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A lot of people mentioned that they liked the "hell yeah" test for making decisions mentioned here and condensed as follows:
We all have to make decisions about opportunities. When you think about any opportunity, if it’s not a “hell yeah,” don’t do it.I’ve modified this a bit in my own life to be: if it’s a “hell yeah,” why not do it?
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I went to participate in an event held at a bookstore in a big city. I saw on the store's calendar that a Very Famous Author (we'll call him Mr. X) had been there the day before.
“Wow,” I said to the staff. “'I'm intimidated to follow Mr. X. What was he like?”
The two exchanged a glance, and apparently decided I was trustworthy enough to not report them to their manger. “To be honest,” one of them said, “Mr. X was an asshole. He came in, didn't say hi to anyone, and threw his keys on the counter, demanding that someone valet his rental car.”
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I talked with someone who was in the process of calling fifteen people to get their opinions on a project. Why was any one of our opinions worth so much effort? I'm not sure, but someone had told her she should seek out as many opinions as possible before deciding what to do. The standard line is: Listen to what other people have done and avoid making the same mistakes.
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One year ago, I began planning last weekend with a small group of trusted friends. As the time drew closer, we transitioned from a planning team to an Action Team. Then, as the weekend really drew closer, we expanded to a much larger Action Team. When the big day finally arrived, more than 40 people worked closely together to provide a gathering space for the 500 awesome people who came to town, more than half of whom were visiting Portland for their first time. Everyone involved was a volunteer—no speakers were paid, and attendees themselves contributed much of the weekend as we went along.
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Over the past weekend, I've been with 500+ people who came to Portland for the inaugural World Domination Summit. I'll be sharing a detailed wrap-up on Thursday, but for now, here are a few initial photos to illustrate the occasion. Later in the day you'll be able to see hundreds more over here. Video will be forthcoming at some point as well. But first, world domination does sometimes require a nap ...
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When I heard the news that the rapture would take place two Saturdays ago, my first thought was ... wait ... how is that possible, since World Domination still has two weeks to go? We need more time before the planet implodes!
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I talked with my seatmate Rachel on the flight to Singapore. She was 6G, I was 6H—Cathay Pacific Business Class. I was sitting up front thanks to my Platinum status and a big stash of Frequent Flyer Miles. Rachel was up front thanks to the global bank she worked for, which after a brief display of frugality was now back to flying even its junior employees in Business. Rachel was the same age as me. She had traveled to much of the world, but hadn't really seen anything. It was always running back and forth, flying to meetings, going to business dinners, arriving late at night back in the big Asian city where she was based before getting up early for more meetings.
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I'm not a minimalist. I think it's good to be intentional about what you own and how you take up space in the world, but I have no desire to move to a 300 square foot apartment and religiously track the number of socks that I own. I'm not a lifestyle designer. As far as I can tell, I've been designing my lifestyle since 1978—that's part of never having a real job, pursuing the goals I've been working on for ten years, and non-conformity in general. Technically I'm location independent, but I have a home in Portland, Oregon. I could live entirely out of my carry-on bag if I wanted to, but I don't want to ... so I don't.
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Every Sunday morning that I'm in town, I head out for a long run. Two weekends ago at the waterfront, the weather was glorious. The whole city of Portland took up jogging or cycling. Last weekend at the waterfront, the weather was more to our usual end-of-Spring form ... rainy and gloomy. The whole city of Portland stayed indoors. On the sunny day, joggers and cyclists smiled at each other with a mutual appreciation of our good fortune. The implied message was, “It's good to be alive!”
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My friend Danielle has a five-year-old-son. One day he came home from kindergarten, and Danielle asked what he learned. “We learned not to talk to strangers,” he said. “Because strangers are bad.”
“Really?” Danielle said. “Do you think strangers are bad?”
Her son thought about it and wasn't sure.
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Last week I went to see Ani DiFranco at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. It was a great concert, filled with high-caliber musicianship and passion. Ani has built a life and career over the past twenty years as a musician and activist. These days it’s not unusual or especially difficult for a musician to go…
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Amy returned from a working trip abroad. “Welcome home!” her boss said on the first day back at the office. Amy was a little disoriented, thinking of her days in Rajasthan instead of the office at home. “I want to hear all about India,” the boss said, although it seemed the boss mostly wanted to hear all about work. The boss said she had done a good job on the trip, which is always nice to hear. But then the boss said something else. “We've been talking while you were away, and we've got plans for you, Amy.”
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I read a good story in this book about Wolfgang Puck instructing his staff to treat every customer interaction as if it was the first and only chance they had to make a good impression. The concept was: “Every night is opening night.”
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Several times on the never-ending book tour, people came up to me with multiple copies of my book for signing. “My family doesn't understand me,” they said, “So I'm giving them your book.”
"Thanks," I always said ... although I worried a little about signing books for people who didn't necessarily want them. I learned to invent a specific inscription for these copies:
"To Barbara: I'm not sure you'll like this book, but your daughter isn't crazy."Read More
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When I was a kid, I sat in the back of a lot of dramatic, late-night church services. Often the preacher or evangelist would tell a story about our fellow Christians in Russia, China, or Cuba (communist countries were seemingly interchangeable) being surrounded by soldiers in a church and forced to recant their faith or risk execution. No matter the details, the story was always followed with a challenge: “Would you be willing to die for your faith?”
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