The 11th Commandment
On the most recent episode of the podcast Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner interviewed Ari Emanuel. The media kingpin is brother of famed Rahm Emanuel. What I liked were several nuggets. He quoted a personal “eleventh commandment”: Thou shall not be indifferent.
Ari clearly has a personality in the sense that he’s opinionated, spurts many ideas, and seems to have endless energy. But the adage of not being indifferent is a fantastic thing we should carry, even if it means being contrary and uncomfortable. The most poignant part of the rare interview (which you can listen to here) is this line (my bolds)…
DUBNER: So if you were going to give life advice —
EMANUEL: Some of them would be don’t be indifferent. The other one is be curious. The other one is be comfortable in the uncomfortable. Another one would be show up — meaning half of my success, like that phone call I took beforehand is — do I want to take that meeting? F*** no. But I want to get to this. I’m going to take that meeting.
- Don’t be indifferent
- Be comfortable in the uncomfortable
- Show up
We should teach that in schools.
