You can’t

PLUS: The power of surprise

May 06, 2025

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

  • You can’t

  • The power of surprise

  • Quality and quantity

  • Wake up

  • Jamie Dimon’s career wisdom

ON YOUR CAREER

You can’t

Our motivation might increase when someone communicates, “You can’t.” We can become more determined if a manager rejects us for a promotion or a client rejects our proposal. Art and history celebrate the hero’s journey of overcoming the doubt of others.

The more common doubt is, “I can’t.” Self-doubt is human. We need to address self-doubt otherwise we install a low ceiling for our careers.

Action is the best way to overcome self-doubt. Small actions work. It’s about leaning into the difficult thing. I agree with Van Gogh…

If you hear a voice within you saying you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

— Vincent Van Gogh
COMMUNICATION

The power of surprise

Source: MelGanesh/makeagif

A colleague and I were about to pitch to the CEO of a private bank. We waited in a large boardroom. When Paul entered the room, he playfully tossed a piece of candy to both of us. This surprised us. It communicated that he wanted to connect and that we didn’t need to be too formal. He proved to be an excellent client.

Corporate conversations don’t need to be bland. We can bring warmth and playfulness. We have the power to surprise by simply being human.

Surprise is key in all art.

— Oscar Niemeyer
PRODUCTIVITY

Quality and quantity

Two common enemies of productivity:

  1. Correcting errors because we are trying to complete too much work

  2. Late delivery because we seek to perfect work that is already excellent

Productivity optimizes quality and quantity. Are you delivering enough work at a good enough standard?

If you seek tranquility, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Do less, better.

— Marcus Aurelius
1 MINUTE TO HAPPINESS

Wake up

Every morning is a fresh start. No matter what happened yesterday, we have the opportunity to do things differently today.

We can lean into difficult things, surprise our colleagues, and focus on adding value.

The simple act of waking provides us another chance to experience the world and our loved ones.

Waking up is an invitation to enjoy life.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you've got.

— Dave Grohl
CAREER WISDOM

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon (1956 — ) was born in New York City. He graduated from Tufts with majors in psychology and economics and completed an MBA at Harvard. Dimon began his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He then held executive roles at American Express, Commercial Credit, Travelers, Citigroup, Bank One, and JPMorgan Chase.

Dimon became CEO and Chairman of JPMorgan in 2006. He steered the bank through the GFC and acquired failing competitors Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. JPMorgan has become the largest and most profitable U.S. bank. Some of Dimon’s wisdom:

I’m a little bit of an eternal optimist. People always say to me, ‘If you go do this and it fails, what are you going to do?’ I don’t care. I’m going to give it my best shot. That’s what I’m going to do. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. And I’ll try again.

If you want to be a winner, then compare yourself to the best and acknowledge that it will never happen without hard work.

You can’t do anything about the past, you can only operate in the present and plan for the future.