Creating Contagious Enthusiasm

a discussion by Robin Blandford.

Robin Blandford

Contagious enthusiasm to plan, design, and implement really exciting digital media. Robin is the Director of Decisions For Heroes [D4H] - a web app that saves lives.



Robin is based in Dublin London Singapore Chicago Dublin Cambridge, UK Dublin and loves to collaborate with people through the comments on this blog, on facebook, twitter, or individually by sending an email. Is there anything he can help you with today?

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Step 4. Create your passion filters.

Smurfit_tedx

AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - Ok, so where were we. You've got your notebook and it's starting to fill with ideas. You're reading a lot and taking notes. Keep it up, you're doing good. The next step, step 4, is to create your passion filters.

Let me explain - you're going to live your business, breath your business, eat your business, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For the long-haul, it has to be something your passionate about. Something you want to talk about all the time, something that you can build up massive enthusiasm for.

When seeking for ideas you need passion filters to make sure you don't go down the wrong route and find yourself doing something you really don't care about. I for instance couldn't build mediocre corporate software, because then I'd have to chat with mediocre corporate people on the phone every day all day who don't care about their job - and soon I wouldn't care about mine.

I knew my passions, and I had longingly talked about having a job that combined as many of them as possible...
  • Technology
  • Internet/Communication
  • Outdoor/Extreme Sports
  • Rescue/Medical
  • Volunteering/Helping
  • Expeditions/Leadership
So I applied these filters to every idea I thought of, it got rid of a lot of the faff very quickly. Now every day, I speak to people on the phone who are passionate in the same things as me. We have phone conversations about jumping out of helicopters and quick sand rescues... rather than tax codes and compliance.
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Posted on May 4, 2010 and filed under awesomeness methodology,
 

Step 3. Store Up Massive Potential Energy

Smurfit_tedx

AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - A group of us made up "rules of professional etiquette" for a youth group about 10 years ago. The second rule of professional etiquette was "Protect Your Cadets".... Cadets were the youngest members of the group, and everybody's job was to protect them. Make sure they survive until they are strong enough to protect the new Cadets. And so, with awesome idea generation Step 3 is about protection. Protecting your "tiny little idea babies".

All of you reading. All of your scribbles. All of your notes. All of your thinking. All of this is about one thing - storing up MASSIVE potential energy. Generating enough positive thought armoury, enough defensive thinking, enough mind walls to block negativity. When someone comes at your idea baby, you're going to be able to protect it with common-sense thinking, case studies, and evidence.

The easiest thing for anyone to do, is to stamp on your idea while it's small. While it's too small to defend itself. Some people make a habit of doing this to ideas - killing them off. Actually, I'm convinced some people, the people who don't have their own good ideas, actually get a thrill from killing others ideas.

This isn't about retaliating or defending - always remember advice is not a debate - this is about your own internal dialogue. The only person who can kill your idea in your mind is you. While you remain confident about an idea - it is still alive. Once you loose confidence in it - it's all over.

So read, talk, think a lot. Build up your massive potential energy store - and have it ready in your mind to keep yourself with the glass overflowing - not just half full.
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Posted on March 22, 2010 and filed under awesomeness methodology, ideas, potential energy,
 

Step 2. Read as much as you can and scribble on it.

Smurfit_tedx

AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - Step 2 is the easiest part - read. Read more. Read even more. I can attribute a huge part of my success to my reading. Reading is the only way to get close to enough people who've made it already. Reading is the only way to get multiple points of view from the best in business. Reading is the only way to get motivated by the greats.

I hated reading. Hated it - it was so slow and pointless. Now I love reading. Want my secret?

Don't waste your time reading lies. That's my word for fiction. The 'lies' section of the book shop. No, you want the 'non-lies' section of the bookshop. You want the biographies, memoirs, visions, advice of amazingly inspirational people in this world.

Only read books written by or with contributions from people who've actually achieved something. Don't read books by generic researchers - e.g. "How to win deals by A.Anon"... instead read "No B.S. Sales Success: The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, Tough and Spirited Guide by Self-Made Millionaire Dan Kennedy". Don't read "Passion To Profits by A.Anon" instead read "How To Get Rich by self-made almost Billionaire". Don't read "Business the Richard Branson Way by A.Anon", instead read "Screw It, Let's Do It: 14 Lessons on Making It to the Top While Having Fun by self-made Billionaire Richard Branson".

Refuse to use libraries. Buy your books - it's the same concept at work as owning the expensive note book. Make yourself a library and re-read the best ones. Even better - lend them to other people regularly.

Always read with a pen in one hand. Take a pen and scribble on your book. Scribble all over your books. The more scribbles the more value you got from the book - and it makes it easy to re-read quickly later. Underline things. Mark out paragraphs. Star things. Write your thoughts on how you can apply an idea to your life in the margins. Own that book. It should look used when you're done - not crisp.

There is only one way I can enthuse myself to read in quantities - without this method I move very very slowly through a book. The old 5 pages a night method will kill the point of the book - you will be unable to piece the method together. Read the book in big chunks, minimum 1 chapter (a concept) in one go. Trains & planes are great.

Keep a wish list and buy books in batches of 5. There will always be one you want to read most - place this one at the bottom of the pile. Place the pile beside your bed or on your coffee table and get started working your way through the books one by one. When you start the last book - buy another 5.

Read voraciously. Guy Kawasaki said that to me first in his book - my point made?
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Posted on March 11, 2010 and filed under awesomeness methodology,
 

Step 1. Buy an expensive Note Book.

Smurfit_tedx

AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - So if you're going to come up with an awesome idea, the good news (because it's fun) is you're going to need to come with 1000 others that's aren't as awesome. What you're about to embark on is an adventure to build up a huge list of business models, passion filters, and memories. You are about to parse so much information through your mind that you cannot, and will not remember it all. Start writing it down. Start now - get out your notebook and write down any points you'd like to remember from this passage in 12 months.

When I was studying engineering, I wrote thousands of pages out on A4 pad's. Thousands of messy scribbles. Thousands of diagrams. Thousands of equations. Because I was writing in bulk, and on cheap unlimited supply paper - I did not care about what I was writing down. Apart from having to peek for the exam - I certainly would never cherish that ugly mess.

Only write on expensive paper. I only write on expensive notepads now - in particular Moleskine. Why? because it makes me think about what I am writing. I want the result to be a beautiful read - I want to enjoy reading back my notes I write. I write in bullet points about the books I've read, the successes I've had, the meetings I've had, or the tasks I have to complete. Whenever I hear of a great idea, I write that down too. Whenever I have an idea - I write that down with a big star beside it.

Read back your notebook - traditionally on flights. I love having that hour time-out, when my electronics/comms are off, to just sit with a bad coffee and my great notebook and re-read it. The other great place is at the end of an epic day - go for a pint by yourself, and reflect on the last few weeks. I have one particular page where I have listed characteristics I want to achieve - and sometimes I'll bullet point a progress report on how I'm doing on them.

Summary: The more expensive your note book is, the more love, and care, and thought, and time you'll put into it. Every word has to be "worth it".
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Posted on March 8, 2010 and filed under awesomeness methodology,
 

The Awesomeness Methodology

Smurfit_tedx

AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - I'm often asked how I came up with such an awesome idea for Decisions For Heroes. Can you believe, most people actually call it "Awesome". So when I was asked to speak about something interesting at a TEDx in Ireland, I decided that I would research awesomeness - what does being awesome mean, and how can we replicate it. I'm going to bring you the result here to robinblandford.com - my Awesomeness Methodology over the next few weeks.

Let's start with what does awesome mean? Well straight up it means you are in 'awe' of it, or as g:define tells us, "an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration", "an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful", "causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement; excellent, exciting, remarkable", "to control by inspiring dread", "Adult Webmaster Empire (AWE) is a live webcam affiliate program" hmmmm.

My favourite definition of ''awesomeness' comes from Umair Haque - who promotes that awesomeness is the new innovation, that today "we've got an economy where everything's for sale. Yet, little fundamentally new is being created", that we "we are focused still on selling the same old toxic, industrial era junk in slightly better ways". We need to learn to create fundamentally better stuff in the first place. Umair continues "Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by [Awesomeness], because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it's anything but. Gen M knows 'awesomeness' when we see it — that's why its part of our vernacular. It's a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance."

Let's look at his definition:

Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off.
So to achieve awesomeness, we need an idea that people will love what they do (rescue - some people even do it as a hobby, donate to it, have emotion to it), we need to make some insanely great stuff (my passion for implementing digital media - and my ability as a finisher), and we need to multiply that by communities (I'm part of that rescue community already - let's amplify that), and we're making people authentically better off (saving lives).
Next up is 'Step 1. Buy an Expensive Notebook' on the journey reaching this point and the methodology behind it. Then I'll go into some detail on thick and thin value I've noted.
Comments please.
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Posted on February 26, 2010 and filed under awesome, awesomeness methodology, idea creation, ideas,