Dan Sherman

The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that it’s real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly coloured, and it’s very loud and it’s fun for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us. They say “Hey! Don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride.”

And we… kill those people. Ha ha ha. “Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and family. This just has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter because it’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want.

It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourselves off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what you can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defence each year and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, for ever, in peace.

— Bill Hicks

As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted into every child by way of the traditional education-machine. Thus I came — though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents — to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections. It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the ‘merely personal,’ from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.
— Albert Einstein

What the F**K is social media?

What The F**K is Social Media? View more presentations from Marta Kagan.

Seth Godin give such great talks.

Crazy people live on the mountain with no top.

Dan Ariely, Author of Predictably Irrational, giving a talk at Google.

A splendid example of credibility-building marketing

Perry Marshall gives a great example of how to use direct mail to build credibility for your business. This piece was from a waterproofing company. Not only does it show the opportunity for companies, but also gives direct marketers a clever approach to get more business from their clients.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed

Great little clip of Michael Jordan. Trying over and over again, and continuing toward your goal despite the number of failures you have is probably the top ingredient in having a successful life.

I’ll butcher it, but there’s a quote; “Fall down six times, get up seven times.” I think it’s one of those terse eastern philosophy type quotes. Anyway, I remind myself of that quote at least once a day.

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, talks at TED about why we think it’s ok to cheat, sometimes. He makes the case that the people on Wall Street were more willing to lie, cheat and steal because what they were handling (stocks, derivatives, etc.) was just far enough removed from the reality that they were deailng in money that they didn’t feel the impact of their unethical behavior as strongly.

In other words, stock broker types were treating our money like monopoly money.

The problem is, there’s eight trillion people walking around, saying they’re social media experts, and they haven’t made a dollar in their life. It’s a little bit of a problem.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2009

Damn straight! It’s nauseating how many non-hackers there are who think they can fleece businesses for some quick cash just because they got some business cards printed up with “Social Media Consultant” on them. What’s worse, for me, is finding ones that have been able to operate in a city or town without any competition. Those effers dig in like ticks, and fill people’s heads with such bologna.

I almost believe people who really know what they’re doing have an obligation to participate in their local business community. Even if it’s just to act like a mini-Scoble or something, filtering out the BS, and giving local business owners a heads up on where to learn how this stuff really works.