Before You Set New Goals, Decide What to Let Go Of
The ONE Thing
Jay Papasan reflects on his recent departure from Keller Williams after a 26-year career to enter a season of 'addition by subtraction.' He
Key takeaways
- Jay Papulated left Keller Williams on August 1st after nearly 26 years of service.
- The 'unclenched' philosophy, inspired by Gary Keller, involves untethering from external standards to focus on what truly matters.
Main topics
- Career transitions
- The concept of 'addition by subtraction'
Notable quotes
I'm still kind of in that season of addition by subtraction.
Conclusion
By intentionally subtracting the non-essential, individuals can create
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) As you may have heard, on August 1st of this year, I left Keller Williams after almost 26 years, and people keep asking me, what's it like since you left? Well, for starters, I've barely worn long pants in over a month. I've taken quite a few naps. But the truth is, I'm still kind of in that season of addition by subtraction. I'm not quite sure yet what this new world's going to be like. Maybe ask me again in six months. What I can share today is how I'm thinking about recentering my life, how I'm thinking about simplifying my life, and give you a few tips if you happen to also be in a season where you've been carrying too many things from a season in the past. And also, please hang around to the end. I'm doing a little subtracting right here at The One Thing, and you might want to stick around and hear all the details. I'm Jay Papasan, and this is The One Thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results. Speaker 1 (1:08) So let's turn back the dial back to the year 2000. That's when I started right here at Keller Williams on September 2nd, the day after Labor Day. And it's crazy to think about all the changes that have happened since then. When I joined Keller Williams, there were just 27 employees. We were in a small building off Bee Cave Road. And at that time, there were only about 6,700 agents. And I think we were only in 14 states and one part of Canada. So it was a really small company that most people hadn't even heard of. But over the years, I got to experience all the changes that came both in the world and right here in this company. So think about the year 2000, if you're old enough to remember. There were no smartphones. Social media wasn't a thing unless you were on MySpace. We didn't have video calls. I think Skype hadn't even happened yet. And there was no streaming media. We still got our DVDs by mail from Netflix. It was a completely different world at work and at home. If you wanted to navigate, we have lots of real estate agents here. You probably remember this. You go to MapQuest, you plot out your course, and then you print the pages and set them in the passenger seat. That's how we got around. There was no general use of GPS. The world was very different, and so was this company. So over the years, I probably had about five careers. I was mostly working on the book side. We wrote 11 or 12 books, a lot of them bestsellers. And of course, the one thing that's become a big part of this podcast. I also ran education three separate times. I had a stint in marketing, research, you name it. Lots of careers over more than 25 years. But the best part was growing. If you wanted to stick around in this crazy, fast, chaotic company, you had to be committed to personal growth. People often ask me, what was the biggest gift you got from Keller Williams? And I can tell you that definitively. This is the place that taught me to think bigger than I was willing to think for myself and encouraged me to grow every single week, day, and month that I was here because there was just no other way to stick around. We were growing so fast. For one period, I remember doing the numbers because I worked with Dave Jinks and Gary before I was doing the vision speech, I was helping them prepare for it. That was our big speech on the State of the Union every year. We grew by 40 % year over year for something like seven or eight years in a row. At some point, you just think you cannot sustain this level of growth. At our apex, and I can't tell you the exact number, so don't hold me to it, but I remember we were at about 185,000 agents, and I think we're in over 60 countries today. It's an incredibly different company, but it all started at that little place, that little shop off Bee Cave Road back in the year 2000. That's when I joined this team. So that's been my journey here. And so when you ask me, What's it been like since you left? Just do some quick math with me. I've been at KW for over 1,351 weeks. That's a lot of work weeks in there. That's over 311 months. That's just crazy to think about. So just under 26 years to the day is when I left. Man, that's a long time to live in a world that was chaotic, a little bit stressful at times. but so full of growth and learning, which is the reason so many of us chose to stick around. Lots of growth, lots of development, and some amazing people that I got to work with. I've only had roughly, recording this today, about 40 days on the other side. So it's still very much an adjustment in process. So over those 40 days, I've still been running Productive, this company, behind the one thing. I've been working with Wendy and spending more time with family, but I've been busy. It's not like I've been... taking naps and just running around, I still had other work to do. So that was kind of the realization. I remember at one point realizing, dadgummit, I don't think I've worn long pants, but three times in the whole month of August. To give you perspective, when we started at Keller Williams, Mo Anderson was our former vice chairman and CEO. Things were a little different back then. There was no remote work. Everybody went to work and you dress for success. We had to wear. dress pants. You couldn't even wear blue jeans. I can remember the first employee leadership council where we took a vote, and if you donated 20 bucks to charity, you got to wear jeans on Friday. The culture's changed a lot. This is Austin, Texas. People dress kind of more work casual today, but still, you don't see shorts very often around the office, which makes it a real luxury if you're in Austin, Texas, and the average temperature in August was close to 100 degrees. Yeah, you can actually not just dress for success, you can dress for the weather too. I also have always been a napper. So the fact that working from home, working from our remote office, I could look up at two o'clock when you get that lag and say, you know what? I'm gonna take a break. I'm gonna walk the dog. I'm gonna lay down and close my eyes. Man, it felt like an incredible luxury. I was joking with Coach Jordan Freed, who you know well, who's been on this podcast many times. I was like, maybe I'm going to do a 66-day challenge around napping. Wouldn't that be something? And he agreed. I think napping is one of the most underrated luxuries there is. Just the ability to take a little pause in the middle of the day. So how does this tie to the one thing? Well, one of the most important but often overlooked parts of the book is called Unclenched. And it opens up the second big half of the book. Coach Jordan actually told me it was one of his favorite sections. And it was about a younger Gary Keller growing this company and doing all the things that you're supposed to do. He literally dressed for success. If you go back and search the archives or through YouTube, you can find pictures of him wearing a tie and suspenders and pleated pants. He was also an on-time person. He jokes sometimes about his former self. If people showed up for a late meeting at work, they might find the door was locked because he was an on-time professional. In the book, he referred to it as he was like a card-carrying member of Overachievers Anonymous. He was checking all the boxes on what most people said you have to do to be successful. The problem was he wasn't listening to his body, and it was having an effect. All that stress, all that work, all that trying to please everyone all the time and meet their