What Greatness Looks Like

Last night in Las Vegas something spectacular happened. For the uninitiated, the above video is a human tossing another human of a similar size into the air and putting him in a submission hold (armbar in this case) in mid-air to finish the fight.

Not only is this the most amazing finish I have seen in my 25 year relationship with Mixed Martial Arts, its videogame roots are apt for a fighter in Demetrius Johnson, who spends his spare time on Twitch — playing videogames. The lead up to this finish saw “Might Mouse” as he is known to out strike, out dodge, out defend, out work his opponent, Ray Borg. As I was talking about this fight with a couple friends this morning one of them quipped, “he is the guy at the roller rink lapping everyone.”

I responded, “he is the guy at the roller rink on a hoverboard.” This athlete is playing a different game than the other men he is fighting. His last lost was in 2011 against Dominick Cruz and seven years ago I said if they make a 125lb division just give the belt to Mighty Mouse because nobody will beat him and then haven’t.

His win last night cements him in the pantheon of mixed martial arts as he beats Anderson Silva’s prior record of title defenses (10) becoming the first person in the sports history to defend his belt 11 times.

After all that, here is where it gets interesting. What is next?

Sure there are fighters at 125 lbs that he has not faced but after last night I wonder if any could touch him since better fighters have faced him 11 times and none have them have solved the riddle. In fighting as in business these are the times where you look in the mirror and take some of Gary Vee’s advice and put yourself out of business. It is easy to stay comfortable but eventually someone is going to put your lights out — ask every grocery chain that isn’t Whole Foods what happens when Amazon shows up in your backyard.

DJ could stay at 125 until it is too late (Anderson Silva took two devastating losses in a row and was never the same) or take a bigger risk. If you look at another UFC Fighter, Conor McGregor you can see a different kind of special. Can he fight? Of course he can, he has won championships in two different divisions but has yet to defend them because he looks for what Casey Niestat calls the “you can’t” moments.

You can’t beat a guy who has held the belt (Jose Aldo) for a decade — he beat him in :14 seconds.

You can’t vacate that belt to go up to 155lbs and win that belt — he beat Eddie Alvarez inside two rounds.

You can’t go up to 170 lbs and fight Nate Diaz — he did and lost by submission.

You can’t do that a second time — he did and beat Nate.

You can’t headline a boxing card with zero experience against one of the greatest boxers ever — you guessed, he can and he did.

When you are pulling moves off 23 minutes into a 25 minute fight as if it is a practice session for you — I would argue it is time to challenge yourself. There is no debate that DJ is the best of all time in the UFC one part Bruce Lee, one part all of those fighters who paved the way for this sport, and one part incredible X-factor, but comfortable is not how people like DJ live their lives.

So after last night I am excited to see what is next for DJ because that move was simply amazing.

Stuck on Saturday

As I write it is 6 o’clock in the morning, the sun has not yet kissed this side of the world good morning, and rain slowly drips off the side of the house the aged wooden deck behind me.

When I decided that I would blog every day for 31 days for blogtober, the usual fear crept in; Who would read it? Would ANYONE read it? What would I say? Could I write every day? Was that even possible? Very quickly I needed to change my perspective on every one of these questions.

I didn’t care if any one read it, the objective was to write.

I have some idea (about 15) of what to do this month — let the rest come as they may.

Turns out if you take your own advice and audit your day you can find an hour to write, every day.

I think this is what happens to most people who don’t start something, they create a list and that list looks well-researched and menacing, so in a world where fear is a currency, we stop there. No need to test the waters, try new things, or share with the outside world — the list of excuses already told you that this was going to fail.

You will read a lot on Medium, Linkedin, in self-help books, and the like about eliminating fear, this idea that it is a wart and all you need to do is dab acid on it or freeze and your productivity will skyrocket. However, fear is primal, hardwired into your brain, the part of the brain that you really don’t want to mess with because it can come in handy when there is real danger. So no, you cannot eliminate fear and nor should you.

What you can do is use it.

Seth Godin calls it “dancing with fear” and productive creators do it all the time. Anytime I start a new semester doubt and fear show up to tell me I am far too dumb to teach people, or that the kids won’t like me and if left alone those feelings can paralyze you to inaction.

Instead, use that nervous energy, that fear, to get up in the front of the class and teach anyway. To stand-up in front of ten people you don’t know and speak for ten minutes. Take a spot in that open mic night. Place your art in a show and if you are lucky someone will be gracious with feedback that might change that part of your life in a dramatic fashion.

We all have fear and we all have to figure out what to do with it, mine just woke me up at 6 am on a Saturday to tell me that I wasn’t going to be able to keep blogging for the entire month of October.

Have a great day.

-Eric

Fail Faster

Mike Posner started a podcast series this summer and while I enjoy Mike on many levels, his philosophy is probably my favorite. Mike has a fascinating lens by which he sees the world. In this third episode, he takes on the idea of failure that turns into fuel. What is interesting about this is that my friend Justin and I were talking about this yesterday. 

This idea that most people give up because they hang on too long to the "idea" instead of the process. They want to fail slowly and painfully.

In Mike's story if he falls in love with that first song and works on it day and night instead of writing another song - we never get "Cooler Than Me" and he never gets to the next level. But he takes Kanye's feedback and turns it into fuel to keep making art and how gracious was Kanye to give him such useful feedback? This story has so much going on it takes a minute to unpack it. 

As Justin and I spoke, we passed back and forth the idea that in order to get better we need to cut off things that don't work and lean into the things that do. At first glance, this seems simple but most people don't do that, they want it to be easy, they want the first idea to be the best and then they are done. 

But life is much more complicated than that, whether you are making songs, poetry, paintings, blog posts, or products the first idea is never the right one. In my day-to-day, I create campaigns for people in the social media space and without fail when the team launches a campaign it is never perfect the first time - we adjust to the market, the platform, the customers, taking in data to craft the Goldie Locks scenario that marketers strive for. But if the team launched campaigns and never changed our minds - they would never work. 

The team fails fast and iterate to get smarter.  

On Monday night I was giving my students and online exam, they were two hours into a two and half hour exam and the entire network crashed and took their tests with it. I teach in the quad system so I get 7-8 weeks to drive the class home. I now just lost a night and they lost their tests. Here is the thing - I got to watch them work through the problems and answer the questions for nearly two hours.

I saw them do the work.

They knew their stuff and I failed them, the network, and college failed them - so I gave them all full credit. I gave them full credit because I enjoy making decisions more than I enjoy laboring over minutia. I failed and it was time to start over, not pine over the questions I crafted or cry over the work I put in building the test - it broke. We press on and get better. We failed fast together and you should too. 

My Favorite View

My favorite view in the house is from the couch, starring up into the sky. I find myself relaxed, centered and calm looking upwards towards what seems like possibility amongst tranquility.

This image hardly captures that feeling but gives you some context.

Where is that place in your life?

When was the last time you visited?

-Eric

Let's Play Two

Let's get this out of the way, I LOVE this band. I have loved this band since the day Ten starred at me from a new release CD rack at Tower Records and I took it home having NO earthly idea who or what it was. I was hooked. 

So I was there in 2013 when Pearl Jam first played Wrigley Field, with the lightning storm, the three-hour delay, and Eddie and Ernie Banks singing "All The Way" a moment I might never forget. Which meant when Pearl Jam returned to Wrigley in 2016 Aug 20th and 22nd I was going back. 

Over a year later Pearl Jam has released the documentary that captures those two nights and weaves them together with the Cubs amazing run to win the World Series and there are some really magical moments in this film. I have been captivated by the band's foresight to record literally everything from when the band formed to present day because it allows you to see things that most bands didn't grab back then. The ability to see the band playing the Metro before Ten was released juxtaposed with the same song at Wrigley 25 years later is the sort of fan treatment one comes to expect from Pearl Jam.

The film spans two nights and tops out around 2 hours long with the 17 songs on the soundtrack along with 2 or 3 from the rooftop practice at Murphy's - it is most certainly a concert film with the backdrop of Eddie's love of the Cubs on their road to the World Series. The film culminates with a Cubs victory and the last song they played (Got A Feeling), the first night they played in Chicago back in 1991, which seemed like the perfect ending of what felt like a perfect year. 

But if there is one thing I always love about Pearl Jam events, it is the fans, they never disappoint and tonight was no different. Great energy that made for a great experience and after a week like this I am sure I enjoyed this more than I would if it were a "normal" week but I find as of late taking more moments to soak in what is happening around me and enjoy them for what they are. Which for me captures my connection with the past 25 years of Pearl Jam's music - the ability to be in the moment and enjoying the fragile and fleeting nature of the time we get to spend together. 

So if the weather is great today, maybe we should play two. 

-Eric