Time to start “entrepreneuring” and innovating!

Link to video here.

1. How little money was spent to target a “medals race” and yet how much success the team is having … particularly in events not usually dominated by American athletes.

2. How Bode Miller is crediting the ski team’s successful run with a more aggressive and exciting attitude toward their sport.  He says … “the inspiration level is climbing. They see teammates on the podium and they want that, too. It’s not necessarily the result, but they want to be smiling, they want to ski inspired. You’re seeing a result you haven’t seen from the U.S. in a long time, or ever.”

3. The USOC (United States Olympic Committee) didn’t “over promise and under deliver”.  The ATHLETES are delivering in a way that is exciting and fun for us to participate with.  Thank goodness the USOC kept their mouths shut and let the athletes do the “talking”.

All of this inspires in a way that I think we all need right now.

It’s not ALL about the money.

It’s MORE about passion and risk taking.

Shut up and DO the work.

Good things CAN happen.

And OFTEN do when approached the right way.

You would have to read well over 5,000 of those items every day for 70 years to consume it all.  Insane.  Reading one book every week (close to my current average) for 50 years (close to what’s left of my current life expectancy) would only get me through about 2,600 of those books.

It really begs the question of prioritizing activity and media choices.  Is it worth trying to get through EVERYTHING I possibly can.  I believe it makes more sense to really dig deep in a few areas that are of the most value.  Happiness and fulfillment topping that list.

To me, it just feels like everything is “off”.  The government is in a constant state of mis-step, seemingly making wrong decisions … always at the wrong time and rarely for the “right” reasons.   There seems to be far more concern with the sound bite and “one upsmanship” than real progress and right headed leadership.

While I’m not an Obama hater by any means … it seems like we’ve elected a “Partier in Chief” as opposed to a “Commander in Chief”.  I half expect PeeWee Herman to soon be named as ambassador to the UN.  It just doesn’t seem that anybody in the current government cares to get down to the real work that will have to happen sooner or later.  Where’s the seriousness of purpose?  Where’s the change?  If “audacious” hope is defined by late night TV appearances, march madness brackets and idiotic, offensive comments about disabled athletes … sign me up for another flavor please.

Then there’s the media and all of our (all of us … the “little” people) responsibility for making our culture into a media obsessed cesspool.  I think that is what has enabled the ridiculous state of our current situation.  Of course our leaders aren’t serious … we’re all too busy watching the E! Channel to care.

If you haven’t read it … you really should.  It actually has application across life, not just in business.

The first is a YouTube capture of Merlin Mann at Macworld.  Talking about creativity … what it is and how to “develop” it.  Really interesting and I think vaguely important.

So … maybe one day … if I can do what is advised above … I could create something cool and original like below …

I have to admit that the last few months have been difficult ones, I have felt the shock of the economy in my business and I’m still not exactly sure the way out.  So how grateful was I for Tim Ferriss’s latest post where he linked to the video below.  He calls it the Prescription for Self-Doubt … I would add “Self Pity” as well.

our collective creativity will be pooled into a large Styler Package and be distributed freely

As for prizes, Neil from MakeLightReal has offered up some pretty good ones.  I am excited about the prospect of a prize (however remote it might be for me), but I’m really hoping the resulting action and preset library will be a great resource to help push my photographic abilities a bit higher.

So, one of the actions I’ve created and use a ton is a little “color pop” action I made after reading a blog post somewhere (sorry, I can’t remember the source) about using the LAB space to pop your color without artifacting.

So here it is … LAB Color Fix

Using it is very simple.  Open an image and run the action.  You’ll be left with a really ugly visible image layer on top of your original.  Simply slide the opacity down until you like the look.  Usually a value between 20% and 30% gives the best results.  Flatten … save … done.

Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful.  I know this one isn’t rocket science … but I sure have found it useful and a timesaver.

Here’s an example of the difference …

In the middle of business challenges, it’s nice to step away from the day to day and think about some big picture items and learn some new tricks.  That’s exactly what the doctor ordered for me right now and I hope Pubcon can deliver for me this year.