Hacking Your Passions

Just came across this amazingly thorough Social Media article guiding the reader through anything and everything you might want to know about web 2.0 matters. As I read through it, I get little giggles of joy forming in my head that remind me why I enjoy this stuff so much.

On a related note, the post I linked to above was essentially composed by way of a “group writing project”, which is something I’ve enjoyed being a part of in the past. I’ve started thinking about what sort of projects might be fun to host myself (and what prizes ought to be involved).

I came across a list of Steve Jobs’ 12 Rules of Success yesterday. When I interviewed for my job at my current employer, I was asked to name a famous leader I admired and talk about why I admired that individual. I chose Steve Jobs, and the big reason I had was his passion for innovation. Which, as it turns out, makes his rules of success list at #10.

Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.

I wanted to briefly share that I am setting out on a mission to post 31 times a day for the next 31 days (the month of January, essentially), spread out among all my blogs. That’s almost 1000 posts! You can track the progress over at my 100 Lists of 100 blog.

And no, I’m not going to “cheat” and count this one amongst my posts (since I’m making a similar post on many of my blogs, I’m just going to count one of them – I think that’s fair).

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” - African Proverb

There are three steps, I have found, to possessing an attitude of gratitude.

1. Take all things in your path that are constructive – blessings, love, feedback – and be grateful for them
2. Take all things in your path which are destructive, and with all your effort transform them into constructive things
3. Repeat

Consider the matter of gratitude deeper over at Urban Monk’s blog.

Urban Monk has an amazing summary post of the year gone by on his amazing blog. It reminded me a bit of something I wrote about a lesson I learned on the subject of loving and caring for my fellow man.

 ”My instructor challenged us to spend one entire day being completely honest in every conversation. If someone asks you how you are, tell them the truth…”

Some days, even the most vigilant life hackers need to take a break and have to do lists like this.

What is safe for you to do at your work? Are you safe to spend some time thinking about innovation and experimenting with an idea? Can you “run it like you own it” in your current role? Is there encouragement to get involved in clubs, networking groups, events celebrating diversity? Can you be yourself at work?

Whatever seems like the safe way to act in order to stay employed and collecting a paycheck at your place of employment will likely have a pretty strong influence on the behavior of employees in that organization. Consider the effect that introducing Six Sigma as what the leadership of 3M wanted to push its people to follow as a rule, and the struggle to innovate that followed.

If you are in a company that makes you feel safe to innovate, a place that is more people oriented than task oriented, a place that lets you be yourself – take advantage of it (while it lasts)!

Here’s an article on nine things Google states it does in order to not only create an innovation culture, but to make sure the ideas and creativity of its workers turn into something meaningful and in alignment with the goals of the company.

A while back I mentioned a separate blog I was keeping to organize my thoughts and efforts as I work on the book I am writing, Harness Your Passions (working title). Recently, this article on sparking your creativity through creating lists of 100 prompted me to start another blog (because that’s what I do lately – start blogs). On the newest blog, my goal is to create http://100lists.blogspot.com/, in an effort to brainstorm and keep the creativity flowing as I nurture the part of my brain responsible for wanting to take on this whole book writing thing.

This is one of my favorite innovations I’ve come across in a while. The United Nations has a fun, challenging vocabulary game with a unique way of keeping score. You earn grains of rice, which the UN will donate, by playing successfully. My mind reels at the opportunities that might exist to set up similar structures and begin a new breed of charitable gaming. Awesome.