Last weekend I attended Ontrapalooza, the company that took over office autopilot. I’d have to say, this is by far the best networking event I’ve gone to. It really made me realize the importance of networking, and just how beneficial networking is. See, in 2 days I’ve met tons of influential people: people who I’d like to work with, and people who if they liked me enough could gift a career to me. I’ve met a big time movie producer, big time event videographer, an Australian who helps companies like Apple set up backend data systems among others. I also heard crazy stories too like Yee Shun Jian of 101 Powerful Affirmations, and how he put all his money into stocks and lost everything, only to build it back up.

It’s an eye opener to the power of networking, and that power hit me in the middle of the day when I realized, wow, I could meet 20-30 influential people today. That’s crazy. Like, not 20-30 helpful people, but 20-30 people who work with Fortune 500 companies or are mini internet celebrities.

I’m barely anxious when I attend these events anymore, since I know I would naturally ask them questions that interest me. It’s actually kind of fun to think about who you might meet next.

One thing I’m going to tell all my friends is that if you’re not spending time honing your craft, then that time should be spent networking.

“Give Value” is common advice nowadays. “If you give enough value to the world, you’ll get value” they say. But why? How? How does giving your time and energy and being helpful actually help you get more than you put in?

A while back I was at a business conference and a blogger was sharing the “Give Value” insight. He writes and gives away his content for free and after a while a few writers affiliated with the book “The Secret” saw and liked that he was giving so much value and sent massive traffic to his blog. His pointed out that it’s not the people he gave value to that returns value – value is returned from those who were bigger than him who liked what he was doing.

I thought about this idea – the idea that the value doesn’t come from people you target but from people higher up. I want to expand this idea, because I don’t think it works exactly this way.

I think that the rewards from giving value come from neither the act of giving value nor a series of acts. Giving value is a characteristic.Giving value means being a person who genuinely hopes for the best in everyone. I want my characteristic to be so, that when looking at any particular person, I will want that person to be the best they can be and to achieve the most they intend.

When that happens, the way I interact with people becomes different. The words I use are different. People can inherently feel this characteristic and are naturally drawn toward it. And that’s where the rewards come from. People feel this value giving characteristic and want to build upon it, so they give value to it.

One thing that's been on my mind for the longest time was how to have great experiences.  Basically, there are two ways to have great experiences.  Either you plan what you want to experience, and ways of achieving that experience, or you say yes to opportunities for experiences that come your way. 

One thing that's been on my mind for the longest time was how to have great experiences.  There are two ways to have great experiences.  Either you plan what you want to experience, and ways of achieving that experience, or you say yes to opportunities for experiences that come your way. 

My problem was I thought of these two methods as separate.  I thought you either do one or the other.  Take for example travel.  If I completely plan my trip: where i will stay, what i will see/do; I may miss out on great opportunities to explore.  Yet, if I leave my schedule too open for opportunities, opportunities may never come your way, and I just might end up with no place to sleep.  More importantly, this problem arises when thinking about my career.  If I completely plan my career path lets say marketing consultant, then I may miss out on opportunities to be a manager, designer, sales representative, accountant, engineer, firefighter...you get the idea.  But if I don't plan my life, I probably won't even make it being a marketing intern, I might just pick a job that seems comfortable work there for life. 

I've concluded that these two methods however, don't have to be separate.  In Life Nomadic, Tynan writes that planning is essential for your trip, but you should be ready to ditch those plans at any moment.  This is the same in life, planning should be meticulously done, but always ready to be thrown away and re-planned.

anybody have suggestions on the best way to record daily conversations?

This post is inspired by and a response to Tynan's Creators and Assemblers article:

For a long time I thought creating came from construction - the physical application of materials to form an object of value.  I thought that in order for me to consider myself a creative individual, I would have to learn carpentry, electronics, coding…  Because the way I saw it, there’s only three careers a person can have. 

First is to perform a service.  Like a lawyer who shares his legal advice, or a dentist who cleans teeth.  It takes a long time to develop the skills to become professional, and I don’t have time to look that far in advance.  So this leaves only two options: building a product, or to buy and resell products. 

Buying and reselling is a great way to make money.  Resellers find things low in price and people willing to pay a higher price.  Basically, he is the connection between the buyer and the seller.  I wouldn’t mind doing this - its a legitimate way to make money, but I can’t shake the thought that the buyers and sellers don’t actually need middlemen if they can find each other. 

I know that I want to identify myself as a creator.

As a college student, I find that my list of productive things to do generally involves reading.  I'm studying for classes, then I'm reading SETT blogs, then I read "On Writing Well"...the list goes on. I'm spending a lot of my time consuming information (albeit valuable information), and this leads to feeling unaccomplished. 

I know that the first step to improvement is to gather information (reading).  How can I do something correctly if I don't know whether or not I am?

But, I also remember reading in Four Hour Workweek - Tim Ferris suggests not reading more than one non-fiction book at a time. 

So how do i switch gears and do more when I don't know what to do?

I've read the Vegas tips found on this blog.  I'm gonna play 1-2 nl holdem for most of the time, and work my way up to 5-10 if I feel like I have good enough control.  Anything I should especially check out this time of year? anything to avoid?

My friend and I want to start a video production company.  He is a photography/film grad, who is very excellent at what he does and is already making a decent living freelancing.  I want to help him generate more clients and ultimately,  get contracted to film commercials for businesses, but the problem with the film field, is that I have no idea where to begin.  I can't just gather a list of leads and make cold calls, and i can't just advertise on a magazine.  Anybody have any advise on how I can start finding people to pitch to or to start creating demand for our service?