Stop Waiting

The first thing that was said to me, in my first class, on the first day of school when I first started college was, "If there is something you want to learn or do, go and learn it or do it. Don't wait for us to teach you. Don't wait two years for that class to come."

Of the 5 years in college that it took me to complete my undergrad, that was the first thing I learned and definitely the most important thing. If I forget everything else I was taught and remember only that, I will live a successful life. Heck I have forgotten everything else. It's true. Ask me what I learned in Calculus and I'll say, "I dunno." Okay so it's part true, there's a lot I remember. Like that one time I met this stunningly beautiful waitress at a mexican restaurant and she asked me to meet her after work where we ended up..... Sorry I was getting a little off topic there. Anyway, here's the point I'm trying to get at:

STOP WAITING!!!!

Stop waiting.
For guaranteed success. If there is something you want, go out and get it. If you fail the first time, get up, dust yourself off, pause, look at what just happened, learn, and then turn and keep going after what you want.

Stop waiting.
For knowledge. You don't need to know everything to go after what you want. You just need to know what you want. Many of the most successful people in the world are people that never went to college or dropped out of it. Look at the richest man in the world, Bill Gates. He dropped out.

Stop waiting.
For experience. You don't need experience to go after what you want. Experience will come with going for what you want. Besides there are plenty of people with experience that are willing to help you. You just need to ask.

Stop waiting.
For permission. If that's what you are waiting for, I give you permission to go for it. Besides, its been said that it's always easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. You can always say you're sorry.

Stop waiting.
For your kids to grow up or to get off for the summer or to go back to school in the fall or whatever. Children are not an excuse, they are the reason. Teach your kids something that's actually useful for them to know. Teach them to not wait, take risks, and go after what they truly want. Teach them that it's not okay to put their dreams on hold "until...."

Stop waiting.
For the right time. Most of the time, this "right time" thing is just an excuse. There isn't really a "right time." There are just times to do things and times where you definitely should not do it now. Here's a tip, ask yourself if this is the right time. If your answer is an "I don't know", a maybe, or something like that and then you start to talk yourself out of it saying it's not the "right time". That's a moment that's a right time. Now if you ask yourself that question and you immediately say that it is a "bad time" to do whatever it is you want to do, wait. Oh and here's a tip, most of the time is not a "bad time."

Stop waiting.
For a green light.

Okay so that last one is a bad example. If you are driving a car and come up to an intersection and you have a red light, you should stop and wait for a green light. Oh, but if it's yellow....

Seriously though. Stop waiting for something to happen in your life for you to do something with your life. Only when you do something with your life will something happen in your life.

Just, STOP WAITING!!!!

-Colin

Simplify

Do you want to know a secret? Want to be successful? To know the way to be happy and at peace? The world is a complex place. A place where all our senses are bombarded with information day in and day out. Where the worlds problems keep getting bigger and bigger. Our nations debt keeps getting larger and larger. Our days keep getting pulled in more and more directions. What’s the answer?

It’s what we are all looking for and when it appears, in one form or another, we flock to it like a moth to a flame. What’s the answer?

Simplify the complex.

Just stop and think about it. How many of you have ever let your house get a little…..oh, how do you say….messy? Now when I say messy, I’m not talking about having a few things scattered about. I’m referring to where you have to repel into your place just to get around? Now how did you feel after you dug it out? You got rid of the things you didn’t use. You put things into their proper places. Things were clean and organized and out of your way. Out of your mind. How did you feel? Didn’t you feel relieved? Didn’t stress just seem melt away. Didn’t you feel at peace? Didn’t you simplify the complex?

Simplify the complex. It’s in your iPod, your Tivo, your hamburger at In-n-Out, your coffee at Starbucks. It’s staying debt free and paying your bills on time. Maybe even setting up automatic bill pay. It’s everywhere. You just have to look for it. Simplify the complex. It’s what successful people and companies do that make them successful.

Simplify the complex. That’s what Dr. Ralph Smedley did with Toastmasters and public speaking. There are many elements to successful public speaking. Wouldn’t you agree? You have Vocal Variety, Body Language, Vocabulary, Structure, Research, the list can go on and on. This is where Dr. Smedley succeeded. He broke all these issues and aspects down into small simple chunks and formed them into a program called Toastmasters. Each speech focuses on a specific aspect of speaking. Then after focusing on the basics, the first 10 speeches, what does the program do next? It breaks it down into more specific chunks. It’s like that old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Simplify the complex. That is exactly what Steve Jobs, and crew, have been doing at Apple again and again. The music industry is complex. It was being taken over by pirates. Those in control were grasping on to their sinking ships thinking it would save them. They were not willing to let go and board a new ship right next to them. Consumers were looking for a quicker and easier way to get music and an easier way to listen to it. The music industry was looking to stop the hemorrhaging caused by these revolutionary pirates, whom created a simple distribution system known as Napster. Enter Steve Jobs, and crew, with two symbiotic products, the iPod and iTunes. The iPod is a simple easy to use portable audio device, that’s so easy to use my mom knows how to use one. iTunes is the iPod’s software counterpart. When used together a user doesn’t have to think about anything. They simply plug their iPod into their computer and magically all their favorite music loads onto the iPod from their computer without doing anything else. That wasn’t enough though. It needed to be easier. So Mr. Jobs went out and gathered the rights to distribute all the music from the big five music companies, online. Now with a single click of your mouse, you can automatically purchase, download, and load onto your iPod your favorite music. No more going to the music store. No more trying to figure out which band was which. It is now all in one place, easy to find, and more importantly easy to use. What has this resulted in? Apple controls 75% of a market that used to be controlled by Sony. Apple is ranked as the number 4 music store just below Walmart and Target and it controls 75% of the online music distribution market. The closest competitor, emusic, controls roughly 9%. All because they simplified the complex. They brought it all together, so you the consumer didn’t have to think about it.

Simplify the Complex. Like at In-n-Out. That’s what a hamburger’s all about. When you walk into an In-n-Out, how many items on the menu do you see? Not many. A couple of cheese burgers, a hamburger, fries, shakes, and some drinks. That’s it. Nothing more. Where’s all our options? Our variety? Our chicken nuggets. Our curly fries. Our sandwiches. The tacos and pizzas and salads? Forget about that stuff. What did In-n-Out do? They simplified the complex. They focused on burgers. Go to one of their restaurants at any time during normal business hours and you will find a very busy store. By simplifying the complex, the quality of their product went up because they can focus on the few things they made.

Simplify the complex. That’s all there is to it. That’s all you have to do. By simplifying the complex, you can break down a large problem into small chunks. By simplifying the complex you can take complex systems you once had to think about and automate them so you can get to what’s truly important. By simplifying the complex you can focus on quality. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “But there’s more to everything than ‘just simplifying the complex’, Colin” I say stop trying to make everything so difficult, it’s thinking like that that make things so complex.

Diarrhée de la Bouche

Welcome to Diarrhée de la Bouche. Here you will find the rantings and ravings of a guy just trying to find the truth. Whatever the hell that means. The interesting thing is, is the truth is whatever you believe it to be. Sometimes the truth is blurry and sometimes it is clear as day. So don’t hold it against me if I have two exactly opposing opinions. It’s my blog and I’ll think how I want to think and when I want to think it.

In case you are wondering what “Diarrhée de la Bouche” means, let me enlighten you. It’s google-french for “Diarrhea of the Mouth.”

Well wait a second. What does google-french mean? Google-french is Google's English to French translation of “Diarrhea of the Mouth.” It could be translated into proper French, but more than likely it doesn’t mean anything more than just a bunch of french words strung together. Have you ever used googles translator to translate a site and it kinda makes sense but not completely? Well, that’s an example of google-french.

As for me, let me introduce myself. My name is Colin. I have a strong background in the technology industry. More specifically in the consumer electronics market. So from time to time you might find me talking about some tech gadget I think is cool and actually useful. Or maybe some insites I might have on an industry issue. More importantly I’m here to, well, just blahhhhhhhhh. Have Diarrhée de la Bouche. This is where I write about my aha’s and interesting brain bending ideas. It might make sense it might not. Either way it should be interesting, at least for me. It's my world afterall, you are just visiting.


-Colin