What Works

In This Episode: * Why I chose “embrace uncertainty” as one of my commitments for 2020 and how it’s served in this wild year* How Charlie Gilkey recommends finding the most courageous next step* What led Second Breaks founder Lou Blaser to rethink her business model—and return to a years-old vision for her work in the process* What 2 questions she used to find new ways of creating value* How she used existing assets in her business to start building toward her new vision The tweet that’s pinned to the top of my profile lists my 3 commitments for this year. Those commitments are my guiding principles, the things I’m actively trying to cultivate more of in my life, the ideas that guide the decisions I made. My three commitments for 2020 are: Question normal. Expect success. And embrace uncertainty. Now, most people I know have had to recalculate their goals for 2020. But these commitments? Well, they’re more relevant than ever. In fact, I’ve had a few people @ me on Twitter and ask if I’m psychic! While each of my commitments for 2020 have been a huge help for navigating this wild year, it’s that last one–Embrace Uncertainty–that’s really asked me to grow. Uncertainty seems to be the theme of 2020. With everything that’s happened so far this year and no real confidence in what might be coming, we’ve all had to recalculate. Some business owners I know have had to completely rework their business models. Others have taken huge in-person gathering online. Others are discovering they have skills that are incredibly useful in the pandemic economy. And still others still aren’t sure what they’ll do next to bring in some revenue. As I’ve worked with business owners on making decisions and reworking plans, there’s one thing I keep coming back to, though. While 2020 might have presented us with a unique batch of unpredictable circumstances, uncertainty is not a new condition of entrepreneurship. Uncertainty is baked into the operating system of how we function every day as business owners… …whether we like it or not… and whether we like to admit it or not. When I chose embracing uncertainty as one of my commitments for this year, I didn’t have a pandemic in mind.I wasn’t gearing up for a historic upheaval in the labor market. I didn’t predict the long overdue tectonic shift in public opinion about systemic racism and police brutality. I chose to commit to embracing uncertainty because I wanted to take more courageous action. I wanted to see what would happen for me and for my business if I stopped trying to predict the right thing to do and started leaning into my full potential and my full vision. And while you might think I’m a natural risk taker, I can assure you I am not. This idea wasn’t really mine at all. It was a very important lesson I learned from my friend Charlie Gilkey during an interview for this very podcast. Before we get into this week’s interview with Lou Blaser, I want to share a snippet from this interview to tee up all of the conversations we’re having this month around embracing uncer...