5th February, 2021

First week of the fellowship - done!

Today, I focused on a really cool and unique part of the fellowship funding - my allocated training budget. This helps me personally, but also the team I’ll hire, to develop our personal and professional skills and help deliver the on the science as best we can. It’s tremendously exciting.

Before I hire the team, I’m focusing first on front-loading my personal training. And first on the list of several budgeted training programs I’m applying for is Seth Godin’s altMBA. This 30-day intense workshop is about shipping work consistently to those you seek to serve. It’s a way to rid yourself of perfectionism, show up, level up, and get your work out there. There’s elements of business and venture creation in there, but the main part of the program is to develop your most productive self in the company of people who feed back to you with love and accountability.

I chose such a program because I’m more of a generalist than a specialist. I have an entrepreneurial spirit more so than that of a deeply specialised scientist. A few years ago, I would apologised for even thinking what I just wrote in that last sentence. Now, being a little older, carrying a few more career scars, I’m owning it. I like to be a connector of worlds more so than a specialist in one. My specialty is being a Jack of All Trades, rather than a Master of One. It’s time to take advantage of that rather than worrying about whether or not I should be any other way to people who might be watching.

Next week - paternity leave, welcoming my son and second child into the world! I won’t be at my desk anywhere near as often, if at all. I’ll try to be here. I made a promise to show up here. As ever, I write (and speak) in the hope it might give a nugget of use to you.

See you tomorrow.

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