One of the best comments that I heard all week (said in earnest): “I can’t wait to hear your story.” Walk Good. 28all. Eya. *CJ, JP, LS, PB*

The Warm-Up: 

“You cannot grow where you are not nourished. You cannot be nourished in a place that has nothing left to give you.” ~Dr. Key Hallmon

The Core: 

“Volatility is necessary for wealth-building.” ~Daniel Mastin

“Expertise is great, but it has a bad side effect. It tends to create an inability to accept new ideas.” ~Dean Williams

“The Universe will replace people who do not reciprocate your love. That is why love is never lost, it is only found.” ~Vex King

“Sometimes when God places a dream inside of you, He has to separate you from some people to protect what’s growing inside of you.’” ~Marcus Stanley

“The honeymoon phase doesn’t even come close to the level of bliss a couple can experience when they commit to doing the work and co-creating a partnership that is rooted in truth.” ~@risingwoman

“Sometimes when people say: ‘I don’t know what to do…’ What they actually mean is: ‘I am not ready to accept the potential consequences of what my inner knowingness is inviting me to do.’” ~Xavier Dagba

“A truth that applies to almost every field is that it’s possible to try too hard, and when doing so you can get worse results than those who knew less, cared less, and put in less effort than you did.” ~Morgan Housel, Trying Too Hard

“The Growth Paradox. Growth takes a much longer time coming than you think, but then it happens much faster than you ever would have thought. Growth happens gradually, then suddenly. The best things in life come from allowing compounding to work its magic. Let it work for you.” ~Sahil Bloom

“After you tell life what you want, everything happens to test if you really believe it’s yours. What you believe about yourself influences everything you do. Don’t be the last person to take yourself serious. When you doubt what you deserve, your thoughts push you further away from things God designed you to have. It’s all attainable, you just have to realize what’s really meant for you. Timing is everything, you have to believe that if you keep growing and learning, things will work out exactly how they’re supposed to.” ~Rob Hill Sr.

“This is a common sort of feedback/criticism/brainstorming, and it deserves a name. Show up toward the end, when most of the work has been done and it’s almost time to ship…Make a suggestion that would require changing a great deal of what’s been done. It might even be a good suggestion on its face, but it’s hard to tell…Contribute your suggestion without having built a body of work, without evidence of significant expertise and without being willing to take responsibility for what happens next. It’s a form of yelling from the bleachers. The fact that your idea is fresh or innovative doesn’t change the role of Resistance. This sort of suggestion is a great place to hide. You’re helping, aren’t you? And if they ignore you, well, that’s on them. The grandstander wants to be part of things, but isn’t showing up to do the hard part. This might be the guest who shows up half an hour before dinner and suggests you change the menu. Or the publicist that wants to weigh in on the product’s design a week before launch. Or the good friend who wonders out loud if you should marry him, right after your four-year relationship turns into an engagement. The alternative is to get out of the bleachers and into the field. Do the training. Show your work. Engage early. Own the outcomes. We need that more than ever.” ~Seth Godin, The grandstanders 

Last Set:

“The ultimate test of success is not whether you’re proud of what you’ve achieved. It’s whether you’re proud of who you’ve become. Accomplishments highlight your skills. Relationships reveal your values. If excellence is what you do, character is what you do for others.” ~Adam Grant

Food For Thought:

“Labor Market: I titled this Substack A Program that Lasts in an ode to UVA Basketball Coach Tony Bennett’s response to a question at his initial press conference. A reporter asked Bennett, ‘What will it take to build a lasting program at UVA?’. Bennett responded, “I need to recruit young men I can lose with.”Simple, but impactful. If this market and economy continue to weaken, business leaders and investors are going to quickly find out who they can (or cannot) lose with. This will lead to defining moments for many. Are you someone who will be steady at the wheel, or will this shake you? Did you add true value during this bull market, or was your success just a byproduct of it? With many investments already down materially, how will you balance mitigating further downside risk versus being positioned for when the market recovers? For younger employees, I would be rushing back into the office. I would be ready and prepared to do any and everything to make my boss’s job a little easier. When things get difficult, people in leadership positions want to look others in their faces. They want to read body language. They want to see who is truly fully invested. You can’t do that from home through Zoom…

Mentoring: To date, reports are that this migration back to the office has been slow, especially among the younger employees. In fact, I’ve heard many have threatened to quit if they are forced to return. The case for staying at home is that productivity has held up well and that digital work is the way of the future. Maybe, but I don’t buy it. My sense is that we will learn over time that work-from-home was an adequate short-term stop-gap, but a long-term culture killer for companies that kept it in place for too long, in large part due to mentorship. The reason is that a company without mentorship is like a team without a coach or captain. Talent alone can get you by for a while, but once the experienced players “age out”, the younger players are rudderless. If I had to guess, there will be a high correlation between the companies that get employees back in the office and those that succeed over the next cycle and beyond. Why? In large part because recessions are when great mentors shine, and great mentees learn why.” ~Ted Lamade, The Rise After the Fall

One More for the Road:

*Note* The Celtics are currently playing in their 37th Eastern Conference Finals. That is exactly half of the Eastern Conferences Finals ever. #FieldYates #MikeBreenstat

“Over the course of a 7-game series, Luka Doncic outscored 4th place MVP Devin Booker (218 to 164), outrebounded 7’0 Deandre Ayton (69 to 57) and outassisted Chris ‘Point God’ Paul (49 to 40). Oh and he also had more steals than DPOY runner-up Mikal Bridges (15 to 9).” ~@u/PabloPicks

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