Happy Sunday Everyone-
A few different points I’d like to make that all come together in the end-
Point 1-Jay Vorhees and Heejin Kim own JVM Lending, they’re tough competitors, they’re very good at what they do, they’re also friends. We get together from time to time to catch up, they’re on this distribution list, I’m on theirs. We share. A few years back I asked Jay over a cup of coffee how he kept his content fresh and explained the frustration of not always having stuff in my head on Sunday mornings. He gave me simple advice which was to keep a side folder called “Sunday Thoughts”…when something hit me, regardless of timing, put it in there to go back to. Sounds simple now, super helpful and relevant to today.
Point 2-I’m reminded to tell this story because of point one (saved a thought in my ST folder). I was running on a Tuesday last month (6/25). It was early, sun was coming up, I was feeling good. Coming the other way was a young guy, great shape, early twenties. Behind him, another young guy, even better shape, like professional athlete style (maybe college but picture 6’4, 230, no body fat). Only thing I could venture is the guy in front was training him. No clue why I did this, but I decided on the 2nd guy that i was going to fist bump him, like the 3 of us are getting up on the world. I’m about 10 feet out and closing in, I throw my knuckles up, and get a total rejection. As I’m passing the guy, feeling a little lame, he sees what I’m doing out of the corner of his eye. I keep going, and hear a “hey, I’m sorry sir” and this kid comes flying back toward me and gives me knuckles and says, “I missed you”, pivots and heads back the other way. I told Kim about it, only thing she said, “is it normal for you to fist bump other people while you run, that’s kind of weird”. It probably is a little weird, but I don’t care. I’d like to believe there was a feeling of connectedness for both of us, certainly for me. Physical touch matters, comradery matters, little uplift to feel a part of something matters. So, when I feel like it, I’m going to fist bump and see what happens.
Point 3-I’ve had people ask if I really write Sunday Thoughts on Sunday Morning, answer is yes (most of the time). Tonight (Friday-7/19) I’m flying back from visiting a few offices on the east coast and know I likely won’t have time this Sunday. I saw friends I haven’t seen in a while, I met people I’ve only spoken to by phone/video/email, and I met others for the first time in total. This isn’t new news, but I would challenge all of us to recognize you cannot replace face to face, breaking bread, hanging out. So many people in our industry feel rudderless. I believe this is in large part because we sit alone, we text, we email, occasionally talk, but we’re sitting there ruminating in our own rudderless thoughts. You get together in person, with the right people, and that all changes. We feed off each other, we share, we have better direction, we have more clarity, we have more accountability to ourselves and to others.
So, three random events over different periods of time but the single and basic concept is human connection. I just googled definition of Human Connection-this is what came back “Human connection is the sense of closeness and belongingness a person can experience when having supportive relationships with those around them. Connection is when two or more people interact with each other and each person feels valued, seen, and heard”. I probably could have saved this whole email today and just said those words. I just know I plan to do more of it, although not on the same day of a global tech outage!
Have a great rest of your Sunday and see people next week!