"03 22 in the art shop" by esther_a

 You need to understand basic color theory.  Period.  It is just that simple. 

One exception: if you are legally color blind, maintain a closet full of Garanimals, have no plans to paint any part of your house, have turned over all decorating responsibilities to a significant other and will never be required to create a chart, graph, illustration, presentation, document, video, web page or any other visual form involving color…then you get a pass.

But everyone else needs to understand basic color theory.

Why? For the same reason you need to be able to speak, read and write. Color communicates. It has meaning. It evokes emotion. It triggers reaction. It conveys feeling. It adds depth. And if you don’t understand how colors complement, contrast and interact, you are functioning with a very limited visual vocabulary.

Don’t undermine your ability to communicate with the world.  Learn about color theory.

Now I could video conference with her via iChat or Skype for free.

Fifteen years ago I submitted my demo reel to 30+ post-production houses in the Midwest. It cost me more than $200 (roughly $285 today) in duplication charges, VHS tapes and postage. That was the cost of distributing unique content to a targeted audience. And my desire to promote my talents caused me to willingly accept the charges.

Now I could post it to YouTube or Vimeo for free.

Ten years ago I purchased a 40GB external firewire hard drive to back up my PowerMac G4. It cost me $329 (roughly $417 today). That was the cost of protecting my digital property. And my desire to insure against potential data loss caused me to willingly accept the charges.

Now I could archive those files to ADrive.com for free.

Establish a connection to the Internet and you are empowered to connect, share, publish, distribute, promote, archive and collaborate with millions of others at no additional charge. This is breaking news to no one…yet I continue to be amazed by it.

Harsh Reality: You allow interruptions to feel productive.

When the road ahead is tough terrain, you are easily diverted onto side streets.  Stopping or going in reverse on life’s freeway feels like failure, especially when everyone else appears to be racing by with relative ease.  Thus when struggling to move ahead on the chosen road, you consider every diversion, detour and alternate route.  Any exit ramp that might offer the chance to get moving again, even if it takes you further away from your desired destination.

Two months ago I was struggling to maintain my new exercise regimen, dietary changes, schedule adjustments and blogging activity—the very things that had enabled me to achieve so much during the first six months of the year.  My steady progress had slowed to a crawl.  It was frustrating.

And then my day job presented a very attractive side street.  Two major projects that required my unique combination of skills and talents.  With little hesitation, I changed course and allowed my rigorous pursuit to be interrupted for the benefit of my employer.  The subsequent busy days and nights provided temporary satisfaction, but ultimately kept me from moving closer to my desired goals.  I recognized it about a month ago, but was unable to get back on track.

So I am going to try again.

And the lack of blog activity exemplifies my general approach over the last four weeks. Occasional exercise. Lots of bad foods. Sporadic reading. No writing. No progress on 2MG. No weight loss.

In short, the pursuit was far from rigorous for most of June.

However the month away was not a complete loss—far from it. Family, house and day job kept me busy and I am typing this post while sitting in my newly renovated basement office (now with carpet!!). I reached out to a few linchpins, connected with some old friends and made good impressions with several new contacts. Overall it was a nice sabbatical.

But I also missed the benefits of the rigorous pursuit—structure, discipline, creativity, productivity, and above all else, purpose. So now is the time to resume getting smaller and thinking bigger.

More to come.

EricJBusch.com – Future home of my online resume/portfolio/curriculum vitae/etc. I have long intended to create and maintain such a site, but like so many other things have simply relegated it to the proverbial back burner. LinkedIn provided a corporate solution (albeit a stale one) for the last couple of years. But that only presents the M-F/8-5 version of me; the goal with this URL is to highlight all aspects of my life. Construction sign is up for now, with an operational site up by the end of this month (hopefully) and content added as time permits.

MotionGenius.com – Simple blog site (along the lines of Startup Quote) promoting the use of motion graphic artwork to convey insight and intelligence. It will use the common search/collect/filter/present model (much like Andrew Vande Moere‘s Information Aestethics blog), so the core content will not be mine and I will do my best to recognize, credit and acknowledge the work of each artist.

I am excited to develop and launch each of these sites. Now just need to find the time.

Half way through the year and I find myself teetering on the edge of relapse. Some old habits are creeping back into my daily routine. I’m trying to fight them off. As part of that effort, here is a reminder of what I set forth to quit, start and substitute.

Quit

Being Ignorant – In this information age there is no legitimate defense for prolonged stupidity; you are a Google search away from insight and intelligence. Therefore, immerse yourself in books, online articles and videos focused on the long term effects of diet (good vs. bad) and exercise (regular vs. none). If nothing else, you’ll be smarter and preemptive guilt will help you avoid indulging late night cravings or spending the night in front of the TV.

Excusing Neglect – Tired. Overweight. Dispassionate. Lethargic. These things are not okay and should not be tolerated. Stop rationalizing your current state under the guise of more pressing and important concerns—spouse, kids, work, house, finances, etc. Your performance in all these areas is directly affected by your mental and physical health, so don’t ignore your daily diet and exercise requirements.

Eating Sweets – Most often sugars provide nothing than empty calories and momentary gratification. In exchange for this you incrementally give away your waistline and long-term health. It’s a bad deal. Give them up. Completely. It will be one of the hardest daily changes to maintain, but will pay out big over the long term. To ease your pain, allow one exception each day: a 30 calorie 85%+ cacao chocolate square.

Mindless Snacking – Whenever hungry outside of meal time, force yourself to wait ten minutes before heading to the kitchen; odds are the desire will pass. If it doesn’t, go ahead and snack on fruit. And after dinner, no eating. Period.

Start

Creating Accountability – Establish clear consequences (positive and negative) for your behavior. Whenever possible, make them visual and emotional. Weigh yourself everyday and display it on a Post-It stuck to the bathroom mirror. Use smaller plates and dish at the counter rather than the table so you have to physically get up for more food. Publicly track your exercise activity, books consumed and ideas generated. And don’t leave yourself an easy return to the past—throw out or donate clothes once they become too big or oversized, pay the fee and update your drivers license photo and weight, and blog about your successes and failures.

Thinking Big – Work on building or creating something bigger than yourself. Don’t worry about accomplishing it, just focus on the pursuit and know achievements will follow. Identify others with whom you can partner, collaborate and create. Give away your ideas, especially to those who are more capable of implementing them. Maintain an innovation wall. Practice edge craft. Plan, book and reserve your next vacation at least 9 months in advance. Create a life list.

Exercising – Incorporate at least 30+ minutes of physical activity into your day five times each week. Elliptical is fine, but mix it up; do some running, basketball, swimming and weight lifting as well. In addition, adopt a daily routine that includes stretching, sit ups and push ups.

Substitute

Productive for Busy – Get things done and ship everyday. Identify fixed commitments, tasks that cannot be delayed without rapidly increasing penalty (cooking, exercise, If it can be completed in under two minutes, do it. If not, list it. Don’t browse the internet during lunch. Instead, watch one TED or BigThink video (20 minutes and your out). Limit email checks to three times a day—morning, lunch and 30 minutes before end of business—and advise everyone of this schedule and your cell number. Blog everyday for at least 30 minutes and publish whenever a post is 90% finished; if you work on it for more than three consecutive days, move on to a new idea.

Nutrients for Calories – Mind your portions, but don’t starve yourself. Instead, swap out high fat, high sugar and low nutrition foods for lean, nutrient rich superfoods. Consume more fruits and vegetables. Lots of them. Don’t skip breakfast. Drink unsweetened iced tea in place of soda; cut out red meats and use portobello and shiitake mushrooms in their place; snack on frozen grapes and fruit smoothies rather than ice cream. Be sure to start every morning with a cup of green tea, a hard boiled egg and some fruit with non-fat yogurt and a little granola. And supplement one of your meals with a capsule cocktail that includes multivitamins, fish and flax oil, turmeric and curcumin.

Books for TV – Instead of ending the day falling asleep on the couch in front of the television, conclude by reading a book in bed. Trade out mental sedation for intellectual stimulation. And when you do want to watch something, do it while on exercising.

There are many more things to quit, start and substitute, but this list will do for now.

People will pay for content if it is necessary, irreplaceable, and unshareable. Businesses excited about the first five words of that sentence don’t understand how constraining the next seven are.

I agree with Clay. Never met the man, but based on his books and numerous talks he seems a pretty smart fellow. So let’s assume he’s right, that more often than not people won’t pay for content. Especially if it can be digitized (i.e., words, music, photos, videos, etc.), which makes it easily duplicated and highly shareable. How can a modern day digital content creator make a living under such conditions?

Simple. Don’t sell content, sell access.

If you fail to see the distinction, consider a few examples:

Case study #1: Adam Carolla. His primary content is delivered via daily, one-hour podcasts available for free via direct download, RSS or iTunes. He also maintains a website that provides additional photos and videos. All available free of charge. But fans have to pay to access him live and in-person or for shirts with his logo. And advertisers have to pay to access his fan base, either via his website or podcast. And if NBC wants access to him full-time for a sitcom, they’ll have to pay for that as well.

Case study #2: Seth Godin. His primary content is delivered via daily blog posts, available for free via his website or RSS feed.  Seth also publishes eBooks and does audio and video interviews for other blog sites to promote his ideas and marketing concepts. All this is made available free of charge. But to access him live and in-person, fans must pay. If organizations want him to speak at their event, they must pay for access to his time. And if a publisher wants exclusive access to his next big idea, there is a fee for that as well.

Case study #3: OK Go. Their primary content—music—is delivered via numerous channels. Fans can stream OK Go’s entire library of songs for free via their website. Fans can also view music videos on their website or via YouTube. True fans can download the raw footage elements of their latest music video to remix and create their own custom composition. All this, as well as photos, blog posts and a community forum, is made available free of charge. But to access the band’s music directly from an iPod, fans need to pay. To access a live performance of their music in-person or to wear their branded merchandise, fans need to pay. And to access their fan base and brand, State Farm paid to sponsor their recent music video.

See the difference? It’s a simple business model: give away 99% of your content for free (see Chris Anderson: Free!) to attract a following (see Seth Godin: Tribes), then generate revenue by charging for access to…

…the remaining 1% of your content (see Fred Wilson: Freemium);
…your fans (see Darren Rowse: Make Money); and/or
…yourself (see Tom Peters: Brand You).

So if you are a digital content creator (writer, illustrator, filmmaker, motion graphic artist, 3D animator, musician, photographer, etc.) you can either venture on your own or go to work for someone else.  Although working under someone’s employment can provide numerous benefits—such as security, stability, consistency and structure—many creatives will prefer the freedom, autonomy and control enabled by a freelance approach. Thus, if you decide to go it alone you will need to follow these 10 steps:

1. Create cool, original and remarkable content. If you get stuck here, don’t fret—most people do. It’s a significant barrier to entry. It’s difficult. It’s hard work. It’s understandable. And most people never get past it. So either push your way through, find a partner or go to work for someone else.
2. Promote and share the content for free. Don’t worry about copyrights, patents, trademarks, contracts, compensation or useless forms of protection—it is a waste of valuable time and energy. Instead, get it out there (blog, podcast, ebook, videos on YouTube, etc.) and promote it. Everywhere. Use your network. Leverage any and all contacts. And if you get a positive response, go to step #3.  If not, go back to step #1 and make the content better, switch to a different subject matter or quit trying and go to work for someone else.
3. Create more content. Lots of it. Work hard to make it cool, original and remarkable. But don’t let the pursuit of perfection keep you from shipping content out the door. At this point you are much better off quickly producing 10 really good pieces than working painstakingly on one masterpiece. Plus, you ultimately don’t get to decide what is bad, good or great; that is the job of your fans. Just keep producing content. If that troubles you, quit and go to work for someone else.
4. Build a fan base by promoting and sharing the content for free. There is no hard science here. No doors to break down. No secret sauce or magical formula. If your content resonates, it will draw a crowd asking for more. So don’t bother waiting around for it to “take off”. If the content doesn’t attract a following, then go back to step #3 and make it better, switch to a different subject matter or quit trying and go to work for someone else.
5. Create more content. Lots of it. Start building an inventory. You’ll need it. To do this, you will likely have to work harder, faster and longer than before. If this proves to be a substantial problem, quit and go to work for someone else.
6. Grow and identify your true fans by continuing to promote and share the content for free. Enable fans to connect, interact and recruit others on your behalf. IMPORTANT: You must maintain a consistent flow of content relative to other providers. If it isn’t consistent, your fans will go somewhere else and quickly forget you. Therefore, if you can’t keep a steady flow of content going, partner up with other content creators to achieve scale and provide a steady stream of content. If you aren’t up to the task of feeding your fan base, quit or sell out and go to work for someone else.
7. Start diversifying. If you began with an ebook, start a blog. If you began with blog, add videos. If you began with videos, launch a podcast. But do not—repeat DO NOT—allow the new content to detract from the original form. If your fans are used to a steady diet of blog posts, you need to keep feeding them blog posts. If they came to know you via YouTube, you need to keep a presence on YouTube. You must continue to create, promote and share your content in its original form, add to your inventory and grow your fan base. If you’re too tired or emotionally spent to do so, quit or sell out and go to work for someone else.
8. Leverage your true fans. Use them to promote and share your content for free to further grow your audience. Make it easy for them to recruit other fans. Give them opportunities to interact with you on a closer level. Empower them to mashup and/or create content themselves. Resist the temptation to make specific requests, as it will stifle creativity and undermine their passion. Instead simply ask for help and welcome any and all ideas. Your fans don’t expect every item or proposal to be implemented, just merely considered. If you are unwilling to embrace you true fans in this manner, quit or sell out and go to work for someone else.
9. Monetize. You can charge for access to your content, but heed Clay Shirky’s advice and evaluate “if it is necessary, irreplaceable and unshareable.” If it fails to pass this test, you are probably better off keeping it free. You can charge for access to your fans (advertising, referrals, etc.), but be careful as it could alienate and send them off in search of replacement content.  You can charge for access to your brand (affiliation, stamp of approval, endorsement and/or physical goods, such as swag, shirts, hats, etc.), an option that is usually harmless and relatively inexpensive. And finally, you can charge for access to you personally (consulting, appearances, conferences, speaking engagements, etc.), keeping in mind that such opportunities will take time away from content development. Whatever combination you settle on, you must continue to create, promote and share your content in its original and diversified form, add to your inventory, connect with true fans.
10. Decide. Go bigger, maintain, sell out or quit. While you certainly could go to work for someone else, if you get this far odds are you won’t want to.

You do not have to follow this exact order to achieve success, but I contend the sequence of events would be pretty close to what I’ve outlined above. Create content, give it away, attract a following and charge for access to all things non-digital—especially yourself.

Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe – There is a substantial opportunity to apply the principles of Open Source software production to other businesses. You can leverage the crowd—now more than 1+ Billion strong—to produce, edit, filter, select and even fund portions of your business. Excellent read.

Wikinomics by Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams – A call to action to embrace a model of mass collaboration and openness fostered by the Internet and supporting technologies. Abundant examples across a variety of industries and applications demonstrate the power of such an approach, although the authors confuse matters by repeatedly attempting to coin new terminology and jargon (e.g., “ideagoras” and “New Alexandrians”).

The Culture of Collaboration by Evan Rosen – Businesses need to collaborate. There are lots of benefits. It has worked for lots of companies. Here are some tools (mostly technology) you can use. Blah,blah, blah. When reading I usually dog ear pages that include great examples, profound insight or well written sections; this book yielded only four.

More comments on how this relates to 2MinuteGenius in a later post. Stay tuned.

The answer is your burn rate. It’s a simple measure of how fast you consume available resources. And it greatly affects your professional and personal future.

In a business context, burn rate refers to negative cash flow that is usually experienced as part of a startup enterprise. Whether you plan on making something, provide a service or some combination of the two, you will need money to get up and running. And if you exhaust your cash reserves before turning a profit, you’ll need to obtain additional funding (take a loan, sell equity, offer stock, etc.) or shutdown operations. Thus, your firm’s burn rate determines how long you can survive without making a profit.

Businesses with excessively high burn rates require a lot of cash, which is problematic for entrepreneurs, worrisome for investors and potentially terminal for employees. Out of control burn rates plagued my career for the better part of a decade, particularly during my final months with a dying dot.com. Many believed the Internet would universally increase gross revenues (when it in fact would universally decrease transaction costs), and my employer had capitalized on the feverish race to the Internet and speculative investing to artificially inflate the wealth of its VPs and executives.

But when the bubble burst and more venture capital was nowhere to be found, we began laying off sales and customer service associates with regularity. In my new role as “Director of No Sales”, I repeatedly explained the layoffs using the company line: “…necessary restructuring in an effort to lower the corporate burn rate.” Eventually I placed myself on the chopping block, took my small severance and moved on. I was young and inexperienced, but the situation was not unique.

In a health context, burn rate refers to how many calories you consume over a period of time for a given activity. Whether you plan on running a marathon, play some golf or relax in a hammock, you will need some fuel to keep your body operational.  And if you burn less than you take in, your body will convert the excess to fat and store for future use. Thus, your body’s burn rate determines how much you can eat without gaining weight.

Individuals with morbidly low burn rates require a lot of restraint, which is problematic for dieters, worrisome for spouses and potentially terminal for food lovers. An imbalanced burn rate caused me to gain 70+ pounds over the course of a decade. Most of it was acquired during times of stress and anxiety, such as the two years spent attending night classes in pursuit of an MBA.

I had no interest in a four or five year endeavor that slowly acquired credits; I preferred to get it done as fast as possible and therefore attended classes four nights a week while working full-time. It left little opportunity for much of anything else, especially exercise. A ridiculously low burn rate coupled with lots of fast food and late night snacking eventually bloated my midsection. I was older and more educated, but the situation was not unique.

So know your burn rate. It significantly affects your long term health—both professional and personal.

The key to achieving your maximum potential is knowing how far you can fall and still be able to pull yourself upright.  You need to identify the intersection where your strength, gravity and pull of the boat all come together; the point at which all these forces are in balance.  Because gravity is a constant, as is usually the boat, the undetermined variable is your strength. Thus, you must test the limits of your muscles. In order to improve you must be willing to fall until you fail.

For an aspiring waterskier—as I was in high school—this creates quite a paradox. If the goal of waterskiing is to stay upright, why must I fall to be successful?

For years I struggled to reconcile this apparent contradiction. As a result, I skied very controlled and seldom tested the limits of my strength. My ski runs rarely, if ever, included a wipeout. I was simply afraid to fall. And although I improved and became a fairly proficient waterskier, I failed to leverage the opportunity presented to become a great waterskier.

Fear of failure is common. And while it certainly can prevent us from trying, sometimes it prevents us from fine tuning. How far can we fall before pulling ourselves back up?  Often times, that is the key variable. Because if you know your limits, exactly, you can push right up to them and over time work to extend them.

But some of us are afraid to find out. Thus, we play conservative; we underestimate our strength and subsequently fail to fully leverage the occasion. To those around us, it appears as a good, if not great, effort. But within ourselves, we know we could have pushed harder, held on longer or gone further.

Resist the temptation. Recognize that sometimes success is derived FIRST from falling to fail and THEN failing to fall.

So go find smooth water and test your limits. You’re likely much stronger than you think.

The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

The Party used Two Minutes Hate as a control mechanism, a means to channel Oceania citizens’ repressed feelings of angst and contempt from living under a totalitarian regime towards its enemies. It also removed viewers’ sense of individuality, preventing them from thinking on their own and instead aligning with the thoughts and feelings of Big Brother.

Thankfully, we are far from the dystopian society depicted by Orwell. But is it possible that a daily ritual—even one limited to two minutes in duration—could influence an individual’s thinking and behavior?

We seem to believe so.

There are 200,000+ web pages offering a “daily dose” of something. There are more than 1,900 “daily devotional” books available from Amazon. There are numerous daily podcast feeds available via iTunes and an abundance of documentation on the daily habits of preeminent thinkers and leaders.

Clearly we have embraced the notion of a daily ritual—whether it be for comfort, motivation, organization, inspiration, appreciation or enlightenment. For some, the establishment of a routine helps provide direction, order and purpose. For others, a daily ritual helps provide clarity, focus and peace. Regardless of the reason, if it yields benefits we will likely continue the practice and extoll its virtues to everyone else in our network.

Hence why content producers—especially those dependent on advertising dollars—want to become one of your daily rituals. USA Today wants you to start the morning with one of their papers, while the Huffington Post would prefer you check the latest news via their website. Facebook would like you to spend your lunch hour with them, although Digg thinks you would be better served visiting their homepage instead. On your way home the local talk radio station hopes you tune in, but recognizes you may opt for a daily podcast on your iPhone. CBS wants you to end each night with David Letterman, while NBC would rather you fall asleep after Jay Leno and the Tonight Show.

While the list of available content options is endless, the producers all want the same thing: to become part of your routine. Because that provides them a predictable, consistent, repeated opportunity to try and influence your thinking and behavior.

Sounds a lot like Two Minutes Hate. Fortunately it’s not.

Unlike Orwell’s fictitious society, making someone else’s content part of your routine is entirely your discretion. You can opt in and opt out at any time and are under no obligation to react or respond in any way. Essentially, you get to pick “The Party” whose content proves most suitable to your wants and needs.

And I believe there is an audience eager to make the content of 2MinuteGenius a part of their routine.

Back in 2003, Steve Jobs volunteered to cancel all his Apple stock options in return for a smaller number of shares, worth about $75 million at the time. In hindsight, Jobs would have been better served to keep his original options as it would have netted him an additional $10+ Billion—about 5x his current net worth.

Arends asserts Jobs’ move qualifies as one of the “dumbest trades ever.” I disagree. This is simply a case of retrospect rather than regret and it further emphasizes the point of my original post: while it certainly could have been better, over the years Apple has been very good to me.

I think Steve Jobs would agree.

Where did you go? Florida? Mexico? California? Where? What sunny, tropical locale did you journey to? What did you experience?

See, in my small hometown a winter tan was the consequence of a vacation, respite or sabbatical; it was an outward sign that you had explored beyond the comfortable confines of the community. In short, an unexpected change in one’s complexion was assumed to be the consequence of a more significant trip. Therefore, subsequent discussion focused not on your changed appearance, but rather on the journey that led to it.

Of course, this is no longer a safe assumption.  The ubiquity of strip mall salons offering tanning beds and spray-on booths means anyone can change their appearance with a few bucks and a couple of visits. You no longer need to travel abroad or change one’s lifestyle to sustain a deeper shade of pale. Instead you merely need to wear eye protection and be still for 20 minutes once a week.

So for many individuals, a deep tan is not indicative of a more significant event but rather simple commitment to a maintenance program. Thus the focus shifts from maximizing the experience of the journey to minimizing the inconvenience of the task.

What salon do you use? Is it a spray tan? How often do you have to go? Is it safe? What does it cost? Is it convenient?

A business trip last week put me face-to-face with several coworkers for the first time since the launch of Rigorous Pursuit. Many noticed I was a smaller. After confirming their keen sense of observation and offering a complimentary “You look good…”, most inquired about what “program” I was using and how many more pounds I wanted to shed.

What diet are you on? Weight Watchers? Slim-Fast? Are you hungry a lot? How hard is it? How much more are you going to lose?

The questions caught me off guard. Granted, four months earlier I was considerably overweight and out-of-shape, but I hadn’t made changes in order to look better or to achieve a goal weight. I committed to a new daily regimen to achieve increased creativity, improved productivity, better health, greater longevity and higher overall satisfaction. My weight loss was not an achievement, but rather a simple benefit. And while the questions posed by my coworkers were certainly understandable, I found myself initially disappointed by the assumption my slimmer appearance was the goal rather than a consequence of a more significant change.

Cervantes once asserted, ”The journey is better than the inn.” Similarly, it wasn’t the promise of a “nice tan” that ultimately got me to embark on this journey. It was recognizing the importance of maximizing the opportunity and value of the pursuit itself.

• Illustrate an institutions growth and impart judgement on its intentions.
• Interpret the President’s policies and infer his success.
• Influence consumer behavior and inspire charity.
• Invoke entrepreneurs and inspire future leaders.
• Inform of a trilogy and introduce a related story.

When used wisely, two minutes is a lot of time.

Expensive? That depends.

If your household income is around the U.S. median ($42K), adding it to your bathroom would consume about 7% of your annual earnings; that’s an expense few investment advisors would support. The American Standard Cadet 3 is probably a more reasonable option.

But if your income exceeds $500K—which puts you in the top 1% of U.S. households—installing the Neorest costs roughly the same in terms of expense-to-income ratio. From that perspective, spending $3K+ for a state of the art, next generation toilet is a relatively good deal.

Of course, few individuals see it this way. Most will view such luxury as excessive, unnecessary, exorbitant and frivolous. And many will argue spending money on such an item is nothing more than a tremendous waste.

If you agree with this opinion, are you equally as offended by the notion of paying $3+ for coffee at Starbucks—roughly 15 times what it would cost to brew it at home? Or are you appalled by the idea of paying $5 for case of bottled water—roughly 125 times what it costs from your tap?

If not, then perhaps you need to stop using your income level as the basis for assessing other people’s spending and start using it as the basis to assess your relative wealth. Because from the vantage point of a citizen in Haiti, where a typical daily wage is $2, spending $5 on bottled water is indulgent, paying $3 for a cup of coffee is ludicrous and buying a $200 toilet is unconscionable.

I have referenced Seth’s work before and give him partial credit for inspiring me to launch this blog and pursue development of 2MinuteGenius. As part of that effort, I recut the audio from an interview he gave a while back on music and tribes to serve as the voiceover for an animation featuring kinetic typography. Give it a listen…

Needless to say, the man has a lot of ideas and he can riff and freestyle about marketing, promotion and leadership for hours on end. Accordingly, the event in August is to be unscripted and highly interactive with an afternoon session dedicated to Q&A.

Thanks to a generous donation by my spouse (who is a truly indispensable linchpin herself), I will have the opportunity to experience it all while gathering ideas, collecting wisdom and networking with others.

It should make for a memorable day.

Group Genius by Keith Sawyer – Breakthrough innovation is often derived from collaboration. Group flow (aka “in the zone”) occurs when individual skills are comparable, the goal is clear, there is a commitment to listening and communication, and full concentration is enabled.

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky – Technology now enables group action in a way that was previously possible only via institutions (government, religion, business, etc.). With transaction costs for many tasks now equal to zero, collaboration without managerial oversight is not only possible, but ultimately more successful. And if you do fail, you fail fast (which is a good thing).

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki – For some problems it is better to use the collective sagacity of a group than it is to rely on a single expert. The key is to ensure the crowd is diverse, that opinions are formed individually, and some means exists to aggregate views into a collective decision.

I’ll provide more thoughts on how to apply and incorporate this knowledge into 2MinuteGenius in a later post.

But there are numerous other examples:

David Holmes did it while making announcements.

Ericson Calderon did it while serving ice cream.

Matthew Weathers did it while teaching math.

Ryan Matthew Burgos did it while pouring drinks.

So do the task at hand and do it well. But if possible, consider turning it into art. Doing so may require some bravado, certainly a willingness to fail, and it may produce nothing more than embarrassment. That’s the risk.

But when it resonates, everyone—your customers, your coworkers, your friends and family, and most importantly, you—will enjoy the reward.

We are also aware of the perils and dangers associated with overspending. Debt. Higher income requirements. Increased risk of credit problems, foreclosure and bankruptcy.

And yet we collectively continue to consume more than we need.

We eat too much sugar, cholesterol and saturated fats. We spend too much on designer shoes, smart phones and LED flat screens. We feast on too many deserts, red meat and coffee. We buy too many toys, clothes and electronics. We consume all these things because superficially we believe we must—to be happy, to be satisfied, to be successful and even to help the economy.

Stop fooling yourself.

And recognize our current economy is built on consumption; therefore the system isn’t going to change anytime soon because too many people are dependent on the system. Retailers, manufacturers, restaurant owners, homebuilders and farmers need you to keep consuming. As do credit card companies, weight loss clinics, loan officers, personal trainers, debt consultants and dietitians.

To prosper in this environment, you need to get two things under control: diet and budget. Do that and you’ll be way ahead of most.

I didn’t like the question. Not because of my political affiliation, nor due to some disdain for the interviewer. I simply objected to utilization of the word regret.

Regret acknowledges a poor decision enabled by emotion:

• I reget snacking on chocolate cheesecake last night at 3AM.
• I reget drinking so much at the New Year’s Eve party.
• I reget sending an acrimonious email to my coworker.

Expressing regret is an admission that you were wrong and you knew it at the time, however you consciously decided to ignore your own wisdom or dismiss readily available information in favor of some other desire. The immediate gratification is eventually replaced by sadness, disappointment, repentance or despair. In an attempt to console yourself, you express regret—a confession that you were weak, acted selfishly and/or were incapable of keeping your emotions in check.

That’s regret. And I doubt General Powell was anxious to express that on national television.

In contrast, retrospect acknowledges a poor decision enabled by uncertainty:

• I don’t regret not taking typing in high school, but in retrospect it would have served me well.
• I don’t regret locking in my mortgage rate, but in retrospect I would have benefited from waiting two more weeks.
• I don’t regret selling my Apple stock, but in retrospect I could have held it much longer.

Retrospect is an admission that you may have been wrong, but it was due to insufficient information or unforeseen subsequent events. Elapsed time provides more intelligence and greater clarity, which helps to explain why the decision was ultimately proven incorrect. There are no ensuing emotions of guilt, anguish or contrition to be resolved and any pain or disappointment is comforted by the fact no one can predict the future (e.g., “Hindsight is 20/20…” or “If I knew then what I know now…”).

Conventional wisdom says regrets are bad. We shouldn’t have any. Therefore, we hesitate to acknowledge them and quickly eschew the notion of having any when asked by someone else. But retrospect is usually considered a good thing. It presents an opportunity to learn from our past and make better decisions in the future. And if asked for our thoughts in retrospect, we often elaborate in great detail.

And therefore Powell’s response should come as no surprise:

“None whatsoever…I think he was the right choice when the nation voted for him…he has done some things that help the country a great deal…But I am afraid he put too much on the plate for the American people to absorb at this time.”

In other words: no regrets, but in retrospect…

Probably not. Then why is a blog expected to enable comments?

I can see value in comments if there is a desire to foster an online dialog, an intent to build a community or an ambition to connect with a broader audience. But that is not the case with this blog. As I have stated before, the purpose here is to create personal accountability and exercise my mental faculties. Making it public and promoting it within my small network is nothing more than a motivation tactic.

Simply put, this blog is personal. And so, I have not enabled comments and most likely never will.

But that doesn’t mean I am not open to feedback, criticism or opposing viewpoints. If you want to show approval or appreciation for a post, click the “+” button next to the heart icon located to the right of the title. And if this is not sufficient, send me an email and we can have a one-to-one exchange.

Beyond that, I have no comment.

A) You invested $50K in college tuition and after three years have received no visibility to how you have performed—no report card, no grades, no professor comments, nothing.  Are you willing to write a check for the fourth year and commit to another $50K for graduate school?

B) Over a five year period you invested $50K in a retirement plan that never provided visibility to its financial performance—no quarterly reports, no growth charts, no portfolio tables, nothing. How willing are you to continue giving them a portion of your paycheck?  Are you in for another $50K?

C) You invested $50K in a new business venture that never reported back to you its revenues or expenses—no cash flow statements, no profit-loss analysis, nothing. Are you interested in investing another $50K in this company?

Odds are none of these investment scenarios are attractive or appealing to you. Understandably, there is an unwillingness to invest in anything that lacks accountability or fails to provide visibility to its performance.

And this seems perfectly reasonable.  We shouldn’t assume simply attending classes will lead to graduation; and we shouldn’t assume blindly contributing to a 401k will yield enough money for retirement; and we shouldn’t assume a business is profitable simply because it keeps its doors open. To fully leverage an investment, we need visibility to its performance so we can continually evaluate its return.  And if that isn’t possible, we should be hesitant to invest more. Right?

So what about you? How much have you invested in yourself over the last few years? Let’s assume you’re working full-time and require another twelve hours each day for sleeping, eating and general health needs. That leaves you with roughly 2,300 discretionary hours each year to invest however you desire. Given the U.S. Census Bureau estimates median annual earnings for men working full-time in 2008 was $46K+, or roughly $22 per hour, means each year you have an opportunity to invest roughly $50K in yourself.

So how is that investment performing? Is it paying dividends? How do you know?

If you don’t, are you assuming showing up, blindly contributing and keeping your doors open will eventually provide you with a solid return? And if you weren’t willing to accept that level of risk in any of the scenarios above, what is different when it comes to your time?

I am no longer comfortable with such an investment strategy. I realize my time is limited, so I must invest wisely.

#1 – You are always communicating. From birth until death, you are constantly communicating with the world. And the world is interpreting and processing more information than you are intentionally transmitting:

• Shouting communicates, as does silence.
• Hand gestures communicate, as does sitting still.
• Eye contact communicates, as does looking away.

In short, you cannot not communicate because no communication is a form of communication (you might need to read that again, but you’ll get the point).

For example, a friend recently commented he “no longer communicates” with one of his siblings. But this is in fact a very strong form of ongoing communication. What message is sent when his birthday passes without receiving a phone call? Or when Christmas comes and goes without a card? Or when he becomes an uncle and hears about it second-hand? You may not be actively transmitting, but radio silence sends a message as well.

#2 – Delivery matters. How you package and deliver the content of your message affects the message itself. Case in point, if the content is “I love you”, does the message remain the same when it is delivered…

…in a face-to-face conversation?
…over the phone?
…in a text message?
…on a billboard?

Maybe, maybe not. But how the content is received will certainly be considered, and that enables your message to be interpreted differently than how it was intended.

#3 – Context matters. How you deliver content makes a difference, but so does when and where you deliver it. Imagine someone nudges your side and states “Look, that guy is sweating buckets!” What is the intended meaning of the message if the man brought to your attention is…

…playing basketball while you sit in the stands?
…speaking on stage while you sit in the audience?
…eating a bowl of chili while you sit at an adjacent table?

The content is essentially the same, but the context—when and where the message is received—drastically changes your interpretation.

#4 – All messages are subject to noise. There are numerous things that can interfere with the reception of your intended message. Sometimes you know about it and try to compensate (shouting in a packed stadium or signaling with hand gestures on the dance floor), and other times you are oblivious to it (wishing “Merry Christmas” to someone who, unbeknownst to you, is Jewish). Bottom line, effective communication often depends on your ability to account for noise between you and your audience.

Admittedly, an undergraduate degree in Communications is not required to grasp these concepts. Through everyday experience we come to understand these four aspects of communication and we do our best to apply this knowledge in our daily communications with others.  We focus on the content of our message and whenever possible give consideration to how, when and where it is received.

But now in the information age, we push content out to our audience with little concern for anything else, largely because it is often beyond our control. Case in point, I control the words of this blog post but have willingly given up power over how you receive it (RSS feed, email, internet browser, iPhone, iPad, etc.), when you receive it (morning, night, today, three weeks from now, etc.) and where you receive it (work, home, airport, restaurant, waiting room, etc.). In addition, I can do nothing to account for possible noise (poor word choice, distracting environment, your emotional state, etc.) that might interfere with my intended message.

And so when it comes to digital communication—the proposed medium for 2MinuteGenius.com— the challenge is creating content strong enough to overpower everything else that contributes to the message.  In essence, I need to make sure there is amazing stuff inside the bottle before throwing it into the vast ocean of information.

Sounds easy enough.

Recognizing 2MinuteGenius.com requires collaboration of numerous content creators (authors, bloggers, thinkers, graphic artists, musicians, filmmakers, etc.), I have embarked on a self-directed seminar course for the topic.  I have compiled a list a materials that can be viewed here.

Over the next few months I plan to spend the majority of my “free” time working my way through this myriad of information to help achievement of three goals:

1. Develop subject matter expertise on collaboration
2. Create a manifesto for the creation 2MinuteGenius.com
3. Identify a recruitment strategy for content creators and “sneezers”

Wow…given these goals and my chosen image for this post, it appears as though I am starting a cult. Maybe I’ll soften the language a bit moving forward.

I have some “draft” posts that I will polish and publish over the next couple of weeks, but beyond that most posts will focus on collaboration related thoughts and concepts. Enjoy.

• Noah Kalina took a picture of himself everyday to produce an amazing time-lapse.
• Dan Meyer tracked his daily activities to produce an amazing annual report.
• Dustin Diaz took a picture each day for one year to produce an amazing portfolio.

The information age has blessed us with an opportunity to be inspired everyday by the creativity of others. Sometimes the creation is a result of talent or an outcome of hard work. But other times it is borne out of patience and an unwavering commitment to a seemingly far off goal.

The creation of 2MinuteGenius.com will require all three: talent, hard work and commitment. It is proving difficult to find time each day to work on its development. But I am enjoying the journey…