To paraphrase Seneca, the tragedy isn’t that life is short, the tragedy is that we waste so much of it.
The other types of tragedy, the more violent kind, never worry me too much, thankfully. I never lost much sleep, worrying about wars or serial killers or whatever.
But getting to the end of my life and realizing that I had wasted most of it, that idea froze my blood.
As it should…
“The coffee mug is full, it’s 10:30 pm, but it feels like 10:30 am. You are experiencing the rush of being “in flow”.
You’re furiously typing your ‘big idea’, and you know the hair-brained scheme you just dreamt up is going to be a winner. A big winner.
You’re at 200 MPH, and you just know you can push the needle further.
You do.”
I’m doing this right now… only still adventuring at the same time. Look for a Kickstarter Blackbox release tomorrow. Thanks for defining how my brain works Hugh MacLeod.
There are a couple reasons why I have never applied myself in the corporate world. This is one of them…
“Back in my early corporate days, this came as quite a shock to me: that people sitting around the table didn’t always say what they were REALLY thinking! Shock! Horror!
But why would anyone lie? Aren’t we all meant to be on the same team?
But after a while, you get used to it. After a while, it’s normal. After a while, you learn to laugh at it.
And that’s when the cartoon appears…”
Interestingly enough… you can apply this concept directly to relationships too.
Thanks Hugh.
Straight from Hugh…
“To paraphrase Graham Weston, the Chairman of one my clients, Rackspace, “Everybody wants to play on a winning team, doing something that matters.”
In other words, everybody wants to be a rock star, doing rock star stuff with other rock star people.
So I drew a rock star cartoon on the subject.
And so there y’are…”
Whose winning team are you playing on?
LISTEN
We often forget who we are.
We often forget what is really important.
We often forget who’s really important.
We are so easily distracted.
We forget how to listen.
We forget.
Such an amazing reminder to us all… Thanks Hugh.
“This is really about ‘making-up’. When you are just at the edge of the ‘it’s too hard’ precipice, look down and think about life without love.
It’s easy to be cynical about love. But when loves leaves your life, you realize that everything is better with it. The Friendship, Partnership, Warmth, Connectedness, Support – it all makes life just a bit more worth living.
Don’t be cynical, don’t be flippant, try your heart out, you don’t have to settle – strong back, open heart – it’s worth it.”
This is 2005 talk — read it.
“Wanting adventure, being able to have adventures, being able to see life as an adventure, is not luck. It’s a choice.
And the ones who fail to make that choice; invariably make something else instead: Excuses.”
One of the most essential talents a creative has to learn if she ever wants to be successful is, the capacity to “Kill Your Babies”. It’s hard at first, but you get used to it…
This post is for my dad – who used to own a no whining hat. I wore it once to elementary school without his permission. It was a hit. When I returned home and got bitched at for taking his property — I pointed to the hat.
Happy Fathers Day Dad :)
Human beings are primates. We’re social. Everything we do is related around socializing with others of our species.
Yet we’re always tempted to think otherwise. That our businesses are not what they actually are (social groups), but more like machines. Taylorism, Homo Economicus and all that…
This is why I always recommend people reading the work of my good friend, Mark Earls. Mark’s thesis is, simply, 1. That people are social animals, 2. That businesses are social groups, not machines, 3. That what holds these social groups (businesses) together is a collective sense of “purpose”, 3. A business without a strong “Purpose-Idea” is at a considerable disadvantage.
Which is why I made the drawing so that “Purpose” is at the very center of the design…
Thanks Hugh.
