Marc's Musings

During the sermon in church today, David Glusker mentioned a story about Winston Churchill. It’s probably apocryphal, but it went something like this:

An inebriated Winston Churchill to a lady at a party: “Would you spend the night with me for one million pounds?”

The lady, hesitantly: “Well…for a million pounds? I suppose so.”

Churchill: “Then would you do it for 50?”

The lady: “50?! What kind of woman do you take me for?!”

Churchill: “We’ve already established that. Now we’re simply dickering.”

This story really hit me.

What would my decisions have established about me?

Would I ever be in the place of having someone say to me “We’ve already established that…?”

Would you?

This morning, I told job Caleb to stop talking. His sister dropped her breakfast and what he was saying things that would get her worked up.

He looked at me and asked me, “Why do you tell me to stop talking so much?”

Good question.

I reminded him of the gasoline and water analogy our pastor told us. We approach every the fire of every conflict with a bucket in each hand: one full of gasoline, one full of water. It’s our choice which we one we pour on the fire.

I pointed out why I thought he was adding gasoline in this situation.

Frustrated, he said, “You seem to only comment on gasoline. Why don’t you comment on my water ones?”

He went on, “Dad, if you don’t see the water ones, you shouldn’t mention any of them at all.”

He’s right. 9 years old and he’s right. And I told him so.

Isn’t this a great leadership lesson? If we only point out the deficiencies, we frustrate those we lead.

While it’s great to try to prevent fires ourselves, it’s even more important to notice when those who report to us–or when those who look up to us–try to put them out too.

I’ve long been a fan of giving my year a theme. The one word or phrase helps me stay on track long after the rush of my “100 things to do” list is done.

This year’s theme is “implementation.” I love dreaming up grand plans and creating plans. But implementing them is a challenge. I always feel like I have more time to get things done.

Catching up on my RSS feeds today, I came across Chris Brogan’s concept of simplifying your goals to three words. I really like it.

So for 2009, mine are:
Strategize | Execute | Enjoy

Strategize: I love doing this so I want to keep this as a major thing I do, both for my own goals and for my clients.

Execute: I will learn to love doing this, largely because I love the results it brings.

Enjoy: I’m the kind of person that needs to give myself permission to enjoy things. Both work-related and personal.

What are your three for this year?

My three year-old daughter is wonderfully precocious.

One of my favorite things about her is the way she puts on socks. Ever since she started dressing herself, she’s always matched her socks…just not with each other.

She generally matched each sock to some color in her outfit. It’s a wonderful sign of her creativity that we never saw fit to “correct.”

Well this morning, she matched her socks. To each other. She hasn’t done that in years. It was as though part of her had died.

With a sense of foreboding, I asked her why. She said she matched them because “Those people at the hop-spit-al laughed at me. I don’t like people laughing at me.”

You see, yesterday, while she visited me at work, many of you called attention to her “mix-matched” socks and laughed. You never bothered to learn that the white sock matched her white shirt; the pink one the pink flowers on her shirt. [The picture to the left was taken a couple weeks ago. She wasn't wearing that orange shirt yesterday.]

I tried explaining to her that your laughing was simply enjoying her, not making fun of her. But she doesn’t undertand that. So many of you commented on her socks and laughed, she thought all of you were laughing at her. When she explained her “missed-matched” socks, you laughed even more.

I understand your mirth. She’s really cute. She has a great vocabulary for a three year-old. And she has a knack of making people feel happy. But she didn’t understand your laughing. She just knows you laughed because her socks weren’t normal.

I hope she’ll get over it and do her own thing again. I hope the damage isn’t permanent. And I hope this will be a learning experience, teaching her to not worry about others think. To be herself. To march to the beat of her own drummer.

I hope this will teach her to be a leader, not a conformer.

That’s up to her…and us.

As for you, please think twice the next time you laugh at someone or something you don’t understand. Just because you’ve been doing something the same way for 50 years, and everyone else you know has been doing it the same way, doesn’t mean it’s the “right” way. “Different” isn’t necessarily wrong and certainly doesn’t need to be mocked.

Please remember this.

Sincerely,

One Sad Father

Guy Kawasaki justed tweeted about a “must read speech on the new journalism career.”

Guess what? It’s not just about journalism.

Here are some of the thoughts that struck me:

“I don’t think the communications revolution that we are going through is about some reinvention of storytelling or journalistic creed.

The way we tell stories has evolved over the years, but beginning, middle and end still works. Ethical and accurate information will still rule.

I think the revolution is happening because of access. Access to powerful tools and access to global distribution in an increasingly connected planet.”

“As old business models fail, I expect to see an influx of independent, purpose-driven collaborations. Small teams with passionate experts operating for the public good. The new world of open access makes this possible.”

“Marc Andreessen sent an email in the Fall of 1993 to only 12 people. Mosaic, the first web browser, spread virally and changed how we communicate with each other.

Connectivity is the new killer app.”

“It’s true that less people care about Congo than Britney’s belly button. For me, it’s not about reaching the largest possible audience; pandering to the lowest common denominator. It’s about reaching the right audience with a relevant message.

Today, there is a robust infrastructure in place to reach these specific audiences and to create real change.”

I firmly believe this is one of the most exciting times to be alive. We live far more connected than ever before, so our stories can have a far bigger positive impact than ever before.

Especially if they’re told well.

How will you be telling your story in 2009?

[Warning- the following is a shameless plug: If you work in a nonprofit, check out my fundraising seminar on nonprofit storytelling. It covers the basics of crafting effective stories, how to categorize stories to make collecting them easier, and how to help your board members and volunteers tell the stories you are. Good stuff! The shameless plug is over.]

I’ve been having a lot of fun learning to use Twitter for nonprofits and fundraising.

And I’m pleased that some folks from my local Rotary Club are getting into the game! Well this morning, one of those guys tweeted “I need a Twitter tutor!” I passed that on to some twitter stream. Here are some of the responses I got:

SCATJ @marcapitman for your friend @chrisgaunce: follow others for a while and jump in when you see something that strikes a chord with you

Bobbiec @marcapitman for your friend, http://tinyurl.com/6a5exs. Don’t judge, whole site not done yet

seanbohan @marcapitman start w/ tweetdeck – dashboard view of all/replies/directs & has search, can make groups, etc. .. and write 1 tweet/day minimum

Great advice!

Over a year ago, Chris Brogan wrote Newbies Guide to Twitter.

One of the most important things I learned from Chris Brogan is to use the same “identity” across platforms. For me, that meant I started using “marcapitman” for

• Twitter,
• SlideShare,
• StumbleUpon,
• TwitPic,
• Last.fm,
• Digg,
• Scribd,
• BlogTalk,
• FriendFeed,
• LinkedIn,
• GoodReads,
• BrightKite,
• uPlej,

…well you get the picture.

I even use “marcapitman” for fun sites like: Wordle and MustLoveBeer.com!

Personally, I think one of the best ways to get started on Twitter is to follow alot of people and see how they’re using it. Twitter user Mark Hayward has a great list of 97 suggestions in his blog post 97 Remarkable Ways to Diversify Your Network in a Down Economy.

And you can use tools like search.twitter.com and Twellow. They’ll let you see who’s tweeting on topics of interest to you. Or find people in particular careers or in specific of the world.

I’m finding Twitter is

• helping me as a development professional at the Inland Foundation
  • it’s much less expensive than actually going to some of the conferences people tweet from!
  • I get real-time feedback from people just like my hospital’s donors
  • I get alerted to the latest fundraising blogs and podcasts
  • I’m getting to meet hundreds of folks doing the same thing I’m doing and get real-time help
  • I’ve even received help doing database work and cost-to-raise-a-dollar analysis!
• helping me sell my fundraising book
  • I’m getting to connect with readers one-to-one
  • and tools like TweetLater help me automate some Twitter actions so I can focus on those in the evening. (I also write my blog posts in the evening but publish them so they get tweeted during the day.)
• helping me connect with really cool people in the media and other professions, and
• even helped me do goofy things like name my beers.

Twitter is really helping me expand my network from right here in Waterville, Maine USA. I now am in regular communication with people all over the world. I was already talking to people around the world with my fundraising ezine. But now they get to talk back to me. During the Olympics I was even tweeting with the NBC folks in China! Sure made the games seem a lot closer?

I’m going to pass this on to Chris. I’m not exactly sure it’s the “Twitter tutor” he was hoping for, but it’s a start!

What would you recommend he do if you were his Twitter tutor?

If you look up the definition of “entrepreneur” in the dictionary, chances are Guy Kawasaki’s face is right there with it.

So I immediately responded when I saw him tweet about the top 5 things he’d learned as an entrepreneur.

Really good observations. Here’s a sample:

4. Ignore schmexperts. Schmexperts are the totally bad combination of schmucks who are experts–or experts who are schmucks. When you first launch a product or service, they’ll tell you it isn’t necessary, can’t really work, or faces too much competition. If you succeed, then they’ll say they knew you would succeed. In other words, they don’t know jack shiitake. If you believe, try it. If you don’t believe, listen to the schmexperts and stay on the porch.

I was inspired by Mark Batterson’s In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars, so I’m thrilled to be getting an advance copy of his next book, Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God.

I just love that he names the book with the wonderfully quirky name the Celtic Christians gave the Holy Spirit. Apparently he uses this to write about seeing our lives as an adventure. How cool would it be to really see our lives as an adventure? That stirs something deep down inside of me.

I’m fairly certain, Mark will give legs…or…errr…”wings” to this concept. I can’t wait to read his book!

In the meantime, I’m going to check out Marks’ 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals. That’s no surprise, is it?

A friend just emailed me this great CNN article about how young evangelicals don’t fit the “evangelical” stereotype. Or a political party.

These two guys are out promoting a book Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. But this is more than selling books. Here’s a quote from CNN:

Back on stage [Shane] Claiborne takes the crowd through a multimedia presentation.

“With the respectability and the power of the church comes the temptation to prostitute our identity for every political agenda.”

It’s nice to see evangelicals questioning the lock-stock-and-barrel acceptance of partisan politics.

I used this for the invocation at Rotary today. Since so many have asked for it, I’m posting it here.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

-written on Mother Teresa’s childrens’ home in Calcutta, commonly attributed to her

I found this on the website of the Prayer Foundation. I know nothing about the organization, but I am glad they posted this!