Simple: learn to quit.
Art is never finished. Therefore, the trick is learning to let go.
A doodler releases his or her work into the world when she or he is ready.
A true artist releases his or her work into the world when the art is ready.
The key to great art is not skill, but timing.
Life is never perfect, so always give second chances. But if things continue cruising below par, stop wasting time. Pour out the glass half-empty or fill it up again, but don’t let it sit there. Accept defeat or reverse your situation. If you pour, try not to make a mess. If you want a refill, calculate the effort necessary and decide if a realistic outcome is worth it. Attempting to rekindle the fire can be a risky investment of your time.
Sure, enduring heavy baggage can make you stronger. But dumping weight can make you more agile, able to reach the next milestone quicker.
Things get stale in the office. The same scenery, the same products, the same ideas, the same relationships. To keep your team in high spirits, mix it up.
Vacation is not frequent enough. Ask employees to find a public venue to work one morning every week – coffee shops, co-working spaces, diners, etc. Encourage them to interact with other patrons and make new friends. Satellite conversations will spark new ideas that spread internally and inspire evolution. And as your employees build relationships in new environments, the team vicariously expands its network and potential resources. Win-win for everybody.
Justin Hamilton asked me if I shampoo my beard. It struck me as a peculiar question. Not because it was inappropriate or unnerving, but because it had never come up in conversation before.
Should you shampoo your beard? Facial hair is still hair and warrants the same care as your scalp, right? No one ever taught me one way or the other.
There are many lessons about adulthood we are not taught growing up. Sex education comes early, but we are hardly taught extracurricular adulthood mechanics thereafter – until we suffer hard truths. Categories of insurance. The civil court system. Property ownership. Credit. Taxes! Taxes are a basic American responsibility and we are all accountable. Why do so few people understand them?
Tax education should be mandatory prior to graduating high school. As should many of these other things I mentioned, whether taught in school or the home. Many adulthood chores do not get discussed until it is too late and we are not prepared. Unruly beard hair is not as dramatic as providing proof of death for a life insurance claim, but they both fall into the same batch of conversation topics failing to surface until we have to waste time and energy decoding them on our own.
To answer the question, I shampoo my beard roughly twice a week.
[EDIT for the Ladies: I soap my beard/face everyday. I don’t shampoo everyday, it seems like overkill.]
What do you do when you come home from work or school? Keep working? Relax? Watch television? Read a book? Write? Work out? Spend time with family? Go to bed?
It is important to keep your body healthy and mind sharp. Family is very important, not to be neglected. Balance is the key to successful living. But consider: your after hours are unencumbered by the expectations of a paycheck or supervisor. You have the freedom to live, the freedom to grow, and the freedom to innovate.
Many of today’s most impactful creations did not manifest at the hands of large corporate teams, wealthy R&D divisions, or policymakers – they were conceived by individuals as hobbies after hours. Henry Ford experimented with his first gasoline engine at home while working for the Edison Illuminating Company. John Pemberton, a late nineteenth century pharmacist, bottled Coca-Cola as a side project. The Wright Brothers assembled gliders in the back of their bicycle shop. Google and Facebook were both parented by active college students. The list goes on.
Live your life doing what you want to do. Embrace your hobbies. Embrace your time. What you do after hours can liberate you.
Do not criticize people’s choices. They will be less likely to trust your judgement because you just challenged their judgement.
Find another way to communicate your message. Or risk losing respect.
New trend: crowdsourcing. Inspiring the masses to perform a service for your company and engage them in your brand. Core systems, brand identity, customer service, logo design, commercial production, word of mouth, product development, recipes and more. Cheaper, doubles as a marketing effort, and empowers your strongest audience.
It’s not always a good idea to call out to the whole world. Gap’s logo redesign failed in part because a large number of submission artists were not regular Gap customers; they were not familiar with the brand. Certainly not as familiar as the customers who lashed back and reset the logo.
Enter: fansourcing. Fan–sourcing is more focused than crowd–sourcing because it challenges your fanbase directly – the people who know and care about you the most. A new record label in the UK invites fans to invest (for a share of the profits) in an album before the music is even recorded. This model threatens rule #4 of my true fans definition by blurring the line between fan support and ROI profiteering. Nevertheless, sharing profits with your strongest fans is an unrivaled channel for gratitude. It could empower your supporters and win you more true fans.
Fansource financing can offset considerable risk in your venture for the following five reasons:
Reason 1: Upfront Recoupment
Traditionally, you raised money to produce and then recouped costs when customers paid for your product. With fansource financing, raising money and recouping costs happens simultaneously. Pay before or pay after? As long as you can deliver on your promise to produce, what’s the difference? Less risk when you’ve already satisfied expenses before the product is made.
Reason 2: Less Emphasis on Profit
Investors expect a financial return. Fans expect an experiential return. When your investors are your fans, the product takes first chair to profit. Investors are very important and should not be undermined. But I promise you: fans will give you less hassle about the dollar – if you do good work, of course. Less pressure, less stress, less risk.
Reason 3: Fans Have Skills
By building a community around your project, you have thousands of supports who have talents and connections that could help you. Be resourceful (or perhaps fansourceful?). Know your fans. Do not be afraid to ask. They might love you enough to lend a hand.
Reason 4: The Quality Committee
Investors want your product to turn a profit. Fans want your product to be great. By bringing in fan investors, you are building a community populated by your toughest critics and most loyal supporters. Build a relationship with them, collect their expectations and improve your product. Better quality, less risk.
Reason 5: Fans Have Friends
With their hard-earned money in the pot, fan investors have more at stake in and therefore more attachment to your project. They want their friends to support the project and fuel their return. Fans will help you do the marketing legwork and reach more people.
While fansourcing reduces financial risk on your part, it increases fan retention risk. A fan invests thousands of dollars into your project and your project fails, no return on investment. Uh oh. You will lose the fan. They may even tarnish your reputation, hurting your ability to adopt new fans. That is why it is imperative to earn true fans who do not expect a return. Churches are really good at this. Kickstarter is kickin’ ass.
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In a world of menial “like” buttons, ratings and million myspace friends, the notion of network is clouding the value of true fans. In this niche-saturated marketplace, fans are now more important to a brand than ever. They are your lieutenant commanders in marketing, stimulate the lion’s share of revenue, and take responsibility for the tribe. Filmmaker Kevin Smith values his fans and is self-distributing his latest film to them before anyone else. Identify your fans and show them appreciation.
A true fan:
Everyone else is just a customer.
I’m not a creative guy. Many are far more expressive, imaginative and original. To those people, ideas come naturally – they just appear out of thin air. Not for me. And not for most. But don’t worry, there’s hope!
My best subject in school was Math. I see the world in variables and treat every problem as an algebra equation. 2x = 4, so x=2, correct? Find the common denominator and you discover the path to your solution. Putting two and two together. Straightforward.
So it is with the birth of new ideas. Bring two concepts together, find the common denominator between them, and discover inspiration for your new idea. Birthing an idea is a lot like birthing a child – it takes (at least) two parents to tango. The gene pool of one merges with the gene pool of the other and a derivative, yet completely unique person is born. Two merged cells evolve into a very complex organism. Two merged concepts can evolve into a very complex idea.
Try this exercise:
Step 1. Pick your least favorite subject in grade school.
Step 2. Pick a hobby you enjoy.
Step 3. Put them together. Be inspired.
I did not enjoy history and enjoy dining out. Together: history dining? Now that’s a fun idea – a timepiece dining experience? Your server as your historical tour guide? A several course meal tracking the evolution of a dish through time? I could go on!
The trick is not finding root inspiration – we all have interests and disinterests, the world around us. The trick is accepting two different ideas can relate to each other – and identifying how they relate. The more dissimilar and specific the parent ideas are, the more difficult the connection becomes – and the more unique the new idea can be! Stick with it, keep analyzing. You will strike gold. With enough practice, the association between two random ideas becomes virtually automatic.
The practical application of your newborn idea is the hard part. Ideation 201 anybody?
Craig Ormiston 