I had somebody ask me about how I decide which projects to pursue, related to the post Stay The Course?. Here's my response:
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I really have to think about an answer to your question, because I don't have one off the top of my head. The answer I guess is that I've learned to trust myself on decisions and I think because of a lifetime of "over-analyzing" everything (or so I've often been accused) I can now run through a zillion scenarios and possibilities very quickly, and come to a decision quickly. Kind of like a great chess player – although chess isn't all that creative or grounded in the real world imho so I've never gotten into it.
But that's more on the detailed side of things. Regarding big-picture ideas and projects, man, it's HARD! As I'm sure you know – when you have a brilliant idea how are you supposed to just throw it on the trash heap because "there's not enough time"? How to give up those ideas that won't go away?
I've primarily worked to find a way to combine all those projects. It's, uh, still in progress lol.
But you get it, your marketing experience probably helps with your sports magazine and between the two of them I'm sure you meet such a wide variety of people that it gives you a lot more clout with both.
What I've really been having to look at though is what's important right now. And by that same line of thinking, is what's important capable of making money right now. And combined with that, there has to be the element of me being passionate about it.
I've turned down quite a few clients the past few years, and earned less money, because I have no interest in building websites for carpet companies…unless of course they want to do something remarkable. That's rare though, in any industry.
I guess the biggest thing is to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what moves you, what your are good at (and not good at) and to be completely objective when making decisions about what to cull and what to keep.
Most artists and marketing minds have a lot of ideas over their lifetimes that, given a million dollars and a team of similarly smart people, could become billion dollar businesses very quickly. Sometimes that happens. Most times, it doesn't.
I think some of the absolute best advice on this subject comes from Seth Godin in his book "The Dip". It's a great read, but the crux of it is this (my paraphrase):
"Can I become the best in the world at what I'm doing? If the answer is yes, then I need to give it everything I've got, and press on, push through, until I am the best. If the answer is no, then I need to quit, NOW, and go do something that I CAN be the best in the world at."
I think that pretty much sums it up. You've got to have a bit of arrogance (grounded in reality) about who you are and what you can do, but even if you think it's a stretch, sometimes when you have that mindset and go for it – even if people laugh and scoff and kick you when you're down – you'll get rewarded.
Then the trick is making sure you analyze and figure out WHY you got rewarded, what you did right, what mistakes you made, and become stronger. Like the way that commodity prices and cash prices dance as though there was a rubber band between them, when you wind up being rewarded for being stronger than – at that moment – you really are, find out why! Find out how!
And in doing so, you pull your abilities up to meet you. Then you can climb higher.
Believing you or your entity can be the best in the world though is a scary proposition. Because in order to keep believing it in a way that will motivate you from within to get out of bed and keep pushing, you've got to be willing to take the risk to TAKE ACTION on it.
Thoughts, beliefs, insecurities, all of those can be kept mostly private.
But taking action on a dream is very, very public. And 95% of the world is made up of people who will never take action on their dreams, and they're the ones who are quickest to cut you down or mock you when you stumble.
You have to believe in yourself and your ideas strongly enough to block all that meaningless noise out. And it really is meaningless – don't give it any meaning unless it's from a source that you trust, admire, and who inspires you…in which case it might be useful constructive criticism.
But ultimately, only you can decide who and what you're going to become.
Again though, grounded in reality. My childhood dream, propagated by a dad who never achieved his, was to be the next Troy Aikman. So basically, I wanted to be who Tom Brady is. (Pretty much, yeah – he’s living my 15 year old dream!)
That wasn't grounded in reality – I'm not the right brain type to play quarterback, nor am I physiologically built in a way that would allow that to be a reality. So obviously, it didn't happen.
But there ARE things that I can be the best or competitively among the best in the world at. And now that I'm honest with myself and logically looking at life and who I am and listening to my Creator, I see those things.
So while there are a ton of great ideas that I have on a regular basis, and many times I get pissed at people who COULD be the best if they took that idea and ran with it (and I get pissed because they DON'T, nor do they take my genius marketing advice, dammit! haha), I know that most of those potential companies or ideas are not for me to pursue.
So I keep pursuing what I know, without any doubt, I am to pursue. And I thank God every day for how fortunate and blessed a life I lead. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of challenge and struggle and constantly pushing forward, but it's taken me around the world and through experiences that most people only dream of, and yet I deem them many times just commonplace fodder for the continual shaping of me, and my earthly evolution.
But it all stems from:
– stepping outside of emotion and logically analyzing myself and / or my ideas
– making a detailed plan of attack
– taking action, CONSISTENTLY
Those things that I have been less consistent with have suffered, and I know that, and it bugs me. Some of them have suffered because at the time I had no choice but to put my attention elsewhere, to "plug a hole in the dam", so to speak.
Lately I have figured out how to solve certain problems and create the breathing room I need (fix the dam) in order to be able to focus on those areas that I know are right to pursue but which have been lacking.
And as things just tend to happen when they're supposed to and how they are supposed to, I'm not sweating the ups and downs and stumbles and sure, outright failures I've amassed over the last few years.
Because I've slowly been moving in the same long-range direction the entire time.
I love the analogy of a plane not truly flying in a straight line. If you look at the detailed flight tracking of a plane flying from, let's say New York to Los Angeles (west coast, yeaaaaah!), on a huge full-USA scale view it looks like a straight line. But zooming in reveals constant deviations from that straight line, and then corrections back onto the right path.
The goal for us as ambitious, creative, and productive humans is to minimize the errors, minimize the miscalculations and stumbles and detours from the right path, and to strive for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
The straighter that path from point A to point B becomes, the closer an individual or created entity will be to becoming…the best in the world.
I’m not one who “feels” that “everybody has something they can be great at”. I think that’s not the case. I think many people were created and destined for lesser things. It doesn’t make their souls less valuable to God, but the bible is pretty clear that God made some for ho
nor and some for dishonor, some to be vessels of clay and some of wood and some of silver and gold.
That’s where the objective view of one’s self is very, very important.
In my example about football, I wanted to be a vessel of gold. But I was not exactly created for that destiny. I was clay at best. But I think I became the best clay I could be, because I gave it everything I had.
I think with age and thoughtful evolution has come the ability to know my strengths, weaknesses, and god-breathed abilities and to be realistic about their purpose in the bigger scheme of things.
When things can be useful without detracting from the more important projects, or better yet, to ADD TO the higher priority projects, then I use them.
But FOCUS is the most powerful word I can remind myself with on a daily basis (if I believed the modern medical world, I would be one of those kids born with ADD or ADHD – but it’s pure manufactured bullshit, nothing more than a “handicap” created to drug up free-thinkers. Those behaviors they seek to squelch are all based on brain types (Nature), and yes, home-life (the Nurture). And yes I used parentheses within parentheses.).
In brief, because I’m oh-so-good at being brief, haha:
Know your strengths and weaknesses
Know what you’re passionate about
Figure out how to make that much beloved hobby earn money
JUST DO IT
That’s my take on it.