That comment, “surf the energy waves of others,” was a big takeaway from the recent podcast interview with Keynote Speaker and Bestselling author Tim Ash on the podcast Bad Decisions with Jim Banks. Tim was speaking about his realization that one should not fight one’s destiny; do things that motivate you and help fulfill your purpose. His comment that you must learn how to leverage the inspiration that is around you. I believe it is critical for success to have an open mind and be inspired by others and concepts.
Unless you learn to surf energy waves of other people, trends, other stuff, there’s a huge limitation on what you can do with personal power.
Tim Ash
The context of the quote came when Jim, the host, asked Tim about selling his digital agency. In hindsight, Tim thought maybe he sold it too soon. Despite this should have, would have thought, Tim emphasized you cannot dwell on what has been done and that you must “have action in your life and you must control your destiny.” Tim has realized there are “giant forces around us.” We can only try to harness them to achieve our goals.
Hearing Tim’s comments on surfing the energy waves of others, I agree that you can draft immense positive and regenerative energy off of others. In the age of social media and negativity, we need to find positive energy sources and use them to recharge and energize us.
Having just watched the epic movie Oppenheimer, the project was only successful because the main character, Robert Oppenheimer, could harness the brilliance of those around him. While I believe he needed to leverage their brilliance for mission completion, he also needed it to enrich and challenge his intellectual development. There were a few scenes where he went to different mentors and even other universities to be around a set of theoretical scientists who were not in the US, so he went to find them.
I have tried to explain this phenomenon of the positive energy forces I feel from some people but never had an elegant way of describing it. There are a handful of people I know whose interaction with them makes me become energized and a better person. So much so that my wife can always tell when I have spent time with one of them. They tend to be deep thinkers and those not afraid of having challenging and thought-provoking conversations. As I get older and try to fine-tune this next phase of my life, I have realized I need more of these interactions.