JKLTip How can you put checks and balances in place to keep your mind from making you think you’re better than someone else?
Every single person’s story matters. There is a lot of ill intent in this world, and perhaps even more horrible actions. But each and every person has a story that is worth learning from. As a society we have become so very absolute in the way we judge others. Think he, or she “ is a __________ “ and many words come to mind. We put labels on people, groups of people, heck entire organizations that lead us to believe their story is less worthy, less important, not worth learning from.
Even though I will write for the rest of my life, this is the second most important thing I will ever write. At the heart of how I carry myself toward others is that every story matters, that we take the approach Just Keep Learning. It covers interactions at the grocery store, just the same as it does meeting a new, or when I work on side hustles like Teen MINDS, the 8 Billion People Project, or JKL Videos. I always come back to this “why”: that every single person and their story is valuable. I hope that if I ever become so “quote, unquote successful”, if I lose my why, that somebody will point me back to this post.
It plays out in media and content creation all the time, we start collaborating with people on our level, people with similar status and as we increase in status, our partners are all now on that next level. And so it scales until our Mastermind is filled with Billionaires, our interviewees all own mansions and we only film with million dollar setups. We can speculate why this happens, but regardless it’s a fascinating phenomenon. I’ve come to understand to truly share our message, is to grow to that level, but I hope that no matter how much I accomplish that I never lose sight of working with anyone. I would love nothing more than to take an interview with Ellen, I think her story matters a lot, but then I will have no problem collaborating over lunch with the homeless man outside the gates to her studio
* Side note: I get that the famous receive thousands of requests, that we all have valuable minutes, and that the rock can’t just hang out with whoever asks him, that’s not what I’m talking about, I’m only talking about the attitude shift, the my story is better than your’s attitude*