I was discussing inventors with a buddy of mine yesterday. We settled on Thomas Edison. I think it’s fascinating that so much of what we use today would not have been possible without his work. I wouldn’t be blogging today. And all this came from a school dropout. I’m convinced anyone can be extremely successful. But…
I love this quote from Martin Luther (the German monk, not the junior king): “I have so much to do that if I didn’t spend at least three hours a day in prayer I would never get it all done.” I don’t normally think of monks as being particularly busy. But Mr. Luther was a…
I experienced some pretty major creative blocks this week. For instance, I’m writing a book. I have about 15 chapters finished. But the last two chapters I wrote were the exact same chapters I’d previously written. I thought I was writing new material, only to find I’d been rehashing the same stuff. Nothing new was…
I ordered a particularly cool cell phone case. I was excited for it to arrive. Finally, the box showed up. On the outside of the box, they’d written, “Look out for a stow-away-asaurus.” Well, that was weird. I opened the box and found a little plastic T-Rex. The stow-away-asaurus.
I was chatting with a freelancer friend of mine. They were expressing their feelings of self-loathing for wasting about 50% of their time on social media. It’s a huge temptation for freelancers, self-employed people – frankly anyone who works a desk job. It’s super easy to be super unproductive. I’m experiencing that temptation daily. That…
This is the story of a mouse. Let’s call him Pipsqueak. He was small. He was fuzzy. But his voice was unique. He squeaked. He was surrounded by bigger creatures: birds, beasts, people. They had such big voices. Their voices carried far further than Pipsqueak’s. Early on, that bugged little Pip. He wanted his voice…
I’ve been working on a book. And by working on a book, I mean I have one-third of it completed, sitting in an untouched folder buried in my computer’s file system. I started it a month or two ago. I got super excited, wrote a bunch, then put it on the back burners. I still…
Have you ever heard a song and said to yourself, “Almost.” That song was almost good. In fact, it might have become your favorite song. But it just didn’t make the cut. It’s a decent song, but it’s not great. Conventional songwriting goes like this: Write. Refine. Record. But conventional songwriting creates conventional songs. Conventional…
I’m self employed. I have been for a few months. At first I was a hustler. My survival and ability to eat depended on my ability to work hard and innovate. But I’ve finally reached a point of comfort. I’m making a sustainable living. And now I find myself drawn into TV programs, video games,…
On Monday I launched a new issue of Sunday| Mag. This one was completely different than the others. I interviewed one church on their creative process for Christmas – and wrote 12 articles covering it ad nauseum. It was a risk. So I hit publish and waited. I was scared. Immediately I got 20 unsubscribes. I…