Mast and Anchor: High Agency

"If the wind will not serve, take to the oars."

 -Latin proverb

There's something that draws us to people who refuse to be passengers. The risk takers who bend with the wind rather than break trying to fight their calling.

Most of us possess agency. The ability to act independently and make decisions within the boundaries and constraints of our environment. Within a box, we exhibit autonomy. We raise our masts to catch favourable winds and drop anchor when we need stability.

Then there are the outliers. The few that take to the oars when the wind will not serve. The only limits that exist are the ones they haven't broken. To them, obstacles are feedback loops. Problems aren't dead ends but puzzles waiting to be solved. "No" is the start of the negotiation, not the end.

This is high agency.

 It's easy to associate it with spotlight names. But high agency isn't just found in headlines, it lives closer in the people around us.

At 16, Ngākohu started creating content from a small town in New Zealand as a form of self-expression. Refusing to accept the limitations of his environment, he launched a clothing brand. At 19, he migrated to Western Australia, landed a mining job with zero experience. Within two years, became a heavy machinery operator earning six figures and built a reputation as a future leader in the business. He has continued to grow his content and clothing brands, by leveraging his mining roster to network with other creators and entrepreneurs and investing a portion of his salary in education and equipment.

In 2019, at 38, Matt, a husband and father, had a stable job with an airline and good income. His job however, required him to travel, often spending several days at a time away from his young family. Refusing to miss the crucial years of his kids lives, and against advice from friends and family, he quit and started a lawn mowing business with zero experience. During COVID, while others struggled, he grew. He used the challenges of that period to position his business as a brand that could be trusted and relied upon during the most trying of times. Now he’s launching a drone photography business, another new venture with no experience, no blueprint. Just initiative.

Peter Drucker once said

 "The best way to predict the future is to create it"

High Agency isn't reserved for just the entrepreneur and creator.

It's in the farmer’s field. A parents fear. An immigrants struggle or a student’s ambition.

The metrics aren't measured by wealth and status, but the refusal to accept what is and the action taken to forge a path.

 Before Eric Weinstein coined the term in 2016, history called high agency many different names.

 Radical Responsibility. Will to Power. Self-Efficacy.

 Different words. Same truth.

 On an ocean of uncertainty, where most seek the safety of the harbour, they look to the horizon.

 Those who possess this trait understand, that smooth seas never made a skilled sailor.

 That life begins at the edge of comfort.

High agency isn't taught.

It's awakened and honed into a compass that points true north.

But the ultimate decider comes down to a simple choice.

When the wind will not serve, will we take to the oars?