How Good is Your (Digital) Tale?
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. - Seneca
Yesterday I sat down my goals, calendar and the first espresso I've had in four months. I took a good look at what happened in January. Thanks to that caffeinated hour, I'm ready for February. This weekend I head to LA for the photo shoot for the cover of a magazine. Later in the month, I'll be drafting my first book. And then heading to Houston to moderate a panel for what is shaping up to be a delightful conference.
In this video of JK Rowling speaking to the Harvard class of 2008 she says, "Achievable goals. The first step to self-improvement." The key word, to my mind, is achievable. Looking at your goals daily, with a monthly assessment, is key to making sure your goals are achievable. (She also speaks of the importance of getting comfortable with failure. Rowling says of the fringe benefits of failure that it "meant a stripping away of the inessential.")
Two articles on entrepreneurship, to follow JK Rowling's talk (a must-watch):
The first comes from Jeff at The Daily Kos. In We're Entering the Digital Age...Full Employment Will NEVER Return he writes, "Amidst all of the animated discussion about what it will take to create millions of jobs today's climate, there is plenty of talk about what are the best means to do so, whether they be infrastructure spending, tax cuts, education, etc. One thing that I have noticed is missing from the discussion is the concept of paradigm shift. We are in the early stages of the shift from the information age to the digital age, and the unprecedented, exponential upswing in creative destruction is likely to eliminate more jobs than can be created in the years to come."
Which means it's time to start thinking about starting your own company, if you haven't done so already.
Leading to the next relevant talk, the Notes From a Conversation With Y Combinator’s Paul Graham by Om Malik. In the notes, Om (in bold) asks Paul:
What makes a startup successful?
Success of a start up is dependent upon whether co-founders want it enough. People tend to over emphasize the brilliance of idea. For any successful start up idea, you can find 20 bitter losers who say “I had that idea 20 years ago.” This shows you that it’s the people, not really the idea that matter. “The most important thing is to be DETERMINED. Measure of determination is not quitting and not giving up.”
There you have it, in a (two-article, one-video) nutshell. How to prepare for the future and spin your (digital) tale.
Set achievable goals
Review goals often
Anticipate failure
Gather courage and determination to
Build anyway
Monday, February 1, 2010
Reader Comments (6)
Those five finishing points. So, so true. And the stuff that doesn't work ("failure") is just as important actually, as the stuff that does work.
It seems humorous to hear Rowling suggesting making reasonable, achievable goals. Like storyboarding a seven book story-arc children's novel before starting it? That's both reasonable and achievable, right?
I am torn between the idea of creating achievable goals and dreaming about wildly imaginative, highly improbable ones. You know, like shooting for the stars and, as a result, hitting the moon.
Christine of course, your article from yesterday also helped frame this conversation. Brilliantly written.
Jeffrey You're absolutely right. Also, I don't think she sat down and said, "I'm going to pen seven best-sellers." She sat down and said, "I'm going to write." When it comes to goals, the latter is achievable, the former would mean certain failure. Nobody comes into this world a best-selling author. Small goals get them there.
Gwen, Thank you for writing this. You surely have penned the nutshell for getting to a dream, for accomplishing the thing which we hope for above all others. I, too, think the key is determination. For, like Rowling, sitting down to do the work day by day may not be the hardest part. Perhaps the most trying piece of achieving a dream is enduring the rejection and failures that come, and help us improve, and spur us on and higher. As a writer, I get it, the determination... And maybe I would have to add hope to go with it, the direction of our gaze continually upward. Thank you again. -JK
Determination is key. And failure(s) along the way can definitely provide a more wonderful perspective (once on the other side) and also breed more determination/perseverance as a by-product. With business, weight loss, or whatever "thing" you see in your mind and want, the wanting it has to translate into action for the vision to become visible. Too often we want it to manifest immediately (the "successful business," the extra pounds gone, speaking a foreign language...), but we don't want to get out of our comfy chair and do the work (consistently, without fail) to move us from Here to There. Your nuggets on how to prepare for the future are simple and basic -- but not always simple for all to do, and that is what can trip us up. We have to learn and do the basics (your main points above) instead of skipping them in hopes of sailing straight to some more important creative expression.
Faith is such an important ingredient one must have in the mix to achieve anything, I think. Faith that failure won't kill you. Faith that you deserve that for which you wish. Faith that the action you've defined as achievable actually is achievable. If only I could bottle that faith.
Such a great post, Gwen!