We want things to go perfectly, so we naturally tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right or once we have our bearings, when, really, it would be better to focus on making do with how things actually are.
— Ryan Holiday
It angers me to see armed defenders at the bottom of Lost Cause statues, adding a renewed threat of violence to icons that are themselves part of an ideology of violence and intimidation.
You know what's better than building things up in your imagination? Building things up in real life.
In every job and position, there are valuable lessons to be learned. Even in a nasty, abusive, toxic workplace, you're being taught precisely how not to run an organization.
Pretty much everyone's career starts the same way: with grunt work. Not just the cliched fetching of coffee, but other lowly tasks: taking notes in meetings, preparing paperwork, scheduling, intensive research - even flat-out doing our bosses' work for them.
Even people who despise ego and aspire to humility, who plan to be humble once they are successful, are worried that actually enacting those beliefs would sentence them to a life of obscurity or weakness or failure.
As someone responsible for my own fair share of marketing stunts, I am suspicious and cynical - I'll disclose that right up front.
What people often forget is that for the parties involved, the media game is a vicious contest.
Understanding how the media actually works is critical. Because editors depend on ignorance and media illiteracy to ply their trade. The fact that many readers expect fact checking, editorial oversight, and ethics actually makes it easier for the media to be lazy.
The news as entertainment is the real danger, because the truth or accuracy of what it is reporting becomes irrelevant.
If you need to fudge the facts a little bit to make your narrative work, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you.
Work hard, take it seriously, embrace your ambition. And when you're not doing that, do something - whatever it happens to be - that taps into the part of you that makes you forget about all the rest of it.
When I lived in Louisiana, 'Django Unchained' was shot at my neighbor's house. They shot a Sly Stallone movie in my gym.
Online journalism has always had a sourcing problem. From using unverified 'anonymous tips' to repeating whatever rumor or speculation people are chattering about, the general ethic is, 'We'll publish just about anything.'
In June 2007, I finished up school for the year. I didn't know it at the time, but I was done with college forever. By the end of the summer, I had dropped out and would not return.
In my experience, marketing is best when it proves the product it is supporting.
Every job carries occupational hazards.
Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction - only disappointment.
Like most reasonable people, it saddens me when I see Americans celebrating a heritage they don't understand.
If it comes as a constant surprise each and every time something unexpected occurs, you're not only going to be miserable whenever you attempt something big, you're going to have a much harder time accepting it and moving on to attempts two, three, and four.
As tough an idea as it often is to stomach, the best way to thrive in a world that requires grunt work is to stop seeing it as grunt work.
Ego is certainly there in many of the greatest and most dizzying tales of success - but it's there in some of the greatest stories of failure and self-implosion as well.
We all have goals: We want to matter. We want to be important. We want to have freedom and power to pursue our creative work. We want respect from our peers and recognition for our accomplishments. Not out of vanity or selfishness, but of an earnest desire to fulfill our personal potential.
The best kind of marketing messages are the ones that don't seem like marketing messages. Because it means that the viewers' defenses are down.
The risks of speaking extemporaneously are apparent the first time you wing it and promptly put your foot in your mouth.
The news is notoriously inaccurate, and our memory of it is even worse.
I wholeheartedly agree that many media 'standards' can feel disingenuous or, in fact, be a cover for less-than-honest behavior.
Every media appearance is a learning experience about the media outlet and their journalists and their feelings about you, so treat it as such.
I have a pet goat.
One of the ironies of being with someone you really love for a long time is becoming completely incapable of handling stressful or difficult things by yourself.
Everyone faces adversity.
Growth hacking isn't some proprietary technical process shrouded in secrecy. In fact, it has grown and developed in the course of very public conversations. There are no trade secrets to guard.
I don't play videogames and generally think that online activism is a giant waste of time.
Do I regret how my life turned out? Of course not - not for a single second.
Times change. Context changes. Just because something is old and a 'part of our history' shouldn't mean we are forced to honor it forever.
Take pride in your work. But it is not all there is.
We often learn the hard way that our world is ruled by external factors. We don't always get what is rightfully ours, even if we've earned it.
No matter how commonplace or dull your first job's duties seem, chances are you can find something to do that others don't want to and make it your own.
The idea that only the swaggering, all-knowing, and ruthlessly ambitious succeed is a lie. One that has discouraged so many people with so much potential - and worse, encouraged many more to crash and burn.
Reddit is like any democratic form of government - unless carefully guarded by its leaders and members, its trusts and privileges can be and often are abused.
Anyone who faults Romney or Obama or any public figure for demanding quote approval is missing the point. The journalists were no abused weaklings here. They made a bargain for access to these newsworthy figures that they thought was in their favor - they're only complaining because they got caught.
Everyone needs to start doing interviews over email. Whether you're a journalist or a spokesperson speaking to the media, you're better off communicating questions, statements, or inquiries via email.
Let's be clear: there was no golden age of journalism. The media has always been bad. And instead of improving, it spent a lot of time and energy making up its own myth.
If the media is a farce, why should you be the only one stuck with rules and restrictions?
Being criticized in the media is a good problem to have - most of the time. It means you're doing something that is at least interesting or cool or crazy enough to be noticed. It might not always feel good, but it's usually better than the alternative of obscurity.
I took the 'Seinfeld' tour of New York once - and if I think about it too hard, my brain explodes.
Bloggers are lazy and greedy.
If you ask most smart or successful people where they learned their craft, they will not talk to you about their time in school. It's always a mentor, a particularly transformative job, or a period of experimentation or trial and error.
Leveraging community intelligence and making connections is a key component to being a growth hacker.
The primary occupational hazard of blogging is this: it's easier when you yourself take on some of the traits of insanity. It's a job that requires the doer to be selfish, self-absorbed, and superficial.
