I have been in a lot of meetings and planning sessions where the focus was on understanding the big picture. Where will we be in a year, three years, five years? What kind of company do we want to be? What are the products we want to sell? How do these five things relate to […]
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My Favorite Podcasts, Part 1
I listen to a number of podcasts as a part of my daily exercise routine, as well as when I am driving around town or traveling. It’s a great way to keep my brain fresh with new ideas. The list below are the ones I am currently listening to. I hope you find something in […]
Trial and Error
I was listening to the podcast from TED Global by Tim Harford on trial and error and the God complex. The basic premise of the podcast is that there is tremendous value in being willing to fail on the way to success, provided that the conclusion is not already foregone in one’s mind (having a […]
“It’s Not My Delay, It’s The Airline’s Delay”
I am on my way to Memphis today, and we were saddled with a maintenance delay out of Raleigh this morning. This was the first flight out of Raleigh this morning, so the question goes begging as to why, if there was a maintenance issue, it was not fixed overnight. But that is really secondary […]
Permanent Solutions to Temporary Problems
I was reading re-reading The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry today and a section of text jumped out at me that had not before. There is a section where Mr. Henry talks about a spider crawling out of his couch while he was working, and his subsequent overreaction to it. After killing the spider, he […]
My Favorite Tools, Part 1
A lot of people ask me what tools I use for particular parts of my work. Here is a list of tools I use every day to help bring sanity to my work: Evernote – I have been using Evernote for about a month and a half now. I pay attention to Michael Hyatt, and […]
Know Thyself
The further along I get in my venture, the more I realize how important knowing what I am good at (and as importantly what I am not good at) is. I have a tendency to think I can and should take on anything that comes across my path if it’s an opportunity to make money. […]
I Wish Twitter Worked Like Domains
One of the things I would like to see from Twitter is the ability to redirect traffic from one account to another. For instance, if I owned @scottbarstow and @sbarstow, I would like for people to be able to follow @sbarstow but get the content from @scottbarstow without me having to post it in both […]
Books To Read – August 2011
As the hottest summer ever (OK maybe not, but it sure feels like it) rolls on, here are my must-reads for the month of August. I tend to be reading two books at a time. One is typically something to help me improve my craft or a topic I am wanting to learn about, and […]
Lady Gaga and the Myth of Accidental Stardom
I am (obviously) not in show business or music, and so there are times when I tend to think that people that are very famous have stumbled into it. They just happened to be doing something when the right person just happened to be watching and that just happened to turn them into stars. I […]