Category: Uncategorized

A confession 

People tell me too much that I’m good at things. “Gee your really good with computers”, or “that’s amazing how you can do that in a spreadsheet”, etc. don’t get me wrong, if I had to choose between getting told I’m good at something or crap at something, I’d prefer the uplifting-ness of the complement. However I found myself recently thinking about this, people hardly see the things I do badly. I either don’t show them, or just avoid the activity at all. No one says “gee Andrew your rubbish at sports” because they never see me attempt to play any sport.

Well this writing experience feels like playing sport, but instead of just goofing around in the backyard trying to kick a goal, everyone can see my poor performance. (Although to date no body has). I’m finding this exercise really difficult. The first two days were easy and fun, but now it’s starting to take its toll, a grand total of 4 days in.

I’m not sure what the blocking element is. I can string multiple words together. Pretty much all of them are spelt correctly thanks to spell checker on the iPad. English is my first and only language, so I should be a pro at this. But I don’t feel like I’m a pro. Maybe that is where the problem lies, I don’t feel like I’m good, so I don’t even try to improve. After all I don’t have to be amazing at everything. But I probably should be comfortable writing in my native language.

Do I create more or less stess for the people around me?

that is the indispensable metric used by Mark Cuban that he shared in his Chase Javis interview (https://youtu.be/wasB2TjqqNg) around the 30 days of genius series.  

In my IT work, my goal is to always outdo myself out of a job. To automate as much as possible. Computers don’t make mistakes, programmers do, people who feed the wrong input information do, but computers don’t. 

I have failed this metric on at least two recent projects. Things just didn’t go smoothly for a few reasons. The primary one I think is I didn’t clearly communicate the vision and the new path. Instead I swooped in, ran at 100km/hr dropped some basic documentation in the staff members lap and said “go forth run”, when they hadn’t worked out walking yet, let alone running.

This makes me feel terrible when I do this, I have not made the world better, I’ve made someone’s life harder! The exact opposite of what I was trying to achieve.

Why am I trying to outdo myself out of a job? Because if I can automate it, I can focus on creating something new, solving a new problem, learning something different. If im stuck doing the same repetitive task, that is just no fun at all.

What is it for?

Questions to ask on your next project, what is this for?

The question that has been on my mind, yet I didn’t know how to phrase it. Thank you Seth for putting words to my thoughts.

I have a number of side projects, and there is a ryhme and reason to most.

Here is a template for asking questions around projects that was finally put into words by Seth:

  • What is it for?
  • What is it not?
  • Does this leave an impact on someone’s life?
  • (Optional, but should be yes) if this doesn’t ‘succeed’ will I still be glad I did it?

Vlog project.

What is it for? To practice talking in front of a camera, collecting thoughts and saying what is on my mind in the moment.

What it is not: A way to get a billion followers on YouTube.

Does it leave an impact in someone’s life?

Probably not, it’s not meant to. It’s not art in itself, it’s a be chick for creating and experimenting.

Daily 6 week blog on thoughts.

What is it for? Collecting thoughts and a practice in looking for more. To practice writing, the only other daily writing I do is email and documentation.

What is it not?

A NYT best selling book. A story book. A top 10 blog.

Does it leave an impact on someone’s life?

Maybe, but probably it will just be a useful tool for me, for future projects.

Training Video

What is it for?

An experiment in video based training.

What is it not?

A creativelive course.

Does it leave an impact on someone’s life?

I hope that 5 people get a ROI that is useful for them on their website.

To sum this up in the words of Marie Feorleo…It looks like I’m a ‘Multi Passionate Entrepreneur’

This might not work….

…and that is ok. I am in a period of life where I have everything I could need, yet still feel that I’m not satisfied. I have a well paying job, a loving partner, loving parents, I own a house, a car or two, and more technology than I can poke a stick at, yet I’m still longing for more. When asked what do I want to do, my answer is “I want to make things”. 
I’ve always been an ideas person. As a young child I came up with lots of random ideas for toys (a cool canon), things to help with everyday tasks (Mum, wouldn’t it be cool to have a dishwasher that you put the plates in, then they would cycle around and then automatically stack back into the cupboard) & I would just notice little things in life. 

I can think, and solve problems & sometimes even build solutions and see the problem solved. 

But now I’m playing in the world of little c creative. I’ve picked up a camera, and started learning how to take photos instead of just pressing the button & hoping something good will come out. I’ve been playing in the world of graphic design, learning to create flyers and posters and banners. I’m experimenting with video projects, both being in front of the camera and behind. In short I’m throwing lots against the wall and seeing what sticks. This is another one of those things I’m throwing. I’m writing for an audience of one, I don’t care to know how many people read this, and it actually scares me to think that someone would. 

So why bother? The idea has been on my mind for a while. While playing in the box of little c creative, I’ve been thinking back to how I learnt IT (my day job). I learnt purely through practice, projects and research (couldn’t get a third P). The new skills required for the 21st century I see as being someone who can think creatively to solve a problem and then is able to communicate that. Communicate with words (writing), as well as with spoke word, and as a subset of that into a camera. Standing in front of a group of people to communicate a message feels to me a lot easier than an emotionless camera lens. 

The idea that pushed me over the edge to take action was while watching the interview between Seth Godin and Chase Jarvis (http://youtu.be/6xMxAZhgVvU ) as part of the Creativelive 30 days of Genius series. Seth brought a couple of ideas to mind that made me stop.

Here is a short quote / transcript from the interview (15:00 – 17:20)

“Well it might not work, but if it does work, will I be glad I did it? And do I have enough in the ‘bank’ to keep doing this? If we can acknowledge what it’s for, we can focus on why we are doing anything. And that framing of saying ‘What I do is…..connect people, help people, give them a smile, get picked by a gallery’ whatever it is. Am I a professional who is doing this in a way that the work matches what the work is for? ……….. This work you are doing is for X is actually for Y. So get yourself in alignment. And the sooner we can decide what it is for and decide what it is for is important enough, that we are willing to fail along the way, we can having that other toil conversation”.

The ideas that I took away from the interview are:

  • ‘What is it for?’ is a much better question to ask than ‘What will happen?’
  • Will I be glad I did it? Seth comments on how it would be easy to write ‘popular’ books for the masses, but that wouldn’t sit well with him. He would rather leave an impact on a few, than sell lots of books & leave no impact.
  • Stop hiding behind the excuses. 
  • What do you have to be afraid of (Tim Ferriss talks about this in the Four Hour Workweek)
  • Start a public blog of daily observations for 6 weeks.

That last point leads us to this blog. I can do that, 6 weeks. Some will be long others short. I think what has stopped me in the past is fear. Fear that everything online is archived and catalogued, that for some reason or another what I write today will come back to bite (my partner has first hand experience of this). The other fear would stem from the thoughts & opinions of others judging me. While usually I’m not overly concerned with what others think about me, unfortunately the Internet can be a very nasty place.

But what makes this different from writing projects in the past, is that I’ve always tried to write for some unknown random of everyone, this time it’s just me.

Let’s see where the next 6 weeks takes us.

P.S I can list off the three scariest moments in the past 6 months, each time stepping out into a new idea. This one sits at number 4 on the list.

Resources mentioned: http://youtu.be/6xMxAZhgVvU