CHEAT CODE

February 2nd, 2022

Anyone who claims that they are completely self made and that all their success is attributable only to their own effort is in denial.  Not only is a tremendous amount of luck involved in any person’s success, but we are a cooperative species and virtually no success is possible without the fact that there are other people playing this game with us.  These two external aspects of success: luck and other people can combine in some truly fortunate ways.  Some people can be so fundamental to our development and achievement that they are like cheat codes.

Nearly everyone is connected to a plethora of talent and goodwill.  But most of the time, a lot of that talent isn’t flowing through our network.  Often all it takes is to ask for help, which is a very humbling task and quite contrary to the ethos of the self-made individual.  Somehow, asking for help only feels like a power move if it can be paid for - and that is pretty much what commerce is: people paying for help, to obtain a particular object or have a particular service rendered.

For the most part, though, we pay strangers.  Certainly friends can do business, but real friendships often transcend the fenced logic of finances.  Asking a friend for help might be humbling, but it’s also an opportunity for the friendship to flourish.

First you have to get lucky enough to have a few great friendships.  And then if you’re lucky enough for those people to be talented in all sorts of ways, you have to get lucky a third time: to have the humility to ask for some help.