think it counts as love.”

@DavidWShepherd I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. But I don't think so. There's a quote in a song I like where this woman asks a dude, "What do you want?" He says, "I just want you to be happy." "It's sweet but you can't put everyone's life ahead of yours, think it counts as love."

@StoryLuck What I took away from this quote was that we are already whole. When you say, ‘I don’t know what I want, I’ll feel it out’ I think you’re following this quote. You’re living with what is and in a way acknowledging you don’t need fixing.

@DavidWShepherd I want to be more clear on what I want. Definitely trying to visualize more. And map out longer term goals. More frequent check ins. That said, it's fun to be reactive. And self evaluation is also fun. It's nice to say, I don't know what I want, I'll feel it out.

@ChristineCarril @themgmtconsult There’s no off-season in business. Athletes have a much better rest and recovery system built into their profession.

@themgmtconsult Well said. CEOs don't get to escape the complexity of being human. It's easy to see the tension between achievement and emotional depletion among high-achieving people, such as professional athletes...much harder to accept that the same rules apply to CEOs.

The CEOs who are "crushing it" are privately emotionally spent worrying about the next big hire, raising money, deploying teams, and launching products. Their weakness is doing too much while it never being enough.

I have a friend whose whole career was based on saying the obvious thing no one wanted to say. This person was promoted every year. CEO mentored and trusted them. When everyone is trying to play nice or cover their ass, telling the truth is a superpower.

@john__nic Reminds me of the difference between a coach and a manager. Coaches are always looking to develop their players and inspire them to be their best. Managers obsess over capability and not potential, only assigning tasks they know their staff can do. Similar roles, diff POV.

I often think back to this exchange in East of Eden. Adam, father to Aron and Cal, speaks about his sons to his housekeeper, Lee. Their mother abandoned the family when they were young and the father wonders whose character traits they will inherit. "[Adam:] But I would like to know what kind of blood is in my boys. When they grow up—won’t I be looking for something in them?” “[Lee:] Yes, you will. And I will warn you now that not their blood but your suspicion might build evil in them. They will be what you expect of them.” How often do our worst fears manifest because of obsessing over them? Wouldn’t it be better to imagine a positive outcome? Like Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”