I wrote this blog post a year+ back but never published it. I was going through my drafts and decided to share it today. The other day, I ran across this tweet I really like: http://twitter.com/mmay3r/status/817511856898129921 I responded: http://twitter.com/joelrunyon/status/819091291892023296 I got a question from a reader afterwards that asked what do you do when you physically feel like you can't do that due to fatigue, illness or ...
Finish The Damn Thing
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. George Patton I once had employee that I had to let go. When I let him go, I went through a post-mortem of what went wrong and started reviewing some of his work. There was something like 5 projects that were all un-done. He would get to a specific part in the project (typically 80% through - almost finished) and then inevitably hit an obstacle. And instead ...
“Creative Fundraising Ideas That Worked: The 777 Project” – My Talk At The Collaborative 2019 Conference by Classy.org
Last week, I was in Boston for 36 hours to speak at The Collaborative - a conference for non-profits put on by Classy.org. This was a talk a little different than I normally do - but I spoke about a little "crazy fundraising ideas that worked" - the 777 project - the things we did right and some of the things that we could do a lot better (don't completely mess up your peroneal tendon and do 6 months or rehab in the middle of your fundraiser is one ...
10 Good Stories: The 5 Year Rule For Your IMPOSSIBLE List
10 Good Stories: The 5 Year Rule For Your Impossible List How many times have you run into someone that’s still talking about the good old days, but the good old days were high school and they’re 40? They sound like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite "How much you wanna bet I could throw a football over them mountains?"Uncle Rico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL-VX3WbA9U So how do you fix this? If you find yourself looking back - wishing ...
Hard Mode
Growing up I played video games quite a bit. I had to quit when I realized you could put all the hours I put into getting imaginary badges in a game into having real life experiences. When I picked up a new game, "easy mode" is typically how I'd jump in and learn the game. It's a bit slow, but you get the hang of things and figure out how to move around, fight the bad guys without getting pissed off and breaking the controller before you even get ...
When Good Enough Is Great
One of my favorite topics of all time is a discussion around cities. What cities do you love and what do you get when you go to individual cities?* This Paul Graham essay is a great conversation starter on this. He asks the question: What does a city whisper to you? After traveling for 2 1/2 years, I had a list of some of my favorite cities - but I became caught up looking for the perfect one. I've got a lot of places with memories and it was ...
How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything
You are what you do. Every time you act, you create a habit - even if it’s a small one. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle Everything you do is practice for who you are becoming. https://twitter.com/jamesclear/status/1048612840615997441?lang=en You are not the product of your dreams, your desires, your potential or what you could be someday, somehow, in the perfectly right ...
Drop a Plane out Of The Sky
https://twitter.com/joelrunyon/status/1117186671039131648 One of the best pieces of advice on getting "unstuck" in life I've ever heard was from Donald Miller - I've filed it away in my head as the "drop a plane out of the sky" rule. When it comes to writing characters - Don had a conversation about taking one of the characters to the next stage of the story with some more experienced writers. He thought the reason the character would change and ...
Are You Trying To Be Funny Instead of Good?
I’ve written and re-written this a couple times, but this post made me finish this out. The world wants you to be average. There’s been a subtle shift - the world won't say "average" but the world of instagram manages to perpetuate a message of “be aspirational in exactly the same way everybody else is." And if you can't do that - try to be funny. But it's hard to do hard stuff. And talk is cheap. So, what you end up with is a bunch of people afraid to ...
On 9 Years of Blogging
The blog turned 9 last week. That’s a long, long time to do anything. I celebrated it by doing something very apropos for me lately - negotiating trademarks. When it started - it was just a blog about a kid living in his parent’s basement trying to do something impossible - run an indoor triathlon. Not anything crazy. The last 4-5 years have seemed like a grinder personally. Injuries, lawsuits, ultra marathons, building schools, more lawyers, a ...
