Jay Cogan

Do you have any examples or stories to share where a skill or a decision became the connective tissue or causal connection for an important breakthrough?

Path to transformation or change can come from your own diversification and casual connections. Selling mattresses could lead to a lucrative career in real estate. Experience as a chef may guide you to a career in HR. Snowboarding could lead to founding a tech unicorn company.

One early morning while wearing his carpentry belt like a swashbuckling scoundrel, Ford was installing a door at a film studio when George Lucas walked in and struck up conversation. Ford was then asked as a favour to read some lines, and The Force took care of the rest.

Learning carpentry skills bought Harrison Ford precious time. Time to network. Time to gain more incremental acting experience. Time to outlast the attrition of his competition. Skill diversification created causal connections that would prove critical to Ford's breakthrough.

Harrison Ford didn't move to LA after a summer of stock theater acting in Wisconsin to be a carpenter. He arrived on a bus full of aspiring actors and he quickly ascertained that there was no short runway to success. He arrived in LA for a voice over audition, and failed....🧵

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change. Not just the actions of change but the feelings. That feeling in the pit of your stomach that tells you something is significant is shifting. Even before you know exactly what that shift is. Do you ever experience this?