JP: 6 - (Deca)Daily Stoic: Wisdom for Every (10) Day(s)

 All, 

I hope everyone has been doing well these last few weeks. Life has continued to be hectic for me with trips and work. I am sorry I have not been able to put a ton of effort into each post but I am happy I am able to still do these ones. 

                                                                             April 25th, 2025

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING WRONG

         "If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it - for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one whoa bides in deceit and ignorance."

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditation, 6.21

 What is means: " Someone once attempted to argue with the philosopher Cicero by quoting something he had said or written. This person claimed Cicero was saying one thing now but had believed something different in the past. His response: 'I live from one day to the next! If something strikes me as probable, I say it; and that is how, unlike everyone else, I remain a free agent.' No one should be ashamed of changing their mind - that's what the mind is for. 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,' Emerson said, 'adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.' That's why we go to such lengths to learn and expose ourselves to wisdom. It should be embarrassing if we didn't end up finding out if we were wrong in the past. Remember: you're a free agent. When someone points out a legitimate flaw in your belief or in you're actions, they're not criticizing you. They're presenting a better alternative. Accept it!"

Your Authors Take: They key to success is failure well handled. I have said it before in these blogs and I will say it again -  a very important thing I work on often is the art of knowing what I do not know. I found myself, for a very long time, getting defensive anytime someone disagreed with my take on something or with an idea I had. It would go as far as even falsifying a narrative to present my thought or idea as better. This is a mistake. A major key to life is to know when you are wrong and to find alternatives to beliefs you have, even ones that are strong and you thought previously unbreakable. Life and opinions should be built on a foundation of facts and logic. NOT on the emotional response that is brought on by an idea. Emotion is important but should be tempered - it is crucial to let the initial outburst of emotion be tempered when making decisions so you do not fall into an action with less virtue. This will help you admit when you are wrong, even when you really do not want to be. We should always be open to changing our mind on something if the facts present differently than we originally thought - and we should always be willing to admit that we were wrong. I see this issue a lot in modern day politics, for example, and it never hurts to see how its effecting the country. On both sides of the system you have folks that refuse to divert from their parties beliefs no matter the facts laid out. They choose to stick with their original thoughts no matter the facts because of the emotion they feel behind it and often get stuck using confirmation bias. This has caused a massive divide in the population that I truly think would be fixed if people could just understand each others side and admit when one is wrong or right without villainizing it. This concept of accepting when you are wrong and understanding the angle of someone else, even if you may not agree, is the key to fixing this issue. Its simple, yet an undertaking too hard for those who do not wish to live their life to the fullest. 

Thank you all

JP: 4 - (Deca)Daily Stoic: Wisdom for Every (10) Day(s)

 All, 

I want to apologize for not only my delay in posting but also the shortness of this blog. I have been very busy with work and have not even been home in the last 3 days. That being said, I thank you all and I look forward to be able to get into more content later on. For now, though, enjoy the below. 

April 2nd, 2025

BE WARY OF WHAT YOU LET IN

         

“Drama, combat, terror, numbness, and subservience - every day these things wipe out your sacred principles, whenever your mind entertains them uncritically or lets them slip in"

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations , 10.9

 What is means: " How much harder is it to do the right thing when you're surrounded by people with low standards? How much harder is it to be positive and empathetic inside the negativity bubble of television chatter? How much harder is it to focus on your own issues when you're distracted with other people's drama and conflict? We'll inevitably be exposed to these influences at some point, no matter how much we try to avoid them. But when we are, there is nothing that says we have to allow those influences to penetrate our minds. We have the ability to put our guard up and decide what we actually allow in. Uninvited guests might arrive at your home, but you don't have to ask them to stay for dinner. You don't have to let them into your mind."

Your Authors Take: When bad things happen, bad thoughts follow. When bad thoughts follow, the soul can rot. Make sure to fortify your mind to those thoughts, especially when bad times do happen, so you do not allow yourself to become victim to the deterioration of your happiness or worse, to be deterred from your principles and ethical way of thinking. This practice will also improve quality of life and will cause the bad things to stay outside the depths of your mind, and rather just be a temporary thought for you to domesticate. I find myself practicing this often. Unfortunately with work, I am exposed to some of the worst things imaginable, and it can get very hard to deal with mentally due to the brutal nature of it. This concept, though, is what's able to keep me in charge of my mind. I do not let the sadness or anguish of such things slip into my mind unattended. Rather I sit with them to deal with them and them let them go. You all can do the same. 

Thank you all

Kedrick: 2 - Min-Maxing Your Hard-Earned US Dollars

Hello everyone! As mentioned in my last post, I've been tossing around a few different blog ideas. This week, with my long-awaited sophomore article quickly approaching, I underwent the difficult process of actually choosing one of those topics to expand on. With my film rolls from California developed and ready to share, I played around with the idea of a photography blog. But, for whatever reason, I couldn't settle on one.

That is until I updated the budget file (nice, another blog post idea) that I maintain to track the income and expenses for me and my beautiful wife. While rifling through our credit card line items, I noticed a couple of interesting items. The first was a $50 hotel credit from Chase and the second was a whopping $300 travel credit from Chase. After my initial thought of "nice, free money" passed, I googled these descriptions to see why they actually appeared. I discovered that I had forgotten about a couple of bonuses provided by our new credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The $50 is a credit we get annually and the $300 was a signup bonus past the initial one that caught our attention (60,000 Chase Travel points). "EUREKA!!" I thought. Credit card bonuses!!

Traveling before we had a good credit card and still having fun!

Making the Most of Your Expenses

This is a subject I'm both passionate and (increasingly) knowledgeable about. Whether it's tilting about people who prefer to pay for things with cash, thereby leaving thousands of dollars in free money on the table, tilting about people who pull out their cool Venmo credit card, or tilting when I found out my Southwest card kind of sucks past the initial SUB (signup bonus, just learned that lingo when researching for this article), I am typically in awe of how much power these card companies give the consumer in order to coax them into helping scrape ~2% off every transaction in the modern world. Therefore, the remainder of this article will be dedicated to explaining the benefits of choosing the correct credit card and equipping you, the reader, with the tools you need to make this choice for yourself.

Pretty sure I used my Discover card for these tickets

Let's start with the mistakes I've made in this realm. Mir boys will be quite familiar with the first one: using my Discover It Cash Back card for far too long. While this is a great starter card that lets you earn money and build credit with your brain off, the benefits really end there (As an aside, this is not discounting what our father did for us. Building credit as soon as you are able is both important and extremely helpful). The Discover It card has no annual fee and offers 1% cash back on every purchase and 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases for categories that rotate quarterly. That 5% can be amazing when the category is good, like grocery stores or restaurants, but kind of sucks when it's things like gas stations. You're not going to spend more than a few hundred dollars on gas per quarter. The second mistake was mentioned above, signing up for a cheap Southwest card for the points earned from signing up. The points were awesome and worth a fair amount of money, but now I'm stuck holding the bag with a $69 annual fee when I really don't use the card all that much because of its so-so-point earnings. In hindsight, I should've opted for the more expensive Southwest card since the incremental benefits outweigh the annual price. We live and learn!

My "Eureka" Moment

Now for the success story. I am absolutely in awe of both the signup and ongoing benefits offered by the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Lizzie and I signed up for this card last November at the suggestion of her coworker, who raved about both the signup bonus and point-earning potential. As huge fans of traveling, a card based around incentivizing travel spend was the ideal choice for us. The signup bonus is 60,000 Chase Travel points, which equates to roughly $1,200 to spend on flights, hotels, and rental cars. These points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio with most major hotels and airlines (I use The Points Guy's valuations to easily identify which points have the best value - shoutout to World of Hyatt). You also get the benefits I mentioned in the introduction, a $300 travel credit the first time you use the Chase Travel portal and a $50 annual hotel credit. Those bonuses are great, but like I said, you need a reason to actually use this card. Without going too deep into the weeds, I'll just say the point-earning potential is incredible. The highlights are 5 points per dollar on spending through Chase Travel and 3 points per dollar on all restaurants (we like food). You get all of this for the cost of, brace yourself, $95 annually. For anyone who enjoys traveling, I have no doubt in my mind that this is the ideal starter card. I already have plans to upgrade to the $550 annual fee version, but I'll spare you the dirty details that make that upgrade worth it for us.

We like to fly Delta, so Lizzie has a Delta card

What about You?

That card is right for Lizzie and me, but what card is right for you? The first question you have to ask yourself is "How do I spend most of my money?" For us, it's travel. I can easily see that by looking at our spending categories over the past year. Even if you aren't a borderline obsessive CPA and haven't categorized every single dollar you've spent since 2019, it shouldn't be too hard to think about this question and maybe even take a look at your credit card's app. Do you have a favorite airline? Do you not travel as often as you'd like, but still love restaurants? Once you've identified your habits, shop around and read reviews of cards at The Points Guy to make sure you understand exactly how to maximize the value of your potential card. If you are in a committed relationship, you can diversify and even choose multiple cards! Remember to think about both signup bonuses and ongoing point-earning potential.

If you've read this far, I appreciate you and hope you learned something new about credit cards. Please forgive me for one moment as this is not the point of this article, but if you open up an account for the specific card I mentioned, I'd appreciate if you used my referral link here. Always feel free to reach out to me personally, I'd love to discuss any specific questions you have. Remember that credit card companies desperately want you to use their cards. Give them what they want but make them work for it!

Chris: 1 - Just another penny in the fountain.

authors note: sorry for late. this shit wasn't even supposed to be my topic but the dots were taking too long to connect and I kept derailing so I kept some of what I wrote and chose a simpler topic. to be quite shamefully honest this is the first time ive written my own original thoughts down for a few hours straight since ChatGPT came out. I was also teaching someone to screen print at the same time. forgive me.

    Every single day you have ever lived, you make seemingly simple decisions. Some days you are more in control than others, maybe because you're not feeling very disciplined, but especially for your early years since you simply cannot make certain decisions yet. An individual of greater ability and wisdom hopefully decided to nurture and take care of you. Your mom wiped your ass, and your dad decided you needed a big breakfast with a glass of milk. But you still took an action. You either drank the milk, or you wailed at the sight of your pacifier until your elders made the choice for you. 

    Then one day, in the middle of a highschool biology quiz you look around the room. Most of your peers have their face down scribbling in their answers. Others are dumbfounded by the quiz, instead counting the tiles on the ceiling. 

    You come to an epiphany. One day, every single person in this room, including you, no longer had to consciously think about their everyday actions. You no longer have to consciously think about which fingers grip your pencil. You no longer have to consciously eat breakfast. You no longer have to consciously wipe your ass. You have done these actions so many times that your subconscious takes over. Through hundreds of repetitions of consciously taking a shit your brain essentially flips on autopilot for the entire activity. This autopilot is just your brain using energy more efficiently. The same applies to your hobbies. Cranking 90s in Fortnite becomes automatic after enough repetitions. There is no longer a need for your conscious energy to be wasted on simple tasks. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of your daily actions end up taking on this same principle. Your behaviors form into habits that stack onto each other like building blocks. Your brain knows that when you wake up, it's time to brush your teeth, eat breakfast, drive to work, eat lunch, and mindlessly continue this routine until you go to bed. Sure you have cues of hunger and monetary gain that motivate you to make most of these decisions, but habits are far more linked than you may realize. Of course we still have free will, but in a way we are all still slaves to our behavior patterns that we have accidentally engraved in our subconscious mind.

    Stick with me here. If you imagine the universe in itself as one giant living being, you can see this same energy saving principle in effect very clearly. Fingerprints are eeriely similar to the rings of a tree trunk, the roots of a tree closely resemble the veins on your arm. Given enough repetitions of evolution the universe turns on autopilot for biological formation and these similarities ensue. This aligns with The Principle of Least Action, which states that "the path taken by a system between two points in space and time is the one that minimizes the action. (In simple terms, nature often follows the most "efficient" or "optimal" path). I do not want to derail this too hard by mentioning the universe as a living being, but I just want to further reinforce the notion that repetition often leads to efficiency. 

But here is where I think it gets really interesting.

    Religion by itself is a topic for another blog, but I am still going to dance around it. For many religions praying is a very common practice.  You repeat a mantra in faith it will bring you some change or as an act of worship to a higher being. For this blog, I'm focusing on the former. This is an extremely conscious and one-pointed activity. Your attention is focused completely on the mantra at hand, and your subconscious wanders, visualizing the stated mantra in relation to recent events. It could be a wrongdoing you feel remorseful of, or hope for good fortune and health for you and your loved ones. The end goal is ultimately the same; for a higher power to help you become the person you wish to be. However, for some others like myself who are not religious, mantras can still be commonplace. 

    A couple years ago I started repeating to myself, out loud: "I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo." To this day, the first dozen repetitions still cringe me out. However with enough conscious focus of visualizing myself doing specific tasks like creating graphics, designing clothes, doing photoshoots, getting sales etc, the mantra is spoken with more and more confidence. Even if my motivation is low, at the end of my repetitions, my confidence that I will succeed with Wojo is unwavering. I have came to the conclusion that I will succeed through the actions I have visualized, and my subconscious is skewed just a little bit more in my favor. In other words, it's a little push for my conscious to make productive decisions. And for what it's worth, it works. I make a decent living off of Wojo and I plan to continue to do so.

    Some call it praying, others call it manifesting, and others, affirmations. The point is, nobody can deny the impact it has. You are consciously repeating an action, in hopes of purposefully reprograming your subconscious. 

I don't expect you to have read this and had your mind blown. 

All I want you to do is start repeating your goals out loud to yourself when you are alone. 

Firstly, sit in silence. 

Think of just one metric of personal success you hope to achieve. 

It could literally be anything. Just make sure you can imagine yourself completing the task with as much detail as possible. 

For instance if your goal is to workout everyday, repeat to yourself every morning "I will go to the gym at 11AM" (more specific=better). 

At the same time, visualize yourself driving to the gym, pulling into the parking lot, stretching, doing a bicep curl, etc.

Only stop repeating the mantra when you are 100% confident that you will complete the task at hand.

Try this everyday for a week straight and observe how your desired task becomes easier to complete.

Or don't. I dont really care it just works for me. It's just another penny in the fountain.

P.S. Happy birthday N8 !!!!!!!!!!!

JP: 1- Stoic Intelligence: Enduring Tough Times Through Philosophy

Good Morning Readers and Happy Friday

My name is JP, and today I am going to write about one of the few things I am confident I know well—how I deal with tough times. Specifically, I want to talk about the philosophy of Stoicism and how it has helped me tremendously in overcoming these tough times. The overall point of this post, and all future ones, is not to convince you to change your ways or question everything, but rather to offer a brief moment of inspiration for your day.

Since this is my first post, it will be formatted differently from the ones I plan to write in the future. Today's post will have two parts: the first being a very brief overview of Stoicism, and the second being the quote of the day, its meaning, and what I (personally) took from it. The latter is what I plan to post about most of the time, unless I have something different and fun I want to write about. Even then, I will try to include at least the quote.

I see this not only as a way for you all to learn how this philosophy can help you, but also as a way to keep me accountable and up to date on practicing it. That being said, I look forward to writing to you all deca-daily, and let’s get right into it.

Stoic Origins: A Historical Journey

When setting sail from the ancient city of Citium in Cyprus to the port city of Piraeus in Athens, a wealthy merchant’s ship suffered a catastrophic disaster during a raging storm. The shipwreck sent all of the merchant’s valuable goods to the depths of the sea, effectively swallowing his wealth with it. This merchant went by the name Zeno of Citium, and this disaster would later become the shipwreck that changed history.

Zeno of Citium survived the wreck and washed up onto the shore of Athens with his soul beaten by the cruelty of nature. However, as he walked through the ancient city, he passed a bookstore and began reading a book by Xenophon, a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. The book was called Memorabilia and contained Socratic dialogues that greatly influenced Zeno. He quickly realized that he could either let the impartial destruction of nature be the catalyst for a terrible life, or he could allow it to inspire a great one. He chose the latter.

Zeno began studying other texts and the teachings of philosophers such as Crates of Thebes (a Cynic philosopher) and Stilpo (a Megarian philosopher). Through these teachings, Zeno founded the first school of Stoicism in 301 BC. He taught at the Stoa Poikile (Painted Porch), a public gathering place where Zeno and the people fortunate enough to hear him would discuss their ideas. Stoa Poikile would later become the source of the word Stoic, which is how we know the philosophy today.

Zeno, however, never wrote down his teachings, but they were preserved through the transcriptions and works of his later students, the most famous of whom was his student Epictetus. Epictetus, who was born a slave and died a freeman, author, teacher, and philosopher, would become one of the most famous Stoics in history and inspire many more to follow the path of Stoicism. Epictetus taught that although external events are ultimately beyond our control, we have control over how we choose to react to them. These teachings were immortalized in his Discourses and Enchiridion, written by his student Arrian.

These texts and their teachings had a profound effect on the Roman statesman and senator Seneca. Seneca, who was the tutor to the Roman Emperor Nero, believed, like the others, that Stoicism was more than just a subject or theory—it was a lifestyle to practice. What is remarkable about Seneca, much like Zeno and Epictetus, is that he lived by his Stoic principles until the end. So much so, that when Emperor Nero wrongly implicated him in a plot against Nero’s rule and ordered him to kill himself, Seneca did so with calm fortitude, realizing that all men die, but not all men die complaining. Fortunately for us, Seneca was a prolific writer, so his teachings lived on, most famously in his Letters from a Stoic.

 The final and most well-known Stoic of ancient history was none other than Marcus Aurelius, the greatest Roman Emperor, who reigned from 161 AD to 180 AD. Despite holding the title of the most powerful man on the planet, and being tempted by vices that were expected to be indulged in, he was deeply philosophical and was the perfect representation of what is known as a Philosopher King. Marcus practiced what he preached and wrote about it in his journal. Thankfully, this journal was found and saved, later becoming known as Meditations, which is the most famous of Stoic writings. These writings, however, were never meant to be published and were a clear representation of a man on a journey of self-betterment.

These remarkable men came from very different backgrounds—a merchant, a slave, a senator, and an emperor—but they all had one thing in common: they believed that the key to living a happy life was through accordance with nature and the one TRUE good—virtue.

Your Authors Favorite Quote from Each Stoic Figure

"The goal of life is living in agreement with nature" - Zeno of Citium

 "I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it" - Epictetus

 "They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn"- Seneca

 "The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting, The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way" - Marcus Aurelius  

BONUS QUOTES (should you wish to read)

 "Waste no time arguing what a good man should be. Be one" - Marcus Aurelius

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius 

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present" - Marcus Aurelius 

"How much more harmful are the consequences of anger and grief than the circumstances that aroused them in us" - Marcus Aurelis 

"You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be" - Epictetus

"Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember" - Seneca

Stoicism - Your Authors Interpretation

Instead of giving you the definition of what a stoic believes and practices, I will give you my interpretation of it. This being said, I highly recommend reading all the above writings and coming to a conclusion yourself. For your author, stoicism is simple. It is a lifestyle that no one can ever truly master and requires practice day in and day out. It is remembering all men must die and to accept death and the unbiased happenings of nature. It is accepting what is out of your control, changing what is in your control and knowing the difference between the two. It is living with Wisdom, Courage, Temperence, and Justice. It is loving fate as it happens and realizing that if something stands in the way, it becomes the way. It is to enjoy suffering and the fall, as that is the way to grow. It is to live in discomfort so that you can endure. It is to domesticate your emotions and not eliminate them. It is to treat every new person you meet as an opportunity for kindness. Most importantly, it is to live above all things, virtuously. 

(Deca)Daily Stoic: Wisdom for Every (10) Day(s)

February 28th, 2025

WHEN YOU LOSE CONTROL

“The soul is like the bowl of water, with the soul's impressions like the rays of light that strike the water. Now, if the water is disturbed, the light appears to be disturbed together with it — though of course it is not. So when someone loses consciousness, it is not the person's knowledge and virtues that are impaired, it is the breath that contains them. Once the breath returns to normal, knowledge and the virtues are restored to normal also.”

― Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings

What is means: "You messed up a little. Or maybe you messed up a lot. So? That doesn't change the philosophy that you know. It's not as if your reasoned choice has permanently abandoned you. Rather, it was you who temporarily abandoned it. Remember that the tools and aims of our training are unaffected by the turbulence of the moment. Stop. Regain your composure. Its waiting for you."

Your Authors Take: Screwing up in life is normal. It happens. We are only human, and when it does, it's not the discipline itself that's leaving the path, but rather us stepping away from the path of that discipline. Just because it happened, though, doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch and create a new path. Get back on it. The things we have practiced and the knowledge we have gained are still very much with us; our brains may just be too fogged with emotion to see it. We just need to settle down, acknowledge our mistake, and continue to practice. When things go wrong, we fall back to our most basic level of training. In our minds, the concept remains the same.

 Thanks for reading and talk soon

J.P. 

 

Kedrick: 1 - Lessons of the Professional World

Lessons of the Professional World

Hello everybody! I'll start with a brief background about myself. My name is Kedrick Mir, and I am the eldest of the Mir children. I'll be turning 30 on July 17th of this year. I've always enjoyed creative writing in my spare time, most recently in the form of fairly detailed "power rankings" for our family's fantasy football league and the occasional 800-word Letterboxd review. Through a lot of practice, I now consider myself to be an above-average writer (of course, though, I am the worst I'll ever be). Writing not only gives me a creative outlet but also helps me pass the time while sitting in my cubicle, a space in which I've been spending an increasing amount of time over the past few years. As for blog topics, my notes app currently has a few ideas. If any of them stick out, let me know, and I'll prioritize them: personal finance lessons, photography introductory lessons, travel blogs with photography samples, and detailed film reviews. For now, I'll focus on a few lessons you can use in the professional world.

Professionally, I am a Certified Public Accountant in the great state of Georgia (CPA037854; feel free to verify at cpaverify.org), and I have lived in Atlanta since graduating from the University of Florida with my Masters in Accounting in 2018. I began my career at Ernst & Young, where I worked until September 2020. I am now an accounting manager at an international wholesaler owned by Home Depot. Through my almost 7 years in the corporate world, I have learned a great deal not only about accounting & SEC reporting but also about myself and my work preferences. I found that I am intrinsically motivated and work best when given "free rein" to take ownership of areas, which is an important strength in the professional world. My other biggest strength is my lack of resistance to change and ability to navigate through uncertainty, to which I can credit my generally calm demeanor. That's not to say I lack stress or anxiety. I've been officially diagnosed with anxiety and taken medication for over a decade now, but that results from external stressors (primarily heights), while fast-paced and uncertain environments do not raise my heart rate one iota.

What is my biggest weakness? My fondness for a strong work-life balance. This not only closes the door to several roles that would otherwise interest me but also prevents me from leaving my cushy position in the private accounting world (private means working for a corporation as opposed to the public accounting world, which primarily involves auditing large companies and other forms of client service). If I wasn't so afraid of losing the many benefits available to me now, such as unlimited PTO, good coworkers, and a role that allows me to stroll into work at 9:30 and leave at 4:30 as long as I get my work done, then I may be inclined to climb the corporate ladder at a faster pace. But I've learned that's OK. In a world where people swap companies and roles every year, constantly searching for happiness in their 40 hours per week, I have found that being in the same place while steadily climbing can be just as good. But that's enough about me; let's get into what this blog was actually meant to be about before I started rambling!

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a company's (you may be able to guess which) annual conference. When the boys and I were growing up, our parents would leave us for one week every February for this same conference, so it was surreal being able to experience it firsthand alongside my beautiful wife and my long-tenured father. I had originally planned on writing a few lessons from each keynote speaker, but my preamble ran a little long, so I'll instead discuss two of my favorites.

The first speaker that resonated with me was James Clear, best-selling author of Atomic Habits. He spoke about a fascinating subject: the aggregation of marginal improvements. For those unfamiliar with big words, it is best explained as a story. In the early 2000s, the British cycling team was an international joke. In the 110-year history of the Tour de France, no Brit had ever come close to winning it. From 1908 to 2003, the UK won one cycling gold medal at the Olympics. The situation was so dire that one of the top European bike manufacturers refused to supply the team, deeming British riders a brand risk. One hire in 2003 changed this team forever; his name was Dave Brailsford. He implemented the philosophy of marginal gains. The improvements were in the hundreds and spanned changes from improved handlebar comfort to using the most effective pillows for each individual rider. By 2008, at the Olympics in Beijing, the UK took home 60% of the available gold medals for cycling. By 2012, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. By 2017, British cyclists had won five Tour de Frances in six years. This is just one example of the power of tiny gains, and I'd encourage everyone reading to look for small improvements when trying to accomplish big things. You can read James's full article about the British cycling team here.

The second speaker came to the stage soon after James, and his grand presence was immediately felt throughout the crowd of over 9,000 people. In the lead-up to his talk, his name was consistently highlighted as one that people were most excited for. His name was Jocko Willink, and he was an ex-Navy SEAL and the best-selling author of Extreme Ownership. Jocko told many stories that were some of the most engaging of the entire conference, but I found one of his stories especially powerful. It was a specific example of his extreme ownership ethos. He described the difference in responses during debrief sessions after failed training missions with new Navy SEAL groups. Though the results of the missions were both tremendous failures, the responses from each team leader couldn't have been more different. When the first leader was brought to the front of the room and asked what went wrong, he explained that the extract vehicle driver was in the wrong place and the sniper team got lost. This led to the driver and sniper team leader getting defensive and blaming different members of their own teams until everyone was pointing fingers at someone else. No real progress was made. When the second leader was asked to explain his team's failures, he explained that he did not properly brief the extract team on where to be and did not do enough check-ins with the sniper team to make sure he knew exactly where they were. The responses of the extract and sniper teams were much different. Instead of pointing fingers at others, they also took ownership and explained things like "I didn't pay attention to the extract point in the meeting" or "I'll be honest, I got lost." This led to actual improvements and plans for the next mission rather than a finger-pointing competition amongst the entire team. Good leaders always take ownership of their failures.

That concludes my first entry into the Companion Chronicles blog. I hope everyone that read to this point learned something, and I look forward to reading and writing more content in the coming weeks!