Here’s a long post from one of my favorite authors, Ramit Sethi. He often writes about putting ideas into action and I think this post is another great example, BUT, that’s not what I want to highlight here. First of all, I think this is my new favorite concept: Skepticism is not a strategy. I spoke to one of my top Earn1k students last week — she earned over $80,000 in 8 weeks –
Writing for Inc. Magazines Great Entrepreneur’s series, Leigh Buchanan breaks down a fascinating study that pits successful entrepreneurs against career corporate managers in a thought experiment. The study strikes a big chord with me because so many of the things I think are necessary running a small, customer-focused service business are exactly the kinds of things the entrepreneurs describe doing – but here’s the catch, by “successful entrepreneurs”, the author means: 15+ years of experience starting successful and unsuccessful ventures and at the time the study was done, the entrepreneurs were running companies with revenue between $200 million and $65 billion a year.
I’m coming to another big teaching cycle in Trainerfly and I think this short clip of David Heinemeier Hansson speaking at Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner is really useful to frame the mindset:
I know the point in the clip above is more about a strategy to take when you look at the “big guys”, but I really feel like the alternating cycles of “spending” and “teaching” are relevant here. We just went through a “
I don’t know if I’m more excited about the video series, the fact that we’re inches away from the private beta launch, or that I can embed all the videos in one of Viddler’s “vidgets”. Check them out:
This one is for the Energy Arts Certified Instructors. The new EA website allows you to change the details of your instructor profile when you have a registered account. I think having accurate and updated information is helpful, especially if you decide to become an active contributor on the forum.
I’ve been reading/watching a lot of BJ Fogg’s work lately. He studies the persuasive power of technology for positive behavior change. You’ll recognize my interest here if you read some of my recent posts on game design mechanics and the potential to integrate technology into real world learning. (Check out his Youtube channel for some shorter videos that explain facets of his work “in 60 seconds”) Here’s Dr. Fogg on simplicity:
Work hard, right at the edge of your abilities, fast enough to make mistakes, but slow enough to notice and correct them. Do it often. Do it with the deliberate intention of making every training session and every rep better. Do this by focusing not on outcomes such as winning or losing but rather on small chunks of skill that can be developed on an ongoing basis.
-Dr. Eric Cobb, founder of Z Health
Background: Recently, TechCrunch featured an article about the playdeck they use at SCVNGR that outlines the mechanics of gameplay. The article cites at TED talk by game designer Jane McGonigal, which I talk about here. I was a little disappointed with McGonigal’s conclusion, because she basically offered up the solution as specially-themed video games to leverage the power of game mechanics, or “gameplay superpowers”, to do good in the real world and incite behavior change.
