We're now firmly into Year 3 of Cultivating Resilience. Last year, at issue 100, I wrote this:
I feel like the past few weeks have really been a turning point in my journey as a resilience researcher, practitioner, facilitator, coach. I did a three hour workshop for the good folks at the Cornell School of Business's marketing team around hybrid work and resilience.
I had a breakthrough coaching session with one of my clients where they were making a serious, consideration to radically change their career in an exciting new direction. I had a number of coaching inquiry conversations and we'll see where those go, but it just felt good to expand the universe of people that I might be potentially working with. I'm doing facilitation for resilience at work. And of course I'm also, navigating some change myself. I may be changing teams in the upcoming, period of time at work. So a lot of change happening at this 100 year mark.
What changes, and doesn't change, in a year!
I've been on my new team for a year now and it feels like a lifetime ago. I am continuing to coach and had a new set of clients that helped me see the kind of work I am called to do, and I am still teaching resilience inside Meta. Once again, I find myself at the cusp of change, which I'll share more about in a future issue.
What remains true though is that this newsletter is an important outlet for me to share my findings, uncover truths, and experiment around the ideas of resilience and reinvention. I'm grateful to have you along for the ride, and the survey results give me even more color and richness on your POV, which will inform how this newsletter evolves.
Here's to Year 3!
—Jason
What's on deck:
- 🔑 Readership Survey Highlights
- 📊 10 years later: "I'm Still Not Crushing It" -
- ⚡️ Stephen King on Charting Through Hell
- 👁️ The Lessons of BeeGate™️
🔑 Readership Survey Highlights
I wrote a full post dedicated to the results of the readership survey—thank you again to all who participated. Congrats Helen, Cheryl, and Newvick for winning the giveaway prizes! Thank you all for showing me that:
- You are leaders and professionals from both tech and non tech industries
- You cut across gender (skewing female), racial lines (skewing Asian), and a broad range of roles and experience levels (skewing 20+ years)
- You appreciate thew newsletter for the nuanced thoughts, not the quick hits or tech news takes
- You want me bring authentic stories from my life and others, via interviews or case studies
- You care most about how people navigate change, make leaps, think rigorously, and find creative ways forward with others (and not ADHD, gen AI, tech news, or videos)
Read the full deets here:
Jason Shen
📊 10 Years Later: "I'm Still Not Crushing It"
Hustle Fund GP Elizabeth Yin writes about fighting through the trough of sorrow as an early-stage VC and how things can be sometimes harder in later years than earlier ones, as the problems get bigger.
I write this post, because I know that a lot of startups are struggling right now. Capital is tight. It’s hard to make money. It’s hard to console your team who may be worried about the market. I know – I get it.
An example of one trough that I’m going through right now is that I recently learned that I will have to personally chip in a lot of cash — more than I made last year — to cover a company tax situation. I know that so many startups often have founders contribute to their respective businesses to make ends meet. We all face the same issues. This won’t be easy for me. But we’ll figure it out.
I'm Still Not Crushing It by Elizabeth Yin (note the love she got in her replies for this vulnerable admission!)
⚡️ Stephen King on Going Through Hell
👁️ The Lessons of BeeGate™️
There was a travel horror story of a Delta flight that was delayed for many many hours - first with the passengers stuck on the tarmac (always the worst) – where a hive of bees had attached to the wing.
Passenger Anjali captured the drama via an epic thread and ultimately had to watch as the plane, now in defeat and exiting the gate empty-handed, dismissed the bees by turning on the plane engine.
Creativity is one of those skills that seems woo-woo because often the answer is "obvious" but everyday we run into situations where the nonobvious idea is ultimately the right one. We overthink our problem-solving when just trying more things is more than not, the right answer.
What BeeGate™️ reveals is that most success just comes from trying more things https://t.co/E96pZGADqx
— Jason Shen (@JasonShen) May 4, 2023
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