GarthBox

The art of seeing is actually the result of combining all the other senses.

It entails sniffing out the naysayers and wrongdoers and wasted efforts.

It involves getting hands on, touching the work, shipping the work and physically showing up.

It requires you to get so close to the why behind the work that you can taste it.

It means you’re listening more than you’re talking, curiously asking questions and yea, eavesdropping a bit on what the target audience is really saying to their friend sitting next to you.

Once you’ve done all of that, the path forward to creating something remarkable and differentiated is made clear.

Stay Positive & It’s More Than Just Hindsight/Foresight

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A tough pill to swallow: you’re better off getting better than you are getting angry.

Getting angry doesn’t solve much. If anything, anger usually breaks something.

But getting better at whatever has gotten you angry is sure to 1. mitigate the anger or remove it entirely and 2. provide you with a feeling of fulfillment.

Stay Positive & You Might As Well

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It’s beautiful when a brand has a clear goal.

Experiencing massive and swift growth is a great goal.

Staying tight and maybe just in one’s backyard is a great goal, too.

But every brand needs to choose and clearly communicate it.

Only then can the goal be a remarkable one – as in, one that gets remarked about by its employees and customers and the media and bloggers and so on.

Stay Positive & If You Have To Ask What It Is, Then It’s Not Clear Enough

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There’s something special about a hobby.

You’re likely to try something new or to make an investment on it even when you’re unsure if it will pay out.

You’re likely to have amazing word of mouth around your hobby once you give it to someone.

You’re likely to have flow in your work from the start.

It’s worth remembering that there was no such thing as “writer’s block” until the early 1900s, which happened to be when people stopped treating it like a hobby and started treating it like a profession.

What you do now – writing or not – might be a profession, but there’s no reason to not treat it like a hobby.

Doing so might just mean you get to do it professionally for longer.

Stay Positive & It’s A Mindset

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My Uber driver was telling me about how his grandson got into climbing mountains in Colorado. The passion slowly came after he climbed his first mountain.

Funny enough, it wasn’t the fresh air or the feeling of accomplishment when he made it to the top that got him wanting to climb another.

His first climb was actually an incomplete. Not only that, he was covered in sunburn, hydrated, but malnourished and realized there were some tools he didn’t bring with him to make the ascent.

The only reason he kept climbing? He figured he might as well climb again since he learned so much from his first attempt.

And that’s the two-fold key right there.

Learn something from your efforts and then do it again with that knowledge.

A book doesn’t do much good sitting on the shelf.

Nor does knowledge in your brain.

Stay Positive & Keep Climbing

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Of all the entrepreneurs I talk to, it still blows my mind how many talk about how they started one thing and how it turned into another.

The “other thing” being something they might not love as much as their original idea.

And that’s where I think they’re in the wrong and also when I ask about why they brought their original idea into the world (the answer is usually to help people in some way) and then I ask what the new idea is doing (it usually takes another question or two to get them to the root).

Turns out the impact of both ideas are awfully similar, if not the same.

Of course, it’s a choice to look at it through the lens of the why. Sadly, many merely look at their original idea as a failure or miss doing what they originally set out to do (likely because their is comfort in it).

But when they can look beyond the what what and see the why; it’s like their energy and passion finally makes the pivot, too.

Stay Positive & Go With The Pivot

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There’s something special about groups of three.

A bowl of fruit just looks better when there are three different fruits in it.

The same can be said for solutions to a problem.

It looks far more solvable when there are three solutions to choose from (or frankenstein together).

I’m writing this after listening to a panel of speakers share problems with the industry they’re in. Then they shared three ideas they have for solving each problem.

Something worth bringing into your own line of work.

1. It improves your chances of ideating a solution that will truly work.
2. It forces you to truly look into and understand the root of the problem.
3. It increases chances of adoption by others when they can choose a solution that works best for them.

Stay Positive & Search For Your Three, Then Share

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