Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Get Up And Make It Happen | Motivational Speech

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen" - Michael Jordan

One of the more powerful realizations I've had, both in business and life overall, is that what we do to win today and what we do to position ourselves to win tomorrow, they're often very different things. And we've probably all experienced this in some capacity. We get sucked into the cycle of doing, becoming so task-oriented that we don't make time to step back and ask, Which direction do I want this ship to go? Because sure, we have to keep it afloat, and we have to keep it afloat now.

But also, we have to navigate. The ship's role isn't solely to float, right? It's a transportation mechanism, a vehicle. Where are we going? And so the question becomes, how do we balance the two? I came across an awesome book by Lee Benson called Your Most Important Number. And I'm about halfway through, but already finding a ton of value that I'll be sharing in the future, primarily around positioning your business for success.

And one of the first things the book discusses is the difference between what Lee calls eating and dreaming. Eating being the things we need to do now to take care of matters that are essential for today, the things that need to get done. So using the same metaphor, actions to keep that boat afloat. And then there's the dreaming, which is essentially doing things now that help position the organization for success in the future down the road. It's asking what can I do today that we'll ensure we are winning tomorrow. So boat metaphor, it's planning for storms that may arise later in the journey, it's analyzing

the best destinations and charting the course. And here's what really struck me. Lee suggests, based on his consulting, that ideally leaders should be able to be I believe the number was 80% dreaming and 20% eating. So yeah, doing what has to be done today, obviously, but largely focused on positioning the organization and themselves for success in the days to come. And what he's found is that very often out in the world,

that ratio is flipped. People are so consumed by the day to day that the future takes a back seat to the nuance and the quote unquote putting out fires of the present moment. We're spending 80% of our time eating. Now, like most things, this is not one-size-fits-all. Say, front-line manager at a factory is not going to be 80% dreaming and 20% eating.

Their task requirements are different. But the point remains, it's imperative that we, in some capacity, utilize our resources now to look ahead. I don't know if I've ever told this story, but I always joke around with my brother about it. When we were kids in Southern California, we'd have these basically battles on the beach, right? Where we'd go down to the hard sand right in front of the water.

And we'd each build these little wall slash fort type things, maybe 20 feet apart from each other. This is like emulating World War I type stuff. And then we'd make cannon balls out of sand and just throw the sand at each other. So in a way, this is a perfect metaphor because we would always be juggling, on one hand, building the fort that would protect us from the other person. So dreaming.

And then on the other hand, I mean, those things hurt, right? We'd have to in real time be dodging incoming sand simultaneously to building that wall. So the eating. And he's a bit younger than me, so admittedly this wasn't really fair. But regardless, you know, he would get so consumed with throwing sand that his wall would be really cheaply made. At the beginning, I'd be trying to make this really solid base foundation. He would just be pelting me with this stuff, and it was brutal.

But as time went on, I'd build that wall higher and higher. Eventually, it would be lights out for him. He'd have nothing to hide behind. The young buck was doing, let's say, way less than 80% and dreaming. And so I'm no longer building castles in the sand. But as the Rose said, now I'm looking to build them in the air, seeking to bring things into life that are merely ideas and concepts in my head. And naturally, this prompted me to ask, well, what's my ratio now? Because it sure feels like I'm doing a lot of eating. It sure feels like I spend a lot of time

every day, you know, dodging Mikey Peas, incoming sand cannon balls, right? Things are going to be different tomorrow than they are today. And to truly win, we need to be asking ourselves, how do we build that bridge from the present to the future? How do we lay out stepping stones that will allow an evolution in what we're doing? And I'm thinking, if my day's 95% consumed with eating-type tasks, then I need to figure things out here, right? Is it automate? Is it eliminate? Is it delegate? It's something because the ship needs to be more effectively captained. And I love these epiphanies. Just a change in mindset

that can completely redirect one's entire trajectory. And it's funny, I was having a conversation earlier today with a friend about scaling and impact and growth. Another person I love to throw ideas back and forth to. And he asked me, well, Eddie, what are some of the ways your world within could make money. And I was like, oh, it's easy, right? And so I laid it all out in great detail, the ins and outs. And he says, that's awesome. But that's not the question I asked you. You answered a different question. You answered, how is the business making money now? I asked, how can it make money in the future? Boom, another epiphany, one of those instances where you catch yourself thinking small. And this is an

a knock on the work I'm doing now, or the systems in place now, they're great now, but again, now isn't forever. If you have plans to add more value and create more impact, build more things, that has to be baked into your time and resource allocation. We all have to eat because we don't want to starve, but we also have to dream. Because if we're unable to look ahead, we simply will not be equipped to handle the turbulence of tomorrow. There's a duality to this game. And I think the ratio with which we're juggling the two deserves consistent attention and examination.

Now, yeah, life is seasonal. There are times where keeping that ship afloat takes everything we have, but it's understanding that that is a season and not the way things are. Dreaming allows us to start moving in the right direction, even if it's one small step at a time. Building today piece by piece, something we can stand on tomorrow, a staircase, to the version 2.0 and 3.0 and 4.0. The future depends on what we do today, and so we must create space for that seed to grow. We must chart the course and captain the ship.

to the next horizon.