Experiment

Rather Than What’s Next

Garth Beyer

I’ve gotten in the rotten habit of always thinking about what’s next.

I love checking projects and assignments off because it means I get to work with the next thing, but that, in a way, prevents me from moving forward faster.

Instead of always seeking the next thing, sometimes it pays off more to do more of what you’re doing, but differently.

Perhaps you’re in a job that is repetitive and it’s frustrating that you haven’t been promoted or asked to do different work. You can let your desire (and ultimate inability) to progress eat at your passion or you can direct that passion to experiment with what you have in front of you.

Simply because you’ve been blogging for a year doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get your book published. Maybe it’s time to blog differently and see if it resonates more.

When we are facing a barrier to what we want next, we can either let it destroy us, drain our energy, and make us question our direction or we can think about things differently, experiment with our work, and find a way to improve what we think is “good enough.”

 

Stay Positive & Doing Things Differently Might Be What’s Next

Unlocking Potential #11: Q&A With John Saddington

Garth Beyer

John Saddington

I regularly write about the importance of being human, of momentum and of the need to continuously try new things. Top experimenter John Saddington is a living example of doing all the above.

John is linchpin who I recall wore a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirt to Seth Godin’s Pick Yourself event in Tribeca, and asked Seth a question about blogging platforms. It should have come as no surprise to me that John was asking for input because he was in the process of developing his new (and awesome!) blogging platform app, Desk.

John has been blogging for more than 14 years, so it goes without saying how much of a privilege it is to have him be part of this series. Without further ado, welcome John.

Q: You’re a hacker and a human. Tell us how you got into hacking. What’s your story?

John: Yes, that’s my tagline. I think it’s important to let others know that I am a human being. This is one of those “duh” statements but it carries a lot of personal importance to me. It means that I suffer and struggle with just as many things as the next person. But, I have “hacked” my way to a solution that works for me.

I will always be looking for more solutions to life, just as the next person, to ensure that I can survive and thrive in the limited amount of time that I have on planet earth.​

Q: What qualities are needed in a person for them to become successful hackers, humans, entrepreneurs? 

John: A willingness to experiment, be wrong, and fail. A desire to get help, all the time, and to stay humble. To be curious about learning new things and tenacious about not giving up. To be a person of integrity, honest, and true.​

Q: For this next question, I’m sure there are hundreds of answers, but just write about the first two or three that come to mind. What are some hacks you can share about entrepreneurship?

​John: Time box everything. What I mean by this is create a “start” and “end” point to all your experiments and projects. This helps create momentum and helps you establish objective markers for whether or not it’s actually working.

Secondly, get help. Do more things with others and less alone.​

Q: Tell us a bit about Desk PM: How did you go about strategizing a publishing app so it would be as successful as it is? What sort of questions did you ask and answer before you built and shipped the app?

​John: There wasn’t a strategy. It was luck and a long marinating process (over 12 years) as I thought about this application as it tied so closely to my writing and blogging over the last 14 years. Then, I executed. That’s about it. I didn’t deliberate or try to do massive planning or anything like that. The only question that I asked was this (and one that I continue to ask): Do I still love this app? Am I using it every single day?

If the answer ever becomes “No” then I’ve lost the original vision and I should throw it all away.​

Q: What’s the most recent big decision you’ve had to make and how did you rationalize your decision?

John: The biggest decision recently was to join with some friends to work @ The Iron Yard.​ This was the culmination of long-standing relationships and a deep love for education (I got a Masters in Education). I joined them full-time in late 2013.

Q: Would you mind sharing one of your biggest failures and how you worked past it or what you learned from it?

John: I raised ~ $300,000 and spent much more than that on a failed iOS app that netted, over a two year period, just north of $1,300 dollars. I am still learning from this fiscal failure of an app and project. I am still recovering. I wrote a few things here.​

Q: Who and where do you go to for motivation? Any particular mentors or bloggers?

John: I go to my friends and most importantly my wife and kids. I find a ton of motivation in my quiet times as I reflect on spiritual topics, God, and through meditation.​

Q: Perhaps there’s a couple quotes or life mottos you live by?

​”Never give up.” – Dad

“Always have options.” – Dad

“It never hurts to ask.” – Dad

Q: What is the biggest challenge todays entrepreneurs are faced with? 

​John: I’m not sure. Does that matter?​

Q: This one might be a toughie, answer however you would like. What does it take to create something remarkable?

John: It starts with a decision to pursue it and then it requires the courage to not quit.​

Q: Where can people find you and you art? What’s the best way to reach you?

​John: My personal blog: http://john.do

 

Stay Positive & Publish On

4 Steps To Success (Wisdom From Cambodian Monks)

4 Steps To Success (Wisdom From Cambodian Monks)

Garth Beyer

Steve Jobs Meditation

While in Cambodia at the POP House (meditation resort) a handful of monks taught me a lot about buddhism, life, and success. After a 20 minute meditation session, one monk began to tell us the four steps to success in life. Now I’m sharing them with you.

1) Affection – Show affection to your friends, to your enemies, to strangers. Find ways to show your love of people, of plants, of the world, of life. Care, not only about others, but your self as well.

2) Try – The likelihood of success is connected to the amount of experience you have. The more you try, the more successful you will be. Not only try things you’ve never tried before, but try things you don’t think you could overcome, don’t think you’ll complete, don’t think will change you. Just try.

3) Comment (on yourself) – You are your own judge of whether something worked or didn’t. You must evaluate your actions to confirm what you’ve done has moved you in the direction you want.  Criticism is pointless, especially when given to others. The monks were firm about concerning yourself only with yourself.

4) Experiment – Put things together that you’ve never imagined combining. Try new designs, interfaces, systems, plans, diets. Success is often the result of experimentations, not well-thought out intentions

Bonus: Be like Steve Jobs. Every monk that taught had told me about Steve Jobs and how he followed these four steps. And he meditated often if you didn’t know.

 

Stay Positive & Your Time Is Limited

You’ll Make Very Little Impact

You’ll Make Very Little Impact

Garth Beyer

Doing Things Differently

There’s certainly a chance you’ll make a very large impact, but the chances are slim.

Slim indeed.

But this should be a motivator more than a turn off.

With nearly 100,000 public schools in America, as a teacher, you have an opportunity to do something different without negatively affecting the system of the other 99,999 schools.

With 500,000+ businesses starting up each year, you, as a now business owner, have an opportunity to do something different with your business without it negatively affecting the trend of others starting their businesses.

With 290,000+ books getting published each year, as a writer you have an opportunity to do something different without breaking down the publishing industry.

There are so many people doing what you are doing that you now have permission to do what you do in a drastically different way. And don’t forget, no one is paying much attention anyway.

I wrote you’re unlikely to make a huge impact, a real dent in the universe. It makes me wonder if knowing that, are you willing to give up your attempt? If you may only influence one other person through your trial of something new, something different, do you believe there’s no point in following through with it then?

Would you rather an aspiring teacher quit his pursuit and work at a gas station instead because he knows he may only impact one or two students in five years of teaching?

This is a call to experiment. And once you experiment, experiment more. Regardless of whether you’re making a large or small impact doing so.

If it’s any consolation, your chances of making a huge positive impact are far greater than making a huge negative one. It’s easier to redirect a current than it is to get others to stop all currents completely because of some pesky seaweed buildup.

 

Stay Positive & The Only Negative Impact You Can Make Is Not Making An Impact At All

Photo credit goes to one of these people

Good Out Of The Gate

Good Out Of The Gate

Garth Beyer

Good Out Of The Gate

Not many are.

Typically, the only person who expects you to be good out of the gate is you.

I might be wrong with that statement. Some may expect good out of the gate from you, but they’ll never check.

They won’t read your first book and if they open it, they won’t read all of it. They won’t follow your blog and check in every day for the first three months you blog daily. They won’t watch your YouTube bit detailing your new invention. 50 Instagram photos down the line, they’ll never scroll down to see what your first 5 were.

Don’t focus on being good out of the gate, focus on feeling good.

You’ve started something. You’ve finished and shipped something. You’ve practiced. You’re troll-free because no one is paying attention yet. Enjoy it. Relish it. Leverage the opportunity.

 

Stay Positive & No One Is Watching, Why Not Experiment?

Photo Credit

If You Can’t Change The Paint…

Garth Beyer

then change the surface.

I was sitting in a café that had some brilliant art hung up on the walls. With closer inspection, I found that its acrylic paint on sandpaper. Yes, on sandpaper.

Why, you ask?

Simple. The painting artist has a limited number of paints she can use. However, the number of items that paint can be used on is endless.

You don’t need to discover a new tool or paint to use, you just need to change the surface.

 

Stay Positive & Use What You Have On Something Different

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