Jobs is known for using a quote attributed to another innovator, Henry Ford (though there is some speculation as to whether Ford actually said it) and it goes something like this.  When talking about the Model-T Ford supposedly said something akin to:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they probably would have said faster horses”

Now, there are arguments on both sides of this issue. One is simply that there is great value in listening to your customers because they can help shape your company and its products.
The other is what Jobs alluded to by saying, how can customers tell you what they want when they have no idea what it is and haven’t even seen it yet because it doesn’t exist.

I’m not here to debate this issue as I believe both sides have merit. If you look at the quote, it is the ‘need’ for faster horses that causes the creation of the car. Without knowing that need, the invention would not occur. Nevertheless, this is not about who’s right or wrong in terms of the quote.

The point of this blog is that Jobs, like perhaps Ford, simply didn’t ask the same question everyone else asked.
Instead of asking, ‘How can we make a horse faster’, or ‘How can we make our main product better’ they asked different questions.

Apple hasn’t made a come back because the world suddenly liked the iMac or Mac Notebooks. It made a come back because of a new device called the iPod and iTunes (a music player before anyone was really doing anything substantial with digital music).
Or the iPhone which revolutionized smart phones and introduced us to applications for our phones.
And of course the iPad which looks to completely rethink the computer industry.

And yes, they then paid attention to their computer product lines, but only after completely changing their focus and asking different question(s) than everyone else was asking.

Steve Jobs was a master of asking different questions while everyone else chased the same answers. Like him or not, he really did change our world. His innovation will be missed. And we all owe him a debt of gratitude for changing our view of technology and life as well.

If you want to change where you are, whether personally or professionally, for your life or your business. It all starts with asking different questions.

Do you really need faster horses?

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The fact of the matter is that regardless of what “it” is; whether you’re grateful for your health, your family, your friends, your job, your house, your car, your country, whatever it is you’re grateful for it is less about assaying guilt over those who have less, or appreciating what you have so you can have more as it is about living.  Simply put, having an ‘attitude of gratitude’  is important because it speaks directly to enjoying your life.  Happiness.  It’s what we all really want, and being grateful for what you have in your life is one sure ingredient to the recipe of happiness.  Think of it this way.  Having goals is wonderful and we should all be striving for something; but the goal cannot be our measure of happiness.  Think about it, when you get something new, a toy, a car, a gift, whatever, it’s wonderful for a short period of time but immediately we end up wanting the next ‘thing’.  The same is true of our lives.  If all we do is pursue the goals we set and hope that they will make us happy we will forever be searching for happiness and never finding it.

It’s true what they say, it’s the Journey not the destination that matters.  And so we come back to being grateful.   Be grateful for what you have now.  Enjoy it, revel in it, be excited by it. Don’t take anything for granted.  You may or may not get the next ‘thing’, but that shouldn’t matter.  Be happy now.  Be grateful for all the things and people and experiences you have in your life Today!  Enjoy the ride.  Be excited by the Journey of your life and where it’s taking you today.  Tomorrow will come and bring with it a new adventure, but today is what’s important.  So don’t be grateful because you’re “supposed to be”.  Don’t be grateful because you feel guilty about people who have less.  Don’t be grateful because you’re hoping it will bring you more of whatever it is you want.  Be grateful because at one point in your life all of THIS was a goal of yours.  Be grateful because you’re here.  Be grateful because your life has brought you so much and it’s all around you.  Oh, and by the way, being grateful does have side effects.  They usually result in positive things happening for you and those around you. So be grateful for this part of your Journey and then stand back and watch as your incredible adventure in life unfolds.

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After encouraging the audience to think about the list of things they like to complain about in their communities and pushing them to identify just one thing from that list for which they could work to find a solution the participants were ready for the next step.

Working with a graphic storyteller Raise Your Hand© began to take shape, literally and figuratively. Using large foam core towers and dozens of bright colorful magic markers members of the audience were encouraged to publicly and creatively record the community solutions they for which they were going to commit to “raise their hands” and take action on developing a solution.

A powerful and motivating force behind the Raise Your Hand© activity was a $1,000 donation committed by the curator of TedxDenverED to help the best idea get launched.

Now developed into a formal workshop Raise Your Hand© offers communities ranging from neighborhoods to corporate communities the opportunity to develop a colorful lasting record of how their community came together to “raise their hand” and tackle the issues that need solving. Check out www.journeyinstitute.org/raiseyourhand for more information. Let’s raise our hands together!

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The problem is that although one can begin their day with this notion in mind, life can quickly keep us from our ideal with the challenges and hurdles that typically come our way on any given day.  And so I wonder if “Carpe Modo” might be a better sentiment to use.  Although this is likely not the proper use of Latin (my apologies to those of you who have mastered this language) the idea that we must ‘sieze the moment’ or ‘sieze now’ is perhaps the better way to capture the original intent of Carpe Diem.

If we can remind ourselves, throughout our day, at any given moment whether something positive is happening, something challenging, or if we are simply at peace; to seize that moment; to find the best in what is happening; to find perspective or seek out the happiness inside of us; that is truly siezing our day all day long.  After all, isn’t that what Carpe Diem is all about?  Don’t waste your day worrying about the past, or fretting about the future.  Live in the moment, stop and smell the roses of whatever is going on around you.  If we can do this throughout the day we can then look back as we lay down our heads to sleep and reflect that today, we truly did accomplish what Horace and Lord Byron extoled…. Carpe Diem!

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Of course when things are going well it’s easy.  Even when things aren’t necessarily soaring along but still you’re doing well, then you can find the positive and redirect your goals and off you go.  The challenge is when everything is going wrong.  When there seems to be no good news in your endeavor, that is when it is the most difficult to get motivated, to stay positive.  When all around you is not going your way, that’s the time that it becomes the most challenging to focus on the unseen future, the goal, the dream, the positive.  And yet, that is the time when it’s most important.  So how do you do it?  How do you find that spark, that light when all around you is dark?

One answer is physiological.  MOVE!  Change your physiology.  It’s why exercise feels so good.  Get your blood going.  Get up, go for a walk/run/jog whatever.  Move around the house.  Try this:  Stand up, right now where ever you are.  Stand up, tall and straight, shoulders back, deep breath in.  Now, look up at the ceiling and put a huge silly goofy smile on your face.  Even if you can’t think of something to smile about just grin.  Big old Cheshire cat like grin.  Now, without changing your posture or that silly grin on your face….. get depressed.  Go on… do it… what do you mean you can’t?  hmmmmmm….  Another thing you can do if you can’t get out and move are things like taking ten Deep, slow, long breaths, holding them in for fifteen or so seconds before letting them out slowly.  Try it, change your physiology when you’re feeling down you’ll be amazed at what a little movement can do and who knows, you might just get your Journey moving in a better direction at the same time.

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Sometimes being busy can result in doing things that keep you occupied rather than focussed.  I recently read two quotes that I thought applied well here:

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you fail to focus on your goal” – Unknown

“Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable” – Theodore N. Vail

It seems that all great ventures must overcome obstacles of one sort or another.  Perhaps they are tests of our resilience, or our persistence.  Tests to see if we truly want what we’re after or if it’s just a whim.  The 50 in 52 Journey was indeed a test in many ways and one in which we relished the challenges and fought hard to overcome them because we believed so much in what we were doing.

It is no different for The Journey Institute.  Dafna and I both live by the belief that we have no right to complain unless we are willing to do something about the problem.  This, combined with our passions for helping others are what drives us to overcome the obstacles that try to deter us from our goals.  Everyone is quick to point out that the economy is not the right time to start a Journey across the country and yet we found out that it was more important than ever in that economy that we highlight those people who continue to make an impact despite the downturn in economics.

Those same types of people are quick to point out that there is still a bad economy and that getting funding now is even harder because so many people are all vying for the same small pots of money available.  To which I answer “and so your solution is….. what”?   The problems we as communities, societies, countries and humanity face are not going to diminish simply because times are tough.  In many ways they may increase.  If we don’t stand up, if we don’t hold our hands up and say “we’ll help, we’ll do something about it” and work with those people who truly have a passion for solving their problems and their communities problems who will?

I don’t know where the money will come from but I do know this.  We are focussed.  We are determined.  We are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed because what we are doing is THAT important.  We are talking about a movement and our focus has not left that vision.  This isn’t just a non-profit idea that sounded like fun or that so many people said had to be done.  No one is doing this.  We want to help people find the solutions to the problems that affect them most.

Don’t get me wrong, there are uncountable non-profit and for-profit companies doing incredible things and we’re not saying that what they do isn’t important.  It is.  But what gets lost here is the individual, the change maker, the idea generator, the person Just Like You who has an idea, a dream, a solution and desperately wants to help solve a problem in their community but doesn’t know what to do next.  If we don’t help them who will?

I don’t know what your dream is, and maybe it has nothing to do with solving a problem, maybe your dream is to get to find a job or change careers or visit a far off land, it doesn’t matter.  Dream it.  Focus on it.  Take photos of it, write about it, talk about it, make it something you can’t stop thinking about…. and go after it.

There will be plenty of time for chores and the duties of life, but there is only one life YOU can live.  It is up to you to live it.  No one can do it for you and there is truly, no better time, than right now to go for your dreams.  For every naysayer who tells you why you shouldn’t do something I can give you two reasons why you should.  Go ahead, try me.

Whatever you focus on, with persistence, with feeling, with tenacity.. whatever consumes your thoughts, whatever your heart grabs hold of…. that is what you will get.  You might as well make it something you really want and something you’ll enjoy having.

We’re just starting our Journey to help people just like you and if you know of someone who has a challenge they’re trying to fix or just someone who says, “If I were in charge, I’d do that differently”…. have them send in an application.

Meanwhile, you choose what you focus on every day.  Make it something big, make it something good.

Thanks for checking in on The Journey Institute website.  We are going to have some very exciting news in the coming weeks and months ahead.  We look forward to taking this Journey with you.

Don’t forget to live your Kuleana (if you don’t know what that means, read some of the earlier posts).

Michael

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We have been laying the groundwork to help launch community solutions nationwide and we are ready to begin helping you. This is the time to put that great idea of yours, you know the one, the one that is going to make your life better and also improve the life of someone else. This is the idea that’s going to fix that problem in your community, on your street, in your school.

This is the idea, that, What? You say you DON’T have an idea? Think about that list of things you are unhappy about in your neighborhood, city, state even. Which of those could you raise your hand and say “I’ll work on a solution for that instead of waiting for someone else to come around and solve it!”?

We are here to help you make it happen!
You don’t need to fill out loads of paperwork. We don’t care how old you are or how much education you have had. We don’t care if you are rich or poor or just plain in the middle. We don’t care if you have already devised the solution! If you can identify a problem you would like to fix or a community you would like to build….

We are here to help YOU make it happen!
We decided to make the application process as simple as possible. All you need to do is stand in front of video camera, any kind, even the cell phone kind, and tell us your story.
Who are you?
What is the solution you would like to put in place?
Why are you the one to do it? Have a friend answer that question too.
Show us your community.
Then post the video on our video page and we’ll take it from there.

Sound simple? It really is!

I was so blessed to have traveled this country and interviewed some 500+ people who actively worked to fix their communities and make their lives and the lives of so many others better. They taught me what it takes. They taught me that a problem solver needs some support. It is my duty to give back what I have learned. I will do that by helping you.

Go ahead, don’t be shy. This is by no means a popularity contest. This is about making America, making our community, simply making the place we call home better for you and everyone around you. This country was built on the understanding that we lift each other up so we both succeed. We are simply working to bring that back.

Pick up your camera, borrow one from a friend or neighbor, tell us your story and let’s get this party started!
Onward and Upward, TOGETHER!

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A friend walking next to me heard it and questioned “Why did you call him Dumbledore?” to which the board member replied, “Because he’s the minister of all things technical” and so, the moniker stuck.  I am sure I don’t measure up to that esteemed wizard of the Harry Potter world, but the name or word has stuck and now I continue to be the ‘Chief Wizard’ of the newly formed Journey Institute in my new role as CEO.

As Dafna wrote in her blog, it is a simple, yet all empowering word which drives the heart of this organization.  Kuleana.  A Hawaiian word we learned about when we met James Koshiba and his incredible organization in Hawaii.  Kuleana is simply one word but it’s meaning transcends language.  “With rights come responsibilities”.  As we learned from Kanu Hawaii, Jame’s organization, a right is a responsibility; an obligation is a privilege.  Kanu Hawaii hit it on the head on their website “When we covet our rights and property while ignoring our responsibilities and concerns- society breaks down”.

Welcome to The Journey Institute.  We hope you will join us with your ideas and solutions to your communities problems, or perhaps just follow along on this Journey as we work on our Kuleana by helping communities all across this nation find solutions to the problems that concern them.  We hope you will see that our society is within our control, that we do indeed have the power to change our destinies and together we can hold true as a community, as a society, as a country to our collective Kuleana.

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Source: htttp://managingwithaloha.com

When I traveled to Hawaii on the 50 in 52 Journey it was already November and Michael and I were deep in the throes of figuring out the answer to the oft asked question “What comes next?” We knew we were going to do something. We knew it would include me writing a book, potentially an independent film on the Journey and creating resources and materials to inspire and teach based on the stories of the people of the Journey. Yet it did not all begin to come together until when in Hawaii we met a man named James Koshiba (http://www.50in52journey.com/states/Hawaii4.asp) who taught us the Hawaiian word Kuleana, a value he embodies.

As James described it, Kuleana is that sense of entitlement directly connected to a sense of obligation: I am entitled because I have taken the responsibility to create that to which I feel I am entitled.

For me those were powerful words. How often have I heard the children of my peers described derogatorily as having a strong sense of entitlement. We give our children everything they desire, and when we can’t we feel badly that our children are deprived. Perhaps as we give we need to teach that sense of understanding that certainly they are entitled to everything their hearts desire, as long as they create the environment where that is possible. We certainly want our children to be entitled to a clean earth, but it is ours and their responsibility to make it that way.

Often throughout the 50 weeks of my travel I heard people tell me that they did not know how to do what it was they were trying to accomplish but someone pushed them, someone was their cheerleader, someone showed them how they could. Whether they knew it or not every single one of them embodied Kuleana. They knew they needed or wanted a change in their situation. Indeed they felt entitled to a better world, so they took the responsibility for creating it. Kuleana, a powerful value.

We, the Journey Institute team have taken to embodying the value of Kuleana. We will help create the world in which we wish to live by helping you create the world in which you wish to live. Very simply, if you are willing to accept responsibility to make a change for the better in your community, we want to help you get there.

Have you ever had that moment in your life? That moment where you learn a value and it instantly clarified all that has been swishing around in your brain. It was the ultimate AHA! moment and Michael and I felt it together. (Little did I know that the next day Michael would ask me to be his wife!)

So, a little different than the way the 50 in 52 Journey got started (if you don’t know that story you can find it all on http://50in52journey.com) but the same key characters were in place.

I invite you to join us on this Journey of spreading the value of Kuleana and helping to raise up community problem solvers nationwide.

Do you have a Kuleana story? We want to hear it. Please add it in the comments so we can share it with our readers.

Onward and Upward with Kuleana as our link!

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