Curiosity
How I lost it, regained it and now cherish it
As I sit here wearing my red light laser cap, it occurs to me that I missed a critical piece in my first Life Framework post.
As a kid I had it in spades.
Dogs have it. There is nothing better than the head tilt of curiosity.
So where did mine go?
When did I lose it?
I think life slowly beat it out of me.
I remember looking up at the stars with wonder.
Now I look at them and am annoyed by all of the light pollution impacting the view.
I think the final straw was the cumulative stress and burnout I ended up with through my 20 year career.
Curiosity is something you have at the beginning, but you need to nurture, cultivate and celebrate it.
How does one nurture it?
I’m still working on it, but for me right now it means constantly exploring new hobbies. Sometimes you have to push yourself to try something you have no interest in.
For example, I started this Substack because I thought it would be a good outlet for my brain.
I knew I would struggle with it, but I needed to just do it. I’m not quoting the mantra from a shoe brand here.
I’m actually referring to a hilarious moment between Dom and one of our salespeople.
One morning at work I was walking to the coffee machine for my 12th cup of coffee after a long night fixing other people’s mistakes.
Dom was standing in the sales area talking to one of our struggling salespeople.
It was quarter end and we were about to get on a plane for our quarterly board meeting where our VC would yell at us for yet again missing our sales target.
I hear the sales guy say “Sorry, I’m trying man.”
This is not something you EVER say to Dom.
Dom’s brain will immediately think:
Loser
Why did I hire this moron
Fuck, I hate salespeople
How do I shame him into not being an idiot
So Dom says:
No one expected Dom to quote Yoda.
I had a full mouth of coffee and managed not to do a spit take laughing my ass off.
The smart salespeople immediately turned their heads back to their screens and started making phone calls.
Most of the salespeople started laughing at their fellow moron about to get ridiculed.
Funny story, but what does this have to do with today’s subject of curiosity?
Quite a bit actually.
Bad salespeople are not curious.
They don’t learn the product they are selling because they aren’t curious enough
They aren’t curious about the customer’s problems
They aren’t curious about how to solve their problems
The only thing they are curious about is the size of their commission check. Hint…it was usually zero unless Dom or I stepped in to fix their deal by engaging with the customer
Without curiosity you are going to live a mediocre life.
You must nurture it.
Interestingly, mine has returned in full force recently.
Everyone’s path will be different, but here’s what I’ve learned:
You have to make time for it in your day
Put down your phone and turn off your TV
Take that time and work on a hobby you love
Or start a new hobby you have an interest in
If you don’t have any hobbies…you have a big problem and need to start exploring now