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unrepressed

The Element: Rediscover Your Unrepressed Self

Twitter Summary: Remember and rediscover your child-like unrepressed self.  Be Batman.

Principle

Ken Robinson in his book, The Element, talks about how the power of children comes from their unrepressed nature.  I think this ties directly to my previous post because it is this magical unrepressed nature that allows children to come up with the most original and amazing things; they’re not afraid of being wrong.  They haven’t learned to be afraid yet!  As adults, we need to return to that childlike nature.  We need to find our inner childhood Batman.  Robinson writes:

unrepressed

My daughter wanted to draw herself spinning. She came up with the idea to draw multiple heads by herself.

“It was free and it was the same kind of thing that I like when I see children do art...

May 13, 2013 Books, The Element 2 comments
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afraid of being wrong

The Element: Afraid of Being Wrong

Twitter Summary: We have all grown so afraid of being wrong that we are not living up to our potential.

Principle

afraid of being wrongKen Robinson gave an amazing talk in 2006 and it has since been viewed by over 4 million people. He spoke about about how we’re all afraid of being wrong and this made me want to learn more about Mr. Robinson and to get his popular book, The Element. There are a handful of YouTube videos on Robinson and I highly suggest searching them out. Since hearing this 2006 talk I’ve read The Element and want to share the first of a few principles I found of value.

In the book Robinson talks a lot about the failure of education and educational systems. He argues that they destroy our creative genius and unintentionally teach us to be afraid of being wrong...

May 6, 2013 The Element 2 comments
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Your Product is Not Your Product, How You Do Business Is

Twitter Summary: Being able to consistently deliver is more important than your product because your product is not your product, how you do business is.

Principle of “Your Product is Not Your Product”

I’m about half way through reading The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber.  The only reason I started reading this book is because I mentioned some of my new ideas to a relative and he suggested I stop reading everything else and read this one now.  It’s presented me with a number of interesting paradigm shifts and they’ve caused me to reconsider how I’m approaching and preparing for the future.

I’ve never considered myself interested in “business” or entrepreneurship, but my mind has been wandering in those paths lately...

April 16, 2013 Books, The E-myth 2 comments
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New Music by Upstanding Youth on iTunes

New Music on iTunes.

New Music on iTunes.

My band Upstanding Youth released new music, our project we called Burn The Process: 3P One, on iTunes a few weeks ago.  While this music was actually available some time ago, it just recently that it’s become available on iTunes.  I’m proud of this project, just like I am of all Upstanding Youth projects and wanted to share it with you.

What’s unique about 3P One is that we were able to have one of the tracks on the project, BRS, as part of a Jaseboards skateboards YouTube video – and that video has had over 1.5 million views as of this writing!  I’m so stoked we were able to help Jaseboards with their project and that both have been so successful.

Not only is partnering with Jaseboards unique for this project, but we also took one of our older songs, MTW, and rere...

March 29, 2013 Music, upstanding youth No comments
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who am i?

PSSS: Who Am I? Being Authentic.

Richie Norton quotes Oprah Winfrey in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid as having once said, “The reason people fail is because they’re pretending to be something they’re not.”  In other words,  a large part of your success is dependent upon being authentic, being the real you, and being able to answer the question, who am I?  Being authentic can be difficult because a lot of people choose money over happiness; we’re in jobs or situations where it is just easier to sacrifice what really makes us happy in order to meet financial responsibilities.  But are we really as happy or successful as we can be when we sacrifice our authenticity?

Who am I?  How to be authentic

Richie Norton in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid writes, “Truly being authentic is knowing ...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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scared

PSSS: Don’t Be Scared of Dreaming Big – Think Bricks, Not Walls

It is so easy to be scared of your big dreams.  They can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time and that’s usually when we give up.  Big dreams like going for a PhD, running your first marathon, recording your first record, or writing your first book – they’re all scary.  You probably ask yourself the usual questions, “where will I get the time?,” “how will I learn how to do this?,” or “where am I going to get money?”  Richie Norton in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid shares a tip on how to overcome these fears.  He says, you have to break down your big dream into small projects.  Or as I call it, think bricks, not walls.

Don’t Be Scared and Start a Project – Start With Bricks

scared

Don’t be scared of big dreams. It’s like building a brick wall...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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how to stay relevant

PSSS: Stay Relevant

How do you stay relevant?  I’ve asked myself this question at so many different situations in life – as a writer, musician, employee, or student.  In an ever changing world, how do you remain fresh and valuable.  Richie Norton gives an example of how to do just that in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid.  Richie writes that to stay relevant you have to “permanently live in beta.”

Stay Relevant: Live in Permanent Beta

how to stay relevant

Betamax video tapes, a passing trend from the 80s that is no longer relevant

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, told Richie that the best way to remain relevant is to live in “permanent beta” or in other words, never stop starting, and always be in the creation period...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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PSSS: Excuses For Not Trying – Time, Education, and Money

We make excuses for not trying our "stupid" ideas.

We make excuses for not trying our “stupid” ideas.

Most of us have something that gets us really excited, something that lights our fire.  For me, it’s writing, recording, and performing music.  For you maybe it’s something fun like horseback riding, surfing, research, film photography, eating ice cream, or crafting pillow cases.  Whatever it is that makes you lose track of time or become extremely focused, you probably have some amazing idea, something that you’ve dreamed of doing since you were a kid, but just haven’t mustered the courage to get started.  You likely have some excuse why haven’t started.  Maybe you’ve even told someone about the idea and they called it stupid, killing your spirit.  In my previous post I mentioned Richie Norton‘s upcoming book, The Power of Starting ...

February 21, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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The Power of Starting Something Stupid: A Book by Richie Norton

the power of starting something stupidRichie Norton, a friend of mine from college, is about to release his first book The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen & Live Without Regret.  We caught up recently and I told Richie about my recent involvement in the launch of Dan Pink’s book To Sell is Human.  Richie and I came up with a bunch of great ideas to help launch his book and so he asked me to help promote his book before it becomes available on 5 March 2013.  It’s pretty amazing how successful this book looks like it is going to be – it’s only his first hard copy book!  He published an ebook last year called Resumes are Dead, that book did really well also, and you can pick that up at Amazon.  I got a hard copy of the upcoming book in the mail not long after our chat and I tore t...

February 12, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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Music Licensing Goals: Do You Need a Jingle?

Tools to help with my music licensing goals

Tools to help with my music licensing goals

I decided to put some serious music goals down during my recent time off from work.  I planned to give away three jingle-like branding songs to businesses that I like – for free!  I have 3 full albums and one EP under my belt and another EP on the way (see iTunes for Upstanding Youth) so I’ve had more than my fair share of the writing/recording/producing experience.  However,  even though I’ve written a ton of songs I’ve never made the jump into licensing because I just don’t know that side of the business.  So now that I have some time off, I’ve made some goals to change that.

Music Licensing Goals

I took my music licensing goals and reached out to three businesses: The Visual Art Institute of Salt Lake City, UT; Jaseboards; and Juiced Prod...

February 3, 2013 Music, Uncategorized No comments
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