Story & Lesson Highlights with Tim Tolka

Tim Tolka shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Tim, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
A few weeks ago, I was waking up at 645. Dropping the kiddo off at Daycare at 8. In the office at the Puerto Rican electric utility in San Juan by 8:30, after about 45 minutes fighting traffic. That was the first 105 minutes of my weekdays as a research analyst for the last 20 months.

Getting laid off was a heavy shock at first but now, after a few weeks, it feels like a lucky break.

Now, I wake up in Playa del Carmen at 8 and my wife and I walk to the daycare. Then, I walk to a cafe two blocks from our apartment, order cappuccino, and settle into remote work. I have often conducted investigations as a research editor for business intelligence firms and as a consultant to individuals and organizations through my company, Free Word Associates LLC.

My work sits at the intersection of business intelligence and storytelling, finding needles in haystacks, gleaning insights from data, helping companies understand markets, and tell better stories.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
When the world gets ugly, I get to work. I’m an investigative journalist who writes screenplays and manuscripts, both fiction and nonfiction. I like to call myself a writer with a journalism problem. I do tech and financial journalism and it cross-pollinates my fiction-writing, which has veered toward sci-fi recently.

I always wanted to be a writer who could back up ideas with research. What I really liked was writing and research, and I was fascinated with international affairs, and so I decided to specialize in research and business strategy.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was a wanderer. A friend once called me an ‘executive vagabond.’ I spent around six years in 40 countries, learning five languages. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was furiously on the road.

An older writer once told me, “There isn’t a huge demand for 20-something writers. So, learn a skill or trade and that way you have something to fall back on.”

I bounced from job to job between NYC, SF, and DC, trying out positions and industries while I learned what I was good at. I sold real estate. I managed events. I taught business. It took me years to find out what I was really good at, and I learned on the road, picking things up.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
A predator attacked me in a vulnerable moment of my youth. I took it in stride, but it was a defining wound that still affects me today. I healed that wound, or have tried to, by supporting trauma survivors. The experience helped me develop empathy, a super power for any writer, as well as emotional intelligence, a great asset in business and in relationships.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
When people they can control technology, they are wrong. Also, thinking like Gordon Gecko, that “Greed is good.” These mottos are leading humanity down the road to disaster. The only consolation, I guess, is that we get to live in a high tech low life cyberpunk dystopia, which may initiate another golden age of TV, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did for a previous generation.

I also think that people get too caught up in the narrative of the market. You can listen to it, but don’t let the market narrative become your narrative. People who can ignore the noise do a lot better when the herd is running off a cliff or when there are big opportunities during a downturn.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing? 
Years ago, I turned down working in investment banking in NYC and moved to SF. I sometimes wish I had tried finance out then, but I was following my heart. I wouldn’t try to alter the path I took. Maybe I would tell my younger self:

“Trust that the journey will lead somewhere even better than you can imagine. Keep looking until you find companies whose mission inspires you.”

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Image Credits
Cecilia Cartasegna

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