“Make the best out of it”
Nov 7, 2008 Personal
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That’s something that lots of people have told me, with regards to my National Service.
But I’m starting to realize, I don’t agree. Instead of making the best out of the situation that you find yourself in, why not move yourself so you’re not in that situation?
The former is safer, of course, and will bring you good results. The latter is riskier, but provides more opportunities for you to become exceptional, and remarkable.
[?]Playing Safe
Oct 5, 2008 Personal Development, Sports, education
I was talking to another student about my quitting school. Here’s what she said about why she’s still in school – “education is the safest insurance plan”.
I understand where she’s coming from. And I’ve heard that statement so many times, especially when people ask me about why I quit school. But I don’t agree. The question is, why play it safe? As Seth Godin has said, in today’s world, ’safe is risky”.
The semi-finals of the World 10-Ball Championship between Niels Feijen and Darren Appleton was a great example. Feijen consistently went for safety shots. Even when he could make the offensive shot, he chose to go down the safe path. And eventually, he lost out.
If you play not to lose, you won’t win. You won’t make the right decisions, and ultimately, you won’t come up on top. As the book “Sway” by Ori and Rom Brafman points out, fear of loss is one of the main reasons behind bad decisions. Kathy Sierra has talked about “death by risk aversion” as well.
If you want to be the best, you have to take risks. And why settle for anything less than the best?
Fixing it in the mix
Feb 20, 2008 Analogies
When you record audio or video (or even take a photo), with today’s technology, there’s a lot you can do after the original recording. If it’s an audio file, you can EQ it, filter it. If it’s a video, you can put transitions, color correct. If it’s a picture, you can change the brightness and contrast, you can cut out different parts.
And with technology, it’s so easy to edit. The problem with that, is that it makes it easy for the person to settle for a recording that’s not the best. When it’s so easy to edit, there’s the temptation to go, “that’s good enough, we’ll fix it in the edit”.
That never works out well, though. If the original recording is poor, it’s almost always very hard to fix in the mix. You’re better off doing a better recording. If the video recording is shaky, no matter how much you edit it, it will still be shaky. If the audio is distorted in the original recording, there’s nothing much you can do to fix it.
And the same can be said in any situation. It’s easy to settle for something that’s not the best, and convince yourself you can fix it after – by marketing it better, etc. But it’s always better not to settle for anything less than the best.
[?]Tags: audio, best, Marketing, mixing, post production, video
The Best Way to Get Traffic
Dec 20, 2007 Uncategorized
A new, free ebook by Seth Godin. You can download the ebook directly from here.
It’s a short ebook, that will only take you 5-10 minutes to read. But it has a good message. It’s about how to gain traffic to your website (or blog/podcast/whatever content you’re creating).
Yes, there are a lot of articles on search engine optimization, etc. But I agree with Seth, that the best way to get traffic and clicks “is to create content that is updated, unique and useful”.
I can’t say that I’ve mastered this yet (I’ve got less than 60 subscribers). But hopefully I improve with time.
Those of you who don’t create online content might be wondering what you have to gain from this ebook. Well, the principles apply in pretty much any field. No matter what your message might be, and where your field is, you’ll probably want to have people listening to what you’re saying. And Seth Godin here shows us the best way to achieve that.
Yes, you can try to game the system. You can come up with all sorts of strategies for marketing and advertising. But at the end of the day, if you don’t create a good remarkable product (whatever that product might be), all the marketing and advertising strategies in the world won’t create a lasting impact. The best (if not only) way of getting attention in the long run, is to create a product that is unique, useful and updated.
As they say, the cream always rises to the top.
How are you creating content that gets people’s attention?
[?]Your Opponents Weaknesses or Your Strengths
Dec 20, 2007 Uncategorized
No matter what you’re doing, you’ll always have competition. In games, in business, even in relationships. There’s always competition of sorts. How do you deal with this competition? There are 2 general ways people go about dealing with competition.
You could focus on your opponents weaknesses. Target where they are weak and adjust what you’re doing to hit them there. Or you could focus on your own strengths. Don’t think so much about what they do, but just do what you’re the best at. Of course, it’s best when your strengths align with your opponents weaknesses, but that’s not always the case.
A good example of that was the Sunday EPL matches. Liverpool vs Manchester United and Arsenal vs Chelsea. Liverpool and, to a lesser extent, Chelsea, typify the first approach. They change their system and the players they use based on their opponents. They try to identify weaknesses in the opponents play and plan according to those weaknesses.
Manchester United and Arsenal, on the other hand, play their own game. Yes, they study their opponents (who wouldn’t). But at the end of the day, they focus on what they do best. They stick to their game.
The results over the weekend? 1-0 wins for both Manchester United and Arsenal. Not much of a surprise there, to me. The best way to win is still to just do what you do best. Play to your strengths.
At least that’s what I believe. What do you think? How do you beat your competition?
[?]Tags: be yourself, best, competition, Sports, stand out
Guinness World Record Seekers
Nov 17, 2007 Uncategorized
I’m not really a fan of the Guinness book of records, in that I personally would never attempt to get into it. Plainly because, most of the time, the things seem really meaningless to me.
But I do have to give credit to these people who are pursuing the records. They’re putting their time and energy into something that they believe in. It’s something that others might think pointless (like getting in a bathtub full of snakes), but they’re pursuing it anyway, regardless of how crazy others might think they are. It’s something that others might think impossible (after all, for it to be a World Record, it must mean it hadn’t been done before), but they believed in themselves, and had faith that they could do it.
So while I don’t particularly see much of a point in the book itself, I have a lot of respect for the people in it. They’ve gone through great lengths and taken a lot of chances in order to pursue their dreams (as crazy as others might think they are), and being in the record books – having their name recorded for future generations – is just reward.
How far are you willing to go to pursue your dreams?
[?]Tags: best, dreams, risk, self belief
Michael Jordan
Nov 13, 2007 Uncategorized
Michael Jordan is well known as arguably the best basketball player of all time. But something I just found out today, apparently he had an 18 month stint as a baseball player, in the Minor League with the Birmingham Barons.
SneakerFiles tells us that “[i]n his time spent as an outfielder, MJ had a .202 batting average in 127 games, 114 strikeouts in 436 at bats, 3 home runs, 51 RBI’s, 30 stolen bases, and led the Southern League outfielders with only 11 errors.” That’s not a bad set of statistics. But it’s nowhere near the top players. And the top was where he was with basketball.
I can’t read minds, so I can’t say for sure, but maybe that’s why he went back to basketball. Yes, he’s decent at baseball, but he would not have made a name for himself doing that. He was good, but not exceptional. He wasn’t remarkable. He was just above average. And being above average isn’t enough. So he quit, and chose to focus on something he knew he could be the best at. And we all know how that turned out.
This is kind of the point Seth Godin makes with The Dip. If you’re not going to be the best at it, quit. Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses, than try to pursue something you’ll only be “above average” at. To truly succeed, you need to play completely to your strengths, and really be the best.
Is there something that you should be quitting today?
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