Crash Test Dummy or Super Nova?
Today was one of those beautiful Sundays that got me thinking about life, and the limitations that we impose on ourselves.
I went through today, only allowing myself to enjoy a few precious hours of freedom. I heard the words “no, I can’t because I’m too busy” slipping out of my mouth more than “yes! that sounds so fun.”
How many times have you found yourself doing that?
I was watching the news the other day and it featured the Startup Bus.
Hearing about the Startup Bus genuinely interests me, because I love the notion that the best ideas often aren’t planned for. Drawing out an idea for months and months, and never taking action, can make you lose confidence in an idea and decide it’s not worthwhile. There’s something about being in the fire with other talented people, hashing out ideas to create that one that has potential if you throw sweat equity into it. It’s pretty much exhilarating.
So let me tell you a little story about why I’m so obsessed with “the startup life.” Nobody really understands how I got bitten with the bug that makes me want to constantly create things. Unless you count my mom, when she watched me try to create workout videos to sell to people when I was 8, create children’s stories so I can try to get them picked up and published when I was younger than the age of 10, my teacher who shook her head in disappointment when I tried to sell my game gear to another student in the 4th grade on the down low, and every other silly and insane thing I tried to do and create before I hit a double digit age to make money.
Many people say, “well- you like the startup life so much, but you haven’t really been a part of it.”
Oh, but I have been.
What do you think is most important for us, as a generation and a nation?
Raw intelligence- What you come out of the gate with. Your baseline smarts. You either have a high IQ or you don’t. You pick things up quickly- which can be a skill in and of itself- or you struggle at first.
Skill- To become the best at what you do, you need hours and hours of practice. More time than a person who has that same ‘skillset’ but is mediocre, average, or just gets by AT BEST. Skill can be built.
Talent- Something special that comes more naturally to you than others. With consistent feeding, talent can become unstoppable and untouchable.
Realized genius- True grit and perseverance. The ability to not start out as the best or be extremely smart in all areas, but has the willingness to bleed their soul into what they fixate on and eventually super-cede others in that area.
Each trait manifests and breeds a different kind of person. Some have one trait, and some have multiple traits so tightly woven together that one could not exist without the other.
So what do you think?
I admit it. This is a post about nothing. I just feel like emptying my brain out for a little while and relaxing. This was actually just a paragraph until I really started thinking about what I was writing…
I’m a sucker for first impressions. I think what I feel about you when I meet you generally holds true to how I’ll feel about you a few days, months, years or however long from now that I’m graced with your presence in whatever form.
First off, HELLO! Secondly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Third, this is a really long post. REALLY. LONG. And fourth,the world is not going to end this year. But if it does, at least it ends exactly one week after my birthday.
I am cautioning you now. If your brain is yelling “ABORT, ABORT!” it’s probably best to follow its advice. This isn’t a “short and sweet”, “nicely bulleted list” with “images to break up the post and keep a reader’s attention span.” This is just me, writing.
Yesterday was the last day of 2011, and boy it was one hell of a Year. This was our first year celebrating down in Florida. We watched the Red Bull No Limits event (which is way cooler than the ball dropping, in my opinion). And it was warm. This was a very “Florida” New Years if I’ve ever seen one, so it was a little strange being around palm trees and 70 degree weather.
Oh hey. It’s been a while since I’ve written. While I wrap up my post about removing DRM for transfer of Kindle Fire books, I figured I would take a detour and write something related to actual, real life and close it with one of my favorite poems.
I always struggling with simplifying things. Why is this? Because I have a tendency to want to do the best with everything (yes, this can be a bad trait at times) and often times I don’t take the time to really assess what needs to be done RIGHT this very minute.
I was reading this post by Chris Brogan that talks about saying no faster, and it really made me take a look at my life and what I’m doing at the moment to cloud it up. I think there comes a time when you need to put your priorities over things that might seem fun or interesting and just focus on what you need to do.
With Hurricane Irene miraculously veering away from Florida but unfortunately careening STRAIGHT towards where my family in NY is, I started thinking about natural disasters and how they relate to life.
Hate me if you want to, but I’m completely fascinated by natural disasters. The power and immensity of any kind of earthquake, hurricane, tornado, tsunami or whatever nature throws at us is pretty spectacular. There’s something about the chaos and destruction that just makes me sit back and think about how small we really are. And once one is coming, you really can’t do anything to stop it.
You can only try to save yourself.
Sometimes I seriously want to smack the crap out of people on Craigslist.
Granted, I always list things on there and always get them sold (and fast) but the majority of lowballers in between that posting time and selling time is ridiculously high. We just listed up something on there for over $1300, and some jackass emailed me and said:
REALLY, Craigslist troll? REALLY? No thanks. It takes every inch of my willpower not to reply to this guy because once I do, he’ll have my email address. And it’s not like I have a name anybody will forget anytime soon.
So there you have it, Craigslist lowballer. I hate you. You’re on my hate-list today.
I came across this article on The 99 Percent about Hillman Curtis and it really inspired me and made me feel a little better about the fact that I’m interested in more than a handful of things and want to learn everything about whatever I get hooked and interested in. It took me a lot of Life ADD to get into my sweet spot right now where I get to pretty much devour everything I’m learning every single day.