I like this story: Trevor from Youth Lagoon recently told my friend Tim (who told me) that back before he was Somebody he decided to release his first single “July” on Bandcamp for free. Everyone told him he was mad. That he should monetise his efforts. But then the track went viral. And he got fans. And Youth Lagoon got big.

We know this kind of story, yeah?

by Lee Basford via advice to sink in slowly

It’s The New Creativity. Give first. See what happens next.

PS: you might like to listen to “July” while you read the rest of this:

Seth Godin first explained the beauty of this concept to me early one morning on Skype. We chatted, quite literally, about the point of existence. He told me it’s about “shipping”.

“Real artists ship,” he says. You can fiddle and perfect and rehearse for a while. But then – fire up! – we have to press send or call in UPS to pick up our contribution to the planet – whether it be a report, a love letter, a meal, a blog post. That’s the point. Which is not far off my “quit the rehearsals, skip to the play” theory from last week.

Art is something we offer as a gift to humanity, Seth tells me.

It’s hit me just recently: this is the rest of my life. This awareness has arisen because I’ve had to face a few realities lately.

Image by Ben Javens

I’ve led my life thinking it would look a certain way: high school, uni, work, husband, house (that I’d build with a view into bushland), things to own, kids with interesting names, package holidays to Bali (OK, now I’m just being dumb…you get the point). I just assumed, and over the years the milestones guided me, they were my motivation, as they are for many of us.

When I got to one milestone, I used it to prepare for the next. Everything was a run-up to the next thing. I didn’t have to think too much about whether it’s what I wanted. Many of us don’t. It’s so easy not to. The path is nicely worn. Of course you get married by thirty. Of course you’ll factor in kids at some point.

Life can trip along fairly easy like this, while ever you’re nailing the milestones. You can live a whole life this way, blindly ticking them off, never thinking about where it all leads. Until, perhaps, you miss a few milestones.

But I’ve been having accept of late that some (many) of these milestones won’t (can’t) be ticked off by me. It’s not all due to unforeseen circumstances. If I’m honest, I’ve chosen this path I’m on. Over and over. Without realising. Slowly I’ve been steering myself off to the left.

Either way, it begs…when the milestones are gone, what are you left with?

Illness or a setback or a wakeup call or crazy sets of life circumstances land people at this point. Life is stripped back. You’re unceremoniously pushed from the conveyor-belt.

And then what?

I’ll tell you what: you’re left with a

frighteningly boundless freedom to choose what the rest of your life will look like.

No milestones, no rules, no norms, no sitcoms to use as barometers of what’s “normal”. Just your self.

Mother friggen scary. And lonely. But mother friggen fresh, too.

TED.com posted this from Seth Godin, one of the most favouritist authentic people on the plant, IMO. It’s a really funny rundown of stuff that annoys him because it doesn’t work. Mostly it’s stuff that’s “broken” because someone hasn’t put care or effort into it.

They’re the upshot of flaccid engagement or when a whole organistion kind of says ‘oh, that’s not my job’. Why isn’t it? Why not just do it? Seriously, it’s more pain to let something go that needs to be done. It pains me, when I’m on a job, to contemplate NOT doing something that would take 5 seconds to fix. Where do you stop caring? Where’s the line?

Or do you just care as much as you can, where you can? And don’t create a line?

A glaring example for me right now of this kind of ludicrous oversight: airport security. How long ago was 9/11? How long have we had to take our shoes off at airports? And how long have we had to do this in the most chaotic way, with no chairs, no systems? I watch old people who struggle, ladies in heels juggling bagss…it’s ridiculous. Why hasn’t anyone – from all the airports around the world – fixed this? Devised a set-up that makes the experience smoother and happier?

So confounding. I’m always noticing stuff like this, that makes no sense. What confounds you?

So, this week I’ve packed up and racked off to Bali for “annual leave”. I’m here with four boys – Jim, Sam, Jason and Karl (a little more handsome than the lot below). Boys are funny on holidays. They arrive at consensus in crazy cruisy ways. All cool, so long as they get a surf in.

Anyway. So I’m posting in advance a short best-of series. I’ve been on this experiment…trying different tricks and meeting various gurus for just over a year. Which have worked? I’ve narrowed my take down to a mini-list of three.

It’s also the first day of Spring. Sniff some wattle for me!

1. Marketing guru Seth Godin. We chatted about giving art as a gift. The guy is very much the real deal. There are a lot of efficiency experts out there who preach only answering emails once a day and who – magically – reply to your correspondence within 5 seconds…. It kind of shits me. Or makes me have a little heart sink.

So how do we start giving gifts? How do we become remarkable? “The aim is to elevate connecting and sharing to the same level as breathing or eating lunch every day,” he says.  By which he means, we start giving and then give some more and eventually it becomes a way of life. Seth walks his talk. He makes money from public speaking and his books. Then he spends the rest of his time giving freely. He intentionally doesn’t monetise his blog or any online webinars he gives and he expends a lot of energy connecting and helping people. I can vouch for this personally. Read more here.

2. The Dalai Lama. Yep, met the guy and chatted about how to stop head chatter. He’s a man true to brief. But who has the common touch. He knows how to tell the Western world what they need to hear.

This popped up on TED.com this morning – a rant by Clay Shirky an expert in “technology as a force for good” (who I’ve interviewed previously and just loved his energy) . Here he rants about how our excess brain energy – we have a trillion spare brain hours up for grabs, apparently – can be used for good online. Do watch it.

His basic premise is that we have a lot of spare brain power and that we’re putting it to use in generous ways online. Wikipedia is an example. No one gets paid for the input. But it’s emerged as a resource that’s all about sharing excess information. Ditto LOLcats and ask.com, etc Ditto all the advice we all share online with each other on blogs like this one you’re reading right now.

I like his slant and it impacts on why I blog…cos sometimes I wonder why the hell I do.

This week I give gifts

There’s this thing I do in cab queues at airports. I don’t find it weird. Although you might. When I get to the front of the queue I sing out to the crowd to ask if anyone would like to share a cab to Bondi (which is where I live). Or Downtown (when I visit New York). Or Rundle Mall (when I find myself that way). At first people are affronted by such an invasion of “stranger distance”. But then they soften. Especially when I offer to pay.

Of course, the practice is efficient (it shortens the cab queue for all concerned), and saves carbon emissions in it’s own modest way. But mostly I do it because it feels good. And a bit daring. And, golly, if this world doesn’t need an injection of daring from time to time!

Seth Godin does the same. Seth is one of the most prolific marketing experts in the world. He’s written 100-plus books, invented genius online businesses well ahead of the curve, has a blog following of 500,000 and is responsible for terms such as “permission marketing”, “idea viruses” and “purple cows”. And, truthfully, I think he’s the most authentically impressive person I’ve ever interviewed. And not just because he shares my penchant for cab queue bombing.