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- The unknown is a beautiful place
The unknown is a beautiful place
The best way to expand and grow as an entrepreneur is leaning into discomfort.
I went to Burning Man this year with a small group of new friends, with a new camp.
And I didn’t really know what to expect. It was a bit of a leap of faith.
All I knew was that I was going into the experience with an open heart and open mind.
For those who haven’t been or don’t know much about it, Burning Man is a once-a-year, weeklong event in Nevada. Tens of thousands of people camp out in the desert in a massive temporary “city” full of incredible art, music, and a culture of love, hedonism, inclusivity, generosity, and freedom.
A lot of vow to never go, because it can be such an intense, unpredictable, and even somewhat dangerous experience.
I was chatting with a friend recently who’s a very formula-based, systematic thinker.
On the topic of Burning Man, he’d probably say, “Why not just do [insert safer, less chaotic, single-day, more predictable event]?”
But this is exactly the reason why he should go. Because it’s outside of the parameters that he sets for himself.
There’s a limit to your creativity if you’re always doing the same familiar things in the same structured sphere.
The magic is stepping outside of those parameters and seeing what unfolds
While there, I went to sleep at midnight and I got up to watch the sunrise every morning.
Ironically, I was more structured at Burning Man than I am in daily life!
Jokes aside, how often do you truly let go?
Or release the built-up tension and energy inside you?
No matter how well things are going – a side effect of being an entrepreneur is a buildup of stress.
With something like Burning Man, you let that tension go through dancing, through laughing, through all the psychedelics, the conversations, the art…
And that release opens up space for you to absorb a new way to look at things. To widen your perspective.
To be more open, and kind, and vulnerable (with complete strangers).
It’s funny. People in LA seem to take Burning Man more seriously than their jobs or their companies.
But Burning Man is only one week. Why can’t you make the other 51 your version of a Burning Man experience?
What’s stopping you from getting up at sunrise?
What’s stopping you from dancing like your life depends on it?
There’s a freedom in Burning Man that doesn’t exist in the day to day.
With this freedom, people seem to manifest the best versions of themselves.
Compassion, gratitude, attentiveness, and openness with total strangers.
Imagine walking into a new camp at Burning Man. How you’d be greeted by these strangers. How you’d greet them back. The energy given and received.
What’s stopping you from bringing that kind of energy into your daily life?
What’s stopping you from walking into a conference with that same openness?
One of the main focuses of Burning Man is generosity and giving.
Walking around and giving things out to strangers that they might need, like water, or wet wipes for the body-covering playa dust.
You think about how you can give things to people rather than take.
To put it practically – what are you gifting someone in one of your sales calls? Or next team meeting?
In a YouTube video interviewing public speaking expert Richard Greene, he says that the best way to get over nervousness in public speaking (or any kind of speaking) is to remember these four words:
“It’s. All. About. Them.”
Think about it. That person that you’re connecting with – really, sincerely trying to connect with…
It’s all about them.
Oliver
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