"Never let a win get to your head, or a loss to go to your heart." - Futurist Jim Carroll
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
When you decide to pivot your career or your business, you are making an implicit agreement with your emotions that you will ride an emotional roller coaster.
That being the case, I've learned, often the hard way, that it's critical not to become overconfident with every win. But it seems even more important that we shouldn't internalize every loss.
In a 36-year voyage, I've learned this truth through experience: the world will try to convince you that you are a genius when you win and a failure when you lose. You need to know that both are lies and are just a part of the ongoing process of building your future. To survive, you must develop a profound sense of emotional detachment from both. You cannot afford to become overconfident with every victory, nor can you allow yourself to internalize every defeat.
Why is that? If you internalize the win, you become arrogant and stop "putting in the work" (Lesson #16). You start believing your own press releases. If you internalize the loss, you become paralyzed by fear and stop "wasting time on frivolous things" (Lesson #15).
Both extremes are wrong. A "win" is just a signal to you that your current strategy worked for this specific moment. It is not a guarantee of future success, because it's not always the case that what worked in the past is what will work in the future. A loss? Often it's just a signal that your strategy was a bit off, your delivery a little out of alignment, or your actions a bit stifled. It is not a reflection of your worth.
The highs and lows can be exhilarating or crushing. Throughout my career, I’ve had standing ovations in front of thousands, and I've had audiences that have stared at me with misunderstanding. The secret to longevity is treating both with the same degree of curiosity. When you win, ask: "What went right?" When you lose, ask: "What was the lesson?"
When you stop letting the scoreboard of wins and losses define your identity, you gain the ultimate freedom: the freedom to pivot without stress. You aren't your last keynote, and you aren't your last failed experiment.
You are the architect of your future.
Keep your head level.
The future is too volatile for anything else.
Futurist Jim Carroll used to obsess over audience reviews until he realized he was focusing too much on the extremes of the bell curve and not enough on the middle.