Terms And Conditions

Garth Beyer

I made a bet with my dad while hiking and stumbling upon a pile of deer feces. I bet him $10 that he wouldn’t eat one of the “berries.”

We shook hands and with a smile on his face, he picked one up, investigated it like it was the most important material at a crime scene, then downed it. Destroying the evidence.

It was over in a second. I was out 10 bucks. And it was as if he didn’t even do it. Because the thing is, he didn’t even chew it.

I forgot to establish that in the terms and conditions before we shook hands.

See, even the smallest, unconventional, and completely miscellaneous circumstances, you can learn something monumental. Being weary of future terms and conditions isn’t the point though.

The point is that I made a mistake. While I may not have gotten as much enjoyment out of the bet as I expected (don’t get me wrong, it was still nasty, and I never let him forget what he did, obviously), I learned a valuable lesson.

I’ll be sure to make more mistakes, in the business world and out in the woods. Will you?

 

Stay Positive & Make More Mistakes To Strengthen Future Terms And Conditions

Garth E. Beyer

Breaking The Threshold

Garth Beyer

Many believe that if they deliver enough work, put in enough hours, or make enough sales calls that they will break the threshold and become a star. This is commonly referred to as Gladwell’s 10,000 hours of practice theory: you are considered a true professional when you have put in 10,000 hours of your passion. That’s when you truly break through.

I would like to propose a different concept. It’s more often than not that the number of critics you have equally relates to your degree of success, of breaking the threshold.

Sometimes no news is good news, but in the realm of people talking about your art, just that people are talking about it benefits you. This includes the critics. It includes the complainers. It includes the hasslers.

You don’t break the threshold, your critics do.

 

Stay Positive & Go Get Some Critics

Garth E. Beyer

How To Cope With Criticism

Garth Beyer

At one of my current occupations, I get to give kids money to go to college. It’s a pretty enjoyable time when I look at it like that. However, part of what I do is handle hundreds of phone calls and emails a week, call it customer service if you will.

Of course, those contacting me are doing so because of a problem they have, whether it’s from a lack of information, understanding, or what it sometimes feels like, they just want to blow up on someone.

This means I’m using a special kind emotional labor from day-to-day. I have to disassociate my personal feelings with every interaction while still keeping an open heart and willingness to help.

In other words, I continuously work on not taking anything personally.

To put it in more perspective, I seldom get a call to tell me I’ve done a good job or get an email just to tell me, “Thanks for all your work, we really appreciate it.” Occasionally I get a thank you letter from a student, maybe two a year on average.

I’m human, but even if I wasn’t, doing what I do without any pat on the back or thanks could still bring me to resent my work. Of course, it doesn’t. And for one simple reason.

Each day I remind myself that while I may receive 30 calls in one day, there are 90,000 students and 200,000 family members of students who don’t call, that things are going smoothly for, that have no problems. 30/290,000 is a pretty good ratio, wouldn’t you say?

Another current occupation (in which I am most artistic) is Writer. The majority of the time when I produce an article, when I get published, when I deliver, I get criticized. Similar to my work as a Grants Specialist, those who agree, who understand, who have been given the intended message, rarely leave feedback.

It’s not often people read to connect, but to learn and understand. I don’t see it, but there are hundreds (hopefully thousands?) of people nodding their heads in agreement and understanding while reading my work.

The few people who I hear from are those who disagree, who have a different opinion (that they would rather share in relation to my article rather than doing the hard work of writing one themselves), and yes, also those who just feel like trolling.

I once told a friend that if there was a point to complaining, they would call them com points, but they don’t. However, here is a point. (two actually)

We are criticized for two reasons. One, to broaden our minds, to self-evaluate, and to be aware of possible mistakes. In other words, to learn. Two (and most important), to be given a ratio. Not having a ratio doesn’t mean you’re doing everything right, it means you’re doing something seriously wrong.

Counting the number of critics you have is meant to remind you of all those who aren’t. I’ve never been one for math, but this is one ratio that makes it easy to cope with criticism.

 

Stay Positive & No Critics Usually Means No Art (and that’s on you, not them)

Garth E. Beyer

The First Day Is Always The Hardest

Garth Beyer

Of course I’m joking here. It’s actually the opposite.

On the first day you have no expectations, you’re feeling things out, you’ve already accepted you may succeed, but you may also fail.

The first day you’re pumped. The first day your goal is just to learn, just to get through it. The first day you have the support of all those you told “I’m doing it.”

Of course, it’s worth to note that support quickly turns against you as you get further along your endeavors, which leads me to my point.

It’s not the first day that’s always the hardest, it’s the next day. Because doing things that matter never gets easier, you just get more out of it.

 

Stay Positive & Should Make Starting Now Easier

Garth E. Beyer

Saying It

Garth Beyer

Alright fancy pants, spit it out.

You have a great idea, you thought of something remarkable, you met someone or saw something online worth sharing, so share it, say it, spit it out.

Forget the grammar police, loosen your belt on your fancy pants or take them off completely. If you have something worth sharing, worth explaining, worth telling, then say it.

We get caught up in making sure what we want to say is completely understood by the masses. We try to word our posts, our articles, our voicemail using the lowest common denominator. Is that who you truly want to reach? Or do you want to reach the select few who completely understand your thoughts as they are normally, unchanged, unmanufactured?

There’s a reason public speakers are told to imagine their audience not wearing pants.

 

Stay Positive & And Hey, You’ll Always Have More To Say (no doubt about that)

Garth E. Beyer

Selling An Idea

Garth Beyer

Good ideas are easy. It’s doing them that’s the remarkable part.

In which case, you may not want to (or may have already done) and now you want to sell someone else on doing it – you want to sell them the idea.

Traditionally you do this by talking about the idea, by sharing every perspective, by shining light on every angle of the idea. Traditionally you sell an idea by focusing on the idea and less on the selling.

No more.

To sell an idea, sure, you have to tell someone about the idea, but that takes only a few minutes. (If it doesn’t, you may want to find a different idea.) The rest of the time is filled with how the idea will work and has worked before. It’s about getting someone to take the initiative and selling them their self-motivation to follow through, to take action with the idea.

Good ideas are easy to produce. Doing them is the hard part. But getting someone else to follow through, that’s bloody hell.

But worth it. Always worth it.

 

Stay Positive & Motivating. Selling. Same Thing.

Garth E. Beyer

What’s Next For Internet

Garth Beyer

You already know my obsession with questions. (No? click here) So when I was asked a question that I had no immediate answer for, that I had to really sit down and ruminate on, I got excited.

A phenomenal freelancing reporter and great friend of mine, David Douglas, had asked me what I thought was next for Internet. Well, here is my response.

What’s Next For Internet

Better question is what new way can we connect more? People have yet to completely open up.

Since the digital revolution began in the early 90’s, a stigma has grown around face-to-face interaction. Even though we feel more and more connected online, people still have a difficult time connecting in person. Despite this setback, our minds remain open, we’ve become natural learners, and we continue to discover the extent of the simultaneously happening information revolution.

What’s next for the internet is based on our next need, desire, and the demand which I can tell you in a moment. First let’s look at how we started and where we are now.

– We began with individuals creating specific content for small groups.

– Then individuals began creating general content for a general audience.

– Then groups began creating specific content for other similar groups.

– Then we entered the age we are in now – the age of mass: mass groups creating mass content to other mass groups.

With recent years, the internet – side by side with the mass – has developed individuals who are creating specific content to specific groups, essentially connecting, creating tribes.

What’s next for the internet is what will assist us in partnering, grouping, and associating more than ever to create ultimate forms of content. Not just any content – content created for the peculiar, the individualized,  the artists. The internet has provided us unlimited information and it has provided us unlimited connection, but it has yet to harmoniously combine the two.

Of course, it’s not just about creating a medium that synchronizes information and connection, it’s also about creating more new groups to continue the cycle. What comes next won’t be something that can be monopolized when its goal is to continuously reproduce more of its kind.

Internet will have to morph into a medium where small groups get together to build on each others content with the assistance of other groups – not necessarily growing with them because they are focusing on a new idea already, but assisting in their artistic growth. It’s about the associated life in which the goal is to exit, meaning that the goal is to develop a new group, a new tribe.

It’s not just a melting pot of special people and great ideas, it’s artistic alchemy.

 

Stay Positive & What’s Next For Internet Can Be Predicted, What Will Be Produced From It, I Can’t Even Begin To Imagine

Garth E. Beyer