Thinking like a child.

Coming to terms
When you're a child, you think you're parents can do no wrong.

When you're 17, you realize they aren't perfect and you blame them for your shortcomings. 

When you become an adult, you understand that all people are flawed and start taking responsibility for your own actions. 

Individual experiences vs shared experiences

The few weeks ago, I was running errands and I drove past a family sedan with not one, but two separate little TV screens in the back for their 2 little kids to be entertained. 
At first I thought, "Man, that must be really hard to focus with competing audio from two separate TVs."
I realized then, of course, that they surely have earbuds in so they are in their own little world. 

I'm definitely not judging this family, maybe they have good boundaries on how often the children are plugged in. 

But the scene just set my mind thinking through how we pursue individual experiences. I started noticing this trend heavily when I was in college way back in '05. Even then it seemed that everyone had their own universe, because that was better than having to deal with other people.

Since then, the trend seems to be continuing further. Facebook was just beginning then, smart phones were able to text and email and the iPhone didn't exist. 

The elusive joy of the future will be shared experiences. People will pine for shared experiences as individual experiences are the norm. 

I promise. People will always crane human interaction. Human touch. Eye Contact. 
Start doing things with other people. 

So here's my recommendation: if you live in Kalamazoo, go to Sweetwater Donuts, have coffee with a friend and leave the phone at home. 


If you don't live in Kalamazoo, you should. 

Blaming is stupid.

I'm going to be a little bold here. 

Blaming others for your problems is really stupid. 

That felt good to say. 

But it's not stupid just in the sense that you look stupid for doing it. 

It's stupid because you are crippling yourself by blaming others. 

It makes you stupid because instead of looking for ways you can learn from a given situation, 

you look for ways to blame others....

....which is stupid. 

Join with me today and commit to never blaming other people for your own problems.

You will be amazed at your personal growth even after 30 days of practicing this. 

Romeo out. 

Love your clients.

Loving your clients looks like this:

• Being 100% honest and forthright in your promises and actions. 
• Owning up to mistakes
• Respecting the client, respecting their ideas - not just to their face but when it's just the creative director and the editor.
• Keeping your promises
• Caring enough to make the process fun. 

Random thought on victim mentality.

"The victim is found waiting for the white knight."

Don't be a victim.

Kevin out.

United States + debt... put simply

Someone posted this easy to understand breakdown of the United States current situation at chrislocurto.com 

 

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

Stress is a choice

"Stress is a choice. Do you buy that?
Some people have a hard time with the idea. They think it's the people and events in our lives that stress us out - management, colleagues, customers, the boss, traffic, weather, market conditions - but it isn't true.

Yes, bad things happen: The economy sours, our business struggles, the stock market tumbles, jobs are lost, people around us don't follow through, deadlines are missed, projects fail, good people leave. Life is full of these.
But still,
Stress is a choice.

Because whatever the "trigger event" we always choose our own response. We choose to react angrily. We choose to stuff our emotions and keep quiet. We choose to worry."

- John Miller, QBQ (Question behind the Question)

This is a tremendous little book that we, as a team, are going through at Rhino Media Productions.
The aim of the book is to eliminate victim mentality and blame, something just about every human being can fall into if they are not disciplining their thoughts.

I recommend this book to anyone, particularly ones in leadership or ones that want to grow as individuals.