My love for old, rare books is actually more of an addiction, kind of a cheap addiction because I rummage through garage sales to find the best. This book is from 1885 and is called The Growing World, it is an illustrated book of everything from poetry, mathematics, science, and technology. To look back and see what they thought was truth is astonishing. It makes me think how proud these people must have been to create a book that would enlighten so many and bring excitement and hope to a burgeoning generation. To look at this book now, much of the information seems silly and so obviously wrong that we laugh at the claims it chose to make. Yet we are doing the very same thing today, we stand on our soap boxes and exclaim how right we are when in just a few years we will laugh at our ignorance. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to make judgements or statements that tell of a certain way to do things. We just might possibly be wrong, or even right, but I think either way we should take an extra moment to step back. Seth Godin talked about this on his blog and made me think about writing this post.

So I had attempted to install the new version of WordPress and something messed up during the installation and made me not be able to log into my account. Then I had to attend to a few projects so I had to set aside my blog for a little while. Tonight though I was able to restore from my backup and have the site back up and running now. Eric helped me get the database restored successfully. Thanks to all who dropped messages to me with your concerns, it was much appreciated.

The Truth

Today my character was called on; who I am, how I act, how I respond and the things I do. It was a bit jarring but not unexpected, sharp yet sobering. I immediately wanted to slip a quick quip across the face of my aggressor yet I withheld for everything flowing unto me was truth, hot as acid pooling around my feet burning, singeing my soul. I knew it was true but I wanted to defend myself, I wobbled back and forth from accepting truth as it was and wanting to defend who I am at times. After feelings were vented, vetted and voraciously exasperated it was time to make amends and move forward without regret, resentment, or retaliation. It was time to pick up the slack, to stop letting down those who depend on me to perform certain duties.

Reflection

Understanding and transforming your faults is powerful, not a show for others to ogle at or a story for you to embellish your struggles and victories but a way for you to become who you should be, who you want to be. It becomes a moment when you figuratively or literally look at yourself in the mirror and feel a void, misappropriation, fragmentation upon your soul, character, morals, ethics, work, family and you know unequivocally, unabashedly, unarticulated that something must change. You realize that this, who you are, right now, isn’t who you want to be and you have to accept that so you can be better. It is then that you become cognizant of what you have to do and how you must do it.

What Must Happen

Change. Change must happen. I reflexively calculated how I could achieve this remodel of these certain aspects of who I am to become better, more effective, useful, and in the end more whole. It is these deficiencies that drive me towards betterment. It helps align me to what I need to do. So it was at this time that I apologized, organized myself and began to map my way to repair in these areas. I am happy that I have people in my life to help me when I need it. The last thing you ever want is to have no one say a thing, similar to walking around the entire day with your zipper down, as embarrassing as it is to be told this bashful headline it is necessary to avoid other cringeworthy events.

The Thank You

So as much as it temporarily made me uncomfortable it was necessary and appreciated greatly. Thank you to those in my life that give a damn.

The Ask

Does someone hold you accountable? What’s your thoughts on accountability? Is it important?

I believe that there is something to be said for those who risk everything for what they want, they throw a certain amount of caution to the wind and jump in and hope for the best. I think often times we settle in and call that love of the game. A certain apathetic, copacetic, boring love for what we’ve come to know as normal. Sure you’ve been hired to do what you once loved to do but do you continue to love it and do you rise out of your slumber with eagerness and anticipation for the day?

This is crucial to business and your relation to it, comparing the level of work to satisfaction will tell you whether you should be doing what you do. What kind of risk requires you to walk out of a job to follow your dreams or do what you long to do? Maybe the question is really what fuels risk. What makes the cognitive cogs of your gray matter decide that you should be doing something else with your time and talent? What forces the figurative hand of fate that makes you change your life and begin to risk it all for what you love to do? How does that fuel and risk align with your priorities and obligations in life? Should certain things be set aside for your dream of loving what you do? Does money count for anything while comparing the risk vs. rewards?

Some might say that in the end if you love what you do no amount of money can change that. Is that true? Are you willing to live by that simplistic rule? Does it apply to every situation? Some might even say that as long as you’re paying the bills you’re doing enough, do what you love after-hours.

When you’re sitting in the car stuck in traffic or at home staring at the television and thinking about your life, are you happy with it? Have you taken risk for what you love to do? What fuels you to take those small risks everyday?

Obviously (in my opinion) risks should be carefully weighed and options compared upon multiple times before choices are executed. You should consider taking small daily steps toward what you love, never compromising those whom you care for or care for you.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about taking that next step, the big plunge, but you’ve been waiting for something better to come or something to make it easier for you. The truth is nothing will truly help you make that decision or make it easier. That’s the risk, you may fail, you may be wrong, hell, you might even lose what you’ve worked for. But one thing is for sure you will usually come out a better person for it. You need to decide if those negative possibilites are worth becoming a better person no matter what the loss or gain could be.

Maybe the question isn’t what to risk or even when to risk but do you have what it takes to risk anything at all?

Maybe that’s what that statement meant, that at some point a certain amount of causality (i.e. suffering) will spur our ability to risk and change our own lives.

Will we, can we change? Is it worth it?

I was reading a new book I picked up called “Diary” by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club). There was a section talking about how artists who go to school for so long, and yearn to create yet have the skills but have no passion or no story to tell because they are hired professionals who do what they are told to do.

That brought up a good point, how many people are doing what they love? I mean truly what you love, what you live for, what you yearn for?

In that chapter, one of the main characters made an interesting statement, “Many people have to suffer before they can risk doing what they love.”

It made me think about how much do we risk to do what we love? And if we are risking, is it enough? Would risking more yield more satisfaction? More love for what we do? What if we’re not risking enough, is that why we don’t love what we do? If we’re not risking enough or need to risk more, how?

What’s your thoughts?

Check it out

So I’m into racing, mostly Indy, F1 and GT, and I am very excited that the Indy Car Series is starting today at 8PM ET. One thing I am sad to see is that Dario Franchitti is not racing this year, he moved over to NASCAR (yawn) probably because there is more money at the Sprint Cup. Plus he is the first European to be in the NASCAR series, since its inception. So I’m sure that was an obvious opportunity.

With a new season starting I am hoping to see some life from Danica Patrick as up to this point she is just bleeding money from the team and has yet to win a race. I think she has the skill but lacks the confidence to rise above the chaff and make a win. She was very close last year in one race and I have to say I was rooting for her to win but she made seemingly beginner mistakes at the last moment and lost the lead and fell out of the top standings.

I’m looking forward to Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves in this years series, I believe it will be a great season this year. I hope the Andretti Green Team can pull another series win, Dario did a great job last year.

So I know I’m behind on all of this but tonight I installed a plugin that allows you to view my site on the iPhone without viewing the site you see on a desktop. Hopefully it will help those of you reading my blog on your iPhone, I heard that it is hard to read my blog on the iPhone so now it should be much easier and definitely faster.

I read your emails how difficult it was to read so hopefully everything works properly. Let me know how it looks and works for everyone.

UPDATE: Plugin provided by Content Robot, Eric did the background logo for me, thanks.

How do rockstars engage with their audiences better than websites?

First off, if you measure your level of engagement by how many unique visitors you have at your site then I think you might misunderstand what I’m saying.

Does a rockstar care how many people showed up to the concert?

Of course.

But what do they really want from their audience?

Engagement!

When they begin to vocalize the lyrics they want their fans to join the party, to sing, to shout, to jump, maybe even start a riot. They thrive off their audience getting involved, as they pour out themselves through their talent of song and music they eagerly await the audience to jump in at any point.

This is engagement!

It are these moments and moments like these that help keep the rockstar doing what they do everyday. Sure they like to travel and meet new people but anyone can do that, they want the thrill of standing in front of thousands of people and having them interact with them. That is a feeling that cannot be replicated.

So why do websites, bloggers, podcaster, content creators, and creative people lack this vital aspect?

I believe that more often than not most of us forget that we need to involve ourselves in the conversation. Or we simply don’t know how. If you remember the rockstar begins by singing first which then the crowd leaps in to create a completely unique song and experience. It’s hard sometimes to remember that we need to be moving forward and always creating and attempting to involve ourselves with our audience.

Ask anyone who has community involvement what it feels like when they get a flood of comments on their blog and they respond. Does the real rewarding work happen in the original content or in the augmented, aggregated content that follows? This is an important question to ask. Does a rockstar get more satisfaction from writing the song once or performing it a thousand times?

My father once told me that what good is it to be innovative and creative if no one gets to experience what you created. Not just see, touch, smell, hear, taste but to interact with those who have similar interests or even opposing interest but nonetheless still be involved with one another in some sort of utopian community that is effortless and free from manipulation. Isn’t this what being a creative of any sort is about?

Sure you have talent and sure many can partake in your genius but does your audience play a part in your creation? Should they? Does community involvement in the creation process help or detour?

Overall, I think that rockstars definiately have a pulse on something that many creatives don’t, allowing everyone to get involved. It’s not only exciting but it helps fuel you to keep following your dream.

What do you think?

Do you let your audience get involved?

It is great to finally see Chris Brogan (or known as “Brogan” around the office) up and running again on his blog. It went down unexpectedly and he was using his Tumblr account until his site got up. It was a long 8 days but now it is up and running and I’m definitely happy to see Chris back online. He mentioned how many people came to his aid and how many people contacted him letting him know that help was available if needed. It is great to see a community interact and step up and take action, isn’t this what communities are all about? If anything, you can tell the Chris has built his community right and with strength because when something happened to him his community wanted to help him. How many other communities are that strong regardless of numbers? Is it about numbers or about community commitment or engagement? I believe Chris has built a community only some can attain and many aspire to. Chris’ commitment to his community is remarkable and with the utmost authenticity possible.

How can we emulate such a strong community to create our own?

How can they intersect?