It was never my fault for getting a D in school, it was my teacher - she just did not get me.
I couldn’t believe it when they pulled me off a work project; does my boss know how valuable I am?!
Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror, suck it up, and get past the delusion; it’s hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame someone else, and especially the people nearest of all to them.
We’re all moving forward, life is in motion. You failed, it’s ok.
Try again.
We live in a world of innumerable paths.
All of us have an amount of freedom and potential to decide upon a goal and achieve it. Disney put it best, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
However, it seems that most of us take action based on cultural and logical considerations that we should take-on particular interests and then consequently take interest in them.
The more I study about extraordinary people of history; the more I see that they typically acted outside of what was expected and instead focused on what burned inside of them. Call it passion, a vital force, heart - whatever it is, they choose a path and cared only for that one.
It feels safe and comfortable to go with the flow of culture; to float along and wait for opportunity - nothing could be more wasteful. It is, and has always been the people who find their own opportunity and act out of conviction who bring about the greatest amount of change.
Trust is the most valuable asset that you could ever receive from a customer. The thing about consent is that a consumer gives it to your particular brand, not other brands.
If your style, service, and marketing is excellent (or getting there); and you’d like to continue to deepen the pockets of your consumers you need to build trust, and that is gained from anticipated, frequent and relevant messaging.
Don’t ever waver.
The temptations will come,
We’d like the opportunity to work with organization and launch a Facebook campaign that would greatly benefit your organization. If you were to promote our site and products to your fans, we would give your fans a discount on the order (typically 10%) and give 20-30% back to your business for each order placed.
This is shit. This is spam. This is bad business.
If you want to help yourself, help your customers first – don’t confuse them, don’t spam them.
Trust is hard to earn and stupidly easy to lose.
I’d be honored if you recommended me in the Tumblr Directory. Here.
I’m coming to believe that artists are some of the bravest people on earth. The process of creation lives outside of compliance; it’s the decision to produce something that never existed beforehand.
Van Gogh lived underappreciated during his lifetime, yet he produced more than 2,000 artworks despite never receiving public affirmation. Only after his death were his paintings embraced and celebrated –
Could you imagine?
2,000 artworks that relatively no one cared about, maybe that’s not so bad if painting was just a pet hobby; but what if it’s your life passion?
That’s a hard pill to swallow. Seems like 2,000 painful failures.
Who knew that later 7 of the 36 most valuable paintings in the world would be his?
Van Gogh’s bravery to paint in spite of failure is inspiring; would you be willing to do anything 2,000 times only to be rejected again and again?
Maybe in the end, it was Van Gogh’s unfaltering persistence to create that paved the way for his future success.
Cultural anthology class – it was my favorite.
“Culture is a tangled web which we ourselves have spun.”
That’s what my teacher said, it’s some heavy thinking. If it’s a true statement, then we’re responsible for our culture, it means we can choose to alter dogma and new systems of belief can be established.
Wild.
Cultural synchronicity is the word I’ve been using lately to describe the idea that if something (writing, clothing, art, widgets; anything) is produced with anticipated frequency – someone will always follow.
No matter who you are, you’re influenced by others, we all are. The question to wonder is -
Who are your influences, and, are you following (reblogging) their influence, or are you adding your unique authority to the conversation?
You can take control; you can be a cultural visionary.
It’s easy, start doing something - often.
I love Temple Bags and clothes by Apolis –I don’t need to pay the high prices logically, I could find similar style products at a cheaper cost easily.
I’m not going to though.
I want them because I believe that the clothes and bags are made ethically, with the highest attention and scrutiny – I trust the brands because I know them. More importantly, I like how I feel when I wear them.
It’s the same reason you drink Coke instead of Pepsi (or vise versus), it’s most certainly not because one tastes better than the other.
We are irrational.
Seldom do we use logical discernment to makes decisions, more often; we rely on past experiences, emotions, and ‘gut’ intuition to determine our choices.
We are the stories we tell ourselves, and that’s what branding is – mythology.
Building a brand is building trust - if you build trust, you get my wallet.
You’re driven, determined to make a difference.
You know that one day you’ll become the next media mogul, or perhaps, you’ll fight to make a huge difference in public policy and be the next Senator of Nebraska.
Fact is, you’ve got a vision and you are going to fight to make it reality.
It’s easy to embrace a trajectory of success and look for self-fulfillment in who you could be, rather than who you are. Its a dangerous game, if you resent who you are today, there is a good chance you’ll resent who you are tomorrow, next month, and years from now.
Life is a balancing act.
Fight for who you know you can be, but love the journey – the means justify the end.
If you seek, you will be sought.
There is some ungodly statistic that says the number of media impressions that you are exposed to is something like 3,000 advertising messages a day.
It’s disgusting. Corporations spend billions vying for your attention; but it’s understandable – if you’re in business, you’re in the business of collecting eyes and ears.
Without attention, no one buys your service, product, or story.
But it’s also a huge waste of money and if you’re not a mega corporation – you can’t (and shouldn’t allow yourself to) afford traditional advertisements.
Think about deep versus wide marketing; focus on the customers who already know you and deepen their relationship (and money spend) with your brand – rather than, tiring to win a wide customer segment.
Leverage less people, gain more relation.
Just like life, it’s better to have real relationships versus a thousand superficial friends – business is like high school.
Want to be a better entrepreneur?
Hang out with other entrepreneurs.
Nothing is more refreshing than to meet individuals who are challenging cultural norms. People who wake up daily and ask, ‘how can I change the world today?’
If you want to do something remarkable, it’s going to be really hard to do it all alone.
Find some friends.
Tech nerds. Business Suits. Marketing Wiz Kids. Visionaries.
It’s amazing how it inspires and pushes to be surrounded by movers.
I’ve found that when I settle upon an idea that I find to be interesting it consumes me- and, after hours of construction I convince myself that the thought is the most correct.
I’ve been working on my first start-up, Swapdoodles, for about 6 months – the concept is that if you send in a doodle, we’ll mix it up with someone else’s and send you theirs. It’s a simple social way to connect.
It’s been a great learning experience and I’m astounded at the community that the experiment has brought together; people from all around the world have participated and drawn connections hundreds of time over.
However, the business model has been based on a multi-sided platform approach that assumes that building a small to midsized user base will attract marketers to advertise and keep the business sustainable.
I think it could still…
However, what if I had kept (or keep) pressing and pushing the business model into something completely different? Try a few prototypes to see if the model scales sustainably?
I came upon this fantastic quotation,
If you freeze an idea too quickly, you fall in love with it. If you refine it too quickly, you become attached to it and it becomes very hard to keep exploring, to keep looking for better. The crudeness of the early models in particular is very deliberate.
- Jim Glymph, Gehry Partners
It’s a reminder that we can push ourselves to grow and innovate if only we push past the good idea and fight to find the great one.
