Gavin Baker » success

Brilliant brother

Gavin Baker — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:26:00 +0000

The solution [for more successful projects] isn’t necessarily for me to become a better shot. I mean, there are goalies in the world, and sometimes they stop pucks. What’s really needed is more shots. More potential projects= more completed projects= more paid projects.

My brilliant brother, Kyle J. Baker wrote the quotes above and below on his blog Thinking Creator. He’s talking about how a change in viewpoint is crucial. I was arrested by the visual of goalies stopping shots.

In an earlier part of this post, Kyle makes another great observation about himself. When he wants something to take off, and it doesn’t, he immediately ties it to something he said on his blog. In all reality he has just succumbed to the cum hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy aka assuming causation because of correlation.

Like most amateur artists, I get excited by every new possible project and depressed when one doesn’t work out, convinced I scared them off by something I said on my blog. The reality is more likely that they lost their funding, or their boss said no.

But he isn’t alone in his logical fallacy (if he were a Wikipedia article wouldn’t exist for it). No, everyone falls into this trap, unintentionally of course but we still do it. We shouldn’t stop trying to understand the world around you, or why things failed…no that is still very important. But we should take a step back and if the failed scenario were a painting, take a good hard look at it. Critique it, realize that yes we have helped paint some brush stokes that don’t fit, or are in the wrong palette but that overall we didn’t ruin the painting. Perhaps the canvas was too big, or too small. Maybe the style was wrong. And maybe, just maybe, we aren’t as important as we’d like to think we are. Some projects falter. Some projects fail. Some projects fly. If we get “more shots” in, we’ll see more projects fly.

What if we all did this?

Gavin Baker — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:08:26 +0000

Posted in quote

Daily Wisdom for Troubled Times

Get up earlier.
Go to bed later.
Work harder.
Finish what you start.
Learn one new thing.
Renew one contact.
Ask, “How can I help you?” at least once.
Make yourself visible.
Be of good cheer.

Catch a break.
Or not.

Repeat tomorrow.

lifted verbatim from Tom Peters post. See the original.

A Dream to Remember

Gavin Baker — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:13:29 +0000

Posted in idea list

TED talks are one of my favorite things in this world. I love learning and their vast library of interesting speakers helps fill the void that is my curiosity. They always teach me something new and and the talk of Ben Saunders and his challenge to get to the North Pole is no different.

Just about every video brings a challenge. This challenge statement I pulled from this video wasn’t about dreaming big goals (although you can find that here) or about the struggle of leadership (certainly captures it) what I pulled was what is the dream that motivates you (starts at 3:15).

Not the conceptual dream to change the world, which I certainly have, but the dream that plays in your head like a video. That mental file that you reach for when you need inspiration when times get tough. This is the video that is how you visualize your accomplishment happening (it may be reality or not) – it could belike Saunders and a video of him holding up a ski pole with a Union Jack flapping in the wind, or for the lacrosse team I coach it’s a video of the clock running down in the state championship with the scoreboard smiling in our favor as our team rushes the field with a bit of “We are the champions” playing in the background.

But when I think about that video that motivates me it’s pretty simple. It’s not of cars or houses, not of offices or interviews. There isn’t any music playing, but it zooms in from a black screen to a shot of me standing in the front of group of people, maybe a classroom, maybe a conference but standing and sharing to a group of people what I’ve learned in my success. It’s a short clip, maybe 15 seconds, but it is what gets me excited to create and excite to excel. I want to have the street cred to teach on the lessons I’ve learned in business and to help others gain the success they envision.

What does your video play like? Please share it in the comments.