Matrix is the Genesis movie of our times. One fascinating thread is how Trinity and Neo become true badasses. While in the real world their skills need to be learned and earned, their performance in the virtual Matrix can increase in seconds. An ‘operator’ only needs to plug a socket in their head, and load a skill. Trinity learns to fly a helicopter within seconds, so she can rescue Neo within the Matrix. Neo downloads all Kung Fu moves in a few hours to proof his skills against Morpheus within a fighting simulation. The real world requires hard work, failure, blood and sweat. The virtual Matrix suggest you can learn everything without effort in an instance. Except that it’s not real. It’s fake. There is prophecy and depth in this underlying message.

In our digital presence, we are surrounded by tempting promises of immediate success. Here is an online course of “Learn Python in 6 days”, there is a book of “Digital Marketing for Dummies”. Social Media has conditioned us to post a shallow comment written in seconds, and then stare on our screens, waiting for likes. Immediate gratification. Things seem easy. Except they are not. Expertise, skills, wisdom and character can not be achieved effortless. Laws of reality don’t bend to the virtual simulation. Matrix is fake.

Here are three examples from very different areas in live. They show how reality works.

There is no shortcut to forming a character

When confronted with a bad habit, we tend to fight it by issuing new year resolutions: “I will not lose my temper”; “I will do more Sports”; “I will read a book each month.” – and so the fairytale goes. It rarely works. Such wishes of being a better person are a band aids, ignoring the deep structure of our character that drives us into behavior we don’t appreciate. We cannot form a humble, honored character by stating wishes. It needs dedication and hard work. Stephen Covey put it beautifully:

As we look back and survey the terrain to determine where we’ve been and where we are in relationship to where we’re going, we clearly see that we could not have gotten where we are without coming the way we came. There aren’t any other roads; there aren’t any shortcuts. There’s no way to parachute into this terrain. The landscape ahead is covered with the fragments of broken relationships of people who have tried. They’ve tried to jump into effective relationships without the maturity, the strength of character, to maintain them. But you just can’t do it; you simply have to travel the road.

Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

There is no shortcut to building a strategy

The temptation of simple, easy, quick, painless fixes seems to have invaded also the corporate world. Even when it comes to something as crucial as a corporate strategy, companies seem to get hooked on fluffy, shine words without meaning. But. there is no quick way to success. Richard P. Rumelt harshly criticizes the common, ‘template style’ approach of building strategy. He identifies the unwillingness to do the hard work as one of the root causes of bad strategy. Rumelt writes:

Bad strategy flourishes because it floats above analysis, logic and choice, held aloft by hot hope that one can avoid dealing with these tricky fundamentals and the difficulties of mastering them. . . . This path offers a one-size-fits-all substitute for the hard work of analysis and coordinated action.

Richard P. Rumpelt: Good strategy / Bad Strategy. The difference, and why it matters.

There is no shortcut to shipping good work

The gap between wishful thinking and real success becomes obvious when turning to professional work. Reading “Digital Marketing for Dummies” does not make you a Marketing pro. It is of course a tremendously important step to educate one self, but mastery has many components – and reading a book might be (only) one of them. The same is true for creative work. Often you have to do a lot of mediocre stuff to arrive at a masterpiece. The approach to ship only masterpieces without going through the disappointing training of average work simply does not work in real life. Even on the path to the Mona Lisa lie sketches that did not make it. As an illustrate of hard work without drama, here’s a quote of Seth Godin on the Tim Ferris show:

On the other hand, if you ship creative work, ship means it doesn’t ship, it doesn’t count. Work means you do it even when you don’t feel like it. Get out of your own way, don’t ask for a guarantee. . . . Simply merely ship the work without drama and without dialogue.

Seth Godin on the Tim Ferris Show: “The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Seth Godin on The Game of Life, The Value of Hacks, and Overcoming Anxiety (#476)

Now what?

As a company, having a professional in the same position for 5 years does not necessarily mean the person is stuck or not developing. It can also mean he or she has accumulated a deep, unique level of understanding that only follows out of persistent, long time work. There is value in tapping into this resource. As a professional, shy away from the siren sound of quick fixes. You will not become a superstar in a new area over night. Rather, do the hard work: Choose a topic to perform (-> choice!), set a goal, and then spend blood and tears to reach it. That’s not the nice, easy plug in from Matrix. But Matrix is fake. The world is real, the principle is clear: Take the long road. Become a badass.

Resources

• Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
• Richard P. Rumpelt: Good strategy / Bad Strategy. The difference, and why it matters.
• Seth Godin on the Tim Ferris Show: “The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Seth Godin on The Game of Life, The Value of Hacks, and Overcoming Anxiety (#476)
• The Matrix. Wikipedia.