Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker
One million+ people globally while at Disney Institute.
If you want to do great work, work that matters and makes a positive difference, work that multiplies and spreads, you are going to have to choose.
Do you ever think like this?
Do you want to make a difference, but find it challenging to get started? Have you gotten started, but find the path difficult?
This is why you are going to have to choose.
This is a Seth Godin blog post entitled, Arrogant. Rather than provide a link to it, it’s been copied and pasted, for your convenience. As you read it, try to find “your fear” in Seth’s post? Take it away Seth:
ARROGANT
“This is a fear and a paradox of doing work that’s important.
A fear because so many of us are raised to avoid appearing arrogant. Being called arrogant is a terrible slur, it means that you’re not only a failure, but a poser as well.
It’s a paradox, though, because the confidence and attitude that goes with bringing a new idea into the world (“hey, listen to this,”) is a hair’s breadth away, or at least sometimes it feels that way, from being arrogant.
And so we keep our head down. Better, they say, to be invisible and non-contributing than risk being arrogant.
That feels like a selfish, cowardly cop out to me. Better, I think, to make a difference and run the risk of failing sometimes, of being made fun of, and yes, appearing arrogant. It’s far better than the alternative.”
Some people approach things from an entirely different angle than the status quo. A great many of our breakthroughs, whether in technology, medicine, education or manufacturing come from the fringes – people who just find some kind of crazy courage to face ridicule and still push on. Even comedians:
After all, Skip is a Marine. And, he’s been a friend, for like 30 years. We roomed together for a year while in college.
If you read yesterday’s comment, Skip accomplished his “mission”. I knew he was baiting me, but couldn’t resist his bait.
And if you read my reply to his comment, you would have discovered that what I’ve shared so far is literally just the tip of the iceberg. The vision for how these five blogs can make a significant impact on humanity will blow your mind.
It will be revealed as time passes. While the audience is our son (9), everyone who has a desire to do good and decent work is invited. Most likely, if you visit here regularly, you also have a desire to be a better person, and you also dream crazy impossible dreams.
Yesterday, our good friend Skip, posed a question in the comments. Knowing that many of you might not catch the comments, wanted to share it right here, right now – not for nuthin’:
Jeff, how do you define success for your five blogs?
Readership? Participation? Pro vs Con comments?
What is your ultimate goal with these five blogs? Make people think? Make people change? Help people change themselves?
Why should we care that you have produced five blogs per day (without missing a single day) for over one year?
Some of your readers weren’t around when you started this quest. Help us understand the importance of this endeavor.
Great questions Skip. Seriously. All of them have been answered already. As time goes by, the answers get buried deeper and deeper in the past posts.
It’s one of life’s challenges, to sort out what to believe and from whom.
Summary, just for you:
1. I write for Chapin (and myself).
2. The big goal is to challenge 3% of the male Baby Boomers to do something GREAT before they die.
3. The ultimate purpose is to raise enough money until a cure is found for Crohn’s disease.
Note. Superficial measures of success are the things you first described.
There is no reason to care what I do, unless a person is looking for an honest to God real person who practices what he preaches. Ain’t many of them around, I fear. If there are, they are quietly changing the world – and perhaps they ought to make some noise because the world needs many “real” people trying to serve a greater good.
And by real, I mean someone not motivated by personal wealth, who makes mistakes, and never gives up, and pushes/pulls others to do the same.
Does that help? 🙂