I grew up in a little town in northern Iowa. About 3,100 people lived there then.

It was a different time.

Both sides of my family had lived in my hometown, or on farms a few miles out, for more than one hundred years.
My grandpa had a business on Main Street that my dad took over when grandpa got sick.

I knew nearly everybody.

There were no “helicopter parents” then and the only teenagers who had cars were older boys who bought them used and beat-up and liked to tinker under the hood.
I walked everywhere — to school, to Girl Scouts meetings, to piano lessons, to babysitting jobs, to Friday night football games at the high school, to the movie theater on Saturday afternoons. We all did.
I walked even in the dark, though I was sometimes afraid.

But I knew who lived in just about every house that I passed. It was a comfort.
I knew whose sons had gone off to join the service; which girls had gotten married; which old geezers played pinochle at the Legion Hall; which ladies went to Wednesday morning sewing circle at the Lutheran church where I sang in the choir.

Who owed my dad’s business money.
So when I heard the news this morning that 3,100 people died yesterday of covid, my mind took me back there, walking home late, passing house after house, in my hometown of 3,100 people. I tried to imagine how it would have looked to me to have all of those houses dark.
Nobody in the kitchen washing dishes; nobody watching Walter Cronkite on the living room tv; no one waving from their front picture window as I trudged past; no guys cruising the street in their old cars.

No one at my grandparents’ house.
There have been so many covid deaths. The nightly tallies have made us numb and afraid.

But yesterday, a whole town’s worth of people left us.

I’ll bet that most of them were pretty good, just like the people in my hometown.

So long.

More from Life

1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
1/ Here’s a list of conversational frameworks I’ve picked up that have been helpful.

Please add your own.

2/ The Magic Question: "What would need to be true for you


3/ On evaluating where someone’s head is at regarding a topic they are being wishy-washy about or delaying.

“Gun to the head—what would you decide now?”

“Fast forward 6 months after your sabbatical--how would you decide: what criteria is most important to you?”

4/ Other Q’s re: decisions:

“Putting aside a list of pros/cons, what’s the *one* reason you’re doing this?” “Why is that the most important reason?”

“What’s end-game here?”

“What does success look like in a world where you pick that path?”

5/ When listening, after empathizing, and wanting to help them make their own decisions without imposing your world view:

“What would the best version of yourself do”?

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