I read a post by Bre Pettis. I don't really know anything about Bre, although I do now follow him on Google+. The post was entitled The Cult of Done Manifesto and I hope that Bre doesn't mind if I reproduce the post here:

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Read the full post here: http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html

I'm joining the cult

My big take aways from this:

• everything is a draft - phew! I am glad to be done with the notion of striving for perfection. My focus is now on iteration.
• just accept that you know what you are doing - most of my journey on this blog has been around my search for knowledge and validation. I do need more knowledge, but I have to finally admit (and hat tip to Geoff Barbaro for helping me out on this in recent years) I know what I am doing!
• Banish procrastination - 'nuff' said!
• Failure counts as done.
• Done is the engine of more.

What's your take on The Cult of Done? What does this mean for entrepreneurs/ startups? For more on that, head to my other website (http://www.healthystartups.com) where I'll post soon!

Thanks to Bre for a huge shot of inspriation today!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Entrepreneurs and startups are doing it. Most of us dream of it. Disruption. We want to shake the foundations of what we do. We want to wrap our day jobs in blogger glory, we want to come up with the Next Big Thing. We want to invent the "imagine an iPad and a X mash up". We want to come up with the next "Lean Startup methodology"...

But, I have come to a realisation today. Until you disrupt you, you can't disrupt anything else.

Disruption isn't a product, commodity, social status or virtual good: disruption is an internal code, a realignment of everything that you stand for. Disruption is a new personal mission, vision, values statement put into action.

You have to disrupt you first.

You can't build the Next Big Thing by going about your daily work in the same way day after day.

You can't meet your next collaborator if you keep mixing in the same circles.

You can't get healthy by adopting the same old diet and exercise plan - junk food and sitting on your arse all day.

You can't pursue innovation through stagnation.

Being the anti-George (you know the Seinfeld episode when George decides to do everything the opposite) might just be the best strategy yet. Give it a try. Instead of being shy, be confident. Instead of churning out the same old corporate copy crap, fill your words with colour, caring and authenticity. Don't just phone it in for your next customer, be the Employee of the month. Don't just drink another can of soft drink, go for water instead and get your energy from fruit or from exercise.

I'm going to give it a try. I am going to Disrupt me. Are you going to disrupt you?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Angry Birds, Dark Nebula, Words With Friends, Distraction...

iTunes, You Tube, Google+, Distraction...

Facebook, Mashable, Tech Crunch, Distraction...

Farscape, How I Met Your Mother, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Distraction...

There are too many things in my way. And I choose to let them be there.

I need to kill my television and my iDistractions... I have made my own barriers to success. Time to tear them down.

What's your Angry Birds?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Just another brick in the wall

For some time my view has been decidedly anti-paywall. I have always, or at least up until now, believed that information should be set free... But, there is a new hash reality in the world of newspapers. Print media is the big elephant, no it's really the big dinosaur in the room. Print media is facing extinction as we all flock to online news sources.

What's even worse for Old Media companies is that we are all reading their content online for free. Actually, they would be happy if we were reading their websites, but much of the social media generation gets its news from online friends, from what is posted on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Still, I read news sites like www.theaustralian.com.au - but as of today it's locked behind a paywall...

Why content walls are a GOOD thing!

I have only recently come to this position, but I think paywalls are a good thing. Here's why:

• Paywalls provide a new revenue source for news websites, enabling them to continue paying great journalists
• Paying great journalists means that we get quality coverage that may be missing on blogs
• Paying journalists means more diverse coverage and opinions are available on the web
• Paywalls generate revenue that can fund the full potential of post Web 2.0 news sites featuring video blogs, photo streams, MP3 interviews, etc
• Paywalls provide users with the opportunity to feel they have access to 'exclusive' content, building greater loyalty to media outlets.

I am going to pay for onlinw access to The Australian because I strongly believe it is the best newspaper in this country. I am going to cross the paywall because I want to support great journalists. I am going to pay to cross the paywall because I believe it's worth supporting the news outlets that you love.

Would you pay to access your favourite newspaper online? 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I love this Google Chrome ad because it's about real people, their hopes and dreams and how Google Chrome and apps help drive that dream. The ad isn't about tech, it's about people. Why isn't Google taking this approach with Android?

Which ad works for you? Google needs to remember that advertising is about selling and selling is about emotion. The Chrome ad is full of emotional appeal, in the Android ad it's completely absent...

Most consumers don't know about Tron light cycles, they don't care about specs... They want to know how using Ice Cream Sandwich is going to make them feel. Google Chrome gets that. Google Android thinks like an emotionless robot.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I do want to change the world.

I do want to inspire others.

I do want to make a difference.

I do want to work in tech/ startups/ mobile/ cloud spaces.

I do aspire to be an entrepreneur.

I don't wear turtle necks.

I am not an IT geek, developer, programmer, software engineer.

I don't get product design.

I am not a master showman.

I don't wear glasses...

But I am bald.

I (don't) want to be Steve Jobs...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's about content.

The Apple iPad has been winning the tablet game because of what it can offer through the App Store. Android, Windows, Symbian, WebOS: no other platform could match or better the App Store on content.

Until now...

The Amazon Kindle Fire is not about all of the elements I outlined about. The Kindle Fire is not about tech specs that most consumers could care less about. The Amazon Kindle Fire is a content first strategy. By winning on content, and value for money, the Kindle Fire has killed every other Android tablet and will pressure the iPad.

Your startup, not for profit, large corporation, hospital, bank, insurance company, surf store or chocolate manufacturer can learn from this too: compete on content. Develop your content, your story, your media as a point of difference for your app, telephone, online magazine, blog, dog walking service... Once you get your content together, build the killer platform to deliver it: the tools to do so have never been more accessible.

We're all publishers now and if you haven't got your story, your content, your platform right... your product or service can never be #winning.

Do you agree?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

There are a few problems with this concept:

• I can't cook chicken soup
• I can't make matzah balls
• The market for this kind of startup is probably in NYC, USA and I live in Melbourne, Australia
• I'm not sure the matzah balls would survive the 16680 kilometers/ 10365 miles.

Sometimes it's just not feasible to "do what you love" most, but there are plenty of other things that I love that I could turn into a startup:

• I love spending time with my kids, sparking their imagination
• I love writing
• I love health care communications
• I love tech, apps, tablets, social media

Somewhere in there are a few startups waiting to happen...

So, what do you love and when are you launching your startup? 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

We got an iPad 2 yesterday and... I am a bit underwhelmed. I mean it's all nice and beautifully designed, and wonderfully packaged and...

For an Apple product, it didn't seem user friendly. I had to re-download apps onto the iPad that I already had on my iPhone 3G S - they didn't seem to sync independently.

Also, a number of the apps just don't make use of the iPad screen realestate - I thought that iOS was iOS and that apps that worked on my phone would work equally well on the iPad - not so. Flow (a productivity app), Dark Nebula 2 (a roller game) and other just appear pixelated! YUK!

The iPad2 is great for looking at photos though and I am keen to try it out as an eReader.

Have you also experienced fuzzy apps?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

But, seriously I spend too much time on social media. I’m not that much of a social person in the real world, I find being social online is less confronting - that’s why I enjoy it so much. I also find it easier to find others who are interested in talking about what I am talking about - only one of my friends works for a startup.

I also LOVE that I am on board with Google+ from the very start - it feels so good to be a pioneer on a massive social media platform… Gary Vaynerchuk and others talk about the importance of listening on social media, rather than just broadcasting on social media. Gary (and others) also talk about the importance of creating your own content, as well as sharing others’ (should you share 3, 6 or 12 times as much as you create?). But all this listening, talking, sharing is becoming my barrier to success - it’s becoming an excuse. I can’t do X because I am busy learning Google+. I can’t do Y because I need to blog. I can’t do Z because I need to check in on my Twitter lists…

Listening and talking might help me to build connections and get over some of my shyness, but it doesn’t do what I really want to do and that is to be an entrepreneur and you can’t be an entrepreneur if you don’t build something to sell.

You can’t build anything listening and talking. You can read the instructions on building a Leggo spaceship. You can join a discussion about Leggo spaceships on Facebook or you might just read the posts of others who are building spaceships. Or…

You could do something crazy, throw away the instructions and build your own spaceship. I know what I need to do.

How have you built your spaceship?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This is my last post on this blog... at least for the forseeable future.

From now on you will find me blogging at www.healthystartups.com which is my new venture on start ups, entrepreneurs,  new technologies and social media and their impacts on our health.

I've given this blog a fair crack: more than a year of constant posting and close to 100 posts later, it's time to take a break.  

Thank you for supporting this blog and I hope you'll join me on my new venture where you can win a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk's The Thank You Economy. See the site for more details.

Thank you to the people who have inspired me including Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Falls, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Julien Smith, Trevor Young, Jen Frahm, Geoff Barbaro, Susan Lambe and... you.

I'll likely be back on these pages from time to time, but for now my focus is on Healthy Startups. If you love entrpreneurism, health care, social media or new technology I think you will enjoy the new site.

See you later.  

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Jason Berek-Lewis (JBL): Ahem, Lord Vader thank  you so much for taking the time to speak to me and for gracing my blog with your blackly evil pressence. I'm a huge fan... I still have my 1978 12 inch figure...

Darth Vader: You don't know the power of flattery!

JBL: Ah, yes your eminence... Tell me about your experience with social media?

Darth Vader: Incompetent fool! Have you not seen my Twitter page?

JBL: Yes...

Darth Vader: Do I have to Force choke some sense into you?

JBL: Careful sir... I take warfarin!

Darth Vader: Warfarin? Where's Warfarin? Somewhere in the Outer Rim? Do we control the Warfarin system? Where's my galactic map?

JBL: Social media?

Darth Vader: As part of my preparations for the Empire's immenent take over of your... rock... I've been studying Twitter particularly closely...

JBL: Your take?

Darth Vader: All the Empire need do to paralyze and crush your insignificant world is call on our agents to tweet out some inane rubbish about Justin Beiber...

JBL: I've always expected he was an Imperial agent, a portender of great doom... A deliverer of unbalance in the Force...

Darth Vader: Silence worm!

JBL: Twitter?

Darth Vader: @ev seems to have allowed the Rebellion to take hold in this space. I'm sending out some Imperial Probe Droids to ... ah ... probe the situation. The Emperor may have allowed the Rebellion to build sympathy in the Imperial Senate. He won't do the same with Twitter. We will crush this system. There will be no one to stop us this time...

JBL: But, you have quite the following on Twitter...

Darth Vader: Fanboys mostly, I presume. I will deal with them soon enough.

JBL: How?

Darth Vader: I'm planning to use Plixi or some other photo sharing service to tweet a photo of Princess Leia in her metal bikini... 30 years later!

JBL: MY EYES!! 

Darth Vader: Don't tell Palpatine I said this, but there are some things in the galaxy even more terrifying than him!

JBL: Ever thought of turning your attention to blogging?

Darth Vader: I've read your little site... Is this a good platform for exploring father/ son issues? Luke never returns my calls!

JBL: It could be great to get some things off your chest... I mean your radioactively powered chest plate... I mean your...

Darth Vader: Don't bother mentioning the word heart... Blogging scum!

JBL: Why are so many denizens of the Star Wars Galaxy on Twitter? Even Jabba The Hutt's there...

Darth Vader: Mostly, we need something to do... It's been more than 30 years since Lucas made a decent movie with us...

JBL: Is there a Dark Side to all this social media stuff? I mean many people spend more time on Twitter and Facebook than they do with real people, exploring real world emotions...

Darth Vader: Exploring my emotions didn't work out too well for me, did it?

JBL: Don't you think people would be better off being productive than tweeting about their lunch or Liking virtual farm animals?

Darth Vader: The Rebellion would be infinitely more effective if our subjects could actually focus on anything for a significant period of time. Why do you think our tech guys came up with status updates and instant notifications on your phone?

JBL: It looks like our commlink will go down soon... Any final thoughts on blogging your worshipness?

Darth Vader: Don't spend all your time being jealous of Chris Brogan or Gary Vaynerchuk... You know where jealousy and envy take you: I always wished I was Obi-Wan and... well that didn't work out too well. Be true to yourself... There is good (posts) in you.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

There is a blogging machine: if you look closely enough you will see it. The machine is made up of thousands, if not millions of parts. The parts are all unique, but they all sing from the same song sheet. The cogs in the machine move with precision, they make it look so easy and they lure you with promises of success, page views and cash...

There is a blogging machine: its cogs are known as "influencers" and if you read, watch, listen closely, they are all cooing to you their songs of seduction: "Just follow in my footsteps and you too can be rich/ famous/ influential/ respected/ trusted/ loved/ all of the above".

There is a blogging machine: its workings are arcane, hidden, secretive and all can be revealed for three easy payments of $19.95.

There is a blogging machine: it spits out formulas for must read posts that are copied by thousands who willingly seek out the chance to be just an identical blog cog that catches the eye... fleetingly.

There is a blogging machine: it creates easy to use pages, shells, themes... all opportunities to express you own individual style, if you only choose from these pre-prepared , pre-approved templates.

There is a blogging machine that explicitly tells you how to write your posts to maximise traffic, even providing you with suggested pre-cooked blog topics, at the same time as imploring you to be your real self online.

There is a blogging machine that assures you that success is there for the taking, if only you follow the well worn path to nirvana.

Rage against the blog machine

 This is my blog. I blog on Posterous which, apparently, is supposed to be more of a media sharing site than a "serious" text based blogging service - go figure. I chose Posterous because it is easy to use and I can spend my time on content rather than mucking around with coding on a theme or template.

This is my blog where I write what I want to write, how I want to write it. I ignore SEO. I ignore rules of what you should and shouldn't write about on a professional PR blog. I turn my back on the perfect structure for posts. I stay away from what's hot, who's cool and spinning out 'how to' guides that lure you to seek to be a carbon copy of me.

There is a science to successful blogging. There is a path to exploding page views and rivers of income from advertising and affiliate markering schemes. I get that. I respect those of you who have had success by following these rules... 

I'm joining the revolution and blogging my way. You may not love it, you may not read it, but it's my blog, not the machine's.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Chris Brogan has put up a great post on this over on his blog (see http://www.chrisbrogan.com/notsuccessful) so I thought I would add my own 2 cents.

Chris, I agree with you 100%: I am allowing too many distractions get in the way of my success. 

What about you? 

I can't focus...

Between this blog, my stalled health care startups project, my interest in my professional association, my desire to write and the need to actually do my 'real job'... I just can't focus. Add to that my constant need to be on top of everything happening in comms, social media, tech, current affairs...

I spend so much of my time on social media sites, your blogs, sites like Tech Crunch and Mashable, and reading the news. Too much information is flying around my head and I can't focus on ANYTHING!

I can't finish reading a book: both The Cluetrain Manifesto and Trust Agents have been sitting, half read, on my bookshelf for months. In 2010 I read only one book: Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk and you know how much of an influence that book had on me. But, Crush It! is short: I read it in a week or 10 days. I am a slow reader and I have become accustomed by blogs to getting through ideas very quickly... I can't focus enough to read a long and complex book like the work of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. 

Too many balls in the air

I am trying to catch quicksilver, but I am doing this in too many ways: this blog, my work, trying to set up my own website, trying to write a book... With too many balls in the air, it's no wonder I can't focus... For so long I have associated 'doing lots of stuff' with the path to success: chase success down enough one way streets and I am bound to catch it eventually... But, instead I am getting lost in these one way streets as I am actually trying to go in multiple directions at one time!
 

What do I really want? 

The only way to catch quicksilver is to definitively know what you are trying to grasp... Me? I am not so sure what that is and that is why success is elusive...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The other week I was on the phone to my wife while at work... At the same time I was writing an email to a graphic designer, briefing them to design an invitation for a work event.

As I wrapped up my conversation with my wife I said "I love you" and hung up the phone... 

As I did this, I finished typing my email and hit send...

The only problem was that as I said "I love you" something went wrong... I didn't just say those words to my wife... I also typed them in the email!

"I love you" are the toughest three words you will ever say

I immediately realised my mistake and my face burst into red hot embarassment! I grabbed the phone and started bashing the keys to call the designer to apologise... but, I seized up. I felt so silly...

Eventually I mustered up the courage to speak to the designer... In the background I could hear his colleagues laughing at my expense, but what if I had really meant what I had typed?

Now, I am not professing my love for this designer in the way that I do for my wife, but I do think highly of his work... How often do we explicitly acknowledge great work by our colleagues and service providers?

Share the love!

So, that's my challenge to you: go out of your way and tell a colleague, a service provider, a blogger or even a competitor that you love their work! You'll feel better for acknowledging someone's important contribution and the recipient of your adoration will have the best day ever!

Let me know who you go...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Up there is a screenshot taken from Steve Sammartino's blog: see http://startupblog.wordpress.com 

The pic comes from a blog post that Steve wrote after he posted a tweet about the emergence of the 'everypreneur culture'. Here is what Steve had to say about this on his blog:

… and here is what I think.

I think it’s great that we are entering an age where everyone can play. The richness of human life comes from the social fabric and the variety in personality and experience. When people enter a commercial world it’s impossible for their experiences, views and values not to emanate into their business. So the net result is a wider array of rich ideas and systems which can benefit real people rather than demographic aggregates. Smaller cohorts can be nimble and focus on pleasing the few. Some may even end up pleasing the many. The net result of the new low barrier world is a richer place to live in, both socially and economically. 

I completely agree with Steve: the emergence of the everypreneur world is a huge boon for all of us who dare to dream big. So many people in the last few years have taken that dream and run with it and many of those people are now hugely successful.

Many of the names behind the biggest startups in the tech space were unknowns just years or months ago: the fact they are now 'buzz names' in the VC community, in the blogosphere, on Twitter and Facebook...

With the proliferation of free or next to free business tools on the web, the ability to run a business from the cloud, the barriers are low...

With the internationalisation of business thanks to the internet, the market opportunities are endless...

With the app economy now available to people like me with no programming experience, the only barrier is our imagination...

The wall is gone... torn down by others who came before us. I'm building something called Healthy Startups. 

What are going to do about it? 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I need to learn to read, again. I blame the internet, or more specifically social media. In the space of minutes I can skim read through hundreds of ideas, each compressed into 140 characters. I can glance through blog posts of a few hundred words in length and quickly absorb some great nuggets about social media strategy... 

The problem with tweets, Facebook updates and even blog posts is that they are generally (especially tweets) short, concentrated bursts of content. Morsels designed to encourage you to share, rather than indulge. Yes, they can spark new ideas and discussion, but even much of that is constrained by the space limits present in most forms of social media.

Consuming social media is training me to absorb content quickly, share it if I am interested or provoked or inspired and then move on to the next update in an endless stream. Content is now disposable. The problem comes when you immerse yourself in this world of bite sized content, this world of instant content gratification, that you can no longer be bothered, disciplined enough or even concentrate for a suitable length of time to absorb something as weighty as a professional journal or... a book!

All around my desk at home you will find half read copies of Communication World, the journal of the International Association of Business Communicators. On the bookshelf next to my desk you will find unread work from Mitch Joel, Brian Solis, Deirdre Breakenridge and others. I still haven't finished reading The Cluetrain Manifesto or Trust Agents, books that were given to be as gifts for my 36th birthday, just over a year ago now.

What is to be done?

Deadset honest, I have read one whole book in the last three years: Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. The next book I wholly read will (hopefully) be his upcoming title The Thank You Economy. I'm hoping it doesn't take me weeks to finish.

For a guy that is so hung up on creating content, I read surprisingly little that is not online. I'm thinking the answer might be an ebooks application on an iPad or an Android tablet, but the purchase of such a device is unlikely in the near future due to massive kinder and creche fees.

Have you found yourself unable to concentrate when reading anything longer than a blog post? How have you managed the balance between the instant gratification of online content and the slow reveal of traditional book or journal-based information?
 

Have you had to learn to read, again?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Sorry, just spent some time looking at Google Earth and then I checked my Seesmic and... 

WOW! I am having a lot of trouble focusing here and really, that's the problem isn't it? I am driven to/ by distraction. The reason I set up that dichotomy there is that often distractions like Twitter add a lot of value to my day and inspire me to...

Distraction or multi-tasking?

 My wife tells me that men can't multi-task, so by her reasoning I must be mightily distracted. And who wouldn't be? Between Twitter, the dozens of blogs I read, the mountain of writing I have to get done at work and at home this week, and Twitter... not to mention my blog and... TV (from Sh!t my Dad says to Curb Your Enthusiasm to Depserate Housewives to How I Met Your Mother) to playing with my kids... everything is distracting!

I also have a lot on my plate: the aforementioned pile of writing, managing a communications/ PR/ marketing function for a not-for-profit and trying to be an awesome Papa and husband... all while my iPhone seductively beckons me to check my Tweets or play Sneezies and my dreams of blogging glory bubble away and I have to try and finish reading Trust Agents and The Cluetrain Manifesto... it's no wonder I am distracted!

Plus, my wife told me that men just can't really multi-task (I guess we must be iPhones and not Androids).

Why do I have so much on my plate? It's because I am driven... not by distraction, but by an unending yearning for success. I don't even know what success means, I just know that in the last year something in me has changed and I have become hungrier than ever before and I want to win and crush it and... Well, I don't really know what I want, so I don't really know how to get there... so I am doing too much and I am driven to distraction. What about you? How do you beat distraction and stay focused? Leave your tips below and I'll include them in a future post about managing distraction.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release 4 February 2011

BEREK-LEWIS CONFIRMS RUMOURS: HE IS 37

Jason Berek-Lewis has just addressed a packed press conference confirming the rumours: he did in fact turn 37 today.

"I'd like to put an end to this rampant speculation. I can confirm that at exactly 5:56 am on this day in 1974 I was born. Yes, the shocking truth is that this confirms that my age, by all accepted international standards, is now 37," Mr Berek-Lewis said at a press conference earlier today.

"My mother, father and the Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages have confirmed the details and, as far as I am concerned, there is no longer any point in hiding from the truth," he said.

"Yes, my hair line is receding. Yes, those are crow's feet you can see on my eyes. Yes, there is grey in my try-hard fashionable facial stubble.

"I am getting old."

Mr Berek-Lewis spent 20 minutes taking questions from the press and tackling all sorts of insane rumours.

"I can confirm that I do not use moisturiser of any kind, nor do I participate in any sports or exercise," he said.

"I am getting older: I have forsworn comic books, action figures and soft drinks and swapped my love of these juvenile pursuits with a new-found passion for smart phones and social media.

"This is a difficult time for my family," Mr Berek-Lewis explained. "My parents are in denial, my gorgeous younger wife is wondering how she ended up with such an old, bald fatty and my kids are wondering where my hair has gone.

"It will take some getting used to, but we have a whole year to get our heads around how old I am now," Mr Berek-Lewis said in conclusion.

Younger people living with ageing partners who are approaching 40 years of age are encouraged to call the Adjusting To Living With An Old Person Helpline on 180H ELP OLD (1804 357 653).
 

ENDS

You can give me a great birthday present by subscribing to my blog. Thanks!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »