“Stop Talking. Start Doing.”
It’s always great to hear insight and advice that I heard as a kid when my Dad was teaching me eastern philosophy. The Bruce Lee quote, “Don’t think. Feel.” comes to mind. Chris Brogan, who delivered this message in a longer form even said, “don’t even blog about what I’m saying!” Okay Chris and I’m with you there but I promise to keep it brief because I’m not doing much talking when it comes to teaching about social media. In fact, I refer inquiring companies to others because I’m not qualified to teach anything to anyone. If they’re persistent I’ll give some tips out about Twitter that anyone knows after using the service for a few months.
Chris’ semi-rant was inspiring to me but it contradicts so much about what Chris and others are doing. Even delivering a keynote at blogworld goes against it but, as I said on my review of Michael Moore’s latest flick, I’m never a person that calls hypocrite or any other mundane stone throwing title because it doesn’t matter. Chris is acting as the finger pointing to the moon. I see his speech and blog as a direction or map that points to the truth. He has noticed like many others that people started becoming so obsessed with the finger that they lost sight of the heavenly glory that is “the moon” (figuratively speaking of course).
I’m going to keep talking because what I talk about is bull anyway. It’s something that inspires me and inspires others and I’m cool with that. I never want to be the finger no matter how much it feeds my ego. Speaking of ego, I’ve fed it enough this year and it’s time to start doing, which is exactly what I’ve done.
Since March, I’ve reduced my talking a lot but not reduced volume and instead changed the talking to more informative, sharing and collaboration. I’ve also learned the lesson to never pre-announce anything. Stuff takes a lot longer than you think so the more you announce, the less luster you have when it comes to actually shipping things. One comment on my 50 Thousand Tweets blog post that I didn’t approve because he / she is a fucking troll said this:
Adam.. How many times have we heard
all about your big plans, the book, etc? The book is finished but will we ever see it?So many tweets of yours are leaving Twitter to only come back in a few hours. Taking a Twitter break, announcing you hate Twitter, you love it.
I get it. It’s your personal Twitter. Say what you want.
But shit or get off the pot. I’m tired of your big secret ideas…
Her comment kind of rambled on from there about some bullshit but it doesn’t matter. I took about 5.76 seconds and glanced at her Twitter profile and it was a bunch of troll BS but the comment made sense. Honestly, and on a side note, I would have approved the comment and emailed her / him if they left real contact info and I would have explained everything in detail because I really do want to ensure everyone has the complete story but I didn’t have that info so the comment was ignored.
Anyway, don’t pre-announce anything. I’m not even going to offer a status update on how things are going because it doesn’t matter. I’m working from 7AM to midnight every day of the week on so many things and sharing as much as I legally can with all of you. That won’t post forever by the way (the super-sharing) so enjoy it while you can.
So with all of this said, I’m going to keep talking and sharing but also keep doing. Cutting back on parties was key, traveling and meeting more people outside the bubble was extremely important and now getting actual work done means so much to me and it’s at the point where I’d rather finish another lesson in my book or make headway on another project instead of going out to a tech event.
Don’t worry though, I haven’t given up on anything that has been announced here but to answer the troll from earlier, I’m taking a massive shit so you should just find another stall. I’m gonna be here for a while. I think of it this way as well. I’m not a prodigy or wunderkind and I’m not some genius that has an MBA from Stanford and has a trust fund that’s valued at a few million. No I’m a broke 23 year old with big dreams and ambitions that make some people’s heads explode. it’s taking time. I’ve launched three huge projects this year, gained 40 pounds and lost a lot of friends in the process. I’m doing and doing and doing and yes there will be one day when I flip the switch on everything and it’s gonna be great or maybe not. That’s the chance I’m taking.
I love what Chris said though and I see it first hand a lot. Too many experts are teaching w/ their blogs and proving how amazing they are with graphs or just re-blogging what others say. Enough! If you’re so smart, do something and stop talking about it.
I’m going to do the same more and more. My goal has always been to inspire others and that’s happened a few times. It’s not about money or fame, it’s about making changes and I do that every day for myself and others. It’s so rewarding and I wouldn’t change this life for any other life.
