Contribution vs. Consumption
Jeremiah Owyang is celebrating the third anniversary of his blog today and posted a handy little piece of advice: “Pay yourself first.” It’s good advice and we’ve all heard it before. What I found interesting though is in how he defines paying himself first:
“I put in a lot of passion, and read and blog nearly every morning (It’s 3:51am right now) before I check any email (which is paying someone else), have an editorial calendar, and am slowly writing drafts (there are 413 of them right now) each day as I collect little bits of information, or get ideas.”
My notice here is that his definition of paying himself first–blogging, is how I define his biggest contribution to the community. I don’t think it’s any accident that Jeremiah has risen to the blogger A-list over the last three years. To paraphrase something that Brian Klemmer said to me last week, “We define success as position, acquisition, and consumption and then wonder why well paid people don’t contribute and take responsibility.”
Congratulations Jeremiah on all you’ve accomplished and will continue to. Thanks for demonstrating a spirit of contribution!
Note: Jeremiah, Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, & Mark Silva are participating in an SFAMA panel discussion on small business, tech bloggers, and social media next Thursday night. Come join us!
Bluetrain 55/85 and the “Use” of Art
Bluetrain 55/85
I’m very excited - this week I received my Bluetrain print from Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com fame. Here is close up of the work from Hugh’s gallery site, gapingvoidgallery.com:
If you don’t know Hugh, I suggest that you take a few minutes and peruse his blog - paying particular attention to his original How to be Creative post that is coming out soon as a book titled Ignore Everybody, The Global Microbrand, and the Hughtrain. [Warning: The language in the accompanying cartoons may be offensive to some.]
The Hughtrain, is of course, the inspiration behind Bluetrain and itself was inspired by the Cluetrain Manifesto.
Here’s Hugh’s description of it:
In 2004, I wrote a manifesto, which was derivative of the Cluetrain. I called it the Hughtrain. Around that time, the idea that products were not just functional things to be mass produced and foisted upon consumers, really began to take on meaning for me. We human beings are here to find meaning, not just to consume stuff. and that has informed my philosophy ever since.
This “bluetrain” is a reworking of the cover of that manifesto, and an ideal that anyone who gets up in the morning, with fire in their belly will understand.
I first heard about the Hughtrain from Mark Silva, one of the co-founders of Real Branding, through a Twitter post around the fall of 07 and it immediately struck a cord. I’ve followed Hugh’s blog ever sense and was delighted to see that he was taking his idea of the Global Microbrand to the next step by making prints available. (And lucky me, I got in on some of his early pricing!)
The “Use” of Art
All that background to get to the real reason for this post: the Use of Art. Or rather, my use of this particular art. Why buy a print of something that Hugh offers freely on his website?
Here is why I did it: I needed it.
I needed a touchstone that I could look at and be reminded that human beings don’t scale. That in this economy when clients, colleagues, and vendors are stressed out and upset all around me, that I can’t afford to get caught up in the chaos again – and I know what it’s like to be caught up in the chaos. That the end game isn’t about how much money I make or ‘success” I achieve, but that is about how much of a difference I make in the lives of others.
I bought Bluetrain to remind me that despite how good or poor a job I am doing of it at any particular time, that it is my privilege and responsibility to become a better leader; to point the way and demonstrate the higher values of trust, responsibility, risk, hard work, and commitment. It’s not enough for me to just “get the job done” and meet the revenue goals.
Life requires more.
It requires that I honor others by investing in the people around me, that I call them up to a higher standard so they can both see and develop the confidence to reach for their higher potential. And it requires that I honor myself by taking care of me physically, mentally, and spiritually. It requires that I be willing to accept feedback and criticism and that I embrace the fact that while I can’t control the circumstances that I am still responsible for my experience. Or, in Hugh’s words:
The soul cannot be outsourced. Either get with the program or hire a consultant in Extinction Management. No vision, no business. Your life from now on pivots squarely on your vision of human potential.
That’s why I bought Bluetrain – and I know of no higher “use” for art.
Are You Throwing Rocks or Cookies?
A Tale of Two Neighbors
Last week, my girlfriend had to go out in the rain and get her dog, Pearl out of the back yard because Pearl was barking at the neighbor on the other side of the back fence. Pearl is a rescue dog and has a highly developed sense of “her” territory. It apparently extends to anything she can hear.
This neighbor, upon moving in several years ago got tired of Pearl’s barking at him every time he was in his own back yard. His solution was to throw rocks at Pearl. It was witnessed, and after being challenged, he stopped throwing rocks. But Pearl never forgave him. As a result, he has no peace in his own back yard unless my girlfriend is home to call Pearl into the house.
When a new neighbor moved into the house next door, Pearl of course began barking at him. His response? He came over, met Pearl and brought her a cookie. There after, anytime Pearl would bark, he would talk to her over the fence using her name and occasionally throw over a cookie. This neighbor is now Pearl’s new best friend of course, so she doesn’t bark at him anymore.
Which neighbor are you?
We are in a tough economy and when people feel threatened it tends to bring out their more primitive, protective nature. You are working with and around “Pearls” every day. Any client, customer, or co-worker can fall into that role.
Yes, Pearl “shouldn’t” feel threatened. Yes, you should expect to have some peace in your own back yard. Yes, the vendor should have sent you the price list. Yes, the customer shouldn’t expect an extra round of revisions for free. Yes, your coworker should have kept his deadline.
So what?
Which are you more interested in, being “right”, or getting the results? Are you throwing rocks or cookies?
A Celebration of the Now
The significance and excitement of Tuesday (1/20/09) has been almost more than I can fully realize. Yes, there is great work to be done and immense problems to be solved, however; this is a rare time for me when the emotional bests the pragmatic in my own heart. I hear the calls not only from my own practical self but others to throw off the pageantry and simply get to work with the business of turning the country around, but my heart asks a basic defiant question.
Why shouldn’t we allow ourselves and our nation to celebrate the good for the same duration as we require ourselves to mourn the bad? Certainly we elected Barack Obama to lead the nation, we expect him to hit the ground running and by all indications this is exactly what he will do but I am compelled to stop and savor this moment by allowing it to sweep me up in feelings that I would typically brush aside as having little practical merit. I feel a sense of hope and optimism and I am resolved to allow myself to experience these emotions without regret, cynicism, guilt or embarrassment.
What follows is beyond my control, but what is fully within my control is my ability to enjoy the now without hesitation, knowing full well the call to “get to work” will eventually supplant these less than pragmatic feelings. Everything we are told is important indicates that we should always look past today and into the future for inspiration or hope. If you work hard you will be promoted in the future, if you study hard you will get a better job in the future, if you are faithful you will be rewarded in the afterlife, but what these things miss is the happiness that can be experienced today.
If you are moved by Tuesday’s events I encourage you to allow yourself to get emotional and fight the urge to shake off the excitement as something which makes practical progress on the real problems facing our country impossible. Enthusiasm, optimism and hope are the fuels of change and without them the fundamental ideals of our country are impossible to achieve.
How Disillusioned Do You Want To Be?
Reading FriendFeed tonight and a particular comment stood out and got me to thinking more about disillusionment.
If 2008 goes down in history as nothing else, it will go down as a year when many realized that they were laboring under some very large illusions. The shock of those illusions falling away is evidenced daily in our headlines: the housing market, the stock market, and even personal tragedy as a result of the Madoff scandal.
We all have our illusions. And if you’re reading this, odds are that you’ve had a few of them shattered recently. I’ve certainly had my share of disillusionment and disappointment this year and frankly I don’t expect that 2009 is going to be much different.
Further more, I really don’t want it to be. By definition, to be disillusioned means to no longer be under an illusion. And how is that not a good thing?
As Stephen Covey put it so eloquently in Seven Habits, “The map is not the territory.” So, if the map isn’t the territory, the difference between the map (how we view the world) and the territory (reality – the way things really are) must be the illusion. And I think there is still a lot of gap left to be exposed.
So, what do you think is it going to be? “Back to Reality” or “More of the Same”? Which will be more difficult in the long run? How disillusioned do you want to be?