A Letter from Chris Suarez
HOW TO HIT A HOME RUN
Over the past few months I’ve taken the opportunity to spend some time getting better acquainted with some historical figures that contributed to our world in meaningful but different ways. Each of them had a considerable impact on the world. Unfortunately each of them never experienced that impact as the world took note, recognized, acknowledged, or felt it only after their death.
Galileo Galilei was criticized and teased his entire life about his theories on the solar system and universe after his invention of the telescope. Yet, years after his death, he is now referred to as the Father of Modern Physics.
Henry David Thoreau, one of my favorite writers, died with little money to his name which he earned while trying to make ends meet working in a pencil factory. Yet today, he is regarded as not just a revolutionary thinking in “forest therapy” and the benefits of being out in the woods, but many world leaders acknowledge he was one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever seen. Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi are just two that count his writings as impactful on their lives.
Gregor Mendel was first to discover the principles of heredity and wrote countless papers on traits both dominant and recessive that get passed down by generation. His work was misunderstood and dismissed until after his death when other scientists began to refer to his earlier work - crediting him for delivering a major impact on the principles of biology and the birth of modern genetics.
And having recently attended the traveling Van Gogh exhibit, imagine my surprise to learn Vincent had been able to sell just one painting at the time of his death. Yet he has impacted artists and collectors around the world with one of his early watercolors, “Meules de blé” completed in 1888, selling just last month for $35.8M.
Impact. All of them delivered impact across industry, across culture, across geographic boundaries. You could say they all changed the world just a little bit. And they all wanted to. They all desired to live a life of impact, to be fulfilled, to be part of change or a movement, to disrupt the past or challenge conventional thinking.
That is probably no different than each of you. You all desire to do something that matters. You all desire to do something that contributes to those and the world around you. You all desire to have an impact on the future.
Well, impact can be elusive. Impact can be futuristic. Impact is usually posthumous. You see, neither Galileo nor Thoreau felt their impact. Neither Mendel nor Van Gogh experienced their impact.
Too often we are swinging for the fences, when all we need to do is hit a line drive to left field or lay down a bunt. In our effort to be game-changing, legacy-building, and memorable, we forget the opportunity to impact the human being next to us.
Well known Pacific Northwest writer Chuck Palahnuik once wrote, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” I disagree. I believe the goal should be to have an impact on someone today - and every day - not in the forever future. If we do, I’m certain that we will create something that lives forever, through those who really matter to us.
We have the power to impact our spouse, our child, our parent, our neighbor, our employee, our co-worker, our partner, a stranger. Impact need not be dramatic or overreaching. We have the ability to impact people every single day in very simple ways. A call, a note, a coffee, a lunch, just listening, our time. And as we approach our day with the goal of impacting others now, the win will be that we are allowed to physically and personally experience that impact, feel that impact, and see the results of that impact in our current lifetime, in lieu of that showing up only after death. It allows us to know that we mattered today and every day.
As hard charging entrepreneurs, too often we are so focused on innovation, change-agent thinking, futurism, and the scale and reach of what we do and how we will be remembered, that we overlook the ability and sheer opportunity of impacting the simple human right next to us. The world would be comprised of more fulfilled individuals if we looked for simple ways to impact those around us, and immediately experience what they feel by that impact, rather than always looking for the home run. Because that bunt or that single - that really is the home run.
Chris