You should use Squidoo

Do you know what Squidoo is? You very well may not but that's okay, I'm going to tell you about it. Squidoo allows you to create what they call a "Lens" very easily. It's basically a super simple way to build a web page and aggregate a bunch of information about anyone or anything that interests you.

Say you like cooking. You can pull together your favorite cooking videos from YouTube, your favorite cook books (and link to them on Amazon), and include the latest posts from your cooking blog and your latest tweets from twitter. If people come to your page, they learn about what you put together, and if they click on an ad, or buy a book through your amazon link, you can make money or donate it to charity.

It's pretty cool and you should create a lens.

I created one for my professional profile because I wanted a nice casual way to put together a bunch of information about the stuff I do. In one place I can include information about the companies I started, bring info in from my blog, consume my twitter feed, and link to my resume. I put it together really quickly and will probably be editing it a bit, but you get the point. You can visit it at www.squidoo.com/andrewwicklander.

Of course, I could have made a basic website so why choose Squidoo? Because it was easier. That, and because I already have enough websites that need a design overhaul. I didn't want to add another one to the mix.

No one can have your perspective

Perspectives are not formed over the course of a project, a job, or even a career. They are formed over a lifetime. And because of this, it is simply impossible for anyone to have your exact perspective.

We receive and process so many inputs, that the collection of them is unique to the individual alone. What we can strive for however is to broaden our perspectives, and work deliberately to share our own perspective with others.

The challenge is two-fold. On the one-hand, it's entirely possible that your (or my!) perspective has blind spots. There's information out there that might alter our view on things, but if we don't know about it the blind spots remain. The flip-side of course is that you've processed information in a way that someone else has not, and in doing so, you may have a better understanding of how to solve a particular problem. Who's right? Who's wrong? Maybe no one.

The problem is that sharing or receiving this extra bit of information may in fact have no impact whatsoever. After all, it's just one of thousands of inputs that are being processed by an individual that creates their view of the world. Is one new piece of information likely to alter things?

What can make a dramatic impact though is getting people to understand your perspective. Allowing them to see an entire collection of bits of information, through your eyes, might impact things tremendously. Likewise, by trying to understand the entire perspective of someone else, and not just individual ideas or pieces of information, you may also be transformed.

Just remember, you're still ultimately empowered or handicapped by your own perspective, because it's always unique to you.

On Fear

Most of what I write here tends to be pretty positive, upbeat and confident. Recently though, I started getting concerned that what I was sharing was only showing one side of my personality. I suppose it's the side that usually wins out, but it's not truly a complete picture until I give you a little more context. I don't have a ton of readers, and I truly appreciate those of you that do stop by or subscribe for updates, and I think I owe it to you to be as authentic as I can be.

So now, I want to write a little about the things that scare me. Hopefully this will paint a clearer picture of what I think about, how I process information when I make decisions, and maybe just get a little more human on you.

The thing that scares me more than anything is losing someone I love. In a probably unhealthy way, I think about death a lot. My best friend was killed in a car accident when I was 24, and this loss has had a deep and profound impact on who I am. A little over a year ago, my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor which was, thankfully, successfully removed. Six months ago, a 22 year old cousin of mine was killed in a car accident.

Whenever I'm asking myself whether I want to do something, the worst case scenario is, of course, never as bad as death. This may lead me to having a higher than appropriate risk tolerance, but it's also helped me keep things in perspective. Either way, I rarely make an important decision without understanding how little it's outcome would mean - positively or negatively - when compared to unspeakable tragedies.

I'm also afraid of economic failure; how could any small business person not be in this economy? The thing is, my fears used to be "What if I lost my job?" And I've found that, for me, being slightly more in control is less scary than relying on one employer for my income.

I worry at times that people or companies I admire will happen across my blog or my company and wonder why I'm trying to play in the same league as them.

Sometimes I wonder whether I have the authority to speak so vocally about how a project should be managed. Maybe I need one more. Maybe just a bigger one this time. But then, really, how many until this just becomes my excuse not to do something?

I worry about whether my need for complete clarity and my unwillingness to just let things go sometimes turns off talented developers. But then, if I don't press for clarity I worry that I've compromised my beliefs.

I fear trying to do too much has caused me to have a crappy website for GoFind!. Okay okay, I know this is true and it's being worked on. Hey, I had to prioritize!

Now, there may be some people who are always confident about everything they're doing. And if that works for them, then I think that's awesome. For me though, it's helpful to get a little introspective sometimes. I don't let it paralyze me, but I use it as an opportunity to understand what those fears are really telling me and quite often it helps me to solidify my opinion about something, or identify a direction I want to go in.

The main point I wanted to get across is that I don't do the things I do in the absence of fear, but in spite of it. The neat thing is, once you overcome one thing you're afraid of, it gives you the confidence to overcome another thing your worried about.

Of course, there are still many more things I haven't done, that I want to do, because I simply haven't overcome the fear yet. But it's okay, I'm pretty sure I will.

Happy Reflection Day

Since my late teens, I've always struggled with Thanksgiving. I'm simply unable to observe the holiday without thinking about the slaughter of Native Americans, and this state of mind doesn't exactly lend itself to being joyous about anything.

In the modern day of course, it seems Thanksgiving is as much about shopping as it is about anything else. The reason Thanksgiving is even on the fourth Thursday in November (instead of the last as was tradition since Lincoln) is because President Roosevelt was concerned that if the holiday shopping season was delayed by a week it would further cripple the economy during the great depression. It's as if the holiday has become one big national reminder that we're a bunch of consumers. Again, not exactly something to be joyous about.

I suppose the problem I have isn't taking time to be thankful, but doing so without reflecting on how we got what we're thankful for.

I can't help but wonder, what would be different if my ancestors tried to learn more from Native Americans instead of murder them? What would our country look like if we hadn't felt the need to conquer half a continent? What would be different if we had more respect for the land?

So this time of year, in addition to identifying what I'm thankful for, I also like to reflect so that I can determine whether I'm on the right path. I like to identify the things that went well so I can repeat them, and determine what I did incorrectly in the hope that I can avoid the same mistakes.

In addition to giving thanks, I think it's healthy to take the time to reflect.

Happy Reflection Day.

In order to win, you must be willing to lose

On Thursday I went to the best business session I've ever been to. Seth Godin presented for about an hour and then followed it up with roughly six hours of question and answer with the group of about 75 business owners, marketers, and others navigating through the challenges associated with running a business.

There was fantastic information, insight and advice. Seth talked about being remarkable, and that doing so requires the willingness to fail. He talked about focusing obsessively on a nitch, and being the best at it. He talked about how you need to be prepared for the people that will criticize you for being remarkable. That taking a stand, having opinions, and being noteworthy will win you fans, but it will also earn you some detractors. And that this is okay.

There were so many themes for the day that it may not even be appropriate to try and sum it up in one statement. I'll try anyway though by saying that the collective message I took away was that in order to win, you must be willing to lose.

The Yankees could have opted to not try and win the World Series. That would have been ridiculous though right? They were willing to lose for the glory you get when you win.

When we're sitting out, not taking the action that we know we need to take; it's not that we're losing, we're forfeiting. We're not even playing. We took our ball and went home. Isn't that terrible?

Duarlander may not be as big of a hit as I think it can be. GoFind! may never become the next must-have application. The new things I'll be doing with Ideal Project Group may not win over everyone. But I will not forfeit.

I'm trying to win; and I'm willing to risk losing in order to do so.