Jodie Cook: You Can Do More than You Think You Can

This is the fourth in a series of posts sharing lessons I’ve learned working with interesting authors.

TL;DR: The lesson I learned from book-doctoring Jodie’s book Ten Year Career: Don’t accept the cultural norms of what you “should” want or “should” expect. Since I worked with Jodie several years ago I have lifted my sights. And lifted them again. And lifted them again, because I keep hitting what I aim at. 

Henry David Thoreau wrote that “A man tends to hit what he aims at, so he might as well aim high.” That stuck with me when I first read it 40 years ago. Mainstream culture tells us what to want. But why accept what we’re told? Why do what is “normal”? Happily, we live in a world where people are constantly showing us, through social media and books, that it’s possible to want, and do, impossible things.

Jodie Cook took to heart the aphorism that “we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year.” Starting with an idea, she built a services business over a decade and sold it at the age of 32 for enough money that she’ll never have to work again. The Ten Year Career is a playbook for how to set a ridiculously high goal—in her case, retire in a decade—and then achieve it. 

Working with Jodie, I realized the blinders and limitations I had placed on myself. I was guilty of small-bore thinking, of the attitude of “good enough,” and of a scarcity mindset. Most of all, I suffered from a poverty of imagination. I didn’t believe I could do any more than continue on a linear trajectory. 

Ten Year Career: Reimagine Business, Design Your Life, Fast Track Your Freedom