Passion | Choosing the Truth

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Category Archives: passion

Andy Rooney, the Truth, and You

Written on November 7, 2011 by Jerry in beliefs, choosing the truth, mindset, passion, personal development, transparency

“That’s what a writer does. A writer’s job is to tell the truth.” – Andy Rooney

I was reading an article about Andy Rooney’s death earlier this week, and I came across that quote. Rooney, best known for his curmudgeonly opinion pieces at the end of episodes of “60 Minutes“, is one of my heroes. Granted, I haven’t worked my way through all 1,097 of his show-enders, but what I’ve seen consistently is a man who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He didn’t hold back.

Sometimes he offended people, sometimes he caused an uproar, but he always spoke his truth. He didn’t form his opinions by sticking his finger to the wind or consulting focus groups; he knew where he stood. Whether you agreed with him or not, whether you like him or not, you got the sense that he was a person of conviction.

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How Do You Develop the Audacity To Chase BHAGS?

Written on September 7, 2011 by Jerry in attitude, audacity, beliefs, choosing the truth, passion, personal development

You know what a BHAG is, right? It’s an acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and if you have any, you know they can be scary. In fact, BHAGs are all about setting your sights on something that really scares the piss out of you.

The first definition I could find for “audacious” was “extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless”; I like that. It conjures images of people running into burning towers to save the lives of complete strangers, and risking (or losing) their own lives in the process. It’s a noble attribute that we all aspire to but that very few of us ever have the opportunity to test; I don’t think it’s the definition I’d use to describe a goal. After all, just because the goal is big and hairy and makes your knees knock land your heart skip beats doesn’t mean you have to pursue it recklessly.

I like this definition better: “recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.” Or even this one: “lively; unrestrained; uninhibited”. I think that captures the spirit of a BHAG: you’re doing something that flies in the face of your norm, something in defiance of the conventions and limitations of your current life situation, something that your family members or friends might consider insolent or brazen, something uninhibited; in short, something all you. BHAGs are about speaking and living your truth.

But how do you pursue a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, well, audaciously? After all, audacity isn’t a quality that’s encouraged in our society; in fact, audacious children are scolded, disciplined and medicated in an effort to get them to “just behave”. And it’s no different when they leave school and go off to work: audacity and middle management are blood enemies. So how do we learn to behave audaciously again?

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Stop Pretending To Be Someone Else

Written on April 28, 2011 by Jerry in beliefs, enthusiasm, passion, transparency

One of the realizations I’ve come to over the past few weeks of breakdowns and breakthroughs is that I have to, at all costs, stop pretending to be someone else. You’d think that would be pretty easy; on the surface, consciously, we don’t like to think of ourselves as posers.

And yet, every day, we do and say things that are out of line with what we really want to do and say. I’ll wager lunch at your favorite drive-thru restaurant that you did it at least once today; I know I did. Why do we do it? Because we’re afraid. Afraid of what other people will think, afraid that we might be wrong, afraid that nobody will like us if we let them know who we really are.

Meanwhile, we’re slowly dying inside. Keep turning off those aspects of your personality that you fear, one by one, and eventually you’ll wake up one day wondering who you are and what you’ve done with your life. Trust me when I tell you that it’s not fun. Fruitful and necessary, yes, but not fun. Because it’s at that point that you have to start untangling yourself from the story and sorting out which bits are the real you and which bits were the version of you that was engineered to please others.

The problem for some of us is that we’ve spent so long pleasing others that we’ve completely forgotten what, exactly, it is that’s important to us. We get so caught up in school and work and kids and activities that we never take the time to reflect on the direction we’re headed.

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Watching the Ships Burn

Written on April 19, 2011 by Jerry in beliefs, enthusiasm, entrepreneur, mindset, Motivation, passion, transparency

A friend reminded me the other day of the parable (variously attributed to Alexander the Great, Cortes and others) of the adventurer who, on landing on the shores of his destination, burned his ships to send a message to his men that there was no turning back. She had recently had a “ship-burning” moment of her own and was at the same time ecstatic and nervous.

I had mine last Wednesday, and I know exactly what she’s talking about.

You see, setting the ships on fire is fun: you get to play with matches and lighter fluid, which is always a good time. It’s only when you’re standing on the shore, watching the flames engulf every last scrap of wood, that you get the sinking, “Oh shit!” feeling in your stomach and begin to wonder if you did the right thing and whether you remembered to pay the insurance premium this month.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that burning the ships was the right thing to do. If I hadn’t, I don’t think I’d ever have broken away from some of the things that have been holding me back. I’m simply acknowledging the fear, owning it, staring it in its ugly face, getting ready to let it go.

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I’m There for You Baby – An Entrepreneur’s Journey

Written on March 24, 2011 by Jerry in attitude, beliefs, cool people from around the web, entrepreneur, entrepreneurialism, great books, passion, Small Business Success, transparency

Neil Senturia is not your typical…well, he’s not your typical anything, at least as far as I can tell from his new book I’m There for You, Baby – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Galaxy, Volume 1 (WARNING: affiliate link). What I can tell you for certain, though, is that Mr. Senturia knows how to tell a story.

I haven’t had this much fun reading a book since I was a kid reading They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? by Patrick McManus (yep, another affiliate link…sorry, but it’s just easier than logging out of Amazon). I don’t often laugh out loud when I read business books, but this one had me chuckling, snickering and, occasionally, guffawing (I may have just made that word up…sorry about that). Even better, I learned a thing or two along the way.

The book is a series of stories built around The Baby Rules, a set of entrepreneurial truisms culled from Senturia’s experiences as a real estate mogul, venture capitalist, Hollywood writer and all around deal-making addict. But don’t make the mistake of believing everything you read; Rule #109 states “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” Senturia’s grasp of the ridiculous, his razor-sharp wit, and his blunt-force-trauma style of truth-telling make for a great read.

One of my favorite lessons, and one that made me stop and think about my own journey, is Rule #19: “Entrepreneurs do not do it for the fame or fortune – they do it for revenge.” I’ve been thinking about that one ever since I read it; it’s been dogging my steps, haunting my sleep, and generally driving me nuts for weeks.

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Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” – The Guidebook for a New Kind of Leadership

Written on March 8, 2011 by Jerry in customer engagement, entrepreneur, great books, passion, raving fans, Small Business Success, transparency

When I first got my preview copy of Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” (yes, I got a free copy, and yes, that’s an affiliate link), I wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t really know that much about Guy, and I haven’t read any of his other books (sorry Guy). I knew he was something of a big deal on Twitter and that he was the guy (no pun intended) behind Alltop.com, but that was about it.

In other words, I started “Enchantment” with zero expectations. I only tell you that so you’ll understand that what I’m about to say isn’t colored by my being a long-time Guy Kawasaki fanboy.

Now that we understand each other, let me just say this: whatever you’re doing, stop now for as long as it takes to jump over to Amazon and buy this book. Yes, it’s that good.

Guy has distilled the art of getting people to support your cause down to simple, manageable steps. Whether it’s a business, a charity, a product or an idea, enchantment is the art of rallying not just support but commitment from those you lead or those in the trenches with you. In Guy’s own words, “if you need to enchant people, you’re doing something meaningful. If you’re doing something meaningful, you need enchantment.”

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Is This What Exhaustion Feels Like?

Written on March 2, 2011 by Jerry in Asking "Why?", enthusiasm, entrepreneur, mindset, passion, Small Business Success

The days are blurring together. Literally. I sometimes forget whether it’s Monday and I should be writing a proposal for a new computer network, or Saturday and I’m supposed to be recording a podcast and setting up someone’s blog, or Thursday and I should be at a networking mixer, or Tuesday and I should be on a conference call about an upcoming Intel Hybrid Cloud event.

Sometimes, I just want to stop. It would feel really good, I think, to take a week off, sit in a chair on the beach, and catch up on some reading. But then I remember: I love what I do, and I love my life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

My friends and family (especially my family) keep telling me that I need to slow down. I love the fact that they’re concerned about me; I really do. The funny thing is that they come across like they think my life sucks. I promise you though: it doesn’t. I’m tired, I don’t really have much of a social life (unless you count the networking, which pretty much rocks if you live in Sacramento), I have two day jobs and a part-time business, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

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CES Business Lesson #1: Let’s Talk TP

Written on January 13, 2011 by Jerry in customer engagement, customer service, passion, raving fans, Small Business Success

OK: let me start by saying that my decision to wait until Wednesday morning (the morning I left for CES 2011 in Las Vegas) to book my hotel room for CES was probably, in hindsight, a huge mistake.

Rooms on the Strip that would normally go for $60-$70 a night were suddenly in the $300-$400 range. Unreal. So I ended up staying at the Siena Suites in Henderson. It was a nice enough place, kind of an extended stay type of hotel with a kitchen, living room and bedroom. It was clean, quiet, and the bed was reasonably comfortable; everything I look for in a hotel.

Except for the toilet paper. I’m not sure what S & M torture shop the management bought it in, but I’d have to guess that it was one that leaned a little more heavily toward the S. Stiff and rough, while great qualities in a scotch on the rocks, are not what you want in toilet paper. At least, they’re not what I want.

A quick review of the prices on ToiletPaperWorld.com (no, I didn’t make that up…click the link if you don’t believe me) shows that prices range from about $.50 per roll on the low end to a high of about $1.25 for the premium grade stuff.

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Facing the Same Direction – Guest Post by Todd Pillars

Written on January 4, 2011 by Todd Pillars in attitude, beliefs, entrepreneur, entrepreneurialism, great books, passion

“If we’re going to take this walk together, we need to start by facing the same direction.” –Pindar,
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

As I was reading Chapter 2 in “The Go-Giver“, reviewing the material for one of my Mastermind Groups, I thought “Hey, you didn’t make sure everyone is facing the same direction!” Here’s why it’s important.

Imagine you and and I are standing at a cross-roads. I’m facing North and you’re facing West. I tell you we’re going to take a six month journey and say “Let’s go”. Do you think, after taking the road in front of us for that amount of time, we’d end up in the same location? Nope, not a chance.

We need the same map to arrive at the same destination. Simply put, the book is the map, the directions are each of the “Five Stratospheric Laws”, but they require a secret key to unlock their power.

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It’s 2011…Now What?

Written on January 3, 2011 by Jerry in attitude, cool people from around the web, focus, goals, Motivation, passion, Positive Mental Attitude, Small Business Success

For weeks now, all I’ve been hearing is people talking about how they can’t wait for 2010 to be over and a brand new year to begin. In fact, I joined in that chorus a time or two. No doubt, 2010 was a rough year.

But it’s over now.

We’re officially three days in to 2011, and from the looks of things, it has the potential to be a truly amazing year. Personally, I’m excited to be kicking things off in style with the International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, NV. This will be my first CES, and I can’t wait to get there.

It also rocks because I’ll be making the trip to Vegas with my friend and fellow blogger, Ryan Snethen. Ryan is a very cool cat who knows his music and movies, and the more obscure, the better. His “Did You Miss It?” blog is chock-full of movies you might have missed. He’s also a writer and an entrepreneur. We’re making the 10-hour trip by car, so we’ll have lots of time to brainstorm new ideas. Can’t wait!

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