Category: Uncategorized
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Don’t make “Bad” the enemy of “Good”
There’s a saying I’ve heard countless times, some variation of, “Don’t Let ‘Perfect’ Be the Enemy of ‘Good.’” (Here’s an example.) I like it, because aiming for perfection is the surest way to a creative block and paralysis by analysis. Aiming for good is a great rallying call to actually get things done—to aim for…
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Permission to Wonder
The millionaire author is sitting on the stage, and the host is taking questions. “Hi, great speech. I want to write books, just like you. I’ve met a couple of agents, I’m halfway through writing a book proposal, and I’ve got a very small mailing list. I know I should be promoting myself more, and…
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5 Sentences on Jeen-Yuhs Act 2
1. The most common and reliable way to make yourself a priority for your record label is to finish a product (Ye self-funded and called in favors to make a prototype of College Dropout and music video for “Through the Wire”), and to build buzz through self-promotion (the Def Poetry Jam audition tapes, the documentary,…
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Why your backstory is a key to referrals and word of mouth marketing
In our result-oriented culture, it’s essential to focus on tangible, real, results. Shipping real work. Start a real business. Make real money. Drive real results. Working with real clients. Releasing real articles. Author Bernadette Jiwa sums up the mindset well in Story Driven: “We might register a domain name, get a logo designed, build a…
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5 More Sentences on Ye Releasing Donda 2 on the Stem Player
1. The classic saying goes, “There [are] only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle.” 2. Before the internet, a compact disc with pre-recorded music used to sell for $16.98, from which the artist might earn around $2.72. 3. After the internet, a Spotify stream pays the…
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5 Sentences on Ye Releasing Donda 2 on the Stem Player
1. Where Ye used to be just another artist for Apple Music and Spotify, he now gets to keep all the customer data, build direct relationships with customers, and make a lot more money for the content. (This sentence doesn’t count: Years ago, Ryan Leslie did the same thing, keeping his music off platforms.) 2.…
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Two Reactions to Jeen-Yuhs
u/Key_Village_1942 posts at Reddit, “Am I the only one that got depressed bc of jeen yuhs”? Always felt like me and ye are really similar souls in different bodies, and seeing how much he had going for him at that age and how I can’t get nothing going on made me think I’m never getting…
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Apophenia
This is the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated things (such as objects or ideas). I’d suspect there was often a subconscious—or conscious—motivated reason tied to it. Apophenia is often used in a psychological or sociological context (e.g., conspiracy theories, etc.), but we all experience some version of it in our…
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What do you need to fire yourself from?
At Shopify, leaders need to re-qualify for their leadership team each year: “Now, obviously, the flip side of that is in order to do that every single person, particularly on the leadership team, has to requalify for their job every single year. And that is difficult in year one and year two, it becomes incredibly…
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Consistency starts with inconsistency
I am obsessed with the creative process, particularly with early work. One of the earliest projects I did was a self-funded one with friends to talk to recording artists about their early work. And even more recently, I wrote a book about the topic. I’ll explain why all of that in another post, but really…