Sunday, December 07, 2008

Your personality

Never thought a machine could figure out my personality type according to the Myers-Briggs test in the blink of an eye.
I arrived at the Typealyzer website via Kevin Kelly, entered the URL address for this site and it turns out I´m an ISTP, ¨The Mechanics¨:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.
Funny thing: I pretty much agree with everything. Hah.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

I can´t I can´t I can´t

Thought I´d share this.
If I write anything I´ll ruin it...

Ok.
Maybe this toon from a while ago helps:

The lesson for companies: how many Nick Vujicic attitudes do we have?
Okay. Or first: do we think this attitude will take us farther than the fearful ones?
Then why do we insist on instilling control over trust?

We promote fearful behaviors. And we make decisions about our professional future, our dreams, our everyday responsibilities....based on that fear.

Why? Why the first thought that crosses our minds is ¨hhhmm...don´t think so...¨ or ¨who? me!? Naahhh...¨
Maybe cause we don´t want to let ourselves down, or we don´t want to think we can and then be wrong when we fail (one failure is enough).

I guess I´m forgetting the positive side of this.
Life is too interesting to settle for living without knowing ¨what could have been¨.
If you dream about it, go TRY IT!

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” ~ George Sheehan (via jungle of life)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

You might as well

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mediocrity is poweful


It´s no secret. If you´ve been in the ¨professional world¨ for at least a week of your life you´ve seen it in action.
CYA. Cover your Ass.
The tactics, to name a few:
- Copy everyone and their dog in an e-mail ¨to make sure everyone is informed¨.
- Repeating ¨we have to¨ and ¨we need to¨ instead of ¨we are going to get this done by this specific date¨.
- Nodding your head like an hypnotized cow in meetings when you don´t know what the hell is being said instead of asking for clarification (many times the person talking doesn´t know what she´s saying either).
- Avoiding to commit to a date for something you know is important ¨because you depend on others¨.

No matter how big the plans or how bold the strategy of a Company, the CYA guy is as powerful as the CEO, cause he is the guy that PREVENTS things from getting done.

The problem: Mediocrity is contagious. And grows exponentially.
Just like y= x³, you get an ever bigger (exponential) increase of mediocrity (y) for a steady increase in the number of people acting that way (x).

The paradox: We all know this. However, at some point, we´ve all seen ourselves there. Sometimes for a day, sometimes for a week, sometimes for the rest of our ¨careers¨.

We humans are weird beings: we want to do stuff but more often than we´d care to admit end up on the other side of the spectrum when we try. Specially if there are others involved.

Life is too short. No offense, but we can do much much better. We´d get so much more done if we focused on 10 or 20 things.

So I´m in the middle of something to try to contribute. Watch this space.

Oh, and what´s true in business is also true in life.

Debunking the myth that all rock songs have stupid lyrics #1

From Motion City Soundtrack´s album ¨Commit this to memory¨, a song that speaks to our fear of failure. And the melody gives me the chills:

Why can't you finish what you've started?
Why can't you try and understand?
It doesn't make a bit of difference if you start what you can't finish
Every story needs an ending, after all.

I think I've known it for a long time
Suffice to say, it's been a while
You're too afraid to face the outcome
Quite likely, you're a failure
It's a shitty thing to say, but hey man - the clock is ticking

....

What fills the magic in the meantime?
I know it’s hard without advice,
You need to find a new solution,
Adaptation and retribution,
If you truly do believe in something,
Somehow it all works out.
Voi lá:

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Empty yourself before filling yourself up

Two summers ago I drew this. I didn´t know where the third cartoon came from at the time. ¨Empty yourself before filling yourself up¨? Lately I´m figuring it out.

Enter meaning. We spend a lifetime looking for it, the answer to the¨why, why are we here?¨. We keep looking in the wrong places: ¨the what¨ and ¨the how¨.
The what: I want to climb the corporate ladder. I want to marry that person. I want to have a private jet.
The how: I´ll become a Wall St. broker. I will hang out with the ¨right¨ people. Someday I´ll win the lotto.

Where´s the meaning? Why all this? I don´t think that´s the reason why we´re here. That´s ¨filling yourself up¨.

Mark Earls talks about ¨the Purpose Idea¨. Not new, but a fresh way of asking ourselves (or our Organizations) ¨WHY do I get up every morning¨? What´s the point? As it turns out, ¨the Purpose Idea¨ helps us figure out a way to ¨empty¨ ourselves first.

And so by asking ourselves ¨what´s my purpose?¨, meaning responds.
It responds not when we focus on ourselves first (¨filling yourself up¨) but on something bigger than us that becomes our purpose (¨empty yourself¨).

Bonus: A good way of finding your purposes is by leading a Tribe. Seth Godin knows about it, and he explains it beautifully.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

The problem with Elections...

...is that we just look for reassurance of our own beliefs, our need to be right, before thinking of the whole first, and viewing ourselves as part of it.

Have I read the Program of ¨the other¨ political party?
Can I name ten non-personal reasons why ¨our¨ Program is better than theirs?

I once coined the most idealistic and unachievable phrase: ¨The right to vote should only be earned by those capable of demonstrating they can think of ¨the others¨ before themselves¨. Unrealistic. Yes. I can´t help it.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Art explained

This has to be one of the funniest (and true in some cases) explanations of art I´ve seen. It´s from 2004, by Hugh MacLeod.
I like getting into this whole confusions id´ ing thing so I loved it.

Funny how the common denominator in life when screwing up is putting EGO as your priority. Funnier (sadder, really) is how easy we get played into it.

Enjoy

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The idea of...the expectation of...

The WHAT: Internal barriers, not seeing the world as it is.
The HOW to remove them: from Evelyn Rodriguez:

Enlightening isn't a self-improvement exercise. It's more of a stripping away: who/what you are without the heavy weight of ideas of who/what we all are, each and everyone, obscuring our perception and knowledge.
And Adyashanti:
"Spiritual people always think the Truth is hidden from them. It is not hidden. What gets in the way is the idea of what it is going to be. Find that place of what actually is. There is only One manifesting as everything. Ponder and meditate on this until you realize it yourself through and through."
Hmm...the idea of, the expectations of. Reminds me of a t-shirt out of this laiftoon:

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Internal vs. External

Seth Godin says:

¨...there are plenty of places just dying to host your content. And your blog is the best place to launch your idea. The biggest challenge is that there are no barriers. If you want to do it, go do it. Ideas worth spreading, spread.¨
The biggest challenge is that there are no barriers. A-ha moment. But keep looking: Why is it the greatest challenge? Why, if there are no barriers, do we hesitate?

Enter Marianne Williamson:
"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?¨
Seth refers to the absence of external barriers: no costs of publishing our ideas to the world, access to an infinite communication channel, free reference on anything we can think of...No barriers on the outside.
Marianne refers to other barriers: the internal ones.

Removing on the inside is harder. We're too focused on the outside.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Yes I am!

Welcome to "meta-blogging"

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Am I mobile yet?

If you see this on the blog, it means I know how to post from my
phone :-)
And I'll be happy.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

T-shirts in Europe!

The good news is:
If you´re in Europe and fancy a gUd LaiF t-shirt, but don´t wish to pay the international shipping costs from the cafepress store, you can now check out the store at Spreadshirt!

Same designs, quicker and cheaper to your European door ;-)

Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Rest in Peace, Randy Pausch

The Carnegie Mellon professor whose vitality and approach to life -in spite of suffering from pancreatic cancer- has inspired many (I count myself among those) passed away today.

His ideas about achieving your childhood dreams have been a wake up call. They´ll remain with us, along with his memory.
Thank you Randy.
-------
Here´s the link to Professor Pausch´s Last Lecture on Carnegie Mellon, on December 2007, watched over 3 million times on YouTube.
Here´s the link to an interview on ABC news.
Here´s the link to his book, which he dictated to a friend while riding his bike.
Even Business Week featured an article with the business lessons from Randy Pausch´s last lecture.

Some of his quotes:
¨Never lose the childlike wonder. It´s just too important. It´s what drives us.¨
¨The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Rest in Peace, Randy Pausch.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thought of the Day - Paradox

Thought of the Day from another Thought of the Day post, by metacool´s Diego Rodríguez.
The quote is originally from John Mackey. The key part, to me is this:

¨Yet, happiness is a by-product of pursuing those other goals and I think that analogy applies to business as well. The paradox of profits is that, like happiness, they are best achieved by not aiming directly for them.¨
In other words, not confusing goals (great products, customer satisfaction...) with outcome (profits). If profits are your goal, everything else becomes your means to an end. What´s the problem with that? You stop doing things because you´re passionate about them, but because they´ll ¨bring you money¨. Way to go...

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I finally did it (II)

The second piece of my evil plan is up and running ;-)
Say hello to little www.gudlaif.com.

gUd NaiT.

Monday, June 23, 2008

I finally did it

I allowed myself to make it happen.
Years ago this idea of ¨t-shirts that start conversations to inspire people¨ hit me. And hasn´t left.
Then this blog came along. Like I said on the third? post:

Why do I blog? What do I blog about?
I think blogging is a great way to enter this ¨global conversation¨ the web is becoming. I write about life in general, and then try to make a contribution. How?

A few years ago I thought:
- Conversations are the best way to share thoughts, feelings, etc.
- We all deserve a good life, but often don´t know how to live it.
- T-shirts are a powerful way to start conversations.

Why not put together the three: life, t-shirts and the desire to live a gud laif? I established my mantra: be gud. live laif.
...
And so the idea was born. Every once in a while I make t-shirts with thoughts on them. Thoughts about life in general, generally those that I believe contribute to living a better life. Then those t-shirts become conversations when worn by someone.
That was November, 2006. After months of dealing with the ¨you know whats¨ involved in the creative process, finally the t-shirts are a reality. And the nice part is they´re (becoming) available to the world (little by little) over at:
www.cafepress.com/gudlaif

Expect to see more t-shirts coming soon.
Then what? Who knows. But like they say: it´s the things we didn´t do that we truly regret.

Fell free to check them out and let me know your thoughts, here in the comments section or by e-mail: gudlaif@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

Bonus:
Feeling you want to do something really interesting and don´t know how to start? Feeling insecure about what people might/will/could say or think?
Read this post by Seth Godin.
Then read Hugh MacLeod´s ¨How to be creative¨.
Then thank them, not me.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blogging is like Sex (III)

So...
Back by popular demand (no, motu proprio really) is the Trilogy ¨Blogging is like Sex¨ with its third (and final?) episode. Who would´ve thought you could find 19 similarities between both. Heh.

Wait!

If you haven´t done so yet, read the
first
and
second
chapters first for the full experience ;-)

Then enjoy the third:

Blogging is like Sex (III):

14. ¨He´s worried his post is not long enough for her...¨
15. You shouldn´t pay for someone to blog...you.
16. It´s not nice to accept money to blog for other people, either.
17. If I were you, I´d worry if you only post every six months.
18. I´d worry even more if you don´t get any comments about your [infrequent] posts.
19. There really is no good blogging without LOVE.

Got another? Leave a comment with it!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Get off the ladder!

They call it the Corporate ladder. And they say you should climb it. That´s the goal.

I say the Corporate ladder is a state of mind. The wrong one to be in. I say it´s confusing goals with outcomes.*

Why?

When ¨moving up the corporate ladder¨ becomes your career´s goal, you do stuff that´ll take you up the ladder. Never mind sacrificing your passion for the sake of moving up the ladder you´re in.

Get off the [corporate] ladder!

I feel like making a series of t-shirts with these ideas in them. What do you think?


* For great examples of confusing goals with outcome, in the realm of trust, visit Charles Green´s blog.

Who would have thought?

A while ago I wrote this post about the similarities between blogging and sex.
Then I wrote a second post.

Lately, I´ve been getting a lot of visits from random countries, mostly Eastern Europe. I did my research, and...

As it turns out, if you google ¨sex laif ¨, the third hit is the first episode. Heh.

The third episode is almost ready. Now, for integrity´s sake, I need to make a t-shirt... Humor is another way of changing the world, no? ;-)

Stay tuned.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Public Service Announcement for Spam victims

Do you live in Puerto Rico? Have you been getting lots of spam  sms messages (unsolicited, irrelevant to you, stuff that just interrupts and annoys you) on your phone for a while now? Signed by ellow.mobi?


Call them and tell them you don´t want their unsolicited e-mails. I did and, contrary to my expectations (I thought this was an AT&T thing that I´d have to stand if I wanted sms service), it stopped. They did say they got the information from my carrier (shame on you AT&T...Yes, I know that must be somewhere in our Terms of Agreement. Shame on you still).
I´ll spare you the visit to their website. Their phone is (787) 707-0750. And  they do spam phones other than AT&T´s.

Happy end of spamming season.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Old San Juan


This is a street in Old San Juan.
The light was great for pictures that day. Photo taken with my iPhone.
But the coolest thing was the visit I placed Ben & Jerry´s after that ;-)
By the way, the owner of that B&J´s in Old San Juan is Michelle Campi, yep, that Michelle Campi.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Confusions, chapter N+1

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Why?

Why did you get up Today?
Tough answer?
Just wondering...

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Confusions, chapter N

Monday, April 14, 2008

Expect everything...


Here´s to ¨you´re everything I ever expected...¨ Cheers.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

How much heart is there in a song?

Feel it yourself.





Via the crazy Famous Mortimer.

Friday, April 11, 2008

What goes first?

Monday, April 07, 2008

No matter how many times...

In short: Shel Israel is a renowned blogger, book writer and consultant, advising companies on how to adopt social media and ¨embrace the conversation¨, even when it´s hostile to you . Loren Feldman is a smart provocateur.

The story by Mike Arrington is here.

Bottom line: When faced with harsh criticism from Feldman, Israel did exactly the opposite he proclaims and makes a living out of.

That doesn´t make him a bad person. The hardest thing to do in life is to ALIGN your actions with your beliefs/predicaments, or ¨live your personal brand¨ if you want to put it that way. The problem is that, in that very hardest moment, you have to kill your ego. That´s the lesson we learn day in, day out.

No matter how many times we hear it, we agree on ¨the what¨. But ¨how?

Monday, March 31, 2008

Chances are...

Facebook now has 64 million registered users. That means 1 out of 100 people on Earth are registered.
Think about it...

With so many options available to us in every aspect of life, it is critical now more than ever to align your daily actions with your long term goals. And it is now easier than ever to find people with interests and beliefs aligned with yours.

One click away, not six degrees anymore.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Blogging is like Sex (II)

Back by popular demand:
[Click here for the first episode of ¨Blogging is like sex¨. Thanks.]

8. Don´t ever think that post you wrote drunk at 5 AM impressed anyone...
9. Thou shall not covet your neighbor´s blog.
10. ¨I´ve seen his blog. Nothing to be impressed about...¨
11. They say you should blog to please yourself first.
12. Yes, it´s a myth: No one can post 10 times a day.
13. Having a blog does not mean you´re going to post everyday.

Perfect Sunset III


Another sunset...the third of the series.
The first one I took in Aruba.
The second one in Miami.
This one´s here in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

There´s always something special with sunsets.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The problem with not understanding

Web 2.0 = human dynamics 101.

That's my opinion. These web 2.0 tools we have today are just enablers for us to interact, in the same way we do offline, on a larger scale and faster pace.

One unexpected feature of these tools is that they drive control freaks crazy. Why? Cause you cannot control the interactions that take place when you use them. Hence, the need for authenticity and transparency, of really focusing on the other side of the interaction, rather than your own.

Authenticity and transparency nurture trust. The problem with not understanding these tools, is that you will never align your behaviors online with those that a connected, hyperlinked world values. At the core, these are non other than, I think, our true nature.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Blogging is like Sex (I)

Blogging is like Sex.

  1. You start doing it out of curiosity.
  2. You don´t have to wait until you´re married to blog. Not anymore.
  3. Your parents never taught you how to blog.
  4. You´ll always remember your first post.
  5. Had you known it is this liberating, you would´ve started years ago.
  6. ¨I can´t blog right now. I´ve got a terrible headache.¨
  7. ¨No, seriously. I really enjoyed your last post¨.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Global Warming

Looks more like WRONGbal Warming...

En español...

In English...

Oh well.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The problem with Customer Loyalty...

...is that it should be Loyalty to the Customer.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The problem with Human Resources

...is that humans are not resources.

When utilizing a resource, such as fuel, it gets used, burns out and all remainings are waste. It doesn´t benefit from the interaction in any way. Not a good analogy for humans, although all too familiar sometimes.

Humans want realization. The problem with treating humans as resources is that it might be ALIGNED with a company´s needs for something to use and burn out, but certainly not with humans´ wants.

I´ve been thinking about this for weeks. Today I read Seth Godin´s point of view: why not a VP of Talent.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Everything wired to everything else

Wow.

Talk by Vilayanur Ramachandran in 2007´s TED conference.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The problem with selling

Today someone gave us a presentation on his product. Things I remember in no particular order:

1. Seven bullet points in a single slide, all appearing at the same time...as an introduction.
2. Misspellings in several pages.
3. ¨Yes, I´ll answer that but first let me show you this other feature because if not we´ll be here ´til tomorrow morning¨. (yes, he did say that).
4. He spoke for 20 minutes more than we had agreed.

The message I got was:

¨I´m here to tell you about my product. I know you have problems, and I don´t know them yet. If we have time at the end, we´ll discuss your situation; but first, let me tell you all about the features of my product and the things it can do. I hope this will impress you enough to ask me to come again, and then prepare a proposal.¨
You have an option: try to sell features, or offer to solve problems (that those features happen to solve). The problem with the first approach is that people can tell it´s not ALIGNED with their needs.

This guy is the General Manager of the Company.

2K

2,000 visits and counting! Thanks for stopping by, seriously. Attention is a gift, so I appreciate your reading this.

Be gud. Live laif. ;-)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Suspicious Office Humor

3pm, exhausting day @ work, your mind starts spinning...You come up with a suspiciously funny joke:

¨How do they mute a phone in [insert favorite place here]?¨


Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Life Template

Here´s to vicarious existence...

Monday, February 11, 2008

Extreme 9 to 5


Come n´ play, come n´ play...

My idea of you...


Will you marry your idea of me!????

Update: Craig Harper says it better. Read his post the morning after posting mine. Talk about coincidence. Worth reading ;-)

Monday, January 28, 2008

Intelligent quotes remain

So it turns out that trying to get something from someone is really not a selfish act. At least not if you want to be successful.

Dale Carnegie wrote ¨How to win friends and influence people¨. A central idea to the book is that there is only one way to make someone do something; and that is by making that person WANT to do it.
So the next question is: how to MAKE someone WANT to do something?
Enter Charles Green, author of ¨The Trusted Advisor¨ blog. ¨In order to get someone to buy from you something she needs, first you need to understand what it is that she wants (in life).¨

Is what you´re asking for ALIGNED with the other person´s values and desires?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The increase


Here´s to the ladder´s perks.

Heaven is a shopping mall


Here´s to ¨I´m afraid to die, that´s why I have 33 pairs of shoes.¨

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Una de fotos...

Por aquello de que me encantan las analogías...

Esta imagen me pareció la analogía perfecta para mi estado de ánimo cuando la tomé. Llevaba así un par de meses: cuesta arriba, sabiendo que iba a algún lado pero sin entender muy bien dónde ni si quería.



Desde esta semana es más algo como así:



Amplitud, serenidad, empezando a percibir la luz que se asoma.

Qué foto define tu estado de ánimo?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Edu-llaboration

This makes me wonder what the future of education as we understand it will be like:

www.freebase.com Via techcrunch: "Freebase is a massive database. The purpose of the database is to centralize as much data as possible, and allow participants to freely add and access data - developers can extract information from Freebase via a set of APIs and add it to their web applications. It also builds relationships between highly structured pieces of data, something that can’t easily be done with distributed data controlled by different entities. "

Formalismos Laborales

Pensamiento cínico del día:

“Lo de que el cambio frecuente de trabajo se ve mal en el curriculum se lo han inventao las empresas mediocres, hombre! Para que no se les vaya la peña en cuanto descubren lo mediocres que son.”

Ja!

Firmado: yo.