Growing Up: how to stop ageing

Team - quick one this week...

I hope you are all having a lovely time wherever you are in the world. And if you're not, that's okay too.

Two things I wanted to share with you.

First, from Naval Ravikant (via Eric Jorgenson's Almanack of Naval Ravikant)
Remember the "how to get rich without getting lucky" wisdom from a few weeks back?

A little more on that...

Another tweet I had that is worth weaving in, but didn’t go into the “How to Get Rich” tweetstorm, was very simple: “Escape competition through authenticity.” Basically, when you’re competing with people, it’s because you’re copying them. It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing. But every human is different. Don’t copy.

If you are fundamentally building and marketing something that is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that. Who’s going to compete with Joe Rogan or Scott Adams? It’s impossible.... They’re being authentic.

If you’re looking toward the long-term goal of getting wealthy, you should ask yourself, “Is this authentic to me? Is it myself that I am projecting?” And then, “Am I productising it? Am I scaling it? Am I scaling with labour or with capital or with code or with media?”

This is hard. This is why I say it takes decades—I’m not saying it takes decades to execute, but the better part of a decade may be figuring out what you can uniquely provide.

And then... related to that last point, I want to share some wisdom from the late Harvard Business School professor and leading thinker on innovation (he developed the theory of "disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century) and a man who I was fortunate enough to hear speak while he was still with us - Clay Christensen.

Specifically it's from his book (written with Karen Dillon and James Allworth):

How Will You Measure Your Life? Finding Fulfillment Using Lessons From Some of the World's Greatest Businesses

Lotsss more to tell you about the book but in the festive spirit of keeping things light... (but also truthfully I've been a little disorganised and I'm writing to you from a train to Oxford with an hour to get this out...I'm already at Reading eep)... I want to leave you with this little snippet:

“I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life’s purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they will ever have discovered.”

Yes he is talking about his MBA students. But whatever age you are it's not too late to start thinking about how you intend to spend the remaining time you have on this Earth. Don't you think? If you are 65 you might have another 30 years here. And they could be happy, healthy and fulfilling. (If you are doubting the healthy point... step 1 stop saying "I'm getting old." 65 is not old. Step 2, I might check out David Sinclair's Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have to and share what I learn here with you guys (Sinclair is an Australian Harvard Medical School professor) or Tony Robbins new book with Peter Diamandis Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love (blurb: What if there were scientific solutions that could wipe out your deepest fears of feeling the effects of aging?). Guess what you're getting for Christmas mum & dad...

Okay leave it with me. And if you've already looked into this science and think it's BS I welcome that feedback as well.

This week on the Growing Up with Delia Burgess podcast:
Ep 26 - Ariane Barker: Wall Street to the boardroom and lifelong learning
"I began my career as an analyst in New York then worked in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia in senior executive and leadership roles with Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JBWere. As Scale Investors CEO, I facilitated patient capital investment into exceptional Australian early-stage businesses. My executive career has been quite the journey, super proud to have raised two amazing, now adult, daughters."

Ep. 27 - Bruce Cameron: growing up with parents who are struggling themselves
Bruce Cameron is a principal at Piper Alderman with broad experience in commercial law. His expertise encompasses mergers and acquisitions, the privatisation of government business, private and public fund-raising, venture and development capital finance, joint ventures, company applications and boardroom disputes.

Wishing you all health and happiness xx Delia

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Hi! I'm Delia Burgess

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