The Bathroom at the Sydney Opera House

present is better than perfect

This is a drawing of me at the Sydney Opera House.

I meant to take a photo of me at the Sydney Opera House.

It was a very big moment. The end of the tour. Thirteen cities across Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.

After the final event, we shared a meal with the event planners at a table just under the Opera House. The kind of moment that feels like it should be documented. Framed. Remembered properly.

And I didn’t get a picture.

You know what I did get a picture of?

The bathroom inside the Sydney Opera House.

The men’s restroom inside one of the most famous buildings in the world. You’re welcome.

Looking back at my camera roll later, I was stunned to discover that in this grand life moment, I had captured …. nothing …

(except the men’s restroom).

In my defense, I thought our kids would think it was cool to see the bathroom of the Sydney Opera House. Not even NEMO got to see this.

I have been traveling across the world speaking with founders and entrepreneurs about joy. Which, I know…

Joy? In business?

My primary audiences are usually children and people who care about children. I didn’t set out to do events with people in the corporate world.

What I’ve discovered, though, is I keep ending up in rooms with leaders who are successful by every visible measure and yet are still trying to figure out what actually matters.

It’s not that different from kids. That’s been helpful for me to discover.

When traveling, you notice how differently people live. How they work. What they value. It’s the very smallest of things that often end up sticking with you the most.

For me, in both New Zealand and Australia, it was this wonderfully simple phrase:

“Have a go.”

Said in their delightful sing-song accents, it’s a way of saying
“just give it a try!”
or sometimes ..
“get on with it, American!”

I kept hearing it everywhere.

During sound check as I tested the microphones: “Have a go!”
Urging me to try eating kangaroo: “Have a go!”
Trying to educate me on how a rugby scrum works: “No, Brad. Not like that. Stop having a go.”

Then I noticed it wasn’t just something cute people said. It showed up in their stories. How their companies started. How they discovered their favorite hobbies.

Have a go.

A joyful life of courage is something we practice. It’s a daily posture of jumping in. Like Ross Gay said, “joy is a discipline.” No strategy or certainty or obsession over how it turns out, but just good old fashioned … TRYING.

Sometimes we don’t get it right.

Sometimes we fumble it all.

Sometimes we only get photos of the toilets.

We can obsess over capturing the moment perfectly. We can spend our lives worried about how it’s all perceived. The young folks don’t want anything cringe, but … maybe that’s where the good stuff is.

So, dare to be a little cringe.
Dare to show up.
Delight in knowing that the point of it all isn’t to perform perfectly.
It’s apparently all very simple:

Try.
Be there.
and
Have a go.

FIELD NOT FROM AUSTRALIA

Australia has a list of baby names that are illegal.

Apparently you cannot name your child Nutella, Ikea, or Harry Potter.

(Velociraptor, however, remains an option.)

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