Allow me to tell two stories of my own stupidity and foolishness. Both cost me a lot of money, but they may have cost me more in embarrassment and vulnerability. I certainly lost some pride over the deals. Thankfully, my wife stood by me – all without scolding me about how stupid or crazy I was.
As my kids were growing up I constantly preached to them about making mistakes. I knew they’d make mistakes, all kids do. My sermon to them was always the same, “Don’t make a mistake from which you can never recover.”
While these two stories had a high cost, thankfully…they were mistakes from which I could and did recover. I hope you can learn to be smarter by avoiding the mistakes I made.
In the last episode I told you about the re-booting of Bula Network. Here we are in the first show since the re-boot. I feel like I’m running down this long dock ready to launch myself off the end into the biggest cannonball I can muster! Launching is fun.
But today’s show is about my consumption of new media. It’s part of the story about the new direction here. It likely represents the long dock of my life here inside The Yellow Studio.
About 6 years ago I fell in love with podcasts. I don’t remember the first shows I listened to, but I remember in the early days of online audio (before I even knew what RSS meant, or what it could do) being excited at the medium. I’m an audio guy though. A lifelong love affair with music landed me into audiophileland when I was still a teenager. My love of audio persists today in music and online broadcasting.
Now that the About page has been rewritten – and I’m not saying I’m finished with it – it’s time to release this episode. It’s been coming for quite a long time. In fact, for over 2 weeks I’ve sat down to record this episode more times than I can count. Each time I simply decided against it. I don’t think it was fear as much as it was trying to figure out how to tell the story.
This past Saturday I went into The Yellow Studio, muted the sound of the college football game playing on the flat screen, and launched forth. One take (I almost never do multiple takes and I never, ever edit). No script. No notes. I just started to tell the story as briefly as I could – because I know you don’t really care about all the details. Shoot, I don’t even care about them much!
I do care about you. I care that you’ve given me your time and attention. I care about you, and I care about your business and your life. Not in some hokey sort of way, but in a way that’s right. At least it’s right for me. Part of my challenge with the Internet is all the talk of scope and scale. As a business person I fully understand those things, but as a person — I could care less!
For the better part of 6 months I’ve been doing some heavy thinking, which isn’t that easy for somebody whose brain is as small as mine. That explains the headaches.
I reached a conclusion some months ago as I reviewed how many things in my professional life had changed. I surveyed the variety of opportunities coming my way. I examined the people who have entered my life in the last few years. Mostly, I closely examined my contributions, or lack of them. Situations and circumstances where I felt I was doing good work. Others where I definitely was not.
Things change. Thanks to time, circumstances, opportunities and a host of other variables that life slings our way. Weeks, if not months ago, I knew it was time.
For something completely different.
It’s time to move on. It’s time to get going.
BulaNetwork.com ‘s first iteration dies and now is born a new identity, a new purpose –
BulaNetwork.com becomes a new media company.
Today’s show goes behind the scenes to tell you exactly what’s been happening and why. I’d love to hear what you think about it.
As with all effective re-boots, this one means the “finder” gets a fresh start. Whatever happened in the past is now over. Whatever work was in process is now permanently interrupted and gone. The future will now be determined by what happens starting today. This re-boot won’t involve me wiping out all the past though. The previous posts and podcasts episodes will remain. They’re here for archive purposes only though. The future shall not resemble the past!
There’s no reason to give up hope. No reason to give up dreams. Meaningful contributions are within the reach of every man. Unfortunately, too many people gauge their success by what other people have, what others have done, or what others are doing.
I had a high school buddy who loved to drag race. He had a fast car. But I remember telling him, “There’s always somebody with a faster car.” So it is with accomplishment or success. Your success isn’t determined by besting somebody else. Your hope doesn’t rest with what somebody else will give you. It rests within your determination and ability to make wise choices…and to take action. Behaving in honorable ways, doing the right thing and working hard have intrinsic value.
The ingredients for success are within our reach – even if circumstances, environment and resources aren’t ideal. Sometimes, people have to overcome enormous adversity to simply survive. Is that you? Not likely. It’s more likely that you’re having to overcome your own destructive thoughts and behaviors. Be thankful you’re not fighting for sheer survival every day of your life. Millions are.
Is everybody built for greatness? What is greatness anyway? A man who responsibly supports a family, raises wise children and loves his wife is behaving with greatness. So is the woman struggling to raise children alone by taking on every menial job available. Millions of people get up every day committed to the hard work of doing what must be done.
There’s value in doing what we must do. In doing what must be done. It’s honorable. It’s right.
Today’s special episode was recorded outside The Yellow Studio thanks to the portable technology of a digital audio recorder and a field microphone. I recorded this episode to provide some small spark of hope.
I’d love to hear your feedback. You can use the contact form on the feedback page, the podcast feedback line or Twitter.
