Some Activities Make You Accident-Prone
There’s a quote that circulates Zen and spiritual communities in various forms. Its exact origins are hard to trace. I’ve seen it attributed to various Zen teachers, philosophers, and writers. The 20th-century philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: “Enlightenment is an accident, but some activities make you accident prone.” Krishnamurti’s contemporary, Shunryu Suzuki: “Gaining enlightenment is an accident. Spiritual practice simply makes us accident-prone.” Suzuki’s student, Richard Baker: “Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident prone.” A modern Zen teacher and author, James Ishmael Ford: “Awakening is always an accident…[But] certain practices can help us become accident-prone.” Anyways, some things that make you more accident-prone to good accidents—that’s the theme of this SIX at 6…
Be There To Catch It
With a total of 1,093 patents, Thomas Edison was very accident-prone. He believed that one doesn’t have ideas—rather, ideas happen, and you’re either there to capture them or you’re not. “There’s no such thing as an idea being brain-born,” he said. “Everything comes from the outside. The industrious ones coax it from the environment…The ‘genius’ hangs around his laboratory day and night. If anything happens he’s there to catch it; if he wasn’t, it might happen just the same, only it would never be his.” “What he’s talking about is showing up,” Ryan Holiday writes in Discipline is Destiny. “The incredible, underrated power of clocking in every day, putting your ass in the seat, and the luck this seems to inevitably produce.”
Somebody Might See It
Paula Scher is one of the world’s most influential graphic designers in the world. You’ve interacted with her work if you’ve used Microsoft Windows, dined at Shake Shack, seen the *Boston* album cover, or visited a Citibank, the MoMA, or New York City. It’s said that “New York City ate the style identity” Scher developed for The Public Theater in the early 1990s, as her bold typography, chaotic energy, and vibrant colors were co-opted for everything from city signage to promotional materials and event advertising. In interviews, books, and documentaries about her career, Scher is often asked about her success. She always says some version of, “Everything was very accidental,” “it was all a bit accidental and happenstance,” and “I find more and more that artistic success is accidental and circumstantial.” One interviewer pressed back, refusing to accept Paula’s claim that she’s simply been very lucky throughout her career. After a few-seconds’ pause, Paula thought of a trait that seems to have made her accident-prone. In one of her first jobs out of college, she said, she worked in the promotions department at CBS Records. At the time, a designer in the “cootie department,” as it was known, “was the lowest form of graphic designer. People in the other departments didn’t talk to us. We were beneath even their contempt.” Despite the role’s low status, Paula poured herself into getting good at it. Some of her colleagues thought she was wasting her time, putting so much time and effort into her ads. When she would suggest little improvements, they’d say, “Oh, nobody’s gonna see that. Who cares?” “Except for I think somebody might see it,” Paula would reply. That’s been her mindset throughout her career—“Even on some lower end piece of an identity project,” she said, “I always think, ‘somebody might see it.’” After two years in the “cootie department,” one of her ads caught the attention of an executive at Atlantic Records, who offered Paula a job designing album covers. In her time at Atlantic, she created some iconic covers, including Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town and Eddie Harris’ Bad Luck Is All I Have. Her work was so good that CBS hired her back as East Coast Art Director for album covers. “So you could do it,” she said. “To not be a cootie, you have to walk around the block. And when you come back, you’re not a cootie any more.”
We’re Out Of Time. It Will Have To Do
In 1971, Phil Knight was teaching accounting at Portland State University. One day, he overheard a graphic design student named Carolyn Davidson say that she couldn’t afford to take a painting class. Knight paid her $35 to design a logo for his start-up shoe company. When he saw the design, he said, “I don’t know if I like it, but maybe it will grow on me.” Knight didn’t have time to fuss over the logo. “We had a deadline,” he explains. He had signed a contract with a factory to produce 3,000 pairs of Nike’s first shoe. “Production was starting on the shoe that Friday.” Before then, they needed a logo. “You don’t like it?” Knight’s chief operating officer asked of the student’s design. “I don’t love it,” Knight said, “but we’re out of time. It’ll have to do.” It’s said that if not for constraints and deadlines, nothing would get made. No accidents would happen. George Lucas, for instance, worked on drafts of the first Star Wars for years. “I never arrived at a degree of satisfaction where I thought the screenplay was perfect,” he said. But then he struck a deal with a movie executive from United Artists—”At that point, it became an obligation,” Lucas said. “If I hadn’t been forced to shoot the film, I would doubtless still be rewriting it now.”
P.S. At Nike’s IPO in 1980, Phil Knight gave Carolyn Davidson 500 shares. She never sold. Since the IPO, there have been 7 stock splits. So those 500 shares have become 64,000 shares. At the time of this writing, Nike is at $82.25 a share. $82.25 a share x 64,000 shares = $5,264,000.
Have A Good Past
In 1993, Jensen Huang pitched a startup idea to his former boss, Wilf Corrigan. After Jensen’s pitch, Wilf said, “I have no idea what you just said. That was one of the worst pitches I’ve ever heard.” Wilf then called the renowned venture capitalist Don Valentine, and said, “Don, I’m going to send a kid over to you. He’s one of the best employees I’ve ever had. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but I think you should give him money.” As the founder of Sequoia Capital, Valentine—the so-called “grandfather of Silicon Valley venture capital”—had made early investments in companies like Apple, Atari, Oracle, and Wilf Corrigan’s LSI Logic. Walking in to pitch the most sought-after investor in Silicon Valley, Jensen (at the time, 29 years old) was nervous and intimidated, and therefore, “I did a horrible job with the pitch.” “Against my best judgment,” Valentine said, “I’m going to give you money because Wilf says to give you money. But if you lose my money, I’ll kill you.” With funding from Sequoia, Jensen and his co-founders, Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky, started Nvidia—initially, a company focused on improving the quality and efficiency of computer graphics. It would go on to become a force in the technology industry, revolutionizing not only computer graphics but also pioneering advancements in artificial intelligence, data centers, autonomous vehicles, and more. At the time of this writing, Nvidia is the 3rd most valuable company in the world, worth a little over $3 trillion. Asked about Valentine giving him money despite the terrible pitch, Jensen said, “The thing I learned from that is your past is more important than your ability to pitch, interview, or anything like that. You can’t run away from your past. So have a good past. Try to have a good past.”
Something Special Is In The Middle Of It
Years before he met and ultimately married the tennis great Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi was attracted not just to Graf herself but to all that was surrounding her. She had the same team of coaches, trainers, and friends by her side from the beginning to the end of her long career. She had long-standing partnerships with a long list of brands and sponsors. And she won at a historic rate. “When you don’t know somebody,” Agassi said, “but you see the byproducts of their life from a distance, you see all these beautiful things surrounding them—you know those things can only exist if something special is in the middle of it.” When good accidents happen, something special—maybe a good past, an ability to show up consistently, the discipline to meet deadlines without waiting for perfection, a commitment to doing quality work, no matter if anybody’s gonna see it—is prone to be in the middle of it.