Happy Saturday, friend!

We’re back again with another edition of Productivity + Habits + Fun

😃 Fun Fact of the Week

Swiss law prohibits the ownership of a single guinea pig.

The justification is that they have such high social needs that one living alone would be too cruel.

🐦 Tweet of the Week

Look at that! A daily habit culminated into something awesome for Shiena!

How many of you are interested in learning how to create and keep habits that will bring you closer to your dream outcome?

👉️ Reply to this email if this is something you’re interested in!

💪 Featured Productivity Tool

The Pareto Principle (aka the 80/20 Rule)

The Pareto Principle, put simply, states that 20% of your input accounts for 80% of your output.

Here is a solid article from Tim Ferriss on generalists vs specialists, and one of his core arguments is that you can become truly “good enough” in much less time than you imagine by really going after the few things that cover the most distance.

An example I love is, “…20% of a dance like tango (lead and footwork) separates the novice from the pro…” From experience, I can tell you that the basics are all you need. You can progressively add more moves (turns, cross body leads, etc) and build up, but the basics are really all that matter.

💹 Relationships Between Cancer and Lifespan

This is a very interesting set of infographics showing how cell mutations cause cancer at different rates between species.

Highlights:

• Rates of cancer are linked to aging

• Peto’s Paradox: Larger animals have more cells and should have higher rates of cancer - but they don’t

• Data suggests that species reach a similar number of fatal mutations but at different speeds

Click the photo to see the full article.

🖍️ A Historical Look at Color

😌 Decision-making Idea

Groupthink: Due to a desire for interpersonal harmony, people are prone to making irrational decisions, normally to minimize conflict. If there are people in positions of power or influence in the group, they can have an outsized influence over the other members of the group.

Example 1: In the movie Mean Girls, the popular girls all go along with the opinion of their leader, Regina George. Not only do they seem to not question themselves, they take it a step further and assume they must be right. The girls become an echo chamber and perpetuate the cycle of catty behavior.

Example 2: David Letterman and CBS. When Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show, NBC had to choose between Jay Leno and David Letterman. NBC president Bob Wright chose to go against the popular opinion of the board and hire Leno. Letterman went to CBS and ultimately won the viewership war. Now many boards have someone specifically to play devil’s advocate to prevent any runaway decisions like this.

If you find yourself in a groupthink situation, be brave and get the group to pause and think through whatever “consensus” you’re reaching.

🧠 Quote of the Week

What I think:

This makes me think of the advice to “put on your own mask before helping others.”

That’s a bit of a stretch, but I think the idea is the same: leaders need to get themselves right before they begin to influence others.

History is rife with political leaders who inherited positions of great power simply due to a relationship to the previous ruler. Quite a few were children.

The safer bet for the community at large is for the leader to earn that position, to have skin in the game and an understanding that every decision can and likely will impact someone else.

With the wisdom of experience (and with some humility), the leader is poised to responsibly help others grow and learn.

What are your thoughts?

What does it take to be a great leader?

Thank you so much for spending some of you precious time with me. 🙂

I’m always looking to improve, so hit “reply” and let me know what you think!

Have an awesome week.

Sincerely,

Steven Sanders

PS - I hope to see you on Twitter and Instagram!