Life Is Long
But it requires self-disruption
A quick hello from yours truly :)
Penpal matching Round 2 starts in TWO DAYS!! Come join me and the squad at Matt’s Friend Club if you wanna feel the warm hug of this community.
Kk, now onto today’s topic…
Years ago I was listening to an interview on the Tim Ferriss Show with one of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield.
At the end of their chat, Tim asked Pressfield, “If you had a billboard to get a message out to billions of people, what might you put on it?”
Pressfield paused then answered: Life Is Long.
They always tell you life is short, but actually life is long. If we find ourselves making mistakes or we haven’t yet found our real calling, don’t drive yourself crazy with that. There’s plenty of time…Look at me—it took me forever to break through in anything and I still feel that I’ve got a whole other lifetime ahead of me.
Earlier in the podcast, Pressfield spoke about his career trajectory. Prior to publishing his first book at 52 years old, he was a truck driver, fruit picker, advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, bartender, oilfield worker and a not very successful screenwriter.
In other words, he lived a life of constant self-disruption.
In the book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, author Clayton Christensen explains that successful companies stagnate and eventually die because they don’t disrupt themselves. They get comfortable. They dominate a market, keep doing the same thing, forget to invest in the future, and then, as Ernest Hemingway said, “Gradually, then suddenly,” go bankrupt as a new player takes over the industry.
The Innovators’ Dilemma was Steve Jobs’ Bible. Jobs integrated this idea within the Apple ethos. When Apple introduced the Iphone, they knew it would kill the iPod. When they introduced the Ipad, they knew it would compete with the Mac. They would consistently sacrifice a present-day version of a product for something more aligned with where they wanted to go.
Although Christensen’s book was meant for companies, his theory also works for individuals.
Many of us work really hard for something, get the thing, get comfortable in the thing, stop investing in our growth, stop adapting, stop being curious, and stop exploring. And then suddenly, we find ourselves in a ditch, incapable of getting out.
A long life is a life of consistent self-disruption. It’s a life of R&D, experimentation, shedding what once worked for something that will reveal a whole new part of ourselves we didn’t even know existed.
There’s always a new map available once we’ve completed the one we’re in. A new place where we don’t know how things work, where we don’t know who we’ll become—a complete unknown.
I’m very much in this period now—planting the seeds on this new map I’ve found myself in. A new country, a new business, a new relationship, a new language, a new artistic pursuit.
It can get exhausting because everything is so fresh. There’s tons of doubt because I’ve never seen these roads before. I wonder if Jobs felt that too. Or Pressfield. Or any entrepreneur or creator—I’m looking at you, Bowie—who said fuck it and fully shed their old skin.
Most likely.
And yet there’s this thrill, this feeling that anything is possible. This undeniable sense that life is just starting again.
And so, I keep going, one shaky step in front of the next, as this new world slowly reveals itself to me.
Love,
Matt
COMMUNITY WIN OF THE WEEK
Hey Matt!!
Just wanted to pop in to say how much you’ve been an inspiration for me over the years. I visited Shanghai a few days ago and I was so ecstatic when I visited the same spot where you and Staffan filmed back in one of your Shanghai videos!
Submitting my win of the week:
I public pitched on Twitter to work for Morning Brew co-founder, Alex Lieberman. It blew up in a few hours, got the attention of Alex, and I miraculously landed the job! The image is me hopping on a call with him for the first time at 4 a.m in the morning :).
Cheers,
Jeston
Congrats Jeston! Love the boldness of a public pitch and so psyched that it paid off for you. Go get ‘em :)
If you’re reading this and you’re like hey, I have a Win of the Week, well then send it over to matt@mattdahlia.com to be featured on here :)
Okay that is all.
Love you again.
Goodbye.
Reading this the day I sign a contract for a new job 😅 here’s to pivoting to new challenges!
Matt, please never forget throughout your journey how very much you inspire others, how very much love there is for you, and that you always have a soft place to land.