What Inspires You?

Tonight, I came home after a rare rough day, and decided that the right thing to do was watch Doctor Who with Ashley. We got to "Vincent and the Doctor" - one of the simply most inspirational episodes of television I've ever seen. Ashley cried; I may have shed a single man-tear.

You see... the episode is, at its core, about how we will never really know the legacy that we leave behind us. We'll never know what the future has in store for us... years away. Thousands of years away. We never know the potential that we have inside us, if we could just have that extra boost of confidence.

If only we all had the audacity to be extraordinary.

Tomorrow, I'm having lunch to share an idea that I have. An idea that I honestly think could change the world. I'm going to give my idea away, entrust it into the mind of another, and see what takes root. And maybe, just maybe, someone's world will change because of it.

Of course... that idea is brought down from the grand vision. Tomorrow's conversation isn't baout completely changing everything in feel swoop, but it's taking a step in the right direction. Even if the end goal is so far away.

So, tonight, I actually had a conscious thought: where did I get the courage to write that email, requesting this meeting, knowing how crazy the idea is. Why did I think I had anything worth saying?

What inspired me?

I think that, just by (divine?) happenstance, there's been a confluence of readings, entertainment, and life events that have given me the courage to pursue this idea that's so very much bigger than me. Maybe it's because I've been empowered to change the world. Maybe it's because I'm reading Leonard Sweet's Viral and I realized how much potential there still is for technology to change the world - and that we, this generation, can be a part of that.

Maybe it's because I have felt compelled to simply listen more to the encouragement of God. A few weeks ago in my community group Bible study, we looked at the life of Abram. It took 25 years for God to fulfill his promise that he would have a son from Sarai... and God had to keep coming back and reminding Abram that he would do as he promised. Truthfully, it gets a bit embarrassing for Abram... but that's a post for the future.

Why didn't Abram just believe? Why couldn't Abram just take comfort in knowing that his legacy would be good. Why can't we just believe that even the simple, mundane things we do can leave a legacy of good? And if that's true... why don't we reach to do something audacious?

Maybe it's because I have new heart rate monitor, and I am simply amazed that my body can wireless communicate with a treadmill. If we can make our bodies talk to machines, what can't we as humanity do?

Larry Page, in Steven Levy's In the Plex: "He believed that the only true failure was not attempting the audacious. “Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely,” he says."

When people believe in you, you can have the courage to fail. When you know that the real failure is not reaching for the stars... how can you not help but reach out?

Earlier this week, I tweeted that Newt Gingrich has promised that if he becomes president, we will have a colony on the moon by 2020. Putting aside politics - I was hoping for a Pokemon-quoting candiate - that kind of dream and vision from our leadership is what I want. I want the courage to not be content with good. I want a reason to not settle for success.

I want to be Vincent Van Gogh, trying to capture the magic of the stars. I want to go to them.

These things, this life, have inspired me. What inspires you?

Yes, I made a Hotrigged Speederbike

Once you get into an MMORPG like I have with SWTOR... doing things like finally crafting your epic mount means you have to take a screenshot. So yeah, here's my Hotrigged Speedbike. Because, you know, it's pretty much awesome.

So, I put an "Advertise Here" button on my blog

I've been blogging since somewhere around 2002. Of course, it wasn't "blogging" back then... it was putting thoughts and poems on a website. Then in November of 2003, I wrote my first "real" blog post. In 2011, most of my blogging time went to the Baptist Press and B&H Publishing Group.

This year, I'm making a more concentrated effort to put my thoughts here, in one place. I'll still be writing for other sites and what not, but I will be making sure that all my key writings show up here in some form or fashion.

I chose to put an ad spot on my site for the first time, primarilly as an experiment. In the publishing industry, we know that having ideas is important. Having a wide audience that connects to your platform (i.e. events, videos, blogs, self-published books, etc) is a great indicator of how you might perform on a bookshelf. And, if someone does come along and wants to give me a few bucks a month in order to have their wares advertised on my site... well, then it will reinforce in my mind the priority of putting words down for people to read.

Secondly, I found a company that has really impressed me: Beacon Ads. We have been using them at B&H for advertising MyStudyBible.com on a few small blogs here and there. I have literally been so impressed with them from a marketer's perspective, that I wanted to see how they worked on the other side. I was curious about the whole experience in working with them... so what better way to find out than to put one of their ad spots on my own, personal site?

So yeah. I put an "Advertise Here" button on my blog. Maybe someday, I'll be able to say I bought a comic book or two with this month's ad revenue.

Reading Leonard Sweet's Viral: Part 1

There are some events in life that just knock you silent. You have no reference point on how to respond, no way to really even begin comprehending what just happened.

When I was in college, I was given the assignment to read SoulTsunami by Leonard Sweet. In my entire collegiate education, I don't think that any book a had a more profound effect on me and my life. Our professors were "fans" of his work, and we were blessed to have him come speak at our school. My professors introduced me to him, with the introduction that I was their one true postmodernist in the school.

Since then, Len has been a mentor of mine, whether through his writings, through encouragement via txts, and through some of most memorable meals (a meal with Len is a meal to remember).

And then, on December 27th, 2011, I recieved a copy of his forthcoming book in the mail, open it, and find this:

I just... I still don't know how to respond to such an honoring act. It's one of those things that humbles you and encourages you so very much. And intimidates. This man, a hero and mentor in my life, a man who shaped not only my world view but my spiritual views... through me being me and us being us, our conversations and interactions altered his path. And now, there's a book of his dedicated to a name no one knows. And oh how I am humbled.

At one of our meals, Len and my wife argued for the power and beauty of holding paper in their hands, while I was adamant that I would have no reason to ever read a paper book again. That digital was better in every way.

I have to admit... holding a book signed by your mentor is better than holding a Kindle. You may have won that arguement after all, Len.

Part 1: Where Are We?

This book is taking me longer to read than most books. Typically I'm a very fast reader and, if need be, I can simply go on cruise control by scanning. The problem with doing that here is this book is amazing. As much as I naturally hate being labelled, this book is practically the definition of me. When I meet people who don't understand me, I feel like if I just hand them this manuscript they will have a much, much better understanding of the way my mind works and how to interact with me. Len, who admitted is an immigrant to the generationg of "Googlers," and was a native "Gutenberger," has somehow managed to perfectly grasp our Google ways and mindset. In the book Len says he has become a Googler himself - his great understanding of "our" ways show how very true that is.

I don't know how to do book reviews. I only know to say that you need to read this book. It's up there with The Shallows for books-Aaron-thinks-you-should-read. Because this book is print, I did something I haven't done in ages... I underlined things. So, instead of trying to recapture Len's thoughts in my own words, I've chosen to simply write some of the words and ideas that resonated with me as I was reading. This is something we've been doing with our B&H book apps; since in the digital medium you can't flip though the pages of a book to find ideas that "pop" out at you, we try to pull out ideas and quotes that will drive you to dive further into the text.

A few of the things underlined from Part 1 in my copy of Lenoard Sweet's Viral:

• How many cultures in history have devoted so much effort, invention, time and possion to building networks that offered no payoff beyond engaging with other people? This is getting pretty close to pure relationship, when connecting is its own reward.
• There is nothing more boring than reading the memoirs and minutia of someone you don't care about. But there is nothing more exciting that reading the memoirs and minutia of someone you honestly care about.
• While Googlers are getting by with acronyms and finding friends everywhere, Gutenbergers are delving into words about words that have been written aboug God's words.
• Words are useful truths, but words are not truth.
• [Jesus] is a personal letter, not the envelope it comes in.
• Jesus did not come to earth so that later generations of his follwers could prove a point. He is the point.
• Christians may be fascinated with the future, but too many of us don't want to live in it.
• Change is God's signature on life.
• But the future is not a Thomas Kinkade painting.
• I want the passion of Eugen Ormandy, who dislocated his shoulder while conducting the Philadelphia orchestra.
• The future demands our hands... The future demands our head... The future demands out heart.
• Discipleship is the process through which we strip away all that impedes the lave and mercy and grace of Christ through us to the world.
• But once a doctrine becomes familiar, it quickly becomes overly familiar.
• The notes on a page of music never change. But every time the notes are played or sung, the sound is different: what changes are the lips, the bow, the baton, the interpretation by the players.
• For example, the Japanese word for "mother's sister" is the same as that for "father's concubine."
• When I was born, children access information through authority figures. We now raising the first generations of children that do not need authority figures to access informatino.
• No problem is ever solved; it is only resolved for the moment, shortly to raise its head again in new guise.
• We forget that comfort is a very recent concept: only a very small percentage of the world's population use chairs until a few centuries ago.

Leonard Sweet's Viral releases March 13, 2012.

Change the World

At work today, the Vice President of B&H Publishing Group told me to change the world.

But what was so powerful wasn't the fact that she told me to change the world: it's that every time she sees me she tells me to change the world.

B&H Video Shoot on 1/18/2012

You see, Selma knows me. My boss's boss isn't some mysterious figure, pulling puppet strings from on high. She knows her employees, she knows their passions, and she knows what gets them going. And she knows exactly what she expects from me: to change the world.

You see, when you work for a company like B&H where the day to day business of what we do is so intrinsically tied to who each individual is... you can't help but be passionate about your work. You can't help but strive for the biggest possible goals. And when a leader sees that in you... when your leader tells you over and over again to change the world...

Not only does it communicate that she believes that you CAN change the world, it communicates that you aren't just permitted to do so - no, that would not be enough. It communicates that she isn't joking.

The first time she said it, I smiled. I was happy - she understood how I viewed the world and our place in it. The second time she said it, I smiled. I was all like... she remembered our last conversation! Awesome! This is going to be "our thing" - my VP knows me as a world changer! The third time she said it... maybe, just maybe, she was serious.

Every time I see her and have any kind of meaningful conversation... she tells me to change the world.

I don't know that there is anything any boss could say to me that would encourage me more.

You see, at B&H, it's not about selling books or making cool widgets. It's about discipling the church. Being a foundation for people that are seeking truth. It's about letting the world know that there is still Good News to be heard.

There are a thousand and one opportunities to change people's worlds through our content. A hundred new ways each day to distribute our wares through physical, digital, experiential or undiscovered means. When I sit down to a meeting, when I turn on the iPad, when I sip my coffee... I never know what the next moment might bring.

And I know, because my boss said so, that I should never settle for less than changing the world.