Years ago my two co-workers at StackAdapt did half-Ironman, which greatly inspired me. This year, I finally achieved a milestone of my own by completing my first Olympic Triathlon. During my preparation, I went online seeking advice for enhancing running speed and endurance, I stumbled upon a video featuring a runner. In this video, a runner explained that the pain professional athletes experience isn’t any less than what an average runner feels—they are simply better at tolerating this pain.
At work, a common pain we all experience is stress. I don’t believe there is an absolute measure of stress that comes with a particular job, or that stress should have to scale with the amount of responsibility we bear (otherwise, no one would ever want to be President of the United States). The measurement of stress is relative and influenced by various circumstances and differences between individuals. While my level of responsibility is a far cry from that of the President, I do—as I’m sure he does—also sometimes feel overwhelmed, stressed, and burdened.
Therefore, because stress is universal and not always proportionate to one's rank or role, it’s not surprising that everyone at times, at every level, needs support, understanding, and strategies to cope. With that in mind, today I will share three mental models that I actively use daily to lower stress and increase my happiness at work. Perhaps they can help you do the same.
1. What Is My Job?
Once while discussing with my wife the challenges of being a founder and C-level executive, she responded with surprise, asking, "But isn't that your job?" It dawned on me then, although it’s perhaps obvious to others, that every job has a ‘hidden’ description that never appears in the job posting. For instance, nowhere in a job posting that invites the applicant “to utilize extensive experience and unparalleled skills in a dynamic company that values dedication and results” will there be any mention of “the pressure from deadlines, hard-to-please clients, last-minute scrambles,” and so forth. Every job has a ‘hidden’ description.
The ‘hidden’ descriptions of my job often involve having difficult conversations, being under strain from navigating uncertainty, bearing sometimes burdensome responsibilities, enduring the discomfort of being in the public eye, and much more. What I’ve learned over the years is that these ‘hidden’ descriptions are often what differentiates good from great work. Once I realized that, I started treating such moments as opportunities for me to level up as a businessman. I can’t say I always run towards them, but I do try to at least never shy away from them.
So, whenever I see something in my work that makes me uncomfortable or nervous, I tell myself that this is my job and that my job is to become the best I can at dealing with these situations, and I begin preparing to sharpen my skills.
2. The Decision Balancing Act
Part of the job that many people don’t like is having to get on the same page with others about things that need to be done, how to do them, or why they need to be done in the first place. In the workplace, such conversations come up daily. What I’ve learned is that the most productive, useful way to go into these conversations is to understand what the other person has and how their success is judged. Companies are intentionally built to have people with conflicting mandates of accomplishing the same goal, the success of the company, to bring balance into the operations and to ensure that the best decisions are being made for the company.
Take, for example, a sales and marketing function that, theoretically, aims to win every customer in the market. To achieve that would require a massive financial investment. However, finance teams, for their part, are tasked to make sure the company doesn’t run out of money. This healthy tension between sales and finance helps the company not to burn through cash too fast but also not to plateau. Without this sort of counterbalance at all levels and functions, the company would just topple over in one direction.
When I go into a meeting to make a decision, I try to focus on the fact that other people are as equally motivated to make the right decision as I am. They are just doing their jobs. There are many, many considerations to every decision, and allowing experts to do their best work allows us to find the most optimal path forward.
3. The Art of Running a Business
The smaller the company, the more you rely on your gut. The larger you become, the greater the expectation is to rely on data and make every decision as scientifically as possible. The fact is, however, that there can never be 100% certainty in a business decision because some decisions often rely on the ‘art’ of running a business. If there were no art involved, then there would never be investors who have missed out in a big way, radically new product categories would not be created, and there would be no stories of odd-defying underdogs.
I would argue that regardless of a company's size, there is a case to be made for moving boldly and taking (calculated) risks. Admittedly, doing this becomes harder as the company gets larger because there is more to lose and risk tolerance has to go down (vs. in a startup when you have nothing to lose and have everything to gain). Left unchecked, however, aversion to risk can infiltrate every corner of an organization, leading to safer but more predictable, boring decisions that kill the magic of what made the organization great in the first place. The art slowly dies in such organizations.
Any business person, especially those with an entrepreneurial bug in them, can find more satisfaction in their day-to-day job when they emphasize the art of running a business. What this means in practice is that making data-driven decisions actually begins with asking the right questions—that’s the art. Making decisions in the absence of data—that’s the art. Having the courage to try something that didn’t work before once again—that’s the art.
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” - Michelangelo.
Thanks for reading.