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If you haven't watched the movie Moneyball, I strongly encourage you to make a plan and spend a couple of hours with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill for this adaptation of Michael Lewis's book by the same name.
You don't have to love baseball to get the BIG PICTURE perspective this story tells. In fact, I deeply dislike baseball and I have easily watched this movie a dozen times...generally when I've needed to be reminded of the POWER of mashing up the unconventional and even incomprehensible, in order to get to something new.
Something different.
Something better.
Without ruining a perfectly good storyline, all I will say is,
Baseball + Economics = World Series
It was an unlikely combination (on some levels) but the outcomes were undeniable.
What's probably more compelling is the amount of COURAGE (or desperation) it required of Billy Beane, to become a renegade General Manager and try something different.
There is only one thing I will add and it has become a mantra for me since 2012.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "you can't solve the problem with the same thinking that created the problem".
In other words, we have to get 'out of our minds' so to speak, to see things differently and to DO something different, or do something differently, if we have any hope of creating something other than the same old thing that already exists.
And, that takes COURAGE.
I talk more about the 'breakthrough' frequency that I believe COURAGE is, in Season 2, Episode 1 of the New Age Tour Guide podcast.
So, let's talk mashups.
They're pretty common in some spaces, and are just another way of describing the essence of collaboration, something I personally believe is going to be a hallmark of this 'new age'.
The easiest place to spot this in the arts.
Actors, directors, writers and the entire crew behind the scenes are masters of the mashup; combining their unique skills, qualities and characteristics to join venture on projects (films/movies) to create something together, that none of them could ever produce singularly on their own.
Musicians have been doing mashups together for decades, blending their own unique sounds together to bring a different flavour into the marketplace, often for one song, sometimes more.
Well-known authors like James Patterson have started stepping into mashups too! In the last five years writers have collaborated or co-authored on projects with individuals who are up and coming or who generally write in a whole different genre.
The key to a great mashup however, is knowing (and owning) your VALUE and then finding opportunities that allow you to bring more into the marketplace than you could otherwise bring on your own.
Sometimes, that 'something more' is a new product or service, sometimes it's an entire business and sometimes, as in the case of Moneyball, it's an idealogy.
The characters portrayed by Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) and Jonah Hill (Peter Brandt) came together, identified their own unique value (Beane, baseball | Brandt, economics) and they created a theory, just like scientists do.
They shaped their theory into a hypothesis and structured a set of milestones that would tell them whether their experiment(s) was working.
Finding our own unique Moneyball Mashup starts within. Before we can create a mashup with anyone 'out there', we first have to be crystal clear on what our own unique VALUE is, 'in here'. In ourselves, our business, our industry...with our customers, in our market, etc.
I spent close to ten years sharpening and refining my core VALUE to the market; probably longer than needed but I also have Gate 28 leading my Human Design chart, so it was inevitable that my process was going to be marked by periods of DEEP struggle and risk-taking and, I'm a Manifesting Generator, which means that I'm wired to take five step forward and two back.
Long story short, it took me time to unravel the mystery of me and find the pieces that would create the most PRACTICAL value and still feel PURPOSEFUL, meaningful and satisfying.
I believe strongly in the value of investing in understanding, sharpening and refining our VALUE.
In part, because once you see it, you can OWN it. You can say, "Yes! This <insert collection of skills/experiences and soul truths> is what ONLY I can bring to the market."
And in part, because it's only by OWNING it, that we can step into mashups with other people and lose ourselves, give away the farm or find ourselves in the wrong place, with the wrong people, getting angry, frustrated, disappointed and bitter.
For my part, I moved in the direction of PURPOSE almost to the exclusion of practicality. I had so much shit to sort out after 20 years in Marketing that I was hell-bent on doing work that felt meaningful to me...but without keeping a sense of balance toward pragmatic value, it cost me.
Today I feel like I've struck the right balance for myself (and that is the only benchmark I use...what it feels like for me).
I am leaning into the gifts of the Manifesting Generator like, being equipped with a natural ability to move in multiple directions at the same time or, spin multiple plates in the air. I'm also leaning into the core insights from my Soul Style Blueprint that acts like a guide and helps me choose (or decline) opportunities based on how well they align with the themes in my blueprint.
Here's the punchline on the Moneyball Mashup.
— Different makes the difference.
— It takes COURAGE to do something different, or do things differently.
— Own Your Value.
— Ms. Right Now | Business Administration
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