#powerofstupid tagged posts

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...