Most
people deliberately wait for the pressure of a deadline to sharpen their
thinking. 

They heighten the tension around a project by setting the amount of
time between vision and current reality. And the pull of gravity helps thrust
them to completion. 

Unfortunately, I don’t work that way. Deadlines are not how
my brain operates. Ever since I was a kid, I was always more of a reverse
procrastinator. The student who finished the project the day it was assigned,
and then spent the next two weeks screwing around or working on something else. 

And what’s interesting is, as an adult, those tendencies haven’t changed.
Execution is a non issue for me. I’m wired for volume and velocity. And so, since
I know that any elusive deadlines I set for myself would be too easily revised
or abandoned anyway, I don’t even bother. 

Instead, I focus on routines and
priorities and systems and habits. Because I know that those holy rhythmic
forces are the organizing principles guaranteed to make my work happen. Every
day. Irrespective of available time and resources. Regardless of some arbitrary
date on a calendar.

And so, if you’re the kind of person who believes that it’s
a great discipline never to be too far away from a deadline, more power to you.
But if you’re more like me, someone whose drive to excel exceeds their capacity
to procrastinate, move matters to a higher ground. 

Focus on continuity,
consistency and commitment. And it won’t even matter what day of the week it
is. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Have you ever asked yourself why you procrastinate?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Glass loves to remind young composers, I know that you’re all worried about finding your voice. But that’s not the problem. The problem is getting rid of it. You have to find an engine for change. And that’s what collaborative work does. Whatever we do together will make us different. 

That’s the scariest and most vulnerable component of collaboration. Sharing agency. Giving up your dream to merge it with somebody else’s vision. 

I learned this when I began production on my second concert documentary. Because unlike the first movie I made, there wasn’t a big, sweeping aesthetic vision for the project. This time, I wanted to go into the filmmaking experience having no idea what the finished product would look like. I wanted to allow the work to unfold according to its own pace. That way, we could act in the service of whatever was emerging. 

It was an intimidating process. Especially for a stubborn individualist control freak like me. I’m not exactly what you would call a team player. But what I started to learn was, if you collaborate with smart, creative people that you trust, who aren’t assholes, giving up control isn’t as scary as it seems. 

In fact, it’s quite liberating. Because you know those people are going to deliver. You know they’re going to add dimensions and perspectives and ideas that ultimately make the work better. 

That’s what happens when you collaborate with the right people. It’s the human equivalent to measuring twice, cutting once. 

If you do it right the first time, everything else takes care of itself. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Where will you find your engine for change?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Rollo’s classic book on anxiety and personality explains that condemning yourself is the
quickest way to get a substitute sense of worth. It’s how you drown the bitter
aches from feelings of worthlessness and humiliation. 

As if to say, I’m so
noble and I have such high ideals and I am so ashamed of myself, that I fall
short of the standard. In fact, I’m so important that god himself is actually
concerned with punishing me. 

Nice try, hero. 

The reality is,
condemnation is just a cloak for arrogance. Hating yourself doesn’t make you
special or interesting or creative or humble, it just rots you from the inside
out and makes you exhausting to be around. Which, ironically, blocks you from
making genuine human connections that are necessary to help you feel better. 

I
remember a period in my career when I would beat myself up for sleeping through
my alarm. I’d think to myself, you slept late, you’re a lazy piece of shit and
your life is going to pass you by. Get your ass to work. And then I’d spend the
rest of the day­­––and night­­––secluded in a corner, working myself to the
bone, trying to make up for lost time. 

And not because I wanted to create art
that brought joy and inspiration to others, but because I wanted to camouflage
my feelings of worthlessness.

A smarter approach would have been to practice
being kind to myself in small, concrete ways. Instead of leaping out of bed in
a frenzied mess, I could have spent thirty seconds giving thanks for the extra
hours of sleep that my body clearly needed.

Instead of wolfing down a
condiment sandwich at my desk, I could have called a friend to enjoy a meal
together. And instead of working straight until midnight, I could have taken a
break midway through the day and practiced yoga with my favorite instructor. 

Any of these strategies would have been healthier. Because they would have
involved loving and acting generously myself. Making meaning instead of
monitoring moods. Facing my situation realistically. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you love yourself enough to work on what bothers you?

 LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

We all need constant reminders that the word is an extraordinary place where dreams are had and followed. 

Otherwise we experience poverty of aspiration, to borrow a term from the labor party, which is a state of mind that prevents us from continuing to explore of all the possibilities of life. 

A few years ago, I was going through a creative slump. For the first time in my life, there was no excitement at having discovered something worth doing. I hadn’t chosen a creative project with the potential to galvanize me out of my anxiety trap. And I knew that if I didn’t turn my brain over to some magnificent obsession, and if I didn’t turn an idea that fascinated me into something real in the world, I might go crazy. 

And so, I started watching one documentary, every day. Even if I wasn’t interested in the topic. Even if I’d never heard of the filmmaker before. Because I knew that would expand and inspire and challenge my mind in new directions. After all, the purpose of a documentary is to give us a genuine slice of something we don’t normally see. 

What’s interesting is, after watching a few dozen films on a variety of topics, I started asking myself new questions. 

What fascinating or unusual thing could I do in my own life that would be worth making a documentary about? What new direction could I take that would be worth watching from afar? 

These questions ignited a spark within me.Kickstarted my ambition. And they reminded me that the world bundle of possibilities waiting to be explored. I just had to leave the house. 

Literally. I had to put on my big boy clothes and press the flesh and get my hands dirty and keep failing until I finally found a dream worth having. 

It took about four months, but it finally worked. And now I’m living a life that I wouldn’t trade. 

The point is, having big plans for the future doesn’t have to be an archaic curiosity. We can build mountains for ourselves to climb. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How did you overcome your poverty of aspiration?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Setting boundaries should feel empowering. 

In those moments when we’re strong enough to stand up and say to the world, this is my limit, we would hope to experience sense of pride and satisfaction. 

But in many cases, setting boundaries can spark feelings of anxiety, resentment and guilt. Especially when we’ve been socialized and encultured into considering people’s needs before our own. 

The fear is that we’ll appear selfish, inflexible, uptight, uncaring, entitled or rude. 

I’m reminded of the famous advertising campaign from the eighties and nineties, just say no. The first lady’s suggestion became the clarion call for the teen drug prevention movement, even though numerous studies found no direct relationship between reduced drug use and her campaign. 

But although that slogan became a bit of a punchline, the principle behind it always stuck with me. Because it taught me that the simplest, easiest, fastest and most effective way to set a boundary was to say no. To confidently reject any unnecessary obligations that held no possible benefit for you. 

In fact, if you want to get technical about it, saying no is a complete sentence. There needn’t be anything to modify it. Not a reason why you’re saying no. Not an apology for being unavailable. And not and endless rumination loop over the consequences of refusing. 

What’s interesting is, once you try saying no a few times, even if only to practice, you quickly discover that most people aren’t even thinking about you anyway. They’re not worrying about what you think and concerned with how you feel. There’s no reason to feel guilty. 

Once you realize that, you’re set free. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

When was the last time you felt empowered to set a boundary? 

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

When you purchase an expensive painting, there’s a process. 

Frame it. Wrap it. Box it. Ship it. Select the best room for viewing. Install a solid hook in the wall. Test the strength of the wire. Hang the painting carefully. Emphasize with the right lighting. And of course, dust the painting regularly for preservation. 

Why settle for anything less? After all, that painting cost you thousands of dollars. It’s an investment. It’s a valuable work of art that a human being spent hours to make beautiful. And it deserves to be handled accordingly. 

Funny how the process changes with a freshman in college looking to decorate his dorm room. Because after he stops by the local head shop and pays eight bucks for a laminated poster of some dead reggae singer, he stumbles home, sticks a few thumbtacks through the corners and mounts the poster in whatever grimy corner isn’t already covered. 

Two very different products, two very different ways of treating them. 

The question is, which one are you? Is the value of your work positioned in the marketplace as something worth taking care of? Worth viewing as an investment? Or do clients treat you like an object that they can use and throw away at the end of the semester? 

I’ll never forget the conversation I had years ago with a consultant friend of mine. He said that his clients, who were mainly human resources directors at medium sized companies, viewed him as inventory. 

Inventory. Ouch. Talk about the commoditization of talent. So much for choosing that which is highest in humanity. 

But I couldn’t help but think to myself, well, that’s on him. Because you teach people how to treat you. And so, if you don’t feel valued by your clients, if you don’t feel taken care when you travel halfway across the country to do work for them, what we have here is a failure to educate. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you teaching people to treat you as a work of art hanging on the mantle, or a black light poster dangling from the corner?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

It’s easy to forget that doing what you love is a luxury, not a usual way of life. 

Because for the majority of the world, the odds of securing the perfect job in the field of their choosing that exceeds even their wildest expectations and that satisfies every single one of their career criteria while paying a salary commensurate with what they feel they deserve, are profoundly low. 

And that’s a difficult reality to comprehend when following your bliss is all you know. Especially when most people’s work life is basically a collection of unpleasant necessities that do not feed the human spirit, punctuated by occasional moments of fleeting delight. 

All the more reason to make gratitude a daily practice. Because if you’re one of the lucky individuals who not only gets to dream their dream, but also gets live that dream too, not a single day should go by without a profound sense of appreciation for that opportunity. 

It’s such a gift, you can’t even imagine. And the quickest way to have it yanked out from under your fingertips is by becoming complacent and acting like you deserve it. 

It’s mostly luck. And genetics. And good timing. And geography. Considering half the planet lives on less than three dollars a day, I’d say doing what you love is about as luxurious as a human can get. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you unhappy because you really don’t have what you need, or because you just want more?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Human beings are the foremost experts at convincing ourselves what’s impossible. 

We use tools like logic and practicality and profitability and responsibility to talk ourselves out of our dreams before they even get a chance to see the light of day. 

But really, it’s all just propaganda. It’s cultural conditioning and accumulated fear trying to protect us from the humiliation and risk and pain of failure. 

And so, instead of asserting our impossibility and censoring our hearts and inhibiting our vision, we must tell ourselves the truth about our dreams. Instead of judging ourselves for the weird movies our brains might be playing, we must give ourselves permission to separate what we want from questions of possibility. 

Because it’s all relative. It all depends on context. 

For years I dreamed of making films, but I always told myself that it was an impossible dream. That I couldn’t do it. Either because of money or time or experience or ability. Until a mentor of mine finally leveled with me and said, look, you’re absolutely right, you can’t do it. At least, not with the power available to you today. But if you’re willing to transform yourself from the inside out first, if you’re willing to commit to creating a new context for the way you interact with the world, then that dream will become possible. 

That was one hell of a call to action. Who knew doing the impossible had nothing to do with doing and everything to do with being? Who know that had nothing to do with the dream and everything to do with the dreamer? 

Solo was right when he told the young jedi: Is that possible? I never ask that question until after I’ve
done it.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…Are you afraid to admit what you want to yourself simply because it doesn’t seem possible to have it?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Raghunathan’s psychology research found that the pursuit of superiority actually lowers happiness levels. 

Because when we’re focused on being the best, we always want to know how much better and richer and faster and prettier more talented we are than others. And that addiction fosters the tendency to engage in social comparisons, which ultimately makes us feel miserable. Bad times. 

For example, when we watch one of our peers do something extraordinary on stage, and we instantly think to ourselves, wow, I quit, we’re only hurting ourselves. Because the reality is, we have no idea what other people are going through behind the scenes. We can’t compare their five minute highlight reel with our feature length documentary. That’s not being fair to ourselves. 

And so, instead of trying to compete with every good work of art we see, we have to learn to accept ourselves for what we are and, more importantly, where we are. In our careers, in our work and in our trajectory as artists. 

Because contrary to popular conditioning, hating ourselves does not make us interesting. There’s no upside to using other people’s success as a whip to our backs. Besides, if we were truly committed to doing the work, we wouldn’t even have time to beat ourselves up. 

That’s what boggles my mind. If people invested as much energy in their art as they did on their public outrage and petty jealously and macho competitiveness, they’d have piles of great work pouring out of them on a daily basis.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Whom are you wasting time hating?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

The common misconception about success is that we need talent plus persistence. 

But that’s not exactly true. 

The reality is, persistence is the talent. The skill that makes your name dear to history is being good at not going away. The ability that secures your spot in the pantheon is loving your creations enough to bring them into being. He who hungers most, wins. 

And the good news is, if you’re determined and you really, really want to make your art happen, you can take comfort in the fact that virtually everybody else is going to give up. And that leaves the road clear for you. 

Remember, creativity is a long arc game. It takes decades to do anything substantial. And so, even if you have to take a few detours along the way, even if you have to work a second job bankroll your ability to do your art, it’s worth it. 

When I first started my publishing company, I felt shameful for having to get a night job parking cars at a luxury hotel. But I knew it’s what I had to do to underwrite the production of my books. Which I wrote while standing around in the snow waiting for guests to throw me their keys. 

A decade later, when I celebrated the ten year anniversary of starting my publishing company, I felt like a failure for getting a day job as a copywriter at a digital agency. But I knew it’s what I had to do to stay in game long term. Which I did by producing a concert documentary while sitting at my cubicle waiting for my next bullshit assignment. 

That’s persistence. You do what you have to do to give yourself to your path. In fact, looking back, had I never worked those second jobs, I may never have been able to stick around for fifteen years. 

Lesson learned, give yourself the freedom to pursue your own interest in art, without being burdened by a focus on the potential outcomes. Beware of putting pressure on this art that you love that it has to make a living. It’s not creativity’s job to support you. Don’t yell at it for not making money. 

Go be your own patron instead.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you create things because you love them enough to see them exist?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!