Its been just over 2 months since I’ve started carrying a small moleskin notebook everywhere I go. I have it on me at all times to record ideas, thoughts/themes I want to remember, and action items. This practice has been profoundly enriching and I’m proud to say I’ve devoured 2 1/2 full books over this time period. In the process, I’ve made a few observations about the practice that I’d like to share:
Creating Room to Think
One of the amazing things about using a moleskin to capture fleeting thoughts, is that you give yourself permission to stop focusing on something. Often we think of something that we don’t want to forget and spend an unnecessary amount of time focusing on remembering it. …
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I am happy to share that I have joined the SinglePlatform team. I am incredibly excited about this opportunity to work with an awesome team and the future of this company. At the onset, I’ll primarily be working with startup sensei Kenny Herman on business development. I could not be more fired up about this.
Leaving building your own product to join another startup?
Building Sfter from scratch the past 7 months has been an incredible experience; one defined by personal and professional growth. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity and the chance to have worked with some awesome people. But at this point in my career I think the chance to join an awesome team and learn from some …
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I love the internet. It solves many of the world’s problems and enhances the lives of countless people. What’s even more awesome is it’s now in the palm of my hand. But as great as the mobile web is, I think there has been some less than beneficial side effects on human behavior. Mainly, the mobile web has contributed to a culture obsessed with instant gratification and digital stimulation. They’re often one in the same. I know because I’m getting shelled in the trenches by these forces constantly.
Six months ago my mornings went like this: Wake up to to silence my phone alarm. Check my email while I’m already there. Efficiency! This inspires me to think about the …
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When I first signed up for LinkedIn I was semi-belligerent. I had no LinkedIn Etiquette whatsoever. Any fleeting interaction seemed like a reasonable excuse to connect with someone. At first the perceived notion of having an escalating professional network felt good. 500+ connections here I come! But when it came time to put these connections to work, I realized how how ineffective this behavior actually was.
I mainly use LinkedIn to see who is inter-connected in and out of my network. This information provides transparency and context which can be leveraged in a variety of ways. Requesting intros and recommendations along with preparing for important conversations are my most typical use cases. This is exactly where my initial strategy fell short. …
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One thing I’ve become increasingly cognizant of is that the intake of information is only part of an effective learning process. The greatest learning occurs when we actively apply our knowledge. This notion has been popularized by the phrase “learning is doing.”
One of the challenges we face as a race is that only a small percentage of people are poised to actively apply their knowledge to solve the world’s greatest problems: problems such as curing cancer or creating sustainable solutions to address the diminishing oil supply. It seems kind of odd that their is not a greater concentration of talent focused here considering the scale at which innovation can make humanity better off. This is not a call out, just …
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My interactions with the world around me over the past 5 days move me to write this post.
Sunday: My pastor Carl Lentz gave an inspiring sermon after returning from Ethiopia. He spent the last week working with Scott Harrison to provide villages with clean water. The pictures made my eyes sweat.
Tuesday: Someone asked me how lucky I thought I was. A 12 on the 10 point scale sounds about right.
Wednesday: I met a guy named Lavar who’d been living drug-free on the street for 6 years due to a mental illness. He showed me how he can’t fully close his hands because of the many cold nights he’s spent on rugged pavement.
A short while ago I wrote a post about …
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I thought it’d be cool to expose some of the less obvious tactics I used to get people to sign up for my Skillshare class. A tweet here and there just doesn’t cut it for the young and hungry. Sometimes you need to put the warpaint on.
Email Signature and Inbox Special Ops
I use my email signature like a strategic weapon. I change it frequently and at times even cater it depending upon who I’m emailing. I’ve found it extremely effective for nudging people to look at something without looking like a tool. Within that vein, I went beast mode in large email groups that I’m involved in to try to drive …
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Although I like to primarily harbor content I created on this blog, its important to expose this to as many people as possible. This country needs more leaders like this. Please watch.
