Desperately trying to protect the narrative

There’s part of us that believes the very act of trying will contaminate the result. 



That the harder we chase after what we want, the more it will deny and elude us. And so, we just sit back and relax and allow it to be organic and land softly on our shoulder. 



But in many cases, that’s just cop out. A cozy little story we enjoy telling ourselves because it removes all the responsibility from our back. 



It’s like the chronically blocked artist. After a certain period of time, he grows to enjoy being a unsuccessful creator. Because being blocked has become part of his identity. It’s the story he gets to carry around with himself, and it’s bulletproof. 



But here’s the reality check. No matter how hard we try not to try, sitting around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the universe to deliver our dreams to us is not an effective strategy. We have to be proactive and hungry and intentional and disciplined. There has to be a sense of agency and urgency burning inside of us. And there has to be a buttress of action underneath our dreams. 



Otherwise we’ll be stuck in limbo for a very long time. 



I once interviewed with a consulting firm who claimed they badly needed to develop more rigor around their company’s intellectual property and knowledge management, creating infrastructure and machinery to kick out thought leadership content on a consistent basis. 



As luck would have it, I literally wrote the book on how to become prolific. 



And so, I pitched them a proven intellectual property development system. And they balked. As soon as I presented a viable solution to their problem, they suddenly had a change and heart and decided it wasn’t that big of a problem after all. 



Funny how that works. The moment you give somebody the keys to the kingdom, they drop them. Perhaps it’s because they don’t want to give up that story they’ve been carrying around all this time. 



It’s like insulation to them. It’s just easier to not try. 




LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you waiting for your dreams to come true, or is it the other way around?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!

What to eliminate versus what to create

We all have the same dream. 



To be engaged in activities we would rather continue than stop. To spend little time spent in situations we would wish to escape. To be in a position to organize our life around our highest aspirations and deepest values. 



And yet, most of our goals toward that dream fail because of a misappropriation of energy. 



Instead of focusing our efforts on creating what we want, we devote ourselves to eliminating what we don’t want. And that’s when our subconscious mind locks in. 



We start demonizing it and giving it energy and create any unnecessary psychological fuel around it, and before we know it, that thing that we don’t want so badly, suddenly has a power source. 

Parents of young children deal with this on a daily basis. When their kids are still developing the ability to manager their emotions, they learn to cope with strong feelings by looking to the parents for help. 

And so, when the toddler trips and falls in the middle of the sidewalk, the mother doesn’t shriek and run over to the child and pick him up and start comforting and soothing him. Because kids are hypersensitive to parental energy. That would only exacerbate the situation.

Instead, the parent refuses to give the fall any power. She remains calm, tells the kid they’re fine, celebrates the accomplishment of getting back up, and continues walking. 

She focuses on what she wants to create, not what she wants to eliminate. Which puts her in the position of cause, not effect. 

The same goes for each of us. Our orientation towards our goals must remain positive. 

Because the only thing worse than not taking action on our dreams, is giving energy to our nightmares. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Instead of grumbling about something that bothers us, we building something more powerful that takes the place of your old life?
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!

Sufficient structure to contain the complexity

Most creative projects are only complex logistically, not spiritually. 



Yes, there are countless details and documents and calendars and tasks and challenges and expectations to manage. And that’s no easy task. 



But the good news is, if you’re crystal clear on who you are and what you want, and if you’re willing to trust smart people to show up and support your vision with their brilliance, that will be sufficient structure to contain the complexity. 



In the last few years, I’ve written, produced and scored three full length music films. The first movie was a concert documentary about identity and belonging, the second was a motivational masterclass on following your dreams, and the third was an animated folk rock opera. 



Sound like substantial undertakings? They were. Filmmaking has been the single most expensive, laborious, time consuming and exhausting endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. Doing so has made me feel engaged, tested and stretched in every possible way. 



But to my surprise and delight, it’s not complex. It isn’t overwhelming. 



Because we intentionally created very little friction in the process. 



I remember editing one afternoon with my director, and I asked him how on earth we were able to execute so quickly. His response was priceless. 



Because we don’t have a deadline, and there’s nobody yelling at us. 



And so, if you’re on the edge of a fiery new creative pursuit, excited to turn your brain over to some magnificent obsession, begin by building sufficient structure to complain the complexity. Be clear on who you are, what you want, and whom to trust. 



And instead of introducing complexity for no reason, reducing friction at every opportunity.



You’ll cross the finish line before you know it.

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Do you harbor contempt for simplicity because you believe only complexity is worthy of your attention? 
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!

Feeling farther away from my goal than when I started

Keep moving the story forward. 



That’s the mantra for taking action, making progress and building momentum. I even wrote a book about it here.



But the question is, what happens when we inadvertently move in the wrong direction? How do we reconcile the mistakes and missteps and setbacks that take us away from our goal? 



I once spent an entire summer applying for more than twelve hundred jobs. I filled out applications and submitted portfolios and took assessments and did video conferences and went on interviews, and every single one of them rejected me.



But what bothered me most about the experience wasn’t feeling unwanted, but feeling farther away from my goal than when I started. That was even worse. It’s like I spent four months building negative momentum in my career. 



Until a professor friend of mine reminded me about how physics works. 



Newton’s first law. A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. Therefore, action, even if you are going in the wrong direction, can still create momentum. Because you’re already in motion. And that means you can more easily change direction than if you are standing still. 



Proving, that even the actions that aren’t leading you directly to your goals will still generate energy. Taking action of any kind will make you feel better about yourself and our prospects. It doesn’t have to be heroics, rather, small practical things that come together to achieve effectiveness. 



And that energy will allow you to keep moving the story forward. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

When was a time you felt that your actions spoke for the best in who you are? 
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 centerpiece of your transaction with the world

When
something has been useful for us, it’s easy to be enthusiastic about it. 

Like
therapy or meditating or running marathons or getting up at the crack of dawn
to start working. 

But we cross the line when we attempt to build our identities
over people. When we try to superimpose our own assumptions and beliefs and
preferences onto others, assuming that what worked for us, will work for them. 



It
won’t. Everybody has their own unique experience. Everybody has layers of
potential that are realized at their own pace and speed. 

And so, even when
we’re excited about newfound enlightenment, even when another person’s truth appears
to be in conflict with how we would like things to be, we have to let go of the
idea that others should align with our implicit expectations. 

We have to stop
bristling with impatience toward those who don’t see things our way. Because we
diminish others when we define purpose and meaning for them. Even if they ask
us to do so. 

The centerpiece of our transaction with the world should be
compassion, not control. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you still making control the centerpiece of your transaction with the world? 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 don’t get what we want, we get what we believe we deserve

Expectation is a placebo. 



It’s a story we tell ourselves. It’s a sugar pill, which is the medication prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient, than for any physiological effect. It works because if a substance is perceived as helpful, then it can actually heal. 



And so, once that expectation is set, once we have a reason to buy into something occurring, we do what we can to make it happen. It’s human nature. The brain needs to prove itself right. To search for information and act in ways that confirm its own perceptions. 



The good news is, this cognitive bias isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We can use it to our advantage. 



Reading is a perfect example. It’s not the books that make you a better, smarter, healthier and more empathetic person, it’s the fact that you’re the kind of person who would buy and read books, that makes you a better, smarter, healthier and more empathetic person. 



Because of your identity, you’re hardwired for growth and progress and personal development. The books are just a tool to confirm that you’ve established yourself as a seeker of wisdom, as a person of action who desires to be more effective. 



Whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish, make sure that whatever action you intend to take, it matches the way you see yourself. Because nobody swallows a sugar pill unless they’re the kind of person that would swallow a sugar pill. 



Remember, we don’t get what we want, we get what we expect. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you using expectation to positively influence your own behavior? 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!

Lacking a delusional sense of significance

Here’s a collection of the best advice I’ve never been given:

Misread the risks. Never face the facts. Be wildly overconfident. Maintain an irrationally positive outlook on life. Convince yourself that the statistics don’t apply to you. Do your work with pervasive optimistic bias. Imagine a future in which the competition plays little part. Stubbornly reassert your grandiose vision in the face of mounting contradictory evidence. And believe against all odds that you’re going to be the one of the ones who makes it all the way. 

Let nobody dissuade you of these delusions, and success might actually have a real chance at you. 

Kahneman, the renowned psychologist, clinically proved this advice in his award winning book about thinking fast and slow. He said:

I have yet to meet a successful person who lacks the ability to exaggerate the importance of what they’re doing, and I believe that someone who lacks a delusional sense of significance will wilt in the fact of repeated experiences of multiple small failures and rare success. 

And so, whatever dream you’re pursuing, keep the oxygen of optimism continually in the process. No matter what the present tense may be telling you. Even if it makes you feel like a time traveler from a bygone era of enthusiasm. 

Stay faithful to your optimistic vision of reality. And remember that nobody knows anything.

They’re just guessing. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you really delusional, or is everybody wrong and they just can’t see it yet?

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!

Give yourself the benefit of creative doubt.

Artists know that their immediate impressions are not to be trusted. Only living with their creation over time will tell the real story. 



When I was in the nascent stages of my latest film project, I frequently found myself underwhelmed, disappointed and even a little bored with my own idea. 



And that bothered me. Because if my art didn’t inspire me, how could I expect it to inspire others? 



But then I remembered a lesson rom my high school chemistry class. We learned about the issue of data sufficiency in problem solving. Our teacher reminded us that often times, the solution cannot be determined from the information given. In which case, the correct multiple choice answer would simply be, not enough information. 



Interestingly, the same rule applies to the creative process. Especially in the early stages when we are poor judges of our own abilities. Turns out, only through patience and trust and time and oxygen can the nature of our aesthetic judgment be reconfigured. And sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it takes years. 



But nonetheless, it’s our job to have faith in the process and believe that the forest of the mind will provide, lest we allow negative perceptions of our incomplete work to cause us unnecessary grief. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you judging your own work too early? 


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!

Other desires well up inside the human heart

Maslow’s law of human behavior states that a satisfied need ceases to motivate. 



When a person decides that they’re earning enough money, for example, money loses its power to motivate. Other desires well up inside the human heart. And unless that person diverts their attention to one of those higher level need, they won’t sustain momentum and drive. 



Philippe’s book on creativity comes to mind. The tightrope walker write:



There is no such thing as motivation in my world. I am not motivated to do what I do. As an artist, I am driven, I am compelled, I am thrust forward by a force so rooted inside of me, so convincing, that is seems futile to try and explain it. 



That’s still motivation. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but this artist still understands that only needs that are relatively unsatisfied are capable of motivating people. That’s why he still makes public performances and gives lectures and conducts workshops and produces films and writes books and collaborates with legendary artists, well into his sixties. 



Because at this point in his career, the motivation isn’t money or fame or mastery. Philippe has already asked and answered the question, what is deepest potential that I can create in the world, and why does the world need it? 



And so, now it’s simply a matter of actualizing his potential. Creating something beautiful and original and noteworthy for his own internal satisfaction, separate from the needs of others. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What issue are you shielding yourself from so that you are not close enough to the pain that you need to motivate to 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!

A little closer to the way things could be

Robertson’s revolutionary corporate management system, holacracy, empowers employees at all levels to sense dissonance in the present moment and see the potential for change. 

And what’s fascinating about this system is, it replaces the language of problems with tensions. Brian reminds us that humans, after all, are wired to put off dealing with things that they perceive as problems to the last possible moment. And so, the use of negative language around issues in business can create a culture for avoidance or unnecessary trepidation. 

Tension, on the other hand, is a neutral term. It simply means the feeling of a specific gap between current reality and a sensed potential. Meaning, a tension is not a problem. It doesn’t necessarily need a solution, rather, it points to an opportunity to move the way things are in the present moment a little closer to the way things could be. 

This is a pivotal distinction, both for organizations and individuals alike. It’s an approach to addressing our issues peacefully, objectively and buoyantly. Simply seeing what is real, without rushing in to fix it. And allowing that acceptance to bring us a little closer to the way things could be. 

My hypnotherapist used to suggest something similar during our monthly sessions. He would remind me that anxiety, once spotted and named, often vanishes. Because all feelings have a beginning, middle and end. And so, processing our tensions into meaningful change is a simple routine. 

Three steps. Notice what’s got your attention, call it out and let it go. 

It works in meetings with a group, it works in meditation with yourself, it even works in mediations with your spouse. As long as you approach issues as tensions to be processed, not problems to be solved.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What language will you use to move things closer to the way things could be?

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!

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