Destroy

The End Of Add-Ons

Garth Beyer

It’s difficult to add something to a swiss army knife. It’s difficult to add something to a WordPress theme that seems to already have it all. It’s difficult to add something onto a fishing lure that already reflects light, has popping color, and makes noise.

I’ve written about stealing like an artist and combining the work of other geniuses. I’ve shared how to take “the next best thing” and add onto it. However, what I recently noticed is that it is getting ever more difficult to add something onto what is already remarkable. Note: this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to start from scratch.

You may find there is no room to add-on to a swiss army knife, but you can take what you don’t think is regularly useful out and insert something new. For me, I’ve never used the scissors in a swiss army knife. If I need to cut something, I just use one of the multiple blades.

There is only one question I need to ask after I take out the scissors – what do I replace it with? What do you wish a swiss army knife had? The goal is to add an entirely new dimension without changing the size. For the fishing lure, you can take off the noisemaker and add feathers or googly eyes.

Making something unique isn’t just adding onto something; it’s what you remove and what you replace it with.

No one is going to buy a swiss knife that doesn’t fit in their pocket, but someone will choose your swiss knife over another if you have something different.

 

Stay Positive & Destruction Is Fun, Anyway

Garth E. Beyer

A Dangerous Reminder

Garth Beyer

We’re all crazy.

I can say that because we love destroying things – rather, when we do destroy things, we have fun with it – a lot of fun.

Finally getting rid of your old desktop computer? Smashing it in the driveway sounds like a great idea. Stereo-system broke? Time to tear it to pieces and see how it works. Need room to build something? I’ll get the sledgehammer.

A few months ago my dad and I had to get rid of some wasp nests. Naturally we tried wasp spray, but it was ineffective. Then we bleached the nests. Still alive. So we poured gasoline and set it on fire.

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A couple of months ago my dad and I took apart my original droid. (After five years, it finally broke.) This is the outcome.

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It’s easy to break something, to dissect it, to experiment with what has already been created. It’s much more dangerous to build something from scratch, to experiment with your own creativity.

What puzzles me is how we can have so much fun destroying things, yet not be as insanely excited to create something.

There’s a few different ways to overcome this. All dangerous.

1. Build to destroy it.

2. Build to let someone else have fun destroying it.

3. Build knowing that you will already be building something new, thus, not caring whether it gets destroyed or not.

Bonus: If you want a real challenge. Build something new from the remnants of what you destroy.

 

Stay Positive & Whatever You Do, Just Have Fun With It

Garth E. Beyer

Prep To Destroy

Garth Beyer

Have you ever realized how much you have to prepare to destroy something?

Before a house can be torn down, you have to call two – five different “garbage” companies: one for the glass, one for the metal, one for the wood, one for the crud left inside and one for whatever is left.

Figuratively speaking, you even have to prepare for children to kick down the tower of blocks they made. They need to make sure they hit it at an angle that the blocks don’t go flying and hitting the cat or ending up under the couch.

It takes even more preparation to destroy part of something. If you need to do that, you’re better off starting from scratch. The time and effort you have to invest to prevent the parts you want to keep from falling down with the rest can be better spent building something better, more creatively and with a stronger frame.

A bridge won’t last if you only fix up half of it. That is like putting a band-aid on something that needs to be stitched. It may hold for a short period of time but with too much use it will tear open and bleed.

Simply putting it, destroying half or part of anything; a brand, a business, or a tower of blocks will not make you more successful. It will only postpone the total destruction, if not make it worse when it occurs.

There are two points to the “Prep To Destroy” concept.

1. The more simple and less time you put towards building something, the easier it is for someone to tear it down. The smaller and less stable it is, the less time someone has to put toward preparing to destroy it – survival of the fittest (the weakest are attacked first). Build something stable, don’t just focus on the infrastructure, focus on it all.

2. The time it takes to build something is relative to the time it would take for it to crumble down and be destroyed. It may take you 10 years to write that book you want, 20 to start the business you want or 30 to teach and build a team of incredible people but no one will spend that much time trying to tear any of that apart.

 

Stay Positive & Create Something Indestructible

Garth E. Beyer