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Fighting through
![[eames lounge]](http://sprignaturemoves.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/eames-lounge1.jpg "eames-lounge1")
This quote from Ira Glass encourages me.
What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me…is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
How to make yourself irrelevant
I see irrelevance all around me.
It’s trending in my sphere.
Without a doubt.
Here’s a couple of excerpts from Maurilio Amorim’s post titled Legacy Christian Organizations and the Irrelevance Spiral (You should read the whole thing. It’s good.):
Most legacy Christian organizations in America suffer, not from a lack of vision and mission, but most of them suffer from a communication crisis. Often they know what their missions are and, for the most part, they know whom they are trying to reach. Their failure, however, lies in communicating with their target audience in way it can receive the information. After decades of existence the tendency in these organizations is to communicate their story, purpose, and mission in the language and images of their founders. Seldom I see a legacy organization change the way they present themselves in a format that reflects new societal values and attitudes while remaining true to their calling.
While I’m not advocating changing your heart to appeal to culture, I am a big fan of contextualizing your message so it’s heard and understood by society (emphasis mine). Every successful missionary has learned this lesson: you must speak a language your culture understands and can response to.
The focus of his post is on Christian organizations, but I think it’s bigger.
In my opinion, contextualizing = building trust.
These principles apply to leadership. If you only relate superficially with those you are leading, don’t expect them to follow you blindly.
These principles apply to friendships and marriages. If someone doesn’t trust you, don’t expect them to be there for you in a time of crisis.
Your message must be built on trust.
Not analysis.
Not research.
Not personal enrichment.
Not saving face.
Not impressing people.
Trust.
Do you have the personal credibility with your audience? If you don’t have it, stop expecting to be successful. Gone are the days of blind loyalty and successful fear-mongering.
Here’s Simon Sinek on this very subject. Awesome.
This seems like such a novel concept.
Why don’t we get it? What’s holding us back?
Being OK with Chaos
(click here if you can’t see the video)
This is definitely a tension I feel in my work.
I thrive in environments that values imagination.
My primary role is developer, but I’m far from a robot.
How about you?
(h/t adamhann.com)
Kansas City BBQ Map
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Out with the old in with the new
Been getting back into reading Seth Godin’s blog again lately. I heard him speak at the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast a couple of weeks ago. Pretty challenging stuff.
Some of his over-simplifications bother me sometimes, I must confess.
Not this one, however:
Either you’re focused on maintaining the legacy features or you’re focused on figuring out how to replace them. Driving with your eyes on the rearview mirror is difficult indeed.
In a world of little competition, legacy features are something worth keeping. No sense alienating loyal customers.
But we don’t live in a world of little competition. The faster your industry moves, the more likely others are willing to live without the legacy stuff and create a solution that’s going to eclipse what you’ve got, legacies and all.
I guess I’m just at that point in my life.
If it’s not working, stop doing it and create something new.
Appreciate and respect the hard work from others that got you were you are today, but, good grief, take some risk, move on and be OK with it.
![[what others do with talent, I do with obstinate fixation]](http://sprignaturemoves.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/sm-subtitle1.png "what others do with talent, I do with obstinate fixation")