Straight-Line Leadership

The Power of Not Now

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I’m reading a book called Straight-Line Leadership. The central message of the book is, “Just Do It.”

Of course, you can’t publish an entire book with just three words, so this three-word idea is developed in lots of different ways across 50 chapters. For example, in chapter 41, “Now Versus Later,” Straight-Line Leadership tells you:

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The only time you can ever do something about anything is now.

The problem with individuals who tolerate mediocrity in their lives is that no matter what good idea for taking action comes up, it’s never going to happen now. It’s an idea for some distant future. People who struggle have great ideas that they will implement “some day in the future.”

Almost everyone, deep down, knows what to do to get whatever result they truly want. It’s just that they are not choosing to do it right now. “Getting around to it” is not leadership.

The future is a terrible place to put an action plan because the future does not exist. Literally.

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It’s a good message. Clear, simple, powerful. But as with most clear, simple, powerful messages, it’s only half the story, at least the way I see it.

In my experience, some actions are simply too painful or frightening to take now. And no amount of repeating to myself to “just choose to do it now, because it’s either now or never,” changes that.

And yet, those actions become manageable in time. What’s changed? Time has passed. And also, something in my head has changed, due to trying to get myself to act now, and failing at it.

I guess I’m not the only one who feels like this.

I was recently listening to an interview with a wicked smart guy named Michael Levin. Levin is a professor of biology at Tufts. He works on strange topics that sound like the science of the 23rd century rather than the 21st. Stuff like, how do we tap into the electrical language that determines the way organisms determine their shape, so we can get people to regrow, say, an amputated arm?

Anyways, in this interview, which was more philosophical than scientific, Levin said:

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A useful sense of free will is very time-extended. You don’t have, right now, complete control of whatever your next thought is going to be.

And in fact, as you think about it, free from what? Free from past experience? No. And you don’t want to be free from past experience because then you don’t learn.

Free from the laws of physics? No.

So what do you really have in the moment, like within a narrow timeframe? Maybe not much.

But over the long-term, by the application of consistent effort, what you can do is shape your own cognitive structure so that in the future, new things are open to you. Your own structure allows you to do new things.

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What you have “free will” over is consistent effort. That might not translate into results. It might not even translate into action (this is the point of departure from what Straight-Leadership is saying above).

But consistent effort over the long term will in time change your brain, change your actions, and produce results that change your life. Some time. In the future. Even if it’s not cool to talk about that, because it’s supposedly “either now or never.”

So there you go. A philosophical and counterproductive email, at least from the perspective of selling you something today.

The straightforward message of Straight-Line Leadership, “Just Do It, And Now” is a much better message if you want to sell people stuff.

All I can say in my defense is that I wanted to write today’s email, because this newsletter serves several purposes beyond just selling you stuff.

That said, if you are ready to take action today, specifically around communicating regularly with your clients and prospects, and building up your image as a leader in what you do, then good on you.

And if you want my help with doing that, then take a look here:

​https://bejakovic.com/deh​

The kid fell flat and the mother wasn’t moving

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I went for a walk this morning, and on a quiet and pedestrian street in my neighborhood, I saw a toddler running, or more accurately trundling, from around the corner.

His mom followed behind, pushing one of those toddler push bikes.

Suddenly the kid tripped on the sidewalk and fell flat, if not quite on his face, then on his belly.

I looked at him with the overactive sympathy of someone who’s never had a kid, and who knows nothing about kids. I was sure he’d start bawling right away.

I then looked at his mom. I was sure she’d run over and start comforting her son.

But the mom wasn’t moving. She seemed to have no intent of moving. She just stood there looking at the kid from 15 feet way.

The mom noticed me looking at her. Our gazes met. And she gave me a weary smile as if to say, “He does this all the time. He’ll be fine.”

Sure enough, before I’d even had a chance to look back at the kid, he’d gotten up and started running, or more accurately trundling, in his straight line to God-knows-where his will was taking him.

A couple days ago, I started reading a book called Straight-Line Leadership by some very Serbian-sounding dude named Dusan Djukich.

Last night in that book, I read a bit about “zigzag people” — people who sometimes go on spurts of success and productivity, only to inevitably regress to earlier, pre-success levels. Says Djukich:

“Zigzag people simply don’t see that after that good start, a ‘challenge’ doesn’t have to stop them. They can keep going. In fact, they can use the challenge to build strength along the path.”

I thought of that this morning when I saw the mom with her toddler. You can think of it too, when coaching others that there’s nothing very remarkable about falling flat. It’s ok to get up and keep going where you were going.

You can also think of it when coaching yourself, or rather, when living your life and making your own progress.

The next time you hit a challenge, you can think of that trundling toddler, or think of Djukich’s message above, and realize you can fall flat and still get up and keep going. The “challenge” doesn’t have to stop you, and in fact, you can use it to build strength along the path.

But enough Djukich Soup for the Soul.

Let me just add one last thing:

The reason why I’m now reading Straight-Line Leadership is because it’s long been on my reading list.

The reason it’s long been on my reading list is because I’ve repeatedly heard Travis Sago recommend it.

Over the past week, I’ve been promoting Travis’s Royalty Ronin membership for its most promotable aspects — like money-making, partnerhsip-building, and new marketing and sales ideas.

But the fact is, some of the most impactful books I’ve read over the past year, which have nothing to do with sales or marketing, came via Travis’s recommendations inside Ronin.

If you’re a reader, and if like me, you like to go to the original source, you might like Travis and his teachings, and more importantly, you might be motivated to actually put them to practice, without zigging and zagging all the time.

A week’s free trial to Royalty Ronin, so you can make up your own mind, is here:

​https://bejakovic.com/ronin​

P.S. If you’ve already signed up for a trial of Royalty Ronin via my link above, forward me Travis’s welcome email — the one with “Vroom” in the subject line.

I have a small but growing bundle of bonuses, including my Heart of Hearts and my Inspiration & Engagement trainings, which are waiting for you as a way of saying thanks for taking me up on my recommendation.