The news release is dead, yet we still count print publication mentions as a measure of success.

Advertising is dead, yet we still spend almost $120 billion every three months.

Blogging is dead, even though the platforms reporting this are built on blogs.

PR is dead, despite it pervading every part of a business from customer service to branding to HR and more.

Seems everything is dead, even though we continue to use all of these corpses today.

Great to be alive, eh?

Everything Is Dead originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

We need to grow some balls.

Not all of us – there are some folks that have balls the size of Jupiter and show them every day. But they’re becoming fewer in numbers, and that’s a shame.

A lot of folks blame social media for this. I can see why. If you question someone and they’re a person of “influence”, usually you get a shit-storm of comments about you being a hater. Right, like having an opinion means you hate something…

Or if you call something out as being bunkum, again you can often get a ton of crap landing on your doorstep as people question your brains, your ethics, your sanity and more. And on social media (or the web full stop), it’s easy to hide behind the wall of the virtual burning pitchfork along with the rest of A-lister X or Influencer Y’s minions.

But the thing is, it’s not just social media – it’s society as a whole, and social media is just part of the blame.

In business, “leaders” have forgotten what it really means to lead. Instead, they bully employees into thinking their ideas are dumb, and while the employee is on the ground picking their shredded idea up, make sure they stop and get a coffee on the way back.

Educators are telling our brightest students that they won’t have a voice in the business world when they leave college, so be quiet, just listen to your superiors, and maybe – just maybe – they’ll get on in their chosen profession.

Lovers are putting down the ones they supposedly adore by saying they’ll never amount to much and that mother was right, I should have married the guy or gal from the family with the Porsche in the driveway.

Stop. Please. Stop right now.

This is bullcrap. And we’re allowing ourselves to fall for it.

So what if you don’t have the best idea? At least you have an idea and have the balls to put it on the line. So what if you’re the youngest? Know when Mozart began writing symphonies? FOUR YEARS OLD!

And if your partner really blames you for all their inadequacies, find a new partner.

We’ve allowed ourselves to be led by others because we fear what will happen if we think for ourselves. Actually, scratch that – it’s not the ability to think for ourselves that we’ve lost, but the belief in our thoughts being right and following through on those convictions.

And that’s wrong – you know why? There is no such thing as perfection – everything can be improved. And the “experts” don’t always have the best ideas on how to do so.

So, please. Grow some balls. Question everything. Settle for nothing. Even the most common sense answers can always be enhanced through questions and ideas.

If you already have balls and you’re doing this, you can ignore this post and carry on doing what you’re doing. Although if you have some extra balls to go around, feel free to share with those that need a little help. We all need to stop this malaise, and extra balls might just do the trick.

Sound fair?

image: Rafael Penaloza

Grow Some Balls originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

We bitch and complain that the medium we’re practicing in doesn’t get taken seriously as a medium, and that many businesses are still way behind when it comes to adopting.

We call brands out – companies and individuals – because they don’t do something the way we feel it should or could have been done.

We regale folks with the notion that social media will change the way we do things forever, but then cloud the issue by not explaining in any kind of talk our customers and clients understand.

And then we wonder why social media – for all its great statistics and success stories – is still the baby when it comes to other forms of media.

So let’s loosen up. Let’s agree that we’re not in a perfect world where everyone will “do the right thing”. Let’s quit the bitching and the pointing fingers, and instead point ideas in the same direction instead. Let’s give things a chance before we lynch mob them into submission.

Let’s see opinions for what they are and stop calling critics haters. Let’s move from the same soundbites to actually making sounds through actions.

I’ve been guilty of it in the past. I possibly still am on the odd occasion. But I’m trying not to be.

If you’re guilty of it too, want to try and not be with me?

photo credit: steve-and-diane

Stagnation & Self-Righteousness originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

The biggest issue is where a point’s been made by the author, someone disagrees because of a personal opinion, and the author backtracks and jumps the other way.

Why?

If you didn’t believe in the thing you wrote about or spoke of in the first place, why mention it? Was it to court popularity? Or appear that you’re agreeing with the majority when instead the opposite would have been true?

The funny thing is that this is happening more and more, and instead of showing that you’re open to debate and differing views it suggests that you can’t make your mind up. Or worse still, are hesitant on the validity of your own beliefs (business and personal).

If that’s the way some people want to play, fair enough – everyone’s entitled to handle themselves the way they feel is best for them.

But just because someone disagrees with you, do you really need to then agree 100% with them on their point? Or does that just weaken your original argument and authority on the topic at hand?

I’m all for admitting that your original thoughts may not be completely right and understanding other points of view, but don’t lose your voice because of it. One of the best examples of someone that stays true to their beliefs is Geoff Livingston. We’ve butted heads in the past and I don’t always agree with his approach, but I respect him 100% for staying true to himself.

The one thing that separates you from everyone else is your belief. It’s what makes you who you are. It’s your conscience; your moral fibre; your business mantra; the reason people either respect you or don’t.

When you lose that, you lose yourself and any respect that people may have built up in you. Surely that’s more important than any perceived popularity contest.

Isn’t it?

photo credit: ATIS547

Why Being Yourself is the Only Thing That Matters originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.