Stop Waiting. Just Go For It.

M Field center stage at Quiksilver launch

A lack of action guarantees 100% probability that absolutely nothing new has a chance of happening.

None of us, not a single one of us, can predict what will or won’t happen tomorrow.

You have to risk the next unknown step.

No one knows if they’re going to become the next

  • Steve Jobs
  • ProBlogger
  • TED speaker
  • Entrepreneur on the cover of Wired Magazine
  • NY Times Best Selling Author
  • Grammy winning Musician
  • Surf wear designer

We should go for it anyway.

We don’t have to:

  • Know where it is going to finish
  • Have a five-year plan
  • Know what shape it is going to take
  • Wait for permission
  • Have a budget
  • Know how to do it
  • Know all the right people

We do need to:

  • Swing for the fence not for a single
  • Risk embarrassment and rejection
  • Tune out negative people
  • Believe in ourselves
  • Try something different when we get stuck

We are guaranteed to:

  • Meet interesting people
  • Feel alive again
  • Have new experiences that will stretch you
  • Never regret that you tried
  • Learn a lot about yourself

They are just like us

They too faced doubt, challenges, discouragement, slim moments of hope, but they went for it anyway.

Get out your pom-poms and your list of excuses.

You’re going to want to cheer, cry tears of joy and cross off every excuse you’ve entertained.

Leading the way to simplicity

Mike Field

Artist, Waterman, after 15+ years as a painter and designer M. Field was announced last week as Quiksilver’s newest beach wear clothing line.

Ask Mike what he knew about apparel design 18 months ago?

Ask Mike how confident he was that he was going to be on the big stage with brands like DC, Hawk and Roxy?

Tweet this to @Quiksilver and congratulate them.

Listen to our Podcast interview last year when this was just kicking off.

He’s just like us.

Corporate Escapee

Pam Slim

Author, Blogger, Career Coach

Just published her second book, Body of Work (book review coming soon) after she escaped corporate consulting to go out on her own.

Ask Pam if she knew Guy Kawasaki was going to promote her now famous letter to CEO’s, COO’s and CIO’s?

Tweet this to @PamSlim.

Ask her if she thought that the blog she created in a computer class would be read by hundred’s of thousands of readers each year?

Her adventurous story Podcast.

She’s just like us.

Finding remarkable again

Tess Vigeland

Broadcaster, Author, Finance guru.

Jumped without a net after 11 years as a leading host of National Public Radio weekly show-Marketplace.

Ask Tess how easy it’s been some days getting up each day embracing the unknown?

Ask her if she ever thought a fifteen-minute speech to 3000 people would have changed her life forever?

Tweet this to @TessVigeland.

Ask her if she believed she’d get a book deal two weeks later?

More on Tess’s journey.

She’s just like us.

Finding new rhythms

Jackopierce

Jack O’Neill & Cary Pierce

Dads, Musicians, Entrepreneurs.

Started rocking together in 1988 in central Texas.

Two decades later, ask these two musicians if they thought they’d get a second shot at the big show?

Tweet this to @Jackopierce.

How about a recording contract in Nashville?

Give a listen to some of their tunes.

They are just like us.

On stage TED2013

Nilofer Merchant

Author, Speaker, Corporate Director

After her long tech career at silicon valley giants like Apple, Nilofer earned her spot next to U2’s Bono at this year’s TED2013.

Ask her if she thought she’d be featured in the Harvard Business Review after writing a break-out article about how sitting is killing us?

Tweet this to @Nilofer.

Now (among many things) she’s the messenger of Walking Meetings.

Podcast interview from a cafe in the valley.

She’s just like us.

Bringing big ideas to light

Mario Schultzke

Founder of IdeaMensch

After a 50 state road tour on a shoestring budget, armed with only a MacBook Pro, and a US map; IdeaMensch has now helped bring over 2000 entrepreneurs ideas to light.

Ask Mario how confident he felt when tomorrow night’s next Meet Up had zero tickets sold?

Tweet this to @IdeaMensch

Ask him how easy it’s been doing his now day job at the University of Montana and running IdeaMensch?

Listen to Mario’s nine lessons that every entrepreneur should know.

He’s just like us.

Author of Accidental Creative

Todd Henry

Author, Podcaster, Consultant, Creative.

Ask Todd about how he accidentally became one of iTunes top business podcasts by faithfully recording his ideas every week since 2007?

Tweet this to @ToddHenry.

Ask him how much caution he received over his latest best-selling business book title “Die Empty”  Who wants to read about death Todd? 

Listen to his story.

He’s just like us.

Zero to on top in two years

Jeff Goins

Tribe Leader, Author, Mega Blogger

Ask @JeffGoins if he thought he’d be speaking side-by-side with Michael Hyatt at his Platform conferences when he cold called him to have coffee?

Tweet this to @JeffGoins.

Ask him if while he was leading mission trips he thought he’d build a Mega Blog in less than two years time?

Podcast early in the upward trend.

He’s just like us.

What are you not doing today that you wish you were?

Come on…tell us.

Keep going.

The Illusion of Ease

Jackopierce-Jack O’Neill & Cary Pierce

When I see a pro at work I have to remind myself that the ease, perfection and polish that I am witnessing is an illusion.

Nothing this good comes easy.

Sure there are protégées but the truth is that they are extremely rare.  Most of them fizzle out and never reach full maturity in their craft, skill, or gifting.

The temptation is to be duped into believing that this perfect polish was achieved easily.  Let me give you a few examples to prime your senses.

Pick your favorite writer, your favorite band, your favorite photographer or painter.  How about the entrepreneur or public speaker, school teacher or professional athlete?

Made to look easy

When you experience them in their respective area of strength do you say to yourself

How did they get so good?
Man they make that look easy.

It is true.  It does look easy.

When the pros are doing their thing, they are absolutely inspiring to watch.

In the past few weeks I have felt a temptation to assume that the pros I have encountered somehow found a shortcut.

They must have found the magic pill, magic button, hidden road or seed to plant their money tree in their back yard.

I know better.

They must have found a shortcut

When we make the conclusion that someone got a free pass or got to cut to the front of the line and bypass all of the hard work, perseverance, disappointment, agony of setbacks and defeats then we create a dissonance between us and them.

We interpret the gap between them and us with a list of reasons for the gap being so wide.

  • We conclude that they didn’t have to work as hard as we do.
  • They didn’t have a tough start like we did.
  • They must have had a really good father, mentor, friend, grandfather, professor, boss, rich uncle, etc.
  • They are more naturally gifted.

When we conclude that the pros were the benefactors of a shortcut then we justify our current position as affirmation that we will likely never close the gap.

The truth is that the pros also waded through the same crap 
that we have to in order to achieve their dreams and desires.

Don’t preclude yourself from the pursuit of your desires.

Don’t embrace the temptation to believe the illusion of ease.

Show up and do the work and close the gap instead.

Take More Time Explaining Your Art

Art- Photo by Benkay Creative Commons

Take your time assessing what you created.

Take your time explaining the beauty of your art, so we can absorb the magnitude of your creation.

Your photograph, your book, your painting, your company, the album you just finished, the car you restored, or the software release you just finished.

Don’t just move on to the next project.

Think about how long it took you (or short), how many obstacles you faced, and the crux decisions that you had to make.

That wasn’t easy right?

How many others would have thrown in the towel if faced with the same challenges?

You see most people either do not ever start or quit before they are finished.

Not you.

Beauty is very subjective.

Since you are a finisher, a winning horse, then you earned your victory lap around the track.  So take your time sizing up what you have accomplished and explaining the beauty.

As the artist you have the power to enlighten our eyes by offering a peak behind the curtain.

You will find that your creation or accomplishment is more beautiful to others once they hear the story.

Share the story, share the art, and take your time explaining them both.

Here are a couple of finishers that I have had the privilege of seeing behind the curtain with:

 @CaryPierce1 and @Thegoodrun just released a new album.
@VanceBrown just released his first book.
@Fuelpricing knocked out an epic software release.
Bluff Works just smashed their Kickstarter campaign goal.

What is your story?

What did you just ship?

Love to hear about it.

Do You Feel Like You Are Playing for the Farm Team?

Your career can feel like Farm Team baseball.

Farm team baseball feeds the Major League teams with the rising cream of the crop.  Once recruited, young talent starts proving and validating what the scout witnessed during try outs:  fielding grounders, throwing heat, and smashing home runs.

It’s the turf where some of the young recruits morph into MLB players.

Playing for the farm team advances each players probability to get the call to “The Show”.  Every farm team player wants to play in the major leagues and the farm team is a necessary season in the career of most ball players.  Some guys only spend a few weeks or months playing the circuit of small market towns like Omaha, NE.

Some players are unable to break through the talent pool requirements and end up stuck on the farm team for their career.  For every season a player spends on the farm team, his dream of playing in the big leagues becomes less likely.

Why do you care?  You don’t even like baseball?

Many of us feel like we are playing on the farm team today.

Your current career, company, position, accomplishments, compensation, and level of influence feel drastically different from your original dreams.

Recall for a minute where you thought you’d be?

What you thought you’d be doing?

Who you thought you’d be doing it for or with?

As a result you feel stuck playing minor league ball when you
know you were made for the Major Leagues.

You are right.  But that isn’t the whole story.

Interview CEO’s and ask

Did you know that if you started interviewing CEO’s, writers, directors, founders, owners, presidents, artists, (insert your example) that you look up to as Major League players you would encounter that they also feel some of these same sentiments?

Try it. You’ll be surprised at what you hear.

The difference between baseball and your life is that you have a choice to change it.

You are not as stuck as you think.

First, stop waiting for the call from the major leagues.

The cyclical cycle of anticipation and disappointment is not working.

Instead start your own team.

Stop playing ball by someone else’s rules.  You don’t believe me?  Buckle up……

Meet Jack @thegoodrun

NYC Digital Media guru by day and legendary musician by night and weekend @jackopierce.  Ask him if it’s exactly as he envisioned?

Meet Barry @Calxeda

Intel for twelve years thought cell phone chips should run rack servers instead.

Ask him how long he played for the farm team before he quit and started his own team?

Meet Jon @jondale

Ad-hoc consulting for years.  Quit and went and got an MBA from Seth Godin and launched Moolala.  Ask him how many farm team practices he feels like he’s attended?

Meet Matt 

Creating AutoCAD drawings of libraries in strip malls.
Quit and now decorates the downtown Denver downtown skyline with modern architecture.
Ask him how tall or unique a building he will need to design to feel he’s made it to “the show”?

The difference between playing on the farm team and major leagues is all in your head.

Welcome to the Show. You made it. Watch the Rookie Trailer.

What can you change in your thinking today?