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You’ve probably noticed that life is getting faster. You may not feel that time itself is speeding up.* But there IS strong evidence that the rate of change and pace of work for most of us is increasing. The number of jobs most of us have over a career is going up and up, and the speed at which we move from one job to another is getting quicker. The number of new companies being founded each year is increasing. It’s also true that the length of time these companies survive is shortening. So more hustle, more bustle, and more churn. Not only this, but we also * feel * as if life is getting quicker - so we’re dealing with both reality and perception. There is even a term for this phenomenon - social acceleration theory. The core idea is that technological acceleration, the rate of social change, and the overall pace of life all contribute to a self-reinforcing experience that modern life is continually getting quicker. So, it’s not just you. It’s not all in your head. Life really is getting quicker for most of us. If I had to choose one word to capture working life in the 2020s it would be >>> Hustle <<< ‘Hustle’ originally meant to knock someone about roughly or move hurriedly. By the twentieth century, ‘to hustle’ meant to work exceptionally hard. And by the 2020s, ‘hustle culture’ has become an accepted term. It’s claimed this phrase first appeared in an article in The New York Times in 2019 to describe people who love, or at least pretend to love, working exceptionally hard at a frenetic pace. Maybe you love to hustle. Most leaders and high achievers I work with don’t. They want to succeed, and often enjoy a fast pace… …but they don’t want to trade their health for their wealth. Neither do they want to sacrifice their mental health, or their relationships, in the desperate hope that the other side of their frenetic bursts of success, both can recover. Whether you see the change of pace as good or bad, the question we all have to wrestle with is this: >>> How can we succeed in a world speeding up? <<< Option 1: Try and work quicker and quicker. Try and keep up with the change of pace. Outsource everything we can to AI, so we can produce more and more. I imagine most of you will already be recoiling at the thought. It’s a hopeless task; we will never win. Not only that, but what happens to the quality of our work, and therefore our long-term success, if we prize speed over everything else? Option 2: We learn to go SLOW. Over 20+ years working with leaders and high achievers, I’ve identified four ways that the best in business succeed in a world speeding up. In all sorts of sectors, and at all levels, the best I work with follow these principles: Success is an experience Letting go gets you further Other people make you successful Wisdom wins In others words, these capable people don’t hustle; they learn to go SLOW. Stick with me over the next four weeks and I’ll take you through the highlights of each principle. For now, as you look to the week ahead. I invite you to take a breath, and to allow yourself to reject ‘hustle culture’. You don’t have to run yourself into the ground to succeed. You don’t have to sacrifice everything else in your life for the sake of your work. In fact, over the next four weeks I will argue that going SLOW becomes the quickest way to win. Go well Ben x * Technically, we can say that time is speeding up. That is, if you accept the findings by some physicists that the earth has been spinning on it’s axis more quickly than it has been for over 50 years. But, a second here or there is unlikely to be consequential by most of us. PS - before you go, a request. If you find Human Thoughts helpful, why not recommend it to people in your network? My target for this year is to take this from reaching hundreds to reaching thousands. Want to help me do this? All people need to sign up is this link - www.humantalk.co.uk/newsletter Thank you x
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