Time to Re-evaluate

I’m still addicted…

I can’t stop thinking about it…

How do you get over Fear?

(I hope you didn’t think I was going to talk about drugs 😉 )

Over the weekend I finished reading Tina Seelig’s book, What I Wish I knew When I Was 20. A brief background on Tina, she is a Stanford Professor that teaches classes on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and also the Executive Director of Stanford Technology Ventures Program. I wish I would have read her book before I went to college.

When I believe I’m doing the right thing, no one should have to give me permission. I either make it happen or I am stuck waiting for god knows how long for someone to give me the go ahead. This was my primary takeaway from her book. Tina also provides short stories of how she challenges her students to see past failure and fear. Some of her exercises seemed strange at first, like the exercise to write down one good business idea and one bad one. She then takes all of the ideas and throws away the good ones and redistributes the bad ones and asks the students to turn them into great ideas. You can guess what happens next.

Many of our ideas that we come up with may seem like bad ones and we don’t share them with anyone out of fear or rejection. A zen proverb states, “Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it’s dark”. This quote resonates with me because I too am guilty of fear. After reading Tina’s book, I believe as a future entrepreneur and innovator, there’s no room for fear. Watch this How Bad Do You Want It video and let me know if you don’t feel like getting up tomorrow and making something happen.

I know if I keep grinding, somethings bound to happen. I know if I keep grinding, somethings going to click. I just can’t be scared to take that next step and neither should you.

Next post will be less serious lol. That video though… Man, that hit a nerve. It made me feel like I don’t know what hard work is. And then when I finished the book I felt like I haven’t been trying hard enough to go the extra mile. It’s awesome how words and videos can evoke these feelings.

Thanks for reading

Take it easy

 

“Visionaries… Psychiatric wards are full of them.” – JamesBond

What is your vision of the future? How much do you let your imagination run wild?  I often imagine… What the hell will this ever-changing world look like?

We’ll have flying cars for people who are still materialistic and teleporting for the folks who just want to get from A to B. Next, Robots will be our personal helpers that don’t require payment or gratitude because who wants to shell out compliments or money? Food won’t be consumed like normal, we’ll just pop a pill that lights up our flavor sensors and… We just had a buffalo chicken salad that was freaking delicious!

You get where I was going, I could just paint a futuristic landscape in my head for the next 10 minutes. Nevertheless, all of those ideas are not even mine. I have read or seen those ideas before. So how do we come up with unique ideas?

We steal them!

We steal these ideas and make them better, a little faster, a bit bigger or smaller, and more appealing. Then we re-introduce these stolen ideas to the world. We turn people into believers that our product or service is superior and there is nothing like it! But we have to first believe in our selves.

I think we all have a little innovator inside of us that is ready to start breaking ideas down and envisioning something greater. Maybe that something could be completely new? Would it not be amazing to create the next innovation the entire world talks about? To go from zero to one?  Hell yea it would! That something could be rumbling around in your head right now, but without letting your imagination loose, we might not get a chance to witness it.

I propose we bust out our little kid imagination and let it take over every once in a while… You never know what we’re capable of creating next 🙂 Maybe a great story that captivates your audience and puts them on the edge of their seats?

 

Take it easy and thanks for reading!

 

“I don’t stop to think about it” – JamesBond

I often wonder how any of us are able to manage our time…  Every day we are unwillingly challenged to a dual against the relentless, unforgiving and all powerful force of Time. It never stops, it never hesitates, it just keeps going as we watch the seconds go by which are now forever in the past. Time will test us for the rest of our lives.

But it serves many purposes… Especially when it comes to creativity. (Below is one of my all time favorites of Calvin and Hobbes)

“Creativity: the ability to make new things or think of new ideas” – merriam-webster.com

Do you know how difficult it is to create new things and think of new ideas? It’s easier to come up with excuses why we can’t… How do the innovators of the world come to possess such abilities to create something new? I can’t answer for them, but I know for me, I just have to step outside of my comfort zone and just do it (Please endorse my blog, Nike 🙂 ). It’s ridiculously scary to think how short life can be and we shouldn’t waste it coming up with excuses why we didn’t do this or that.

“You may delay, but time will not.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Mr. Franklin makes a valid point, don’t waste time… That is why I created this blog, to step outside of my comfort zone and create something I’ve been talking about for a while now. My friend and I were discussing how we both wanted to start writing, quickly we came up with one excuse and then another, but realized we don’t have time for excuses and put our words into actions. Challenge accepted…

We should all embrace the challenge that time has offered us and accept the outcome when it’s over. Time won’t stop and let us go back and try again, but hopefully we will have learned from the experience. So when the opportunity to battle time again arises, we will be able to approach the situation a little wiser.

Take it easy and thanks for reading