Posted by Grant on September 5, 2008 – 5:50 am
You may have noticed that today is Friday. How do you feel about that?
Are you overly excited, counting down the hours until you are set free for the weekend? Are you anxious, exhausted, and ready to leave by lunch time?
So many people live with the mentality of “Thank God it’s Friday….Oh God, it’s Monday.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…life is too short to do something you hate. We all have to make a living and earn a paycheck, so wouldn’t you prefer to do something you love?
Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up on Monday morning and be excited to go to work? (Let me know when you stop laughing at that idea!)
Don’t laugh too hard…I do it every week. While I love the weekend and just spending time with my family, I also know that Monday is coming and I get to go back and do something I’m passionate about.
And you can to.
Posted by Grant on September 4, 2008 – 6:46 am
As you may have seen this week, Don LaFontaine passed away. Some of you may know exactly who that is and others may not have a clue who I’m talking about. Although Don was his real name, he was more commonly known as “The Movie Trailer Voice Guy.” We all know that voice and have heard it in probably hundreds of movie trailers. So part of his legacy will be “that guy with the cool movie voice!”
While it’s important to consider how you want to be remembered someday, it is also important to consider how you want to be known today.
He was “The Movie Trailer Voice Guy,” but who are you? What do people say about you?
I’m not encouraging you to be obsessed or consumed by what others think of you or say about you, as if your entire identity is resting upon the opinions of others.
What I am encouraging you to do is consider what you want to be known for. When people talk about you, how do they fill in this sentence…
“Oh yeah, that’s the ___________________ guy/girl.”
Posted by Grant on September 3, 2008 – 8:10 pm
Filed under Books, My Book
I posted a press release today regarding the upcoming release of my new book Reality Check. I’ve never done anything with press releases, so it was a good learning experience! Feel free to check it out and read it here.
Posted by Grant on September 3, 2008 – 11:46 am
As you may know, I’m a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan. Although we have struggled the last few weeks, I’m with them through thick and thin. I read a good quote the other day that ties into baseball…
“In life, no one cares how many times you strike out; all that matters is your home runs. And you get to bat as many times as you like! Anyone can be a home-run king if they just take enough at bats! When have you gotten so worried about making a mistake that you stopped swinging for the fences?”
Great question!
Do you ever get so scared of failing that you don’t even try anymore?
Posted by Grant on September 2, 2008 – 9:55 am
Since I’ve shared a few posts about books lately, I thought I would give a few ideas for how I get my books….
- Usually once every few months I will clean out my bookcases and sell off any books I don’t need any more. There are some books that you use during certain seasons of life that may no longer be needed, so instead of letting them collect dust, why not sell them off? I’ve listed books on eBay, Half.com, but most of the time I take them to local bookstores and either trade or sell them.
- Before I buy a book, I will usually see if the library has it first. It’s nice to be able to at least scan through it and figure out if it’s a book to just read once and be done with it, or does it have enough “meat” in it that I would refer back to frequently. If it’s just a good one-time read, then I won’t have wasted my money buying it.
- Rarely will I buy a book brand new. I almost always buy books used. It is much less expensive for the same product. I buy used books through local stores but usually through Amazon. With any book you look up on Amazon, you can see a list of used books to order. You will almost always save money ordering the book used.
- One other thing I almost always do is read user reviews on Amazon. I’m not always interested in what professional reviews have to say. Rather, I want to know what the average Joe thinks, because my opinion of the book is generally closer to the average Joe than a professional.
Any other good sources for finding books you would recommend?
Posted by Grant on September 2, 2008 – 6:46 am
I recently read that after Michelangelo had created his famous sculpture, David, he said this:
David was inside the stone – I just needed to chip away all the pieces that weren’t David.”
WOW!
Is it possible that what you’re looking for is already inside you? Could it be that you’re looking everywhere else to determine who you are when really that identity is already inside you?
Posted by Grant on September 2, 2008 – 6:12 am
I always try to have something I’m reading but recently I went on a book binge and sold a bunch of old books and ordered a bunch of new books. Here’s some of what I’m reading…
The Starfish and the Spider – The subtitle gives a good summary of this book: “the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations.” If you cut off the legs of a spider, it dies, but if you cut off the legs of a starfish, it grows new legs in their place. So the authors talk about leaderless organizations like a starfish. Think of examples like Wikipedia or Craigslist. These are organizations that have offices and headquarters but for the most part, what they do is run by the people and the customers themselves. Anyone can go add or edit any Wikipedia listing and the Wikipedia organization isn’t sitting and waiting to police the system. The users do that. Same with Craigslist. So the argument is made that if you create organizations that let the people run the system, it creates a better experience for everyone. Very interesting read. I’ve really been trying to figure out how I can make this work in what I do with students.
The Spark – This was a quick and simple fiction story based on Cirque du Soleil. It is about a man who gets a major backstage tour of the inner workings of Cirque du Soleil and begins to find that creative fire for his own work. Because it is fiction based, it doesn’t have a lot of specific ideas and tips but getting a glimpse at how such a creative organization like Cirque operates through the eyes of a fictional story was very interesting.
Naked Conversations – This book is about blogging, so don’t think this is a new style of speaking I’m trying! I don’t plan on having naked conversations with anyone! I currently write a blog and am trying to do some new things with it. This book seemed to be a good intro into blogging but I didn’t find much beyond that. I will say that after the first few chapters, I ended up skimming through most of it, so there’s a strong chance I missed some of the nuggets that may been in there.
Here are some other books I’ve ordered and will begin reading shortly…
Small Giants
IdeaSpotting
How to Get Ideas
A Technique for Producing Ideas
Blue Ocean Strategy
Get Clients Now!
Be Your Own Brand
Pour Your Heart Into It
Reality Check – This isn’t out yet, but I’ve heard it’s supposed to be pretty decent! I’ve also heard you can download some sample chapters here!
Posted by Grant on August 31, 2008 – 6:50 pm
Filed under Family, Personal
Thought I would share some pics of my little ladies…
And our newest addition…little baby Emilee…
Posted by Grant on August 30, 2008 – 6:36 pm
I’ve been reading a fascinating book called, The Starfish and The Spider, which is about the power of leaderless organizations.
Take for example Wikipedia or Craigslist. These are two great organizations that are essentially run and directed by the users themselves. People who have bought and sold things on Craigslist get a sense of the community that is created there, and part of the appeal is that the company hasn’t sold out to advertisers but maintains a simple look and feel and allows the users to direct the flow of the site. Wikipedia is basically an online encyclopedia that is written by and enforced by the users of this online community. People police themselves and are free to edit and add to any entry as they see necessary.
The book examines why these systems work and they pointed out a simple principle that is so true:
Everyone wants to contribute, and everyone has something to contribute somewhere.
What a great thought! I paused after I read that and began to consider those ideas for myself. What do I have to contribute and where am I going to make that contribution? And the same question is true for you…
What are you contributing?
Posted by Grant on August 27, 2008 – 1:45 pm
Filed under Books, My Book
Today, I was completely stoked to have the UPS man drop off the proof of my book, Reality Check. It wasn’t completely in book format, but it was one last chance to look over everything and make sure it was correct.
It was somewhat surreal flipping through the pages and realizing we’re almost at the finish line! I spent some time going through the little details of it and making sure everything looked good. Once I finished, I shipped it back to the printer and now that they have that proof approved, they will start cranking them out!
My birthday is September 23, so I’m shooting for a major book delivery by then!
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to read through a preview of the book, you really should. At the top of the page, click the Reality Check link, or you can download the sample chapters directly from here.
