You Are Replaceable

Happy Friday Friends,

The Weekly Feels is back, I hope. It might turn into the Fortnightly Feels but we’ll see how we go.

I’m going to get back into it with a bit of a bang. This week I’m going to hit you with some hard truths. None are new or surprising but, you’ve probably never thought about it before.

Everyone is replaceable.

Pretty harsh isn’t it? But, it’s true 99.99% of the time. And, every single person reading this post has experienced this truth.

Let’s start on the softer side. And, let’s track back a bunch of years.It’s 1995. I’m in “Standard Five”. In today’s terms that would be seventh grade. I’ve been playing football (soccer) since I was about 4. It’s my favourite thing on the planet and, I am pretty good at it. 

It’s my final year of primary school and I am the captain of the A-team. I also play central-midfield which is an important role in any side. I can run for days and can also boss the game from “the middle of the park”. I considered myself quite an asset to the team and my coaches.

We’ve got an important match coming up on the weekend against an all-boys school and one of our biggest rivals. We rotate between positions 1 and 2 all season in the league table. I can’t remember the exact reason now (it has been over 20 years) but, I couldn’t make that match.

I am devastated. I hate missing matches. I am upset because I thought the team wouldn’t be the same without their captain and central midfielder. That sounds terrible, full of ego. It’s not sportsman-like and it sounds like I am full of myself. Well, at the time I was. To cut a long-ish story short. Someone else was captain for that game and the team ended up winning that match. Of course, they did. We had a great team, with many talented individuals.

I remember at the time, I was happy they won but a little piece of me was upset that they didn’t need me. I didn’t realise it then but, that was my first experience of being replaceable. It was shitty. And, it doesn’t get less shitty as time goes on.

Fast forward to more recent times. I’ve had meetings with people in my teams asking for salary increases. Every leader will relate, I’d love to give all my team the salary and bonuses they think they deserve. But, more often than not, their valuation is not equal to the company’s expectations. 

In a few of these meetings, I’ve had people tell me they have received offers for more elsewhere. I’ve come to expect that as the reflexive response to not liking my feedback. I always want to ask them how they expect me to respond to that “threat”. Because it is a threat even if they don’t intend it to be. I attempt to soften the response because I know it’s just defence. But, I have to help them realise that as good a job as they might be doing, they are replaceable.

Now, of course, these two examples above are very “small-pond”. So I'll up the ante a bit to drive the point home.

Travis Kalanick. Ex-CEO of Uber. He made Uber the international juggernaut it is today. Over the years Kalanick had made some poor decisions. Then, in 2016/17 he couldn’t get around a few serious allegations laid against him. After a couple of years of back-and-forth Kalanick “stepped down” as CEO. Anyone who understands business and startups will tell you he did not step down. The board and shareholders he reports to, made sure he "chose" to step down.

After starting Uber and running it for seven years you’d think that his leaving would affect the business. It affected share price in the short term because of uncertainty. But, Uber is still running and still dominates the market in most countries around the world. Even the smartest and most talented tech CEOs from Silicone Valley are replaceable.

In 2003 one of the Premier League’s biggest specimens left the best club in the world for the 2nd best club in the world.Manchester United sold David Beckham to Real Madrid in the 2003/4 transfer window. The reason? “Beckham thought he was bigger than the club.” Sir Alex Ferguson.

Did Manchester Utd. fall to pieces after Beckham left? To every scouser scum's dismay, they did not. Ferguson and his United team won another 5 titles after the notorious “boot-to-the-face” incident. The best footballers at the biggest clubs are also replaceable.

What about love and life? The same applies. How many long term relationships end and both parties think they’ll never find love again? They think there is only one match for them.In time though they realise there are other people out there and other experiences to be had. They've now replaced one special person from one period in time to another for another period.

Throughout history, there are millions of examples. Presidents, dictators, sports personalities, celebrities. The list goes on. Almost every single person, in any role they perform, is replaceable. We live on a planet with almost 8 billion people. To sit and think that you are the best and no one could do what you do is naive. Actually, it’s stupid.

Now that we’ve established this fact, I hear you ask “so what’s your point Jazza?”

Well, my point is that first, we need to acknowledge some of the harshest truths life sends our way. We can then be better placed to deal with them. We can move on from shitty situations quicker because we knew they would happen. And, we had a game plan.

The second, and most important point is to get rid of our egos.

Humility is one of the most important traits we can develop in life. It doesn’t matter if you’re a graduate or a CEO. The CEO was once a graduate and that graduate may one day become the CEO. Both people are replaceable. Maybe not equally as replaceable but in life terms, that’s a matter of semantics.

When we realise that we are replaceable we then have more empathy for the fact that others are too. It may explain why certain situations escalate the way they do. People want to be needed and feel like they’re at risk when they’re not. 

Being in a new environment, in a new company this year I've already had to deal with a lot of egos. It's part and parcel of joining a new squad. With experience, I have come to expect it and deal with it. I know most of it comes from insecurity.

My message for this week is to be humble and be kind to people. You never know what life is going to throw at you.

Peace, love and muscles.

Jazza

Book to Read That Relates to This Week’s PostNonviolent Communication - Marshall Rosenberg PhDI’ve mentioned this one before but you can never recommend a good book too many times. Marshall’s theory is that all humans have needs. And, bad communication stems from both, not expressing those needs and, not understanding the needs of others. The lessons taken from this book are universal, I highly recommend it.

Book I’m Currently ReadingThat Will Never Work - Marc RandolphThe early story and learnings from Netflix’s first CEO and Co-Founder. It’s an easy read with a lot of great pearls throughout. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to learn how good businesses start. Everyone can benefit from listening to smart people with experience.

What I’m Playing Around WithKnees Over Toes Guy - Ben PatrickBen is a fitness coach who specifically teaches techniques to improve strength, mobility and longevity of your knees and hips. Ben was on Joe Rogan but I’ve been following him and his practices on IG for about 3 months now. I’ve even recently moved gyms to one that has a sled. Watch a few videos and learn why.

Something BeautifulCryptograf Canvas

I recently bought and joined an NFT community around street art. By owning the NFT you got the opportunity to “paint” on this canvas. One pixel at a time.About 8,000 people from all over the world contributed to completing the canvas above. All done from their computers, with their mouse. Click on the image and zoom in to different areas to see how cool it is.

The canvas will be broken down into hundreds of NFTs and then distributed back to NFT owners. It is quite incredible.