We
hope you’ve been enjoying the feature on Frazer so far! If you haven’t read the
previous parts yet, you can catch them here
and here. Today, Frazer will be
answering some questions I threw his way.
What are three principles
that leaders should live by?
1. Intense personal
reflection
2.
Don’t give a shit
3. Facilitate
radical candor
What three words would you
use to describe yourself?
1. Intuitive
2.
Active
3. Controlling (see,
not all roses and rainbows!)
What’s the best advice that
someone has ever given you?
“Use
your head”
If there’s an aspect of your
journey that has surprised you so far, what would you say it is?
How
quickly we can adapt to change
Now-Frazer meets early-20’s-Frazer. What advice would you give him?
If
I could give my early-20’s “me” some advice, it would be to not listen to my
42-year old self if I ever show up from the future with advice. Our paths need to happen. Our paths need to
unfold. The unfolding is our life.
My incredibly
wise words to college seniors when I go back to Sewanee to speak are:
“Do something! As that something will lead to something else.”
There
is no defined path for us. There is no single right answer. However, if forced,
I would tell myself to take more
chances, live interesting places, do more cool shit that I haven’t done before,
keep cultivating friends, let love happen, reflect intensely, don’t give such a
shit.
Congratulations! You just
won a million dollars. What are you going to do with it?
If
I won a million dollars, I would perhaps start one micro-foundation of
something for each of my kids, for something that are passionate about. I would
use it as a way to help them create and cultivate something worthy over their
lives. I think this could be a really cool experience for my kids to
participate in running a micro-foundation. This perhaps could be the most
valuable education they could receive and a really fun way for me to spend time
with them.
If you were invited to give
a TED talk, what would you speak about?
I
would absolutely give a TED talk on the intersection of intense personal
reflection and not giving a shit.
What’s your favourite book,
and recommended reading for others?
Favorite
book:
Panther
in the Sky by James Alexander Thom. It’s
not my favorite book from a content standpoint but it was the book that really
got me connected into reading at a young age so for that reason, it is my
favorite book.
Recommended
reading:
A
New Earth by Ekhart Tolle
Reflections
of a Ghost by Andrew Lytle
Working
Days by John Steinbeck
Your biggest source of
strength is…
…consciousness.
Do you know what your goals
and ambitions are going forward?
My
goals and ambitions going forward are to live a full life, moment by moment. That’s
as specific as I am right now.
If you could host a dinner
party and invite any three people, dead or alive, who would they be?
I
would invite my wife, my son, and my daughter. We would dress up in formal wear
and listen to hip hop music.
Many people have different
success rituals. Which are yours?
For
success rituals, we also would need dozens of pages to cover this topic. I am a
very ritualistic person, and I have many rituals that I constantly refine and
use to extreme degrees. These rituals include morning routines, workload and
schedule management, parenting, nutrition, exercise, sleep. Perhaps we can do a
follow-up on these and get into more detail (editor’s note: keep an eye out for this!).
In my first post, I
mentioned that Frazer is working on an exciting new project – he’s working to
add a new title under his belt – that of ‘author’. Back to Frazer…
Yes,
I am working on a book project right now, which includes some of the topics
covered in these posts. It is a book about feelings. Specifically, the way we feel throughout our professional
careers during points of intensity. Typically, behind any extreme period within
our careers (highs, lows, frustrations, fears), there are a set of common
feelings. “I feel like I am drowning in work.” “I feel like I am stuck.” “I
feel like no one cares about my career.” “I feel like a monkey can do my job.”
I
explore why we have these feelings, with deep context of the underlying causes.
I also use my experiences throughout my career of having these same feelings to
explain tactics to cope through the friction that these feelings create. I have
had some crazy-ass experiences in my career, and they have given me some deep
points of context. A rare few get context in our professional careers, so the
value of the book will hopefully be both understanding that context and taking
action from it. The output of this context is
this same professional acceleration.
I
was inspired to write this book over a long period of time but especially after
doing a mentoring session with a large group of professionals at Evolent. One
of the participants sent me an email afterward that tipped me over the edge
into action.
Similar
to mentoring, my ability to share wisdom through context creates efficiency out
of inefficiency. The audience for the book is likely primarily individuals who are
earlier in their career. However, the spectrum of feelings can span across a
broad scope of levels and points of time, so there is value in the material for
most folks. I hope to help others understand these periods of intense feelings
and equip them with some tools to deal with these periods. At the same time, I
hope to make them laugh, as some of the stuff that has happened to me is damn
funny.
If
anyone is interested further in learning more about the project, you can reach
me at fbuntin@contactliving.com.
Thanks
much for inviting me to contribute!
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