Ep 653 | Lessons from the Arctic

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Before we dive into the lessons from the Arctic, today's, today's episode, two things I want to remind you of. First, I just want to kind of recast the vision for this particular podcast. If you're new to No Days Off, I want to explain what it all means and, and why I'm pursuing this particular topic of No Days Off. The idea is not that you're going to work your butt off every single day. Yes, as an entrepreneur, you are probably working every single day, but that's not what I mean when I say no days off. What I actually mean is that I believe firmly that if you want to be successful in business and in life and relationships, then you've got to act differently than the status quo. One way that you can go about acting differently than the status quo is to treat every single day as an opportunity. And when I think around opportunity, I think about spending 30 seconds or a minute or 5 minutes or 10 minutes just getting better at something. Now, maybe that means you're reading something that's making you a little bit smarter, or it means you're having that conversation that you've been avoiding, or it means that you're just thinking about your health a little differently today, or you're eating a different meal, or you're trying to get— trying a different workout. And this can apply all throughout the various areas of life. So again, if you're new here, just know that every day I'm trying to run through something that gives you an idea as to what you can improve in today? Doesn't have to be the topic, but I just want to get you thinking. Every single day represents a new opportunity. And again, if we want different results than everybody else around us, we've got to do different things than everybody else around us. Number 2, if you like all that we've been sharing here, and it's, it's been quite a run. I mean, we have 600 to 700 episodes already. Uh, we've put a lot of content out. If you like what you're hearing or you like some of the past episodes, please share. Because while of course I'd want this, I want this podcast out to, to more people, more importantly, I think that every once in a while there is a topic or an episode that can truly make a substantial difference in someone else's life. Frankly, sometimes the episodes I think that are going to be great aren't as well received, and those that maybe I think I missed the mark seem to be the ones that hit with many. So I don't even know quite the recipe. What I've learned is that everything that I cover applies to people in different ways. We're all at a different chapter or different place in life. We have different, different challenges. And so please, if you hear something that you think one of your peers or somebody in your world might benefit from hearing as well, please share. Now, that said, let's talk about today's topic, the lessons from the Arctic. Now, you probably do not know But I just recently returned from a trip to the Arctic. We flew to Winnipeg and then we went pretty much 6 hours directly north from Winnipeg into the Arctic, into the Arctic Circle area. We were in a town called Baker Lake in Nunavut, which is northern Canada. And it's, it's one of the most remote places in the world, certainly the most remote place I've ever been. I've been dropped off in all different sorts of places. In Alaska and Mexico and throughout the US that have been fairly remote. But nothing tops the experience I had in Baker Lake, a really small town. And then from that small town, we were out in the field hunting. It's a place where temperatures drop to -40 degrees. Now, I didn't experience -40 degrees. It was plenty cold, but it's about to start dropping there pretty aggressively. In this particular area, animals, caribou, are still migrating. People have learned in this area to survive in one of Earth's harshest environments. And I had this unique opportunity to spend time with the Inuit, the people there, and it gave me some, some different perspective. See, it wasn't just about seeing the Arctic, though, you know, I had my head on a swivel and I was trying to observe everything because it was such a unique experience. It wasn't just about seeing the Arctic, it was about learning how the people live and how they thrive. And of course, you know, I'm always thinking, what lessons can I draw from this? What lessons can I take back into my own life and my own business? And of course, what lessons might I be able to share with you? There's a handful of things I took from the Inuit, and I want to share them here today. First, I made a note while I was there. That adaptability is survival. Adaptability is survival. What I saw was the Inuit didn't fight their environment. They actually really adapted to it. I mean, one big question I had was, gosh, you know, people settled all throughout this world. How in the heck did this group of individuals choose the environment in which we are in? And I don't know the reason for that. I probably need to research that a little bit, but there's no doubt they had to adapt. In order to survive the area in which they inhabit. They, you know, while we didn't have igloos for our particular trip, I know as it gets colder, they'll use igloos for insulation. They make clothing from the various animals that they take. And of course, they use that for food, but they use every single ounce of that animal. For example, caribou hides to stay warm. They use all different sorts of tools for, for hunting, and they have to hunt in order to survive. There's these seasonal rhythms from, from hunting and fishing, the migration of the animals. Everything though has to be in sync with nature. Adaptability is survival. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, what's the connection there? I think, you know, when I take a step back, I got to look at my world. Conditions change, markets shift, technology evolves at a rapid clip, customers behave differently. I don't think that we can control the weather, but we can control our tools and our rhythms, just like the Inuit people. Adaptability in business is the difference between survival and extinction. Number 2, what I witnessed out of the Inuits was a respect for nature and for cycles. They did not, um, overhunt. What do I mean when I say that? While they certainly hunt for, uh, specifically for the winter, especially as it pertains to feeding themselves and warmth, as warmth as I just described, they don't overhunt. In other words, every animal they harvested mattered, and absolutely nothing was wasted. There is a very deep respect for what I would call renewal cycles. In the entrepreneurial world, businesses also have seasons. There's growth, there's stagnation, there's reset. I think we have to respect the cycles. In other words, if we overharvest, whether it's burning people out or overspending or overleveraging, we can actually create collapse. Longevity, in my opinion, requires respecting all the cycles. Number 3, I think that when I take a step back and analyze the people and their culture, their community, there's this collective strength that I witnessed, specifically collective strength over individual heroics. An example of this, and I apologize as some of you may not love to hear this, but they do hunt each year whales. And only specific individuals are drafted each year to go out and harvest a whale or two for sake of the greater community. They bring it all back to the community. And that is, believe it or not, from what I understand, they described it as the vegetable, their vegetable for the winter. They have specific meat, but then they have whale, and that is the other thing they eat during their very harsh winter. They again elect almost this, this group that goes out and harvests food for the entire community. Again, there's this collective strength versus just individually going out. No single hunter could, could survive alone. There's elders and there's hunters and there's children. And every role mattered. There's this community resilience that's just much greater than lone heroics. And then of course, while some, some individuals are doing some of this work, there's also this humor and games and different things that they do culturally that keeps spirits alive right now, and especially through the long winters. I think in, in, in the business world, in entrepreneurial, in the entrepreneurial spirit, business isn't about a lone visionary. It's about the strength of the team and the culture and the resilience that's through, that comes through that connection. In other words, you win or you lose as a collective. Yes, certain people try to step out and, and be a hero. And you know what? Every once in a while that may be necessary. But for the most part, when you look at business, if you're the lone visionary and you're always having to play the role of hero, my bet is that that business is going to struggle long term. Number 4, you know, this was, this was really cool and unique to see, uh, the tradition and the storytelling that I, that I learned of the Inuit people or what it is that they do. I mean, knowledge is passed down and it's passed orally. You know, I was with one individual and it started to rain and it was kind of like freezing rain, potentially on the verge of turning to snow. And I kind of looked at him, I go, "Oh man, it's gonna be a pretty rough day." And this is gonna sound like a fable, like a joke, but he looked over to me And he said, "Brian, it's gonna stop raining in 6 minutes." And I said, his name was Jamie, I said, "Jamie, 6 minutes, huh?" He goes, "Yes." Dead serious. And he said, "The rest of the day will be nice." And I said, "What makes you so confident, Jamie?" And he said, "My great-grandfather and my grandfather would take me out to this land and we'd stand up on this very hill and they would explain to me how to read the clouds and how to read the land." and be able to forecast what the day is going to look like. And I'm pretty darn accurate. No surprise. I don't know if it was exactly 6 minutes, but it did in fact stop raining and it didn't rain the rest of the day, even though from my vantage point, I thought it was going to be a day we might have to hang in the tent. Uh, that knowledge was passed down to him from multiple generations, and storytelling was a strategy for survival. In the entrepreneurial world, leaders who want lessons, if they want these lessons to last, they got to tell stories. See, strategy isn't just about numbers. It's narratives. It's narratives that, that embed your company values into the culture. So my question for, for our listeners here today, you know, those running companies or teams or whatever it may be, what stories are you telling in your company? What stories are you telling in your family right now? Is there an opportunity, like, have you disconnected from maybe generations prior in your own lineage, in your own family, and there's an opportunity to share some values or lessons via story? Number 5, the last lesson I put down, and, and what was the most important one for me, uh, in watching them I came away and observing and spending time, 9 or 10 days or whatever it was, I walked away from that experience thinking, damn, how lucky am I? How lucky are all of us? Watching the Inuit life in Baker Lake really makes you realize this. They don't know how hard they have it. For them, it's just their life. There's no bitterness, there's no complaints. Again, it's just resilience and community. They don't know how hard they had it. It's as if like no one's ever shown up there and said over and over again, it's too hard, it's too hard, it's too hard. Didn't matter to them. It just is. It's just their life. And I left thinking, God, am I lucky. Warren Buffett calls, you know, what I deem to be our luck, he calls it the ovarian lottery. The ovarian lottery. We won the ovarian lottery. The sheer luck of being born in the US or any advanced economy for that matter, matter, versus in an environment where survival itself is a daily battle, that's winning the ovarian lottery. We got very lucky. How lucky are we? I think in the business world, we often complain about the hard things, the hiring struggles, or the changing consumer habits, or the shifting market. But compared to the Arctic, we're pretty lucky. I think gratitude and perspective are entrepreneurial superpowers. If you see your challenges as opportunities, there's a good chance that you're going to win. The Arctic really reminded me that survival and success aren't about comfort. They're really about adaptability and they're, they're about respect for cycles. It's about collective strength and storytelling. And it's especially about gratitude for the luck that we've been given. So, I have a series of questions for you to think around today. Number 1, where do you need to adapt faster in your business? Where do you have to adapt faster in your business? Number 2, what cycles are you maybe ignoring that could hurt you later? Number 3, how are you strengthening your team instead of playing lone hero? Number 4, what story are you telling that will endure? And then lastly, number 5, can you operate from gratitude, remembering how lucky we all are to even have this opportunity? That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.