I’ve always had a hard time believing the concept that you have to be humble before you can achieve anything successful. It’s what Saint Augustine said: “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” To me, the two seem unlinked.…
I’m about to let you in on some secrets of blogging. Did you know almost all my income comes from advertisers on my websites. Until recently (now with a few books for sale), I didn’t have a single thing to sell on any of my sites. I was completely reliant on companies giving me money…
I got a question the other day from a reader, asking how I keep up with my content. There’s so much good content on there on the web, how do I stay in touch with it all. The answer, first of all, is that I don’t. I don’t really listen to podcasts. I don’t read…
I’m not going to name any names here. But there’s this one blogger I’m familiar with that I just can’t figure out. I can’t figure out how they have a successful blog. The guy is sort of creepy looking. He doesn’t really have anything unique to say. And he is saying things that are frankly…
My 13 year old sister-in-law is visiting my wife and me for the summer. To avoid a whole week of her watching TV while we’re at work, we signed her up for a summer gymnastics camp. She went the first day. And it turned out, it wasn’t exactly age appropriate. She spent about an hour…
In the Bible, a group of people were trying to occupy a new area of land. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt previously, and they didn’t have a land to call their own. So they invaded a neighboring area occupied by multiple other people groups. In order to conquer the area, they had attack…
I’m writing a book about overcoming criticism. With a topic like this, I’m relying mostly on my personal experiences for the content. And what that translates to is about 20,000 words about myself. Here’s my struggle: How do I proceed writing this book without it becoming an exercise in narcissism? How do I translate my…
We were in Argentina, staying with some of my wife’s family. She wanted to show them some of what I do, so she introduced them to my blog. They aren’t huge in the blogosphere. I’m not sure they read any blogs or even saw the value in them. As they tried to understand what my blog…
At any given time, I have about 23 different companies sponsoring what I do with my websites. And each month, I have to give them the opportunity to renew their relationship with me or to discontinue it. Every month I get this pit in the bottom of my stomach. What if one of them doesn’t renew?…
I know a guy who’s writing a book. He’s pouring loads of money into it and written a ton. Most self-published books don’t do very well. Especially if you don’t have a huge audience. But this guy thinks he’s the exception to the rule. He’s writing articles for tiny magazines. He’s pimping himself out to speak places.…