When it comes to happy thoughts, perspective is everything.

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

For many people, rain is a sad, dreary experience. But not for me. I love the rain, it reminds me of Florida where I grew up looking forward to hurricane season and the chance of school being canceled. And where mid-summer night thunderstorms rocked me to sleep and lit the night sky so every now and then I could see the lake in the backyard rippling with new, invigorated life borrowed from each falling drop of rain. So nothing but happy thoughts.

Back then it was easy to hold onto that perspective. I was an only child, so my dog was the only other person I had to convince to believe thunder and lightening were not so bad. I never convinced him, but he also never tried convincing me otherwise (except by huddling in extra close when it thundered). People are not as considerate.

When I got to college my living situation changed dramatically. Where before I lived practically alone, I was now surrounded by people with vocal convictions and opinions. My happy thoughts immediately bestowed me the label of an optimist and it seemed like every person I met saw rain as a dreadful fact of life — a horrid side effect right up there with flu, trips to the dentist, and having your ears pop when you reach altitude.

For one year I resisted their influence. I continued living as I had always lived, a secluded monk-like guy who listened to strange music, liked to talk about the prospects of immortality, and couldn’t be bothered to check or wear what was still fashionable during the last decade. Eventually, however, I cracked.

A lot of the changes were for the better. I became less secluded and started going out more often. I refined my outlook and became open to new music, a bit of style, and even took a deeper look into spirituality and alternatives to religion. In this aspect, I found my enjoyment in life go up and I looked forward to even greater change. But not all change is good.

Because I was changing into something I was not, and because the transformation is rarely ever instantaneous, during my second and third year in college I was in an awkward limbo where I was stuck in between identities. I saw myself in the mirror and was not happy with the person who looked back.

There was emptiness in my eyes, as if the joy of life had been sucked out. The smile that I once wore proudly seemed an illusion. Ironically, it was late at night (and often when under the influence) when I noticed my transformation the most. It was as if I was yanked out of my body and held up on display for my own amusement. Stretch out, I saw myself for what I had become: someone who had given up who he was in pursuit of something he never wanted.

I never wanted to be the cool guy, the Mr. Popular, the brainiac, or anything else that could be thrown into one of the stereotypes, but those are all still infinitely better than what I had become: a fake.

Happy Thoughts

By senior year I was angry with myself. I refused to go out as much, I cut back on drinking, and began funneling myself away from those I felt were negative influences. It wasn’t an easy journey and I’ve made many mistakes along the way. Although I am still far from being the person I was back when I eagerly awaited for hurricanes, I’m finally starting to notice a difference. My happy thoughts are back.

And don’t for a second dismiss the value of happy thoughts, they make all the difference in the world. On the bus ride back from New York last weekend, I sat next to a new mother and her baby. The mother was a huge Disney fan and we had lots of stories to share (I practically grew up in Disney World). When I mentioned I had worked at Disney once, she immediately asked me how was it that all of the employees at Disney are always so friendly. I thought about it, then realized the entire theme park was one massive happy thought.

Then came her next question.

“So, what about Mickey Mouse. Who is under there?”

I simply smiled and shook my head.

She laughed, “Still don’t talk about that, even after all these years?”

Here I was, miles and years away from Walt Disney World and somehow still felt their influence. That’s the power of happy thoughts.

If you asked a carpenter 100 years ago which of his tools he valued most, he’d probably have a hard time choosing. Today, you are likely to hear a carpenter say “computer” or one of many other new tools that have been developed thanks to technology.

Old Tools

Remember those checklists at the start of every school year? Calculator, planner, a few books, pens, pencils, erasers, markers, glue (oh how I hated projects that used glue!), scissors. When you add the backpack, all the paper, and the Five Star notebooks (“my kid will use the best!”) the price tag easily tops $100 — per year. It’s no wonder then that many schools and organizations have started pilot programs that trade in traditional materials for a tablet computer. Whether or not such a trade is beneficial for students is still a matter of debate, however the premise behind the trade is sound: modern tools have the capacity to improve results at school and in the workplace.

New Tools, Better Results

Being an entrepreneur has never been easier. Today’s technology has allowed us to pack an entire office into one backpack and work from almost anywhere in the world. While innovation in hardware has promoted giant leaps in performance, we owe just as much gratitude to software.

In my own work, new tools have made my life a lot easier. Below are software or services that I use each day in my business.

• Annotative bibliography; research; note tracking – Evernote
• Fast, focused writing – Writer by Information Architects
• Synchronicity – Dropbox
• Task manager – Reminders; iCal
• Communication – Mail; Skype; cellphone
• Advertising – Craigslist
• Style guide – Online version of the Chicago Manual of Style
• Free, easy-to-post images – Pinterest

I plan to one day become mobile enough to live in a new city every year.

Thanks to the many turnkey products available today (TypePad, Tumblr, WordPress), in mere minutes anyone can have a simple website up and running. But websites are like businesses: the majority of them fail within the first year. And like those businesses, the failure can be traced back long before the physical or virtual doors opened.

I know something about failure.

• PoetryforMood
• InsideHealth
• DCNightandDay
• Procrastablog
• YuseWrites
• WKDKC

Each of these is a domain name I purchased for a website that I would go on to make and eventually shut off. Some were intended for personal use, others were launched with a business in mind. In all cases, the failure stemmed from not knowing what I really wanted from my website. Sure, you read advice about how successful websites rely on a steady stream of content and how you have to create a tribe (Seth Godin‘s great explanation of social groups on the Internet), but without some guidance you’ll end up no where.

Sometimes the idea evolves with trial and error. If you look around the web you’ll see most of your favorite sites look very different now than they did five years ago. However, at the core of each, you should notice very little change. That’s because those websites are still on the same journey today as they were when they first set sail.

If you want to create a website or blog you need more than focus and content, you need to discover what it is that you really want. For Seth Godin, leading a tribe. For Michael Hyatt, making leaders. For Penelope Trunk, breaking boundaries.

Everything about Seth’s site revolves around what he thinks. As a leader of a tribe, his focus has been to make sure his followers know exactly what’s on his mind. There is no comment section. Instead, you see a list of all his books and more than 2,500 posts of what the man has been thinking about since 2002. Even the blog’s header image is a picture of his head.

Michael is more about the community. His mantra is intentional leadership and its clear that he believes the best way to make leaders is to facilitate interactions with other leaders. Other than his own image and content, his site features snapshots of the community. He regularly responds to comments, and is constantly pushing his communication into new mediums like video and podcast. He is not shy to reveal the tools he used along the way. Michael also never forgets to mention his wife, Gail.

Penelope likes to digest material and come up with her own conclusions. Her typical blog post features at least 10 links and she rarely writes about a topic without relating it to her own life. She enjoys breaking boundaries and though she may sometimes step on the toes of her acquaintances, her fearlessness allows her to approach old problems with new insight — a huge benefit for young professionals seeking to get ahead of the competition.

So its clear that successful websites are more than a playground for thoughts. Much like a thriving business, the successful ones are always an extension of the owner. To know what you want from your website you have to know what you want out of life. We all want to become somebody, and though we may have different definitions on what that means, in the end reaching our goal comes down to a simple matter of matching what we do with what we want.

The era of the Renaissance Man is not over, but it is certainly coming to an end as society grows ever more specialized. However, the end of the Renaissance Man doesn’t mean you can’t try out new projects, you just have to approach each one with a clear understanding that if you want to produce something great you can’t expect to take the project from A to Z on your own. Instead, the focus should be on your strengths. Everyone is good at something, so the trick is identifying your role. For some projects, like painting a picture, it comes down to a simple test of whether or not you can paint. For other projects, say creating a website or putting together a game, it becomes less clear.

Here I describe a few of the mistakes I made during a particular project and the steps I took to get back on track.

A few months ago I started playing around with the idea of recreating an old school game that could run on mobile devices. As I started writing out my ideas I began to see a way to create a whole new game with original gameplay elements from a variety of classics. Once I had fleshed out the core elements of my game I began to write some code. I took a computer science course in college that taught C++. Before that I had been involved in light HTML and CSS editing, which is to say I knew next to nothing about programming. However, the great thing about that course, and computer science in general, is that the central goal is always to teach core concepts. Memorization takes a backseat role. So even though it’s been two years since I took that class with Professor Singh, I still remember enough of it to pick it up and program again. Mistake: Although I knew the core concepts, I should’ve realized and remembered that programming is a nuanced endeavor and very simple mistakes can prevent a program from compiling (if it doesn’t compile it won’t run). 

My program involved simple code at first, like accepting input values and outputting strings of text. Not too long after that I was concerning myself with finding ways to store memory and track variables. At this point I started having problems and began spending more time fixing errors than adding actual code. Soon after I ran out of steam. Programming was tough and I wasn’t even sure if C++ was the best choice to create a game. Another mistake: Self initiated projects carry the added risk of overlooking the basics, like doing the background research. Since it was only my time on the line, it was easy for me to overlook the basics of project planning and I began without checking to see whether the programming language I was using would be able to accomplish what I had in mind.

After running into this wall I finally sought help and phoned a programmer friend. I asked him to break down a program development cycle and see if there was a better role for me.

He summed his thoughts in one sentence: “Creating the assets, that’s what you should be doing.” It was true, I was a better writer than I was a programmer and coming up with the idea for the game in the first place was proof of that. I should be focused on expanding those ideas and putting them on paper by organizing them as assets for the game.

He added extra weight to his statement by reminding me that even if I were a programmer (and even if C++ was the language of choice), without knowing exactly what I wanted to include in the game I would’ve ran into a development wall anyway. Having a firm understanding of my new role convinced me to restart the project from the bottom up using basic, but effective, project planning methods.

Using Evernote, I began researching the steps to come up with the assets for the game. I was a writer, but I still needed a guide to know what to write. I specifically searched for tips on how to create a board game — because the game I was looking to create shared a lot in common with the standard board game. I found a college course that taught board game design and linked the professor’s well-written material to my Evernote and got started. Using the notes as reference, I began following the steps to creating the assets for my game — starting with content analysis, incubation, and chunking.

Though I am no where near completion, I’ve identified my role in the project and I am happy knowing that all the progress I’m making will contribute to the end product.