Last night I hosted a rather swanky charity auction. I MC'd while we auctioned off eligible bachelors and bachelorettes to raise money for Odyssey House. One of the WGirls- Meghan Goddard asked me to do it, and I was THRILLED.
Everyone had a GREAT time, and we raised about $40,000 fro Odessey House!
Ok, so I have a TON of Seth Godin's Books, and I get excited everytime he releases a new one. I'm also a subscriber of his blog. Today's Blog post goes with my philosophy of "Half-Assed Life":
The myth of preparation
There are three stages of preparation. (For a speech, a product, an interview, a sporting event...)
The first I'll call the beginner stage. This is where you make huge progress as a result of incremental effort.
The second is the novice stage. This is the stage in which incremental effort leads to not so much visible increase in quality.
And the third is the expert stage. Here's where races are won, conversations are started and sales are made. A huge amount of effort, off limits to most people, earns you just a tiny bit of quality. But it's enough to get through the Dip and be seen as the obvious winner.
Here's the myth: The novice stage is useful.
If all you're going to do is go through the novice stage before you ship, don't bother. If you're not prepared to put in the grinding work of the expert stage, just do the beginner stuff and stop screwing around. Make it good enough and ship it and move on.
We diddle around in the novice stage because we're afraid. We polish (but not too much) and go to meetings (plenty of them) and look for deniability, spending hours and hours instead of shipping. And the product, in the end, is not so much better.
I'm all for expertise. Experts, people who push through and make something stunning--we need more of them. But let's be honest, if you're not in the habit of being an expert, it's unlikely your current mode of operation is going to change that any time soon.
Go, give a speech. Go, start a blog. Go, ship that thing that you've been hiding. Begin, begin, begin and then improve. Being a novice is way overrated.
Another one of my absolute favorites. I'm pretty down on our country right now, feeling that we've learned absolutely nothing in the last 9 years, but I'm glad you took the time to make this message today.
My apartment was full that day; people couldn't go home, so they came to my place as we made food and stayed in front of the television. I was asleep, and the phone wouldn't stop ringing. Back then I still had a landline. I answered the phone, and Rick told me to "turn on the TV".
"Dude- I'm sleeping" "Bones- Some planes just crashed into the twin towers" "huh...? Was it an accident? "No....." "Ok, I'll turn on the- Oh my God- LESLIE! She lives down there..." "Can I come to your place?" "Yeah, of course- bring whoever. Where's Dave?" "I don't know, I called you first." "My phone's been ring... someone's on the other line; ok- come over."
I was answering the phone non-stop; more and more people were asking if they could walk over, since there was no getting through downtown. Laura and I had been hooking up, but after that, I don't think she ever left. I was suddenly proud of myself for being someone people felt they could call. It felt ridiculous to have that thought while everyone was crying in silence.
Then the people started jumping, and eventually the whole thing came down.
Leslie was apparently caught in one of those ash clouds, but she made it out ok.
Across the world, that's everyday for some people. Because someone else's God said so.
And Gays cause Earthquakes and shouldn't marry because someone else's God said so. And Jews are put in camps because someone else's God said so. And Muslim Taxi Cab Drivers are stabbed because someone else's God said so.
And Our God says we should be free- unless you want to build a community center if you're God is different.
And Our God says you should earn from your own sweat- unless we want your oil, and you're God is different.
And it seems like the only time we DO get along is when we make money together, so maybe we oughtta sponsor all the politicians, and place people from different faiths in their group, and then we won't need to talk about faith in God when what we really mean is faith in money.
First of all, you gotta watch this great video for Moms from NUMMIES.com:
I got seriously choked up around 2:45 because I was really sick when I was younger, and I wondered how my parents must have felt waiting to hear if I was going to die or not.
Anyway, this company just makes nursing bras, and there wasn't even ONE in this video- just a super-simple, heartfelt video that connected with it's audience, and cost almost nothing to make. It's spreading, and people are learning about the bras.
I had a stroke of genius in that I'm allowing people to be affiliates for No More Waiters, but also letting them re-brand the 21st century report as a giveaway. Now, I'm providing the actual asset for people to create an income with aside from myself!
SEARS had me audition to be their SANTA CLAUS, and of course, they're having a web video contest- can you help me and VOTE for me!! Anyone who leaves a comment on the SEARS site will get a free something cool.... I don't know what yet!
a crappy video with over 2 million views in 4 days- people are passing it around not only because of the lyrics, but because it's a damn fine song, sung with a wonderful voice with a fun, relateable message.
He also has some other great songs, with the same great voice, but with expensive, well-produced videos, without the same relateable message. They've been out for months, and gotten 2 thousand views.
What's the lesson? PEOPLE LOVE WHAT SPEAKS TO THEM.
The record company promises a "new video", and in my opinion, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. KEEP THIS ONE, and let other people play with it and continue passing it around.
