🤸 Limitless thinking, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, & a life properly lived

Hey — it’s Cristina & Jenni.

This week, we’re:

• learning how to apply limitless thinking to leadership 🌌

• reflecting on Charlie Munger’s 99 years of life lessons 📕

• appreciating the importance of continuous learning 🧠

Enjoy!

What we’re reflecting on this week:

If you haven’t heard of Steven Bartlett at this point, you might just be living under a rock 😉 The 31-year-old Dragon’s Den investor, serial entrepreneur, and podcast host seems to be everywhere these days.

BUT you might not have heard of his Marketing Director, Grace Andrews.

TLDR: She helped Diary of a CEO go from 10,000 subscribers to 4.14 million subscribers in under 3 years.

Not too shabby, eh?

While Grace mainly speaks about marketing, social media, and content creation, she shared an anecdote recently that immediately resonated with me as a leader.

This is an extension of an experimentation concept she calls “limitless thinking.”

In other words, the DOAC team approaches problems by exploring possibilities without all of the constraints and obstacles we normally think about… and comes up with creative, unexpected solutions in the process. Like gluing a trackpad to a desk 🤓

To use a different example, as a hiring manager, Grace asks social media manager candidates to answer the question, “If you could do anything to get as many eyeballs on this video as possible, what would you do? No budget constraints. No limitations.”

She immediately sees the wheels start to turn, and the candidates come up with all sorts of ideas, some of which could actually work well within limits, too, either immediately or with some tweaks.

These examples reminded me that a huge part of any leadership role is coming up with solutions to tough problems.

It’s not easy, AND we tend to get in our own way, limited by obstacles we face, what we’ve already tried, and constraints like budget, time, and other practicalities.

We generally don’t do enough creative brainstorming. We jump into solutioning quickly, trying to make the most of each 30-minute zoom meeting.

When coming up with company or team-wide strategies, this can have a devastating effect… especially in a world that’s changed drastically over the past 3 years, where being dynamic and trying new things is critical.

All that said, this week, I’m encouraging myself - and you! - to create space for more limitless thinking.

Here’s how you can apply it:

1. Think of a tough problem you and/or your team have been trying to solve. (Real example from my world: “How can we drive product adoption as a customer success team?”)

2. Alone or in a group, challenge yourself to reframe the problem statement or question in a “limitless” way. (“If we could do anything, how would we get customers to make full use of our product?”)

3. Spend at least 30 minutes writing down any and all ideas.

4. Sit with the results of that brainstorm - avoid solutioning straight away!

5. Revisit the results a few days later and see what gems you can find and build upon back in the real world.

→ How can you apply limitless thinking within your team or company to approach a tough problem in a new way?

What we’re learning this week:

• 📚 Book: Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger passed away on Tuesday (RIP 🕊️) at the age of 99. His wisdom lives on in many places and people, including this book, where he covers everything from rationality to investing to character and living a good life.

• 👀 Podcast: Meet the Marketing Genius Behind Steven Bartlett – If Grace’s impressive results (or anecdotes!) piqued your interest, check out the full conversation for more behind-the-scenes intel on how she thinks about building both a viral brand and a strong team with high standards.

• 📝 LinkedIn Post: Sahil Bloom on increasing your "luck surface area" – Sahil unpacks an interesting 2003 experiment run by Dr. Richard Wiseman to explore why some people seem to be consistently lucky while others struggle with bad luck their whole lives. Plus, Sahil shares 2 effective strategies to expand your own luck surface area.

What we’re enjoying this week:

That’s it for this week — thanks for reading.

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️