StevenJBarker.com

I choose to be inspired. I choose who I watch, who I read, and who share my time with. I choose these because I know that I need to be inspired. I know that the environment I choose decides how much I care, how much I believe is possible.

How do you cultivate new good ideas?

Surround yourself with people that make you better, then invest wisely.

Who is smarter? The guy who asks for help, or the guy who doesn’t?

Let’s say you’re going to the mall. You plan on going home with a new pair of shoes and a perfect fitting pair of jeans. Easy order cause you’ve got quite a few options. You begin to wander through the maze of stores and one catches your eye. It’s not the clothes that do it. To be honest you can’t really see much of what’s inside (think Abercrombie & Fitch). The difference here is that the aesthetically pleasing entrance to the store is calling to you. There are two simple plaques printed just large enough for you to read. One asks “Are you looking for the perfect pair of jeans?” and the other “Stop searching for those shoes you can’t find anywhere else.” You stand their thinking, this is why I came to the mall right? You wanted to find an new pair of shoes and wouldn’t it be awesome to walk out with just the right jeans? So…in you go, as as you walk to the entrance you see a small clean looking sign: “$2 entry fee” Do you reach into your wallet?

It’s never about what happened. It’s about what you do next.

What if there was an eHarmony for work? What if you could be matched with a job & a company based on “32 points of compatibility”? Sounds interesting huh! Wouldnt you love to work at a job that fit you like a glove? How long would you stay at that kind of job?

Some would say that the world of “work” is changing. If we look out on the front end of how it is changing, it seems to be becoming more fluid, more blurred. T.A. McCann of RIM has some interesting thoughts on the foreseen future of work. And if what he says is true someone definitely needs to build an eHarmony:Job Finder Edition.

How do you put your best foot forward? In a Google world any content that you or I put out there is accessible to the world. That in it’s self can cause us to be a little trigger shy. Do I want to put this content out there? It’s not perfect, it’s not a complete thought. How do I deliver the best content I can?

This question came up during coffee with a friend this last week. Though he presented it a little differently.  Who creates “better” pottery? The artist who spends all his time working on one project or the one who goes through the most clay creating hundreds of pots? (http://bit.ly/rsb5CE) To be honest, I was half way surprised by the answer. The beauty comes from quantity. I can spend weeks perfecting an idea, but is all that work creating something of beauty? Am I creating something that is more helpful to my readers because I spent 20 more hours going over it with a fine tooth comb? Or am I more helpful if I “pound” through tonnes of clay and share as much as I can?

What do I do with this realization? Let’s call it an experiment in pottery making. 

Why is it that I let my body dictate my action? I would much prefer my mind to the one in control, vs the one responding.