Environment determines the limitations of your actions

June 23, 2015 1:37 PM

I was listening to a conversation between two comedy veterans who came up in the late eighties.

Both agreed that having a car was more important than having an act.

Back in those days, they laughed, if a young comic was reliable and arrived early and acted responsibly, he could get booked every weekend. That was the nature of the industry during the comedy boom. Clubs were just happy to have somebody on stage. And the smart comedians were using that situation to their advantage.

Proving, that mastering your craft isn’t always as important as mastering your context. Gross’s research on power actually has a perfect definition of the that word. She writes that context is the human environment that determines the limitations of your actions and the scope of the results your actions can produce. And once you lock into it, she says, context provides you with a source of power you did not have before.

The question, then, is what industrial, economic, geographic or local contexts could you plug into to move your work forward? How could you position yourself to take advantage of existing frameworks?

I have freelancer and entrepreneur friends who spend a few days a week operating out of local coworking spaces. Not just because their personal energy thrives in the white noise of that environment, but also because those kind of spaces physically give them access to valuable resources that can advance their work, both human and digital. That’s context.

I’m reminded of something my favorite songwriter use to say. If you want to rob a bank, you don’t need a getaway driver and a shotgun and a presidential mask. Just get a seat on the board of directors, and you won’t even have to ask.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What context might you use to your advantage?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “18 Lessons from 18 People Smarter Than Me,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com