I see this image a lot lately. I’ve always thought it was rather stupid, but I also studied marketing and political science and understand propaganda and the need for people to feel like there are certain guiding principles in their lives so that everyone doesn’t just lose it and freak out.
But, then I read Seth Godin’s new manifesto Poke The Box. If you are a marketer, or in business, or happen to read a bunch of books, you have seen a book, heard an idea, or just recognize the bald head sticking up.
Seth says his life’s work has been finding ways to spread ideas. Much like I have always felt that I am in the business of helping people live better lives. And in Poke The Box, Seth lays out a belief that we all have to do more innovating because innovation is what is going to save us.
This idea got me thinking, that’s the point, right?
And, I decided that since I have been writing a lot here about reinvention, challenge, and excel, that I would expand a little bit on myself and the thoughts here, and some of the successes and failures that I have met over the years and how I am going to try and push forward as we move into March.
Innovation? What’s That?
I face this challenge all of the time. I think we all do. In my own life, I have over come the fear that can keep you stagnant. I was helped by the fact that I have faced some decisions that were easy in the face of the status quo, but most of us are faced with more easily overlooked points of change and we can easily make the decision to continue doing what we’ve always done. (I’m not going to write about hacking life or breaking free, I’m trying to refigure out that one, but my buddy, Peter Shankman call tell you a thing or two, as he did in this post.)
Innovation, poking the box, or jailbreaking your life…or, in the term I am fond of, reinvention, I have done it over the years….and this is where it led me:
- Moved from Ft Lauderdale to St Louis to help open ‘Boogie Nights’, which led me to learn a lot about managing and operating a nightclub, doing promotions, fleshing out concepts, and business development. And, the personal growth from breaking out of a comfort zone was a huge lesson.
- Moved from St Louis to Seattle with no job, no friends, and nowhere to live because I was in a rut and a bad place. This led me to meet some of my best friends, to grow as a person, to get my life on track and those are just the small things.
- Moving from Seattle to New York. This led me to some much bigger leaps. Such as starting my own business, running, and getting more active in the community.
In NYC, I have taken the idea of poking the box a bit further:
- I have left a perfectly cushy corporate job to start my own ticketing agency….which was started with about $3,000 dollars and grew to have sales of $500,000 in less than a year.
- Because I wanted a change and a chance to stretch and see if I could use the lessons in service, marketing and sales in a different way, I found myself working at a radio station, which failed miserably…but innovation doesn’t always work.
- I have had to force myself to overcome fear to pitch CEOs, huge companies, and countless individuals that I am a great resource for their ticketing needs. Leading me to have the opportunity to work with companies like American Express, Yahoo!, Yellow Tail, and Nike to name just a few.
This list could go no, but the thing is that I have pushed and poked and prodded myself to get going and despite being scared to death half the time, I took a deep breath and did something.
Which comes back to innovation….it doesn’t have to be the biggest thing in the world. I don’t think that I did earth shaking stuff by starting Two Kings Tickets, but I did innovate by taking my focus on service and removing it from a larger organization and working with my partners to develop a company that really prided itself on service. I also doubt that I recreated the wheel by moving to St Louis, Seattle, or New York, but I did have to push and prod the world in a way that I never had before to see what would come out of it.
Enough about me….how’s this help you?
I took Seth’s book to mean what kind of questions are you asking yourself everyday? Are you asking yourself how to solve something in your life that is bugging you? Are you thinking about how to solve a problem that seems so obvious but no one seems to be addressing? Do you hate your job because you are just going through the motions?
For me, asking yourself these questions and answering them everyday is the only way to innovate. I’m not telling you to run out and quit your job or do something crazy, but I am asking that you consider the opportunity that each day offers you to pick the biggest question that you come up with and try to solve it. And, then, if you don’t solve it….keep working at it until you do.
Then, rinse and repeat.
What do you guys think?