If You Must Die...

There's a great scene in the movie First Knight where Sean Connery, playing King Arthur, says "Here we believe that every life is precious, even the lives of strangers.  If you must die, die serving something greater than yourself. Better still, live... and serve."  


What do you think our communities and our world would look like if every church and every follower of Christ took that as their life goal?

One Type of Friend Everyone Needs

I think everyone of us should have at least one person in our lives that has the ability to both affirm us for who we are and what we're doing AND challenge us to be better.  My friend Rich is one of those people in my life.  You can check out his blog here.  I had a meeting with him today and as always I left feeling better about myself and the work I'm doing AND challenged to take things to a new level.

Do you have anyone like that in your life?  If not I'd suggest you ask God to send them or show you who he's already sent you.

The Power of Feedback

I love feedback.  I would go so far as to say I crave it.  Whether it's something I'm about to produce or something I've already done, I want people's input on it.  Anything I write (except for this blog) I have someone proof and edit it.  I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of people around me who know how to do that well.  They know how to, not CHANGE what I am saying, but GET what I am saying and then help me make it CLEARER.

I know a lot of people though, who see feedback or editing as a threat.  I don't get that.  I would much rather be affective than original any day of the week.  And a part of being affective is being clear.

Here's a blog post from Seth Godin.  He's very clear about being clear.  Enjoy.

Share your confusions

If you're building for digital, for a place where you can't possibly be present to guide or to answer questions, I think it's vital you have someone who can review your work. Same for instruction manuals, secret ballots and road signs.

Not to make suggestions to make it better (what do they know?) but to share their confusions.

I don't think that's a phrase, but it should be. Share your confusions is a way of asking someone to dissect your work and point out what's not totally clear.