Life is hard for you right now.

Your friends won’t support your dream.

Your day job is horrible.

Your family thinks you’re foolish to chase that dream, that job, that major in college.

Your life is full of difficulty, to which I say … good.

These are the times that are going to shape your voice.

These are the times that are going to add chapters to your story.

These are the times that will lend colors to your palette.

Do I wish that you and I could skip them? Sometimes, but then I remember what Gaspar Cassado, the great cellist, used to say to his students: “I’m so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can’t play great music unless your heart’s been broken.” (Quote from The Art of Possibility.)

Have you read Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform? You should. It’s a great resource for blogging, tweeting and all things social.

One of my favorite things about it is that Hyatt “calls scoreboard.”

What’s that? It’s when you push aside all the hype and simply state the facts.

Hyatt does this humbly, but confidently, in the introduction of the book. He doesn’t get lost in promises of what he can do for you or magical things that will happen if you read this book. He doesn’t waste his time trying to come up with some creative answer for why he is uniquely qualified to write on this subject. Instead, like a basketball player pointing to a scoreboard that shows his team is winning, he says:

“My blog, MichaelHyatt.com has more than four hundred thousand monthly visitors. In addition, more than fifty thousand people subscribe to my daily blog posts.”

Further on, he continues:

“I also have more than one hundred thousand Twitter followers and fifteen thousand Facebook fans.”

Is that cocky of him to say? No, it’s helpful. There are a million “social media experts” pitching hype, but with a few sentences Hyatt sheds all of that. He points to the scoreboard to help you understand why you should listen to him.

I love this, and I hope if you ever have the opportunity to do this as a way to help your customers, fans or readers, you will take it.

If you just won an award for best mom blog, let us know. If your business was noted by the Better Business Bureau, tell us. If you’ve got an accomplishment that will make our decision to choose you easier, let us know.

Just don’t slip into hype.

Below is a book I saw recently. It had this emblem on it, which is confusing. What does “#1 selling business book” mean? Was it on the NYT list? Was it on the Wall Street Journal list? Did it hit the Amazon top 100? Without clarifying, you’re left to believe whatever you want to believe. At best, the publishers of this book made a mistake and left off key information. At worst, they are exaggerating the worthiness of this book and trying to deceive you.

Call scoreboard, but make sure we know which one you’re referring to.

Doubt always makes you feel like maybe you’re the only one who feels it.

We assume everyone else is full of courage. We read a post about courage online, maybe even on this blog, and think everyone has it.

They are confident they will succeed. They knew it all along!

That is a lie.

In fact, most people who are successful experience some degree of surprise when they don’t fail or fall flat on their faces.

Don’t believe me? Here’s an example from The Sopranos.

Edie Falco, who played Carmine Soprano, told Vanity Fair this about the show:

“After the pilot, David (the creator of the show) said, ‘Well, that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, no one will ever watch this show, but you guys have been great.’ And that was the end. Or so we thought.”

You know how the story ends.

The show blows up. It wins a billion Emmys and reshapes modern television.

And the creator…was he full of confidence? No, he doubted anyone would ever watch it.

If you’re going to chase a dream, you’re going to doubt.

That’s OK, as long as you don’t let it stop you from making a second show and a third show.

There are a million different ways to tell jokes, but the one I use the most in my writing and my speaking is the layer technique.

I did not invent this. Comedians and communicators have been doing it for years.

It’s very basic.

Essentially, you just layer a joke on top of a joke on top of a joke.

Here’s an example of how I do it.

Keep Reading —›

FAKE GRIMLOCK is a robot dinosaur who specializes in start-up businesses. Makes sense, right?

I actually got introduced to this brilliant web character by two friends who started a business a few years ago that is now worth $100 million. When they recommend people, I listen.

And this is the poster they had on their wall, which contains 7 words I wish I wrote:

Someone once asked me, “How do you come up with all these ideas about fear?”

I replied, “I’m afraid a lot, and then I write them down.”

That’s the simple truth. I tend to worry a lot. Not as much perhaps as before I started writing my last book, but more than I’d like. Recently I heard someone say something really powerful about worry in an interview.

Thriller author Steve Hamilton was interviewing Michael Koryta about his new book The Ridge. Here is the excerpt I loved:

Keep Reading —›

I found the quote at the bottom of this post on the back of a Dr. Seuss book.

I think it is perfect.

It succinctly summarizes everything Dr. Seuss was amazing at.

And it made me think: What would the back cover of my life say?

If someone wrote a paragraph about my life, how would it read?

What about your life?

What would they say?

Let’s find out today.

In the comments, write a short back cover statement someone might make about you. I’ll go first:

“If you weren’t so busy laughing, you might realize you were actually learning, but that’s just the type of slight-of-hand Jon Acuff is all about. Ten years in a cubicle honed his message into an honest plea aimed at getting you unstuck. Why? Because Acuff believes the unstuck are unstoppable.”

That’s mine. What would yours say? (And if you want help writing it, sign up for the Start Conference and find 1,000 friends who can help you get your back cover awesome!)