Project 364

The Relevance of Online Media

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:12:10 -0500

Cheaters Never..

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:06:49 -0500

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

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:34:40 -0500

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.

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:02:06 -0500

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?

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:19:13 -0500

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

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:53:00 -0500

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..

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:31:54 -0500

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

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:44:54 -0500

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

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:34:52 -0500

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

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:57:14 -0500

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.

Don't Always Know

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:26:47 -0500

Life is built to be regimented into routine. At least the way our society works. Just about everyone works a 40-hour week, but regardless, you most likely work a routine sequence of hours.

If not, hey, that’s great. Tell me sometime what you do.

Anyhow, the work routine is a tough nut to track. Outside of asking for flex schedules, and remote work, the only thing thing that could remotely change the routine is the idea that some have (and some use) of the 4 days, 10 hour work week. But then you have 10 hour work day routines. And so on.

Let suppose you can’t fight the work routine. But what can happen with the work routine is a life routine. Everything gets easy once you’re in a comfortable rhythm, knowing exactly what’s going to happen.

Always knowing isn’t always good. There are possibilities out there that get missed all the time, possibilities erased by routine. Now, if you have everything you could ever want already, great, perhaps you should return to your routine then. Or maybe you don’t. Either way, you are missing experiences just under your radar.

Next time you opt for Thursday night pizza, opt for Ethiopian. It’s awesome, trust me. And hey, if you don’t like it, you can always try Korean BBQ the next time. Use sites like grubhub.com or urbanspoon to explore some genres. Or hell, learn to cook it on your own.

And when you sit down to eat said Korean BBQ, which I love too, try changing what you do while you eat. Talk with your family if you normally watch TV. If you normally watch network TV, try Bravo, or PBS. Better yet, get the Roku player I like harping about so much and watching something different every night.

That is, unless you’re like me, and you have a baby in the house. I’m not saying I’m immune to this, but there is a LOT of routine that follows babies. They love it. I’m doing what I can, trying to find time to mix it up a bit but still do my fatherly duties.

So if you’re a little more free of responsibility, try some things. Try them now. Because you’ll probably want to have a family someday, and it will change everything for you.

So don’t always know what you’re going to do all the time. Improvise, try, like, hate, and try again. Then let me know how it is, so I can live a bit vicariously.

Intangibility and Ritual

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:02:29 -0500

So I’m watching Velvet Goldmine right now, it’s a solid film, but what struck me to ramble this evening was the records. You know, round black things that you used to have to actually own, and put on some sort of shelf.

Well, there’s a scene with Christian Bale, yeah, Dark Knight Christian Bale. Anyhow he’s taking great care getting a record home, in a brown paper bag, and there’s a bit of an unboxing thing that happens. He slowly opens the gate-fold, and slides out the record carefully. This is when they had actual lyrics on album gate-folds too.

Then the ritual happens. The record slides out of the cover; the center imprinting considered, then the record placed, again carefully, in the record player, the peg into the hole, the rotation started, the needle lifted, and lowered. The warm groove begins, until a short time later the record ends, and another ritual begins.

I have a few records; I wasn’t quite born into the record era, though, much more the tape and especially CD era. Thus my experience with music lacks the ritualistic element, beyond glancing at the liner notes.

What’s my point? Now that music has gone fully digital — almost completely actually — we have left ritual and warmth for convenience and commodity. It’s like hey, I can fit 30,000 songs now in far less shelf space. Now I’m all for having 30,000 songs. It’s resulted in I think people being exposed to more music overall. And that’s cool.

But sometimes I mourn for what we’ve lost for it. We’ve lost each album being a gift of sorts, to unbox, sit next to as it plays and daydream. Each album had real impact; and like my minuscule record collection, every one of them has a point to being there. Not just to fill kilobytes of data, and be able to say “I can play 32.5 days of songs without repeat.”

Music has become more of a commodity than an art form to many. We try to still celebrate the music, but it seems the latest Kelly Clarkson mp3 isn’t quite the same as Quadrophenia on vinyl, now is it?

The Authentic Experience?

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:56:08 -0500

There’s been a lot of talk lately, with the “downturn” about the economy. That made me want to look into the current nature of our economy, versus previous versions through time. It’s through multiple perspectives of the economy that we’ll find the fruit just appearing, and that fruit will help us through.

I’m no economist, but if you think about how the economy works now versus, say, 800 years ago, the difference is remarkable. Before the industrial revolution, before we could make products to sell, the only option was selling what the earth provided — grain, eggs, milk and such. Then we figured out how to make stuff, and sold that stuff. Then we improved on that stuff.

Then people started being fairly comfortable with all the stuff — they kept themselves fed, warm, and dry. Once basic survival is taken care of, people start needing entertainment. That’s where the experience economy was born — as a response to a consumer need.

And now each experience is becoming customized to each consumer, addressing their needs and wants in a more and more individual way. Now there’s more of a need for an ‘authentic’ experience. In a way no experience is inauthentic — you’re there, seeing it, feeling it — that is not until experiences become fully virtual.

The challenge with delivering authentic experiences as a company is by manufacturing it in the first place you render some inauthentic, technically. And this just refers to physical experiences. What happens in the virtual space? Is World of Warcraft, for example, an authentic experience?

I would say yes, and that’s because WoW is true to itself, and is what it says. It’s true to itself by being a unique experience, a combination of clever game design with endlessly intricate stories. It is what it says by truly being a world of sorts, it is vast, and populated by lots of real people. It has countries, populations, everything a world has.

WoW is one example of an authentic experience, online. Consumers will only look for more authentic experiences like it online, with the ability to be a customized, controlled experience.

I think quite a few industries could learn a lot from what WoW offers its players, and how to offer their customers a more authentic experience.

Scare Yourself (sometimes)

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:56:41 -0500

In life there are times when its important to scare the crap out of yourself.

Not at an American ripoff of a Japanese horror film.

No, not when you open your credit card bill.

More like with something you’re going to do, that you don’t quite know how to — yet.

Good example is skydiving. Skydiving scares the crap out of me. Have I done it? No. Will I? Probably not, now that I have a daughter. But that’s not my thing; maybe its yours, and you’ll know if it makes your stomach clench up at the thought of it.

The thing is, when you defeat something you’re afraid of — like skydiving, like public speaking, or, hell, writing a novel — there is a feeling one hardly ever experiences. It’s like true and complete freedom, and it builds on your own confidence in your badass self.

So what is mine? It’s this project, right now at least. For some reason, on January 2nd, 2009, I thought, hey, what if I could write something smart (or reasonably so) every day for the entire year? That sounded really cool in the shower. Most things do.

Then I realized I have quite a bit to say, so its not impossible. Nearing the end of month one, there’s some fear setting in. What if I miss a day? What if I can do it every day? What if..

See that’s the fear, and like in Dune, fear is the mindkiller. You can know its there, acknowledge it. But don’t let yourself listen to it, or it will stop you. It’s like how I won’t listen to it; I’ll find something to talk about every day. It may get, uh, dodgy at times, but hopefully it will be always entertaining.

And that’s something to build on. So what do you want to do?

Photo

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:56:37 -0500

Be Like..Fedor?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:55:10 -0500

Fedor Emelianenko is this guy. A, uh, tough guy, you could say. He’s the guy walking away from the knocked-out guy in the picture. He’s a mixed-martial artist, who competes in MMA matches around the world, and has yet to be beaten. He’s mythical in that realm, no one can really touch him.

That guy on the ground, Andrei Arlovski, tried, then got himself countered by Mr. Emelianenko there. The story of the night was Arlovski had Fedor in “trouble”, backing him up into the corner. Then Arlovski launched a flying knee, a bit of a fancy move in MMA. Then, Fedor countered:

“There’s certain techniques that I practiced and worked on and certain scenarios and this is one of the scenarios that I anticipated,” said Emelianenko. “When that scenario came up, I knew the right thing to do was to go with the right.”

Go with the right. That’s it, just a quick overhand right and show’s over. What interested me was Fedor’s quote there, that he works on certain scenarios, and having someone come at you with a flying knee in the corner is one of them, apparently.

I think the fact that Fedor said something like that is more impressive to me than his actual knockout of Arlovski. His tone suggests he never thinks he’s in trouble, never unprepared for a “scenario” and that no one can beat him because of it. Because of his faith in his preparation, said preparation must be just insane. If you compete at the highest levels of anything, and honestly think no one can beat you because of your preparation, well, that’s something to learn from.

You see Fedor not only had his scenarios worked out — if the flying knee in the corner was one of them he must have hundreds — but he has developed his techniques enough for them to be simply muscle memory. He can do them perfect each time, because the muscles themselves know what to do.

So when Arlovski comes charging in, a couple of nodes fire, one to recognize the scenario and the other to trigger the counter, an overhand right practiced thousands of times. End result is pure effectiveness. Just ask the guy on the ground.

I’m not saying go out and figure every scenario you could be put in. Just think about how Fedor applied preparation into his art; it has become part of his strength. Whether its your personal or professional life, think of some scenarios. Situations which may occur, or have in the past. Not crazy moments, but situations that can and will happen again.

Then, think about how you’d counter. From several angles. It’s like that last interview, when you were asked what you’re weakest at. Think about that scenario from several angles, and have several counters.

That way, you won’t get beat to the punch.

Perspective, Part Two

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:46:00 -0500

Now, how to benefit from this rapid change in just about everything, due to the development of the net?

One is to realize the behavior tendencies the internet enables — its a ton of communication, no doubt, but its impersonal communication. People throw out their thoughts on sites like twitter and facebook, and hope to find someone listening. That’s all great, part of this perspective is to realize you are now able to communicate with people all over the globe, in multiple contexts and in a ton of ways.

The thing is, those connections, virtual as they are, will only get you so far. There needs to be a point where you put down the laptop and see people, face to face, and see what they’re all really about. We twitterers can create an image of ourselves that can be either authentic or a fake, like Fake Steve Jobs. You can get people to believe a lot by just being consistent at it. I would think most twitterers are a combination, mostly in an effort to create a new image of themselves. This isn’t bad per se, we just need to remember the point where we end and the image begins.

It’s really the individual connections, cemented through face to face contact, that drive us as humans. And you’ll find that friend on twitter will be an even better friend after a couple of beers and some good conversation. The moral of the story is: be accessible. No one likes someone who just talks but doesn’t listen. Be willing to listen to everyone, and do it as much as you can. Show a bit of empathy too, while you’re at it.

A great story to visualize all this is the difference between Obama, er, President Obama, and McCain’s online campaigns. Obama, at some level, realized the importance of the online community in the election and brought in exceptionally smart people. People who knew the online space, not just knew of it. It drove his fundraising, then it drove his social networking. He became known for his efforts and it became a stark contrast to McCain’s pedestrian efforts. The GOP really is going to be at a disadvantage unless they learn from it, real fast. And considering how handily Obama won, I’d say his accessibility, through his social networking efforts, made him not only into a viable candidate but a kind of rock star that everyone became fans of.

So be available. Not just that, seek people out. Talk, but listen. Hear, respond, interact. There’s lots of opportunities. Oh, and be nice.

Perspective, Part One

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:17:03 -0500

Lately, at least to me, it has been easy to lose a sense of perspective. Perspective on what all this, and my this I mean the internet in general, and how it has evolved, grown, and connected to other channels.

Think about it this way — the internet was invented. There was a time, not too long ago, mind you, when it did not exist. People would call each other, or even write. They would meet each other in supermarkets, bars, street corners and other unusual ways. They wouldn’t know complete strangers in other cities, and especially other countries.

They watched TV. And the commercials. Because they had too. Unless they recorded their shows on VHS and fast-forwarded it. But I didn’t know anyone that had that many tapes.

To show the true contrast between not that then and now, I’ll back a bit to my childhood in the 80’s. My friend list was the kid next door, across the street and a few blocks over. We played things called Atari, and Nintendo, and built tracks for our radio-controlled cars. We didn’t have myspace pages, facebook profiles or twitter account. And yet, we had a good time. We got into trouble, started a few things on fire, and built with Legos that didn’t have manuals.

But generations move on, and I’m sure our activites may have sounded crazy to those before. But for some reason it really seems there’s the most contrast in how we live today than from even 15 years ago.

Then, there wasn’t an internet. Not at all. Not a public one at least. I remember using modem to dial local bulletin-board services to connect into message boards, and multi-user dungeons. Now that text-based MUD has become World of Warcraft, which looks amazing, but in a way totally insane.

And yet with the MUD, the boards and such, I was ecstatic that I could reach all these people. Now, it seems like almost too much. Too easy. There’s a impersonal quality building that is a bit worrisome.

Tomorrow, the benefits of the proper perspective on all this.

Facing Fear

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:43:23 -0500

There’s a lot of times in life when hesitate. We aren’t sure. We don’t know what to do. They’re these little moments where fear manifests itself and stops us.

It stops us from moving. From acting. From taking a risk. From trying. From succeeding, and from failing.

There are good aspects to fear. Like pain, it can tell you when to stop, when danger is imminent. However it can keep you from making important decisions.

It’s called being safe. Now, safe, sometimes is good. Like looking before crossing the street. Or not grabbing a hot pan.

But sometimes, its not. Like a decision to try something new. And outside of things like drugs, new things can be really eye-opening, and even change your life. People tend to unconsciously associate failure with fear, with taking risk always the precursor to imagined failure.

What’s funny, maybe, is that the safe route can lead to failure too. It’s not always the thing to do. In a recession or downturn like now, everyone defaults to acting conservatively. This is the perfect time to take a risk. I just read a blog that talked about it, and said “and if you fail, you can always blame the economy!”. But considering the conservative sameness of those around you, it could be just the thing to differentiate.

Next time something scares the crap out of you, try it. I’m not saying do something stupid, and there’s such things as calculated risks.

Let’s say its an idea. Sometimes, ideas will make you feel lukewarm. Others will make you feel mildly good, and the rare one will scare you. You won’t know how to do it, how to sell it, maybe not even how to visualize it.

But the fear that it will instill in you won’t leave. That’s where you face it.

And take the risk.

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:08:57 -0500

I’ve touched on this a bit in various ways, so I figure I should directly address it.

Failure.

It seems to be a fairly universal feeling now, with thousands and thousands of people being laid off, and businesses shutting down. We are being put into bad situations, and we are beyond the point of finger pointing. Since we are all feeling a degree of this pain right now, perhaps some ways of approaching it will be timely.

First off, as mentioned earlier, take responsibility for what was your doing — to be accountable and gracious in these situations will often lead to other opportunities. In other words, you can’t win all the time, look at the Patriots from last year. They lost the most important game. Realizing this, have a way to deal when you do lose. And make that being gracious, and agreeable. No one likes a sore loser. If you can be gracious about it, the faster you can move on to the next thing.

Next, get up quickly. Don’t let a momentary slip ground you forever. It’s like stumbling on a crack in the sidewalk — you keep walking after the stumble, but you remember that crack was there and learned from it. The important thing is to not let yourself fall down, and stay down. Get up, and get up fast. No point in wallowing in your own self-pity.

Before you move on, take a hard look at what occurred. It is often said we can learn more from our failures than our successes, and I believe it. Consider your failures your biggest learning opportunities. Have a thorough post-mortem, or, as I like to call them, after-parties. Dissect, break down, analyze. Find pieces to learn from for the future. The more you do this the more you can avoid what might have caused it. Spend the most time here, analyzing, learning, seeing cause and effect. Turn the failure into opportunity by learning from it. Without this part you lose any possibility of turning it around into something positive, so do it and do it well.

And finally, take a moment before you move on to realize you’re human. You, and everyone else, makes mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself or others. Be understanding of the human condition. Computers crash because they’re flawed objects created by flawed humans. But often its our flaws that give us character, that sets us apart. If we are were perfect, and looked the same, who would we be?

Realize, too, that if you are out there, trying hard, taking risks and sharing ideas, you will fail sometimes. That’s how it is. But do not stop doing what you think is right, and taking risks and getting after it because you slip once in a while.

Just make sure you learn from it when you do, and you’ll be alright.