HQ – Page 29 – Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker

Just Give Up, OK?

How often do you feel like giving up? Like quitting? Like what you do doesn’t matter? That the effort is too much, the payoff too little?

Received an email today. Compelled to share it. And it wasn’t from a blog conversation, but a LinkedIn connection.

We connected, like people do, and I sent a personal message, like I always try to do, mentioning, “I am selling hope, and it’s free.”

He sent back a reply, which was a little confusing, so I asked for clarification. He said:

“I mean it’s about putting it out there. My dad’s quote (and every dad’s?) – You’ll only get out of life what you put in …Keep selling hope – we all need it.”

Did you catch that? What his Dad always told him?

“You’ll only get out of life what you put in.”

What Do You Know?

Ever wonder why some people or businesses behave or sound a certain way on the Internet?

There is a simple explanation for this. But most people are clueless. And that’s okay. You can’t know everything.

So, you want to know a secret? The reason they do this?

SEO. Search Engine Optimization.

It’s such an over-hyped catch-phrase that it almost doesn’t mean anything in today’s world.

The catch-phrase doesn’t, but the outcome does. It’s a strategic, competitive advantage.

The redundant use of important keywords. In the title, body and tags is what baits search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others, to move what you post higher on their search pages.

Here’s another little secret. If you ain’t on the first page, you’re disadvantaged.

You know who ends up on the first page on Google, Yahoo, and Bing?

The people who work the hardest.

Chicago Library Is Threatened

Earlier this morning, we talked about how Libraries and book stores are going to go away. Can’t predict when, but it will happen.

Unless Libraries and bookstores reinvent the book paradigm.

They will either become victims or victors to creative thinking and shifting consumer demands and trends.

While today’s first (this is the second) jeffnoel.com post is only a few hours old, this jeff noel One-Take-You Tube video dates back to August 20, 2009, nearly five months ago.

I was simply walking down a busy Chicago street, on the way to the Willis Tower (Western Hemisphere’s tallest building), and stopped, looked across the street at the Chicago Library, had an epiphany, pulled the camera out on my pocket, took a deep breath and here’s what happened:

Eight Posts Yesterday

Blah, blah, blah, right?

The Internet’s only Five-a-Day Blogger”…..

It started as a 100-day challenge to become a better writer, after a Father told his young son, “If you want to be a better reader, you should read a lot.”

So what happens yesterday? Not five daily blogs, but eight.

Recently, had a discussion and we talked about the future of books:

Books will be relics on display in Museums
eBooks will dominate
Kindle will destroy the publishing industry
The publishing industry will watch it happen
Librarians will lose their jobs
Unless they become Cybrarians
There were 177,000 books published last year
People think it’s hard to write a book
Authors think their book will sell many copies
Barnes & Noble will go out of business eventually
People get ready (Bob Marley reference)

“Books” will be written one day at a time. In public, for the public.

Books will be free. Writers will be poor. And writers will come to realize that there are far too many choices.

A whole new paradigm is being created.

One page per day, almost like reality TV. People will read blogs, and over time, they will have “read a book” and not even know it.

Eventually, this new paradigm will give way to the next.

If You Could Not Fail

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

We’ve all heard this question posed to us in our lifetimes.

Some of us have heard it so many times, we no longer hear it, no longer even consider it a valid question.

You now why?

Because nothing in life is guaranteed, except that we will die and taxes will increase.

Giving in, and quitting are so common place. Or, people won’t even start in the first place.

Why?

Because we can fail at everything.

But what if we didn’t fail?

How would our lives be transformed? And more importantly, how would the lives of others be transformed?