Finding People to Copy, Part 2: Your Hidden Advisory Board
This is Part 2 of a two-part series: Find Part 1 here.
In Part I, we talked about finding people who are currently living the life you’d like to eventually live to make sure it’s actually something you want. We need to know if we're on the wrong bus. That post focused on what you want to do with your life.
This week, we’ll talk about the other side of finding people to copy. This one’s focused on how to make sure you're working in a way that'll get you to an extraordinary place. One of my favorite methods for this is the Hidden Advisory Board.
I was named captain of my basketball team my senior year of college, and I remember asking my coach how to be good at it. He said I didn't have enough experience to be good naturally, so I should pick a great leader and emulate them. I should constantly ask myself what I thought they'd do in any situation.
Being that it was 2006 and I'm a huge Yankee fan, I picked was Derek Jeter.
“Ok, great,” he said. “We’ve got two lifting times every day. Half the team lifts at 6am, the other half lifts at 7am. Every day we switch groups, so half the team gets to sleep in every other day. What do you think Derek Jeter would do in this situation?”
I thought about it for a bit and answered, “He’d probably show up every day at 6am and stay for both lifts to show commitment and set a precedent for the younger players.”
My coach nodded.
So, I started showing up at 6am every day. Within a week, the whole team caught on and started showing up every day at 6am, too. We got rid of the 7am slot altogether. It became a point of pride for the team.
This kicked off a practice I call my “Hidden Advisory Board.” These are people who have no idea they’re my advisors, but they help me make decisions. Asking what X person would do in Y situation is unexpectedly useful.
Some of these Hidden Advisors have eventually become actual advisors, which is great (this happened loosely with Seth), but it isn't necessary. There's a ton of value either way.
This is easy to start. Come up with a couple people who inspire you and act / think the way you’d like to act / think. Then, pull up your calendar.
How would those people approach the week?
What problems would they be focused on?
What would they do to separate themselves?
The extraordinary people never do the ordinary things, and I’ve found it’s easier to come up with the extraordinary stuff you should be doing if you remove yourself from the situation. The Hidden Advisory Board helps.