Hey Team,

Greetings from Houston.

The Last Session

The online writing course Write of Passage wrapped up this week.

For newcomers, I was helping students explore their personal monopoly - the unique intersection of a person’s skills, interests, and personality traits and how to translate it to become known as the best thinker on a topic.

I've been looking at the subject for the past six months, and it's fascinating:

1. There are millions of people building businesses as content creators, curators, and community builders.
2. The software and finance tools continue to make it easier for creators to grow and make money in the creator (passion) economy.
3. All of us have a stack of personal assets to use. But only if we can see them and have the confidence to use them.

The questions each creator faces are similar to the ones I spent 20 years answering in startup companies: who are we, what value can we deliver, and to which audience.

I still don’t know where this is going for me, but it’s been an eye-opening and rewarding journey thus far.

The First Follower

This amazing video shows how to create a movement in less than 3 minutes.

Derek Sivers describes what happens at a concert when one person starts dancing alone. Sivers uses this guy to illustrate the critical role of the first follower.

If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark. The first follower is a crucial underappreciated role.

Teachers and coaches are grateful to the kids who respond first. Leaders of all kinds appreciate the first person to say, "Let's go!"

Do you want to help but don't want to be a leader? Be a first follower.

The Secondary Location

If you're being kidnapped, do you fight back or get dragged to the secondary location where worse things await?

Dr. Julie Gurner, a psychologist and performance coach to Wall Street, used "The Secondary Location" as a metaphor earlier this week.

She argues, that if you face a difficult, high-stakes decision, you should always fight upfront for what you want.

Good news: real kidnapping rates are low in the US, and 80% are done by a family member.

Bad news: your metaphorical risk of being dragged at the office, school, home, or in social circles to The Secondary Location is high.

If you're delaying a hard, high stakes decision, you know what to do.

The Corporate Secondary Location

Louie argues if you're put on a performance improvement plan (PIP), you’re already at the secondary location and are about to be killed.

He shares great advice about what you need to do before or after you find yourself on a PIP.

Louie Bacaj @LBacaj Not too many leaders are going to be straight up with you. But I and the Engineering leaders on the @EngAdvicePod Podcast will be. As Thiago said, "if you get the PIP it's game over." pic.twitter.com/1Ts7R9eoZB April 6th 2022 5 Retweets 50 Likes

Louie is a fellow Write of Passage mentor and has become a good friend. Louie's last role at Walmart was leading a team of software engineers who owned the internal pharmacy applications.

He's moving quickly along the creator journey. He’s building three applications and a cohort-based course. He recently started the above podcast with a few others.

A few months ago he spent a weekend making a 75-minute video to help younger software engineers manage their careers. He's earned $20,000 in three months, and new sales trickle in every week.

The Empty Location

The return to the office has been mostly slow and steady. But I wouldn’t place a bet on when it reaches 90% or 100%. Many companies are finding that a mandate to return to the office results in employees leaving the company.

Robot Tour of Robots

Here's crazy drone footage inside the Tesla factory in Berlin.

It's industrial economy meets tech economy.

It's a tour by a robot of robots.

Whole Mars Catalog @WholeMarsBlog Gigafactory Berlin looks so sick 🔥 What I would give to see the Texas factory firsthand 🤤 pic.twitter.com/1VW52PPecB April 1st 2022 447 Retweets 1,732 Likes

You're Not a Robot

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

- Michael

P.S. as always, you can respond directly to this email and I will do my best to reply. I'd love to hear from you.

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