Open Your Mind. 

I went surfing last week and had a brilliant time. This time I spontaneously decided to go after seeing the great forecast. I invited two friends on the off chance they were free to leave the city in the next 20 mins and it turned out one was. Yay! She was also having a challenging time at work which cleared via a chat on our roadtrip and massive smiles in the waves. Sometimes, our challenges need space. The amazing thing about learning to surf is that there are heaps of unexpected benefits. Getting beyond beginner-beginner stage (I’m now a beginner), means you can paddle ‘out the back’, beyond the breaking waves. One time out the back I watched the triangular peak of a wave effortlessly move passed me. I was mesmerised. It hit me:

“it’s SO BEAUTIFUL out here!”

…the waves, my feet happily dangling from my board, the wide open water, the big sky, the birds above, being in the saltwater,…

“It’s enough to just be here” I thought.

There’s the fascinating chats I have with friends and with new people I meet out the back too. I’ve met lovely people and heard their stories of travelling through South America and I’ve met travellers who are stoked to be here in Australia – it’s so uplifting. Sometimes it’s a conversation that takes place over a few waves (some caught) and sometimes it’s a short grin and ‘hello’.

Pretty great.

I’ve learnt surfers of all ability levels are hugely generous and offer great tips. I headed to my car one time and met a surf school teacher of 10 years who was rapt to see me learning and who taught me to catch waves by paddling fast “like there’s a shark behind you”. I paddle faster and catch more waves now!

I want/need to be fit for surfing which has given me great reason for a morning exercise practice. …and I’ve a charming new friendship with a beginner surfer who worked at my favourite coffee place.

Surfing isn’t just about mastering my body on a board in the ocean. Amazing. I’ve a passion for learning which sees me trying many new things. (I wrote a few years back about emptying my bucket-list.) Now I hear so many futurists and commentators advocate the need to constantly learn – sounds good to me. What are you learning now? What’s surprising you?

Partner with the Robots.

The rubber is hitting the road in discussions about robots and machines taking over jobs and it’s easy to feel a sense of separation or even fear. Next time you’re reading about or wondering what life will be like in the future with robots, think of partnering with computers/robots/machines that learn for the betterment of your life. As life is getting more complex, our new tech partners will aid our understanding, enhance our memory, reduce risk and help us progress. We’ll keep discovering things robots and machines are better at than us. Being open to how we best integrate will help.

LinkedIn Achievements.

This week I added specific achievements, more projects and refined my commercial offer on LinkedIn and created a new CV. The master I worked with for my CV is wise Peter Pick of Nine Lives Consulting. The process was fast and fun and he has loads of great tips for writing a CV including: 4 pages or less. Front large with summary. Make the start an amazing 8 second read – it may be all people read. Always stick to: What impact did I have? What was the context? Why was I successful? Be clear on your commercial offer: What will an organisation gain by having you on board? Get your online presence, LinkedIn, LinkedIn summary and commercial offer / CV really clear. The world is listening to you online. Craft it well.

Favourite reads & listens:

• Radical Candor: Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Using Your Humanity by Kim Scott of Apple, Facebook and Twitter fame as a boss and CEO coach.
• Merging the human brain with AI – Elon’s new investment
• So wonderful to see VR being used to train medical residents on their first day of trauma-surgery and in critical-care training. Outstanding.

Great online presence:

• Chloe Bloem’s LinkedIn testimonials. (Encourage people you’ve worked with to give you a LinkedIn testimonial by sending them this link).
• The extended list here and here has new additions.

Have a wonderful week,

~ Sam

P.S. I asked a friend what they’d like to read in this email. He suggested “surfing and other things” and included this link to Chantelle’s painful experience to remind us life is short. Go get it!

P.P.S. If you want to start surfing here are (Melbourne-biased) tips:

• Get lessons – Go Ride a Wave at Torquay, Salty Surf School at Shoreham (great for kids too) and surf schools in Bali (warm water!) were all amazing.
• get a wetsuit – I started with a 3″2 from Rip Curl which has been perfect in Victoria for December to March (maybe for next month or two) and I’m about to purchase a 4″3 from Need Essentials or Rip Curl.
• get a board – I’ve started with a 8″6 foamy (I’m just shy of 5″9 tall) from Go Ride a Wave’s Queen’s Birthday sale – where they sell their old hired boards. They checked the longest board that’d fit inside my car. 8″6! I like their thinking: longer board = catch more waves = learn quicker.
• you may need roofracks and tie downs (these are working well for me when the board isn’t in my car).
• start to know what to look for on the forecasts (waves around 2m!). I use Swellnet and Surfstitch app. This post is amazing for learning about tide, wind and more.
• to have new friends come with you, check out the Sneaky Surf app. Good fun.
• shoot me a reply to this email if you’ve more questions for a beginner surfer 🙂