Man, what a hell of a year it’s been

Shaboozey’s song “good news” made me reflect on the year of 2024.

Firstly, great track. 100% not what I usually listen to but Shaboozey has made me a fan.

Secondly, a year is a long time and it’s so easy to forget about things you experienced, accomplished and simply watched play out.

In 2024, I:

got married.

grew a business with my brother.

saw a close friend make the NBA.

went to the NBA Summer League in Vegas.

worked my 7th season in the NBL.

Just to name a few.

What headlined your 2024?

Go write down some things that happened in 2024 just so you can appreciate them once again.

Are loud people privileged?

We know “the early bird gets the worm”, but what about the loudest bird?

Adam Grant in his book Hidden Potential writes, “When we select leaders, we don’t usually pick the person with the strongest leadership skills. We frequently choose the person who talks the most. It’s called the babble effect.”

While I think every situation is circumstantial, this makes a lot of sense to me.

The loudest in the room gets noticed.

Maybe it’s who gets the promotion at work, who becomes captain of a sport team, if you’re loud, you’re seen. Therefore you may be getting valued more than someone who isn’t.

Look at the corporate hierarchy specifically, the loudest equals the most confident right? Putting two and two together means that they would in theory, make the best leaders.

I can’t blame people for thinking that way but there are things we can all do to change that.

Introverts, let’s challenge ourselves to be more vocal.

Regardless of if it gets you a promotion, it’s great for personal growth and it feels good doing so. This doesn’t mean standing up at every meeting and presenting by the way. Being loud could be emails, messages, phone calls - there’s different ways of using your voice.

Leaders, let’s look beyond the loudest voice in the room.

It’s easy to get drawn there, I get it, and honestly that may be exactly what you are after and the best person for the job, but let’s give everyone a shot. Quiet doesn’t mean a lack of confidence, lack of knowledge, lack of skills.

One last thing to conclude this, if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind.

Do you remember shopping for groceries at your local Samsung store?

Good, because neither do I.

Google tells me that Samsung started as a grocery store in 1938 so a big hello to any 86 year olds reading this, maybe you recall a time you picked up milk and bread at Samsung but I can guarantee you most of us don’t.

Samsung started as a grocery store.

Nintendo started by making playing cards.

IKEA started as a pen.

I read this on social media the other day and guess what this told me?

That it’s normal to fail.

The biggest brands and biggest names in the world have failed.

So next time you and I ‘fail’ at something, let’s try to look at it differently.

Trust your circle, but trust yourself more

Everyone has their own ‘circle’.

Family, close friends, mentors — all of you get in that circle.

Having them there to discuss career moves, ideas, hobbies and even relationship advice, is great.

To me it is what they are there for.

But after hearing them out, regardless of how many points you agree with or points you don’t, I say to always go back to what you feel.

Everyone always says “go with your gut” when making a decision but I think it’s within good reason.

It’s super easy to get influenced by even a single conversation or text message from someone you trust.

It’s happened to me many times.

“Well damn it, I really wanted to do that but Circle Member X raises a good point and now I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

Getting there perspective on a decision is the whole purpose as they will see it differently than you do.

But at the end of the day, back yourself.

Trust them, but trust yourself more.

Give yourself 5 minutes to be frustrated and then move the hell on

The next time something makes you frustrated, soak in it. Let yourself be frustrated for 5 minutes but then move on from it. That’s what I learned from the popular TV series ‘Lost.’

I’ve seen Lost roughly 0.8 times. I’ve started it twice and never finished it. Make of that what you will.

But I’m glad I did because on my second attempt I took something away from episode 1.

Alright, the scene in simple terms:

• Meet main character Doctor Jack.

• Meet his love interest Kate who asks how he deals with nerves when performing surgery.

• Jack talks about how he deals with fear.

• He gives himself 5 seconds to freak out and then he flicks that switch and does what is needed.

The thing I took from this was we all get scared, and nervous, and mad, and every other emotion out there.

The toughest person you know cries, the most confident person you know gets nervous.

It is perfectly fine to feel these things and in fact, I’ll put it in the ‘good for you’ basket.

Be nervous, be mad, be sad — but give yourself a certain time to do so and then flick that switch.

5 seconds is extreme but given Doctor Jack’s situation, that is fair enough.

I’m running with 5 minutes instead for everyday life challenges.

I always preach positivity and tell myself there’s no point in being frustrated by that bad traffic but reality is that it’s a pain in the ass.

But after that 5 minutes I’m back to positivity and trying to snap out of it. Well, in theory at least.

There’s simply no point in dwelling over something that has already happened.

Like, what benefits do we get from it?

Take 5 minutes. Don’t run from those emotions. Feel them. Move on.

Thanks Jack from Lost.

Sit in the front seat, take back the keys to your life

The blame game — a game we all play.

Eric Thomas, someone who I only just discovered on a recent podcast episode, said that as soon as you blame someone, you hand them the keys to your life.

I thought this was a great analogy.

Yes people are annoying. Yes they are super questionable at times. And yes, honestly sometimes it is just other people’s fault that you end up in a certain bad situation.

But if you simply blame them, and then sit in your disappointment shaking your head over and over, you are letting them have control.

It’s your life, so take control of it, take back the keys.

Figure out what you can do about that crappy situation and sit in the front seat.

Next time I blame someone for something I’m going to visualise myself handing them over my shiny keys to the car and driving me somewhere as I just sit there in the backseat, sad and helpless.

Take notice of the good people surrounding you every day

The people and the connections are the best part about my job.

I’ll say this now and I’ll continue to say it for a very long time.

I’ve been with the NBL for almost 7 years, been involved in the content and sports space for a very long time and the best part about it all is, and will always be the connections with the people you make.

The players.
The commentators.
The designers.
The marketers.
The managers.
The CEO’s.
The video editors.
The hosts.
The guests.

We’re all the same. We’re all just humans going through human things and it’s wonderful.

As I type this I hear Bliss n Eso — Good People feat. Kasey Chambers playing in my head too so go put that on after reading this email.

Enjoy the people around you. Take notice of them. Have a coffee with them.

Thanks for being here

Learning life.

That's how I describe what I'm doing here.

Personal development is something we all go through whether we intentionally go about it or not.

Notice the first word of the headline being learning. I just want to make it super clear that I am no expert.

I feel like everywhere you look these days there are people telling you what is best for you.

Find out yourself.

That's the fun part.

That's what I'm doing, and I'm sharing my experiences, learnings, books, lifestyles and words of wisdom from others along the way.

Thanks for being here.