Sharing

Autonomy Is Overrated

Garth Beyer

The recent book you read was likely written by two or more people, even if there’s only one author name on it.

The viral YouTube video you shared last week took at least two people to make.

The witty design of a website that wowed you required more than a couple of people to build.

We don’t need more independence or more alone time. The epiphanies you go off on your own to have no longer compare to the ones you can have when you go off with a few friends, stay late with a handful of coworkers or talk with strangers.

You’re better of working to be less self-sufficient than more, and see what happens. We’ve spoiled autonomy by comparing ourselves to one another. “You think you’re better than me?!”

With groups, partnerships, and communities we have a better opportunity to make something remarkable, to have epiphanies that really matter, and create something incomparable.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Fear Dependence (It’s Now Your Best Option)

Age Matters, But Should It?

Age Matters, But Should It?

Garth Beyer

Steve Jobs has more experience than me, but if I have read up on every single lesson he has learned from all his experience, then does he actually know more? or do we know the same amount? or do I still know less?

I’m toying with the concept of age and why it matters so much. I’ve had a number of experiences where I could do something, but my age got in the way.

While still in high school I applied for a newspaper job, a job people go through four years of college to do and number of internships to get, but I knew I could do it well enough or at least learn fast enough to do it as well as anyone else.

No surprise, I didn’t get the job. I was too young.

I wanted to run a seminar on finances, but was told not enough people would come because what 40-year-old is going to believe anything a 19-year-old has to say, regardless of the fact I’ve written more than 200 articles on money management, started selling at age 6, bought a Corvette at the age of 15, and graduated without any debt and studied everything all the financial gurus put out there.

Even with the experience, I was still too young.

Knowledge is power…so long as you’re at an age people will believe that

I’m constantly blogging about business, startups, and public relations concepts. I’m spitting out things I know to be true, part from experience, part from obsessively studying others’ success and failures and learning from other people.

If I’m not talking to someone about the marketing industry or a business idea either of us have, I have buds in my ear listening to others share their stories via podcasts, if not that, I’m lifting weights while thinking about trends or talking to my girlfriend about the next thing I’m going to chase. I’m a carrot guy, not a stick guy, and I’m still not as trusted as Steve Jobs, Seth Godin or Chris Brogan because, well, they’re older than me.

Knowledge, wisdom, insight are all very subjective matters. I’ve worked heavily the last year and a half to convince others I have all the above despite my (in the grand scheme of things) minimum amount of experience. Through that process I’ve lost connection with a lot of my readers. After an email from a blunt friend and conversation with my girlfriend (likely to be posted on my blog tomorrow), I’ve realized I stopped doing what I preach others to do: be personal.

Age matters, and fighting the perception others have is an uphill battle I’m exhausted fighting. Instead of sharing what I know, I will again be sharing how I came to know it. I’ll show how I’ve become a 22-year-old with a 30-year-old brain and why I find myself saying “I’m such an old man” more often than I like.

I invite you to stop by GarthBox more often. There will be more about my suffering, anxiety, nervousness, uncertainty, risk-taking, and lying to myself, and, of course, how I’ve overcome it all.

 

Stay Positive & Stick Around For The Ride

*In lieu of this sort-of announcement blog post, In The Box Podcast will be available on iTunes beginning of March. My cohost Michael Langlois and I chat about 6 themes, which you’ll know about in advance of each podcast so you can listen to just what you want to hear. I hope you find them all interesting and…personal.


					

	
	



			
				



	
	

		
You Will Be Amazed


					

				Garth Beyer			

			


			

			
If you started building your product


If you started reaching out to idols


If you started sharing your art


If you started hopping on podcasts and vlogging


If you started messaging people on LinkedIn asking to Skype


If you started telling people what your goal is


You will be amazed at how much people will naturally want to help you along the way, who will provide positive constructive feedback, who will share what you share with them. If you’re not starting, not shipping because you’re afraid no one will want what you offer, no one will listen, no one will care, then by all means, prove me wrong.


 


Stay Positive & Go Be Amazed. Please.

					

	
	



			
				



	
	

		
Two Types Of Art


					

				Garth Beyer			

			


			

			
The first is risk-free. It’s the type of art that you can destroy without second guessing yourself; the type of art you can return, get your money back, or just give away to someone else because you’re not attached. This type of art is noncommittal.


But it’s still art. In fact, it’s invaluable art.


This type of indefinite art is about expression as much as it is exploration. We can peck at it, flip it, and stick the end of our tongue to it to see what it tastes like. This art is about discovering through creating what we don’t understand. This art is to be played with.


The transition toward the second type of art is made through what all art shares: facing unresolved issues – the meaning of life, why this and not that, where do I belong.


Popular art – the second type of art – is when a creation contains answers.* The second type is about sharing findings, sharing answers, sharing your conclusions – egotistic or not. This is the most difficult type of art. To creat the first type, all you need to do is turn rumination into something tangible. For the second type of art, you have to commit, you have to accept all the criticism you will receive before you receive it. What ruins art creators is when they underestimate the amount of resistance they will have to face, internally and externally. The second type of art is simply art shared.


*[Right or wrong, they are answers. Popular art becomes such through connection, acceptance, and reality. It may not be the right answer for you, and it may be the wrong answer for her, but, essentially, it’s an answer for someone.]


 


Stay Positive & Create A Little Art. One Type Or Another


Garth E. Beyer

					

	
	



			
				



	
	

		
Putting Yourself Out There (to be judged)


					

				Garth Beyer			

			


			

			
Keeping tab of the facts, every time you stick your neck out on the line, people are judging you. They can’t help it and maybe you can’t help judging them in return. Regardless, putting yourself out there is a chivalrous task: respectable, rare, personal.


There is a societal shift, though. Before, putting yourself out there was sharing your story, laying out all the highs and lows of your life (always more lows, of course) and making yourself vulnerable to the fact that you have connected with someone, that they know your secrets.


Now, this happens within the first few weeks of meeting someone. These facts and life experiences are no longer associated with vulnerability – they are simply common knowledge to anyone willing to ask. There’s been a switch.


Putting yourself out there has become talking about your passion, about showing the work you have created, and about sharing your notes, your ideas, your art.


Just as difficult as it was before.


But more worth it.


 


Stay Positive & Put Yourself Out There


Garth E. Beyer

					

	
	



			
				



	
	

		
Doing Selflessly Selfish Work


					

				Garth Beyer			

			


			

			
Isn’t it funny how the most selfless articles you read are actually selfish (not in the bad sense of course!)?


We write what we want to write, and that which benefits us most – at the same time, it benefits everyone else even more. The articles that really hit home are the ones where you know hit home for the author.


Let’s not feel guilty about following our passion, taking actions for ourselves, and doing what we really want to do. So long as it get’s shared with others.


I don’t know about you, but I don’t like shrunken heads. However, if I met someone who was extremely, completely, passionate about making them, I’m much more inclined to change my view of them.


 


Stay Positive & “Why the long faces”


Garth E. Beyer