Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning?And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations—regardless of their size, regardless of their industry—all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they’re easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?” “Meh.” And that’s how most of us communicate. That’s how most marketing is done, that’s how most sales is done and that’s how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we’re different or how we’re better and we expect some sort of a behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here’s our new law firm: We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients,we always perform for our clients who do business with us. Here’s our new car: It gets great gas mileage, it has leather seats, buy our car. But it’s uninspiring.
Here’s how Apple actually communicates. “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?” Totally different right? You’re ready to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
~ via TED
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On leaving safety
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain
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We are all visitors
We are visitors on this planet.
We are here for ninety or one hundred years
at the very most.
During that period, we must try to do something good,
something useful, with our lives.
If you contribute to other people’s happiness,
you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.
–The XIV Dalai Lama
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I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on photography and image making, on the voyage of creation.
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The joy of fun error messages
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Tags: error, error message, fun, illustration
Films and formal motifs
I thought this was so interesting, that a film could have a dominant visual motif. Below is what Bruce Block recommends for films that embody these visual ideas. It makes me eager to see these.
Well, I’d love to do this exercise myself, but I don’t tend to watch films with an analytical eye, mostly just to enjoy them. Though, for the movies I know well, it’s fun to imagine and remember what techniques they were using.
I think the great directors (and their staff) were great because they were able to employ so much of the visual language of film and art. Hence, Stanley Kubrick’s films will work on many of these formal levels at once.
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Changing role of web design
Below is a conversation I just had on twitter. There is a new web design movement called http://futurefriend.ly/ that is putting a lot of thought into how to deal with the demands of web design in a world where the device and display is constantly changing. Lots to think about, as always…It’s an industry that is changing and evolving at a bewildering speed.
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Gervais on Creativity
The brilliant and so productive Ricky Gervais talks about creativity.
Putting it very crudely, creativity is the ability to play. And, to be able to turn that facility on and off when necessary. This makes perfect sense to me. Everything I’ve ever written, created or discovered artistically has come out of playing.
Stephen Nachmanovitch said that, “Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one’s chosen form”. Basically mucking about with the stuff you have in front of you. Experimenting with it, seeing what happens, and keeping the stuff you like I guess.
In fact Scott Adams said, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
You have to let yourself go to be creative. Children possess this quality but then seem to lose it as they are told, “it’s not the done thing”.
Pablo Picasso summed it up well; “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”.
The answer is simple. Never grow up. I don’t mean don’t become an adult with responsibility and the weight of the world on you shoulders. I simply mean if you’re writing, or directing give yourself enough time to play. Play the fool. Goad. Shock. Laugh. Trip over something that isn’t there. Try something. And never be afraid to fail. That failure is useful too. It’s just another building block.
…
People have assumed that, because I don’t listen to critics, or take studio notes or whatever, that I think I’m perfect and have never made any mistakes. This could not be further from the truth. Making the mistakes is the point, is the fun, is the important bit. But they have to be my own.
The writer Rita Mae Brown said, “Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”
from Wired UK. Visit the link to learn more about his views on the role of critics, and of course some funny opinions of Twitter, the whole point of the article… “Well maybe Twitter is just another big toilet wall, but there’s as much clean space and spray paint as you’ll ever need. What are you going to do with it? Create something or destroy someone else’s picture?”
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Steve Jobs on Design
“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” – Steve Jobs
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