We Are All Artists Now

We used to be told:

“Don’t be an artist, because you won’t make money!”

The past 100 years or so, society has trained entire generations to be obedient, compliant, and follow strict rules.

The main reason being that industries needed cheap, replaceable people to be like cogs in a giant machine. The entire system has been built to serve this one purpose: schools, job descriptions, resumes… all are meant to produce people that can be quantified, used, and… fired anytime we no longer need them.

“Do as you’re told, and we’ll reward you.”

It worked! Huge companies have created huge amounts of wealth… at a dear cost that many are paying now.

Now, the only job security we have is to do MORE than our job description.

Now, we need to be ARTISTS.

Should we all learn how to paint, or to dance, or to play music?

The artists we need to be now are creative individuals who CARE about making a difference. An artist, by today’s definition, is someone who is passionate about sharing their gifts with others. And this, by today’s definition, can be anyone who wishes to be.

The server in the restaurant, who goes out of her way to delight customers.

The engineer, who writes additional code that nobody will ever see, but makes the user experience smoother.

The doctor, who spends an additional minute with her patient to connect, share feelings, and genuinely care.

The customer service rep, who listens to the angry person with empathy, and stays on the phone as long as it takes until the customer is happy.

The entrepreneur, who connects great people with one another without asking for anything in return.

Those people, those artists… do what they do without anyone telling them to do. They CREATE value just because they know it’s the right thing to do. They never worry about getting or keeping a job. In fact, they are the kinds of people who quit a job that doesn’t share their world view of caring. After all, we spend most of our life at work, so it better be meaningful.

We all need to be artists now. Not only our lives are much more fulfilling, but this is also the smartest and most profitable choice we can ever make.

Competing for Attention

Marketing used to be an easy business: pay for TV ads, in return get some customers.

No more.

Now consumers have too much choice and less time than ever before. The most precious commodity is earning their attention.

It is not an accident that companies such as YouTube, with virulent growth and retention of users, are worth Billions even before they start making any revenue.

Newspapers and TV stations relying on advertising to make money are dead, because people have become really good at avoiding being interrupted with advertising. No credibility in those anymore.

On the other hand, people continue to believe people they know. They’re also sensitive to what is new and exciting.

Therefore, the only way to sell anything (product, service, idea, or yourself), is to be so remarkable that people talk about it on your behalf.

Transform your customers into your salespeople. They should be respected, not manipulated. They should do this because they want to.

It’s more an art than science, and requires creativity.

That beats going against the flow, paying for attention, working in an average office making average products for average people.

Re-mar-ka-ble. That’s it.

Ideas that spread, win.

On Surveys

Last year I told this story to a class of MBA students:

– – – –

Before releasing a new music player, a large consumer electronics company did market research. They conducted a survey by inviting over a hundred young people to answer a series of questions. One of them was,

“Which color should the music player be: black or yellow?”

Unanimously, most people answered, “YELLOW”, perhaps because it’s a young and happy color.

At the end, the company didn’t pay the participants with money, but with goods. They told the kids,

“Please go to this room and pick any music player and it’s yours. It’s almost the same as the one we surveyed you about, just last year’s model.”

All music players were identical, except for the color: there were black and yellow ones, each in similar quantity.

Unanimously, most people picked up a BLACK music player.

– – – –

This reminds the proverb:

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.”

So why in the world do they still conduct surveys? Because of fear of the unknown. When the product flops (at best it will become totally unremarkable), they can say, “Whatever happens, we did our homework!”

No, they didn’t.

Nobody knows how a product or a service will be perceived by the market, until it’s… on the market. That’s why more and more startups are increasingly embracing a new paradigm of releasing even crappy products as early as possible in order to get feedback, then come back and improve, release again, improve again, etc. as a disciplined self-improvement loop, until it’s just right.

Such methodology is nothing short of revolutionary. It allows for unmistakable knowledge about what the market is ready to accept, about the specifications, market audience, distribution, viral-marketing potential… and even pricing, which is one of the hardest things to get right.

Large companies can’t do that, except a couple of them that have enormous discipline in coming up with hundreds of ideas internally and throwing away 99% of them in order to stay focused on their vision, keep their product-line clean, create industry-changing services that leverage their products, build synergy between products. I can name only 2 large companies in the world that do that. A few dozen startups do that too, and it’s growing fast.

And yet…A couple of weeks ago, I get an email from one of my favorite non-profit organizations. The guy introduces himself as a top business student who, along with his classmates, is doing “consulting” for this org.

“Hi!”, he goes, “We would like to conduct a survey for blah blah blah… Can you give us 15 minutes?”

The PhD students and the Bicycle

Two PhD students meet on campus. One of them is riding a brand-new bicycle. The other one says,

– “Wow, this is a great bicycle! Where did you get it?”

The first one says,

– “This morning, a beautiful woman was riding this bike. She stopped right in front of me. She got off her bike, stripped, got completely naked, and threw all her clothes onto the ground. She said, “Oh, baby… You can do whatever you want”.

The other guy said,

– “Good logic. I would have taken the bicycle too. Her clothes probably wouldn’t have fit”.

Taking Responsibility

A pair of true-twin brothers were born from alcoholic parents in a poor neighborhood.

The two brothers lived together for the first 20 years of their lives. They lived in the exact same conditions.

One of them became an alcoholic gangster who robs liquor-stores every day.

The other one became a successful entrepreneur, married with two children, and a happy life.

When the twin brothers turned 30 years old, they were interviewed separately, and were asked one question:

“How did you turn out the way you did?”

The gangster replied,

“Being raised by drunk parents in a poor neighborhood, how else could I have turned out?”

They asked the same question to the successful brother. He answered:

“Being raised by drunk parents in a poor neighborhood, how else could I have turned out?”

Swim or Sink

In some cultures, baby boys are put in a small bath tub shortly after being born, and left alone for a while.

If they manage to keep their head above water, they survive. Otherwise, they die.

This cruel ritual answers the following questions:

“How much do you really want to live?”

And,

“What are you actually doing, in order to get what you want?”

For adults, the same situation happens with the next thing that everyone wants: Love.

Similarly, there is always a way to “move our arms in the bath tub”, improve ourselves, in order to get what’s right in front of our nose.

When Love is there but there is no fighting for it, because of too much fear, mixing the heart with the intellect, and just plain laziness, Love goes away.

Fear is the opposite of Love.

Just like the baby in the bath tub, there is a choice to make. Just showing up and waiting, is an easy but deadly choice.

Sex is easy too, even dogs can do it. Real love is another dimension, and it’s not for the weak.

Fighting for it every second of each day makes all the difference. That’s what a Warrior is committed to.

The Crab Bucket Principle

When a bunch of crabs are trapped in a bucket, and one of them tries to escape, the others will collectively do everything they can to drag the climber back down.

What is fascinating is that each crab doesn’t realize that if it didn’t drag others down, it could escape and “win” as well.

The same is true of people who are envious of others: they don’t realize it, and they shoot themselves in the foot.

Rather than learn and work on themselves to become better people, they choose to drag others down and to remain surrounded with others at the same level. Apparent commonality brings the illusion of security. They will also gossip, slander, and spit on those who made the efforts and succeeded in walking out of the bucket.

Who we surround ourselves with is a choice, and it affects whether we get dragged down, or pulled up.

Creation vs. Evolution

Arguing about whether the world is the result of God’s Creation, or the result of Evolution, is irrelevant.

Nature has been creating the world for billions of years.

It’s not either/or.

It’s both, simultaneously and continuously.

Done. Next!

The Right-Brain Generation

The brain is powerful, and yet it is limited.

The left-brain in particular, dealing with logic, isn’t powerful enough to understand and navigate the world anymore.

A Zen proverb goes:

“First there is a mountain. Then there is not. Then there is.”

Literally, that’s what happens when you climb a mountain from bottom to top.

Applied to human intelligence, I think it could be interpreted as:

“First, man is ignorant. Then he’s intelligent. Then he’s ignorant again.”

Yes, man is intelligent… but since the only tool he has to measure how intelligent he is, is his own intelligence, then his intelligence is inherently limited by virtue of his own understanding of the very concept of intelligence! (That’s pretty deep stuff, I know. If you understand the last sentence, let me know, cause I’m not sure I understand it either).

So, first, man is ignorant: before getting an education, his understanding of the world is pretty basic.

Then, he’s intelligent: he learns to use his brain to process and store information.

Then, he’s ignorant again. Two possibilities here:

1) He’s so much in Pride and Denial that he sincerely believes that he’s actually intelligent (most people).

or,

2) He has evolved at the heart level, giving him the humility to realize that his brain is limited before the immensity of nature’s intelligence (fewer people).

That’s when the right-brain comes to the rescue, baby!

The right-brain deals with the stuff that cannot be quantified, such as feelings. It is subjective, holistic, intuitive, and synthesizing.

The left-brain deals with logic. It is rational, objective, and analytical.

Trying to understand people using the left-brain is like teaching ballroom dancing to an elephant: good luck.

When we deal with people using the left-brain, we come up with:

“Yes, but!”

“You said this the other day! Now you say that!”

“I can’t believe you just said that!”

That’s the basis for arguments.

What seems to be a powerful tool at first, is the very thing that limits humans to evolve to higher realms.

Being judged for our left-brain abilities (e.g. standardized tests to get in a school), is, in and of itself, a left-brain activity, and therefore it is inaccurate. (Steve Jobs famously interviewed candidates who wanted to work at Apple, not by looking at their resumes, but by asking, “Are you a virgin?” or “When was the last time you f*cked your wife?”… Left-brain people were scared and outraged, but he was looking for right-brain, creative, fearless, adaptive people to join his team. The rest is history).

The good news is, after a couple of centuries being mostly left-brained (people like Hitler were very intelligent at the level of the mind), the whole world is progressively becoming right-brained.

More precisely, the world is awakening, and evolving from logic to intuition.

From ego to heart.

From compliance to taking initiative.

From standardization to creativity.

From knowledge to wisdom.

We start to realize that there are things we just cannot explain.

Some people pray. Some people visualize. Some people hope. Some people create. None of those things can be explained with the mind, and yet, they work for those who practice them.

The mind is interesting, and quite remarkable, but not enough. The next step is the heart, or spirit. This is what cannot be explained with the brain, and that’s why the ego puts so much resistance because it sees it as the enemy.

The ego is the little “animal” inside our brain that generates those endless thoughts that seem to come from nowhere, like bubbles in a bottle of champagne. (For the brainiacs out there, the brain is made of 3 major layers, and we’re talking about the first, the deepest, the oldest, the one that’s responsible for the basics such as getting the heart to beat, breathing, etc. That’s where the little “animal” is).

When we let those thoughts coming by the millions, we are slaves of our own mind. We worry, we regret, we have all these useless emotions that derive from those thoughts.

We don’t need to repress our ego, we need it too, otherwise we would run around the street naked (so what?). But it doesn’t need to be the master either. It can be our companion, at best.

The mind, alone, is not capable of telling truth from falsehood.

Mastering life is about mastering one’s own mind. To not let it get to us, and rather, develop our sense of understanding the world without analyzing it.

This is called Discernment.

This is when we don’t think; we just know.

Pleasure vs. Happiness

Ask someone: “What makes you happy?”

They might answer something like:

“Taking a hot bath!”

“Going to a party with my friends!”

“Getting a massage!”

“Eating a good meal!”

“Having 5,000 guests at my wedding!”

“Smoking a cigarette!”

Interesting, how often pleasure is mistaken for happiness.

So, what is happiness, really?

Not worrying about anything, is happiness.

Serving others without expecting anything in return, is happiness.

Taking responsibility, is happiness.

Seeing every problem as a chance to improve myself, is happiness.

Not comparing myself with others, but rather comparing myself today with how I was yesterday, is happiness.

Accepting everything for what it is, is happiness.

Taking my time, is happiness.

Peace of mind, is happiness.

Being free, is happiness.

There is only one way to be happy, and that is by giving. You may give your time, expertise, attention, wisdom, money, consideration… anything.

Giving is the source of happiness.

Too Busy to Push a Button

This has always made me laugh, because it’s so cute.

Sometimes I receive an email (usually from some manager) that tries to show off that they’re very busy.

They write everything in lowercase, they use acronyms everywhere, they don’t use apostrophes, they omit the space after the period, or, my personal favorite, they sign with only one letter (their initial), even if their name has only 3 letters!

Those who type this way are trying to say:

“Look at me, I’m so busy and so efficient that I don’t hit the Shift key to save time!”

But what they are really saying is,

“I’m a disorganized corporate wanker, hiding my mediocrity in a cubicle. My writing reflects everything about me, such as my desk, a mess with documents all over the place. In fact, my whole life is the same: a mess that cannot be relied on. I am rebelling and breaking the rules of typing, in order to pretend that I take responsibility for my own life and that I know what I’m doing. I have a serious dependency problem. I need people around me to acknowledge me for what I am not.”

Never underestimate the power of Denial, as Ricky Fitz would say.

On the other hand, the truly busy, organized, creative, and generous people always take the time to write well. What is more generous to give than one’s time? They have the consideration that someone on the other end will give them the honor of reading them. Therefore their readers deserve respect, which is offered as clear, elegant, and truthful writing.

“The busy make the most of time” –Zen proverb

‘nough said to u. Thx. Best rgds,

D. :=)

Pushing the Limits of Happiness

For every decision I make, I always ask myself this question:

“Will this increase my happiness and that of others?”

If yes, I go for it. If no, I don’t.

Simple as that.

This is the only criteria, and this makes life SO MUCH simpler, happier, and more fulfilled. No need to ponder a million questions which answers are hypothetical anyway. This allows to make a lot of decisions, and very quickly. Naturally, in most cases, these decisions turn out to be the best choices and often exceed expectations.

Happiness is about constantly giving, learning, growing, living on the edge or “on the crest of the wave”.

On the other hand, playing it safe is the most risky thing to do. Anything that doesn’t move falls down, just like a bicycle.

Making money, becoming famous, or getting a pompous title, has sense only if it brings more happiness. If it brings more problems and worries, forget it.

For example, I have never invested in the stock market, and most likely never will. This kind of game is mostly about greed (“I have some money and I want some more!”) and a total waste of precious creative time. It creates obsessive worries invented by others: how sick is that! I invest in myself like crazy, and even the result of that is unpredictable.

We often hear say, “I want a simple life.”

Life is difficult beyond measure for everyone.

The reason life is hard is because our behaviors are not perfect, and we have lessons to learn. We make mistakes, and we need to learn from them. If we don’t work on our own weaknesses, problems will keep on coming, over and over. There is no way out except to identify, understand, and correct our mistakes. It takes diligence, patience, and discipline. But the rewards are beyond measure, too, and sooner or later, we start to “fly”.

As we grow, bigger tests are being thrown at us, because now, we can handle the smaller ones.

We could simply avoid reality and watch TV instead, but we can’t hide. We still have to learn the lessons, and they’ll be thrown at us whether we want them or not. So we might as well take life by the balls and deal with it face-on, rather than chicken it out. Chickens are never successful; in fact, they get their heads cut off by the millions.

Saying “I want a simple life” without actually working towards it, is very naive, because it’s an excuse for being lazy. There is always something going on, always something to improve.

For example, let’s say that we commit to be kind at all times, with everyone, in all circumstances, with no exception. That’s a hell of a difficult challenge, because paradoxically, we will attract the worse of the worse, until we get it.

As soon as we have made a commitment, we will encounter people and situations that will upset us one way or another. It’s a test. We will be tested many times under different situations, and those situations will be more and more subtle.

When the guy waiting in line at the grocery store in front of us acts like a douchebag, we clearly see it, and we let it go. That was easy, no biggie. Later, we will encounter other situations that are nearly not as clear as this one, and this will be the real test.

As we develop our Discernment, i.e. our ability to tell truth from falsehood, we will be tested with more and more subtle tests. Until we truly get it.

In fact, the deeper the commitment, the more difficult our life will seem to be… but only temporarily. Soon enough, little miracles start to happen on a regular basis. Incredible situations and people start to show up on their own, as if it was a reward from the universe for doing our job of self-improvement. And it is.

Making ourselves better makes the whole world better.

Everything that happens to us in life is our own responsibility, and just waiting for better times doesn’t work. In fact, worse times will come, if we don’t see the lessons and change ourselves.

Changing is the basis of life. Seasons are part of nature. Not changing, which is the most popular choice, is the recipe for disaster. It’s called Denial, and it’s reflected in the classic behaviors of Blaming and Playing the Victim.

Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, said,

“When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot.”

Growing is NOT about creating more abundance. That’s the easy part.

The real growing is our ability to see the world for what it really is, which is often the exact opposite of what it looks like.

Clever vs. Brilliant

The engineer is clever. The inventor is brilliant.

The fox is clever. The migrating bird is brilliant.

The taker is clever. The giver is brilliant.

The spectator is clever. The dancer is brilliant.

Preparing is clever. Improvising is brilliant.

Following the rules is clever. Creating them is brilliant.

Blaming is clever. Taking responsibility is brilliant.

Reactive is clever. Proactive is brilliant.

Compliance is clever. Art is brilliant.

Hesitating is clever. Courage is brilliant.

Showing off is clever. Humility is brilliant.

Anger is clever. Acceptance is brilliant.

Manipulating is clever. Offering is brilliant.

Sales is clever. Marketing is brilliant.

The business student is clever. The business owner is brilliant.

The boy is clever. The man is brilliant.

Sound is clever. Silence is brilliant.

Intelligence is clever. Wisdom is brilliant.

Revenge is clever. Forgiveness is brilliant.

The brain is clever. The heart is brilliant.

Fear is clever. Love is brilliant.

The Time is Now

We are educated to think in past, present, or future.

If we live in the past, as in, “If I had done this or avoided that, today I would be happy”, then we are not living.

If we live in the future, as in, “When I get this or become that, then I will be happy”, then we are not living.

We always do the best we can with what we know at the time. Therefore, we cannot possibly have regrets. Whatever we did, or didn’t do, in the past, seems like the best idea at the time.

For the same reason, we cannot possibly worry about the future.

The only time that matters is now.
The only place that matters is here.

We can still have dreams and ambitions. We can just remember the real reason why we have those dreams.

Imagine someone tells you that on the top of a high mountain, there is something wonderful to discover. You climb the mountain for days, months, years. It’s hard, but you are happy to progress and excited about reaching a point you’ve never reached before. Once you’re there, all you find is a small rock. That’s it. Now what?

The past is only there to teach us lessons.
The future is only there to give us direction.

Use both without attachment.

True happiness is in the process, in the growing, in the climbing… not the clinging.

It is said, “Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present”.

What time is it? The time is now. Enjoy every moment to its fullest.

The Little People of Windyland

The Little People live in a windy world.

It is so windy, they have to hold onto each other so they don’t get swept away. In a place surrounded by trees, they use ropes to stay attached to their familiar village.

Each of them does the same as everybody else: they stick together to resist the strong winds. They live in a state of fear of the unknown, and have never seen anything or anyone other than Little People of the village.

They wait. And wait. And wait.

One day, one of them decides that this is enough. He removes himself from the ropes and lets go.

He’s immediately swept away by the strong winds, while the rest of the people shout, “What are you doing, you’re crazy! It’s not safe out there, come back!”

But this is a determined one. The winds carry him far away to unknown places. He bumps into trees, he hurts himself badly. Progressively, he learns to move his arms and navigate through the strong winds.

Far away from his village, he looks down, and sees another village of Little People. Curious, he maneuvers his arms to go see them. He catches the branch of a tree and stands there, looking.

The Little People of this new village see him. They have never seen such a scene before. In complete awe of him, they kneel down and start to worship him.

“Oh, Lord!”, they say in unison.

“Finally, You arrived! You are our Savior, our Saint, our Messiah!” they shout.

“Please save us, oh, dear Lord!”.

The little one on his branch looks at them, gently smiling, and says,

“I am not your savior. I am just like you. The only difference is, I am not afraid to let go.”

Leaving the Lesser for the Greater

What do Microsoft, Ford, Google, Yahoo, Virgin, Oracle, and many other companies have in common?

Their founders didn’t finish school.

They all dropped out. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Is it because they weren’t brilliant enough for school?

Or because school wasn’t brilliant enough for them?

Giving just for the sake of it

When you master your art, you are not afraid to give it away. You do more than what is required of you.

And this is precisely under this condition that magic happens.

Like this:

How to Learn Anything in No Time

When I was a little kid I wanted to learn how to swim.

This man was an excellent swimmer. At the public swimming pool, he started teaching me the basics. At first, it was in shallow waters so my feet would still touch the ground. Easy.

Soon after, he told me that he would throw me to the middle of the pool, where the water is deep, and the only way to survive was to advance and to swim. He said,

“I will swim close to you. Call me only if you need me”.

He threw me. Splash!

At first, I loosely applied what I had just learned in the “baby pool” but I wasn’t advancing much. It was messy, disorganized, inefficient, I was “drinking the cup” more often than not, and I was exhausting myself.

After a few minutes of chaotically swallowing more water than air, I screamed,

“Help!”

He instantly came to my rescue and put me on the side of the pool. He then taught me about conserving energy, about knowing where you want to go, about resting.

Then we did it again a few times. I got another good share of water in my lungs, but in less than an hour, that was it. I was jumping from the diving board, swam to the bottom of the pool for the fun of touching the ground with my fingers, came back up, swam forward, sideways, backwards, not really knowing what I was doing, but I didn’t need his help anymore. I had become fearless.

A couple of years later, inspired by the movie “The Big Blue” (another all-time favorite still to this day!), I was swimming with such efficiency that I could go deep without breathing for over 3 minutes straight. Just for fun.

I learned the most important things this way. Nothing was ever forced. Only inspired, self-disciplined, taking responsibility, with the reassurance that it would be OK. Sometimes I would be given this reassurance by someone else, other times I would need to find it within.

The point is this: removal of fear is the ultimate way to accomplish anything, because fear is nothing but the opposite of love.

Threatening and scaring kids to learn something is a guarantee of failure. Instead, when they are given the freedom to learn what’s important to them, knowing you will be around unconditionally if they need you, miraculously (or not), they’ll make it.

Love and fear are like a balancing scale: the more love, the less fear, and vice-versa.

The Fisherman and the Businessman

[This story isn’t from me, and I am just rewriting it from memory. The original author is a business professor called Mark Albion.]

.

.

A businessman is on vacation on a hot and sunny island in the middle of the ocean.

On the beach, he meets a fisherman whose only possessions are a little canoe and the most basic fishing equipment.

– “What are you doing, my little friend?”, says the businessman.

– “I am preparing my boat, sir”, says the fisherman.

– “Do you go fishing every day?”

– “Yes, every morning.”

– “And then?”, asks the businessman.

– “Then I come back with my catch about an hour later. I sell a couple of fish, and I keep one for my family”.

– “And then?”

– “Then we cook the fresh fish and some local veggies.”

– “And then?”

– “Then, after lunch I spend the rest of the day with my little children. We take our time to talk, laugh, read, study together. Whenever they are tired, they take a nap, I make love to my wife, and we all rest under the trees.”

– “And then?”

– “Then we cook dinner, tell each other stories around the fire, and we all go to sleep.”, says the fisherman.

– “That’s it? My little friend, let me explain something to you. First, you should automate your work. Get more fish, sell more, and with the profits, you buy a bigger boat.

– “And then?”, asks the fisherman.

– “Then, in less than 10 years of hard work, you will have a huge boat and you will be managing many employees.”

– “And then?”

– “Then, you can buy a second boat, and do this again. This is a scalable business model, my little friend!”

– “And then?”

– “Then, by the time you’re 50 or 60, you’re the President of a fishing empire, and you make billions!”

– “And then?”

– “Then you can buy and do whatever you want!”

– “Like what?”

– “Like working one hour per day, spend time with your children, make love to your wife, and take naps whenever you want.”

Let Us Help You

[True story. Names changed to respect privacy.]

– “Hello, my name is Richard Head. My friends call me Dick.”, he says.

– “How may I help you, Mr. Dick Head?”, I say.

– “I work at Dumbass Venture Partners, a private-equity firm. Have you heard of us?”

– “No.”

– “Let me introduce you to my partner, Mr. Off. You may call him Jack.”

– “Pleasure to shake your right-hand, Mr. Jack Off.”

– “Listen, my firm invests in highly profitable companies like yours, and breaks them apart to liquidate smaller pieces to larger entities.”

– “We just closed our first round of funding, we’re not profitable yet. We bleed more money than a teenage girl who just got her period.”

– “Hum… Well, my assistant, who has a Masturbating Business Amateur degree, from the prestigious Bastard University, has done his homework. Thanks to his extensive research, he has filled out a spreadsheet all by himself.”

– “Impressive.”

– “Yes, it proves that according to the case-studies we’ve done on past success patterns of companies such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Coca Cola, and also the GDP growth of the 7 most industrialized countries in the past 100 years, we have determined that your business is going to be a success.”

– “Do you know what we’re building?”

– “Well, I didn’t put that in the spreadsheet, but I’ll insert another column and calculate the probability of the scalability factor of the sinusoidal hypothenuse extended to fractional vectorization. We will gain 2.47% in accuracy.

– “You do that. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”

– “Wait! We also partner with Retarded Talents, Inc., an executive recruiting firm. We have some excellent candidates for you.”

– “Do you know who’s on board of our company?”

– “Well… Our partner has already placed candidates at large corporations!”

– “I bet they did.”

– “Look… My boss has a degree in law! That could also be useful!”

– “Thanks. I’m a little busy running a company. It was nice to meet you.”

– “May I have your card? Here’s mine. Call me 24/7, I sleep with my Crackberry under my pillow! I have confidence you will change your mind. I’ll give you a discount, and that’s just because it’s you.”

Acronym Galore

Just FYI: if you RSVP your ticket from SFO to JFK to fly ASAP using this URL, they will play R&B on an HDTV powered by MSDOS with an old VCR recorded on VHS tapes. One may ask, do they provide HMO or PPO? And I go, LOL! Should someone SMS the answer with their PDA? Both NASA and CIA provide these USB sticks with a CPU that clocks at 1GHZ and plenty of FLASH. Of course, these are secured with SSL to avoid the Y2K bug. They are designed to store CRM data and PDF files on an IBM PC with an NTSC output, as we all know. But watching CNN on an LCD screen at 5 PM is OK too, IMHO. Surely, we could store it in an SQL database designed to transmit the FY’05 annual report in 3D over HTTP. However, such B2B app was written in COBOL instead of BASIC, to ensure the 3G network would comply with the CMYK color standard rather than RGB (otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense!). It’s similar to recording music in MIDI instead of WAV files. We need to decide where it should be located: USA, EMEA, APAC, or at the local YMCA? Unless it’s in a cloud with uninterruptible RAID disks? Listening to KQED asking to send money to their POBOX won’t give the answer. OMG! Perhaps the PHDs working at UNICEF need more iPods to listen to MP3’s while watching a DVD of NASCAR on a flat TV! Is it still working, BTW, or is it totally FUBAR? If only NASDAQ could be WYSIWYG as much as our OLED netbooks that render HTML faster than pure XML, we could finally understand what the hell we’re talking about in this company meeting!

The Only Way to Get and Keep a Job

The world is awakening at a pace and degree never seen before in history.

There was a time when you would be born, then study hard, go to a good school, get a degree, and with all that, somebody would give you a stable job. In other words, so long as you did what you were supposed to do, you were safe.

Over the past 100 years or so (a short time relative to the history of mankind), we have been led to believe that this is it. Do as you’re told, and in return, we keep you safe.

Fit in.

Just like anything that isn’t sustainable, there is a time when the system breaks. This time is right now, and the current economic crisis is just a small consequence of something much more profound and lasting.

We’ve hit the big Reset button. Everything is coming back to the fundamentals.

Michael Jordan doesn’t look for a basketball job. People beg him. That’s not only because he’s good at what he does, it’s also because he delivers much, much more than throw a ball in a basket. He delivers magic by daring, trying, failing. A lot. He does a million things that he’s not supposed to do. To our delight.

If Michael Jordan had a resume, people would laugh at him, run away, and he would be without a job! Rather, he delivers, and he’s in control: he gets to pick the people he wants to work with, and he has fun doing his work.

The concept of a resume was invented relatively recently, when society wanted you to fit in. That’s long gone. Now, society wants you to stand out, and rightfully so.

Before: Fit in.

Now: Stand out.

There are only two ways to get and keep a job.

One way is to create it.

The other way is to do more than what you are supposed to do, every second of each day. Be generous with your time and efforts. Care first about “the users”, the people who benefit from your work. In due time, the right people will notice you, will value your gifts to the world, and will want you. Infinitely more than anyone with a better-looking resume.

Do you need to have Michael Jordan’s gifts to survive in this world?

You can be anyone, and do anything.

You can be a waiter in a restaurant. In theory, anyone could do your job, making you a cheap and replaceable commodity. However, you do more than your job description. You actually care about customers. You connect with them. You recommend them the dish that’s not the most expensive, but that you think is the most tasty today. You actually arrive early every day to try dishes before the place opens to the public. You change the light bulb if it’s broken. You answer the phone when the Maitre D’ is in the restroom.

Most of what you do, nobody told you to do it. It’s not just initiative, it’s caring.

Customers come back because they know they are cared for, and that is the best gift anyone can ever receive.

Well, if you’re that waiter, I want you in my restaurant. Very badly. And guess what: I will pay you well. I will give you freedom to make decisions to please customers on the spot without having to fill out a form and without me looking over your shoulder. I will let you experiment and make mistakes, because failures are necessary steps to success. I will do everything I can to keep you. You are the boss now! As for your resume, I couldn’t care less, thank you.

Your real value is everything that is NOT in your resume. From now on, society rewards you on your real value. Back to the fundamentals.

Got a business degree? Great. Have you started a business yet?

Got an engineering degree? Great. What have you invented today?

Your real job is everything that is NOT in your job description. What your job description describes, there’s a truckload of other people who can do it too, and probably at a fraction of the cost.

Whatever is in your resume, it is screaming the following message: “I have done everything society told me to do! I fit in the system! I am the same as thousands of other people! Won’t you hire me, and keep me safe under your warm blanket?”

Companies don’t even look at resumes anymore, or they automate the process with keyword searches. Which means that in the less than 1% chance of you actually getting that particular job, this will be a job in an average office making average products for average people, and you’ll be treated like a robot with a unique number to help identifying you. If that’s how they treat people even before they recruit them, guess how they treat them after? Is this what you deserve?

Destroy your resume immediately, for God’s sake, it’s killing you. And Linkedin is just an electronic resume: boring, ugly, static, lifeless, colorless, totally un-original. It’s sending the wrong message to the whole world. Go ahead and close your Linkedin account as soon as possible (I did that a long time ago, despite having thousands of connections on it: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dupouy returns “Profile Not Found”).

“But wait!”, one might say. “How will recruiters find me now, if I’m not on Linkedin?”

Right. How many calls from recruiters have you received today?

This is like saying, “If I don’t advertise my San Francisco restaurant on every newspaper in the world, how will people who live in New Zealand know and eat at my restaurant every day?”.

Market segmentation, baby. Be a big fish in a small pond, never the other way around.

Be like the waiter in this hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and you have true job security. Even if that restaurant went out of business, you’d find another job faster than anyone else because the owner and the customers will be the first ones to praise and recommend you, rightfully so.

Security isn’t earned during the few years spent at school anymore. Now it’s earned every second of each day.

If you don’t do this, someone else will, and get your job.

The saying goes, “It’s about who you know”. That is false. Any dummy can go to events, shake hands, and collect hundreds of business cards. Then what?

It’s not about who you know, it’s about who knows you. Who trusts you. Who values you. Who appreciates you for what you really bring to the world.

Only people who already know you can offer you a job, or recommend you to one. Think about all the people who know you, and talk with them only. The time you do NOT waste sending around your resume to hundreds of websites will free up. You will use this time much more wisely and effectively by talking with real people who have real power to hire you for your real values.

Do your best at all times, and do more than what’s required of you. Others will beg you to work with them.

In due time, jobs will find you when you’re not even looking.

The True Meaning of Competition

Years ago, I was competing in ballroom dancing, at beginner level. Our team was all hot and ready. As we were about to step on the dance floor, our coach said,

“Remember, we’re Stanford, and they’re not.”

That turned me off.

First, I didn’t graduate from this university, I was just there to sneak in their dance classes. Second, I didn’t see why we would be superior in any way. The other teams, from other universities, probably worked their asses off just as much as we did.

Only years later, did I understand the true meaning of competition.

On the surface, this is an egocentric concept, in the mind, and not in the heart. It’s insecure, it’s about putting others down in order to feel higher than them. It’s about pride, which is easily knocked off its pedestal and then transforms into shame.

Animalistic competition, where males fight (or dance!) for a female, does nothing but reflect a mentality of scarcity, rather than abundance. Inevitably, this leads to neediness, the last thing a woman is attracted to. In such case, neither male deserves the honor to be with the female.

Even in the animal world, females are too smart to go for a guy whose only talent is just show off:

In reality, competition is just the opposite. Competitors are actually deeply connected. They are in love, with the same thing. Be it a sport, a dance, or companies fighting to build the most revolutionary product.

The love they have for their art is so enormous, so beautiful, so overwhelming, that they are pulling each other up. Even the losers finish better than what they were before entering the competition. They motivated each other to improve themselves, sometimes without even knowing it.

The result is a common effort towards excellence. That alone is worth competing for.

Love Songs

Interesting how 99% of love songs are sad, hopeless, desperate, needy.

“Boo-hoo! Why can’t you love me [and wash the dishes]? Please, oh please, staaaaay [and pass me a beer]!”

They’re about taking, instead of giving.

Love is the only important thing in the world. Why not celebrate it? Revere it? Worship it? Spread the word about it?

Fortunately, there is always the 1% that makes all the difference. Here is one, for you.

Please buy me a girlfriend for $29.99

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the average guy, who has constant access to dirty videos on the internet. So much so, that his faithful right-hand has become sore. He would like to experience the real thing, though. Where to start?

There are so many girls everywhere. On the street. At the cafe. At the library. At the mall!

He might think:

“Oh, my God. Here’s one. She’s pretty. I’m so nervous. If I had the courage to approach her, what would I say? I can’t remember those pickup lines! What if she rejects me? I remember, years ago I approached one girl, and she blew me off. I felt so ashamed, it took me weeks to get over it. What is going to happen to me this time? I haven’t talked to any girl for a couple of years!”

“Oh well, she’s gone now. Fortunately, tonight I’ll have my revenge when I watch the latest video at IamYourBiatchSoPleaseTakeMeInEveryHole.com.”

“Wait… Here’s another girl. Wow, she’s hot. There is no way she’s single. She must be married already. Let’s see… no ring! She must have a boyfriend. One of those smart+handsome+rich asshole guys. Or maybe I can steal her from this jackoff? I need a strategy. I went to a big school and I work for a big corporation, dammit. I’m good at standardized tests! What am I going to say here? Brag about my cubicle job? What if she makes fun of me in front of everyone, and the entire room laughs at me? My stellar reputation will be ruined!”

“Oh well. I guess tonight is going to be another session of Mano Solo. Another pants-down fireworks party in front of my laptop.”

“Wait! Here’s an idea. Online-dating websites! Yeah! I don’t need to take any risk! Last time I checked, it cost $29.99 to signup for this kind of website. I can afford that!”

—————

Admittedly, from a business standpoint, dating websites are awesome.

The need: universal. Who doesn’t want love?

The business-model: monthly subscription automatically linked to users’ credit cards. Frictionless.

The technology behind it: essentially a relational database, could be coded by a 15-year-old passionate programmer.

The cost of running it: probably open-source software such as Linux and MySQL, and some bandwidth to send the juice through the pipes. Almost free.

These websites make money. Tons of it. Now, how do they serve customers?

There are several stages in Love between two people.

In that order: pickup, dating, relationship, marriage.

One cannot get a Ph.D until he has graduated from grad school. Nor go to grad school until he has graduated from college.

Pickup is kindergarden, really. If a guy can’t even do that, does he have the balls to love, protect, serve, provide, and support the woman even in the most difficult and unusual situations that life will inevitably throw at them?

One cannot even begin to handle dating, until he has worked his way through his approach anxiety to the point of being able to pickup any girl he wants, anywhere, any time, even in the most unusual places and situations. In fact, ESPECIALLY in the most unusual situations.

It’s easy to talk to a girl in a social environment, or when mutual friends are around.

On the other hand, respectfully approaching a woman cold, in an elevator, or at a store, risking humiliation in front of everyone, while having consideration for her and making sure she’s not embarrassed but rather honored, tells an entirely different story about the essence of the man.

Like cold-calling in sales, cold-approaches are the most difficult. Dating and relationships come next. Real men continuously work on themselves at the deepest levels, and there is no cheating or shortcuts available to transcend all sorts of fears, habits, and programming. Sometimes, it takes years of sweat, blood, and tears. Unwavering discipline, yet painful failures, sleepless nights crying, hundreds of pages of notes read and written, increasingly difficult self-assignments to push his own limits, and a bruised heart with deep scars. That’s what it takes for a chance at being enrolled at the School of Love, the most selective of all.

Marriage, the ultimate level, is reserved to those who have mastered all previous stages. Ladies would much rather go for the fearless man who is capable of picking up any girl in a random place, because ironically, he won’t fool around — he knows how precious real love is. On the other hand, guys who have too much fear are the ones who stare at other women when you’re not around, fantasizing that “perhaps he could get a better girl” in an endless cycle.

The enormous and continuous homework than any man has to do on himself gives him the discernment, the ability to appreciate similar qualities in others. He has standards that go way beyond appearances. Counter-intuitively, if the guy isn’t good with women, he cannot be trusted. Faking it playing the macho won’t cut it — women are too smart and intuitive to be fooled. Only a man who went through the pain of doing his homework will be faithful, because he consciously chose the woman, if she gave him the honor to choose him as well.

So… Are you a woman, looking for Mister Right? Online dating websites are the LAST place you want to go, unless you want a one-handed internet surfer. Social environments aren’t much better. If you still want to go, you’ll get plenty of dates. But, just like Walmart, you’ll trade quality for quantity. You can always return the merchandise and get it recycled for the next person, but you’ll have wasted your time. Is this what you deserve?

A real man has to be able to pick you up. To Pick. You. Up. To sweep you off your feet. To have the balls to approach you wherever you might be, at the least expected moment, risking total failure and humiliation, in the name of Love. Because for sure, in this uncertain world, you’ll be glad he has what he’s supposed to have between his legs, and not only for tonight.

The favorite spots are ANYWHERE. Heck, if that’s in a parking lot while he’s washing his car and wearing wet clothes, so be it. If she’s there, she’ll be approached with no hesitation.

How to make $30 Million in 3 years

In an entrepreneur forum, someone posted this question:

“How to make $30 Million in 3 years?”

I answered:

Asking this kind of question implies the “Deferred Life” mentality, meaning “Right now I’m not happy with what I am doing, and I hope that someday, if I have a gazillion dollars in the bank, I will finally be able to do what I like to do”.

This is living in the future instead of the present. This is what most people do: planning, and waiting for “retirement”, this magic time when we might finally be happy after a lifetime of hope.

Instead, if you have the “Whole Life” mentality, you intuitively choose to do something that you enjoy and that you are good at, that brings value to others, and that makes you happy. Incidentally (or not), since what you do has value, you also make all the money you need.

It is much better to regret things you’ve done, than regret things you haven’t done.

Of course, there are challenges everywhere, no matter what you do. That’s life. But overall, you are happy NOW and FOR SURE, instead of LATER and MAYBE.

It’s not money that you are chasing, it’s happiness.

Success is the continuing expansion of happiness. It’s about money, but also about health, emotional stability, clarity of vision, fulfilling relationships, fun activities, peace of mind, and a sense of contribution.

Dealing with Emotions: Worry

Another common emotion is worry.

Worry is just as useless as regret, the difference being in the direction of time.

Worry is about trying to control the future, and just like regret, trying to control anything goes against the flow and is rather frustrating.

“But… What about free-will? Don’t we have control over our own destiny?”

Well, sorta kinda. You do have control over your destiny, but within the realms of your past behaviors, actions, and thoughts.

For instance, you might be a human being right now, and as much as you may want and try, it’s unlikely you become a cat or a dog today.

The same goes with situations with other people. You may desire something out of them, but what about what they want?

Thus, not only is worry useless, it’s also harmful to you, and often harmful to others as well.

The emotion of worry appears when we are attached to a future outcome, which, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty unrelated to our own, free-will.

“I hope it will be sunny tomorrow! I hope the teacher won’t look at my homework tomorrow! I hope the stock market will go up tomorrow!”

Either way, it’s future and external, thus outside our realms of control.

How to deal with worry?

The past is over and cannot be changed. The same way, (most of) the future cannot be changed because we’re not the only one involved in its transformation.

The only thing we have power over, is the present moment. The only thing we can do, is do our best, right now, in whatever we do.

If we get what we wanted, great. If we don’t, that’s great too. Either way, there cannot be any regret, because we did our best at all times.

Dealing with Emotions: Regret

Modern education teaches us so much. Yet, does it teach us what is essential to life, such as how to deal with emotions?

Let’s start with a common one: regret.

Regret is utterly useless, because it’s simply impossible.

“Why did I do this? I should have done that instead!”

It is impossible, because we always make the best decision with the circumstances and the information we have at that time.

If we could have done better, we would have.

Regret is an attempt to control the past, and therefore can be rather frustrating. Socrates said, “All men choose what they believe to be the good, however, they have no way of knowing good from bad.”

Therefore, whenever we have a feeling of regret, we simply remind ourselves:

“It seemed like a good idea at the time“.

Because it was.

Unconditional Respect

The other day, one of our fresh recruits asked me this question. He’s a bloody smart guy, just like all the others.

– “How should we treat those big business people when they visit us?”, he asked.
– “How do we treat the pizza delivery boy?”, I said.
– “Pretty well, I guess”, he replied.
– “How do we treat the janitor who comes every night to clean our office?”
– “Pretty well too”, he said.
– “Any other questions?”

He went back to work at his desk. Then he came back to me and asked,

– “Yes, but, should we DRESS differently?”

We all dress clean, but pretty much in jeans and T-shirts. Sometimes I wear a suit, but that’s when my jeans are in the laundry.

– “Same answer”.

We treat everyone the same.

Pay It Forward

Starbucks surely knows about choice! You could easily ask for a grande double decaf low fat sugar free whipped creamed white chocolate caramel espresso eggnog latte americano mocha frappuccino, if you wanted to. Last Holiday season, a typical time for giving and gratitude, they gave me a cup with this quote printed on it:

“As you put together your shopping list, leave room for at least one complete stranger. Then who knows? Maybe you’ll appear on somebody else’s list in return.”

You may ignore it, laugh at it, be touched by it. It’s all about one of the universal laws of nature: causality.

Some call it the law of cause-and-effect, or karma.

This law is as omnipresent and authentic as gravity. In the universe, nothing is wasted, everything is transformed. Everything is connected. No gift is ever given without being returned one way or another, sooner or later. Similarly, no debt is ever left unpaid.

Next time you can, how about giving something. Whatever: love, time, money, education, moral support, etc. There is nothing you cannot give. Don’t do it because it will come back to you in one form or another (it always will), but do it… for no reason other than just giving.

If you want to experiment a twist, try the following.

The movie “Pay It Forward” depicts a 12-year-old boy who has an idea to change the world. He starts by pulling a homeless man off the streets by finding him a job. Now the man has a moral debt towards the boy, but he tells the man to pay his debt forward to 3 other people in need, instead of paying it back to the boy. The help has to be major, meaningful, life-changing. I do something for you, and you have to do something for 3 other people. Then, tell these people who have just been helped that they also have to pay their debt forward, by doing something for 3 other people, and so on.

That’s 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243… helped people. That’s Viral Marketing, baby! Truly exponential growth. There may be some leaks here and there, but the churn rate (percentage of people who quit) is very low because people are being helped a way that is spectacular and they’re happy to help others.

It’s one way to positively change the world on a massive scale. Start the fire, and watch the world being covered with light so strong that even occasional rains and tornadoes cannot extinguish.

Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “Better things than me you shall do”?

This concept is so universal that it transcends all religions and all belief systems: it just is, and nobody has ever denied it. Sometimes we tend to do things for us rather than for others, forgetting that we are just One, all fish swimming in the same ocean and sharing the same resources.

Next time someone does something for you, are you going to pay it… forward?

Ze Universal English

The English language could be used to unify countries and bring world peace. To make it easier, how about creating a simplified English that works universally.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favor of the”k”. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e”s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer.

For sur, ze drem vil finali kum tru.

Your Life Purpose

Looking at the history of mankind, now is easier than ever to create wealth.

Yet, it is harder than ever to find happiness. Have we truly made progress?

If we are not happy, it is because we run our lives in a different direction than nature intended us to. We go against the flow. We feel resistance, not always being able to pinpoint the problem.

The key to happiness is beautiful in its simplicity.

Your life purpose is to serve others with your unique gifts.

Every one of us has, at least, one gift, one talent, one set of skills, that has value to others. Therefore, all you need to do to be happy in life is to find out what this gift is, and then execute on it.

Because your gift creates value to others, you make all the money you need.

Because you’re good at it, you have joy doing it.

Because you have joy doing it, you live a happy and fulfilled life.

If you believe you don’t have any gift, you are mistaken. If you believe your gift doesn’t have enough value, it’s only because you don’t know yet how to properly monetize it. If you believe you are not good enough at your gift, then go to school and master your art. And if you don’t know what your gift is, start exploring now. Push your own limits. Make mistakes. Fail often. Dare to experiment, where others only settle in the illusion of security. Don’t be afraid, for fear is your only enemy.

Finding and mastering your gift might be the most important quest in your life.