The Salmon Saga: From A to Å

Seven minutes on the greatest role models in our lives and how to make use of unidentified inspiration in family and friends

To all Readers,

Summer is here and I am officially back in business as I took a break from writing. Now, you might ask: “What sort of a captain leaves his ship and sailing-crew alone”?

My answer is that everyone needs to recharge their batteries and I am sure you are alright anyway since summer break has come to stay for a couple of more weeks.

For some of you this might be the perfect reminder to finally unsubscribe from this fucking newsletter, “here we go again, Marco. What is your hack this week”? While for others, this might actually be a good read. In any case, I hope you are still willing to sail this ship with me.

But wait, I have good news!

It took me some time to realise that the Viking Hacks were not interesting anymore. Neither for you to read, nor for me to write. I believe there are many resources out there that can show you how to become more productive and many of them are better than me at convening this. That is why I have decided to stop writing Viking Hacks.

If you are desperate for your weekly doze of productivity, call me. Instead, I have decided to focus specifically on personal stories and reflections. I need to put more emphasis on the elements that actually makes this newsletter unique, which is my own personal journey and not productivity tips that you can find on Google. I deeply care about the value that I share and I believe I can inspire more people by sharing personal stories.

With that, I would like to introduce the next letter, which is dedicated to my grandpa.

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The inspiration behind today is my grandfather on my mums side. His name was Aldo. Unfortunately, he passed away a couple of years ago. I am still left with many good memories of him and he was a person I admired as a young boy.

However, it took time to understand him because he was a man of few words. Also, my Italian was still not fully developed and so we had occasional language difficulties, which made it hard for both of us. However, I was always fascinated by him and his appearance. A respected, honourable and serious gentlemen.

I became aware of his death when I was strolling through downtown Budapest. My mum called me and I remember feeling a sense of regret on the inside. A regret for never having taken the opportunity to understand and get to know him better. I guess its true what they say: we usually regret the things we never did. I never understood the true importance of his role in my life, until I got older.

After his death I reflected on why I found him so fascinating. As a person he was very different from me and I didn’t know much about his story until I sat down and started asking by grandma. This intensified my urge of wanting to be more like him.

I started to understand his incredible ability to pay attention and enjoy the small things in life; a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Such a simple, but yet powerful message. This is something I really started practising afterwards and I noticed a more grateful approach towards life. My quality of life went up, my relationships improved and it was all inspired by a man that was once standing so close to me.

I guess its true what they say: you dont truly realise what you have until it is gone. At least this was true for my grandfather.

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I think having someone to look up to has been essential for my personal development. That is also what I want to talk about today; the importance of finding someone you can be inspired by. Someone you admire!

I assume that many would think: “Well, that’s easy! I will pick someone who is incredibly good at something”, i.e. Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey. However, aiming to be more like these people can often mislead us.

Don’t misunderstand. I certainly believe its healthy to have role models that are incredibly good at what they do. These are people we can use as inspiration of our own journey: “If she made it, then I can make it as well”. Role models at this level define what the limits are. They show the rest of us what is possible because they are the very best. They show us how far we can go.

However, during our journey it can be difficult to relate to them. Looking up to these role models and trying to reach their level is not within immediate. I believe a more realistic approach is finding someone more relatable.

Again, dont misunderstand. I think we should all still try to become the best we can! We should all try to identify what out true potential is, but along the way we need some additional inspiration that we can actually relate to.

I believe we need to find a better way to handle reality in order to one day reach our potential. In order to stay motivated and inspired, I believe we have every reason to look for inspiration in the people around us. Thats right! Family, friends and colleagues. Even sometimes people that we meet randomly.  

There is a lot of inspiration out there. It’s just a matter of whether we want to see it or not. I am myself guilty of being blind and not believing that people around me could inspire me. That was happening at a stage where I was too caught up with myself. Thinking that the only people that I could compare myself with were already professional. I could not be further from the truth.

When I opened my eyes and started looking around me, I suddenly found great amounts of inspiration in people that I already knew. People I grew up with in Norway, people I met while I played football, people I met during my stay in the USA, and people I have met so far in Amsterdam.

There was inspiration all around me. Even in my own grandpa.

What I am trying to say is that we need to seek inspiration more consciously in life. Find out who we admire and why we admire them. What about them makes them interesting? Ask yourself these questions and find people around you that inspires you. You can probably already think about three or four people that do.

A lot of times this curiosity and admiration turns into envy and jealousy. This is toxic, I am telling you. This is your ego trying to tell you that no one else is better than you. This is your ego trying to justify your own position in life, while comparing it up against others. Over time this can destroy your development as a person.

I have been jealous myself many times and actually started disliking people for the fact that they were better than me. However, at a certain point I realised how destructive it was. I was spending more time looking at others, rather than spending time getting better and improving myself. My development fatigued.

The moment I managed to turn it around was when I admitted that I had something to learn from them. I had to admit to myself that I was not at their level. This can be uncomfortable, but it brings you three steps forward.

I encourage you to ask yourself: do I have a friend that is really good at something that I also want to be good at? Be specific about what that skill is. Have you ever admitted to yourself that you are not at their level yet? Have you ever asked that same person how they do it or what they did in order to get to that level?

In order to improve we need to admit that we need to improve. As soon as you get over this obstacle of setting aside your ego, you will develop yourself and the relationship with the person that you spoke with. You put yourself in a vulnerable position, and now you know a little more about what it takes to become better.

You have every reason to be vulnerable in order to improve and if you have people taking advantage of your vulnerability, you might want to re-consider those relationships. Truly inspiring people meet you halfway and appreciates the choice of being able to share their personal experience with you, who is willing to learn.

I encourage you to identify the people around you that you admire. Maybe they have a way of speaking, or a very clear view of how certain things work. If you are at a stage where you are jealous or envy someone else, then I recommend turning that feeling of competition around and start being curious instead. Ask questions and listen.

Again, we can find great inspiration in the people that are next to us. We simply have to open our eyes and be curious to learn from them. Ask people more questions and figure out how they tackle certain things and what they do to become better.

When we find people that we can relate more to, we start living more realistically. And being realistic while pursuing a dream is important in order to understand what level you are at and what you need in order to improve. As we improve and get closer to our dream, we should keep finding people that inspire us.

I encourage you to find a balance between identifying inspiration in people who are at a world class level, with people who are close to you. I believe we need both. The Michael Jordans, but also the kid down the street who works out every day.

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I hope you found this interesting and I would love to discuss this further with you, so don’t hesitate to drop me an email or shoot me a text. I will get back to you quickly! Set aside some time to find people around you that inspire you and also have a chat with them. Every day is an opportunity to improve, remember that!

Thank you for still sticking around and I am looking forward to share some more thoughts on personal values in the next letter of this Salmon Saga. Talk to you soon!

There is one big difference between salmon and inspiration. Salmon can only be found in the water, while inspiration can be found everywhere.

Yours,

Marco h.