"But what if I fail?"
You will.
The answer to the what if question is, you will.
A better question might be, "after I fail, what then?"
Well, if you've chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try.
The humility of the artist
It seems arrogant to say, "perhaps this isn't for you."
When the critic pans your work, or the prospect hears your offer but doesn't buy, the artist responds, "that's okay, it's not for you." She doesn't wheedle or flip-flop or go into high pressure mode. She treats different people differently, understands that she is working to delight the weird, not please the masses, and walks away.
Isn't that arrogant?
No. It's arrogant to assume that you've made something so extraordinary that everyone everywhere should embrace it. Our best work can't possibly appeal to the average masses, only our average work can.
Finding the humility to happily walk away from those that don't get it unlocks our ability to do great work.
Trash talking important work
The self-induced anxiety formula often goes like this: What I'm about to do is important. I've never done it quite like this. It's incredibly crucial, a turning point, a high risk venture, a moment in time I won't have again. Therefore, I am nervous. And I need to get more nervous, because the importance of the moment warrants it. This is going to fail. I can vividly picture all the ways it won't work...
On and on.
A common approach to decreasing the unhappy cycle is self talk to minimize how important the upcoming event is. The mantra is: No one will be watching, I'm exaggerating this moment, it's no big deal, it's not as important as you think, it doesn't really matter...
The problem with that approach is that you spend your day trash talking your leverage and impact. By actively diminishing what you've accomplished, you make it less likely you'll see yourself as worthy of even bigger achievements tomorrow.
In fact, it does matter. In fact, this is an important thing you're about to do, and denigrating it undermines the very reason you're doing this work in the first place.
Here's an alternative: It's okay to be nervous. Instead of fighting that anxiety, dance with it. Welcome it. Relish it. It's a sign you're on to something. "Oh good, here comes that itch!" This is important after all.
When we welcome a feeling like this, when we embrace it and actually look forward to it, the feeling doesn't get louder and more debilitating. It softens, softens to the point where we can work with it.
Use your fear like fuel.
Copyediting, line editing and the other kind
The copyeditor will fix a misstated fact, spot a typo and get your prose clean.
The line editor will rearrange a paragraph and help you organize a thought more clearly.
And the editor who is your partner will tell you that the chapters are in the wrong order, that you must delete a third of what you wrote, or perhaps consider writing for TV instead. This kind of editor is the one who will tell you your time is better spent doing something else entirely.
It's easier (but not easy) to find a good copyeditor than it is to find someone generous and brave enough to help you figure out your strategy, whether you're working on a book, a career or the structure of your next project.
The copyeditor can tell you that you mangled a few facts early in your presentation. The line editor will help you untangle a complicated story near the middle. And your strategic editor will help you see that a one-on-one meeting would have been better than a presentation in the first place.
Sure, fix my typos, thanks a lot, but what's truly precious is someone able to fix your plan.
Worth noting that most critics and journalists are comfortable being metaphorical copy editors, but it's rare you find someone who speaks up with sensible thoughts about your strategy.
Treasure the folks willing and able to develop a point of view about the big picture.
What's attention worth?
Marketers that fail are often impatient and selfish.
Impatient, because they won't invest in the long-term job of earning familiarity, permission and trust.
And selfish, because they get hooked on the erroneous belief that merely because they have money, they have the right to demand attention. And selfish because they believe marketing is about them, not the person paying attention.
We call it "paying attention" for a reason. It's worth quite a bit, and ought to be cherished.
The care and feeding (and shunning) of vampires
Vampires, of course, feed on something that we desperately need but also can't imagine being a source of food.
You have metaphorical vampires in your life. These are people that feed on negativity, on shooting down ideas and most of all, on extinguishing your desire to make things better.
Why would someone do that? Why would they rush to respond to a heartfelt and generous blog post with a snide comment about a typo in the third line? Why would they go out of their way to fold their arms, make a grimace and destroy any hope you had for changing the status quo?
Vampires cannot be cured. They cannot be taught, they cannot learn the error of their ways. Most of all, vampires will never understand how much damage they're doing to you and your work. Pity the vampires, they are doomed to this life.
Your garlic is simple: shun them. Delete their email, turn off comments, don't read your one-star reviews. Don't attend meetings where they show up. Don't buy into the false expectation that in an organizational democracy, every voice matters. Every voice doesn't matter--only the voices that move your idea forward, that make it better, that make you better, that make it more likely you will ship work that benefits your tribe.
It's so tempting to evangelize to the vampires, to prove them wrong, to help them see how destructive they are. This is food for them, merely encouragement.
Shun the ones who feed on your failures.
"Bring us your problems"
We're far more aware of our problems than our opportunities. Our problems nag at us, annoy us and paralyze us.
Every organization wrestles with its problems, and is eager to solve them.
When you generously invite people to bring you their problems, they might just do that.
Solving problems—actually solving them, not just claiming you do—solving perceived, urgent problems, is a surefire way to get the world to beat a path to your door. [HT to Adrian for the photo.]
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
1.油炸食品
像炸雞塊、炸薯條之類的油炸食物不可避免是富含油脂和高脂肪的，而這兩種物質堆積在胃裡就會造成疾病。油脂在高溫下會產生一種叫“丙烯酸”的物質，這種物質很難消化。
某營養學家說：“如果你已經患有等方面的疾病，那麼尤其要注意少吃多油、多脂的油炸食品，否則會引起一些不適癥狀，比如反胃、腹瀉等。”
對策：
其實要滿足口腹之欲，放棄油炸也能獲得可口的感覺，比如想獲得咯吱咯吱的享受，吃咸味薯片肯定是不健康的，但是可以尋找制作土豆片的其他方法，比如烘焙而不是油炸，或選擇吃低脂或無脂食品，比如脆餅乾、空心的爆米花等。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
2.辛辣食物
辣椒能刺激食道的內壁，吃完後會有種令人討厭的心痛，並且增加胃的負擔。
即使你想加一些酸奶油使它變涼，你仍然能獲得同樣的刺激。而且，加上酸奶油之類的東西反而會遭受其他的副作用。
對策：
對於腸胃不好或是身體燥熱的人來說，如果實在拒絕不了辛辣食物的誘惑，不妨選擇一些微辣的食品，少吃青、紅辣椒。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
3.巧克力
大量食用巧克力不但會帶來多餘的熱量，而且遭受胃食管反流病折磨的人，都經歷過食用巧克力後帶來的難受刺激。這是因為巧克力會引起下食道括約肌的放松，使得胃酸回流，刺激食道及咽部。
對策：
在巧克力品種的選擇上，最好是黑巧克力。這是因為，黑巧克力含有鈣、磷、鎂、鐵、銅等多種對人體有益的礦物質，在所有巧克力中，它是含糖量和脂肪量最低的。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
4.柑橘汁
酸性飲料能夠刺激食道，使感覺神經受到刺激，刺激的部位就會變得紅腫。
如果你早晨起來後，第一件事就是喝下一大杯柑橘汁，就會提高胃腸內的酸性。如果此時你喝的是含有高濃度果糖的甜檸檬水，那就更要注意了，因為攝入過量的糖會造成腹瀉。
對策：
柑橘汁含有大量的維生素C，適宜經常飲用，只要選對飲用的時間就不用擔心刺激食道的問題了。飲用柑橘汁之類酸果汁的最佳時間是隨餐，或者在兩餐之間。
此外，黑巧克力還有降壓、預防動脈粥樣硬化的作用。但是，再好的東西也不能吃太多，每天最多只能吃兩小塊。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
5.土豆泥
土豆是低熱量、高蛋白、含有多種維生素和微量元素的食品，被稱為理想的減肥食品。似乎沒有東西比一碗土豆泥更受人們歡迎的了。這就是為什麼當提到所謂的“方便食物”時，土豆泥總被列為榜首的原因。
但加有奶油或奶酪的土豆泥就沒有那麼想象中那麼好了。在美國，有3000?5000萬乳糖不耐受的人，但是如果你也是這樣的人，就不適合享用奶油土豆泥。這是因為，土豆泥裡加的牛奶、奶油或乳酪，會讓你的胃很難受。
對策：
最好不要購買外賣的土豆泥，自己在家完全可以用新鮮的土豆，蒸或煮出不添加任何作料的純味土豆泥。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
6.生洋蔥
洋蔥、大蒜、韭菜裡面充滿了多種營養元素，它們對健康大有裨益，比如保護心髒，但是它們也會導致腸胃不適，比如脹氣、腹部絞痛等。但是通過烹飪似乎可以使引起腸胃不適的營養混合物不起壞的作用。
對策：
營養學專家建議，吃這些食物時可以生熟混合的烹飪方法，這樣可以使你不僅能收獲健康，而且不用遭受負面的影響。
7.冰激凌
沒有一種迅速的方法能測定你是不是乳糖不耐受，只有等你坐下來吃一大碗的冰激凌纔能知道。當你腹脹、腹部絞痛、脹氣時，這些身體的反應就是告訴你要遠離這些富含乳制品的食物。
像冰激凌、冰棍、冰冷飲料等生冷食物如果吃得過多，就會影響功能的正常運轉，造成食物很難消化，容易損傷脾胃。吃的時候雖然美味無窮，但之後卻會導致食欲下降，也會刺激脾胃，形成腹脹、腹痛的惡性循環。
對策：
如果你不想放棄涼爽的冰凍食品，那麼惟一的解決辦法就是改吃無乳糖的冰凍食物，比如使用豆類、米粉煮成的糊糊。但是即使你不是乳糖不耐受，冰激凌裡面含有大量脂肪，而脂肪在胃裡面滯留的時間比其他食物都長。因此生冷的食物最好少吃或者不吃。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
8.西蘭花和卷心菜
西蘭花和卷心菜都是“十子花科”蔬菜中的佼佼者，不但富含大量維生素和膳食纖維，還有防癌、抗衰老的功效。
但即使富含膳食纖維和多種營養素，這些蔬菜也不能完全相信是健康的。因為高纖維的蔬菜能幫助橕大你的胃容量，容易導致腸胃內多餘的氣體累積。
對策：
解決問題的方法很簡單，只要在吃之前，將它們在熱水中焯一下，使其變軟，這樣便可以使產生氣體的硫磺混合物失去作用。這兩種蔬菜最適合涼拌和烹炒。
最傷腸胃食物大盤點
9.豆類
豆類在引起消化不良方面可謂聲名狼藉。豆類所含的低聚糖如水蘇糖和棉子糖，被腸道細菌發酵，能分解產生一些氣體，進而引起打嗝、腸鳴、腹脹、腹痛等癥狀。
嚴重消化性潰瘍病人不要食用豆制品，因為豆制品中嘌呤含量高，有促進胃液分泌的作用。急性胃炎和慢性淺表性患者也不要食用豆制品，以免刺激胃酸分泌和引起胃腸脹氣。
對策：
以湯的形式烹飪豆類，對消化這類食物是有幫助的，通過補充水分，有助於消化豆裡面含有的大量纖維，或者延長烹飪時間。另外就是要逐漸把豆類食品增加到飲食中，這樣會慢慢增加消化豆類所用的?的需求，而不會出現副作用。
昨天，南崗教化廣場附近某咖啡店老板剛從老家過年回來，就張羅著“慶功”。原來，春節前她在微信發布了一條“轉讓”消息，稱春節假日一元“轉讓”咖啡店，被選中的合作者可以每人全權管理一天。一時間引來了近百位報名者。最終，選定7位“代理老板”每人經營一天。沒想到，春節假期，銷售額達到了4000多元，遠遠超過了老板的預期。
記者看到，該微信消息中寫道：“從初一到初七，我們把咖啡店全權交給你管理！象征性收一元轉讓費，期間營業額我們五五分賬。”在咖啡店裡，老板回憶起節前面試“代理老板”的“盛況”：“我春節想休息，結果一些老顧客提出還想來店，我說乾脆你們自己管吧。後來一想，試試交給別人管理也不錯。發消息第一天就有50多人報名，最後報名近百人，實在是沒想到。”
據了解，報名條件十分簡單：光顧過或者聽說過該店、喜歡該店的即可。參加面試並最終入選的馬女士興奮地對記者說：“我一直想自己開個小店，沒成。這次就是希望可以體驗一下，也算圓夢一天。”
據介紹，大年初五的“代理老板”小欣創造了1200元的日銷售紀錄。7天長假身兼廚師、咖啡師和代理老板多種職務的老顧客文文、天昊和小然也都業績斐然。來店客人並非都是熟人、朋友，慕名而來的新面孔反而居多。老板透露，以後的長假或節假日還會考慮這種形式經營。
Modesty and hubris
When you're seeking to succeed with your art, it's helpful to see how those before you have done it. And so the conference was invented. The ones where recently successful internet entrepreneurs tell their stories are particularly popular right now, but you can certainly find designers, novelists and others that are generous enough to talk about how they succeeded.
Some speakers at these events are brimming with false modesty. "I'm incredibly successful and happy, it happened really fast and I have no idea what I'm doing." The appeal here is the same that works for the lottery. Someone has to win, it might as well be you, it's easy, buy a ticket.
Some speakers, on the other hand, bring false hubris to the table. "This is incredibly difficult, I worked harder than you can imagine, and only a perfect storm of effort and connections that were created directly by me led to this moment."
The truth, of course, is a combination of both. "I worked really hard, back against the wall, thinking I was going to fail, almost did, and I got lucky." And that's like hearing that there's a lottery and the tickets are very expensive.
But it's true.
It probably looks higher from up there
When we find ourselves on the edge of a precipice, looking down at the depths of the chasm below, it's easy to think that this time we went too far, that our plan is far too risky, that our product is way too bizarre, that our behavior is just too weird...
The funny thing about perspective is that most bystanders don't see you standing on a precipice at all. They see someone doing something a little edgy, but by no means nuts.
Just about all commercial behavior is banal. Even in movies that deal with businesspeople, the characters don't dream nearly big enough about one's ability to change the culture or the enterprise.
You're far more likely to go not-far-enough than you are to go too far.
Internal monologue amplifies personal drama. To the outsider, neither exists. That's why our ledge-walking rarely attracts a crowd. What's in your head is real, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can see the resistance you are battling (or care about it).
The problems you've got left...
are probably the difficult ones.
We'd all like to find discount answers to our problems. Organizations, governments and individuals prefer to find the solution that's guaranteed to work, takes little time and even less effort.
Of course, the problems that lend themselves to bargain solutions have already been solved.
What we're left with are the problems that will take ridiculous amounts of effort, untold resources and the bravery to attempt something that might not work.
Knowing this before you start will help you allocate the right resources... or choose not to start at all--this problem, the one that won't be solved in a hurry, might not be worth the effort it's going to take. If it is, then pay up.
過年是中國人最重要的節日，它象征著一年的結束，新一年的開始，當然也免不了合家歡聚在一起享受各色豐盛大餐。你或許會抱著“過完年再減肥”的僥幸心理，但作為一名追求完美的女性，這種念頭萬萬不能有。你會不自覺地放縱自己，讓臉頰、腰圍、四肢都胖一圈。即使過年，也要養成抵制肥胖的良好習慣，曼妙身材靠長久維持。
吃飯時做個優雅女人
你一定要銘記“重質不重量”這句話，重質是指六大類食物每日建議攝取量，從而達到均衡飲食。臘肉、風乾的香腸及醃制等再加工的高鹽分食物要盡量避免，不重量指切勿過量進食，吃到八分飽即可打住，加上每一口的細嚼慢咽，養成良好的吃飯習慣。
高熱量的汽水OUT！
過年期間飲酒不可避免，但小酌一杯即可，切勿過量攝取，同時避開汽水、飲料、果汁等這些可怕的高熱量飲料，選擇無糖茶類，既刮油水又解膩，也不必擔心熱量過高的問題。飲用同時搭配蔬菜水果，加快身體排毒。
不做懶女人，假期更要動起來。
利用過年大掃除和出行機會，充分活絡自己的筋骨；保持每天半小時以上的有氧運動，消耗身體吸收的多餘熱量，挑選白天時間來個全身伸展的運動，因為身體的活動力與消耗熱量的高峰期是在早上。
Quality of production
It's entirely possible that you are very good at (and have the tools to perform) a job that was really difficult to do a while ago.
The problem is that some difficult things keep getting easier to do.
Star Trek was cancelled twice during its original run for the simple reason that the ratings didn't justify the cost. Today, fans are making original Star Trek episodes for free. Many elements of the production are simply stunning.
Or you might be a wedding photographer with tons of fancy equipment, competing against the fact that every single guest at the wedding has a camera in his pocket.
Consider the fact that many restaurant meals weren't actually made by a chef, at least not in the restaurant in which you're eating.
Even people who sell real estate have discovered that much of what they did all day is now being done, sorted and presented, for free, in real time, online.
That doesn't mean that the game is over. What it does mean is that we have to figure out how to obsess over things that are truly difficult. Access to tools alone is not sufficient.
春節假日裡吃點好東西是必須的，給大家來點海鮮怎麼樣？大蝦不錯吧？相信天南海北的朋友們大都很喜愛它，紅殼白肉味道鮮、低脂高鋅優蛋白，確實是一道不可多得的好食材。下面小於就來教您做大蝦。
第五天：大蝦燒白菜
材料准備：
大蝦、白菜、蔥姜、白糖、生抽
制作流程：蔥姜爆香，置入蝦段煸炒至變色後置入白菜幫翻炒，加入半碗熱水燒3分鍾，再把白菜葉放入炒軟即可調味出鍋。
營養分析：大蝦裡的各種礦物質比陸地上的食物平均要高出一大截，尤其是鋅元素含量豐富，可以增強味覺有利健康。同時蛋白質屬於優質蛋白，對孩子的生長發育很有幫助。要注意的是，白菜葉一定要出鍋前放入，不可長時間燉煮。因為白菜葉中的VC高溫易被破壞，所以變軟即可出鍋。白菜的膳食纖維有益於腸道健康，是冬天裡不可缺少的食物。
Uninformed or ignorant?
Uninformed is a temporary condition, fixed more easily than ever.
Ignorant, on the other hand, is the dangerous situation where someone making a decision is uninformed and either doesn't know or doesn't care about his lack of knowledge.
The internet lets us become informed, if we only are willing to put in the time and the effort. That's new--the ability to easily and confidently look it up, learn about it, process it and publish to see if you got it right.
Alas, the internet also creates an environment where it's possible to feel just fine about being ignorant. It's easier than ever to live in a silo where we are surrounded by others who think it's just great to not know.
"Ignorant" used to be a fairly vague epithet, one that we often misused to describe someone who disagreed with us. Today, because it represents a choice, the intentional act of not-knowing, I think it carries a lot more weight.
The more I think about this, the more I'm aware of just how ignorant I've chosen to be. Not a happy thought, but a useful wake-up call.
Measuring nothing (with great accuracy)
The weight of a television set has nothing at all to do with the clarity of its picture. Even if you measure to a tenth of a gram, this precise data is useless.
Some people measure stereo equipment using fancy charts and graphs, even though the charts and graphs say little or nothing about how it actually sounds.
A person's Klout score or the number of Twitter followers she has probably doesn't have a lot to do with how much influence she actually has, even if you measure it quite carefully.
You can't tell if a book is any good by the number of words it contains, even though it's quite easy and direct to measure this.
We keep coming up with new things to measure (like processor speed, heat output, column inches) but it's pretty rare that those measurements are actually a proxy for the impact or quality we care about. It takes a lot of guts to stop measuring things that are measurable, and even more guts to create things that don't measure well by conventional means.
The moderation glitch
More doesn't scale forever. Why are we so bad at enaging with this obvious truth?
In Malcolm's new book, he points out that our expectation is that most things will respond in a linear way. More input gets us more output. If you want a hotter fire, add more wood. If you want more sales, run more ads.
In fact, it turns out, most things don't respond in a linear way. It's more of a steep curve (he calls it an inverted U). For a while, more inputs get you more results, but then, inevitably, things level off, and then, perversely, get worse. One brownie makes you happy, a second brownie, maybe a little more. The third brownie doesn't make us happy at all, and the fourth brownie makes us sick.
U curve godin
Health care is a fine example of this. First aid makes a huge difference. Smart medical care can increase our health dramatically. But over time, too much investment in invasive medicine, particularly at the end of life, ends up making us worse, not better. Or, in a less intuitive example, it turns out that class size works the same way. Small classes (going from 40 to 25 in the room) make a huge difference, but then diminishing class size (without changing teaching methods) doesn't pay much, and eventually ends up hurting traditional classroom education outputs.
But here's the unanswered question: if the data shows us that in so many things, moderation is a better approach than endless linearity, why does our culture keep pushing us to ignore this?
First, there are the situations where one person (or an organization) is trying to change someone else. Consider the high-end omakase sushi bar, where, for $200, you're buying a once-in-a-lifetime meal. The chef certainly has enough experience to know that he should stop bringing you more food, that one more piece of fish isn't going to make you happier, it's quite likely to make you uncomfortable. But he doesn't stop.
Or consider the zero-tolerance policy in some schools. We know that ever more punishment doesn't create better outcomes.
Here's the problem with the inverted U: We aren't certain when it's going to turn. We can't be sure when more won't actually be better.
As a result of this uncertainty, we're likely to make one of two mistakes. Either we will stop too soon, leaving stones unturned, patrons unsatisfied, criminals unpunished... or we will stop too late, wasting some money and possibly missing the moderation sweet spot.
You already guess what we do: we avoid the embarrassment of not doing enough. The sushi chef doesn't want someone to say, "it was great, but he wasn't generous." The politician says, "I don't want any voter to say that even one criminal got away because I was soft on crime."
We always start with intent, as Omar Wassow has pointed out. It's intent that gets us to take action and to start marketing and spending. But intent and results are different things.
We market our solution (to ourselves and to others) and that marketing drives our actions. As long as we're uncertain as to where the curve turns, we're going to have to push that marketing message forward. It's a lot more difficult to sell the idea of moderation than it is to sell the earnest intent of joy or punishment or health or education.
Moderation is a marketing problem.
(this is getting long, sorry, but I hope it's worth it)
The other category of interventions are the things we do to ourselves. This is the wine drinker who goes from the health benefits of a daily glass of wine to the health detriments of a daily bottle or two. This is the runner who goes from the benefits of five miles a day to knees that no longer work because he overdid it.
Here, the reason we can't stop is self marketing plus habit. Habits are the other half of the glitch. We learn a habit when it pays off for us, but we're hardwired to keep doing the habit, even after it doesn't.
Hence the two lessons:
1. Smart organizations need to build moderation-as-a-goal into every plan they make. Every budget and every initiative ought to be on the look out for the sweet spot, not merely "more." It's not natural to look for this, nor is it easy, which is why, like all smart organizational shifts, we need to work at it. How often does the boss ask, "have we hit the sweet spot of moderation yet?"
If doctors were required to report on quality of life instead of tests run, you can bet quality of life would improve faster than the number of tests run does.
2. Habits matter. When good habits turn into bad ones, call them out, write them down and if you can, find someone to help you change them.
"Because it used to work," is not a sensible reason to keep doing something.
[But please! Don't forget the local max.]
Perfection or exploration
In an organization built around perfection, you need to push people to say, "Bad news, I made a mistake." Only by surfacing mistakes can the organization stamp them out.
In an organization built around exploration, on the other hand, people need to say, "Good news, I made a mistake." Only by seeking things that don't work will the group end up exploring.
In both situations, people don't want to speak up, because we've been taught that mistakes should be hidden. In both situations, though, hiding them is the very worst option.
Almost everything I don't know about social media...
I just finished Gary Vaynerchuk's new book. It comes out next week, and I recommend you spend some time with it.
Also! Here's a list of my most popular blog posts of 2012, together with a link to a bound collection of the best of my blog and ebooks from the last seven years...
