Why I FAILED

Life Advice

Ever since I made the jump from the music business to “the real world” of corporate (business) America, I’ve increasingly convinced that there are no tangible differences between the two worlds. This has been and always will be at the core of my posts here at Why I Failed.com.

So, I’m THRILLED to bring you this engaging and powerful slide presentation from Garr Reynolds summarizing key points from Dan Pink’s book: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.

I have only one small caveat to the content and I am passionate about the difference. One of the slides suggests that your mission is found at the intersection of Your Passion, Your Strengths and What the world needs. I disagree.

I believe the words of Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Don’t spend time trying to figure out what the world needs. You’ll never nail it and you’ll waste time in the process. Instead, look to your passions and strengths and ideas. THAT’s what we need.

In a word: you.

BW Jukebox Link

Here’s the link for my last post.

BusinessWeek Jukebox

Check out the BW Jukebox, “a roundup of the growing list of places to download music (legally) on the Web.

2 items of note:
- I’m glad it’s a growing list. We’re seeing new and profitable business models launched - it’s exciting.
- Don’t discount the fact that this list is brought to us by a Business Magazine. It’s business. BIG, big business.

Music Business Update

In a wide-ranging and fairly balanced article, BusinessWeek offers a must read perspective on the RIAA’s lawsuits surrounding the illegal downloading of music. Here’s a quote about Tanya Andersen’s pending countersuit:

“Andersen is going after the recording industry under conspiracy laws.
She argues the Recording Industry Association of America, the
industry’s trade group, and its affiliates worked together on a broad
campaign to intimidate people into making financial payoffs. The
defendants “secretly met and conspired” to develop a “litigation
enterprise” with the ultimate goal of preserving the major record
companies’ control over the music business.”

What strikes me, and the writer, as odd is the fact that the RIAA “informed her that the minimum damages for each copyrighted song shared was $750.” $750.00?

I go back to something I read a while ago. The music industry made the decision about Digital Music a long time ago when they made the jump to CD’s. That’s where this started. Everything since then has been too-late attempts to deal with the “unexpected” developments of technology.

I find it impossible to accept, however, that the recording industry never saw the age of personal digital recording and sharing coming. I mean, cassettes were huge when CD’s came out and the industry is NAMED the recording industry.

You can’t tell me no one saw this coming.

Yahoo Open Strategy

Yahoo has made some powerful commitments to the future at the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco. According to ars technica, “Ari Balogh unveiled “Yahoo Open Strategy,” the company’s umbrella term
for a couple of social networking initiatives in mind. At the heart of
the move, however, is an effort to unite the myriad of profiles users
have to create and manage across Yahoo’s various properties.”

But that’s not all, in addition to linking all their own properties - e-mail, Messenger, Flickr, Yahoo 360 and more - their involvement in Open Social means they’ll reach out to interact with other sites too. And the fact that they have 500 million users compared to Myspace’s 110 million and Facebook’s 60 million means that they might be the reason a lot of silos will come down.

CNET has coverage too.

Why Is 2008 Any Different?

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
- Theodore Roosevelt 1907

2:42 Huh?

Interesting post from musick in the head.

Springsteen, Conan and Real Estate

“If you ask somebody, ‘Give me the stereotypical description of a rock
star,’ they would not say meticulous due diligence, understanding
intricacies of zoning,” says Mr. Weinberg’s friend and attorney, Jerry
Zaro. “It’s nothing for Max to go down to city hall and spend a day
mired in their arcane regulations.”

Check out the article, Born to Renovate, to learn how Max Weinberg - the drummer for Bruce Springsteen and Conan O’Brien - has applied himself to the world of real estate business. It’s a perfect example of what I learned too late - invest in your own education and financial literacy.

Religious Practice vs. Belief

The Hoover Institution has an in depth Policy Review entitled Religion and Economic Development that offers ’scientific’ proof of something I wish “the world” better understood. Namely, that there’s a difference between religious practice and belief. It’s a long one and there’s a great synopsis on Brijit (phenomenal service, btw), but here’s the gist:

“Extensive religious practice is shown to interfere with economic
activity and taper off as countries move down the path of development;
belief, however, can develop a productive work ethic and sense of
thrift.”

We struggle with conversations involving God because we often follow the path of religion, and that path is complex and full of destruction because it involves people. Belief, however, involves a person and God.

From the beginning of time, the problem with religion has been people. Adam and Eve weren’t on the same page and no one has been since. So, people correctly view religion as hypocritical, simplistic, controversy laden, rule oriented and benign. Churches do have hypocrites who fight, gossip, lie and cheat, but what organization doesn’t. All this proves is the problem with people.

Which is exactly where belief comes in. Belief is based on a sober acknowledgment that the problem lies with people and the solution lies with a person - in my case, me (in your case, you). I cannot change people, but I can interact with a God that has committed to helping me mature and grow. Contrary to the popular view that belief in God means mindless submission to rules, regulations and a dictated and small world view (sounds like religion to me), belief in Christ actually means ongoing, intensive training and encouragement in living.

Living with others. Contributing to the world. Encouraging and building up others. Living in community. Serving others, etc.

The problem, of course, is that people are quite horrible at doing what I just said - myself included. Which brings us right back to the fact that churches have hypocrites who fight, gossip, lie and cheat because that’s what people do. But it also makes me ask: So? If your heart’s desire is to belong to a perfect organization, I suggest you make sure it doesn’t have any other people involved.

But if your desire is to grow, I suggest you get around other believers as often as possible because neither you nor them can grow alone.

Thank You Venessa!

Vanessa Van Petten has a nice list of 25 web resources for your life.

Check it out.