Business Insight Zone

Next Tuesday (December 2) yours truly will be the speaker for the fourth Austin Social Media Breakfast. As I indicated in my writeup of the third breakfast, these things are lots of fun — plus, in this case, you can nosh on the fine pastries and coffee of Genuine Joe’s Coffeehouse.

Now, let’s see, what was it I agreed to talk about? Ah, yes:

“Is social media really all that new?”

Those of us active in the social media realm sometimes talk about it as though it’s all-new and all-different, an unprecedented development in the history of human communications. But for all the new technology that the social media employ — and all the unique opportunities they bring — they’re not quite unprecedented. In fact, in many ways today’s social media parallel the earlier development of other media, from books and radio to the mimeograph and the fax machine.

This short talk will take the SMB audience on a funny (and painless!) tour of the history of modern media, reaching as far back as town criers and Gutenberg’s press to unearth some important lessons that we can apply to our own day. As we discuss similarities and contrasts between older and newer media, we’ll gain new insights into the use, finances, control, technological limitations, and social impact of all types of media.

I hope this intrigues you, and that you’ll rush — rush, I say — to sign up for the breakfast. It’s free to attend (you pay for your own munchies), but you need to claim a ticket since space is limited. Go here for more details.

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“Only write what makes you happy.”

That’s my favorite line from “My Blogging ‘Secrets’ Revealed”, in which David Armano fields questions about how he came to be such a successful blogger. (You read David’s blog, yes? He’s a smart guy. My recommendation is that you read him regularly.)

My tangent on “only writing what makes you happy”: how many people in business today are fundamentally uninspired in their work because they’ve picked a job (or a field, a career, etc.) that cannot make them happy?

Over the weekend my wife and I went to a diner in our neighborhood. We’ve been there dozens of times, but this may have been our last visit. The food was as good as ever, but the service was . . . well, I was going to say it was terrible, but it might have been worse than that: it was listless.

Terrible service you can fix. You might have servers and cooks who like what they’re doing, but they made a mistake, or they were new and didn’t realize the right way to do it, or they were just off-rhythm that day. That’s correctable. But if people don’t care? You’ve lost before you even get started.

Take the trouble — and have the courage — to do something that can make you happy.

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When friends complain of stress, I often respond with the simple advice I give myself: “Deep breaths.” Zen Habits offers the same advice, but better.

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Jon Gilson’s post “Better Than Yesterday” reminds me both of the “Stockdale Paradox” and the lessons on “deliberate practice” contained in Geoff Colvin’s book Talent Is Overrated. Here’s a choice bit from the post:

“Better than yesterday” is hard. It requires you to be your own worst critic, while maintaining the belief that you are fully capable of remedying your own faults.

This juxtaposition can be hard to sustain. It is easy to find satisfaction in mere competency, to believe that the job you’re doing is the best you can do. The identification of fault is much harder on the ego, an unending assault on the bastion of identity. “Better than yesterday”, with its implicit focus on excellence and explicit criticism of self, is an uncomfortable place.

After reading Jon’s post, I’m also wondering how many companies would benefit from having a “Things We Suck At” whiteboard posted someplace prominent, e.g. the CEO’s office.

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Photo by adactio.

Category: Management, Social media, The working life