Agency and Life Architecture with Paul Millerd and Steve Schlafman

This week’s Learning Nugget comes from a special two-guest episode.

Paul Millerd is a former consultant at McKinsey and BCG turned author, writer of a weekly newsletter, and committed solopreneur. He teaches consulting secrets at StrategyU and is best known for hosting hundreds of Curiosity Conversations with strangers online, making friends worldwide.

Joining Paul is Steve Schlafman, a certified professional coach, speaker, newsletter writer, podcaster, angel investor, and recovering venture capitalist inspired to help high performers manifest their next calling.

This conversation originated on Twitter (now X), where Schlaf announced that he was shutting down the fund he was about to launch. He had raised tens of millions of dollars but decided to give all of that back to investors to concentrate on his coaching business.

Schlaf was done with the solopreneur path, or in his case, the solo-capitalist path, and was ready to find his posse.

Paul jumped in and said, “I am whatever the opposite of this is.”

At first it seemed obvious that they have fundamentally different outlooks on work and life. But the more our conversation evolved, the more lessons we unearthed that are applicable to anyone, no matter the path you take.

You’ll learn about:

• Agency and being the architect of your work and life.
• The importance of narrowing focus to achieve incredible results.
• Departing from the traditional path and the pressure of judgment.
• Understanding what “enough” is and learning to live with it.
• Finding the space to experiment with life.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this Learning Nugget with Paul Millerd and Steve Schlafman.

Full Episode

Guest Links

For Paul:

• LinkedIn
• Boundless by Paul Millerd
• StrategyU
• Curiosity Conversations
• X (formerly Twitter)

For Steve:

• LinkedIn
• Website
• Where the Road Bends Podcast
• X (formerly Twitter)

Show Notes

• [03:28 – 06:30] Agency and the process of architecting work and life.
• [06:31 – 09:53] Creating space to simply explore.
• [09:54 – 13:59] The trials of becoming an agent of one’s own time.
• [14:00 – 21:53] Dissonance and harmony in personal identity.
• [21:54 – 23:48] Answering “Who am I if I’m not a worker?”
• [23:49 – 28:49] Paul and Steve’s takes on legacy and optionality.
• [28:50 – 31:35] Looking forward to the future.

👉 Continue the conversation with me on LinkedIn.