Service > Performance

"Don’t screw this up. Everyone’s watching. Perform."

That whisper hit me again the other day, right before an interview for The Capital Times Power Hour.

Big room. Influential audience. Spotlight.

And the whisper was there:
"You must perform."

But here’s what I’ve learned over the years, when I listen to that voice, I actually perform worse.

Because the focus shifts inward.
All about me.

And the more self-focused I get, the tighter the chest, the shakier the prep, the flatter the delivery.

When Mark Richardson asked me about Vortex Optics’ growth, I felt that whisper rise again…until I remembered the words I’d written just days earlier at the top of my journal:

👉 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 > 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

And in that moment, the answer wasn’t about me at all, it was about serving the audience with what might actually help them.

That reminder changed the questions I asked myself:
• What does this audience need from me?
• How can I serve them with what I’ve lived and learned?
• What stories will help them?

From that point on, the whisper was different.
It wasn’t “perform.”
It was “serve.”

And that made all the difference.

Here’s the paradox worth holding onto:

When service becomes greater than performance…
…the “greater than” symbol turns into an arrow.

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 → 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

Because the surest way to your best performance isn’t to perform at all...

It’s to serve.