Project 364

The Relevance of Online Media

Cheaters Never..

Look to the media each day and you’ll find something worth squeezing some wisdom.

Today, and for the past few days.  It’s been Alex Rodriguez.  Or A-Rod for short.  Boy, tough year for him.  A few days ago, a positive test for steroids was linked to him from 2003.  This is back when baseball didn’t ban steroids, as they didn’t realize players were using them, and the effects, blah blah.

What that means is A-Rod won’t be punished most likely, because it wasn’t technically banned when he used the drugs in 2003.

And after being put into a bit of a corner, he came out today and admitted taking them from 2001-2003.  After he signed his ginormous contract with the Rangers.  His excuse was “I was under a lot pressure” because of that contract.  Well, yeah, but that doesn’t exactly justify cheating.  Nothing does.

So now maybe he gets some positive sentiment because he admitted using.  But that was only because the release of the tests from 2003 basically forced him to.  That’s not very noble.  The right thing to do was admit it when they banned it, when he was at no risk.  There’s going to be a lot of talk of where A-Rod stands now, with fans, the media, and brands.  A-Rod surely makes enough to not care about sponsorships, but now he should completely ignore it because, like Bonds, no brand is going to want to be associated with that behavior.

You pair this with this marriage breaking up, and the alleged behavior spawning that, and you get an idea of what this guy was, or is.  It shows you people can give you two very different faces — the stern professionalism on the field countered by stunning immaturity off it.

With A-Rod being the only person really with a chance at topping Bonds’s record, will both records be marked with asterisks?

If Bonds’s is, then A-Rod has to be.  Because he averaged like 50 home runs during that span, about 11 more a year than his “clean” years.

This is depressing.  It really is.  But in a way, not surprising.  What’s the wisdom? Cheaters may win for a while, but they lose in the end.

Schmexperts

I’ve been learning the ins and outs of social media for a little while now, and I’ve seen a fair amount of people claiming to be “experts”, “mavens”, and a bunch of other adjectives.

Now I’m sure some of them are.  Or maybe more like a few.  The others are just regurgitating information and jumping up in line.  It goes to show you though, how quickly and thoroughly information gets shared in formats easily understood.  That’s the most brilliant part of this whole social media phenomenon — a lot of people are ramping up and helping develop the entire philosophy.

It’s like crowdsourcing a channel — imagine how much more amazing TV would be if an entire community helped develop it?

What it all shows is how the channels of communication in the future will be developed.  By many, and through that they will be far superior.  This whole world we’re utilizing right now will be much different, and it won’t be that far away.

The key, with all this momentum, is to maintain a clear understanding that we’re all just learning.  Nothing is science yet, but its getting there.  The real experts are learning too, and they’re the first to admit it.  This attitude is what will instigate new forms of communication, collaboration and creation.

Because as we learn, we learn to push.  We learn to make things better than they are.  We should never accept anything is perfect.

Oops.

So the basis of this project is I write something helpful, funny, or otherwise interesting every day for 364 days.  Hence 364 posts.

But I didn’t do it yesterday.  Life, you could say, got in the way.  This left me wondering what to do.  Do something new? Change the concept entirely?

No.

Because this is a great example of how everything you imagine sometimes doesn’t play out perfectly.  And that’s ok.  With this economy as it is, and with a lot of people losing their jobs, there seems to be a lot of focus around failure.  Accordingly, I’ve written a fair amount on it now, because it’s vital to respond to hardship correctly, otherwise it will eat you up like a giant (fail) whale.

I could have quit after missing Friday.  I could have hacked Tumblr to sneak an entry there for Friday.  I could’ve renamed and moved on.  But I like what this concept challenges me to do.  And I think this misstep is something you and I can learn from.

First, we evaluate what went wrong, and like I’ve said before, take responsibility for it.  I screwed up, I didn’t focus on what I had to do Friday.  I can blame it on having a lot to do.  Or having a baby.  But I’m not.  That’s the first mistake, blaming something else.  I didn’t focus on it — I didn’t get it done.  End of story.

Second, work out a strategy to avoid repeating it — in my case it will be to write earlier, I’ve been tending to this late in the day and that can get you stuck, like I was stuck yesterday.

And finally, like Churchill said, don’t give up, don’t ever give up.  Especially because of a mistake.  We’re human, it happens.  So I’m not quitting either.

The Future of Marketing?

Much has been said about Twitter in the last year.

Useless.  Fad.  Annoying.

But also, innovative.  Personal.  Inclusive.  Amazing.

After doing a fairly deep dive over the last few months, I can categorically say its a great thing.  But with all great things, it is only great if managed correctly.  You need to be careful about the people you follow.  You also should have an idea of what you want out of it; whether its just to share, learn, or just meet people.

Twitter is a fantastic way to meet strangers, and with the various tools and the way people reference others, you can find people who’s interests are near your own.  That way you minimize the irrelevant chatter most people critical of Twitter harp on.

What it allows is one-to-one conversations, with people normally you’d have no contact with.  That’s pretty cool.  There’s real experts on there, and its a great place to learn.

Then I look at it as a marketer.  As a channel for my clients to talk to their consumers directly.  There are a group of brands on Twitter working hard; notably H&R Block, Whole Foods, and more recently Overstock.com.  I was quite impressed with Overstock, after I followed them they returned the favor, and read this blog.  In other words, they did their homework on me.

Me, being ONE person.  But it impressed me, and I’m not easily impressed with marketing efforts.  Thus I ponder what impact a brand could have if it spoke to consumers in this truly personal way, at a total ground level.  Needs will be understood, products improved, experiences crafted.

And that’s the kind of marketing I look forward to.

Transparency

There’s a lot of talk these days about being transparent.

An open book.  Open to all reading, whether critical or not.  This relates to some previously mentioned thoughts on accountability — by being transparent, you hold yourself accountable for all that can be seen.

That is not simply being able to take blame for mistakes; that is holding yourself up to your own strengths and weakness on an ongoing basis.  That is truly knowing who you are, and what you are, and not being either ashamed or afraid of it.

Sometimes we pretend to be more, or less, than what we are.  We put forth acts, acts to make us appear to be more experienced, knowledgeable, or skilled in certain areas than we already are.  Problem is, acts get found out.  And when that happens, the whole point of the act drops like a curtain.

Point is, be transparent.  And by being transparent, you’re just being yourself.  Don’t claim to be what you’re not, don’t claim to know what you’re not.  Be honest with yourself about what you know, and especially what you don’t know.

All those things you don’t know? Get busy and learn.  The best possible person I could imagine working with is completely open about their strengths, their weaknesses, and how they’re addressing their weaknesses.  Then I least I’ll know what to expect from them, and what not to.  And maybe how I can help them learn.

See, that’s how being transparent not only helps you, but those you work with.

How You Fight..

Ran across a great post relating how someone behaves under pressure in a fight (in this case in World of Warcraft) reveals a lot about them as a professional and a person.

While I agree, it made me wonder if there’s some unexplored methods for assessing people for new roles.  Could it be more than questions like “what’s your greatest weakness” and “tell me when you had to address a crisis”?

For me, assessing talent exists primarily in the portfolio.  Or even the resume.  If someone puts in the effort to make their resume, a vessel of information, look good and say what it needs to, that’s some points.  Got a typographic sense to you? Even better.  You can see a ton in the portfolio, of course; not just the work itself, but how its presented.  Sometimes I become more interested in the canvas than the paint, especially if its cleverly done.

Anyhow, once I interview said designer, it usually involves identifying their role, as usually designers fail to provide detail on their projects.  You see for those of us evaluating you for our needs, we need to know what you did in each piece.  Websites are often team efforts, so unless you really did the whole thing, make sure you get into that.

But beyond hearing how a designer operates within a team, and what they’re in to, there’s not a lot else to talk about.  By then I’d know if I was interested at all; but what if there was a way to measure intangibles?

Intangibles like drive, ambition, flexibility, and improvisation? A lot of what we do is being in pressurized situations. Where you have to figure out a fix in a pinch. Not quite like fights, but if you can keep your cool while being attacked, then that’s an intangible, and probably translatable in a professional environment.

Does this mean I can start playing WoW in the name of recruiting? Hmm.

Get Paranoid

I’m perusing the latest 24 this evening, and everyone on it is paranoid.  That’s because everyone on it is corrupted or compromised or otherwise shady.  They all have agendas, hidden agendas and double agendas.  They backstab, double-cross, and otherwise make for entertaining television.

What’s the point? Consider those around you.  Think about outside motives for a few.  I’m not saying be paranoid, per se, but be informed of those working around and with you.  Why? Because they have motives too.  It’s true that everyone is out for themselves.  People support families, mortgages, debts and other responsibilities, so they will foremost do what’s in their best interests.

Once you have a realization and acceptance of this, you can move on to how to utilize it.  Because you’re out for you, too.  It’s fairly simple to find who will collaborate with you, and help your efforts, and who will collaborate with you and take your ideas for their own credit.

First, come up with a simple but good idea.  A quick solution to a current problem. Don’t make it something monumental as you’ll be potentially sacrificing it.

Then, bring in someone you either want to confirm as an honest collaborator or you suspect is an idea snatcher.  Tell them your idea, and say you want to work with them to run it by your bosses.

When you sit down with your bosses to talk about it, let the other person go over it.  See how they phrase it, if they specifically mention the idea that was yours, and if they credit you there for it. Or, see if the idea somehow makes it to your bosses before you can bring it up together.

The trustworthy person will not let it leak, and will refer credit to you when pressed to describe the idea.  These are the people you want to work with.  The others, not so much.

It’s not so bad to be a little paranoid in this way.  It’s just reality.

The Wonder

This evening I did something rather simple that brings me a lot of joy.

I helped my wife give my baby daughter a bath.

There’s joy there, but the part I’m talking about is simply blowing bubbles for her while my wife gives her a good scrub.  I’ve always had a thing for bubbles — I once owned a bubble machine — and was not exactly sure why.

Now, I think I know.  Bubbles are a thing of wonder.  They’re a bit strange, always different, beautiful, and very temporary.  Sometimes I notice they even float UP.  That freaks me out.

More important than that, the joy is seeing her respond to the bubbles.

As we get older, I think somehow we learn to mask our wonder at things, and how it manifests in our faces.  We learn to hide things from each other, masking our true responses to life.  We think it makes us weaker, gives away how we feel.  It’s like we’re taught in a school of restraint.  Feel everything, but show nothing.

Well, I’ve had enough of that.  In many ways babies have a lot of things right.  They haven’t been around long, haven’t learned to speak, read, or walk.  They poop themselves, and constantly drool all over the place.

Yet they react with utter joy at simple things, and are utterly transfixed by things of wonder, like bubbles.  They let you know when they’re mad, tired, or bored, without restraint.  They smile easily.  And cry easily.  But you always know how they feel.

Let’s let our emotions be our strength, not our weakness.  Show your joy at things, your fear, your pain.  We’ll understand each other a bit more for it.

Persistence and Goals

This is the end of my first month at this.  Haven’t missed a day yet.  Nearly have a couple of times, and what started out as an experiment has become quite important to me.  I put off a bit of sleep for it, continually telling myself I will manage my time better to post earlier in the day.  That would be a goal.

On to the topic.  Both are important.  Super important.  But both require careful thought.  You need one for the other, and its hard to get at the other without the one.  If that makes any sense.

What I’m trying to say is creating goals for yourself are important.  But thought-out ones.  Goals that aren’t completely ridiculous, but not easy either, unless your strategy is to build upon simple goals to something loftier.  But if you have unreasonable goals, you will fail, and become discouraged.  That’s not too cool.

A good goal is creating something concrete out of something you are in to.  Say, if you like bikes, perhaps building your own bike, then running a bike shop or repair shop.  It’s good to sequence goals so you get some momentum going.

With momentum, you need persistence to get at the harder goals.  Like running a bike shop, or one of my longer-term goals, running a design shop.  These are the types of goals you can’t be naive about, and really need to ascertain what you know and don’t know.  I found I didn’t know a lot about the business side of things, so I’m learning that aspect.  Persistence will help you consider a goal from a few angles, so you can understand your strategy to attain it inside of a few scenarios.  Like Fedor from earlier.

I have a goal with this blog to write something useful every day for 364 days.  I’m 31 days in, and doing ok.  I’m finding the more I do the more momentum I have, like I said before, and the more serious I take this goal.

So set your goals, and keep at them.  Because the more you work towards them, even the smallest amount, the more you’ll persist to achieve them.