Suggested Song: I Can’t Help Myself, The Four Tops. Suggested Drink: Remy Martin XO cognac. (To warm you up, all the way down.)
Dauntless (adjective): incapable of being intimidated or subdued. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
My brother has started work on another home in France. Fixer-uppers doesn’t do these projects justice. The homes are reduced to little more than gangly frames, with interior walls knocked down, ceilings peeled back, floors dug up, and the entire layouts reimagined. Then the fun begins. The man is dauntless.
Where once stood a wall. Work begins on the new home.
What drives someone to madness? Captain Ahab was consumed by a white whale, Kurtz with a lust for absolute power, and Earhart to conquer the skies. As for Joe? He has a keen eye for crumbled possibilities and loves a big challenge. Add in equal parts (1) handy with tools, (2) a Scots-Irish work ethic, and (3) an allergy to passive retirement (two days on a cruise ship would cover him in hives), and you have the perfect propellant for a one-man wrecking ball and rebuilding crew.
NY Times reporter, 1923: “WHY do you want to climb Mount Everest?” George Mallory: “Because it’s there.”
These projects aren’t motivated by expectations of grand financial reward (he’d be happy to take it). Joe’s last 2 remodels – in France’s Normandy and Charente regions – crafted architecturally stunning homes that sold at premiums to the purchase prices, but minus the costs of tools, materials, and hired tradesmen (divided over time and to the power of Joe’s physical labor) did not generate significant upside.
Nor has any residence yet produced the perfect forever home perhaps Joe and wife Barbara anticipate when reviewing blueprints. This new project will be home #8 together, and she’s inquired more than once through through the years if this might be their final move. Definitely, until Joe spots another beautifully dilapidated dwelling that rouses the imagination.
The kitchen, installed by Joe, at the former home. Now a luxury bed and breakfast.
You might ask if he’s hoping to leave a legacy with his impressive set of rehabilitated habitats. The stoic will insist that he’s not. Brought into this world in ’52, departed in TBD, raise a toast to a life well spent, and done. (To quote the tombstone epitaph from one of our hometown’s colorful characters: Darn it all, plunked in.)
No, there is no Ahab obsession or divine provenance at play in Joe’s labors. No Ark building at the commands of a greater power. He enjoys doing it and does it exceedingly well. I think it’s simply something he cannot not do. The itch that demands a scratch. It’s his soul fuel.
Despite our brotherly differences in talents and interests, in this we share. I commit a lot of money and time to my music projects. A hefty investment goes into each album to pay for session musicians, studio time, rehearsal space, home recording equipment, guitars, keyboards, and other stuff. None of my releases have yet covered their costs, but still I compose new songs, plan new projects, and dream of possibilities.
The same can be said for my writing. Postcards from a Runaway essays have been published monthly since 2011, first on my personal website here and now on Substack. Good writing requires time and tinkering, and occasionally I hit that mark. After hundreds of hours of pen to paper over a dozen-plus years, total readership sums to a few hundred subscribers. Still, I write daily, chipping away on new essays and musical scripts, and publishing playbooks on life change and startup creation. Like picking up a guitar or sitting at the piano, it’s simply something I cannot not do. The ghost that demands you engage. It’s my soul fuel.
there’s a ghost out in the hall a shadow on your wall I’m a candle in night see me dancing in the light can you see me now? – From C’mon C’mon, I’m Here!, on my upcoming album.
Joe would love to double his money on the new home I’m sure. He’s rebuilding it regardless. I’d love for an essay or song to go viral. It’s unexpected, but still I create. At least Joe’s brick and mortar triumphs will provide warm family sanctuaries for generations to come. My creative trace may dissipate quickly like digital stardust to the wind. Still, we’re lucky to have our soul fuel, our blind passions, especially post the career years. They may extend our days above terra firma (having life purpose is known to extend lifespan), and keep us up early and mildly interesting. And if not, we’re at least having fun before the darn it all, plunked in.
Spring is the season of rebirth. Green shoots. New leaves. Fertilization and pollination and Mother Nature in all her horny glory. The sterile winter of grey torpor (can I just go to bed yet?) surrenders to a pregnancy of vibrant possibilities. Ready to kick the winter blues? Follow her lead and get knocked up.
The pregnancy bug can manifest in ways beyond just with child: a future pregnant with possibilities; a community pregnant with friendships; a film or novel or other art piece pregnant with meaning, and so on. Regardless of one’s fertility objective, all productive intercourse requires the Rule of 4 and in this order:
Engagement
Penetration
Endurance
Climax
Let’s take a closer look.
Engagement
It takes two to tango, as the saying goes. Eager to get gestating? Then shake off the winter hibernation, mix with masses, and connect.
Your dance partner may indeed be a co-parenting prospect and the nature of engagement carnal by design. But that object of desire could equally be an exciting new project of deep meaning, or a newly discovered film director from the French New Wave school, or group of friends hosting Friday night wine tastings. In all cases, the experiences are deeper and more satisfying when shared with others (just like sex!). Who can support your project, join for some popcorn, or share some tasting notes? The zygotes of possibility won’t get planted with you shrouded in a prophylactic bubble.
Tango, by Lucie Llong
And the most effective prophylactic? Our phones. Nothing insulates us better from the ambiance of life and sends that I’m not interested signal to others than public phone scrolling, headphones on, and eye contact avoided. Little surprise that the percentage of 18-30 year olds going sexless for more than a year has doubled since 2011 (to now about 40%), with 1 in 4 Gen Z adults saying they’ve NEVER HAD SEX. For the love of god, put that thing away, smile at a stranger, and engage. Nature will take care of the rest.
Penetration
The tip of the iceberg reveals little about the depths below. One night stands can be a fun distraction, but unsatisfying in the vein of deeper relationships. Fascination with that avant-garde school of cinema will be richer once a dive into its various directors, their films and go-to actors, and philosophies about movies, is made. Getting knocked up by Godard will require more than just seeing Breathless at your local arthouse and thinking, well that was weird. That new life project of deep personal meaning? It is all just barstool talk until research is done, plans are set, deadlines made, and an official launch announced, and then launched.
Penetration requires a plunge in all manner of things. So line to the target, then make your push.
Endurance
Endurance is a particularly vexing challenge for men through our sexually active years. When young we can’t hold off and when old struggle to hang in. Bless our empathetic partners. Wait, what, again?
Fortunately, our non-carnal ventures are less susceptible to the whims of age and nature. Those weekend wine club gatherings will get even more enjoyable in time, and when shared with the same crew. Remembering favorite regional theme nights and laughing together about the blind tasting fails. Pinot noir, no way! Every Friday evening a group of expat men meet for drinks in my hometown of Aix-en-Provence. It’s become a popular event for ending the week, mingling with friends, and sharing the joys of being strangers in a strange land. For the regular members, these Directors Meetings have become an indispensable part of their lives in Provence, and equally appreciated by the wives. Off you go.
With our life legacy projects there are mistakes made and blind alleys chased. A strategy for dealing with disappointment is key. We need to endure through these setbacks as much as celebrate the achievements. But in the end, accomplishment is that much sweeter when the outcomes are much less certain and require that extra push.
Climax
We all know what this is (those of us not in the sex-denied Gen Z cohort). It is what one works toward and can reach delirium in achieving. But in truth, the greatest reward is enjoyed during the journey, not its completion. Meeting someone magical and starting down that wondrous path of romance together. Pursuing an ambitious dream and coming to appreciate more deeply our own strengths and limitations. Sitting (suffering?) through a dozen films of Godard and Truffaut, with someone who now has become a close friend (a Siskel to your Ebert), and remembering all the mystery and vexation and boxes of Jujubes and popcorn. Okay, next up Louis B Mayer epics!
Nature fixes age limits on getting pregnant with a child, but not for other endeavors of great fun and reward. Just remember the Rule of 4 and you’ll be knocked up in no time. It’s the spring of new possibilities; get out there!
Suggested Song: Time, Pink Floyd Suggested Drink: French 75 cocktail (lots of bubbles): gin, lemon juice, champagne, simple syrup
Listen to this essay:
“Do not go gentle into that good night.” – Dylan Thomas
Uncle John died on Monday. He was the final ascendant of my generation of siblings and his passing left a sobering reminder that we are now on top of the bubble; the next Pez to pop. No one left above appraising us with eyebrow raised, only those below to bless with our unassailable wisdom. Ahem.
I last saw John in September, when my brother Joe and I travelled to Montreal for a quick hello. We sensed that time was dwindling. John was in failing health, but still living independently in a facility for elders and engaged with the world. He never warmed to the internet, but followed the news through a heavy dose of journals and CNN, and was impressively current on everything obscure to global. He held no shortage of opinions, just ask.
John had more charm and cheek than a boatful of pirates, chatting with everyone, flirting with some, and repeating stories of his colorful youth in Montreal. The sleek cars and mafia dolls, hanging with his pal Billy at this hot spot or that, and 50 years of memories with Eileen, the love of his life. I can visualize a massive burst of life energy exploding into a kaleidoscope of cosmic dust the moment Uncle John finally let go.
Runways
I’m in pretty good shape, aka nick (the Brits), aka forme (the French). I follow the Mediterranean Diet, exercise, get in my 8 hours at night, stay social, make attempts at moderation, and juggle a collection of projects that fill me with purpose. In the past, when suffering a wobble I could survey the condition of older generations and feel, by contrast, blessed. Now I’ve lost that comparative advantage. The one-eyed cat with the ratty fur? Now that’s me.
This bubble slot prompts me to gauge the runway. I’m counting on 20 more good years, with 10 to 15 at full gallop and the rest at an inspired trot. I may do better on both counts, and then again maybe not. All one can do is try to stay in good shape, nick, forme (see above).
The capricious runway of one’s final act provokes an option to go bold (not gentle, to quote our Welsh poet) while able. What can I create and what can I consume that are most profound (and for whom) in the time remaining? I don’t value consumption as bold by the price tags of bumptious possessions gathering dust in idle sitting rooms. I similarly don’t measure creation as bold through numbers of followers, likes, or purchases it engenders. Can you imagine social media reactions in the early careers of Kafka, Cage, or Pollock? 🤷♂️😝👎
Being inspired and getting paid for it are conjoined for emerging creatives of any stripe: artists, architects, inventors, startup founders, etc. Not as much for those of us on the bubble. I want to be rewarded for my creative output, but won’t sacrifice my vision to that end. This is a luxury most younger creatives don’t enjoy. I’m looking to be remembered in 100 years, they are looking to pay the rent this month. Between these 2 extremes lies a spectrum of compromise. We all find our spot.
Bold consumption, for me, leans into personal enrichment. What can I absorb that strengthens my outer creativity? What can I absorb that deepens my inner journey? Answers? I’m not sure, but the fun is in figuring that out.
Family will play a larger role through these bubble years. More quality time spent with my siblings and California kids is growing in priority. Investing more in developing my various crafts is also taking on greater urgency. With whom can I collaborate to light the creative flame? What additional knowledge can deepen my appreciation for how this world turns? What experiences will render me a much richer and more interesting Bill to those with whom I commune? These have always been fun barstool considerations. As the runway shortens they take on greater urgency.
My Interprize Workshops have to-date centered on the art of mid-life reinvention. As I see that mid-life point coming into sharper rearview view, I’m reworking the concept and content to include those on-the-bubble considerations above. I plan to revive the workshops in the next year, so all thoughts are invited. ‘Till then, go have fun!
Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you. – From “Old Man”, Neil Young
Joshua Tree on the Gatineau
I just spent a few days in Quebec, with a final long weekend in Wakefield. It’s a bohemian village of artists and stargazers strung along the western bank of the broad, dark Gatineau River, 30 minutes north of Ottawa. Creative crossroads like Joshua Tree or Taos share similar vibes. Rustic cafes, organic bistros, and artist boutiques. (Kaffe 1870 is a locals favorite for lunch and an afternoon craft beer.) You’ll see more indigo ink and Doc Martins than Estée Lauder and Jimmy Choos. I can do the high life, I can do the low life, and I can definitely do the boho life. I love the energy in towns like Wakefield.
The placid Gatineau River, from my cousin Ellie’s deck, near Wakefield:
My brother and I had come to Quebec to visit our Uncle John, who has taken up residence in a very senior, senior center. He’s the last of our aging cohort of aunts and uncles, and at a spry 89 eager for company and a chance to get out and about. Morning coffees at Tim Hortons, lunch takeout from the local grocery, then dinners in town, somewhere simple with a few beer-on-tap options for Joe and me. John prefers a tall glass of milk these days.
My apple hasn’t fallen far from John’s tree. I take that as a good thing. His mind remains sharp as a tack, even if the body is conceding to age and entropy. He cut a dashing figure in his youth, and shared my fondness for cars, bars, and good fun with close friends. He has a sharp wit, curious mind, and stays on top of all events local and global. He also remains a bit of a flirty rapscallion, age be damned.
I’m not a carbon copy of my uncle, however, and it takes just a short visit to be reminded. I am my mother’s son, and she was a calmer, more compromising version of her kid brother. Qualities that still serve me well.
Carbon copies don’t exist in the wild. Neither with humans nor beasts. Even among identical twins, divergence starts early. We are formed and forged by a multitude of factors beyond genes: personal tragedy and triumphs, parental guidance (or lack of), cliques of friends, economic class and opportunities, formal education, environs (urban center, leafy suburb, hippy village, …), and the like. This truly singular identity is what makes us each so damn fascinating and shapes the gifts we are uniquely armed to offer.
I wrote about the beauty of singularity in a 2013 essay titled “Y U r U” (click here to read), after being gobsmacked by Michael Phelps’ dominant performance at the 2012 Olympics. (How’s he do that?) In all ways physical and mental he was uniquely gifted to move unnaturally fast through water. It’s as if the gods of swim looked down upon the newborn Phelps and said, yeah, this one will be our swimmer. So, what was their plan for me?
Imagine a world where the likes of Phelps, Aretha Franklin, Banksy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Feynman, or Greta Thunberg stood apathetic to their exceptional gifts. Their indifference would be our great loss. In this era of staggering challenge, are we no less obliged to appreciate our particular talents and share them for the good, … with family, in the local community, or on the world stage? Some food for thought.
Back to the Gatinea
Caitlin Dolan is a talented singer/songwriter in Wakefield with a trio called the Artichoke Hearts (click here to learn more). They released an alt-acoustic EP in 2016, with a new album dropping this October. She’s family of the once removed variety, from a different generation, gender, geography, and entire life experience. So, our musical styles are understandably different, … but similarities curiously abound.
We’re storytellers, leaning into emotional entanglements both beautiful and painfully not so. She’s fond of strings, piano, and harmonies to build passion and add depth. I do as well. I am sure she shares my compulsion to play, write, and share. See that guitar over there? I think I’ll go pick that up. It’s something I cannot not do, despite life’s many little obstacles. Genetic predisposition? Just a bit more food for thought.
He says lie down beside me let me whisper in your ear remember me now in this moment right here. – From “Last Valentine,” Caitlin Dolan
Holding me near feeling your breath warm on my ear and I hear baby I love you so. – From “I Won’t Miss You,” Bill Magill
Suggested Song: Two of Us, The Beatles Suggested Drink: Baltic Pilsner, from Liverpool’s Black Lodge Brewery
Listen to this essay.
I was in Liverpool last week, where I spent a few days at Soundhouse studio recording final tracks for my latest masterpiece. Staying at the prestigious Ibis downtown (ahem), I traced the footsteps of the young Fab Four, down Dale Street to the docks, up serpentine alleys to timeless pubs, past the Cavern Club and over to Penny Lane, always in a grey drizzle. Two of us wearing raincoats. I prayed for divine intervention and welcomed all inspiration from the same streets that surely lit the creative flame of my favorite band and its artistic genius.
Recording an album is expensive. There are musicians, recording engineers, and a producer to pay; studio time to rent; guitars, keyboards, and software to buy; and travel to book. Some in my creative circle play for free or at a discount, and I so deeply appreciate that. But most are professionals and business is business, … despite their great love for Bill Magill and his music. Loved working with you again my friend, here’s my invoice.
Creating great art can be an exhausting series of frustrations and exhilarations. Writing, painting, composing, or whatever the oeuvre; one’s obsession with getting it right is both time consuming and draining. And for it to be great, you must be obsessed. With music there are melodies to compose, lyrics to write, an orchestra of instruments to arrange and their scores to draft, tempos and time signatures and dynamics to consider, and negotiations on all of it with those supporting the project. I’m blessed to have a key collaborator in David Dower, a brilliant keyboardist and classically trained musician who challenges my choices and keeps me on track. He also transforms my journeyman piano parts into sublime works of virtuosity.
In the control room at Soundhouse.
So this project was an ambitious endeavor. It took 2 years to complete, … and that’s just the first 5 songs. (The B side is scheduled for later this year.) I may work slowly and get distracted, but I never stop working. To reach this point sacrifices were required, travel delayed, invitations declined, pennies pinched. If you commit to unreasonably audacious ambitions (and you should) this may sound familiar. I sold my much-loved 2007 Land Rover to support the budget, particularly for the final push in Liverpool. Damn, I loved that car.
Is all this the price of fame? Probably fewer than 1,000 people will give this release a listen, for now, and perhaps just a tenth of that. So why do it? This is the question.
Why do it?
Writing music is something I cannot not do. When my antennas are up the melodies invade, usually when I’m unusually happy or sad, hurt or in love. Some are banal bits of flotsam that get quickly discarded. Others are curious flirtations that get hummed into Music Memos for a relisten down the road. And a few are real gems. At least I think there’s enough diamond in that rough to sit at the piano or with my guitar and start tinkering in the moment.
I feel an obligation to get the gems heard. It’s as if the gods of song have selected me to be their channel of diffusion. That these creations didn’t come as much from me as through me. I’ve heard other songwriters express the same sentiment, talents far beyond my own including McCartney, Dylan, and Cohen. My bet is that artists of all types experience this creative possession. An inspired flourish of paint and the canvas comes alive; the mad push through a new chapter and an unexpected story angle suddenly emerges. It can be spooky, as in where the hell did that come from? It is also quite wondrous, this sense of helpless possession powered by things curiously mystical and otherworldly.
And now you
The obsessed are not all artists (thank god). Noah built a boat. Jobs reimagined personal electronics. I suspect that both experienced many a moment of doubt and pain (more lyrics from a little-known British band). I suspect as well that Jobs’ obsessive pursuit of the elegant-form-meets-function vanishing point was something he could not not do, profitability be damned. Noah, on the other hand, had little choice (or so I’ve read).
Is there a mad quest or grand ambition that you feel compelled to pursue, that you cannot not do? In younger years we have endless excuses to defer: other financial priorities like kids and home; other time commitments like family and work. One beauty of aging is the gradual easing of obligations to other priorities and clearance to focus on our own. I’ve talked about the merits of legacy-defining ambitions often in earlier postcards. Perhaps now is the time to write your own legacy. Not one that will be audited for profitability or even popularity, but simply the purest expression of beautiful you.
PS: Lights Up on The Vivid Stage is in post production now and scheduled for a July release, initially through this website. Stay tuned for more information. It’s sounding great!
This is #5 of 12 monthly experiments for the year, offered to get you inspired, thinking creatively, and organized in the pursuit of bold life ambitions of deep personal meaning. For this fifth experiment in the art of interpreneurship I again borrow heavily from my work in entrepreneurship. Not clear on the difference? Click here.
Customer empathy is a core pillar of business model creation and taught in business schools worldwide, including in my startup courses for INSEAD and the American College of the Mediterranean (ACM), here in Aix-en-Provence. A book I’m cowriting at the moment on deep tech commercialization has a chapter committed to it, with this passage at the start:
Capturing customer empathy has risen to the apex of critical deliverables in most workshops, courses, and publications on business model development. It resides at the core of lean-inspired startup methodologies, and for good reason. Before precious time and significant sums of capital are invested (and likely wasted) in product development it is essential to understand the customers’ needs, pains, limitations, and other factors that help you maximize value through product design and a go-to-market strategy.
The pursuit of a grand personal ambition – your interprize – also requires the mastery of customer empathy to maximize commercial success. But there is a distinct beauty to interpreneurial endeavors: the primary metrics of success are not measured in units shipped or profits made, but rather in passions fed and purpose found.
That sounds seductive (and poetically penned!). Let’s take a deeper dive.
On Customer Empathy
Empathy:the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Entrepreneurs are an excitable lot. They experience a business epiphany or make a science discovery and the eyes go Davey Jones sparkly. Bank accounts are drained, months are consumed, and deep in the dark bowels of a lab or living room a shiny new widget is perfected. Then off to the market they charge with a world-beating solution and heart full of hope, … and inevitable disappointment.
Entrepreneurship 101 now leads us with market need, not product design. Okay, you have a promising concept. Now, who is the target customer; what work are they doing; how can your concept bring gains to their undertaking of that work; how can your concept reduce pains in their undertaking of that work? Customer empathy is MBA-speak for the process of working through these questions and gaining a deeper sympathy for your customer and their job BEFORE focusing on product perfection.
An illustration of the customer empathy process looks like this:
Source: Strategyzer, The Value Proposition Canvas (adapted by the Interprize Group)
On Customer Compassion
Compassion: a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Marriam-Webster Dictionary
Compassion goes one step further than empathy. It requires action. Being deeply empathetic to the customer experience is a critical Step 1. Figuring out how to apply that understanding to optimize customer happiness is the compassionate Step 2. This is achieved through effective product/service design, delivery, support, and other business model elements that amplify user gains and reduce user pains.
As a new shiny gadget’s features and support align with the customers’ wants and needs we arrive at product-market fit (yet more business school speak). It’s a guiding principle to product design that requires constant validation and tweaks.
The Interprize Exception
Interpreneurs and entrepreneurs have a lot in common, particularly the desire to create something of great value and share it with the world. But we interpreneurs enjoy one crucial exception: the pilot customer is facing us in the mirror. Our fundamental motivation for the early mornings and late nights and hard-earned savings spent is in the search for purpose that is found through this sharing.
That search takes precedence over the market competitiveness and profit optimization of our shiny new gadget. And this liberating distinction gives us great license to create in our own image, to nourish our deepest passions, possibly and acceptably to the detriment of success as measured in conventional business terms. We call this hybrid principle product-passion fit. (That term is very much NOT business school speak.)
Examples may be helpful.
Marcia is a classic interpreneur. Her core career was spent mostly in marketing and sales in Silicon Valley’s tech world of venture-backed, high-flying startups. Living for the moment in Provence, she is an artist of impressive talent, and the sharing of this gift guides her encore career.
Marcia just completed my course on startup entrepreneurship at the ACM, working through 10 weeks of Bill Magill on mission statements and elevator pitches and product-market fits and business model canvases and fundraising, … and yes, also on customer empathy.
Jeux d’Ombres, Marcia Mason Speece
She was a great student and this grounding in basic entrepreneurship should enable even greater success with the spread and sales of her art. That is important, not only in helping pay the bills but validating her gift with the buying public. But Marcia will paint her garden watercolors irrespective of market success. It is her interprize, that prize within. It’s something she cannot not do. It defines who she is. It is her passion and through the sharing of this gift she finds purpose. Validation IS appreciated. Validation IS NOT the paramount objective. With her encore career she’s seeking product-passion fit.
My interprize is to write and stage rock dramas. I could plow ahead with a script and music and charge off to Broadway in search of open arms. Or, before setting pen to paper and fingers to keys, I could make an effort to understanding the arts of musical development and script writing, my specific audience (young, old, rockers, opera goers, theatre regulars, theatre newbies), what they want in a story (old stories reimagined, new stories freshly written), where they want to experience it (the stage, at home on a streaming series, watching a YouTube video, listening to Spotify, some mix of all), and so on.
My chances of getting staged are much higher if I first respect the craft that is my craft and the content qualities gaining market interest. But I will write these dramas regardless of their chances, and in my own voice. And I will not be limited to an algorithm’s guidance of what’s trending now. Writing music is something I cannot not do. I have finished one (click here for a listen to Last Night at the Ha-Ra if curious) and am working on my second rock drama now.
A final word on creative integrity.
Van Gogh had a wholly unique style. It is not that he was disinterested in what others were doing. On the contrary, his influences were many, including the Dutch Masters like Rembrandt and Hague School celebrities trending at the time. But unlike his contemporaries he remained ignored and famously broke for most of his life, and that speaks to his creative integrity. A healthy dose of customer empathy might have steered him in other directions. He chose to prioritize product-passion fit over product-market fit. The world is the better for it.
Starry Night over the Rhône, Vincent Van Gogh
Product-Passion Fit Experiment
(Refer to the diagram above if helpful.)
For your interprize concept:
1. Create a profile of your targeted customer archetype(s). Descriptors may include age, location, education, affluence, and other qualities that best characterize their particular attributes.
2. What jobs or activities are they doing related to your concept? For Marcia and her Watercolor Garden that list may include finding watercolor artists online (or locally) who have a particular focus on garden scenes, evaluating their work, buying and framing original pieces, having the same art rendered on cards and sacs, returning items, etc.
3. Build customer empathy by listing the pains they suffer and gains they would value while doing these activities. Apply customer compassion by turning this empathy into action items you can do to reduce these pains and amplify the gains.
Now, walk away from this activity for an hour or a day, then…
4. Reflect on how this act of compassion will impact your interprize project. In the perfect world they will align by reinforcing your sense of validation and accomplishment. More people finding and buying Marcia’s art. More musical lovers and critics finding and applauding my dramas. But the world is often not perfect. Making customers’ needs the overarching priority may pull you off your North Star (click here to refer to Experiment #3, Your Mission Definition). I may favor an abstract musical style that fewer people love. If crafting in that style for those few feeds my passion and gives me purpose, then I’ve maximized product-passion fit and the world will be better for it.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou
This is #3 of 12 experiments for the year, offered to get you inspired, thinking creatively, and organized in the pursuit of bold life ambitions of deep personal meaning. Experiments 1 and 2 concentrate on the big question of WHY (aspire to live and leave a life respecting your greatest gifts and passions). They provoke you to think about life – your ideal versus the current version – and death – those things for which you want to be remembered as you pass into the great goodbye.
This March Experiment starts the migration of WHY to WHAT. If you’re still reading these essays then you’re likely loath to the idea of retirement years spent in the wading pool. That deep end of the grand basin feels risky, but damn if that diving board doesn’t look fun. WHY make the effort to mount the board, muster some courage, and take the leap? WHAT will you find at the bottom of the pool? Onward.
Is it important dive deep, especially if after a life of impressive achievement? I argue that it is for at least 4 reasons:
1. Midlife is the best moment to dream big and realize your authentic self. You likely have some stores of savings, the kids are gone, your network is extensive, health is still good, mind is still sharp, time is available, and your life experiences have a bestowed a wisdom to which your younger self had no access. Are you going to waste this golden moment?
2. Your accomplishments to date, impressive as they may be, may not reflect the untold story inside you. Amazing mom, corporate CEO; both and many titles in between are impressive laureates. If that’s all that needs be told and you’re fine with that résumé on your stone block, god bless and job well done. If not, there’s no better time to start on a new epithet. (See point 1.)
3. You’ll likely live a longer, richer life. Study after study of repeatable, empirical evidence reveals that pursuing authentic life purpose is a key to happiness, good health, and more days on top of the dirt. Just a few sources include centers of research led by Martin Seligman (UPenn), Sonja Luybomirsky (UC Riverside), Barbara Fredrickson (UNC Chapel Hill), and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. The results of an 85-year Harvard study published just last month show that the essential ingredients to longer, happier lives orbit around positive relationships. And one key component of these is the personal growth enjoyed from the pursuit of purposeful life goals, shared with those you love.
4. The world needs your gift. There is so much beauty and so many problems in the world today. Perhaps your gift is artistic expression, perhaps it’s helping people in need, maybe it’s retracing the voyage of Kon-Tiki in a balsa log boat. Regardless, we all benefit. Jimmy Carter stands at the gate to ascension as I write this note, in hospice care back in Plains, Georgia. He was President of the United States; the most powerful man on earth. Now that’s a colossal accomplishment on which to call it a day and retire to the Palm Beach club set. But Jimmy’s legacy had only begun. Nobel Prize recipient, tireless human rights and healthcare advocate, green energy pioneer, Habitat for Humanity founder, and loving husband and dad. We’re going to need a bigger headstone! He will leave this world a much, much better place for all of us to live.
What to do, what to do
Some of us know well our deepest passions and where purpose resides. We understand our gifts, have dabbled with daring projects, and hold a solid sense of how to make a difference. Some of us have no clue. The most of us are somewhere in between.
There are an endless number of books available on uncovering your purpose (see additional reading below). I offer here 3 exercises on Options, Motivations, and Activities that will be helpful in surfacing possibilities should you be in that not really sure category.
Exercise 1: Options (let’s boil the ocean, shall we?)
1. List all previous existing ideas of hobbies, passions, or curiosities that you’ve considered pursuing when you had more time.
2. Identify enjoyable activities from your career. What parts of your jobs did you love doing (as opposed to those you dreaded)?
3. What activities put you in a Flow state; that is, when engaged in them your strengths are challenged and mind 100% immersed, numb to other distractions, and you lose all sense of time.
4. What’s on your bucket list if you have 12 months to live?
5. What types of roles, activities, or responsibilities do you want to avoid?
6. Compare these lists and look for themes.
Exercise 2: Motivations
What is driving you develop a greater sense of purpose? Why commit your energy, spend your savings, and abandon the easy life for a more deeply engaged life? What are your motivations?
This is a short list of 33 possible motivations that may be driving you, just a slice of total possibilities. Create your own, select 5, and look for themes.
Exercise 3: Activities
Create a table of activities from your career or life roles and identify those that you enjoyed and those that created the greatest discomfort. The table should include your job/role title, activities performed in each, and focus of those activities. Circle the activities you enjoyed and strike through those that you did not. Look for themes.
In my professional career I was an analyst, investor, and professor and I present my own table here as a sample.
Your Mission
These exercises may not uncover a specific project, but should be effective in setting your North Star. In the business world this is referred to as a company’s Mission and revealed through a Mission Statement. (Some life coaches refer to it as a Vision Statement; take your pick.) It has little to do with what a company actually produces, but succinctly encapsulates its core customer value. Three examples:
To create happiness for people of all ages, everywhere.
To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
To encourage and enable the pursuit of bold ambitions of deep personal meaning.
Nowhere here are specific products or services mentioned. Nothing about theme parks or electric vehicles or life leaping programs. But everything these companies do will align with their Mission Statements. If not, either the statements or the offerings must be reconsidered.
You should be ready to take a first pass at your Mission Statement if you’ve worked through the exercises above. What value will you offer the world and how will it tell that story inside? Focus on value not product or specific project. Think about your customers. There may be millions, there may be just 1: you. This is your life, your bold ambition, your interprize. What will it give us? Where will it lead you? What’s that North Star?
Additional reading
There is an endless list of books written on the topic of finding life purpose. No single one is considered the definitive work. I’ve read just a few and these are some titles I found particularly helpful:
Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life. – Ken Robinson
The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living and a Difference in the Second Half of Life. – Marci Alboher
Suggested Song: That Was Me, Paul McCartney Suggested Drink: Guinness Extra Stout (The Irish have mastered a good sendoff)
This is the second of 12 experiments I’m proposing to readers this year; one per month. If you’re intent on making 2023 a pivot year toward more purposeful ambitions, or perhaps just asking that post-Covid question – okay, what now and how? – these experiments will help draw maps, uncover truths, enhance motivation, strengthen resilience, and be fun. All are part of the Life Leap Workshops we run in Provence (more about those here). Please give them a try and let me know what you learn and how they can be improved. Comments and critiques are encouraged.
I need to start this essay by highlighting the good fortune we all have, those of us in a position to think about passion pursuits and life purpose. Close to a billion people on this planet are too damn hungry to think about self-actualization. Double that number when including conflict and war zones. Where do I find my next meal and how do I keep my children alive? There are a few Ukrainian families here in Aix – mostly moms and their kids – trying scrape together some way of paying rent while avoiding bad news from the front. What would the hungry and harassed give to be at the peak of Maslow’s pyramid? So, with much humility and respect, onward.
Eulogies
Damn it all, plunked in. On the gravestone of Andy Loy (A colorful character from Bill’s childhood)
The January Experiment (Missed it? Click here.) dealt with the Wheel of Life. It’s a helpful tool to examine how well your current life aligns with the ideal life you imagine. For February we fast forward the reel and talk about, …. death. I don’t mean to be darkly provocative. After the final pulse, there will be a day for others to a cast warm light on your life. Your eulogy, the Cliff Notes version of greatest hits; if you die tomorrow will it recount the legacy you want to leave? What does this say about the life you’re living now?
She started a soup kitchen that fed 100s of homeless and hopeless a day.
His films made viewers rethink the black experience in America.
They restored by hand an old, dilapidated French farmhouse into a world-class BnB.
You will have a eulogy, a moment for friends and family to have a final say on your final day. Maybe even an obit! If there’s one thing we all agree on: no one gets out alive. The question then is, do you want some influence over said commemoration? Specifically, do you care about how you will be memorialised by those at the pulpit for them in the pews?
Artist unknown
The only option for that input is the legacy of material you leave behind. How you lived your life, whom you touched, and what you created: that’s what will be so fondly recalled, not necessarily the same how’s, who’s, and what’s you hoped for. Others – family and close friends – will be climbing the sanctuary to sing your praises. They’ll want to spin some magic. So give them your magic. Make their job fun.
This experiment, then, is a valuable tool for considering purpose, potential, and progress (gotta love the 3 ps). Why you’re here, why you want to be here, why you mattered. And we all want to have mattered.
How is your eulogy lining up? Here’s a quick, back-of-the-envelope experiment for a quick gauge.
The My Eulogy Experiment
Step 1: Your ideal eulogy.
1. Calmed with a warm cup of tea (or chilled glass of rosé) imagine the contented end. Slipping peacefully into eternal slumber, your purpose has been realized, deepest passions fed, your legacy secured. Yes, that WAS a life lived richly, with little left on the plate. And you’re confident that those things that mattered most will be mentioned at your funeral as a true reflection of who you were, how you served, and why a glass raised in your honor is well earned. (If you practice mindfulness this step is a perfect meditation for that zen state.)
2. On a piece of paper list 10 highlights that most merit mention. This is your ideal life list, so include endeavors and achievements from the past for which you are proud and ambitions for the future to which you are committed. Rank them from 1 (essential and non-negotiable) to 10 (important but less critical).
3. Look at the list. Are these truly the 10 highlights to include? Are they authentic and possible (your memorializers will sympathizers, not fabricators)? Ranked properly? Come back to the list later in the day and then again tomorrow, and each time check for correctness. As with the Wheel of Life, don’t consider the ideal eulogy highlights finished until you’ve had a chance to review them over a couple of days, at different times of the day, in different moods.
Step 2: Your current eulogy.
1. In a similarly calm state take a second piece of paper. Rank the high points of your life to-date most likely to be mentioned should you die tomorrow, from 1 (almost surely) to 10 (possibly).
2. Review the list a few times over a couple of days to make sure you’re not forgetting something and have a proper ranking.
Step 3: Compare the lists.
1. For highlights that are on both lists and at similar levels, bravo, your attention and energy are being directed appropriately to those things most important for your life legacy.
2. For highlights on both lists but at notably different rankings, what can you do now to start a correction?
3. For highlights included on your ideal list but missing from current, what’s the plan to get something launched? (That’s our specialty at the Interprize Group, you should ping us!).
Hachiro Kanno
The toughest part of this experiment will be coming up with your list. At first you may think that 10 things about you don’t need to be mentioned, and then you may feel that 10 isn’t nearly enough. Grand passions and life purpose and big achievements are all amazing to pursue, to have on our final resumé. But in the end we just want our lives to have mattered. Helpful grandmother, acclaimed author, much-loved and trusted kindergarten teacher, national champion, …. How did you matter?
Suggested Song: Find Yourself, Brad Paisley Suggested Drink: Virgin Mojito (staying in theme with my dryish January)
With this year’s series of essays I’m going to offer 12 experiments; one per month. For readers intent on making 2023 a pivot year toward more purposeful ambitions, or perhaps just asking that post-Covid question – okay, what now and how? – these experiments will help draw maps, uncover truths, enhance motivation, strengthen resilience, and be fun. All are part of the Life Leap Workshops we run in Provence (more about those here). Please give them a try and let me know what you learn and how they can be improved. Comments and critiques are encouraged.
Each new year starts with our best intentions. Less of this, more of that. Back to basics, forward to the unexplored. Revived projects and new ambitions. Reinvention.
You may be sketching out plans now. They may get realized, maybe not, perhaps not even launched. One thing is assured: nothing deserved of your very limited time and energy – which are infinitely more precious than money – will magically self-organize. If you want to do something purposeful and grand this year, if that’s a resolution, then you need to organize a plan, even if futile.
Start with your foundation.
The Wheel of Life
It’s been over a decade since I left the cable cars and golden gates of San Francisco for the lavender fields of Provence. For 30 plus years I had been living the dream in the Bay Area’s tech and investment industries, as a laser jock and analyst and banker and venture capitalist, and I absolutely loved it until I didn’t. When that unsettling mid-life question – is this it? – began to itch in places I couldn’t scratch it was time dig deeper, beyond the surface stuff like money and security and title and possessions, and seek out genuine authenticity.
San Francisco State University had an executive ed program on life coaching back then and the night courses opened up a whole new universe of questions for me. Are you happy? Does happiness matter? Who is in control of your life? What are your core nonnegotiable values? What is your personality type and why is that valuable to understand? Most importantly, what tools are handy to disassemble and reflect on considerations such as these, and to help ferret out some answers?
On the first night of the first class we were introduced to the Wheel of Life. It provides a graphical segmentation of how your finite stores of time and energy and attention are being parsed. You can fill one out for your current situation and another to represent the ideal life. Comparing the 2 is particularly insightful in understanding how truly offtrack your life has become (perhaps not at all, but then again…), and where adjustments should be concentrated; that is, assuming you want a life most closely aligned with your core priorities and interests. (You do.) By the end of this first class I was feeling feverish and plotting Life of Bill v2.0 on the MUNI streetcar ride home. Within 12 months I was living in Provence.
The Wheel of Life is a circle segmented into 10 slices that collectively represent how your time and energy is being consumed; at least with the 10 most pressing elements. The following chart is an example, but your elements might be different. Some slices are common to most people: Health and Friends/Family, for example. Other slices may be critical to you, not so much to others. Step 1 to using the wheel involves identifying your 10 most critical life components. Take time to get them right, then run the experiment.
The Wheel of Life Experiment
Step 1: Sketch your ideal life.
On a sheet of paper sketch a Wheel of Life similar to the diagram above: a circle segmented with 10 equal slices.
Create a list of the 10 most defining components of your ideal life; those activities when combined would consume most all of your time, energy, attention, and other resources. It’s critical to get the right components, so take time here to think this through. (Your favorite café or wine bar might be an inspiring workspace for this exercise.) In your ideal life you are in control, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have obligations. Include major commitment that you may not particularly enjoy but that are inescapable (caring for an aging in-law could be an example). It’s also the moment to consider what is and is not truly inescapable. (This can lead you into dangerous territory. Go with it for this experiment.)
For each of the 10 elements, assign a weight as to the attention it would consume in your ideal life on a scale of 1 (very low attention) to 10 (very high attention).
Assign each element to a slice. Write the 1-10 weighting under each element label, and fill in the slice with a crayon or marker reflecting that weighting starting at the center. An allocation of 10 will fill the slice entirely. An allocation of 1 will barely fill it at all.
Look at your chart. Are these the 10 critical components to include? Are they weighted honestly? Come back to the chart later in the day and then again tomorrow, and each time check for honesty and correctness. Don’t consider the ideal wheel finished until you’ve had a chance to review it over a couple of days, at different times of the day, in different moods.
Step 2: Sketch your life now.
On a second sheet of paper sketch a Wheel of Life that reflects your life now.
You must use the same 10 elements as included in your ideal life wheel.
For each of the elements assign a weight to the attention it consumes in your life today, from 1 to 10.
Fill in the wheel to reflect this weighting, as in number 4 above.
Review the chart a few times over a couple of days to be comfortable with its completion.
Step 3: Compare the 2 life wheels.
Place your 2 wheels next to each other and contrast the profiles.
For twin slices within 1 point of difference, bravo, your current and ideal situations are well aligned. Keep it up.
For twin slices between 2-3 points of each other consider what can be done to move your current situation closer to the ideal. Small tweaks may work wonders in lowering the weighting tension. Experiments that we’ll be running in future essays this year should be helpful.
For twin slices that are 4 points or more apart, danger ahead. The tension between your ideal life and current situation may cause serious complications in the future (emotional, physical, relational); they may already be giving you an itch that can’t be scratched. Some things in life are out of our control (I argue that this list is smaller than most believe), but seeing your misalignments visually is valuable should they provoke an effort to ease the friction. (At a minimum, toast yourself for soldiering through the inescapable.)
The following chart could have been my Wheel of Life experiment 15 years ago (with the slices colored in). Some misalignments created alarm, then determination, then action. What will yours incite?
Suggested Song: Changes, David Bowie Suggested Drink: Shapeshifter cocktail: vodka, crème de violette, lemon juice, bitters, egg white.
I had an essay on psychogeology planned to drop this week (yeah, it’s a thing!), but two new biographies of Anthony Bourdain have provoked me to the point of making a last-minute swap. Extracts from the biographies are making the rounds, their authors giving interviews.
Bourdain had a large fan base to which I subscribed. Kitchen Confidential was an irreverent exposé of restaurant kitchen culture; a raucous reveal behind the twin swing doors. He reveled in shining a light on the soiled underbelly of something carefully manicured and disneyfied. Bourdain was the essence of punk insolence and I was punk rocker at the time. I ate it up.
Bourdain’s own brand was manicured as well: culinary rapscallion; acute observer of the absurd; globetrotting seeker of the strange and spicy; unapologetic provocateur; cool older dude with hot younger girlfriend. I can imagine that this fun stamp could be exhausting to maintain. We all evolve, sometimes to our friends’ and fans’ resistance. Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilder begat terminator begat governator. The Beatles graduated from Can’t Buy Me Love to A Day in the Life. Fans were unhappy, but the Fab Four were done with holding hands and love me do. Happiness is a warm gun. Transformation is essential for staying fascinated by ourselves.
Bourdain was reportedly excited about a new project that would be decidedly un-Bourdainian. Even pirates pull down the black flag at some point. One can imagine how liberating it would be, and befitting of his style, to shock the devotees with something unexpected and completely out of character. I spent 20 years cultivating X and now I’m Y. Trust me. Join me!
In an earlier incarnation I had a privileged life in San Francisco. It was the greed-is-good Gecko era and cred was built around possessions and title. My wife kept me grounded but every peacock loves to spread the feathers from time to time.I found my wings when I severed the strings (a lyrical couplet from the 2021 MASSIVE HIT To Say Goodbye) and moved to slow-and-sunny Provence from fast-and-foggy San Francisco. I knew that my professional repute and financial surety were about to become irreparably unwound, and was elated. For I was moving towards a more natural, authentic version of myself; correcting course towards a north star I had always seen brightly to the side and too long denied. At a certain age denial is a very unhealthy choice.
My sense is that Bourdain was a mostly authentic guy but yearning to evolve. He was an undeniable creative and creative types don’t like being boxed in. The slightest tinge of I’m starting to feel fake elicits the hives x10. Maybe he was finding it difficult to shape the shift, given the heavy momentum of his much-loved brand. Certainly his open history of substance issues and depression wouldn’t have helped, and his relationship was reportedly on the rocks. He loved her deeply (according to the new bios) and must have felt it slipping. That can push one into embarrassing behavior. I can relate more than I want to admit, and perhaps is why I felt compelled to pen this rumination.
We all need to be aware of the gravity of our brand and the effort required to escape said pull, if indeed that’s what is needed to grow and thrive. It’s a very healthy thing, mandatory I’d suggest, to question our identity regularly and tweak where needed; destroy when required. If surrounded by people who love you in a place that nurtures you then you’ll be fine. Actually, much better than fine, you’ll be alive.
BILL MAGILL 