Being spectacular doesn’t guarantee our safety in this world

There’s nothing more exhausting than keeping up with the reputation that you’re a good person who always makes healthy choices and knows what they’re doing. 

Integrity, consistency and competence, these character traits are admirable, but frankly, they’re profoundly difficult to uphold one hundred percent of the time. 

That’s what I wonder to myself when I meet people who are not open to being or even looking human. 

Who are these heroes that maintain the cartoonish archetype of headstrong audacity, immutable resolve, terminal certainty and invulnerable obedience? 

When was the last time they actually allowed themselves to take a break from being amazing? 

What will it take for them to enjoy the imperfect moment they’re in? 

Because the truth is, being spectacular doesn’t guarantee our safety in this world. We are strongest in our damaged places. As the song lyric goes:

It’s the only way we’re going to last forever, if we find a way to stand up broken together.

Imperfection, then, is not a personal problem like bad breath or chronic body odor or seasonal depression. It’s a natural part of existing. 

And yet, people love to flaunt their open mindedness to humility in the abstract, but in reality, it’s just a public relations campaign. 

Especially in this country, where every asshole needs to be seen as big and strong and right and cool, humility is and always has been a trait that’s perceived as a sign of weakness. 

But the sooner we realize that we’re all broken vessels aspiring to a lost wholeness, the sooner we can join together our collective journey to make the world better

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you willing to acknowledge that you share the human condition of imperfection?
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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


We have to schedule time for joy

Divine discontent is a fundamental part of the human biological endowment. 

Everyday we are swamped by feelings that threaten to drain away our sense of power and ability to make meaning. 

But unless we physically schedule time for joy, it might never find a slot on our schedule. And we’ll become blind to the very things that make our lives feel worth living. 

Because we’ll grow overextended and over exhausted to make the necessary space for it. 

It’s like having sex for married couples. 

Physical intimacy is a precondition for relationship stability, but the absurd idea of putting lovemaking on the calendar would seemingly to remove all of the spontaneity and romance and fun out of the act. 

And yet, approaching sex in that manner is actually quite common, insanely practical and surprisingly liberating. 

I’m reminded of a popular interview with a marriage therapist whose research proves this very practice. She finds that kinky couples plan sex and simmer for days in advance. They emphasize quality of encounter over frequency of encounters. They practice variety and exploration. They don’t judge a partner’s desires. They discuss and negotiate sexual acts, allowing them to be totally immersed in an erotic space when it happens. 

The question is, why should joy function any differently? Why not create a structure that allows us to make it a priority? 

I’d like to see a smartphone app that allows people to schedule, manage and document joy. One that allows people to be more proactive, intentional and disciplined about this most essential human practice. 

That way, when life presents them with the choice between a cup of sadness and a cup of joy, they’ll have no trouble choosing the latter. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Which meaning making activities are you allowing to be put on the back burner?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Broken and torn apart by failure and sadness

I recently heard an interview with a man who holds the world record as the youngest disc jockey in history. 

Stevens built his own working transmitter in the attic of his home by using a souped up wireless broadcasting kit with a hundred foot antenna. And once his remarkable story blipped on the radar of the local radio station, the program director offered him a job as a weekend host. 

He was eleven years old. 

Fifty years later, the broadcasting veteran laughs about the quality of that first attempt. 

My radio show must have been terrible, but what mattered was that it was still charming and quaint and adorable enough for listeners to allow it. 

Behold, the glorious misunderstanding about success. 

That when our failures that are interesting enough, people will give us more chances. 

That when we take extreme ownership from the very beginning, committing to playing the game everyday and taking shots and inevitably missing, the audience is still going to root for us. 

That when we go out there swinging with all of our hearts, the world is far more likely to forgive us if and when everything blows up. 

I once spent five years, tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours building my own video production studio to launch an online corporate training portal

But despite my bottomless enthusiasm and effort, I only managed to secure one paying client. The revenue of which didn’t even come close to recouping the overall expense. 

The strange part is, nobody seemed to mind. Readers and customers and friends and fans didn’t abandon me because I failed. In fact, the flop only endeared them further. 

That’s what happens when we fail in a way that doesn’t kill us and doesn’t wipe us out of the game. We soldier on. We dust off our boots. And we go back to work to start making the next thing. 

Remember, despite the fact that anytime we are in touch with failure, it is a close reminder of our own death, ultimately, the cost is of failure sill pretty low. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

If your perception of and response to failure were changed, what project would you attempt to achieve?
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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Asserting mastery of our own little world

Our reluctance to ask for help often stems from the
childhood need for individuation, agency, efficacy and power. 

Somewhere inside
of us, there’s still that petulant little toddler trying to prove to himself
and to the world that he’s big and strong and can sit at the big boy table and
play with the grownups and build a giant sand castle all by himself. 

As if to
pout and cry, just go away, I don’t want your help, and I don’t need your help! 

In short, asserting mastery of our own little
world. 

Which I can appreciate, coming from the freelance world, where doing
everything myself as often the smartest, cheapest, fastest and in many cases,
the only choice I have. 

But I also wonder, at what point does my stubborn
insistence on doing everything myself work against me? When does my deep seeded
need to feel big and strong and powerful and independent limit my growth? 

And
the answer is, when I finally admit that the characteristic that got me where I
am is also very thing that’s holding me back. 

That my excessive need to be me,
exalting my faults as virtues simply because they’re who I am, is actually
thwarting my progress. 

Viorst calls these moments of letting go necessary losses. Giving up certain
cherished parts of ourselves in the name of growth. 

Her words helped me realize
that as much as my ego wants to remain dead set on going it alone, the reality
is, nobody has ever actually done anything alone. 

And so, perhaps it’s time for
me to find the wherewithal to get out of my own way and become a champion of
other people’s strengths. 

That’s the growth challenge for each of us. 

To figure
out how to let go of what we are, so that we can become what we might be. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Which winning strategy do you have that has helped you to achieve success but may now be limiting 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


I’m not really hungry, but I’d like to have reservations someplace

The principle of caveat venditor, aka, let the seller beware, cautions the businessperson to be responsible for any problem that the buyer might encounter with a service or product. 

But let’s not ignore the problems that occur before the sale is made. 

Because as a seller, it’s easy to allow our ego needs get in the way of good judgment. 

Think back to various projects and jobs and gigs and clients that you mistakenly undertook. 

Were you so flattered to be asked that you said yes to everything? We you so hungry for praise and attention that you blithely agree to any project that came your way? And were you so blinded by the prospect of success that you forget to set healthy boundaries to protect your time and energy? 

Ellis put it perfectly in his award winning book about investment bankers trying to keep up appearances in their circle of wealthy and shallow associates. 

I’m not really hungry, but I’d like to have reservations someplace. 

That’s the faulty, ego driven filter we create for ourselves. Everything we do in life is a way to be loved a little more. 

And as a result, we agree to do things out of gratitude for the acknowledgement and recognition. We start compensating for past behavior through excessive generosity. 

Our company mantra ultimately becomes, yay, another opportunity not to get paid for something.

Look, I know there are lots of ways to create value for people, and most of them don’t include money. But everybody has bills to pay. 

And so, what we need, is a formal framework for prying the buyer’s fingers from around our neck. 

That’s why I created a software program to execute this task. 



Opportunity Junkie is a filter that evaluates the asset value of a potential new opportunity. 

It’s a creative, existential, strategic and financial calculator to decide whether or not a project is worth pursuing. 

Regardless of how much flattery is thrown at me. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How will you prevent your ego needs from getting in the way of good judgment?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Engaged in a lifelong struggle against our own nature

Camus notably wrote that peace was
the only battle worth waging. 

This profound thought first appeared in an
essay about the savagery of the atomic bomb. 

But keep in mind, the guy was also
an absurdist philosopher. 

And so, perhaps there’s a deeper layer to his
message about the battles we wage inside of our own heads. A forewarning to
people that the fight for the inner
landscape is equally as important as what happens in the material world. 

Because each of us is engaged in a lifelong struggle against our own nature.
Each of us is endowed with a mind pushing back to keep us where we have always
been. And if we have any intention of making this world a better place, these
are the battles we must attend to early and often. 

Before any authentic
transformation of the world can be sustained, there must be an ongoing inner
practice in the minds, hearts and souls of those who inhabit it. ‘

If we can win these battles against ourselves enough, it will
slowly start to become easier to win the battles out in the world. 

The secret
is acknowledging, savoring, celebrating and sharing our victories. Allowing
ourselves to feel proud of every step we take forward. Even the small and
seemingly insignificant ones. 

I recently hit a milestone in my own emotional
development, in terms of my ability to notice, classify, appreciate, sit with
and discharge my uncomfortable emotions. I still have a long way to go, but in
the ongoing battle between me and the old me, real progress is finally being
made. 

I’m learning to forgive my past broken self and be proud of the current
one. And that’s a victory. One that I take pride in achieving it. 

Because I
know that in the long arc game of my life, that milestone only adds to the
foundation that will allow me to contribute at a higher level. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How are you waging peace in your inner battles? 

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Something to do with the way life is supposed to be lived

Toshi’s rock club has the greatest mission statement on the planet. 

The plaque on the wall says:

Our raison d’être is to produce rapture for all those who come, moments where you’re happy to be alive and wanting to live forever. Sounds crazy. We know. But it’s what we want to do. 

Can you imagine what the world would look like if more companies took a stand for joy? 

If more organizations held a space where customers and employees could experience joy is an act of appreciation for life? 

The amount of money spent on antidepressants alone would be enough to balance the national budget. 

I’m reminded of a passage from a detective novel that perfectly captures this sentiment.

As we squinted into the setting sun, we understood, for a little while anyway, that this moment had something to do with the way life is supposed to be lived, and why such moments were worth being cherished and remembered. 

Patterson’s words prove that joy comes from a place of security within ourselves. That’s what most people miss. That joy doesn’t happen to us, but in us. Joy isn’t some transitory emotion that comes and goes like a weather pattern, it’s an intention and an attitude and a way of engaging with the world. 

And the best part is, there’s no scarcity around it, except for the permissions we give ourselves to provoke it. 

Because we are the source of it. Joy isn’t out there somewhere, waiting for us to reach out and touch it. It’s in our blood. 

Interestingly enough, the founders of this country never thought this way. Jefferson famously wrote that we were endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, among which were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

But that begets the question, well, where is happiness if we have to pursue it? It must be outside of us. And so, what else could we become but a compulsively consuming machine? 

That’s what the powers that be don’t want us to know. 

That joy is available, right now, forever. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you still convinced that things and people outside of yourself hold the key to your happiness?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Reaching a place of enduring contentment with ourselves

When sadness descends like a heavy
fog, our first instinct is to stop giving ourselves privileges. 

To deny
ourselves healthy experiences and emotions. To feel virtuous for depriving
ourselves. And to contract our lives and become small, because that will keep things predictable and
safe. 

Our sweet little routine will protect us. Even though joy has left the
building. 

But’s a completely false solution. To punish ourselves for deviating
from the happy path, that doesn’t make us heroic and empowered, it only serves
to compound the pain. 

And so, instead of depriving ourselves when we already
feel sad enough, a healthier choice is to do something nice for ourselves. To
give ourselves the freedom to enjoy life in spite of our unsolved problems. To
find a portal to transcendence, whatever that might look and feel like for our
individual personality. 

Russell’s final paragraph in his book on the conquest
of happiness put it perfectly:

The
happy man is the man who does not suffer from failures of unity, whose personality
is neither divided against itself nor pitted against the world. Such a person
feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying freely the spectacle that it
offers and the joys that it affords, untroubled by the thought of death because
he feels himself not really separate from those who will come after him. It is
in such profound instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest
joy is to be found

This is how we reach a place of enduring contentment with
ourselves. 

By engaging in activities that match our vision of life, rather than
depriving ourselves of joy. 

By embracing a diverse set of pursuits that form a
complete identity, rather than letting one bad mood fill our entire identity
screen.



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What privileges are you denying yourself because of sadness?
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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Head Up, Heart Higher — Chapter 11 (2017) Scott Ginsberg Animated Folk Rock Opera

Camouflaged with such mad intentions

Fool I’m just trying to fight your attention

It’s the only way we’re gonna last forever

If we find a way to stand broken together

It’s the war of the wills

It’s the war of the wills

Gratefulness for the oxygen junkies

Fool your circus must meet my monkies

It’s the only way we’re gonna last forever

If we find a way to stand broken togethechr

It’s the war of the wills

It’s the war of the wills

I got me the wind of joy blowing at my backI got me the wind of joy blowing at my backI got me the wind of joy blowing at my back

To the sensible eyes of the intellect

To the chemical highs that we sin forget


To the sensible eyes of the intellectTo the chemical highs that we sin forget


To the sensible eyes of the intellect

To the chemical highs that we sin forget

Soteria, soteria, soteria


Watch the whole movie here.

* * * *

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Once you start noticing, the whole world just comes falling at you

I have a curious constitution. 

I am vitalized by the world of ideas and turned on by brilliance. I am hungry for insight into the nature of things. I am obsessed with finding wisdom from unexpected sources. I love the thrill of finding a pattern beneath life’s complexities. I relish the process of interrogating information and sniffing for kernels. 

I enjoy using curiosity to disrupt my own point of view. I get a bolt of energy from noticing partial truths beneath which lie far more nuanced realities. I receive joy from metabolizing even the smallest events or situations into breakthroughs in thinking and action. I fancy using new insight to widened the dimensions of my world and intensify my participation in life. I love meeting somebody new and pulling every piece of insight I can out of them. 

And I am perpetually on the lookout for the next tiny, seemingly innocuous detail that triggers a whole new world of understanding. 

Because I believe that many of the most meaningful moments of life are moments of insight. And that once you start noticing, the whole world just comes falling at you.

If you want to develop a hypersensitive relationship to the world, try this. 

Say yes to every single tiny clue of curiosity that you notice around you. When you stumble upon something interesting, don’t just look at it, look through it to a world beyond. Pick it up, pull it apart and point it out. Ask dumb questions. Find the thing behind the thing. Ponder the experience and wonder if it points to a more general principle. 

And let the resulting insight send a charge of electricity down to your toes. 

Because the world is an incredible place for curious people.



LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What did you discover yesterday?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


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