MML Magic - The Throughline
“If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be a servant. That’s a new definition of greatness…And given that definition anyone can be great. Because anyone can serve.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr., The Drum Major Instinct
::
“As always, you’re always your true self. What hit me the most was your thought process of how and why you added value to the community. Teaching by example—if you see an opportunity take it. Chances are, everyone (yourself included) will be better off. I also don’t think I’d ever heard the MML origin story directly from you before. I think I’ve mentioned it to you before, but the idea of the ‘Drum Major Instinct’ is super aligned with this… It’s your truth, it’s who you are, and what a blessing that you have a platform to share it with this world…” ~ MH, feedback on my Optimism Institute episode.
And as I think about how grateful I am that I was afforded the opportunity to speak on Bill Burke’s Podcast, I’m hoping to illuminate how we got here. Let’s go into the archive…
“Jack Moore: Jack is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Harpswell Capital Advisors. More importantly, he was the first person in the working world to tell me that I was smart. […] I do remember him asking, ‘What’s next for you?’ I was stupefied; I didn’t understand what he was asking. He told me that I was a smart, hungry kid that went to Amherst College; unbeknownst to me, he didn’t think sales trading was my final destination. I hadn’t even considered a different location. But Jack, a client, telling me that I was smart made me feel great. I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear that. […] He continues to be a mentor, going above and beyond his duties, making intros to capital allocators which is accretive to my career. All because I happened to pick up the phone that one day…you never know.” ~Sean Legister, Sankofa (3.10.21)
And it was Jack who made the link to Bill after I originally wrote Sankofa.
“Hi Sean – I sent your blog to several folks, as I mentioned. Bill Burke was one and he responded with some nice praise for you. After a brief e-conversation…he said he’d love to meet, if you thought it would be of interest. He is a great guy…You never know where things like this can lead - Put some thought into it!
Best,
Jack.”
Thursday, March 25th, 2021, 7:56 AM
“Sean, meet Bill and Bill, meet Sean. I know you both know of each other and I can say I think you will have a lot to talk about! You have a lot in common – You both share an extraordinary vision, an exceptional intellect and steadfast principles. It’s an uncommon combination – I was super eager to make the introduction!! Keep me posted. Best,
Jack.”
Tuesday, March 30th, 2021, 3:38 PM
And then…
Wednesday, September 20th, 2023: Private Equity Professional Sean Legister Describes How His Optimistic outlook, Thirst for Knowledge, and Appetite for Risk Have Led to Remarkable Opportunities and Achievement.
::
I never knew this podcast was even a possibility when I first met Jack. It was about getting to know him, not what he could do for me…As I’ve already written about and continue to profess, it’s always been about the people, the journey. It’s been great getting to know Bill and all of his thoughtful work. In Steve Jobs’ words, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” In my life, the dots have been connected through people. A quote from Søren Kierkegaard also speaks to this theme: “It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards. A proposition which, the more it is subjected to careful thought, the more it ends up concluding precisely that life at any given moment cannot really ever be fully understood; exactly because there is no single moment where time stops completely in order for me to take position [to do this]: going backwards.” [in Danish, Livet skal forstaas baglaens, men leves forlaens.] Looking back, drawing the throughline to Jack, I can now see how he impacted my journey. As a mentor told me, “Unique relationships get unique things done.” But like the MML, it’s about stopping, reflecting, and showing gratitude.
As I grappled with wanting to send the podcast episode to folk but still remaining humble, I thought back to Jason Reynolds’ message: “I tell people all the time one of the most beautiful paradoxes to me is writing. And the reason why is because in order to do it one has to live in an extraordinary place of humility, in the process of making something that perhaps might be shared with the world. On the flip side, the mere notion that someone wants to make something that might be shared with the world is rooted in ego.” Then on Monday, October 2nd, 2023 a good friend sent me an email, and similarly to my first exchange with Jack, it was something I needed to hear. It was just the right shot of positivity, gratitude, and reflection to help me slow down. I saw the email during a short window where I was waiting to speak with one of my executive coaches.
::
Hey Sean,
This morning when I read the MML, these two quotes stood out to me:
“Average athletes think practicing fundamentals is what beginners do. Great athletes know practicing fundamentals is what champions do.” ~@6am_Practice
“People work. Sacrifice. Then get rich. Then get time. Then fill their time with weird routines. Then forget how they got rich in the 1st place. Then tell others the weird routines made them rich…rather than what they did. Which is whatever it took. Not a 3hr morning routine.” ~Alex Hormozi
I thought about texting you that they resonated but got lost in my morning and it passed my mind. But then on my commute I was listening to Conan O’Brien’s Podcast, and his guest was Ed Sheeran talking about his new album. Conan prompted Ed to talk about how he built himself into a musician rather than being “discovered” and put through “the machine” of the music industry, and this is how Ed described how he approaches his music (there are a few questions mixed in here that I removed, but it’s one exchange):
“You know, I had played guitar at school, and I wrote songs at school, but when I moved to London, I quickly realized I wasn’t any good and…I was 17 and I was gigging with 24-year-olds that had good songs, they sung well, they played guitar, but I realized that I could out work them. I was like, ‘I’m not better than you, but I can do more shows’… and I would book 3 shows on a Thursday night and get on the Tube and go play 3 songs, 3 songs, 3 songs, and I was like, ‘If I play every night of the week, maybe 2 times a night, maybe 3 times a night, and I’m just doing that every day, eventually I’ll get really good.’
And that is what happened after a while, the practice does make perfect…And my dad always said, ‘Choose someone that you admire and work harder than them.’ So my hero when I was a kid was James Blunt, and when I signed to Atlantic Records, he was on Atlantic Records, and I said, ‘In his peak year, get me his diary, and we’ll do double everything that he did.’ And that’s exactly what we did. We just chose all the things and then doubled it.
I don’t have hobbies, my hobby is music. I do two gigs a weekend and I do 5 days in the studio every week. I do 10am – 5pm every day. And that means I can do morning routine with the kids, take them to nursery, go to the studio, get them back from nursery, put them to bed, it’s a nice routine to be in.
You have to write a lot of s*** ones to get the good ones…I’m in every day in the studio, and if I get one song a month that’s good, I’m so happy. Because that’s an album in a year, that’s 12 songs in a year. So like today, we made 3 songs and like maybe one of them’s good, but by the end of the week we’ll have maybe one that’s good. If I get one this month, I’m happy.”
I got more out of these comments from Ed Sheeran because of the MML quotes in the back of my mind. The quotes reoriented me this morning to be focused on the fundamentals and to be patient, to remember that success doesn’t come overnight and that behind the flashy scenes of success are years of grinding and effort. Without that predisposition, I don’t think the podcast clip would have resonated as much as it did, and without the podcast clip, I may not have thought back to the MML quotes as specifically as I did later in the morning.
Ultimately, this is just a good example of what you’ve always said about the double entendre of “Monday morning lift” – get your body and your mind right. The MML did its job for me this morning, and I appreciate it.
Nick
::
The MML in the wild – the dialogue it sparks. The MML is about the dialogue with yourself, or if you’re (we’re) lucky, with someone else…It’s about how you build your life from the inside out. Said another way, connection.
My reflection on origins didn’t end there…On Tuesday, October 3rd, I was in the gym listening to Find Your X, Nurture Your N on Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy. It was a captivating episode, especially as it relates to compounding relationships and Growth Without Goals, a notion O’Shaughnessy has written about in the past. Per usual, my curiosity led me to track down a reference from the episode; The Road to Self-Renewal, by John Gardner. I’ve read it multiple times since October 3rd and realized that it is the origin of several quotes I’ve already used in the MML – check the receipts (below)! At the end of reading the piece I simply annotated: “Wow.”
“The things you learn in maturity aren’t simple things such as acquiring information and skills. You learn not to engage in self-destructive behavior. You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety. You discover how to manage your tensions, if you have any, which you do. You learn that self-pity and resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent, but pays off on character.” ~John W. Gardner [Friday, April 20th, 2018]
“There are some things you can’t learn from others. You have to pass through the fire.” ~Norman Douglas [Friday, November 8th, 2013]
“Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.” ~John W. Gardner [Friday, May 25th, 2018]
The MML continues to be a part of my growth and development because it enables me to continue serving. And on my path to greatness, I keep Martin (my friend), and Martin (Luther King Jr’s) words in my head as “anyone can be great. Because anyone can serve.” I believe the MML is deft at promoting introspection, by taking the time to stop, reflect, and engage in this ever-busy world. In a way, engagement is the first step of service; being of service to the world by first engaging. As Gardner quoted S.N. Behrman in The Road to Self-Renewal, “At the end of every [MML] you meet yourself.”
::
Feedback from the podcast episode:
“Sledge that was a great listen… [Bill Burke] is actually a great interviewer and your answers were detailed and insightful.” ~TJA
“Listening to this saying out loud YES. Appreciate you my friend – thanks for sharing this and for the impact you have through the mission you live in your life.” ~TM
“Beautiful to hear your story and how you navigated unforeseen waters! Think it honors who you are, where you came from, and how you use those two things to shape the world around you clearly. Glad you’re continuing to do the hard work, and big time shout out to your mom for holding it down since Day 1.” ~SPL
“I loved it. I thought it painted a great picture of who you are and who you’ve become, and how…What’s always stuck out to me is you’ve always been you. You’ve stuck to your character over all the years, changes, challenges, etc. Not only says a lot about you and who you surround yourself with but says a lot about your Mom.” ~KT