While I’m not a “gamer” in any real sense of the word, there is one that I downloaded on my phone years ago and play when I have some downtime. It’s called Wordscapes and involves rearranging a set of scrambled letters into words in a crossword-like fashion.
I’ve played it enough that I’m now at Level 2,744.
Creating something new is a challenging task - so much so that many of us don't actually take the step to create whatever is that's in our head.
The reason, as I discuss in today's episode, is that we get caught up in two specific issues that stop us from taking those essential steps forward.
It’s rare that our work appears in its full and complete form at the outset. It’s rare that we have all of our ideas, our concepts, all of our flourishes fully figured out at the start.
More often, it develops over time, through our continued work and effort. Each stage of development either reinforces our core idea and/or allows us to discard those elements that don’t fit.
It was Pablo Picasso who said, “Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good.”
I know we like to believe that what we do should be effortless and fluid, that that is what makes us “professional”.
But that isn’t the reality of real success - the kind of success that leaves a mark.
Whenever I go to Karachi, I'm amazed by how the city functions and how people go about their daily lives, especially when so much we take for granted in the west, just doesn't exist in the same way over there.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, people get on with things. They live their lives. Because it isn't just about what's around us and the way things are, it's about our own will.
If you’re going to make the time and incur the expense of attending a trade conference, it’s worth trying to actually learn something while you’re there.
I was at just such a conference recently and sat down to listen to a talk. A few minutes before the start of the session, a couple of men sat behind me and immediately launched into a conversation amongst themselves.
A short (and late) one today given other commitments - but I did want to share something I heard that really resonated with me.
I was watching the HBO show “Ballers” which stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) and in Season 5, he talks about how he thinks about living life, making decisions and moving forward.
Brands today are quite different from the brands I grew up with. Many of them are quite explicit about what the stand for and believe in, even if that narrows their target market.
These brands, I'd argue, achieve far greater loyalty and commitment than those that don't. Because, as I discuss in today's episode, consumers are sick of fitting in. And they expect brands to reflect that.
Seth Godin recently wrote about The Journal of Universal Rejection.
It’s a “journal” that allows you to submit any form of content (“…any and all types of manuscript: poetry, prose, visual art, and research articles”) which it then, without question (and, often, without any review) reject.
Like most folks, I was floored this week when I heard the news that Yvon Chouinard, the 83 year old founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Patagonia, was going to give away his company, instead of selling it or taking it public.
Specifically, ownership of the $3 Billion company (that generates $1 billion in revenues and $100 million in profits every year) would be transferred to a specially designed trust and nonprofit organization…
Our past has a tremendous bearing on where we are today. That's a fact. But if we are to have ambition, if we're to move forward, we need to let it go.
And that begins, as I discuss in today's episode, with us. We need to adjust our mindset to be one of self-control and empowerment. It's begins with us.
There’s a ton of debate these days about whether a recession is looming (or not), followed by just as much debate about whether we’re already in one.
Each side puts forward plenty of data and evidence to support their position - and if you listen to what they have to say, you can be convinced either way. So, who’s right? What’s the actual truth?
What is art?
Is it the physical artifact, the making of the physical artifact, or is it both?
Recently, Jason M. Allen won the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition under the digital art category, by submitting a piece of work he created using an artificial intelligence program called Midjourney, a software that turns lines of text into hyper-realistic graphics.
Trust is something we all intuitively believe in. We understand that it forms the foundations of each and every relationship we have, in every sphere of life.
We're, therefore, very careful about doling out our trust. It's worth realizing though that trust is a two way street - and that it's as much our responsibility to foster it, as it is the other person's.
When we lose an opportunity (a sale, a promotion, a job offer, etc.), it’s normal - and OK - to feel down, especially if it was something we really wanted. After all, if we’ve really given it everything we had, we’ve made a commitment (emotional and otherwise) which, ultimately, has not been rewarded.
So, we take the lumps.
When those we work or live with are going through challenges, large or small, we’ll often have this desire to solve their problems for them. We want to do what we can to make things easier for them and ensure they remain happy and sailing along smoothly.
This is, of course, completely understandable…
Our lives and ideas and perceptions are made up of all of our collective experiences, pieced together in different ways, sometimes elegantly, often not.
As such, how we view ourselves is, in many ways, an aggregation of these stories. It's important, then, that we focus on and interpret these stories carefully, as I discuss in today's episode.
I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Wall Street, which stars Michael Douglas, who plays probably the greatest white collar villain of all time, as well as a young Charlie Sheen as his impressionable apprentice.
It’s really an incredible film that provided some powerful social commentary on Wall Street (and, in many ways, America) in the 80s…
You might have noticed the uproar this week over a video of Sanna Marin, Finland’s Prime Minister.
It showed the politician dancing with friends at a private party (in someone’s residence) over the summer. She was enjoying herself and, as you might expect at such parties, letting loose. Well, somehow, the video was leaked online and the uproar it caused was relentless and global, as you might expect in today’s social-media driven world.
Taking on challenges can be daunting. We worry about the commitment and we worry about all of the potential outcomes. In doing so, we can be tepid in our approach.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the only way forward is as simple as it can be challenging to execute: we need to forget to be afraid.
