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Superstar Friends – by Gary S. Smolker
Connecting the Dots
I have a group of friends who are super achievers.
The one thing my super achieving superstar friends share in common is that they are fantastic at connecting the dots.
Superstars Out-Perform Competitors
My super achieving superstar friends dream big and have productive ways of thinking.
Having an active imagination and productive ways of thinking enables my super achieving friends to out-perform other people.
Make Good Choices
Common traits possessed by my super achieving superstar friends:
- They see the whole picture.
- They picture in their minds what they expect to see in GREAT detail.
- They visualize what they expect to see with specificity.
- Then they compare what they see with what they expected to see.
- They compare what they actually see with what they visualized (predicted) they would see.
- This enables them to see opportunities and to recognize problems that others don’t see.
CREATING MENTAL MODELS
- (A) They create mental models.
- (B) They are habitual forecasters.
- (C) Having mental models enables them to process information as it arrives.
- (D) They engage in constant forecasting.
DAY DREAMING
- They daydream about the future.
- When life clashes with their imagination, they pay attention.
INVESTMENT OF TIME
- They are careful about how they invest their time.
- They sign up for/they seek to work on projects that require them to seek out new colleagues, they seek out projects to work on which demand that they develop new abilities and skills.
- They avoid tasks that leverage their existing skills.
- They are drawn to risky assignments, especially new idea projects in their early stages.
- They love to generate theories.
OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOR
- They are obsessive about trying to explain the world to themselves, to their colleagues, and to everyone else.
- They constantly tell stories about what they have seen and heard.
STORY TELLING
- They are much more prone to generate working mental models than people who don’t constantly tell stories about what they have seen and heard.
WHAT IF EXERCISES
- They push themselves to do a lot of “what if” exercises before an event.
CONSEQUENCES
- Superstars build robust mental models at a near constant rate.
- As a result of building robust mental models, including “what if models”, superstars “know” what their options are at all times.
FOCUS
- They know where to focus their attention (they know what is important and what is not important to pay attention to).
- They can figure out what they should turn their attention to and what they can ignore.
- When and if their mental model comes apart, they shift their mindset, they replace the failed mental model with a new mental model.
Conclusion
You can’t delegate thinking.
To become genuinely productive you must take control of your attention.
You must focus on what matters most.
The most productive highest achieving people build the most robust mental models.
Action Implications
Get into the habit of telling yourself stories.
Get into the habit of day dreaming.
Get into the habit of “forecasting”, anticipating what is going to happen next, what is going to happen in the future.
Dream big.
Ideas to Daydream About
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. – Wayne Gretzky, hockey player
Your focus determines your reality. – George Lucas, movie director
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. – Alan Perlis, computer programmer
It is not the strongest of the species who survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. – Charles Darwin, naturalist
Everything starts as somebody’s daydream. – Larry Niven, writer
Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep. – Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher
What’s dangerous is not to evolve. – Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO
Life without imagination would be utterly boring. – Shereen Hart, sex therapist
Creation is a drug I can’t live without. – Cecil B. De Mille, film director
How far would Moses have gotten if he had taken a poll in Egypt? – Harry Truman, 33rd U.S. President
If you don’t begin with big dreams, you can never fulfill them. – Donald Trump, real estate mogul and Republican Primary Candidate
You don’t win championships by just being normal, by just being average. – Bill Walton, basketball player
Don’t live in the past. There’s no point. You can’t change anything. – Bob Newhart, comedian
Photograph of Patrick Gisler
I asked my superstar friend to send me a photograph of himself to include in this post.
Pat sent me the two photos below with the comment, “Pick the one you like the best. In the picture on the right, I am the one with the pink nose.”
As you can see from the two photos (above) that Patrick selected to send to me, Patrick is not normal or average.
Not being normal, not being average, having a sense of humor, being brilliant, being well read, being a thinker, being a risk taker, having a robust mental model of how the world works, being lucky and being a high energy guy who perseveres through thick and being in the right place at the right time has made Patrick a super achiever.
By the way, as a hobby, among other things, Patrick breeds highly pedigreed race horses.
Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved
“Living Life Fully” by Gary S. Smolker
5:10 a.m. (PST), January 24, 2015
A Request to the Readers of this Post
Check out the latest posts on my blog at http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com, leave comments and see note below (which is a copy of actual correspondence between myself and my friend Patrick Gisler) about living life fully, taking risks and recognizing danger.
I also invite your comments on the discussion below of living the sybaritic way of life, the best chocolate in the world, and what you would chose or do or recommend other people do if given a choice between eating chocolate or having sex.
Thanks,
Gary
Gary S. Smolker, Publisher
Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog
http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com
Read On:
Sent: Sun, Jan 24, 2016 4:52 am
Subject: # 2 Re: Snakes
Patrick
Thanks for the note (copy below).
I BELIEVE LIFE IS ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT.
You sending me the note below is another example of how one of my big themes/a theory/a proposition that physical distance is not emotional distance plays out.
When I started to write this note/response to your note below it was 4:00 a.m.
I had been up since 3:00 a.m. – trying to go back to sleep.
I had so many memories of the “lovers” in my life — women who had broken my heart — and thoughts about those memories that I was thinking about [probably provoked by watching “The Big Short” last night and watching “Brooklyn” a few nights before with Bob Balocca and afterwards discussing those movies with Bob] that I wanted to write about, that I couldn’t go back to sleep.
Although you and I are physically hundreds of miles apart, emotionally/mentally we are at the same place.
By the way, I told Bob about the picture of you holding a “Rattle Snake.”
Bob told me you probably couldn’t hit a rattlesnake with a shovel hard enough to only stun it; more likely if you hit a rattlesnake on the head with a shovel you would kill it. Bob believes more likely than not you killed the rattlesnake you thought you had stunned.
I got out of bed at 4:00 a.m. to write about (1) why the movie “Brooklyn” touched me, (2) why the movie “The Big Short” touched me, and (3) to write about my thoughts about the on-going current protests about lack of black people being nominated for Academy Awards and (4) my thoughts about the Board of Directors reaction to that – calling for steps to be taken to increase the “diversity” of its membership.
Thanks for sending me the note below.
It is now 4:45 a.m.
Writing this note to you has probably prepared me and “made” me ready to try to go back to sleep, again.
By the way, last night Bob and I discussed — maybe argued about — why the heroine in “Brooklyn” put the letters she received from her husband in a drawer instead of reading and responding to them.
At the time, the heroine in “Brooklyn” was in Ireland with the heroine’s grieving mother — the heroine’s mother was now all alone.
Her mother was all alone because the mother’s eldest daughter had died while her younger daughter (the heroine in the movie) was living in America, in Brooklyn.
The heroine was not able to get back to Ireland in time to attend the funeral, because the only way to get to Ireland from America was by boat.
The heroine had married her boyfriend the day she left him to go “home” to Ireland to be with her mother.
The boyfriend had asked her to marry him the night before because he knew she was going to Ireland and [my speculation] he wanted to know she would come back to him.
The heroine’s mother had no idea that her daughter (the heroine) was married when the heroine arrived in Ireland.
For whatever reason the heroine did not tell her mother that she was now married when she arrived back “home” in Ireland.
One thing after another happens next.
Such is life, the sweetness of life, the temptation to break commitments and the nature of commitments one makes in life.
It doesn’t amaze me that you and I have been friends for more than 50 years or surprise me that you would hold a “stunned” alive rattlesnake in your hand or that you would tell me there is a thin line between bravery and stupidity and that you try to not put all ten toes over that line.
Our lives are full because we live them fully.
Your “brilliance”, “eloquence”, and love of living life fully is probably what has kept the fire of our friendship burning bright all these years.
Good morning, and/or good night — I have no idea of the difference between the two.
“Living Life Fully” is something the “faint of heart” more likely than not would not understand.
By the way, the other day I “discovered” that two of the most important women in my life prefer salty foods over sweets.Gary
From: Patrick Gisler
To: Gary Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 23, 2016 10:39 pm
Subject: Re: Snakes
Patrick
Thanks for the lovely photograph of Reece holding your dog.
Please send me photo of you holding the six foot rattle snake in your hand [after you knocked it out with your shovel], showing the full length of the approximately six foot snake hanging down from your hand.
Thanks.
Gary
—–Original Message—–
From: Patrick
To: Gary Smolker <GSmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2016 9:21 pm
Subject: Snakes
If this dog was in your back yard, you would kill all the rattlesnakes that came in, too!
Sent from my iPhone
You Can’t Tell A Book by Its Cover
By the way, I love the cheerfulness of the philosophy expressed in the Italian saying si non e vero, e ben trovato (“even if it’s not true, it’s a good one”).
I believe life is about being cheerful and conveying likability.
Below is a photograph of my good friend Jason Fane taken on December 31, 2015 at a New Year’s Party at Jason’s apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
This is a photo of Jason and Les Steiner at that New Year’s Party.
Jason and Patrick are both brilliant and eloquent.
They both love life and live life fully.
They both enjoy critical thinking.
Critical thinking is an effort and is challenging.
Neither Patrick nor Jason is lazy.
They are both critical thinkers.
They both like to think.
They are both big time risk takers.
Jason has been my good friend for over 45 years.
Jason and I met in an elevator in Ithaca, New York in 1967.
At the time, we were both graduate students at Cornell University.
Jason had a car. I didn’t.
By the time we got out of the elevator Jason had given me the keys to his Mercedes Benz and told me to use it.
By the way, I stayed in the Chaz Yorkville while I attended the 40th Annual Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto in September, 2015.
Below is a picture taken of me one year before, in September, 2014, before I had shaved off my beard and mustache.
The Chaz Yorkville
The Chaz Yorkville is a one of a kind 53 story residential building located at 45 Charles Street, in Toronto, Canada, developed by my friend Jason Fane, as sole owner and developer.
Below is a picture I took from the Sports Club on the 32nd floor of the Chaz Yorkville while I was attending the 40th Annual Toronto International Film Festival.
Compare the above photograph of my good friend Jason Fane, taken at a New Year’s Eve Party in his apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on December 31, 2015 to the recent photograph below of my good friend Patrick Gisler and to the picture below of me taken in September, 2014 and to the pictures below taken of me while I was cooking dinner on New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2015.
Appearances can be deceiving.
Jason, Patrick and I “look” very different from one another, and I look different in a t-shirt in September 2014 at my local Starbucks than I look while in a kitchen cooking dinner on New Year’s Eve December 31, 2015, but each one of us has much in common with each other and I was the “same” person in September 2014 as I was on December 31, 2015 which each of the above pictures of me were taken.
You can’t tell a book by its cover.
By the way, I don’t believe in complaining about anything.
“The Big Short”
Patrick and Jason remind me of that scene in the “The Big Short” where the Rabbi is telling Mark Baum’s mother that the Rabbi is concerned about Mark.
The Rabbi: “I’m concerned about Mark.”
Mother: “Isn’t Mark studying hard and getting good grades?”
Rabbi: “Yes. That is not what I am concerned about?”
Mother: “What are you concerned about?”
Rabbi: “I am concerned about why Mark is studying so hard.”
Mother: “Why are you concerned about why Mark is studying so hard?”
Rabbi: “Mark is studying so hard because Mark is trying to find inconsistencies in the words of G-d.
“Mark is studying so hard because he is trying to find inconsistencies in the Talmud and the Torah; he is trying to find inconsistencies in the Bible.”
Like the portrayal of “Mark Baum” in “The Big Short”, Jason and Patrick question everything.
If You Are Given A Choice Between Chocolate and Sex Which Should You Choose?
Definition of Sybaritic
Sybaritic – adj. pertaining to or characterized by loving luxury or sensuous pleasure.
Definition of Sybarite
Sybarite – n. a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.
Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate
It is my understanding that Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate, grown on the Island of Hawaii, is considered the finest chocolate in the world by a coterie of chocolate connoisseurs.
The sublime substance (chocolate) produced from the criollo cacao beans harvested in Kona (on the dry western part of the Island) has a fruity taste quality, while the chocolate produced from beans harvested from Keaau (near Hilo, on the rain-soaked east side of the Island) have an earthy flavor.
The final product consists of round, flat “pistoles,” each the size of an American quarter, which are sold to the pastry chefs of the finest restaurants of the United States.
It has been reported that by 1994 Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate was selling at a price that was nearly two dollars per pound higher than Valrhona chocolate.
At one time the French firm Valrhona, founded in 1925, with headquarters in Tain-l’Hermitage, about one hour south of the culinary capital of Lyon, had working for it a full-time jury of ten who did nothing but sit and eat chocolate all day, testing new products.
At one time, Valrhona produced chocolate only for professionals, who melted it down, molded it, and packaged the chocolates as their own.
Those Dietary Villains Responsible for Chocolate’s Undeserved Reputation As A Fattening, Tooth-Rotting, Addictive Indulgence
In a 1991 interview, Chantal Coady (the leader of England’s “The Chocolate Society”) stated that “chocoholics” are not addicted to chocolate they are addicted to sugar and thus suffer an eating disorder.
According to Ms. Coady, the only necessary ingredients for good chocolate are pure, unadulterated “cocoa solids” (the higher the proportion the better), blended with a little cacao butter and a small amount of sugar.
According to Ms. Coady, the principal ingredients of commercial chocolate are sugar, solid vegetable fat, and powdered milk.
According to Valrhona’s marketing director, Alphonse Daudet one can forget any chocolate that is less than 50 percent “cocoa solids” – to him that is not even chocolate.
In the United States most of the chocolate sold and eaten is less than 43 percent “cocoa solids” because sugar is a lot cheaper than cacao.
Valrhona’s “Guanaja 1502” has 70 percent “cocoa solids”, a world record during the 1980s – but only one tenth the calories of the typical mass-produced chocolate.
Switzerland: Land of Cows and Chocolate
The words “Swiss” and chocolate are inseparable.
Swiss citizens are the number one consumers of chocolate.
In 1990 – 1991, the annual per capita consumption of chocolate in Switzerland was 5.09 kg, or 11 lb, compared with the puny 2.24 kg, or 5 lb, eaten by the individual American.
The inventions of milk chocolate and of the milk chocolate candy bar were a collaboration between two men: Henri Nestle (1814-90), a Swiss chemist and Daniel Peter (1836-1919), a Swiss chocolate manufacturer.
As a result of their collaboration, in 1879, the first milk chocolate bar was produced.
Suffice it to say that was a lucrative collaboration, the Nestle company grew into what was/is perhaps the world’s largest food corporation.
Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Gary S. Smolker 