Weeks 16 and 17, 2024 - Diary of a Revenue Engineer
Quote of the week:
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” - Booker T. Washington
What I thought…
I’ve had to combine two weeks into one due to the life-drama which just drained me of time, energy and emotions. I carried this week’s quote from Booker T. Washington with me and wore it like armor.
Through all the tumultuous storms of life’s experiences this past fortnight, however, there have been impactful book ends, revelations, epiphanies, new journey’s begun and old one’s ended.
Life is not easy. It’s not supposed to be.
The second law of thermodynamics states that “anything in a closed environment tends to entropy”. Meaning, that chaos is the natural state of the universe. Anything we achieve in contrast to that is nothing less than a herculean feat.
So strap in and join me in my (currently) advert free corner of the internet to learn and explore a little more of this fabulous world.
Having a hard time? I feel you, and so did Booker T. Let’s overcome the chaos of the universe together.
What I learned…
Let’s kick off with one of my major epiphanies and an emotional journey of a book end here too.
I went to stay with my Mum in the Midlands after she had an operation. The process of going in, being operated on and being in a state of recovery was so quick and efficient, it’s a miraculous world we live in for sure.
However, she reacted badly to Anaesthetic and, long story short, we found ourselves in A&E 48 hours later.
I love the NHS in the UK, I saw incredibly hard working people still finding time and energy to be patient and kind, but the processes, systems and tools were just so behind the times and all the people were just overwhelmed. We were there in the waiting room for 13 hours.
Without going into all the details of how things went with my Mum, I had a profound and startling epiphany whilst sat there. Let’s use data to elucidate my point.
People in A&E waiting room = approx 50
People overweight in a problematic way = 32, 64%
People with dangerous bodyweight, approx 25 stone+ = 4, 8%
Smokers = 19, 38%
People over 65 = 30, 60%
Why am I putting all this down? How was this an epiphany?
Firstly, you should know I’m not body shaming people, but there were a lot of people struggling with their weight there whether that be a cause of a symptom of some condition. Whatever the reason, there was a significant %.
The thing that really struck me was what this implied and what was around as options for us as people.
There were two vending machines stacked with sugar, sweets, and fried goods. (these vending machines’ cash drawers were emptied by someone, I shit you not, in designer clothes at one point).
Water was freely available... in the 13 hours I was there, I saw it used by 4 people.
The NHS had incredible people, overstretched and under supported.
The majority of people there were older, but over 65’s have just one medical classification and care. “Your age means...” was something I heard a lot of...
All the very over-weight people were under 40.
People were leaving treatment to go outside and smoke.
Bad nutrition is cheap, repeatable, scalable and reliable for organizations - but it’s killing us. How are we supposed to make the right choice, when there are no choices available to us?
We’ve known smoking is bad for decades and yet here are people leaving government sponsored, free healthcare, to go outside and pay to have their life expectancy reduced.
We have an aging population, with a plethora of additional ailments coming from other generations such as obesity and mental health issues and a distinct lack of due process to handle the myriad stages of life after 65.
I believe in free markets, I believe in consumer power, but I also believe that organisations spending millions on the technology behind foods and distribution are not in the best interest of people.
I think we’ve had our choices and our freedoms eroded and then found ourselves criticised for lacking “discipline” or the right “mindset”.
We do very little to create better spaces, opportunities and options for people to make better choices and, by doing so, create an ongoing problem within our society.
I don’t know how - but I’m going to find a small part of this problem and I’m going to devote my life to making it better.
We deserve better - watch this space...
What I built…
I helped formalise a process by which we can find our purpose and use it to create goals and a plan.
I also found a structure and process by which someone who has an excellent product or service, but isn’t sure how to sell it, can find a better route to market. Quick takes here:
Service: What is your service, why does it exist, what is the impact?
Strategy: How do you get it to your ideal client, what do they look like, who do you not serve?
Scale: How do you find opportunities to automate revenue and develop passive income channels as well as find, nurture and retain ideal character employees.
I’ll have more on this in due course!
How I lived longer…
There’s no conflicting information on fasting and it’s overall benefits, mainly due to the impact on muscle loss. However, the effect on Autophagy and general internal health has been well documented, if not hard to prove in a living, moving, breathing person. There’s now research being conducted on it’s effect on mental health which I’ll be following with great interest.
Nutrition
I listened to “Ultra-processed people” whilst finishing the house tidy with my partner, and the insight and impact is amazing. I had the same feeling reading and listening to this that I did when I read “The easy way to stop smoking” by Alan Carr.
The overall feeling is that we are out-funded by massive organisations spending a lot on making food very tasty (or at least, appearing so), quick to eat, moreish and very accessible in terms of shelf-life and cost.
I don’t feel there’s anything truly wrong with their approach, I don’t think an evil board of food-based-billionaires sit around a table asking “how can we make poor people less health?” but I do believe it’s a natural by-product of creating their products in the market.
I don’t blame people. I don’t blame organisations, like food production or super markets.
I believe we’ve strayed into a very complex problem which has massive momentum... but it can be changed.
I’m staying healthier now by watching what I eat more than ever, it’s a game and one I’m enjoying, but it’s certainly not easy. Even when it’s cheap, it’s very time consuming, so it’s a tough one to balance.
There is a fading generation in our society of people who survived through a global war the likes of which the world had never seen before. My grandmother once said “I spent 6 years hungry” so you can appreciate why food, availability and comfort are sought after things, instilled in the following generations.
Those hungry people, however, were some of the healthiest our society has ever been. Food, perhaps, for thought.
How I stayed happier…
It was a really tough couple of weeks, so I found my therapy sessions particularly useful. In fact, this week, with a large and long and emotional session, I decided to end things with my current therapist.
For context, there is nothing wrong with what we’re doing - I feel that the work she’s done and how she’s helped me over the past year has been some of the most material and important changes of my emotional and psychological self.
Also, I’m not “done” with therapy. Not by a longshot. And not because I’m broken, not because i’m sad.
Therapy is personal training and a workout for the mind. I get the same “Oh god I don’t want to do this...” feeling before I do therapy that I do when hitting the gym floor. I get the same “Oh fuck, I’m glad I did that” afterwards. You see incredibly fit people at the gym... you’re never done when it comes to uncovering more about yourself and your passions and your drive.
No, I’m taking a pause from therapy to focus on other areas and take the stage I’m at right now as a foundational platform for future growth.
I’ve really had some amazing experiences in my life - each one shaped me and moulded me, prepared me for something else.
I’ve so much more I want to work on, but right now I can see something that I have to do and it’s important that I pursue that with everything I have.
This makes me feel good, so good and so deep I feel it in my bones. I believe this is what finding your “purpose” is like, what a “calling” feels like.
More to come for sure... I’m excited.
Final Thoughts…
A tough week as mentioned. But, as Booker T said “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” and I believe that man had a solid grip on struggle, grit and determination
I cannot wait for the next steps in the journey, I am tired and fatigued and rinsed out from the last two week’s and the madness that lay therein... but I’m pleased to be on the other side of it.
Whatever struggles you’re facing right now, I wish you all the best with them. And, thanks for stopping by.
