Dan Cullum

Crossing the road in London is a dangerous affair.

Congested streets. Narrow gaps. Hurried drivers.

Add unaware pedestrians to that mix, and you’ve got a dangerous cocktail.

I was waiting to cross the road earlier this week; 7 others were waiting for the red man to turn green too.

One gentleman in the group spotted a slender gap and walked out before we got the green light. 3 of his friends followed suit.

A car approached, quicker than expected, and surprised the group of 4. It required them to run to escape the oncoming car.

The actions of one, amplified by the herd mentality, ended up putting all 4 in danger.

This moment brought me back to a thought I’ve been pondering frequently: why do we sometimes risk a lot to gain a little?

I’ve been experimenting with pausing at the beginning of every meeting and asking, “What does success look like at the end of this session?”

It’s easy to 1) assume everyone is on the same page, and 2) jump immediately into the detail.

But the world, and our projects, are complex. All too often meetings end up in rabbit holes, or spiralling off into arcane detail.

This simple habit has helped bring focus to conversations, because we’ve agreed on what the end goal looks like. When we veer off-track, the collective agreement made at the beginning of the meeting pulls us back.

What’s the cost of not asking this question?

Autumn is in full swing and acorns are falling to the ground in droves.

We recently bought a vase to watch an acorn grow into a oak tree sapling over the course of a year.

Our goal with this green-fingered project is to watch a powerful analogy unfold before our eyes.

When an acorn falls, its chance of survival is minimal. Almost all acorns are eaten within days by squirrels and mice. The vast majority are unlikely to be anything more than “could-be oak trees”.

Despite this challenge, an acorn has all the potential to become a grand oak. It has the power to one day provide shade, to house, and to feed animals for many years.

Most lives, ideas, projects, and dreams start small; they’ve got lots of potential, but little else. Through our acorn, we hope to watch the little guy defy the odds.

This is the best “About Me” page on the internet.

It’s author, Derek Sivers, is irreverent, inspirational, and sharp. When you reach the end of it, you understand his schtick.

Whether you agree or disagree with how he lives his life, you can’t deny his self-awareness.

He has such clarity in 1) what he believes in, 2) what he wants out of life, and 3) how he differs and departs from societal norms.

It’s a refreshing primer into the mind of a greater thinker.

Steve Hansen, the coach of the All Blacks, is the international rugby coach with the highest winning percentage of all time, at an extraordinary 88% or 91 wins from 104 games.

However, I recently learnt a surprising fact about his coaching career that shines a new light on the man.

While Steve Hansen was coach for the Welsh rugby team from 2002-2004, he pre-sided over a record 11 consecutive international losses. Following this, Hansen did not seek to renew his contract. He moved back to New Zealand and took an assistant coaching position at the All Blacks.

Given this, I can only imagine what kind of mental battle Hansen had to fight when he took the helm of the All Blacks in 2011.

I wonder if he dealt with imposter syndrome? Did his previous record feel like a skeleton in the closet? What about the palpable pressure of a rugby obsessed nation that isn’t used to losing?

Regardless of what Hansen felt back in 2011, his record has proven he has the chops to be one of the all-time great rugby coaches. He clearly hasn’t let his past define the professionalism and dedication he has brought to his role as All Black’s coach.

And his story is not yet finished. Hansen has a chance to write history by taking the All Blacks to a third consecutive World Cup victory in the coming 3 weeks.

Okay, sorry, I promise, the rugby related posts won’t persist for too much longer.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, summarised one interesting aspect about being a billionaire in a talk he gave at the World Economic Forum.

He said despite the riches, you can only ever sleep in one bed each evening, eat three meals a day, or wear one set of clothes at a time.

Wealth may scale, but our experiences don’t.

It’s a healthy reminder for us each to draw a line in the sand to define “enough”. To decide when (and why) we place experiences and relationships above material wealth.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects. ― Robert A. Heinlein

I love this quote from Robert Heinlein.

When I read it, I can’t help but imagine the person he is writing about. I don’t imagine any specific skill or capability they possess, but rather their rich story and personality. Someone able to do all of the above would have an amazing story to tell.

I also like how Heinlein draws his line in the sand, imploring his readers to be generalists, rather than a specialists. As someone who feels their interests, hobbies, and readings vary widely from year to year, I find solace in his encouragement to be a perpetual generalist.

You can’t go a week in the UK tech scene without hearing about the fierce battle between the challenger digital-only banks, Monzo and Revolut.

Both started around the same time, both have unicorn valuations, both are seen as the leading alternatives to the big incumbent banks.

However, for a while I’ve held the opinion that these two companies are operating with jaw-droppingly divergent strategies, despite the media lumping them both into the same pot.

However, there was no publicly available data that proved or disproved my theory until this week.

Here are (in my opinion) the important facts:

• Revolut isn’t a bank. Their customers use prepaid debit cards, and Revolut operates under an e-money licence rather than being a registered bank. Most of the Revolut customers I know use it for travel, due to the excellent FX features.
• Monzo is a registered bank, where their customers have Visa Debit cards that are linked to Current Accounts. Monzo’s services have a much greater focus on budgeting and spending categorisation.

Revolut, like many other start-ups in the era of fast flowing VC capital, is trying to scale as quickly as possible. They are doing this using the prepaid card model, as its easier and faster for customers to sign up to prepaid cards compared to a Current Accounts. Revolut has already scaled to over 30 countries.

Monzo, on the other hand, has not been growing as fast as Revolut, is still predominantly UK focused, and is concentrated on creating a great daily banking experience.

So what’s the data that came out this week?

• Revolut has 7 million customers with 1.1 million (16%) daily active users, and with £58 million per year in revenue
• Monzo has 3 million customers with 1.7 million (57%) daily active users, and with £9 million per year in revenue

So what was my theory?

Monzo is focused on creating dedicated long-term loyal customers, whereas Revolut is focused on getting as big as possible, as fast as possible.

The difference in daily active users confirms the divergence in strategy.

My bet is one of them will eventually pull ahead of the other due to either 1) a long term customer growth and retention advantage, or 2) more favourable long-term defensible margins. I don’t believe both firms will survive.

One fun part about blogging is being able to make public bets on what will happen, and to look back in the future on what happened.

We’ll see.

“He’s more dangerous than climate change,” shouted the commentator as South African rugby player, Cobus Reinach, sprinted past two Canadian defenders to score in a World Cup match this week.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

It was the first moment I realised the Climate Crisis has truly permeated into our global consciousness, so much so that it has even creeped into sporting commentary.

However, it felt like a forced remark; like the commentator planned it before the game, knowing it was going to be a soundbite, and pounced at the first opportunity to use it.

Part of the Climate Crisis becoming a “normal” topic of conversation, means it will also be subject to comments that trivialise it’s danger to humanity.

I didn’t realise that this was even a risk until today.

This daily blogging project is a journey, and I’m a firm believer that journeys are better when shared.

Thus, I’m deliberate about using the collective “we” when writing these posts.

If I write in the second person “you”, it runs the risk of sounding like a lecture, rather than a shared learning experience.

I much prefer discovering, pondering, sharing, and discussing these thoughts together.

The journey is so much richer for your dialogue on the posts that resonate. So, thank you!

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says if you don’t change your direction, you may end up where you are heading.

It’s a pithy, tongue-in-cheek reminder to be deliberate.

Whether we change direction or not, we’ll still move towards a destination. It’s our job to figure out where.

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal

The average smartphone receives 49 push notifications per day.

That’s a push notification every 20 minutes during the 16 hours we’re awake.

In our Age of Distraction, it takes guts and grit to sit in a room, with only our thoughts for company, to ponder a problem for hours on end.

It feels uncomfortable. Unnatural even.

But have you ever tried it? Maybe it’s worth a shot?

I used to worry about repeating concepts and ideas on this blog.

What if readers got bored? What if posts became tedious?

However, daily writing has taught me the importance of the old adage “repetition is the mother of all learning.”

Without careful and deliberate repetition, we’re likely to forget our learnings and miss out on their benefits.

One example of repetition in my posts is on the topic of doing the basics well. See “Great advice, usually ignored”, and “Take the stairs, eat more veggies”.

I have a hunch I will still find these ideas relevant and useful in 10 years time, so why not dedicate the time and effort necessary to perfect them?

In any project or endeavour, you can only optimise for 2 out of the following 3 options:

1. Price
2. Speed
3. Quality

You can get something done cheap and fast, but it’ll be poor quality.

You can get something done fast and well, but it’ll cost you.

You can get something done well and cheap, but it’ll take time.

Perhaps our biggest challenge is to realise and accept that we can’t have it all; that perfection is unattainable.

Perhaps the trade-off liberates us, by forcing us to decide what is most important.

Perhaps the constraint is what we need for magic, creativity, and resourcefulness to emerge.

Here’s a thought experiment to help us reflect on how we invest our limited time and resources.

Before we launch into it, I need to define our shared definition of “investing”: investing is putting limited resource (e.g., money, time) into something today with the hope of a future return (e.g., profit, new skills).

With that said, here we go.

What if you could invest in one, and only one, of the following three options:

1. Investing in assets: stocks, bonds, and property
2. Investing in achievements: performing well in your job, building a strong network of people and relationships, becoming a leader in your field
3. Investing in yourself: developing wisdom, skills, character, and good judgement

Which single investment pathway would you choose?

Of course, in reality, we can choose multiple pathways at the same time, but the thought experiment forces us to consider what we value most.

Now, compare your answer to how you actually spend your time and resources.

Personally, I aim to spend as much time on Number 3 as possible.

Money, jobs, and financial security can fade as quickly as you can say “recession”. But good character and wisdom can’t be stolen.