Take what you can get? Or get what you can take? I'll take the latter.

I'm going to do something I rarely do, and reprint nearly an entire post from Seth Godin, because this one really hit me where I was living at the time I read it. Now with Seth issuing a post to his blog every single day, the need for an editor comes seriously into question because 60% of what even the most talented writer can do is rubbish, but if you're willing to wade through that rubbish, many of his posts have real longstanding value. This is one of them.

Read Seth's post in the coloured print first, and then go back and see my own notations in the regular font. I think you'll see why it resonated with me.

Take what you can get (?)

When you're just starting out or when your organization is struggling or when the economy isn't hot, it's very tempting to take what you can get.

You just graduated from law school and you have a lot of debt and the best job you can get is doing collections work. Should you take it?

Your consulting firm is organized around providing high-value work for large corporations, but the only gigs you can get are small, struggling companies looking to spend a few hundred dollars a day. Should you take them?

The list goes on and on.

When I started my agency in Korea, CarlsonCreative, things were fairly bleak for the first six months. My staff told me that we were not getting pitches because we would not do them for free. I had also set a bar that clients needed to be of a blue-chip and pressworthy variety, ie: I wanted big logos so that when we finally won something, no matter how small, we could publicize it and get the street-cred of being an upstart David (no pun really) who had won against the Goliaths.

We scored our first pitch with the Armstrong flooring company from the US and followed that up with the Korean Broadcasting Corporation (KOBACO) and eventually, British American Tobacco - all paid presentations with the latter two turning into well paying clients and significant press generation vehicles. Within 18 months, we had become a 'hot' shop and the big agencies were truly scared of us.

There are two things worth remembering here:

1. Like bending a sapling a hundred years before the tree is fully grown and mature, the gigs you take early will almost certainly impact the way your career looks later on. If you want to build a law practice in the music industry, you'll need to take on musicians as clients, even if the early ones can't pay enough. If you want to do work for Fortune 500 companies, you'll need to do work for Fortune 500 companies, sooner better than later.

We took this to heart and I am still a believer in this today.

2. The definition of "can get" is essential. Maybe it seems like this gig or that gig is the best you can get because that's all you're exposing yourself to. Almost always, the best gig I could get is shorthand for the easiest gig I could get.

This has been redefined for me in the last few months with the pressure to get my feet planted in a new market representing the most basic of needs like eating and paying the rent. These things are of course primary, but certainly not the ultimate goal in the longer term. Why the hell, in a million years, would I want to teach business English in an already overcrowded market of teachers and schools who are busy undercutting each other on an almost daily basis, when I've got a quiver full of marketing and advertising arrows that have flown true for my entire career?

Because it's what I 'could' get initially, but it's not what I 'want' to get, eventually. What I'm after eventually is what I have been able to do my entire life - to balance business and creativity in a way which benefits my clients and provides me and my family a superior level of income and professional satisfaction.

Surviving is succeeding, no doubt about it. Doing the work is better than not doing the work. Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress. But, and it's a huge but, you define yourself by the work you do, and perhaps you need to redefine what you're willing to take and where you're looking for it. - Seth Godin

So I'm surviving. But that's not my definition of success. And I'm doing the work and not dying on the vine waiting for perfect in an imperfect world - but I'm spending more and more time defining what makes me unique in the market and striving to build a practice off that. This last week I renegotiated a contract which now pays me 30% more and broadens my responsibilities to consult on marketing with a client who had previously only needed language instruction.

Later in the week, I'm having coffee with a blue-chip sort of guy who works soley in the marketing business and in the evenings I busy myself with promoting this blog and writing copy for various businesses from software to arts and achitecture. All of this is still a far cry from having my own company in Korea, but at least I can remember what that was like, before we landed the big-fish client, and retrench my current life experience to more closely chase the dream of 'getting' what I can take, instead of just 'taking' what I can get.

.

Many thanks to Seth Godin for helping me articulate this more clearly.

The Trouble With Mali: Into Afrika With The Wild Wild East V

The trouble with Mali is that there is no trouble. Not at least the sort of contemporary corruption and civil unrest associated with Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. Rather, Mali is a democracy, formed in 1960 after the French abandondoned their colonial rule. According to Wikipedia, today, Mali is one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa. And all the better to do business in, one would think. But Mali is also one of the poorest countries on the planet, ranked by the CIA World Factbook as one of the 25 poorest countries on earth sporting a per capita GDP that ranks the country 207 out of arguably 195 countries in the world - Now you go ask the CIA how they came up with that number when WorldAtlas.com has a pretty good explanation of why there are considered to be a maximum of 195 countries currently on the planet. But by any calculation, #207 is dirt-poor and if you don't like the dirt, just go during the rainy season (August) and it will be mud. Mud-poor.

In any case, the only trouble with Mali at the current time seemed to be us. Under the auspices of helping a family business, my partner and I were brought into Mali with the idea that we could help the business at hand through a combination of management consulting and marketing disciplines but after a four day review of the situation, when asked the question by my partner, "What do you think we could do to help the operation here?", my answer was, "Nothing".

And I arrived at that answer, not by using a complex matrix of management consulting evaluations and test scenarios but by a much more simple and human metric. Figuring out the problems and tracing them to their source - and in this case, the source was right at the top. The business owner. To an outside observer, the business had plenty of room for improvement, but to the owner, things were running just as they wanted them to run. And micromanaged to perfection. To make any suggestion, any suggestion at all, would have been to question the owner's logic and authority, and if one thing had become clear, amidst the dust and heat of this subtropical climate, that was not to be done.

So we were left to our own devices as to how to earn a living, and in a country supported primarily by international aid organizations that became the problem at hand. Yes, our food and lodging would still have been paid by our initial client but our impact and value would have been of little importance and our own personal job satisfaction seemed at risk, even before we had gotten to the point of getting any job done at all. So it was off to plan "B"- The only problem there, is that we really had no plan "B". Plan "A", which was arranged for us way back in Vietnam, allowed for us to be supported by a single client, whilst pursuing other avenues on our own, but at this point that single client had been reduced to a near non-profit one and other avenues just didn't exist yet in a country that we had only been in for 4 days. Plan "A" had now become plan "B" with no money and no time. However in my short four days, aside from the wonderful day I spent with David and the children of Bamako I had managed to get by the US Embassy to register and to have met the director of marketing at the country's largest TV channel, ORTM, the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision du Mali - (go ahead, say that as fast as you can at the end of every field report you aspiring foreign correspondents).

The embassy was predictably American with absolutely no one knowing where any of the other departments were in the complex (Google the US Army acronym OPSEC), like the Commercial section or another section called Pol/Econ (Political/Economic), but the man at Mali ORTM TV was generally interested in meeting me and seemed eager to work together in the future. But at this point, that's all I had and my partner had been so busy with client #1 that she had not yet even ventured into the Malian sea of non-business - and I say non-business, not as a slight to anyone in Mali but as a nod to the idea that the country is still so underdeveloped, aside from the businesses of mining and farming, that little actual consumer work is actually done. The biggest advertiser I could see was O2, the mobile phone operator and after that, a pretty big drop to some food products and motorbike promotions. See the photo that proclaims "rotisserie moderne" and you decide just how "moderne" that rotisserie might be (the second photo of the fire and cook should give you a clue).

The purpose of our trip had always been a combination of business and pleasure mixed with adventure, but now the pleasure had subsided with Paris and we were confronted by the distinct lack of business and an adventure that would only seem adventurous to a fairly green Peace Corps volunteer. Enter the decision.

The vestibule in our accomodation, between the sleeping rooms of the home was the place where the computer was placed and my sole refuge during my stay in Mali. There, the connection (quite good actually) to the Internet provided my contact to the outside world and the world of employment, if any, in Mali or any of the surrounding countries. I do have a friend in Ghana, working with Group M on Diageo spirits and even John Taylor, my old client from BAT had told me that he was responsible for the marketing of their cigarrettes in 12 African countries - so I was up in the wee hours, tryingt to dig us out of our African hole when my partner came out of her room, a mix of pain and joy on her face when she proposed that we leave and return to Germany to rethink the whole plan. Munich to be exact. Let's see - German order, logic, cleanliness, Ocktoberfest and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, or Mali? No decision metrics were involved. (see photo) I immediately agreed on Germany. We had three months worth of cash and lodging left on us. The only choice was from where to spend them.

But leaving Mali would not be so easy as it would have seemed. What seemed to be return Aigle Azur airline tickets to Paris that were supposedly guaranteed to be cost effectively changeable tuned out to cost a bundle to alter the return, and even a few nights in a Malian 3-star hotel came at a price of $70 bucks a night. The only cheap thing we encountered on our way out was a couple of rotisseries offering smoked lamb and I tell you, that was positively delicious, and around three dollars bought you enough for three people. The photos above show the venue and smoker. I was also able to meet Nancy, an American nutritionalist for the Helen Keller Foundation (Did you know that a great number of blindness cases were due to malnutrition? I didn't) and she was a joy.

The other joy I'll take from Mali was the people. They were warm & honest, the women absolutely stunning, and positively joyful the whole time we were there. They remind us pain-in-the-ass westerners that there's a whole lot more to life than money and that maybe we should spend more time looking into the eyes of our children and working and planning for them instead of doing midless yuppie things for ourselves. The Wild Wild East thanks the people of Mali, and certainly in no second place, my partner for giving us a glimpse into this beautiful country. We will be back. But next time we'll understand the nature of business much more and be prepared, both mentally and financially to understand the difference between the developed world and the world that more of the inhabitants of this planet live in.

For more in the "Into Afrika with the Wild Wild East" series, check here:

I) The Antipodes of Mali & Paree
II) Good Morning Mali and the Red Toilet Paper
III) Family Feuds, Singing Children & The Sounds of Silence
IV) How to Get From Mali to Munich
V) The Trouble With Mali

The Wild Wild East goes West. Onward ho!

And away we go! From Ho Chi MinhCity to Hanoi to Bangkok to Munich to Paris and finally to Bamako,Mali - Africa! And damn near close to Timbuktu. Yes, that fabled city is actually in Mali. Or will the trip change? Just had a call that it would be better to go just from Hanoi to Frankfurt and then take the train to Munich. Whatever. Trips like this can't be planned down to the last detail, although we're certainly trying. The reasons for this itinerary are trade secrets of Infinite Wisdom. and can't be divulged but suffice to say it's a trip that combines business and pleasure and is sure to provide plenty of fodder for this writer. When I get the photograph of me standing in front of the sign that says, "Timbuktu - Population 32,000", that will be the day. Here's a snippet of what to expect: "The first European acknowledged to have reached Timbuktu was Scottish explorer Gordon Laing. He left Tripoli in 1825 and traveled for a year and a month to reach Timbuktu. On the way, he was attacked by the ruling Tuareg nomads and was shot, cut by swords, and broke his arm. He recovered from the vicious attack and made his way to Timbuktu and arrived in August 1826. He was unimpressed with Timbuktu, which had, as Leo Africanus reported, become simply a salt trading outpost filled with mud-walled homes in the middle of a barren desert. Laing remained in Timbuktu for just over one month. Two days after leaving Timbuktu, Laing was murdered." And that's just the beginning, I'm sure. Munich will be absolutely charming and our contacts in town will be charming as well I suspect - painters and curious sorts are on the docket. Paris, which I have visited before, is always charming and the price of Le Big Mac is reported to be $4.09, more for the meal deal with fries and a Coke, of which I will certainly have more than one. It's amazing how an American's taste for fast food can suddenly reappear when he has been denied such sustenance for the past 3 1/2 years - as well as how visions of Henry Miller appear in relation to the trip and the curiosities surrounding it. Who actually plans to go from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi to Frankfurt to Munich to Paris and then on to Mali with a return to Vietnam, forecast for 6 months? Well, the Infinite Wisdom. team does and the real reasons why don't really matter. It's so much more like the answer to the question, "Why does a dog lick himself?" - because he can. The last few days have been filled with budget planning, minor arguments and all the anticipation one might expect with an adventure of this magnitude. WTF? Sometimes you just have to do things because it is possible. Screw the logic. That's for people who create actuary tables for insurance companies. I wonder just exactly how much cheese I can stuff into my pie hole in three days in Paris? That's the sort of thing I care about - and whether I will be kidnapped by Al Qaeda while in Mali. That's been reported as of late. A contact on Facebook today from John Taylor, head of British American Tobacco in Russia and my old client from Korea told me that he was responsible for all of BAT's activities in Africa, so who knows, I could be selling the white man's drugs to African's soon. Whatever makes a buck. In so many ways, it's amazing what opportunities pop up once you say you're going to Europe and Africa. Doors just start opening. I found 850 people in Mali on LinkedIn and joined the Business in Mali group. Who knew? For my readers in Germany, I'm way up for a meetup when I get there. I'll be blogging and Tweeting all the way so do feel free to contact me on Facebook, Twitter or through email. I'd like to hook up with advertising and marketing folks when I'm there - and Paris too! Anybody from Paris out there? I'm still waiting for my first blog hit from Mali, too...won't be long. Wrapping up this last week, a friend of mine recommended my book, Wild Wild East, to his agent in New York, so please say a wee prayer for me - looks like I could get a two book deal out of it once Infinite Wisdom hits the trail to Europe and Africa!

For more in the WWE Goes West Series check here:

I) The Wild Wild East Goes West: Onward Ho!
II) Frankfurt
III) C'est Si Bon
IV) Bon Jour Paris!
V) Les Picassos en Paris
VI) Nothing Much Happened en Paree Today
VII) Paris Wallpaper: Sometimes The Best Prayers Have No Words
VIII) Au Revoir Paris
IX) Is Publicis Groupe a Dead Brand?

The Last Word From Saigon High

Geez, I'm tired. I don't feel like writing...but wait a minute...I've had 100 kids writing for me for the last few months. Maybe it's time to give them a turn.

Here's the last word from Saigon High: (...in their own words. The average age here is 12.)



http://thegreatencyclopedia799.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Some things I love

I love my family,

I love my teachers,

I love everything in the World,

as well as including my sisters.

I love computers,

I love food,

but I don't like smelly things,

because it's not good.

I love school,

I love the colour yellow,

I love my friends and

saying to them "Hello".

I love my mom,

I love my dad,

but I don't love death,

because it makes me sad.

http://alexei-naughtydevil.blogspot.com

[B]etray[E]r....!!

Lov What?
I do not care...
U beg me for forgivness
I have had you by my side
Then you gone away without good-bye!
You don't know how hard i tried
To find you and apologized
Even though i didn't make any mistakes
But i hav to make it right

I know i was so blind
To be in lov with u...
I didn't try to control my mind
I was so blind 'cause you were so kind!
But now i've escaped that cage
Fixed that mistake
Please let me try
For the last time i won't cry

If u let me go
Like i let u go
Stay away from me
Now we're just strangers
I want u to be happier
And so will i

Leave me alone...
Let me wait for you the next dawn
Hav had you is like heaven
I won't be fallen
But now i think
Without you is the best
No more tears and no more moans for the next
God! Help me to forget u...
Now i'm free and so are u

Thank u!
For this last moment i will tell the true
That for so long
I've been loving u...

Posted by Alexei at 12:45 AM 2 comments

http://blueislife.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 11, 2008

What I found on the wall ?!

Spy vs Spy

'Spy vs spy' is the classic story with two spies. One is black and another is white. It's a funny comic strip created for MAD Magazine by Cuban Antonio Prohías. It's interesting because the funny of 2 spies like each other but different color. They are made to look virtually identical: trilby hats, overcoats and long pointed noses. The creater is very good when he choose the classic type. It's help reader do not feel boring. There funny fighting is very popular and attractive. Here is some 'Spy vs Spy'

•—»::«—•

•—»::«—•

•—»::«—•

http://nicolaswow.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

THE GORILLAZ

Gorillaz is virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn of Britpop band Blur , and Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of the comic book Tank Girl. The band is composed of four animated band members: 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel. The band's music is a collaboration between various musicians with Albarn being the only permanent musical contributor. Their style is broadly alternative hip-hop, but with a large number of other influences including hip hop, electronica, dub and pop.


The band's first album, 2001's Gorillaz, sold over seven million copies and earned them an entry in the Guiness Book of Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. There are also "Feel Good Inc" , "DARE" , "Dirty Harry" and "Kids with Guns" in their second studio album, Demon Days. Demon Days went five times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the US and earned five Grammy Award nominations for 2006 and won one of them in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category. Gorillaz have also released two B-sides albums and a remix album.

YOU CAN FIND GORILLAZ's VIDEO AT MY VIDEO BAR
GL & HF

Posted by Nhan "Nicolas" Chou at 10:55 1 comments




http://nancytrinh-crazygirl.blogspot.com/

5)Technology: Who invented mouse???????

Have you ever wondered who invented the computer mouse? Here we talk about the history of the computer mouse. The first computer mouse was invented in 1963-64 by a man named Douglas Engelbartas. At the time, Douglas was experimenting with better ways to point and click on a display screen.

The first computer mouse.

The first mouse was bulky, carved out of wood, and only had one button. It worked with two metal wheels which made contact with the working surface. He named it a computer mouse because the cord came out from behind it, resembling a mouse.

Introduce Douglas Engelbartars

Born in 1925, Engelbart grew up during the Great Depression near Portland, Oregon. He finished high school in 1942, and then studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University. During World War II, he took a break from his studies to serve in the Navy, which sent him to the Philippines for two years as an electronic/radar technician. In 1948 he received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering and went to work for NACA Ames Laboratory (forerunner of NASA). He then applied to the graduate program in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and obtained his Ph.D. in 1955. He stayed on at Berkeley as an acting assistant professor but a year later he left to work for Stanford Research Institute, or SRI Intl.On December 9, 19658, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1963. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.

Posted by Trinh Nguyen Hong Nhu Y (Nancy)(2C) at 2:32 AM 0 comments



http://missrose11.blogspot.com/

Sunday, 3 August 2008

My life list

1/ Two books I'd like to read:
Harry Porter,cook with Ms.Tram.
Why?
Because I like to have a magic and cook well.

2/ Two movies I'd like to see:
Hanah Montana, Cory in a house.
Why?
Because it is very fun.

3/ Two people I'd like to meet:
Hanah Montana, Cory.
Why?
Because I like to sing look like Hanah and funy like Cory.

4/ Two people I'd like to meet:
Ho Chi Minh, My grand father.
Why?
Because i never see them.

5/ Two instruments I'd like to lean how to play:
piano and guitar.
Why?
Because I want to be a musician.

6/ Two sports I'd like to lean how to play:
Tennis, table tannis.
Why?
Because I like to play that sport with my friends.

7/ Two girls I'd like to marry:
Girl in China and Japan.
Why?
Because they are very cute.

8/ Two boys I'd like to marry:
My boyfriend and my
husband.
Why?
Because I like them.

Posted by MISS ROSE 11 at 20:50 0 comments

http://iamabeautifulmonkey.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

My Brother

My Brother

I felt sad because I quarrel with my brother. My brother is a bad brother because he is never care about me and he is alway make me feel angry. He never talk with me and see me, he just angry with me. However he doesn't know everyrthing he does always make I feel sad. I never and never is a younger sister of him and so him,too. I don't want talk a lot about him. I just don't want see him again. Now I feel he is really stay away from me so I really sad. I really need affection of my family.

Posted by Anh Pham at 09:16 0 comments

http://selenalandj-14dance.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 4, 2008

I love

I love chocolate

Because it make me turn to black

I love music

Because it make me stupid

I love my bag

Because it make me sad

I love my body

Because it make me worry

I love my computer

Because it so super

I love my pen

Because it make me get ten

I love my teddy bear

Because it so scare

I love my mother

Because she like my father

I love my sister

Because she bigger

I love candy

Because it like a fairy

I love cookies

Because it very sweetly

I love all things

Because my life so boring

Posted by Tien Nguyen at 7:54 PM

0 comments


http://thelovelydolphin.blogspot.com/

Bat

Bat is a special animal too. because it has sonar. So how do bats use sonar? Bats use sonar waves to navigate. Bats are nocturnal which means they are active at night and sleep during the day. Since bats have to hunt for their food at night, you would imagine that they need exceptionally good eyesight. but this is not the case, as bats do not depend on their eyes for getting about. When bats fly, they utter a series of very high pitched sounds which are too high to be heard by the human ear. The echoes from these sounds are thrown back to the bat when it is in flight, and it can tell whether the echo came from an obstacle nearby or far away. the bat can then change it course in flight to avoid hitting the obstacle!

Posted by Thanh. Ngoc Phuong. Vo at 07:16 0 comments

http://hellomaiden.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 14, 2008

;;

Many countries are beautiful and nice to live in such as France, the US, England, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc. But Japan is the best country to live for many reasons. Japan is unique because it is existing between the old and the new, so people are able to enjoy special and different feelings and style of life. Japan has a lot to offer and it is the best place to live because of the food, comfortable life and the people who live there.
The food in Japan is famous all over the world and excellent for many reasons. Japanese food is very clean. When people visit in Japan, they can find black or dark red bowls in restaurant. It looks more than clean. It is good to the taste. Those foods are very simple. Probably, those are easy to cook. Because of stuff and recipes are very simple and easy. And also Japanese foods are healthy. Most Japanese food don’t have fat. Food like Sushi, buckwheat noodles, many kinds of fishes, and many vegetables.
The style life in Japan is comfortable and appealing. The Japanese skillfully developed technological for modern. So, Japanese cites have modern housing, plumbing and transportation. Many people called there are ‘kingdom of vending machines’ in Japan. Because there are many kinds of vending machines. For example, there are vending machines of map, tobacco, rice, ramen, magazines, vegetables vending machines, etc. If we live in Japan, we can fall in charm with vending machines. Many vending machines are useful to everybody.
The Japanese are special in their own way and help to make Japan and great place to live. Japanese are famous as very tidy, and very stylish; Hair style, fashion style, make-up style, etc. They always care about their personality, so their style become more and more tidy and stylish. Some of Japanese sometimes wear an unbecoming style of dress. But they are rather indifferent from their style. They have their own individuality. Also they have well developed personalities.
As stated above, Japan has a lot of appeal and interesting country. So, you may want to know some more about Japan and have a pleasant experience. You are going to visit for that and study about Japan. Then in the future, you will be able to attend university in Japan and find a job in there. You will become attached living in there as passing time.

1 개의 덧글 이 게시물에 대한 링크


http://tommyhandsomen.blogspot.com/

at 11:31 PM Posted by Tommy Nghia Nguyen Links to this post 0 comments