Why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither.
Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.
Joe Kraus says, “Persistence is the number one reason for our success.” You gotta persist through failure. You gotta persist through crap! Which of course means “Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure.”
The butterfly effect is a metaphor for the concept that small, seemingly insignificant events—like the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings—can produce tremendous and unanticipated consequences.
Something that has brought a lot of joyful meaning to my life recently has been Women for Women International (an organization mentioned in “Half the Sky – Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” by Kristof & Wudunn). There is an overwhelming happiness to be had in supporting another woman’s determination to better her circumstances for herself and her family (despite every circumstance in her way). Sharing through sponsorship means women in war-torn regions receive guided support via financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives.
This organization was also highlighted for the relatively high percentage of donation reaching end recipients, which was important for me.
Visit the website www.womenforwomen.org
Find “Half the Sky – Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” at Amazon.
Read Women for Women founder Zainab Salbi’s article about the untapped and under-appreciated capacity of women around the world to cause major and lasting change for good.
www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/travel/butterfly-effect-life-rollercoaster
The following is a summarized list of ROI stats and research based on a recent browse through Randolf Bias & Deborah Mayhew’s Cost-Jusifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age, Second Edition
10 benefits of working usability into a website (with greatest results being those worked in from project onset):
1. High return on savings. A problem is at least 10 times more expensive to fix after development than if it were addressed in during the design phase with an initial usability analysis.
The rule of thumb in many usability-aware organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for usability is $1 : $10-$100. Once a system is in development, correcting a problem costs up to 10-100 times more than had the issue been found and addressed from the start.
2. Correcting the 20 easiest flaws yields a usability improvement of 50%. Include usability from the beginning however and the efficiency improvements can be over 700%.
Applying human factors (usability) in the initial design can greatly reduce extensive redesigns, maintenance, and customer support, which can substantially eat away at profits. American Airlines for example, reduced the cost of fixes by 60-90% by correcting usability problems in the design phase.
“At the Web 2.0 Expo, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk gives a shot in the arm to dreamers and up-and-comers who face self-doubt. The Internet has made the formula for success simpler than ever, he argues. So there’s now no excuse not to do what makes you happy.”
While not all of us have a multi-million dollar (family business) safety net to fall back on – I think Gary makes some fantastic overall points about finding out what it is you want to do and making the commitment to go after it.
It takes work.
I appreciate that Gary repeatedly emphasizes the fact that it isn’t easy, and that it takes WORK. You have to hustle to get what you want (18 hours a day if necessary) – because it isn’t going to be handed to you on a plate just because you complained about it long enough. So many people let self-pity get in the way of finding and achieving all of the amazing things (that those of us that are close to them know) they’re capable of. It’s sad, unnecessary, and frustrating to watch.
Have patience.
Another point well made (and one I need to remind myself of). More often than not, the hustle doesn’t result in an immediate pay-off, so it was re-assuring to be reminded: It will come.
While the talk focused on monetizing/ making a living at what it is you love – the same principles could definitely be applied to life in general. Dropping what makes you unhappy and putting your energy into what you love (whether it’s family, meeting someone, learning a new language or learning to dance Tango) – it takes effort and it takes patience – but when you do, the good things will come.
Spent a lovely afternoon wandering around Louisiana, admiring the courage and the vision of some wildly different artists – each focused on colour: nuances, relationships, interpretation. Interesting – the instant reaction to each piece, depending on how the colours had been set together.
Works spanned two centuries, and ranged from impressionists to spectacular light installations. Hardly a better way to spend a Saturday and definitely recommended. Make sure to check out Yoyoi Kusama’s “Gleaming Lights of the Souls” while you’re there.
“COLOUR in ART is a magnificent, visual journey of discovery into the inextricably close, but often stormy relationship between artists and colour in the twentieth century. It takes the viewer through an array of brilliant works by the greatest names in modern art.
COLOUR in ART includes each and every nuance. Here you experience the entire history and development of modern art, seen and told through colour. Comprising 150 works by 72 different artists, the exhibition explores how artists – from the late 1800s until today – have worked and experimented with taming and interpreting colour as a medium.”
JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.
State of the Internet was designed and animated by Jesse Thomas, for his lecture at AIGA Baltimore in Feb 2010. He is the CEO and founder of JESS3 a creative interactive agency specializing in social media data visualization. Includes some phenomenal statistics.
…or as close as you’re going to get.
As per Semantic Will’s description:
“Increasingly, as designers of interactive systems (spaces, processes and products for people), we find ourselves stretching the limits of communication tools to explore and document what it will be like to interact with the things we design.
We describe wireframing as a form of design communication that enables stakeholders, team members, users and clients to gain first-hand appreciation of existing or future problem spaces and solutions.
We create wireframes to inform both design process and design decisions. Wireframes range from sketches and different kind of models at various levels of fidelity looks like, behaves like, works like to explore and communicate propositions about the design and its context.”
“Wireframes beyond the basics, not for the weak at heart. In this panel, three experienced designers will share their tried and true tips for making wireframes really work. We’ll talk about how to sketch a wireframe on the fly to demonstrate an idea and how to create a standalone wireframe deliverable; when to show a concept and when to describe nitty-gritty detail; how to make a narrative wireframe and how to make a specification wireframe. And best of all, we’ll show you plenty of examples.”
The fantastic hour long presentation is available at slide share: http://www.slideshare.net/nickf/wireframes-for-the-wicked