Sui Generis

What Are You Searching For?

Jan 17, 2010 Random, life Comments

Thanks for coming back. =). Glad to see you. If there's anything I can do for you, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email, or leave a comment, introduce yourself. I'd love to connect with you. Or if you have your own blog, why not let me promote your work?

I just watched “P.S. I Love You” again. And there was one scene that really struck me. It’s the scene where the girl was recounting the first time she met her husband.

Basically, she was a college student, on a trip to Ireland. This Irish guy saw her, and offered his help. She asked how to get to “Wicklow National Park”. The man replied by asking her how long she had been walking for. She said a couple of hours, and the man answered “Well, you’ve probably been in Wicklow National Park for a few hours then”.

Strange, isn’t it? When you’re looking for a place, and you feel lost, only to realize that you’ve been there all along? But yet how many of us do that? I think there are a lot of us who are so caught up in searching, that we miss what it was we were looking for. I myself am guilty of it.

I think it’s important that we don’t get so caught up with doing something that we miss what’s around us. I think sometimes, we just need to step back, take a look around, and re-evaluate where we are at. Maybe what we were looking for was there all along.

Sticking to Your Guns

Jan 15, 2010 Sports Comments

As you may know, I’ve been playing a lot of poker lately, and blogging my journey at Counting the Odds.

I love poker because, to me, it’s a very nice interesection of math and human behavior, with a bit of luck thrown in. There’s one thing about my experience so far that’s made me think, though.

I’ve been on a relatively good run over the last month, but there have been up and downs. There are certain streaks when I keep losing money, and it makes me wonder if I’m really just not that good. But I think poker has taught me to trust myself, and keep at what I’m doing. Of course, that’s not the full story. If things continually go wrong, you need to reflect and see where you’re at, and adjust accordingly. The challenge is to find the right balance.

And I think it’s the same in life. Things won’t always go your way, sometimes you don’t get the results you want. The challenge is to determine whether it’s just a short term lull which will improve if you keep sticking to your guns, or whether it’s really a flaw in your strategy which you need to adjust.

I know Einstein said that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, but sometimes, I think that does happen. Especially if you get caught up in the short term results.

How do you decide when you should stick to your guns; at what point do you decide that you have to change your strategy?

Gimmicks

Jan 11, 2010 People, music, personal branding Comments

Lately, on TV (yes, I still watch TV, I’m old fashioned that way), there have been a lot of ads for the new season of American Idol. And it got me thinking.

Think through the past winners. I admit, I didn’t follow the show too much in its earlier seasons, only starting watching it proper towards the end of Season 6. But since then, the winners have been Jordin Sparks, David Cook and Kris Allen, with Blake Lewis, David Archuleta and Adam Lambert as the runner ups. What about the likes of Nick Mitchel aka Norman Gentle? Or Katrina Darrell, the bikini girl? Nowhere near the top.

What’s my point in this? Every year we see loads of people trying out various gimmicks in an attempt to “stand out” and make an impact on the judges. But invariably, the ones who really go on to win the competition have not been these people. The winners have been the ones who have focused on their singing, just went in, did what they do, with no extra fuss. They let their ability speak for itself, and didn’t require the extra gimmicks to make an impact.

There are always going to be gimmicks available, that seem to promise an instant impact. But gimmicks can only get you so far. If you’re really good at what you do, you will be noticed, even without the gimmicks. If you aren’t good enough, then no amount of gimmicks in the world can help you.

Experience, Not Effects

Jan 11, 2010 Technology, personal branding Comments

I finally got around to watching Avatar today, the 3-D, IMAX version of it. It was an interesting show, the plot definitely has a bit too many similarities to Pocohantas for my liking (as many have pointed out). I liked the mini-satirical messages in it, though.

That’s not what I want to write about, though. What struck me the most about Avatar was the 3-D. And it struck me the most actually because it didn’t stand out. In most 3-D movies, the fact that it’s 3-D is extremely noticeable. In most 3-D movies, the 3-D doesn’t really seem natural or real, to the point of even causing giddiness at times. Or maybe the giddiness is just me. Either way, the 3-D is normally too noticeable, in a bad way.

Avatar was different, though. The 3-D effects were natural. It almost didn’t feel like I was watching a 3-D movie, until I specifically paid attention to the depth and all. It was done so well, it seemed completely natural, and it just immersed you into the world.

I think this is important. That the effects (and at the end of the day, 3-D is just an effect) don’t take away from the movie. The effects have to blend in, seem natural, and enhance the movie, not stand out so much that it detracts from the overall experience.

And I think it’s true for any product we build as well. It’s easy to get distracted by features and enhancements. It’s easy to think add more an more things, in an attempt to make the product more impressive. But we have to remember that, at the end of the day, it’s about the overall experience, not about features.

It’s also something we need to consider when building our personal brands. We need to remember the main overall message we want to send out. It’s easy to get distracted by other things. I know I’ve suffered from this. For this blog, for example. It’s so easy, and I’ve done this too, to come across a new plugin and think “I need to have that”. But I think we need to really consider how each additional “feature” we add will affect the overall experience, and as such our overall brands.

We need to stay focused, and remember that it’s about the whole experience, not about special effects. Special effects should only be there to enhance the experience.

Reaching Out

Jan 9, 2010 community Comments

Chris Brogan wrote about how to reach out to bloggers.

Here’s the part that struck me the most.

clipped from www.chrisbrogan.com

The trick is not to talk about your stuff. You should have started this outreach weeks and weeks before ever needing anything, and it should be genuine. Be interested in the people you hope will take an interest in you.

I think that goes back to what I’ve been writing recently. That ultimately, it’s about people, and relationships. And I think those who understand that, not the ones who are just after monetization, are the ones who will get paid off. Those who spend the time getting to know people are the ones who will succeed in this space.

It’s also why I think there’s so much value here for individuals, not just companies. Perhaps even more for individuals than companies. Because it’s easier for an individual to meet new people and build relationships than it is for an organization, I believe. It’s therefore almost easier for an individual to engage and succeed in this space, than it is for a company. And that’s why I love this space. It gives power back to the individuals, the power to do as much as, if not more than, a formal organization.

So, as Chris wrote, “[y]ou should have started this outreach weeks and weeks before ever needing anything”. Who are you reaching out to today?

Doing Nothing

Jan 7, 2010 Personal, life Comments

I watched The Dark Knight a couple of times over the New Year Holiday. The thing that struck me most was the central idea of playing a villian to be the hero.

Here’s a conversation from the movie (courtesy of IMDb):

Bruce Wayne: People are dying, Alfred. What would you have me do?
Alfred Pennyworth: Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.

And I think it’s an interesting thought. The idea that sometimes, the heroic thing to do is to do nothing. I think very often, we get so focused on coming up with solutions and trying to do somethings. Sometimes, I think, the best thing to do is just sit, and wait, and let things happen.

Last month, Alexandra Samuel wrote about how a smartphone can make you more patient, by making you more willing to accept delays. He poses the question:

On your way to meet a colleague, you get stuck in traffic. Radio traffic reports tell you it’s a ten-minute backup. You can spend ten minutes inching forward, or you cut out and take a circuitous route that will add 15 minutes to your drive, but it’ll be 15 minutes in which you’re moving. Which do you you choose?

I know some people who would choose the latter. Some of us just want to know we’re moving, that we’re doing something. And I think with the urgency and immediacy we face and expect in today’s world, I think that number is growing.

But that’s not always the best thing to do. Sometimes, it’s better to just be patient, and let things happen. Sometimes, it’s not what you do, but what you don’t do that counts. Sometimes, it’s better to do nothing.

The challenge, of course, is knowing when to take action and when not to, and to have the strength and patience to go through with it.

What do you think? Are there situations which are better suited to not doing anything, and letting it resolve itself?

The Power of Social Media

Jan 3, 2010 People Comments

At the turn of the new year, inspired by our NYE tweetup, I wrote about why I love social media, and what social media is to me. In a sentence, I wrote that social media, to me, was about “conversations, community and friendships, with a dash of spontaneity”, and that was why I loved it.

What I left out of that post, though, is the power of that. Yes, on the surface, the whole “social media is about people” thing seems very nice and heartwarming, but I think it goes far beyond just that.

Social media allows you to build a tribe more easily than ever. And tribes are really powerful. When a group of people who share the same ideal and the same vision of how the world should be, get together and bond together around those beliefs, a lot can happen. A small group of people, bonded around a shared passion and belief, is all it takes to change the world.

And I think that’s the power of social media. It makes it easier than ever for anybody, anywhere, to connect with others who share their beliefs and their passions. It takes away boundaries of distance and social status. It takes away almost all boundaries, actually. And allows people to connect like never before. It makes it easier than ever for groups to form around a shared belief and to take action to make those beliefs happen.

That’s the power of social media. It lies in the people, and the ability to form relationships and have conversations. It’s not about marketing reach or cheap advertising. It’s still about people, and community, and conversations, and relationships. That’s where I think the true power of social media lies.