2008 has been an amazing year for me.
2007 was pretty good too; that year I started appearing on TV as a regular guest on The Lab with Leo Laporte on G4 TechTV Canada and the How Network in Australia. This was huge for me. I had no business being on TV, but I have a passion for helping people with technology and a need to encourage people creatively to embrace the freedom it can afford. This allowed me to get past my fears and actually do pretty well on camera.
In 2008, the Lab was cancelled and I lost that outlet. But, through the wonderful friendships I’d made while guesting on the show, I was encouraged to go it on my own and create a video podcast component for MacMerc.com…MacMerc.TV. The show is about ready to launch and I attribute much of the success I’ve had in even creating it and achieving it as a goal to two things: poisoned popcorn and following strangers on Twitter.
To explain this, we’ll go back to 2007 again. It was Remembrance Day weekend up here in Canada (November 11th) and my good friend Maria and I were going to head down to “The States” for a bit of shopping. Unknown to me at the time, the melted butter I had sprinkled liberally on my popcorn the night before had gone bad just enough that it made me violently ill, but not so much that it tasted in any way “funny”…so I polished off a whole bowl.
The next morning, yes, violently ill. There’s no need to give you details but, suffice it to say my abs got a workout that morning. I moaned and groaned and slept through most of the day.
Later that night, after the storm had passed, I checked Twitter for some happy news and found that someone I didn’t know (a follower of a follower of someone I did know) had invited the world to watch him as he tried to compose music in his studio. This stranger was Geoff Smith and that night turned out to be the very first of his many and awesome UStream concerts.
Note: if you happen to follow me on Twitter, first off, thank you and, secondly, if I every go off on a “come check out @geoffsmith ’s UStream concert” jag, understand that I do it because I honestly, deeply believe the experience is so worthwhile that you need to come take part.
He’s got a Christmas show coming up on December 15th, by the way…
From being in that first concert, I have “met” so many cool people and, through them, so many more. Each contact has been an encouragement to me at some time over the last year; the names Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell spring to mind, but their friends quickly became my friends too. Awesomeness.
So, the lesson?
Poison Popcorn: every so often an unexpected turn of events can be an chance to find other opportunities. Find value in failure.
Follow strangers: often breaking out of your established group yields a new group with its own benefits and strengths. If you’re on Twitter, look and see who the people you follow follow…watch to whom the people you follow send @replies… they see something in these people—find out what! It could be very valuable to you.
