Anything Worth Doing Well is Worth Doing Poorly At First
So there I was… driving all along FM 1960 [that's a road name, for all you non-Texans] looking all over for the Dunkin’ Donuts that Mapquest told me would be there. Finally, I called Nancy Johnson, my coffee partner, to let her know that I was late, I had been unable to locate the place, but I was looking. When she answered, she told me that she was alsodriving up and down 1960, also unable to find Dunkin’ Donuts either. Darn Mapquest. So we agreed on Starbuck’s, which we were both somehow near, with another lesson learned about today’s electronic world.
This was a marathon cuppa, not that we noticed until too late, almost three hours, but most enjoyable. Nancy and I have both been struggling with a bit of “personal” re-invention this last year [see yesterday's blog about re-invention], having been let go from our separate previous employers at the start of the new year, a circumstance not unfamiliar to a great many Americans in 2009.
We are similarly aged, and seeking corporate employment was most often met with the “over-qualified” euphemism, creating quite a bit of angst and anguish. We were, at our advanced maturity… well, age, because I certainly cannot consistently claim maturity… having to decide “what we wanted to be when we grew up”. We had to re-invent how we looked at ourselves, driven by how others looked at us. Inside, I am still 25, immortal and sporting the body I inhabited while flying fighters and carousing in Korea- I have no idea how that overweight grey-haired guy gets inside my mirror.
We talked about the struggles of learning new skills, particularly the ubiquity and variety of electronic social media – so critical to today’s networking candidate. Skype, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Naymz… and those are only a few of the myriad options available. We talked about blogging and what it takes to get into that, and then there is website design and upkeep, and on and on and on. I had decided simply to jump in, to go get started, but Nancy had found herself a bit more hesitant, wanting to research it “just a little bit more” to “make sure [she] was doing it right”.
That is when a favorite admonition from a friend of mine from long long ago came to mind – “Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly at first”. If you want to be “good” at social media marketing, you will have to be bad at first. You will make faux pas, you will goober up your Twitter account, you will forget the eighty-five new passwords you create [some with caps, some with letters, some not], you will try to make a connection on LinkedIn by signing in to Facebook. Trust me- I have “been there, done that”. But all these applications are amazingly forgiving [I can delete the pages I don't like] and the community of users is amazingly supportive and receptive.
So we came around full circle to the adage-esque Nike slogan of “Just Do It“. Social media is the “new thing” especially to us “boomers”, but it is the new thing.
We have to become adept at using it.
Even though we will be poor at using it at first.
And as for Nancy, I like how this lady thinks.
My sentiments exactly… I have done so many thinks poorly but that is why I can do a few things well now…..
Galen,
I loved this post! Having the courage and humility to be a beginner is the key to door of learning, and yet as we get older, we have more difficulty finding that key.
What could we create if we embraced what we knew to be true as kids? We all learned to walk by exactly the same process: falling down AND getting back AND taking one step at time. There is no infomercial process for learning; information + trial and error + practice = competence.
Social media today, more learning tommorrow. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Galen,
Good article. I think social media is more like the endless marathon. Just when you think you have a handle on it, some key changes or invariably, something new pops up. In that light, Dave’s analogy to fish becomes even more apt.
Hey Galen…
Nicely done. A great spin on something that Elias Schwartz orginally quipped: “Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it.” I’ve also heard (and used) its opposite often: “Anything worth doing is worth doing well”. I really love your practical/ tactical bent, which suggests simply the same counsel many of us received from our fathers’: “Get with it, son”. In other words, find what’s worth doing and “just do it!”, as Nike reminds us. I think, historically, the challenge was always in finding what was worth doing, never in actually doing it. You know…counting the cost before paying it, understanding the implications of our actions before taking them, and so forth and so on. It is no different today. Many are so image-conscious they believe anything that appears to be done well must have been worth doing. The emphasis is placed on creating the illusion of progress when, in fact, the whole thing is in shambles because it was never worth doing in the first place. In corporate America, I’d rather see more of what you suggest: (a) it was worth doing even if (b) it was done poorly at first. Here, again, Deming was spot-on: “Be guided by theory”, not by what will easily impress our boss, or outstrip our neighbor, or get us promoted. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my friend.
Greetings and Felicitations:
Scott: Now that… is Innovative Thinking!
Cheers!
James
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Interesting comment on Second Life. IBM was one of the companies involved in its emergence going back a few years.
I proposed to my daughter’s fourth grade teacher three years ago that we try to see if we could use Second Life as a VR environment for learning. I thought it would be an ideal setting to teach about history, cultures, etc. Rather than simply learn about life in Egypt from a book, why not “live” it?
I got the idea from a project in which I participated while at UM in the late ’80s. It was funded by NASA’s Space Grant program, and used the Internet (yes, way back then) to connect high school students and program managers (including me) to a bulletin board-like, running dialogue. The high school students took on the personae of famous historical figures, and had to respond to board topics in character. It required the students to research their characters and the times in which they lived.
Put that kind of idea together with Second Life and the possibilities are extraordinary.
Naturally, my daughter’s teacher just “didn’t have the time”.
But, she is a MSU alumna. Figures.
Greetings and Felicitations:
Galen: Interestingly – Farmville is the most popular app on Facebook.
This app alone is more popular than Twitter in totality.
Quite fascinating, actually.
If you look at the top 4 most trafficked social sites – you find something very extraordinary:
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube
And last but most importantly for this communication: Second Life.
If you are not familiar with Second Life – I recommend an examination for reference purposes and to increase understanding of what is currently afoot in our civilization.
If I may ad for greater clarity – please know this is informational and not self absorption! – I built the first web based VR (Virtual Reality) environment for a local photographer back in the early 90′s.
Our little IT/IS company (Innovative Thinking/Imaginative Systems) just turned 15yrs.
Born the year of Sputnik, I have been involved and have facilitated this evolutionary process all my life – especially since the 70′s (Future Shock : ) including the initial emergence of music synthesizers, which you will recall, had all musicians at the time up in arms.
We have also been at the forefront of the transition from hot lead (typography) to cold type in the late 70′s early 80′s. (The Third wave : )
And of course – Proselytizing the emergence of the Internet since 1989 and the web in 1993.
And the Internet per se just celebrated its 40th anniversary recently! Awesome!
The main point: where is all of this going and how do we surf these amazing and accelerating waves of change.
I have a theory or two. : )
Let me conclude with one of my favorite quotes by Alan Kay from PARC in 1971: The best way to predict the future… is to invent it.
Cheers!
James
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I use Facebook for Farmville, and it’s humorous. Most of my “professional” linkages are through LinkedIn, but the real ones are the ones that persist [occasionally] in spite of the social media, through old-fashioned but electronically enabled friendships. E-mail and blog pages for people to whom I choose to talk and who want to “read me”.
To be honest with you, Galen, I use Facebook and LinkedIn, but I hate it. At least Facebook. Its artificial, and makes me feel more “disconnected” than “plugged in”. Its an ill-suited substitute for human interaction, often used as a one-for-one replacement. Texting, too, while we’re at it, (And “sexting”? Give me the real thing). And we wonder why our youth so easily throw away relationships and act so … inhuman.
And since many of you have asked, the icon that I use to “send my stuff around” is a widget [free] from Add To Any that should be available through your own blog admin page. If not, you can go to http://www.addtoany.com to download it. It works way cool [Sorry, Miss Zeh - my 6th grade English teacher].
HA! Okay we are both boomers…that’s close enough!
I’m going to check out roboform. My favorite is when you put in what you think/know is your password, and it tells you it’s not right, so you go through the “forgot your password” link to set up a new password and it tells you you can’t use that one because it is your old one!
Nancy: hmmm, about my age – so how old do you think I am that I seemed to have offended??
I really enjoyed our conversation and being part of your thousand cups of coffee. I’m looking forward to reading more and jumping in myself.
You nailed it! In fact everything I have ever done well, that was worth doing, I did poorly first. But one question… Just how old do you think I am???
Galen thanks for this great post. Yes it’s all new for us boomers but it’s fun learning this new social media.
As for remembering the passwords I found a great new tool that works very well. It’s called RoboForm2go. Check it out at http://www.roboform2go.com the software is free and a quick download. It keeps track of all your passwords and logs in for you. No need to remember. It even fills in forms for you so you only have to do it once. Try it and let me know what you think.
I really enjoy your blog. Hmmm, I think I like the way this guy thinks!
Jamie: I had almost forgotten your exuberance and passion for life. Thank you so much for the GREAT BIG smile and the warm feelings on a chilly morning. I intend to pass on the energy that you always provide.
Greetings and Felicitations:
Tweak it ’til it bleeds! : )
Tweak ourselves ’til we bleed!
“Similarly aged” = eternal!
My motto: (If I have a motto – which I do not : ) -
IKUW = Information to Knowledge to Understanding to Wisdom.
We are all so awesome and amazing I can hardly contain myself whenever I think about it – which is all the time actually.
You are wonderfully made in the beautiful image of infinite potentiality.
Let no one tell you any different.
Better living through metaphor and allegory!
And you know – Ray Kurzweil believes we are on the threshold of a technological singularity which includes the development of 3d self organizing molecular circuits.
Well – The singularity is not near: it is here!
And – WE are the 3d self organizing molecular circuits!
How amazing is that?
So let’s get busy building out the cosmos!
Start right where you are this very minute – heavens above – earth below – and us – right in the the middle. An infinite sandwich. Yummy!
Cheers!
James
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Kudos Galen. This post is a fine example of what seems to work in the new social media – it is both honest and interesting! Eric Standlee has taught me that there is no such thing as getting on top of social media – it is like trying to catch a fish that will wriggle out of your hands everytime! It is also interesting to me that the fastest growing group in the social media category is boomers. I’m very optimistic about the future for us all – it is the wisdom that is needed in every quarter these days – hopefully our accumulated years has produced some!!!