I have been a fan of 43Folders for quite some time now and a few weeks ago Merlin was kind enough to make the audio of a presentation that he and John Gruber made at this year’s SxSW conference. Being a fan of Merlin’s site, I download the podcast to my iPhone and was eager to listen to it on my daily commute to/from the office. I’ll be honest, I made the assumption that I was going to listen to a couple of geeks (sorry guys – I don’t personally know either Merlin or John) reading powerpoint slides about how to become a successful blogger (you know – the typical stuff). Let me just say, that I couldn’t have been more wrong! These two guys are dynamic speakers are passionate about the topic and must (I have to assume, since I only have the audio) have some serious stage presence. I have since listened to their presentation 3.5 times (finishing the 4th time now) and have found myself re-evaluating my website(s) ever since.
After listening to the presentation for the 2nd time, I decided that I really needed to start making notes, there is just so much great inspirational content in their presentation and I didn’t want to miss any of it.
This post is a result of my notes. I hope that you enjoy it, and I would strongly suggest that you grab the audio of the presentation and start listening to it NOW!
- I (like many others) have been sucked into the whole “making money on the Internet is easy” thing, just “buy my special report for only $97!” and you will be as successful as me – I like to refer to this as “Drinking the Kool-Aid”.
- I’ve come to the realization that I am not talking about topics that I am crazy passionate about. My definition of “crazy passion” is something I would rather be doing than say 1) eating, 2) sleeping, 3) playing EvE (not necessarily in that order) a.k.a “Find what you’re crazy passionate about and own it!”
- That a lack of focus is truly a killer!
Drinking the Kool-Aid
I find it amazing that no matter how much things change, they really do stay the same. I used to laugh at those late night infomercials showing people sitting in their crazy houses showing off the five-figure cheques they received for “part-time work” with “little or no training”. The media has changed, but the message is the same. I never fell for any of that TV stuff, but for some reason, I believed all the 12 steps to success programs you can find all over the Internet. Now, I never bought any of those “all this for just $97!” reports (is it just me or are they all just $97) but my RSS reader just becoming clogged up with these sites. I’ll let you in on a little secret, there is no system, there is no 12-step program, and there is no such thing as “overnight success” – you’re going to have to work – hard, just like you’ve always had to do.
Find what you’re crazy passionate about and own it
I’ve gone back and re-read my origins of the name post several times now with the hope of rediscovering why I started this site in the 1st place. What I realized was that there was passion in that post, quite a bit more passion than my more recent posts. So starting now, this site is going to focus on a couple of areas, 1) helping small business improve their bottom-lines through effective use of Internet technologies, and 2) helping small business owners rediscover the passion they had when they decided to start down the path of entrepreneurship in the first place.
Lack of focus is a KILLER
There are so many distractions out there that if you’re not “crazy passionate” you will (I can guarantee it) get distracted and the result will be the loss of focus and the slow, but eventual, death of your idea. I have some ideas on how I plan to stay focused and I will talk more about them very soon.
Tags: 3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
I like where your thoughts are going. I would love to talk more about this approach…I have always know it is fundamental to initial sucess. Thanks for forwarding me the link
Ron
I will have to listen to the 1 hour later, but got the gist from you text and theirs. I think you have an excellent point! Too many times we get caught up in the hectic pace in Southern Ontario and loose our passion. Thanks for forwarding the article. I wll get into it more later
Cheers
trudy
Incredibly insightful and interesting.
In today’s internet frenzy, it is so easy to get distracted from the fundamentals.
I applaude your approach. This is the first I have read any of your comments but I will be looking for more to come.
Congratulations on a job well done…short and meaningful.