Check Yourself with Bradley Tusk

Let's talk a little bit about the importance of being in tune with yourself. Whether you are a high achiever or a low achiever, the achievement should always be viewed within the context of how you went about working on it. Being honest with yourself, and doing the right things for the right reasons, can make lesser accomplishments feel more fulfilling. Bradley Tusk, the CEO of his own Venture Capital Fund and a successful author, touched on this in an interview I had with him recently. 

“I try to challenge my own assumptions every day, right? So, if we have a weekly call and after the third time in a row, if I don’t feel it was that productive, I question ‘Do we need this call and what do I need to do to do this differently?’ I also go to therapy every week. I mentioned I pray every morning. I try to figure out if I did anything good the day before, did anything bad the day before, if I did something bad I try to make amends. I hold myself extremely accountable, and some of that is ethically / morally, some of that is intellectually, some of that is professionally. Sometimes it gets done through lists, sometimes it gets done through routines and habits. But, I have a lot of things I want to accomplish both in my work career and as a human being, and it only gets done if you make it get done. So accountability to me is everything”.

This message is to Check Yourself. It is so important to allocate a time to just evaluate your life and the means by which you live. Are you proud of your work and accomplishments, or a little embarrassed by some of your actions? If it’s the latter, it is not too late, and a performing a personal audit on your values will help right the ship. In order to have an intrinsically successful career, you must have an ethically sound foundation to start from.