Remember Chick-a-Dee?
She wasn't stupid. I'll get to stupid later.
In the meantime, I'm letting Chick-a-Dee do some decorating around here. She's in chicken heaven now enjoying her Christmas Margaretta—along with another of her favorite things-French-fries. Three years ago, I decorated her for Christmas.
Chick-a-Dee has the job of spreading cheer. I did a double take the day after Thanksgiving when I saw people on our street putting up Christmas decorations—stupid me—I thought last Christmas happened only three weeks ago. One house has a blow-up Privy outhouse where Santa opens the door, peers out, then closes it again—only to repeat in-out. Poor Santa, how disrespectful. (Notice I didn't say stupid.)
Now, here's stupid:
Using AI to write blogs. I got another comment on my blog today suggesting that to save time, I let a robot do it.
Are people so desperate, lazy, or figure a blog is expected for business sites, or what? I bet they don't sound like Mark Twain.
Why do you think writers write?
It's their expression.
"Sound Like You!"
These words screamed at me last night.
If I sound stupid, at least it's my stupid.
Jason Fried's book, Rework showed up in an email dated Oct.12, 2017. It was a PDF version sent to me by my daughter. I am curious to know if it was a pirated version or what, but a CEO sent it. I missed her email. She forgot about it. Viola', it came to me. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
Fried's book is brilliant.
I'll try not to copy Fried's book too much. That's not nice, but I'll throw out a few of his concepts for you to chew on.
"Sound like you." That's from Fried.
Th's one of the things I objected to with Robot talk. another was taking our job away from us. But also:
What is it with businesspeople trying to sound big?" writes Fried.
This mask of professionalism is a joke. We all know this. Yet small companies still try to emulate it. They think sounding big makes them appear bigger and more "professional." But it really just makes them sound ridiculous. Plus, you sacrifice one of the mall company's greatest assets: the ability to communicate simply and directly without running every word through a legal and PR department sieve.
There's nothing wrong with sounding your own size. Being honest about who you are is smart business, too. Language is often your first impression--why start it off with a lie? Don't be afraid to be you."
My sentiments exactly.
Daughter Dear once worked for a company that wouldn't let them use contractions in their email responses. And they had a monitor to catch them if they did. So many demerits, and you get written up. Sounds like school, doesn't it?
Now, that's stupid. Contractions are how people speak.
"Don't talk about "monetization" or being "transparent;" talk about making money and being honest."
About Mistakes:
"Learning from mistakes
is overrated."--a Fried speak.
In the business world, failure has become an expected rite of passage. You hear all the time how nine out of ten new businesses fail. You hear that your business's chances are slim to none. You hear that failure builds character. People advise, "Fail early and fail often."
With so much failure in the air, you can't help but breathe it in. Don't inhale. Don't get fooled by the stats. Other people's failures are just that: other people's failures.
Another misconception:
You need to learn from your mistakes. What do you really learn from mistakes? You might learn what not to do again, but how valuable is that? You still don't know what you should do next."
Yeah, I've learned 1,000 ways not to make a lightbulb but not how to get the best web template without spending a ton of money.
You know I've made websites—I have inundated you with them, but I've never made a powerful one for a Real Estate Brokerage that needs a plug-in for MLS house listings.
Four days, whoops, I think today is day five. I've made sites, lost them, had them crash and burn, tried to delete and refund only to have the one I wanted deleted as well. One thing works: "Pick a Plan. Pay here." I've made so many changes that PayPal is getting bulging muscles from all the exercises I'm giving it.
Fried's book was a breath of fresh air.
I had to stop, for Fried makes so many excellent points, like Business meetings, GPAs, and Resumes, I was getting into a rant. Delete, delete, delete.
Go back to Chick-a Dee and let her give you a moment of calm.