Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 4/12/2025)

Your Greatest Strength Is Your Greatest Weakness: Steve Willison And Mark Newfield On JUST PRESS RECORD

I have a brother who's 10 days shy of 2 years younger than me. If you have a close in age sibling, you already know where this is going. Some days we were best friends, some days we made Cain and Able look like model citizens. Nobody can get under your skin like a sibling. My mom used to try to remind me, "The same things you love the most about him, they're no different from the things that annoy you the most." I used to push back, "That assumes there's something I love about him." She didn't need to respond to that. The look (you know the one) would do.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: When Mark Newfield shared this idea, as it relates to his own adult ADHD - it’s just beautiful, “Part of my principle set or operating system is: your greatest strength is, at the same time, your greatest weakness. And recognizing when it's working on one side or the other is important."

Losing Is Ok, Losing Yourself Is Not

Work stress, internet trolls, and unrealistic ambitions relative to available time were getting the best of me the other week. I was still smiling. I'm always smiling as some people have told me. There's a trick to it though. I have a "good" smile. A genuinely happy version. And I have a "not good" smile, which isn't always "bad" so much as it is always "not the best." It's a furrowed brow, concerning/concerned version. Or so my wife tells me. She likes to point out which one is on my face at any point in time.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: “Every man, at some point in his life is going to lose a battle. He is going to fight and he is going to lose. But what makes him a man, is that in the midst of that battle, he does not lose himself."

Grow Your Network: Mark Newfield Is A Doer-Of-Good

Do you know Mark Newfield? This financial advisor and thought leader started as an auto mechanic, pivoted to consulting, and now helps people navigate the complexities of wealth management with an authentic, human-centered approach. He's a voracious reader, a relentless learner, and someone who sees his neurodiversity as a superpower rather than a limitation. If not, allow me to formally introduce you. Mark embodies something I value deeply - the commitment to do one good thing for one decent human being every single day. This isn't a strategy he adopted, it's who he is at his core, and it drives everything from his client relationships to his approach to life's challenges.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: “All I try and do, on any given day, is to do one good thing for one decent human being. That's it. Sometimes that's counsel that I'm giving to an employee. Sometimes it's working my son through something challenging. Sometimes it's, picking up some trash in the street."

Grow Your Network: Steve Willison Is A Default Stoic

Do you know Steve Willison? The karate chopping HR exec who just so happens to write books about stoic philosophy in his spare time? A lifelong learner with military background, a business mind, and a genuine passion for helping others – especially kids – grow and develop? If not, allow me to introduce you. Steve embodies something I value deeply: the stoic understanding that we can't control what happens, only how we react to it. His work teaching martial arts to children, leading HR initiatives, and his ability to pull wisdom from ancient philosophy into all sorts of aspects of modern life, showcases his unique ability to be, as I told him and Mark Newfield, both humane AND resourceful.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: “I shall pass through this world, but once. Let me not defer, nor neglect it, for I know I will not pass this way again. It's one of these amazing things. I don't wanna neglect it. I'm very curious about the world."

Why (More) Of My Personal Archive Is Going Public

My whole plan seemed obvious to me, but it didn't seem obvious to everyone else. I meet people, I consume stuff, and I reflect on it. I keep track of it all so I can re-use and re-purpose it in my client work AND my personal life. I've been doing it for almost 8 years now and it's the best creative habit I've ever had (in the truest sense that it's a creative habit that helps pay the bills!). I'm talking about my plan with putting this Personal Archive in public, and then how it continued - with putting so many of the conversations I'd be having anyway in public on YouTube so people could find them.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: “When I practice my way through completing a thought about why something someone said is impactful, when I write it down so I can look it up later, and when I capture the source material for reference - I can connect with all sorts of people on their level."

Sunday Music: "Thoughts And Prayers" By Drive-By Truckers

A school shooting. A politically-motivated act of senseless violence. Really, any angry adult-acting-childish actions. When it happens, we all shudder, and then… "You are in our thoughts and prayers." The intentions are good, but it still feels so bleak. Maybe it was the bleakness of 2025. People are upset about politics again. And trade, and crashing markets, and - eggs, penguins, the everything and nothingness of computer, and all sorts of stuff. I really don't know why the algorithm jumped to this song in my phone the other morning, but it did. It's from 2020 but it feels like it could be about today.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: These lyrics hit so hard - “The Flat Earthist realized as he flew through the skies / The curve of the horizon as he fell / He saw the world was round just before he hit the ground / And gravity called out to close the deal"

Your Other Places I Showed Up This Week (Scared By Financial Markets Lately Friends, Take Note)

Bogumil Baranowski and I had Chris Mayer on Excess Returns, and before that, Jack Forehand and I spoke with the legendary Boglehead, Rick Ferri, and we reviewed some of the best tariff-related analysis we could find from prior interviews with Cullen Roche and Andy Constan.

Watch for more of these next week - Rich Bernstein should be out real soon too (and he did not disappoint, although I may have disappointed him with roadrunner cartoon questions) - I’m thinking of these episodes as my “people I want to talk to when the world is trying to end” series:

Bonus (that I wasn’t a part of, but Jack and Justin Carbonneau killed), if you want more, check out this talk with Jim Paulsen. It’s got some incredible (and optimistic) insights.

Personal Archive Prompts (for you): Who do you know this reminds you of, and/or what do you think about...

• What strength of yours sometimes manifests as a weakness in your life or work?

• How do you maintain yourself in the face of inevitable losses?

• What would change if you committed to "one good thing for one decent human" each day?

• How are you integrating stoic principles into your everyday decisions?

• What personal practices or habits could you make public that might help others?

• When have empty platitudes failed you, and how did you find more meaningful ways to respond?

As always, I did my part, now it's your turn to write some reflections in your own Personal Archive.

(then, be sure to let me know where you're keeping it, I'm in search of the others too)

PS: If you haven't checked them out yet, my conversations with Steve Willison and Mark Newfield are now live on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel!