+++

“I moved to Portland to find community, a home… To settle down,” I spoke softly.

She looked at me with big eyes.

“Now I have to choose between Portland, and the thing that Portland represented, which is what I actually wanted.”

Like many 20-somethings of my generation, I have consciously designed most facets of my life. I chose self-employment to provide me with freedom and a sense of contribution, I chose a broad theme for my business over a niche in order to express my multipotentiality, I gave real thought to the friends in my life, to how I wanted my day to look, to how I wanted to feel, and to where I wanted to live.

How lucky we are to live in a time and place where this is possible, and to be privileged enough to enjoy this freedom.

I’ve been very deliberate about designing my life ever since realizing that I could. But what happens when the universe that you trust, that has been so good to you, decides to impose some of its own conditions? Do you stick with your original plan or do you shift, maybe giving up some of that autonomy you hold so dear? (In this case, moving to a new city with the person you love.)

There is one thing that makes decisions like these easier; it’s knowing what it is that you are truly seeking, behind the specific city or the specific career or goal. What do these things that you are striving for represent?

Do you really want to be a film director, or is it that you love working with big teams and seeing a creative vision come to life? If so, you could probably get the same feelings from being the leader of a nonprofit organization or the conductor of an orchestra. I’m not saying that you should pursue these avenues instead, but it’s worth knowing.

Is programming really what you love to do? Or is it the problem solving, the attention to detail, the service, the feeling of solitary work, of a deep flow state that you get when you are coding? Maybe these feelings could also be achieved in other ways too.

I see it everywhere. We confuse the specific form that our goals take for the goals themselves. We become wrapped up in one medium, and think that because we use paint to express our ideas we are a painter or that because we use legal doctrines to help people navigate the system, we are a lawyer. We become tied to, and thus defined by one role. We don’t see that it is empowering others that we seek, or inspiring a particular feeling or connecting with another human being. We don’t see the Why behind what we do.

There is danger in becoming attached to the specific and not knowing what your goals represent or why you love what you love. The danger is that your industry might die or you might become bored with a particular medium/job, and then lose your whole sense of identity.

When you dream about the sort of life you want to create, do just that: dream about the SORT of life, and know that the specifics are just potential forms that this dream may take. For example, instead of saying “I want to spend my mornings writing,” say “I want to spend my mornings doing something creative that allows me to connect with my core,” (if that’s what writing does for you). This might mean writing, but it could also take the form of gardening or yoga or countless other activities. Defining things more broadly allows you to grow and stay open to new opportunities.

When you find yourself being drawn to a particular field or project, ask yourself why. What about this area is exciting to you? How is it like past endeavors you’ve been involved with? What sort of feelings and experiences do you get from engaging with it?

Understanding the currents that run through your passions is the secret to making the right decisions when life changes suddenly. If you know what you are looking for behind the specific medium or job or location, you’ll have a basis for assessing opportunities and knowing if they are right for you.

How has understanding what draws you to your interests helped you make better decisions?

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Emilie Wapnick works with multipotentialites to help them build lives and businesses around ALL of their interests. She is the troublemaker behind Puttylike.com. Her work has been featured in The Financial Times and Lifehacker.

I had no idea if anyone would watch. Or care.

But it was the thing I couldn’t not do…

Got my answer nearly immediately. Good Life Project TV™ took off. It’s now been watched in more than 135 countries.

I’ve written 800+ blog posts, articles in national magazines and two books. But, none of them has generated the response created by Good Life Project. Humbled. Grateful. Awed.

But, there was a bit of an ish…

The show is about 45-minutes long. That format let’s me go really deep with guests and avoid all the sound-bitey B.S.

But not everyone has 45 minutes to watch the show on a screen. So, shortly after launching, we began posting mp3 audio versions to a subscriber-only vault area. Better, now people could take the show on the road and listen.

Still, downloading it, then transferring it onto your phone or other listening device was a bit, well, cumbersome.

Which is why I’m sooooo excited to share with you today that…

Good Life Project™ Is Now Available
as a Podcast on iTunes!!!

We’ve just launched today with the first 20 episodes already posted. I’ll be accelerating delivery of the rest until we’re all caught up over the next few weeks. Then we’ll stick to a weekly schedule that mirrors the live web-series.

So, I need your help…

GLP is an “impact play” for me. It’s all about inspiring, educating and informing the greatest number of people, so they can build better lives, brands, businesses, bodies of work and help others do the same. Because…

The world needs more people who are lit up with purpose, joy and action.

Here are three ways you can enjoy the great Good Life Project conversations on-the-go, share them with friends and help me grow the movement and touch more lives -

1. Sign up for the iTunes podcast today – Immerse yourself in our life-changing library of conversations, then never miss an episode. Click here now to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
2. Leave a review – Share an honest sentence or two about the show on the iTunes page and give it a star rating (this make a really big difference).
3. Share the love - Share this post with your gang on Facebook, twitter or wherever feels right to you using the social media buttons on this page.

Oh, and one more thing. If you’re subscribed to GLP by email, DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE now.

We’re about begin making full-transcripts of the shows available to email subscribers in the next few weeks, along with some very cool new “insider-only” goodies, just for you.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

P.S. – YOU GUYS ROCK!

I feel other peoples’ emotions as if they’re my own.

Often, their pain. On an unusually strong level.

Whether I know them or not.

I shake when I see other people experience awe. I cry during Hallmark specials. Nearly every episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition left me a blathering mess. Stuff just seems to get to me more easily than others.

I’ve known this since I was a kid, just didn’t know there was a name for it until recently.

There’s good about it. And bad.

It’s been a huge asset as an entrepreneur, marketer, leader and artist. I can get into peoples’ heads, understand what they need, want, desire, aspire to. What makes them vibrate with emotion, good and bad. It lets me work on more of an emotional level, see past facades and words, then speak to, create and solve for what really matters.

It’s also been hugely beneficial in allowing me to connect when I teach, present and, as I’ve more recently discovered, interview people. In a past life, taking depositions in a dimly-lit cinderblock government room, I felt my way through the conversations on a more intuitive level, processing beyond words.

And, as a human being on a quest to be more human and better understand what this lap on the planet is all about, it lets me know, on a visceral level, what people are experiencing as if I am them. It allows me to see people more easily from a place of grace. To drop the judgment. Not always. And not everyone. I’m still very much a work in progress. But more often than not.

But it also comes with a dark side…

When someone else is in pain, it can be hard to dissociate from it. Whether you know them or not. It can also stop you from being able to help someone else. You’re of no use beyond being a warm body to commiserate, when their pain paralyzes you as much as them.

I was reminded of this, on a personal level, a few weeks ago, when my father-in-law passed away. I felt immediately for my wife’s loss. For her mother, too.

That evening, I sat down down, and told my little girl grandpa was dead.

I was fine until I saw her eyes begin to well. Seeing her heart break, my own shattered. We both lost it. Her, for her loss. Me, for her loss. There was nothing I could do or say, but cry with her. For her.

A few days later at the funeral, I was fine until a childhood friend of my father-in-law got up, and told stories about them in the neighborhood as kids. He struggled to choke back tears, I could barely breath. Had I been called on to console him or anyone else in that moment, I would’ve been fairly useless.

As an entrepreneur, this dark side reveals itself in the lure of the emotional rabbit hole. I need to be able to tap into others’ emotions to understand how best to serve them. But I also need to be able to convert emotions into businesses, brands, solutions and experiences that matter. To engage with enough dispassion to allow insight and action.

So, what to do?

Completely disconnect with people? Walk around with your shields on high all day? Divert with humor and sarcasm (all part of my arsenal, btw, with varying levels of efficacy).

It’s hard enough to process your own emotion, let alone manage the vein that channels others’ emotions into you.

That said, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Because…

To feel is to live.

It’s the raw fuel that births moments, interactions, experiences and the creation of art and meaning.

The challenge, always is to understand when to let it in, when to raise the shields entirely. And when to let in just enough to fuel connection, wisdom, compassionate action…and extraordinary art.

I’ve danced with this process for as long as I can remember. It fueled intense painting and composing jags as a kid. Converting my own and others’ raw transfered emotion into creative output.

I’m convinced that many of the world’s greatest artists, writers, composers were empaths. Bundling sensed extrinsic emotion with their own and channeling it onto the page, canvas, medium or instrument. Partly, in the quest to create art, but also in the name of survival. A way to open a conduit that allows all that channeled emotion to pour through, rather than consume them.

A few years ago, fueled by an entirely different reason. I found something else that’s helped me process life as an empath.

Mindfulness.

It doesn’t make everything better. What it does is allow me to understand when I’m being drawn in and then make a more deliberate decision about whether I’m going to open to empathy or compassion. And how much. The latter, allowing me to understand, to see and feel, but with enough detachment to still be able to act.

So, what about you?

How do you feel into others’ emotions?

How might you tap this orientation to live into life a bit more?

As an entrepreneur, how can you leverage it to serve more people on a higher level?

Share your thoughts below…

P.S. – Empaths aren’t always about human emotion. Many are fairly dispassionate toward other people, but their empathic connection runs strongly toward animals or the natural world.

Unappreciated and underpaid.

Hamstrung by the powers that be.

Taken advantage of. And you’ve reached a breaking point.

The status quo is causing pain and it must go.

Change has become a moral imperative. Time to rally the forces.

To tear it down. Move away from the current paradigm.

Away from tyranny, oppression, inequality.

Away from ignorance, negligence, malevolence.

Away from disrespect, injustice, intolerance

Away from lies, deceit, defeat.

Away, away, away.

Problem is…

“Away from” is a rally cry, but it’s not an organizing principle.

It’s about tearing down, not building up.

Away from is an incendiary device. But what will you build once the the bastards have fallen and and the wall has tumbled? Once you’re free of your cage? And how? With whom? Toward what end?

What rules, ethics and constructs will guide you? What new reality will you create? What principles and structures will guide the reconstruction? What better resolutions, outcomes, experiences will you leave in your wake of righteous destruction?

“Away from” can start a revolution, but only “toward” can finish it. Click to tweet

So, my question is not “what do you want to tear down?”

But rather, “what will you build in it’s place?”

What are you moving toward?

+++Some fun stuff+++

Good Life Project - Check out last week’s episode, featuring acclaimed DJ & rapper, Jasmine Solano, on her journey to the center of the live-music world. Then, learn how to make your message contagious with Jonah Berger’s 6 steps to global word-of-mouth.

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With gratitude,

Jonathan

Today’s contributing writer is Richie Norton. Richie is the CEO of Global Consulting Circle, a boutique international business development consultancy, and the author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live Without Regret. 

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A decision had to be made. The impossible decision.

A nurse quietly entered the room and injected a dose of epinephrine into his I.V. I wouldn’t have noticed her, except that when she left, she slid the glass door closed behind her and drew the outer curtain for our privacy.

We were alone. After days and days of incessant attention by multiple doctors and hospital staff, the room was completely quiet. Quiet, that is, aside from the gentle rise and fall of the ventilator and the soft beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor.

Adrenaline coursed madly through my veins. The room spun around me as I sat, disoriented to the point of nausea, on a stool beside his bed. I gripped the bed rail to keep from tipping over. But I wasn’t watching him. My eyes were glued to her as she fell into the chair in the corner of the room and wept, chest heaving, face pressed hard into her hands.

“This is a decision we shouldn’t have to make,” she said almost imperceptibly, as she ran her hands frantically through her hair, pulling it tight away from her face.

Agony. There wasn’t any other word. I took her hands in mine and looked deeply into her eyes, and together, we made the impossible decision: Do not resuscitate.

Those were the wee hours of the morning on January 7, 2010.

Two Years Earlier

On a sunny Hawaiian day, in the spring of 2007, Gavin took a gray, plastic container and placed his journals, a beat-up card containing the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and a few other precious possessions inside. He sealed the box and labeled it “To be opened 2027.” He took a Sharpie and adorned his treasure chest with a clever little drawing of a pirate and a short note to himself that read, “Hello, old man Gavin!”

He got on his salt-rusted beach cruiser, carefully balanced the box on his lap and pedaled with bare feet toward the lush Hawaiian mountains. Gavin had called Hawaii home for more than five years—nearly a quarter of his young life—and he wanted to leave a piece of his heart with the island that had taught and given him so much. He buried his treasure at the base of the beautiful Ko’olauloa Mountains, intending not to open it again for twenty years.

It was only a few short weeks later, however, that those journals were unearthed, and I found myself reading excerpts from them to a grief-stricken audience of hundreds who had gathered to celebrate his incredible young life. Less than three weeks after burying his time capsule, my healthy and vibrant young brother-in-law passed away unexpectedly in his sleep.

He was twenty-one years old.

A little over two years after Gavin’s death, my wife, Natalie, gave birth to our fourth son. With pride, we named our little guy after his late uncle. Baby Gavin was born October 24, 2009. He was perfect, and even his rough-and-tumble big brothers agreed. Yet here we sat, only ten short weeks into his life, alone in a hospital room. Alone except for the quiet nurse and her epinephrine. Natalie on one side of Gavin, and I on the other, the words “Do not resuscitate” ringing heavily in our ears as tears stung the edges of our raw eyes.

My initial response had been to give our son every fighting chance at survival. “Of course we will resuscitate!” I had confidently said. I was baffled that the doctors even had the audacity to ask. Words and phrases began pounding through my brain, clouding my thinking, impairing my sense of reason, and damming my judgment completely: “pertussis,” “secondary infection,” “experimental procedure,” “end of the line,” “nothing more we can do,” “time to say good-bye.” Then slowly, very slowly, the reality of our situation started to set in. I finally came to see the absolute hopelessness we were facing. I became aware that the violent process of resuscitation in and of itself would only lengthen Gavin’s suffering and not save his life. I swallowed, hard. And I gathered the courage to let go.

Natalie and I cried together. We spoke words of deep, profound love to our sweet little son. And moments later, my sweet wife rocked him tenderly in her arms, and I rested my hand on our son’s chest and felt the last beats of his tiny heart. We sang him a lullaby through our tears, and our boy was gone.

The weight of the world never felt heavier in my hands than it did the day we walked out of that hospital with empty arms. Baby Gavin lived seventy-six days.

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days . . . as you make use of.” —Charles Richards, Canadian Judge

Gavin’s Law

Very shortly after the death of our son, my wife, Natalie, and I went to listen to a friend and mentor of mine who was giving a speech at a university near our home in Hawaii. After her presentation, she came to where we were sitting to say hello and to offer her condolences.

After chatting for a few moments, she looked Natalie straight in the eye, and abruptly asked, “So, what have you learned?” Admittedly, I was somewhat taken aback b y the intensity of her question. Thankfully, Natalie—always on her toes—offered a gracious, eloquent, and genuine response, as I stood by, somewhat dumbfounded.

The months passed, but I couldn’t forget this question:

“So, what have you learned?”

That question changed my life. Here were the facts: my brother-in-law was gone, our son was gone, and there wasn’t a thing in the world I could do to change any of that. Suddenly, my life took on a very real sense of urgency. There was, in fact, a time limit!

Transcendent to the sense of urgency I felt, I found myself face to face with the realization that circumstance was completely outside my realm of control. Not only this particular set of circumstances, but circumstance in general. I suddenly realized that if we are sitting around waiting—maybe even begging and pleading—for our circumstances to change so that we can finally live life the way we really want to live, chances are very good that we will stay stuck waiting forever.

There will always be a million reasons to wait until later. This is simply the nature of the animal called life. Those Gavins taught me to live, today. I’ve summed up the lesson I learned from the deaths of my brother-in-law and my son into what I call Gavin’s Law:

Live to start. Start to live.

Don’t Wait. Start Stuff.

People are innately passionate about certain unique aspects of life. You are innately passionate about certain unique aspects of life. And people are blessed with bouts of clear and concise intuition that drive them toward distinct goals and aspirations within their jobs and their lives as a whole. (You are not excluded from this group.)

But people disregard these inspired thoughts, these high-potential opportunities, as “just another stupid idea.”

Why?

Perhaps they are concerned about a lack of support (perceived or otherwise) from others, or maybe they are afraid of what others will think of them if they fail. Whatever the reason, they convince themselves:

  “This would be a great idea for someone who has more free time.”

  “This would be a great idea for someone with a higher level of education.”

  “This would be a great idea for someone who has more money.”

  “Everybody thinks this idea is crazy. They must be right.”

No matter the justification, the response is the same. These inspired thoughts, these high-potential ideas, are stuffed deep into the drawer labeled “stupid,” and they’re never heard from again . . . or the waiting game begins.

People wait.

They wait for that elusive day when they’ll finally have enough time (guess what?—you never will), enough education (there is always more to know), enough money (no matter how much you make, someone will always have more). They wait until the children are grown (news flash: just because they’re grown, it doesn’t mean you’re rid of them) or until things settle down at work (they never will).

People wait until . . . until . . . until . . . They wait, and they wait, and they wait, until that fateful day when they wake up and realize that while they were sitting around, paying dues, earning their keep, waiting for that elusive “perfect time,” their entire life has passed them by.

Consciously living and breathing Gavin’s Law in every facet of my life and business has helped me realize the importance, the satisfaction, and the very real power that comes from starting something stupid. If you let it, Gavin’s Law will change your life, forever.

There is no greater time than now to start moving toward achieving your goals. Don’t wait. Start stuff. Live to start your stupid ideas, and start to live a life without regret—a life filled with meaning, freedom, happiness, fun, authenticity, and influence. After all, now is, in all actuality, the only time you’re truly guaranteed.

Life is too short not to start something stupid.

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Richie Norton is the author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen and Live Without Regret as well as the popular blog Start Stuff. Pacific Business News recognized Richie as one of the top Forty Under 40 “best and brightest young businessmen” in Hawaii. He is an entrepreneur, speaker and international business development consultant. Follow him on Twitter @RichieNorton.

I’d done a few Flip videos and posted them online. But I was, first and foremost a writer. Video was more or less something people did to waste time or share their goofiness.

Then, something happened that shattered my understanding of the power of video.

In the final hours before my last book launched, we created a video book trailer. Just me, sitting in front of a camera. Totally unscripted, telling a story. Professionally filmed and edited, but simple as can be.

The video went live and the response was like nothing generated by anything I’d written. It took me by surprise in a huge way. I never had the need to be in front of the camera. Still don’t. I’d actually much rather hide behind the screen. But I couldn’t ignore the response to the medium. Here’s the video…

Since then, I’ve made a series of big moves into online video. The venture that’s become my driving focus over the last year, Good Life Project, features a broadcast-quality weekly interview show. The educational side of that venture was launched not with a text landing page, but a 22-minute video that sold out our flagship training program in days, two years running.

One of the things I decided, right away, was that if I was going to do video, I wanted to raise the bar. No home vids or iPhones. We film on-location with a crew, three cameras rolling and everything is professionally edited.

Does that cost me waaaay more than writing posts or creating a text-driven website or landing page for offerings? Absolutely. But, at least for me, the outcomes have been more than worth the investment.

It’s building community, brand-equity, value and delivering impact way faster and at a higher-level than almost anything I’ve done. The daily emails I receive from the web-show regularly leave me breathless with gratitude. And, from a pure marketing standpoint, I’ve learned well-scripted and produced video moves people to action phenomenally well.

A few more examples of people tapping video to do big things…

1. Marie Forleo - 

Marie Forleo produces a weekly web-show, Marie TV, that offers advice on business and life. In a matter of a few years, she’s built a massive, die-hard global audience. While her show is angled toward women viewers, her advice applies pretty much across the board to anyone looking to do big things in life. And the production values set the standard for web-shows.

Looking to serve and solve the needs of her huge, devoted community, Marie created a series of educational experiences and products and launched them all with video. In fact, right now, she’s smack in the middle of a stunningly well-crafted video product launch for her online B-School.

Here’s the entry point for her video marketing sequence and here’s the product detail page that just went live today. If you’re interested in how to tap video to launch anything, watch her entire sequence.

Doesn’t matter if you want to buy what she’s selling or not. Just go check out how Marie’s leveraging video to build a powerhouse, value-driven marketing “funnel” that honors and gives along the way (P.S. – If you do end up investing in her stuff, I’m a friend and an affiliate and will benefit from your purchase. But, like I said, that’s not the main point here. The real thing is to devour how she’s using video to market and to learn).

2. A.J. Leon -

A.J. and his wife, Melissa, are the co-founders of Misfit, Inc. They were featured on an early episode of Good Life Project. Days before their wedding, A.J. walked out of a 6-figure job to rebuild his career and life with Melissa in a way that honored the man, husband and human being he wanted to be.

Together they launched a new venture, Misfit, Inc., in the quest to create something that would let them to travel around the world, work together and build a for-profit business that served as an engine for philanthropy. They’ve since raised millions of dollars for causes and foundations globally, helped build schools and bring fresh water to villages in need.

They often tap video as a primary vehicle for community-building and messaging, though because they’re often filming in some of the rawest places on the planet, it’s less about production-value and more about storytelling and sharing reality.

Today, A.J. tapped video in an entirely new way. He launched a Kickstarter project to fund his new book The Life and Times of a Remarkable Misfit. The entire campaign is exceptionally well put together. And his use of simple, close-up, story-driven video is drawing donors to the project on a level that’ll likely see it funded in less than a day.

Where does that leave us?

There are so many great examples of people tapping video to create content, build brands and launch ideas, services, experiences and products. Yes, highly-produced video still costs real money. But far less than it did only a few years ago. And, you’ve got to look not only at the investment, but the impact and growth side of the equation.

I’m a writer, that’s still my primary medium. I’ve written more than 800 articles on my blog and two books with plenty more to come. But, I can no longer ignore the astonishing power of well-crafted video to engage, connect and inspire action.

Has video killed the text star?

Not entirely, but depending on the audience and the intended use, it’s become an extraordinarily powerful tool in the communication arsenal. One I think you’d be nuts not to at least explore as you figure out how to get where you want to be and leave the footprint in the sand that’ll best honor your time on the planet.

So, what do YOU think?

Share your thoughts in the comments below…

With gratitude,

Jonathan

Today’s contributing writer is my friend, Ekaterina Walter. Ekaterina is a social media innovator at Intel, a speaker, and an author of the book “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg”. 

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All great achievements start with passion. Passion is what fuels everything. Passion is what motivates you, whether your motivations are spiritual, artistic, political, economic, social, or personal. You know that you are passionate about something when you become restless, when you wake up every morning knowing that you cannot not create whatever it is that you are passionate about.

Passion is what shapes your purpose, in life and in business. When the idea for a venture starts taking shape, purpose is what ultimately helps define it. If you rally around the purpose and build a culture around it, you will meet success; if you lose your way, you will meet failure.

The success of your mission will depend on a lot of factors, one of the most critical of them is people – employees you hire and those you partner with. Whether you are a growing business or an established one, if you don’t have a team that shares your vision, your dream, and your goals, the business will not be able to reach its potential. No matter how you look at it, no matter which field you are in, no matter how brilliant your ideas are, success is a team sport. You can imagine the most amazing products or services in the world, but it requires people to make your dream a reality. That’s where culture and leadership become important.

You need to become a leader who follows her passion, leads with purpose, builds great teams, and strives for continued excellence in her product (or services). It is a mentality that drives great leaders to building successful business and the approach they use to doing so. Facebook and its visionary Mark Zuckerberg is an interesting example of a leader who has a clear purpose in front of him and for whom that purpose drives all of his major personal and business decisions.

Zuckerberg believes that the world is moving toward radical transparency. To him, the information flow online shouldn’t be encumbered by, well, anything. He believes there should be no borders, no restrictions, no limitations on not only the way people connect and communicate online but in the way information is created, consumed, and shared.

In building Facebook, Zuckerberg was extremely focused on ensuring that the social graph he helped create online would be transparent and authentic. Authenticity is everything to him. Facebook was created on a principle of real-life identity and is intended to enhance your relationships with people you know in real life. One is not able to build trust inside online communities if one’s identity isn’t consistent and known to others.

Hence, Facebook’s restriction of allowing only one profile per person. Believe it or not, people have been banned for creating multiple profiles. Facebook was the first social network to introduce this rule and demand compliance with it. “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity,” says Facebook’s CEO.  “The level of transparency the world has now won’t support having two identities for a person.”  He believes that such transparency will also help build a healthier society.

Throughout the existence of the social network, Zuck stuck to his passion and to the purpose of Facebook’s creation. He always ensured that users came first and revenue second. Over the past eight years, he has been criticized for sacrificing revenue for users’ interests. But he always sailed his course. “I never wanted to run a company,” Zuckerberg said. “To me a business is a good vehicle for getting stuff done.” His belief in his company and its purpose was so strong, he declined to sell it over and over, even when Yahoo executives offered him $1 billion.

Money isn’t a priority to him; he is more interested in building something genuinely amazing than selling out. For the longest time, he rented a small apartment and slept on a mattress on the floor. He drove an Acura TSX. He doesn’t have fancy clothes, preferring T-shirts and hoodies. In the letter that accompanied the IPO, Zuck wrote: “Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.” In that he reminds me of Steve Jobs and his quote from a 1993 Wall Street Journal interview: “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

“The question I ask myself like almost every day is -

‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’ Click to tweet

. . . Unless I feel like I’m working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I’m not going to feel good about how I’m spending my time. And that’s what this company is.” says Zuckerberg.

Zuck’s business interests always aligned closely with his personal philosophy. He even encourages his employees to work on the projects they are passionate about, not the ones that are forcefully assigned to them. What an incredible way to take advantage of not only human competence, but full human potential. And what a great reminder to lead with purpose.

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Ekaterina Walter is a social media innovator at Intel, a speaker, and an author of the book “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg”. Walter was named among 25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2012. She sits on a Board of Directors of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). You can find her on Twitter: @Ekaterina and her blog www.ekaterinawalter.com. 

Much as I love to connect, I’m in deep creation and pre-launch mode…aka “email is largely dead to me” mode through the end of Jan 2013 as I work to breath life into new adventures for the year ahead.

So, it’ll likely take a while before I can respond. I appreciate your patience. If this is genuinely an urgent matter, please call…

I turned that email off, but I’m thinking about turning it back on for the duration of 2013. I’m also considering expanding that ethic beyond email and into the way I commit my time, money and energy for the next 11 months.

Here’s why…

Over the last few years, I’ve spent a vast amounts of time in connection-mode, being fairly ubquitous across social media and attending and speaking at a lot of conferences and events.

My driving purpose was not knowledge, but rather people. I wanted to find and build relationships with people I just love to be around, I could help, and who could help me. All the better if all three categories folded into one, which they often have.

Connection is valid reason to invest energy and it’s been hugely valuable both in my ability to build my businesses, brand and impact and be in a position to help a lot of people do what they’re here to do. Plus, the friendships and colleagues I’ve come to know have added immeasurably to my life, regardless of professional potential.

Problem is, there’s an opportunity cost to hyper-connection mode; education and creation stall.

As last year unfolded, I started to notice something. I was losing my beginner’s mind. I had become less of a student and creator and more of a connector.

For some people, that’s fine. Not me. I’m at my happiest when I’m learning and creating. And even though, from the outside-in, there seemed to be a large volume of creation going on over the last year, truth is, I was holding on for dear life a good part of the time. Living and creating reactively with the time I had left over after connecting. That didn’t work for me.

So as I entered 2013, I decided to shift gears. To make this the year of immersive learning and creation and dial back on connection.

I bowed out of both attending and speaking at a number of events that had been regulars, but were largely about connection (which, again, I love), but didn’t also hold substantial opportunity for intensive learning. I still have a few connection-driven events on the calendar, but far less than I’ve had the prior few years.

I’ve rebuilt my calendar to compress weekly connection time. Instead of scattering it across the week, Monday is my connection day, with either Wednesday or Thursday afternoon designated as my connection overflow window. I’ve needed time to honor prior commitments, but by the end of February, this will be my nearly-inviolable schedule.

On the social side, I’ve begun “batching,” too. With rare exception, anything that happens outside my designated connection days will happen in an intimate group. So, if people are coming into town or friends want to gather, we’ll designate three or four nights or weekend mornings a month to gather where we can all play and rotate and smile and laugh and hug and eat and drink and relax. Outside these windows, it ’s  all about education, creation, vitality and family.

Implementing these shifts has immediately freed up time to go deeper on my education than I’ve gone in years.

I committed to a private workshop with Stanford Professor B.J. Fogg, a leading researcher in “captology” or the marraige of technology and psychology to trigger and sustain behavior change and facilitate mass adoption (okay, you figured me out, planning to take over the world with digital love). I’ve become part of a group of 140 people who have inside access to the strategies and test data from a digital publisher who’s known to be on the cutting-edge of information marketing.

I committed to attend a 3-day conference on the intersection of Eastern philosophy, mindfulness and Buddhism with entrepreneurship, business growth and global impact. I’m not speaking which, to be honest, feels a little weird to me. I’m not used to being at events purely to absorb. But I’m also excited about the shift. And there will be more investment of time, money and energy in carving out more opportunities that elevate education and creation over connection.

I look at it as a natural cycle. You need to be out in the world to build the relationships that make life rich, allow you to serve and also help get the word out when you’ve done something worth sharing.

But if you’re always in connection mode, you cut so deeply into your ability to learn and create that you’re not able to birth ideas, products, services, experiences and movements that matter enough for people to want to share them.

You lose the ability to create on a level that allows you say “look, I did this,” have jaws drop and send people running to share what you’ve created in an expanding ripple of self-motivated evangelism.

One last thing – isn’t connection important for knowledge and creation?

Yes and no. At least for me. I benefit immensely from the exchange of ideas, insights and critique that allow me to learn more and create better. But, I also tend to get a lot more out of those exchanges AFTER I’ve already spent a lot of time in my own head, in the classroom, in workshops, in nature, at peace, in my own largely solitary creation process.

That may not be how your process works, but that’s how it works for me.

So, what about you? What’s been your primary operating mode?

Connection, creation or education? Is it working for you?

And if not, what are you going to do about it?

Share your thoughts below…

Standing before a crowd of 250,000, televised live on all three major television networks, Martin Luther King, Jr. did what, for most, would be unthinkable. But, until years later, nobody even knew what he’d done.

There’s an amazing story behind Martin Luther King’s epic I Have a Dream speech that’s rarely told.

It’s the story of faith, craft, attention and improvisation.

One that applies to the lives and dreams of every person who aspires to breath life into great adventures, movements, careers, art, businesses and relationships.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a live and televised crowd of millions, Dr. King began to observe something unsettling. He had been delivering the speech as written, pausing regularly for dramatic effect, but more importantly, to see how his intended message was landing.

Some eleven minutes in, he realized he had a problem. The speech he’d prepared wasn’t landing the way it needed to. If he kept on message, some of the power of the moment, and the attention of the world, would have been lost. Right around then, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”

With that, Dr. King did what for so many would be the unthinkable…

He abandoned his plan. Mid-speech. He went off -message, without notice or intention.

Instead of the staid words and the original conclusion, he began to dance, teeing up what came to be known as one of the most powerful speeches ever given. The entire dream sequence wasn’t planned. It was added-in on the fly.

Question is, what allowed him to do this? And what can we learn from it?

1. Faith in mission -

Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t just giving a stump speech. He wasn’t the mouthpiece for someone else’s vision or division. He wasn’t an advocate for another’s cause. He was the living, breathing embodiment of a quest. A mission and vision born of such deep and enduring conviction that it was a manifestation of his soul. What he was working to accomplish was so much a part of his DNA that anything but 100% faith would’ve been a subjugation of primal truth. This unwavering faith in mission cultivates the level of unrelenting conviction, resilience and drive that fuels…

2. Craft –

Dr. King was possessed with the study of the craft of oration. He’d immersed himself in it for years, observing the skills, language patterns, content, theatricality, styles and modes of delivery of a rich lineage of faith-based leaders who had come before him. Then, he practiced. And practiced. And practiced.

He developed ideas for sermons and talks, snippets that he would “workshop” in bits and pieces, the way a comedian workshops individual jokes in small venues, refining them into discrete lines of power that could be molded into larger bodies of transformative oratory.

He also had developed relationships with a small group of others, many legendary preachers in their own rights, who’d cultivated a similar passion for the art of oration. They would share ideas and lines, they’d help each other develop their sermons and they would exchange “data” about what type of content and delivery techniques were really hitting and what was bombing.

He had essentially created what I call in my last book, Uncertainty, a “Creation Hive.” A small group of people each creating independently, but sharing information, ideas, support and operating under a group ethic fueled by the desire to see every member rise.

So, while the dream sequence was not part of the original speech, he’d been workshopping the ideas and lines, pieces of the whole, for some time before.

Developing this library of workshopped, semi-tested “stanzas” and topics gave him the ability to go off-script without having to wade entirely into the abyss. Instead, he could draw from a library of alternative paths that, while not as rehearsed, let him adapt his presentations on the fly to the needs of his audience. But, of course, he couldn’t have known how or when to do that unless he had developed the habit of paying serious…

3. Attention –

As is the case with many of the world greatest orators and interviewers, Dr. King didn’t just stand at a podium and talk. He also observed. Deeply. And regularly. He’d pause all the time, allowing his latest idea, his ascent into alliteration to linger. But those moments served a dual purpose. They allowed him to process. To scan the eyes, the bodies, the non-verbal language, the tells that let him know if he was on the mark.

Great interviewers, many of whom I’ve begun to study as part of my own commitment to the craft, do this extraordinarily well. They prepare intensely. They develop a ruthless knowledge of their subjects. They begin with certain standard paths of conversation and have a set of topics and questions prepared. But they also listen, to the words, the movements, the subtle energetic cues that let them know “here lies gold.” And then they follow those leads, script be damned.

To do this, you need to cultivate the habit of observation, deep attention. This, coupled with the above lays the foundation for you to be able to capture the moment and create something nobody saw coming, including you, by moving into a place of…

4. Improvisation -

Letting go of the script. Being so present, so practiced, so open to the “yes, and” rather than the “no, but” that magic finds its home. When you blend faith in mission with craft, workshopped alternatives, intense attention and the willingness to wade ever-deeper into that place where you don’t know how it’s going to end, genius takes flight. People take action. Moments that matter, large and small, find the light of day.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s willingness to do all of this changed not only his speech on August 28, 1963, it quite literally altered the fate of the nation. To this day, I cannot listen to that speech without shaking, without being moved to tears.

A willingness to embrace the above four elements—faith, craft, attention and improvisation—is one of the marks of not just extraordinary orators, but world-changing creators, artists, movements and visionaries.

Have a plan, but move away from it when you sense the world needs something else. Click to tweet

Blaze a path that is so fiercely yours it fuels the work needed to cultivate true craft. Click to tweet

Pay attention, be so deeply vested in service and observation that impact leads ego. Click to tweet

Cultivate the ability to lean into the unknown in the name of the possible. Click to tweet

Is this an easy way to operate? No.

Does it take an unusual depth of commitment to develop the four elements on the level that allows you to impact people as deeply possible?

Yes.

But, c’mon, are you really here for less?

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P.S. – Quick update – In case you missed it, late last week, we opened enrollment for the intensive 10-month GLP Immersion business and lifestyle training program. It’s the ultimate instant “Creation Hive.” We’ve already gotten a lot of applications for a max of only 20 spots, and we’re beginning to interview people and extend offers this week. So, if you’re interested, please, please please don’t wait to get your app in.

Photo: By Unknown? [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’d just released my 2011 Annual Report, a 40 page document that took people deeply into my life, my businesses, learnings and aspirations (my 2012 Annual Report is coming soon, btw). I shared a struggle that was very personal. I stepped into my own vulnerability on a level that made me incredibly uncomfortable, and also took people deep into my business life.

Something magical happened…

That Annual Report exploded online. It was read and shared by thousands. The emails I received in response literally left me in tears for the better part of a few days.

But, here’s where it gets really interesting…

At the end of that Annual Report, I teased something I called Good Life Project.™ And I shared my 10 Commandments of Epic Business. They were built around a radically-different set of values and strategies, ones I’ve tapped to build and sell a number of successful companies, advise everyone from solo-professionals to Fortune 100s and write a few award-winning books.

Those 10 commandments took on a life of their own. They awakened people to the possibility that you could build a real, substantial business or career, while also building an extraordinary, connected, joyful life.

People wanted to know more…

They wanted to dive deeper into each, to discover the operating principles, strategies and tactics behind them.

So, in February 2012, I released a video detailing the 10 Commandments and, for those who wanted more, announced the first-ever Good Life Project Business & Lifestyle Immersion, a 10-month business and lifestyle training handcrafted to breath life into the 10 Commandments of Epic Business.

The idea was to bring together an intimate, highly-curated group of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs and intrapraneurs (folks who work in companies, but want to bring the Good Life Project business ideals to their companies, careers and cultures). The group had to be small and hand-picked to ensure an extraordinary level of impact and connection.

We’d then assemble a world-class faculty to teach, inspire and support massive action and evolution, spending 10 months working, growing and traveling together. Building something extraordinary, both individually and collectively.

At this point, Good Life Project TV, which has now grown into a media phenom with viewers in 135 countries and counting (to my complete surprise), didn’t even exist yet.

Within 72 hours of posting a single webpage with information on the 10-month GLP Immersion, more than 100 people applied for one of the few available spots.

I was dumbstruck…

I knew there was a lot of pain. So many people want to build real, family and future-worthy businesses or careers, while also being present in the lives of their families and friends, being healthy and feeling fulfilled, optimistic and vital. But few have access to the knowledge, tools and support to make it happen. I’d had conversations with hundreds of people about the pervasive sense of unrealized potential, misaligned action and reactive living that seems to smother so much joy for so many. And I knew there wasn’t anything like what we were about to create.

But the volume and intensity of the need was so far beyond what I’d anticipated…

After reviewing applications and conducting interviews, we accepted a tightly-curated group of 15 into the program. Over the next 10 months, our intimate group of “GLeePers” came together in New York City, Boulder, Colorado and a secret private compound on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico.

Each weekend was an event in it’s own right. Totally-immersive. Transformative. Personally and professionally.

By the end of the first 3-day weekend, it was as if everyone had known each other for life. Like they’d finally discovered, for the first time, an inner circle of people that thought like them, saw the world the same way, wanted to give to and get the same things from life. People they knew would be there to rally behind them for years to come.

I was so incredibly honored to be able to create and hold this space for the group, to facilitate the learning and connections and be joined in each location by a world-class business-growth and mindset faculty.

Threading these 3-day learning retreats together was a curriculum of monthly mentoring, strategy and weekly e-reveals” – conversations in our private email group that came to be known as “Coming to God” check-ins. These not only became immense opportunities to share knowledge and experiences, but also to deepen our bonds and provide a mission-critical, non-judgmental accountability mechanism.

There was nowhere to hide. Everyone had to report in. Full transparency was the expectation. And that was not only okay, it was gorgeous. These weekly and monthly experiences served as one of the keys to the power and coherence of the group. And fostered a mind-blowing volume of action-taking, accountability and movement.

I had high hopes for the GLP Immersion Class of 2012. What unfolded, though, exceeded my wildest expectations. Truth told, it blew me away…

The depth of connections, life-changing awakenings, both business and personal, and the lasting impact was truly breathtaking.

You can watch and read many of their experiences here.

What started as a group of strangers turned into a family with the knowledge, power and support to effect massive change.

It was a stunning year. And for the last year, literally since the day we closed the application window, even though I’ve done nothing to market this experience, an endless parade of people have continued to email, tweet me, track me down on Facebook or after keynoting a conference to find out when I’ll be re-opening the program.

Well…that day is TODAY!!!

I learned a ton building the 2012 GLP Immersion program. Over the last few months, my team and I have taken all that learning, deconstructed and rebuilt the program and developed a revamped, even-cooler, more impact-driven format for 2013.

I’m insanely excited to share that…

Enrollment for the 2013 Good Life Project Immersion opens today.

Click here now to learn all the details about the 2013 GLP Immersion.

If it feels right to you, fantastic. And even if it’s not a fit, you’ll enjoy learning more about the 10 Commandments of Epic Business and two very cool psychological phenomenon known and “emotional contagion” and the “Pygmalion effect”

Here’s to a year filled with deepening connection and realized potential!

With gratitude,

Jonathan

P.S. – The application deadline is January 31, but more than 100 people applied last year and we anticipate even more this year. Because of the intimate, hands-on nature of the Immersion, we can only accept a max of 20 people into the program (last year, we only took 15). Translation – we may well fill up long before the deadline. So, if you’re serious about making this your year, be sure to apply early to hold onto your spot.

Image by God-like photographer Eric Michael Pearson