The Recipe For Growth

“Nothing can become truly resilient when everything goes right.” - Toby Lutke

Stress: Good or Bad?

Without stress, natural or manufactured, stagnation sets in.

But there's a misconception with stagnation when it comes to personal growth. It's not that you find a suitable level of self development and get to press pause and hang out there for the rest of your life.

It's much worse…

If you're not pushing forward towards some higher calling, you're most likely moving backwards.

It's too easy for us to fall into the previous versions of ourselves when we're not being pushed out of our comfort zones.

There’s a saying about the cycles of human civilization that seems to support this:

Hard times create tough people.

Tough people create easy times.

Easy times create soft people.

Soft people creates hard times.

The Bright Side Of Dark Times

It seems pretty straightforward on the surface, but if we look into some of the most important innovations in our modern history, we can see how this cycle actually plays out.

Let’s begin with the 1930’s. This is often recited as one of the hardest times in U.S. History.

The stock market was down 89% and the unemployment rate was at 25%. Those that were lucky enough to keep their jobs saw an almost 43% wage decrease.

Dark times…

But there’s also a bright side to this period that no one ever talks about. And that’s the rate of innovation that exploded when constraints were placed on the normal way of life.

In the period between 1929 and 1941, the total productivity of the U.S. rose by 40%.

The population become insanely more productive because they were forced to innovate. And there are 4 major industries that fueled this.

Most of them are so common that we don’t even think about the effort that went into creating them.

The first one is the transportation industry. For one, the number of automobiles soared from 1 million in 1912 to 29 million by 1929.

But when the number of cars overwhelmed the capacity of the roads, the current administration increased spending on road construction from 2% of GDP in 1920 to over 6% by 1933.

The new development connected the country in ways that were simply not possible several years prior by relying on the legacy railroad systems.

The next major force of innovation came from a massive improvement in electricity for the more rural areas of the country. The number of rural households with electricity went from 10% in 1935 to 50% within 10 years!

This led to the introduction to washing machines, modern refrigeration, cooking methods, etc. Countless hours of what would be household chores were ultimately freed up allowing more opportunities for women to join the workforce.

The third major innovation came from a shift in consumer spending. As people tried to stretch the dollar farther, the old way of buying groceries - going from the butcher to the produce store to the bakery - didn’t make as much sense.

The first supermarket opened in 1930 giving the everyday person a chance to choose their own food off the shelves and purchase all their goods under one roof at a more modest price.

The final major innovation resulted from bottlenecks in our production systems. Factories had limited resources, so there was an immense pressure to improve efficiency and decrease costs.

This was a heavy contributor to the 40% increase in productivity during the depression decade from 1930 to 1940.

The overarching message is that some of the most important innovations for modern humanity were sprouted out of what many people consider to be one of the worst periods in recent history.

But without the added stressors of The Great Depression, human innovation wouldn’t have been forced to ramp up it’s trajectory the way it did.

The most impactful changes rarely happen during prospering times when everything is going well. It usually takes a tragic or uncomfortable event to motivate change.

There’s a line from Nassim Taleb that I couldn’t agree with more:

“The excess energy released from overreaction to setbacks is what innovates.”

Reframing

You don’t need to enjoy it every time you hit a set back. But try to recognize that there’s always an upside that is forced out as a result of the pressure.

To express the point, here’s a quick lesson about trees:

Most of the time, tree saplings take root close to the parent tree they came from. Which means they grow slowly in the shade of the bigger trees surrounding them.

So for the first few years, the limited sunlight and slow growth forces the young saplings to develop thicker, denser trunks, while sacrificing their height.

Compare these to saplings that sprout in open space away from the shade of bigger trees. With unlimited sunlight to gorge from, they typically shoot up in height much quicker than the shady saplings.

But fast growth leads to softer wood, which is a breeding ground for fungus. And weak trunks combined with fungus and wind is a recipe for a short tree life.

The added pressure in the early years is a part of the recipe to a long and fruitful life as a tree.

The same could be said about people.

How many successful entrepreneurs do you know of that came to America from oppressive countries?

How many of your favorite pro athletes came from poor families?

On the flip side, how many times have you seen the child of a hugely successful person turn out to be a failure?

Even President Nixon made a note on this:

“The unhappiest people of the world are those in the international watering places like the South Coast of France, and Newport, and Palm Springs, and Palm Beach. Going to parties every night. Playing golf every afternoon. Drinking too much. Talking too much. Thinking too little. Retired. No purpose.

So while there are those that would totally disagree with this and say “Gee, if I could just be a millionaire! That would be the most wonderful thing.” If I could just not have to work every day, if I could just be out fishing or hunting or playing golf or traveling, that would be the most wonderful life in the world - they don’t know life. Because what makes life mean something is purpose. A goal. The battle, the struggle. Even if you don’t win.”

A stress free life sounds amazing until you realize the downside - which is to never grow beyond who you are today.

Have a purpose. Create a goal. And if you don’t have enough pressure to get you out of your comfort zone, then find a way to manufacture some.