When someone tries to engage you with a pitch that’s simple, visceral and more direct than you’re used to, it may be that their vitriol is hiding the fact that they’re afraid.
We race to the bottom, or we climb forward.
Stereotypes, shortcuts and shallow invective are effective in the short run, but they’re not useful, important or the best we can do.
When a project appears to be in limbo, in a permanent holding pattern, where sunk costs meet opportunity costs, where no one can figure out what to do…
Cancel it.
Cancel it with a week’s notice.
One of two things will happen:
A. A surge of support and innovation will arrive, and it won’t be stuck any more.
B. You’ll follow through and cancel it, and you won’t be stuck any more.
It costs focus and momentum to carry around the stalled. Let it go.
When David and Bill cancelled my brand-in-development in 1983 at Spinnaker, it ended up being the catalyst to turn it into our most successful launch. We ended up launching a line of five software products that were each certified a gold-selling hit.
That week wasn’t fun, but it changed my life.
That’s what many freelancers want.
The ability to do your work, but without the hassle of someone telling you what to do.
The thing is, finding a well-paying job without a boss used to be a lot easier than it is now. The race to the bottom is fierce, and the only way to avoid it is to create projects, innovate on strategy and build something worth seeking out.
In other words, you need a better boss.
It seems as though people now spend more time with their smartphones than they spend with other people, and the smartphone and app makers are working hard to make every interaction we make online ever more convenient.
Convenience sells.
It’s the dominant driver of our culture, and has been since the 60s. How can I get something that’s just good enough in exchange for it being more convenient? Hence the drive through fast food window, the microwave oven, the remote control, shrinkwrap licenses and 140 characters as a stand in for exchanging ideas.
It turns out that the quest for convenience also drives many of the choices we make about education. It’s more convenient to have standardized tests and rigid curricula, so we don’t have to treat every student differently. And it’s more convenient to imagine that continuing education for adults might involve reading a summary of something instead of actually doing it.
Alas, we’re confusing the convenience of physical time-saving with the convenience of not extending ourselves in the quest for something better.
Education needs to be inconvenient because it relies on effort and discomfort to move us from where we were to where we want to be. The internet gives us more access than ever, and if we care enough, we can use that convenient access to explore the inconvenient places that we know we should be exploring.
Here’s my annual link to my rant on education entitled, “Stop Stealing Dreams: What’s School For.”
And here’s the 18 minute video, which is a little more convenient.
And here’s a new viral video on the topic. Related to Ted Dintersmith’s new book.
The Bootstrapper’s Workshop is a decidedly inconvenient program we’re running now, one that challenges each participant to engage and experience and connect. You can save a few dollars this weekend if you click the purple circle on the sign up page. Then it’s gone.
Useful education is inconvenient, but worth it.
If someone offers you a compliment by mistake, or gives you the benefit of the doubt, or lets you into traffic… my hunch is that you accept. You might not totally deserve it, but hey, they might see something in you that's worthy.
On the other hand, when we're unfairly blamed, harshly judged or cut off, well, that's completely unacceptable. That's enough to ruin a whole day. That's reason for revenge or at the very least, the blowing off of steam.
Does that feel imbalanced?
Useful modern education is not the work of rote. When you tell someone the answer and then give them a test to see if they remember what you told them, that’s not education, it’s incented memorization.
On the other hand, if you can ask someone a question that causes them to think about something unexamined, that challenges them to explore new ways of seeing the world or making connections, you’ve actually caused a change to happen.
The second time you ask them that question, it won’t work as well. Now it’s just rote. That’s why people call it a trick question. Because they learned something. They learned the trick.
We need more trick questions.
Today’s the launch of the Bootstrapper’s Workshop. It’s an intensive community-based virtual seminar, designed to take from 21 to 100 days.
What you’ll learn: A third way to be independent. Not the daily struggle of the gig-seeking freelancer, nor the high-stakes VC world of the big-time entrepreneur. Instead, the bootstrapper finds freedom early and often, by building an enterprise that customers want so much that they become the source of funding.
Bootstrapping is freedom via service. Finding ways to connect and lead and serve customers so well that they can’t imagine doing it without you.
How you’ll learn: The Bootstrapper’s Workshop is inspired by the five successful sessions of the Marketing Seminar. We’re using a customized online discussion platform, combined with short video lessons from me, to create cohorts of people who are sharing their best work (and challenges) with each other.
Instead of tests and certificates, this new way of learning revolves around peers, around real-time interactions and most of all, around projects and the work you do, instead of memorization and exams.
We start today. You can join anytime in the next few weeks, but if you sign up now, you can look for the purple circle at the bottom of the page and save some money. It’s disappears in a few days.
Can’t wait to see what you create.
All three would be great.
First… you invent, design, develop and bring to life things that haven’t been done before.
Fast… you get the work done quickly and efficiently.
Correct… and it’s right the first time, without preventable errors.
Being first takes guts. Being fast takes training. And being correct takes care.
All three at once is rare. Two would be great. And just one (any one) is required if you want to be a professional.
Alas, too often, in our confusion about priorities and our fear of shipping, we end up doing none and settling for average instead.
One day a year isn’t much to spend honoring the folks that built everything.
One day a year for the more than twenty that died from the heights and in the caissons as they built the Brooklyn Bridge.
One day a year to remember the 123 women and 23 men who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy.
And one day a year for the overlooked and disrespected, for the hardworking and the burnt out.
Of course, there’s still factory work to be done, but more and more, the labor each of us do is labor that can’t easily be done by a computer or a robot, work that requires emotional labor, that challenges us to lean just a little bit further into the unknown.
One of the factors that made hard labor palatable was that the economy didn’t offer a lot of choices. If you worked in Lackawanna, you probably worked a farm or in steel mill. It’s not like you spent a great deal of time wondering about what you might be doing instead.
Today, choices are everywhere. Which means that not only do we have to wrestle with insufficiency (of respect, of compensation, of reliable work) but we also have to take responsibility for our freedom. The freedom to choose something better, and even more important, the freedom to do work that matters.
We live in a world that’s moved by connection more than it is by heavy lifting. The connection of seeing and being seen, the connection of creating opportunity and value.
That shift isn’t easy, and for many, it’s painful. But that shift is up to each of us.
Today’s not just the end of summer. Today’s a day to plan how next summer might be very different for us and for those we seek to serve.
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We’re launching the Bootstrapper’s Workshop on Wednesday because we know this is true. And we want to make the difficult work more possible, to create space for you to move forward, to lean in, and to connect with others who have made the choice to shift.
“What’s new?”
That’s a fine approach to staying up to date on a situation or field where you are well-informed. After all, if you notice what’s new and incorporate it with what you know, you’ll remain well informed. This is the thesis behind Slack and even email.
The small town police chief has been to every house, met every resident. Hearing about the changes in town are enough for her to stay on top of her job.
The deluge of information being created in every corner of the world, though, means that it’s really unlikely that we’re actually well-informed. Knowing what’s new isn’t sufficient to keep us informed.
It’s possible that you’ve heard every single recorded performance of the Grateful Dead, or read all of Isaac Asimov or understand the nuances in the tax code. But it’s unlikely. And so, if you’re busy checking to see what’s new on the last Sunday of summer in the northern hemisphere, perhaps it makes sense to set the breaking news aside and take a look at the backlist instead.
You can search all of my blog posts at this link. We’ve installed a new search engine and it’s fast and effective. Type in a concept you’re interested in (here’s one) and you might be surprised at what’s there.
That’s the beauty of the backlist. That, and you can always find more of it, whenever you’re ready.
