Getting to a better place, faster
April 16, 2025
“Nothing will get you to a better place faster than becoming obsessed,” writes Jenny Wood in her new and first book, WILD COURAGE.
Jenny spent 18 years at Google. Going from entry-level to an executive. In case you haven't discovered this, landing a job at Google is hard! When people say, "just get your foot in the door," Jenny actually did. She submitted her application and resume online and one week later, hearing nothing about her application, she went to Google and physically gave her resume to the recruiter she submitted her original application to.
After another week, still more silence. Jenny had no way to connect with the recruiter. She didn't have a business card or phone number. However, Jenny did have an obsession to work at google. She wasn't going to limit herself, or wait, or go away without pushing this and herself further. She would write down every possible permutation of the recruiters email and sent each one a message. 23 minutes later the recruiter messaged back and they agreed to a call on a position.
How many of us would do this? Keep pushing and trying? How many of us would just give up after the first week of silence? To be obsessed is to consumed by the desire and thoughts of something. Marcus Aurelius would write that reading and writing requires a master. Also, he would write that we must not just get the gist of something. We must linger around our studies, around masterful works. In other words, be obsessed.
Obsession isn't just for artists, innovators or creators. It isn't for CEOs or entrepreneurs. It's for each one of us wherever we want to dedicate towards. How many of us can say we're obsessed about something? Not in some banal sense like some trend or something you happen to come across on Tiktok. Something meaningful. Something that cannot be measured or tracked. Something that has results so far away, you decided they don't matter.
The effort, won't always reveal instant results. Progress may even stall or simply come to us late. We don't have to be elite athletes to tap into this level of focus, obsession and drive. We all can be there, once we have the work or parts in our lives we're obsessed about. Perhaps, the lack of obsession is exactly what's holding you back or why results have not arrived.