Category: Opinion

Know Your Work

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I borrowed Linchpin (by Seth Godin) from a co-worker to read over the weekend.  The following may be found on page 130:

Your work is to create art that changes things, to expose your insight and humanity in such a way that you are truly indispensable.

Your work is to do the work, not to do the job.  Your job is about following instructions; the work is about making a difference.  Your work is to ship.  Ship things that make change.

Like many of Godin’s books, Linchpin is filled with insight delivered as if he’s sitting across from you at the local Starbucks.  But as I read and re-read these lines I struggle to think of any better career advice:

  • Create art that engenders change; and think of yourself as an artist
  • Express your insight and ideas constructively
  • Know your work and do it.  Know when you are working and when you are not
  • Ship your work

So much time is spent on performance reviews.  Read Linchpin and spend some time on a perspective review as we start another work year.

Superhero

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My youngest son is in a Superhero phase.  He wakes up too early in the morning, wakes me up, and then decides which Superhero he will be for the day.  Did you know that Spider-man wears red socks?  We are starting to get some odd looks at preschool because he arrives wearing a Batman or Spider-man costume.  I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable until I realized that he was right:

Wake up every day and choose to be a Superhero.

Fewer Choices Make Happier Phone Customers?

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Droid or iPhone…Driod or iPhone.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the replacement for my aging Blackberry.  Here’s the dilema…my choice has little if anything to do with the ability to make a call.  I use a Mac at home and I may never go back to a PC for personal use.  Let me correct that last statement…I love using a Mac at home.  It’s a work of art, and it appeals to my appreciation of design and aspiration to create something magnificent (whether I do or have is an entirely different question).  My wife has an iPhone and we have plenty of apps on it.  I’m not entirely sure what apps I would download immediately.  But I am certain that the iPhone will work as intended and not require a lot of fiddling to enjoy it.

The Droid will work with my current wireless provider.  I am in awe of its power and utility.  It’s a Google phone with endless possibility for development and customization.  I would really like to think that I’m as smart as the average Google employee  and that I have enough time to explore my choices and implement them quickly.  But the truth is that I’m not a rocket scientist and I’m always short on time.  I don’t really enjoy customizing my phone…or my PC at work….or my Mac at home.  There are tons of features and customizations I could make to my Mac.  But time is short and I’m satisfied with the experience.

So at the end of the day I’m really choosing between two brand identities, the more wonkish “I can create anything / Google genius” Droid or an iPhone that broadcasts my support for design but recognizes my surrender to whatever Apple thinks I should be doing on my phone..

Two great choices.  Maybe I should think less and simply choose the one that makes a better call?

Why I Hate Blogging

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I hate blogging because it forces me to turn off the TV before 11pm, sit down at the kitchen table and figure out how to add value to someone’s life.  I hate blogging because it demands that I read and think about something new every day.  I hate blogging because it is a promise that I have to fulfill to an entire audience of anonymity.  And I hate blogging because of its open and accessible style  staring  you in the face, calling you an idiot for your inability to write something about anything that you know well.

Over the past seven months I worked with remarkable people and companies, helping them think about the Web as a conversation with interesting (or interested) strangers.  And what is most amazing about these amazing people is an almost universal discomfort with blogging…even when it’s critical to business success.  So I took a hard look at my own pathetic efforts to-date, looking for the reasons why I neglected an activity that is probably the most important thing I can do for my professional growth.

And I realized that, like anything we do for the first time or for the first time in a long while, blogging takes a while to settle into.  I remembered that, with very few exceptions, there really isn’t much I want to watch on TV in the evening and that some of my best ideas arrive during the day anyway.  And that there are a lot of people out there still looking for something other than YAG (Yet Another Gig) professionally, or trying to build a new life in or outside of a cubical.  And that when I think about it I can probably scavenge a nugget or two that someone will find useful.

So I’m blogging again…

Stay tuned…

Of Tribal Leaders

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“I’ve been busy…”
I almost started this post with those three words that are the death knell of the blog. And I think part of it is that I’m still hooked on expressions like “death knell.”

I have been busy reading lately. I’m using the Feedly plug-in for Firefox that has miraculously organized my Google Reader into something a human wants to consume.

And with Feedly I’ve been reading Seth Godin and Chris Brogan side-by-side. What I find interesting are the differences in styles of these Tribal Leaders. Seth writes in a sharp prose that, across a few sentences, distills a lifetime of experience. You immediately get the sense that Seth is someone who has walked the road and is taking the time to look back and lend a hand.

Reading Brogan, the reader feels like a passenger in the car while in motion. And if you view his video, he really is in a car that happens to be parked somewhere during the recording. He’s walking next to you and talking and risking, and you’re there alongside.

When I think about this new generation of Tribal Leaders, and even if I go back a decade to someone like Philip Greenspun, I think it’s their ability to take the reader on a journey that makes them so engaging. In Philip, we have a guy with a few degrees from MIT headfirst in the Dot-com world or flying around it in his spare time. In Seth, we have an accessible sage willing to help us with a new marketing yoga that begs us to achieve happiness by being interesting. And we can watch and learn from Chris, pick up some tips along the way, and trust that he’ll still be out there even if we’re stuck in here.

One thing they all share in common…they create content like the wind. Not volumes of content. Just a good, steady trickle.

I don’t think that blogs or Social Media have created these Tribal Leaders. I think that these are interesting people who have a much larger audience for the notes-in-a-bottle they send while wandering.