In a nutshell, Mind coffee is a space to make the big picture big. Our vision of the world is easily limited to the spot we focus on and many times we don’t even know what we are missing there. So we may limit our understanding of the world to an unconsciously biased image that we form and fail to update. So Mind Coffee is a space intended to take an impartial and open view into another person’s perspective to have a wider vision, challenge paradigms and learn.

This project is sort of a version 2 of an older interview project called “Kaffee mit den Außergewönnlicher”, which roughly translates as “A coffee with the out of the ordinary” which consisted in a conversation with a person I admired, saw as a role model at something or was outstanding on a field of interest for me. This was an very enriching experience at the time! Many times it gave the answer to a question I hadn’t even though about yet.

The intention here is to post the best learning I can gather form these great people and post summarized conclusions here. Eventually this could also be a podcast.

People I’ve learned from:

• Esteban “Chicho” Quesada: Entrepreneur and Crossfit games athlete(and world’s top six!).
• Terra Jackson: Coach and Hyrox/Deka athlete(and record holder!).

Summarized lessons: People’s leading principles

Have you heard of Amazon’s Leadership Principles?

Amazon LP’s are a set of fundamental values and guidelines that shape the company’s culture and drive its decision-making processes. On amazon’s workflow, the LP’s set path to success and the guidelines in all areas like hiring, developing, promoting, as well as to make strategic and operational decisions.

These principles were built from a process of continuous refinement and leadership development. In a similar manner, in MindCoffee I try to discover what are these people’s personal “LPs” on different areas.

Sport principles

In the field of sports and coaching, these are the key principles I’ve learned so far:

• Desire your race: Sports should make you feel excited, give yourself time to feel that way. A mental burn can hit as hard as physical burn. (Terra Jackson)
• Pay attention to the body:The body tells you what you should do. And is very loud when asking for a push back. (Terra Jackson)
• Sport is a privilege:Your competitive years are too short to live injured and anxious about starting a season with an injury. Health is more important than a race. (Terra Jackson)
• Race/train from identity: Don’t follow other’s path. Discover who you are and from it define what you do, how you race/train and at which level. If you are not willing to put your best effort on your sport, re-evaluate who you are and what you are doing. (Terra Jackson, Chicho)
• Find your sweet spot: Ask yourself, “How can I enjoy sports and see progress?” (Terra Jackson)