There’s a book “Obvious Adams” about the power of obviousness (Taylor does a good review of it here). The gist of the story is about a young man looking to start out in his career and he makes his career out of doing nothing but the obvious thing. The book is a quick read, but details "Adams'" stunning success as he goes from entry-level employee to executive - just by asking the obvious question, and doing the obvious thing. Where others would be ...
Doubters Are Better Fuel Than Haters
It’s pretty common for people to rant online about their “haters.” They fuel their identity and work around proving these ‘haters’ wrong. There’s a level of narcissism about this. Thinking that people are spending their entire day not just passively thinking about you but actively hating on you. It might be the case - but often haters ar just people making critical feedback, asking questions. They might even have a good point. If you think ...
Common ≠ Normal
One the sneaky ways society lulls you into complacency is word f*ckery. Word f*ckery Using similar words to draw you into a state of complacency and confuse you into labeling yourself a certain way. Exhibit A: Using the word “normal” and "common” interchangeably. Society pretends they’re interchangeable. They’re not. Here’s what I mean: There are plenty of issues that people deal with that are common - it has nothing to do with whether ...
The Seven Stages of Learning Something New
When’s the last time you learned something new? A weird aspect of adult life is people are obsessed with learning for the first 20 years of their life, but care less about what specifically they’re learning. Then, a large majority assume that they’ve learned everything they ever can learn and are the same person for the next 50 years until they take a dirt nap. I wrote last week about pulling the trigger and crossing kitesurfing off my impossible list. ...
“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 ...
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 ...
Drop a Plane out Of The Sky
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 move on was because "he wanted to." “That’s not how it ...
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 ...
You Have To Be Better
As I was outlining my 2019 goals, I could feel part of me start to shrink back. There was a piece of me that said “you can’t do that.’ And I almost started to believe that I could. But it was different than how I used to think about “you can’t do that.” Instead of not just believing that I could do that. I looked at my current habits and realized that “you can’t do that” if you keep doing things like you’re currently doing them. In some ways - ...
What Could You Be Wrong About?
In my latest annual review, not a lot of things went well. It got a little laborious to keep reviewing what specifically went wrong because the list just kept looking like "all of it." So after beating myself up a bit, I shifted and started to ask myself another question: What might you be wrong about? This is a lot less fun of a question so ask. With "what" went wrong - it's easy to blame stuff - not named you - for things that happened. It's easy to ...
