Chaos, Clarity, Character.

The further the mission, the greater the chaos.

To cross a small pond, we need only paddle on still waters.

But our pioneering forefathers who sought to discover new lands, hand to contend with long, arduous voyages.

Chaos.

Today, those far-flung discovery missions exist in a different form.

Moonshots — Rapidly building massive platforms that unify millions of people, transforming the way we interact and the way we work, and aggregating products and services — to create unprecedented value in single platforms and businesses. Rapidly solving solving complex, deep-seated social problems at scale, so that humanity can evolve.

Chaos is to be expected. The bigger the moonshot, the greater the chaos.

Order and Clarity.

To build, is to create order amidst the chaos. And the tool — is clarity. To create clarity is to create order. Put differently, without clarity, it is impossible to create order. And without order, it is impossible to remove chaos. And without the systematic elimination of chaos, we cannot achieve moonshots.

Therefore, our number one priority is to create clarity.

There are two components to clarity — clarity of thought, and clarity of communication. The sharpest thinking can be nullified by unclear communications. After we have clear thoughts — we need to create clear language.

Also — the lack of clear communications is a symptom of the lack of clarity in thinking.

Therefore, our other priority is to never settle for unclear communications.

One more thing…

Character.

There is another set of root causes of unclear communications — dishonesty (with self and/or others), laziness (in thinking and/or in action).

I’ve written about it here some years ago — https://melvinyuan.medium.com/why-we-hide-with-our-words-b7bb43a861b9 — and I’ll repeat one line for good measure…

“… we tend to avoid being rigorously clear about what we say — so we can hide behind a veil of vague promises and statements.”

The focus on clarity builds character.

So — when we embark on moonshots; when choose to tackle unimaginable chaos; when we are effective in creating clarity and order… we not only achieve moonshots; we also build what will be most valuable — Character.

And I’d rather be shaped by a moonshot, than a product of a paddle across the pond.

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