Get Out. Get Moving. Start.

Action always beats intention.

A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.

What getting fat taught me about focus.

Quitter/ Random August 31, 2011 • Comments

I will never be invited on The Biggest Loser. If you met me you might not say, “That guy is fat.” But there have been times in life when my weight has fluctuated in some less than healthy ways.

The biggest gain I ever had was going from 138 to 168. Thirty pounds might not seem like a lot, but getting 25% heavier isn’t great unless you’re also getting taller. Believe me, I thought about that. When I looked at the height/weight charts, I thought it would be great if I ate copious amounts of Gordo’s Queso & Chips and grew a few inches taller.

Weighing 168 is perfectly fine if you’re 6’4” but here’s the thing, that wasn’t my experience. I stayed 5’7” during this experience and added 30 pounds.

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The secret about blog posts.

Blogging/ Creativity/ Social Media August 26, 2011 • Comments

The posts you think everyone will go crazy about, will get the least amount of traffic, comments and likes.

The posts you throw together quickly that you can’t imagine anyone will connect with will be smash successes.

I don’t know why this happens, only that it does.

And when it happens to you, fear not, you’re not the only one.

It happens to every blogger on the planet.

 

Question:
Has this ever happened to you?

 

Free book from the Seth Godin Domino Project!

Resources/ Social Media August 24, 2011 • Comments

That headline is full of some of my favorite words:

Free
Book
Seth Godin

Until Saturday, August 27th you can get the new book from the Seth Godin Domino project for FREE on your Kindle or Kindle app. It’s called Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas. Here’s the description from Amazon:

Want to learn how to maximize social media? When to do it, what words to use, who to tweet at? Look no further than Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas. Social media master Dan Zarrella has amassed years of experience helping people negotiate the often mystical place of social media marketing. Now, he has condensed those well-tried ideas into this concise and conversational book. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness demystifies and deconstructs how social media works, who it benefits and why we all depend upon it to help our good ideas spread.

I haven’t read it yet, so this isn’t me telling you it’s brilliant, but I do know that brilliant is really the only thing Seth Godin puts his name to. And it’s FREE.

Click here to get a copy. I got one yesterday and can’t wait to read it. (I don’t have a Kindle by downloaded the free Kindle app on my iPhone.)

 

     

 

 

Want to be a professional photographer?

Creativity/ Quitter August 24, 2011 • Comments

A lot of people do. The advent of digital cameras and editing software has encouraged a bajillion people to be professional photographers.

Becoming a photographer is easier than it’s ever been before.

Becoming an amazing photographer? That’s still incredibly difficult.

One of the weird things that happens as you work hard to become a professional photographer is that sometimes people think you have to be doing it full time to be considered a “real photographer.” Sometimes people will consider it a “hobby” or a “fun passion” unless you don’t have a day job.

I recently saw a great post from a photographer named Nathan who talks about that very issue.

He read my book Quitter and discusses the power of the word “no” from chapter 1. He also talks about the relationship between his dream job of being a photographer and the day job he’s holding down right now. (And why there’s nobility in both.)

Check out his post “Why I work a day job.”

3 things Zig Ziglar told me at lunch.

Leadership/ Resources August 19, 2011 • Comments

A few weeks ago I had the chance to eat lunch with Zig Ziglar and his amazing family.

One of the most successful motivational speakers of all time, Zig is a legend the world over. I knew I’d get to spend time with his son Tom, a brilliant guy in his own right, but was not expecting to see Zig when I was in Dallas. Lunch was great and, during our conversation, Zig went out of his way to be incredibly kind to me. I was throwing tons of questions at him, his wife and Tom.

“How do you pursue a dream without wrecking your family?

“Did you ever wrestle with fear and your ego?”

“How do you not get lost in all the challenges that come with growing a business?”

Zig and Tom graciously answered every one of my questions. At the end of the lunch though, when we were getting ready to leave, Zig leaned forward on the table, pointed his finger at me, as if to say, “If you only hear 3 things today young man, hear these,” and then said this:

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Stop saying polite lies.

Random August 17, 2011 • Comments

A few months ago, I was speaking in Michigan. When I was signing books after the event, a guy came up and said, “Hey, I’m a musician. I go to Nashville a lot.”

I live in Nashville and said to him, “That’s great, let me know when you’re in town next time and we’ll grab coffee.”

Without missing a beat he said, “I’ll be in Nashville tomorrow!”

Busted.

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