“Want to be happy? Have zero expectations of others.”
- Gary Vaynerchuk
My first thought, upon reading this was, “How selfish. How egocentric.”
As I continued to wrestle with this, I started to wonder, “Is Gary Vee right?”
Leaders are problem solvers. Leaders are responsible for making decisions, to the best of our abilities with the information available to us. The information that’s absent from the decision-making process isn’t necessarily negative. It just “is”. And it exists in a space outside of expectations. It lies beyond judgment.
“Want to be happy? Have zero expectations of others.”
Maybe then, this idea doesn’t mean “lower your expectations of others”.
Maybe it means limit distracting external influences to a decision.
Limit variables that may influence. Avoid introducing biases that stand in the way of making a clear and objective decision.
Resist the urge to engage with distractions.
Expectations quantify, or apply a value to each and every decision we make. And not only is this taxing, it will weigh on us in ways that will only result in unhappiness.
To flip this idea, if others avoided judging a decision a leader has made, wouldn’t that be the equivalent to having no expectations?
And if we, in turn, had no expectations, might that be a way to avoid judging others?
Something to consider: Don't have a negative or a positive impression of a situation about which we have limited information. Keep no expectations (a neutral response).
Does this lead to increased levels of satisfaction and even happiness?
Thinking again, I wonder if my revised mindset is better off being, “How selfless”.