In the second half of 2019, fears that the U.S. economy was steaming towards an imminent recession began to swell. On any given day, media headlines were absorbed by the repo market seizing, the yield curve inverting, the trade war raging, the national debt rocketing, and, most certainly, the president tweeting. It’s all deafening and mad, but what’s most troubling of all is the lack of discourse around what will be done when the tides eventually turn.

No matter what you choose to pursue in life, there will always be competition, there will always be conflict, and there will always be bad characters working around the clock against you. The sooner you come to terms with that fact, the sooner you can focus on moving forward and achieving your team’s goals.

From start to finish, your team’s or company’s success is in your hands and it starts with taking ownership of yourself. To win in business, life, or really anything - starts from within.

Time is the only thing on this planet given to every living being - in the truest sense of the word - equally. There are 86,400 seconds in a day. You and I get the same amount, simultaneously, along with every other member of our humble, floating rock each moment we are in existence. So what happens from there?

I recently had the honor of being invited back to the Krannert School of Management by the School of Management Employers Forum (SMEF) to join an alumni panel focused on advising fellow Boilermakers eager to enter the workforce. On this seven person panel, I was surrounded by an incredible wealth of knowledge that ranged from recent graduates leading successful careers in banking to experienced professionals with decades worth of consulting experience.

Some of the worst advice I commonly hear people sharing whenever they’re trying to assist other startups, lead their employees, or encourage their friends is: “fake it till you make it.” If you are one of these people, all I can say is stop. Please stop. By definition, faking anything until you make it is terrible advice no matter how you attempt to rationalize it.

It’s an excuse that I hear all too often: “I’m busy,” “things have been so busy,” “it’s just busy, busy, busy.” I hear it so frequently these days that I cringe at every utterance of the word. Even looking at the word, let alone hearing or saying it, seems to incite a visceral reaction with a bitter aftertaste left in its wake. It is that disgustingly bad. Why? The word has such a profound emptiness, yet such a glistening and gilded nature to it. In many cases, it’s almost like it’s being used a status symbol to inflate one’s own ego or to somehow validate their importance in the eyes of others.

The human brain loves patterns - it craves them. Through millennia of having to survive in an unpredictable wild where the slightest error in assumed safety could mean the difference between life and death, our brains have been trained to extrapolate from extremely limited amounts of information. Our brains are so keen on establishing patterns from the world around us it will form them where, in actuality, none exist.

In the billions of years that our pale blue dot has whirled through the cosmos, there has never been a more bustling and connected time to be alive. We can instantly call, text, or email anyone on the planet. We can stream endless hours of any of our favorite movies and television shows from wherever we’re standing. We can check the current weather in Positano, tune into the local news out of Reykjavik, and explore the scenic harbour of Wiencke Island.