618: Chase Jarvis - Never Play It Safe, Work Your Creativity Muscle, Trust Your Intuition, Tell Great Jokes, & Become a Transformational Leader

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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My guest for episode #618 is Chase Jarvis. Chase is a photographer, director, artist, and entrepreneur. He was the CEO of an online education platform called Creative Live from 2014 to 2022. He’s earned countless awards for his photography and creative work including a Pulitzer Prize for a New York Times story he contributed to called “Snow Fall.” He’s also the author of multiple books including Creative Calling and Never Play It Safe.

Notes:

• Opening Joke: "What has 52 teeth and holds back a monster?"
• We are all wildly creative. It is trained out of us as we grow older. Creativity is foundational to all human beings. It’s on us to tap into our creativity and get it out of us to help solve problems, to create optionality, and to be innovative. Regardless of your job, becoming more creative will make you better at it.
• Play infinite games with transformational people. It seems like when we give to others, genuinely try to help them, and have a service orientation, good things happen to all. There are transactional people and transformational leaders. Let’s strive to be transformative and play the long game with high-character people.
  • Transactional leaders are infuriating. Transformational leaders are inspiring.
• “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch, but on its own wings.” Believe in yourself and your ability to bounce back if the thing doesn’t go your way. Set up a series of experiments. Not all of them will work. You’ll be better for having tried, and tried again, and then again. We learn from both our successes and our failures.
• Initially, Chase planned to attend medical school after graduating from undergrad. A few weeks before his graduation, his grandfather died and left all his photography equipment to his grandson.
• “Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” - Helen Keller
• "Safety is an illusion. It does not exist in nature, so why then do we seek it?
• "Playing it safe is about fear. And fear is only optimized for survival--not creativity, happiness, joy, connection, harmony, fulfillment, or any of the gifts you have to give or receive in this life."
• Intuition is everything. What if we started paying attention to that?
• "I don't know why they call us founders. I didn't find anything. I built that shit. We are builders."
• There are 7 basic levers for life:
  • Attention
  • Time – NYU Professor James Carse. Finite and infinite games. Treat life like an infinite game. What’s the difference between systems and schedules? (why are systems better?)
  • Intuition – The benefits of compounding trust. Chase's wife Kate. First met on a beach just after high school. Sparks were present, but no fire. “She had a special quality I couldn’t quite place.” Went to college 1,500 miles apart. All along it was your intuition that kept you on notice. How do you know when it’s your intuition speaking? Why is playing it safe the riskiest thing we can do
  • Constraints - What can we learn about constraints from Stefan Sagmeister?
  • Play - What can we learn about play from Novak Djokovic?
  • Failure - Melissa Arnot Reid – Replaces the word “fail” with the word “live” – Instead of saying “I’m afraid to fail. She says I’m afraid to live.”
  • Practice - Purposeful practice. Anders Ericsson
• Keynote speaking - Don't be a robot. Have fun. Let it rip. Results are better in a better state of mind.
• Do tiny experiments when the stakes are low.