Why read books? Why go to theatrical plays? Why attend conferences? – these questions might be silly, but I think there’s a common answer to all of them.
The answer? Even if you can read a book summary, read at your own pace (perhaps faster) a theatrical play, and not attend a long conference, if you do things like these, you might notice things tend to stick.
It’s one thing to quickly go through an article or to have it explained in detail at a conference.
I’ve been to some concerts in my life.
I think there are two kinds of concerts:
Even when singing opera, you can be bold and make a show.
But I’ve been disappointed a few times by good voices and little to no energy.
It’s not enough to sing nicely; you need to do extra.
I even remember singers I didn’t especially like before, but I enjoyed their energy.
And, of course, being bold (even a bit over the board) helps.
Sometimes, some places go out of business.
Before the current Carrefour in Unirea, there was a store with good prices and a great location, but few customers. It was a pleasure buying in there.
There was a restaurant in Gara de Nord București (Bucharest North Station). It served good food at low prices.
I used to organize some events at Journey Pub, which is close to Piața Romană. It was a very fancy location with unfancy prices.
I used to organize events at Alouette, which is in a very central location, but not too many people knew about it.
Cora hypermarket had good quality but high prices. They sold to Carrefour.
I regret some of the brands above, some less so.
It makes you wonder.
Everyone sings in an orchestra, but the most essential person tends to be the main singer in front of the orchestra.
On the other hand, the orchestra will sound poorly due to a single person.
In a football team, everyone matters.
“If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” (source and full details: Genesis 18 NIV – The Three Visitors – The LORD appeared – Bible Gateway)
One person is essential. Do your job well!
I think that you need some knowledge of creativity. You need to know, have experiences, and go places (inside your mind or physically).
It might be a myth that people who are not in the habit of exploring things (internal and external) have good creativity.
Sure, if you take 100 persons and compare the top 10 to the other 90, you might find out that some of the group of 90 have better creativity than the first 10.
But, as a general rule, I think you need knowledge.
It’s not enough – just knowledge; there are other skills – you need to trust your instincts, you need the ability to allow your mind to wander, etc. Some people in the 90-group might fit this description.
All-in-all, I think you need knowledge. And, of course, other skills.
In the past, when I went to see theater plays, I used to have difficulties with paying attention.
I noticed that recently, I had fewer and fewer issues like this, and it’s becoming easier to pay attention.
I can focus and concentrate more, and generally, I don’t lose focus.
I saw a theater play last evening for the second time, and compared to the first time I saw it (Piesă de teatru – Cum să pierzi totul într-o zi?), I think I can focus more.
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
Rand Fishin: I don’t know what percent of CEOs consider this to be active parts of their job, but ever since my chat with Dan on the subject, I’ve had it hardwired that manufacturing serendipity, hand-in-hand with brand evangelism, should be at least 30% of my job. It’s something I’d recommend to others in my role, and to individuals of any profession who are seeking to advance their own careers and/or help the organizations they work for to achieve greater luck.
Going to events and taking part in networking gatherings is no easy task.
One problem is that you never know for sure, “I helped X, which in turn will benefit me … how, exactly?”
Still, at the end of the day, I consider it a nice thing to do.
Help others, do good.
Some time ago, I used to give free invites to premium events to people.
Some unfortunate things that tended to happen repeatedly:
The event organizers might give free invites as a sign of goodwill.
But if people don’t care enough about a €200 event that they would pay €200, perhaps they shouldn’t go.
Right now, I’m very much against free-invite events.
One Google representative once said that they aim to make Google’s paid results (PPC) as relevant as the organic ones.
There’s a problem, though—most ads tend to be annoying. You don’t want some product shown in your face aggressively and repeatedly.
An ad tends to be, by definition, aggressive and out of place.
Sure, in Google, when you search for something, you specify a niche. You need something specific.
But even then, the nature of ads prevails – you tend to see ads for things you wouldn’t normally want to be there.
It’s a never-ending race between what you want (organic results) and what you would like to see less of (paid results).
On booking.com, there is a tendency to inform you of various things.
The thing is, just like on Amazon, they tell you relevant things.
Even if they give you lots of information, it’s not fluff; it’s essential information.
Some details are just for the peace of mind, and some details are binding contracts, but it’s a good way of presenting things.