Key Competency #11: A Sense of Urgency

Ten years ago...

Barack Obama was not a president yet.

MySpace was the most popular social platform.

Smartphones were just on the horizon, and tablets and smartwatches didn't exist.

CDs were still the primary way you listened to music.

Netflix's core business was shipping DVDs with VOD only in its very early infancy.

That was all only ten years ago.

On a personal level, I was still in high school. Now, I have a Master's degree, a full time job, a house, a wife, and a daughter.

It's crazy to think how fast time can go. In the blink of an eye, the world can change around us in an instant. It might seem like a slow burn over time, but when we stop to think what has changed just over the course of a few years, it's mind blowing how fast time truly moves.

It doesn't surprise me, then, that today's leaders are always on the move. They have this sense of urgency that propels them to put out as much great, quality work as they possibly can. I like to use Elon Musk as an example because of his profound contributions across not just one industry but across three: automotive, aeronautics, and energy. Does this guy ever sleep?

The reality is that we all have a date, and we don't know what that date is. Of course, I'm speaking about our death date. For many of us, that is a still good ways out, but the reality is that our date could very easily be tomorrow. We are all one bad car wreck away from becoming road pizza, as Mr. Wonderful would call it.

To that end, the Elon Musks of the world are doing as much as they can today knowing that tomorrow is not a promise. If you want to keep up with these guys, then, well... you're going to have to keep up with these guys. I don't know any other way to say it. A sense of urgency is a real part of most leaders' lives in our modern western society.

I don't know about you, but I feel that sense of urgency every day. I'm 27 years old, and as much as has changed in my life in the past decade, I feel like I've wasted so much of my 20s that I'm now making up for it before I turn 30. And it freaks me out to see just how fast the last two years have gone. I like to joke with my wife that I'm going to blink and our baby girl is going to be getting married. (And then I start melodramatically singing that 90s Christian wedding song "Butterfly Kisses.")

But the reality is that it's not a joke: that's how I actually feel.

Anyway, do you agree with the sentiments shared here? Should we take more time to stop and smell the roses? I'm interested to hear what you all think.

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