JUST START CONDUCTING THE DOGGONE EXPERIMENTS (which by the way folks. . . takes some guts).

In my previous blog post I talked about being fearless, which isn't easy. Being fearless means trying something new, travelling the road less travelled, doing what others won't do, and even putting your ideas and thoughts out there for others to ponder (which leaves your theories open to criticism, to be dismissed or even outright lambasted). Many people don't like to be criticized, or told their ideas are bogus, or they're wrong - which is understandable - but at the end of the day, this does you no favors. You can only grow and flourish by knowing that what you believe is good, bad, sound, or weak and then improving upon it. And that means putting yourself out there.

Now an excellent example in fearlessness is Chris Anderson (editor of wired magazine and author of the bestseller the Longtail). He is about to release his second book called FREE - The future of a radical price, which posits the idea that in today's digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all. Now Malcolm Gladwell (best selling author of the Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers) swoops in with a review in the New Yorker and says Chris's whole premise is flawed and that the whole idea of free is actually failing as we speak. Then Seth Godin counters and says Malcolm Gladwell is wrong and states that regardless or what you think about free it's happening and is changing the world right now, as we know it. 

Now from my perspective whether Chris, Malcolm or Seth is wrong or right is besides the point. The more relevant issue at hand is that these gents understand being fearless. And they understand being fearless requires proposing new experiments, proto-typing your ideas and postulating your arguments (right or wrong) in our current brave new world that most or many people are simply not willing to be brave enough to do - because people don't want to be wrong or don't want to be seen as having made a mistake and proposed the wrong theory or approach.  But as the old cliche says. . . nothing ventured nothing gained.

Now the plain reality my friends is that we are human beings, susceptible to not always being correct. Its a reality. The only answer is if you happen to be wrong, ok fine, take you licks and then get right back in the ring. This is the only way.

Now if you are serious about wanting to successfully build a 21st century brand, I suggest you get fearless quick and start conducting you own new experiments now.

Nothing paralyzes us more than fear. Besides love, sex and the drive to survive no other human emotion is more potent or pervasive.

We are all afraid. Afraid of being alone. Afraid of death. Afraid of failure.  Whatever it may be our fears never go away.

Just recently I had engaging conversations with two friends of mine who confided in me that where they were in life, if you had told them they would be where they are now, 10 years ago, they would not have believed you. They saw themselves as intelligent, smart and college educated go-getters ready to take on the world. But somewhere between then and now plans didn't quite turn out right.

The jobs they have are dead end, have them miserable, and don't really allow them to apply their real and true talents. Yet for one reason, and one particular reason only, they stay where they are. 

Fear.

They are afraid to leave their jobs. They are afraid of not getting a paycheck. They are afraid of the unknown. So fear keeps them in a place where they are utterly unhappy and unfulfilled. This story is by no means unusual.  Thousands if not millions of people everyday don't live the life they want because of fear.

What's the kicker is that fear will never, ever go away. The trick is learning how to embrace your fear and make it work for, not against you.  That, my friends, is not easy though. It takes constant confrontation of fear, daily facing it in the mirror, religiously kicking it's ass and refusing to let it wrestle you down and then pin you to the ground. It's an incessant effort to keep it from swallowing you whole - day in and day out.

During one of my more recent fear conquering moments I decided to attend the 99% conference by myself in NYC this past April.  Now anyone familiar with NY knows that it can be one the most intimidating cities in the world. Its big. Its fast. Its unapologetic. It doesn't stop to hold your hands, pat you on the back and help you cross the street. While at the conference I met a phenomenal woman named Ishita Gupta who told me that she was participating in Seth Godin's alternative MBA program.  I found just the sound of it fascinating.  In the process of informing me about his program, she also told me about the project she was working on - an ebook called Fear.less. I loved the idea. Stories of what fear means to people and how they overcome it. After the workshop we were attending ended, me, her and about 4 other attendees convened at a nearby cafe in Soho and conversed about the art and science of vanquishing fear.  A surreal moment I'll never forget.

Is fear imprisoning you? Is it an obstruction between where you are now and 'something' on the other side that could dramatically change your life? There's a thousand different first steps to begin remedying this problem. One of them could be to sign up for Ishita's e-book (soon to be released). I mean participating in a MBA program that's new and one of a kind is an awesome lesson itself in being fearless. I'm thinking it just might be one hell of a book.

Virtual tools are transforming the way we engage, think about and interpret the world. They are valuable, important and in today's world absolutely essential. What lends even more power to these tools are the even more powerful social ideas behind them.

The TED talk below with Clay Shirky, author of the book, Here Comes Everybody eloquently captures this concept with his discussion on just how transformative new/social media is becoming. 

I'm a HUGE fan of every virtual space you could possibly find (imeem, myspace, ilike, twitter, amiestreet, stumbleupon, facebook, and the list goes on). These ideas are used to promote, bring attention to or even help to connect people, places and things. At the end of the day, though, they all pretty much boil down to being 'tools' in the online/technology world. 

Now years and years ago the rock was used to bang objects into desired shapes (thanks cavemen for kicking it all off for us!). Then as our abilities evolved we were able to make more useful tools such as a mallet or hammer, screwdrivers and blowtorches. Our tools then continued to get more sophisticated and more complex, but still tools nonetheless.

Tools are important and necessary. But what we can't forget is the great things that tools create. Tools created the Ancient Pyramids of Egypt.  Tools created the Parthenon.  Tools created the Eiffel Tower.  Tools created the Titanic. Tools created awesome driving machines. Tools created the ubiquitous computer. And the list goes on.

Right now virtual tools are popping up everywhere (instant messenger, Ning, Technorati)   And right now, it seems, they're an indispensible part of our lives. Just about everywhere there's talk about the newest, coolest, and fastest virtual saw, hammer, and screwdriver - which is fine. But at the end of the day the tools will change (as they always have). What is vitally important, is to also focus on how to use these tools to create something that will bring value to our day to day, positively impact our lives, or even create a movement.

You have 2,000 friends on Facebook (ok, nice) but what are you and your 2,000 friends doing to move ideas and dreams forward? Its awesome that you have 5,000 twitter followers (that rocks!), but what are you and your 5,000 followers doing to help the old lady next door, or help get a kid into college or to change the world?

The tools are valuable, necessary and needed, but don't lose focus on the other side of the coin - the ideas that the tools can help bring to life.

are doing it

doesn't mean

they are too.

The biggest travesty is when you assume that what you are doing the whole world is doing it too.  Just because you and your 200 friends and colleagues love and are buying the new waterproof underwater socks and talk all day long about them doesn't mean that the universe is now shifting its focus to this new 'idea'. 

The reality is that if this is a relatively new concept then you and your 200 friends and colleagues are probably the only ones raving about these new 'socks'. Thinking that everyone is into this new product because you are isn't such a big deal (or a problem).  It becomes an issue when some of these 200 people start creating ideas and  services that support these new socks because their world is using them and that's their reality. So now this small group of folks are spitting out new business ideas and services that will support these cool new socks because they believe EVERYONE is using them. A recipe for failure. 

The issue is that people aren't able to step outside of their world and see that there are hundreds and thousands of people outside their 'circle of peers' that could care less about about what they are into. Just because you and your friends have given up TV doesn't mean the rest of the world has.  Just because you and your friends blog does not mean that the whole world is blogging. Just because you and your friends use tweetdeck is no indication that anyone else even knows what that is. 

From a business perspective knowing how popular or unpopular an idea is and how pervasive it is in the culture is absolutely imperative. Knowing this is valuable in two ways.

1. Knowing how many people are actually aware of and/or interested in something allows you to intelligently strategise your business moves.

2. Knowing what people are actually aware of or don't know can actually lead you to new opportunities.  People always say "man everybody knows that." The reality is that no, not everybody does. And there's nothing worse than a missed opportunity. 

Before you start assuming that what you do or are into everyone else is too, go and hang out with people outside of your circle.  You might just make some startling discoveries.