Ladies and gents how often are we in our daily lives consciously or unconsciously preparing for that break? Meeting that right person. Attending that right event. Going to that right place. But how do you know if it's right or not? Well, you don't.

Whether you want to accept this fact or not...(as the old saying goes) there's nothing guaranteed in life. You can pour your heart into a project so that it can see the light of day. You can give blood sweat and tears in order to bring a concept to fruition. By sheer mental force and a diabolical knack for influencing people, you are able to make ideas happen. It doesn't mean, though, that things will happen the way you want them to. Regardless, whatever it is that you do, your desire (I would imagine) is to make an impact, affect change or simply get recognized for your efforts. You want to succeed (in whatever way that may mean).

Now many say its about persistence. Some suggest it's about being smart. Others chalk it up to dumb luck - being at the right place at the right time.

Well from where I sit (and in my own experience...time and time and time again) I'd personally recommend investing heavy with number three (and stock options on the first might not be too bad either). But instead of looking at it as 'dumb luck', see being lucky as an attitude and a strategic way of 'being.' 

From a blog post I did in 2009 there are 4 basic principles for being 'lucky' and generating good fortune:

• Being skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.
• Make lucky decisions by listening to your intuition.
• Create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
• Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Now in today's world where we are bombarded with social networks this and digital media that, what's the relevance? In a market where change is everywhere and what's coming next, we  can't predict, we have to know improvisation (the parent company of being lucky) which is about knowing how to generate consistently positive outcomes from unforeseen circumstances. And what better way to illustrate this point...

New Martini - Luck is an Attitude.

The ability to choose (and then be engaged in rational/irrational thinking in relation to those choices) is what fundamentally differentiates us as humans from every other living species on this planet.

Everyday we make choices. The steak sandwich or the turkey burger. Develop an advertising campaign for the business or engage in a social media strategy. Take a job where the pay is excellent or choose a career opportunity allowing you to do what you have always dreamed...

How often, though, are you presented with the choice of seeking out similar surroundings or pursuing diverse experiences? And what do I mean by that? If you're an engineer maybe there's an opportunity to hang out with a local poetry group. If you're an aerobics instructor maybe there's a chance to participate in some capoeira (if only to just watch) and delve into that world. Maybe you're a technologist and you'll go and shoot the breeze with a publicist. Are some of these interactions a bit extreme, possibly, but you understand my point. What are your choices to introduce variety and diversity (or even possibly something radically different) into your life?

Now you might ask what's the point? My response would be; we are living in a time where the arranged routines of our lives have been disrupted, and 'normal' as we knew it...is gone...forever. If you are in the business of commerce, then unconventional thinking is your first class ticket on domestic and international flights to a future with new complexities, expanded dimensions and unbridled opportunity. A future where one of the ultimate value-adds, that you can bring to the table, is diverse experiences and then the ability to synthesize those experiences into things people want, need and/or desire (and will pay for).

Now looking at one set of options, you can choose the blue pill. You'll wake up just like yesterday, last month and the year(s) before travelling the road of traditional ideas, that unfortunately, possess minimum to zero growth opportunity for the future. Or you can choose the red pill and see just how far down the rabbit hole you can go towards creative thinking, digital exploration, and business model innovation.

As always, the choice is yours.

One of my favorite sayings in the whole world is "Never bring a knife to a gunfight". In my opinion there's nothing better than words painting a picture that make things so clear, in so few words: You have to be prepared for what you are facing.

In 2011 the upheaval in the market continues. Whether its politics, education, business, or economics, the question is: what's the way forward?

For business, technology has become the game-changer in more ways than we can possibly imagine. Whether it's the cloud, digital media, or the democratization of the marketplace, it's impact is everywhere and the revolution has only just begun. 

The issue though is that in the current environment a lot is going on: an economic recession, joblessness, educational stagnancy, a shifting marketplace, and political stasis (to put a few items on the table). The market, unlike anytime in recent history, is full of incredible challenges. But where there are challenges there are opportunities. 

The mistake we don't want to make is to bring the wrong weapon to the big clash. Yet so often that's what happens.

We focus intently on tactics when we need to establish strategies. We get enamored with activities when we need action. We turn the bass way up on technology making it hard to hear the voices on narrative.

As a friend of mine Tali Krakowsky states in her blog post - The Story of Story: Obsessions with Narrative; "Today data is pervasive. It is so readily available and so in abundance that it has no value. Data is no longer significant or interesting in itself – what makes it so is how it is delivered and experienced.

Ladies and gentlemen in a market where time is of the essence, business models are rapidly changing  and attention is a scarcity, how do we create value?  Choose the right weapon(s): curation, empathy, storytelling, pattern identification, design thinking, improvisation and  culture creation. These are good starts.

At the end of the day the weapon you choose, is your choice. What's on the table, though, is that in a 21st century networked world, where the limit for novel ideas is only defined by the creativity (or lack of) in your 'mental reach', how far is your actual reach when all that's at your disposal is a switch blade?

The market is in a state of flux...arguably like no other time in history. Now what this exactly means (and how the impact is/isn't being felt) will depend on who you are talking to, what you're talking about, and what particular industry is in question.  

Nevertheless with the rise of social media, the economic downturn, the tea party rebellion and most recently the OccupyWallStreet movement...something (big) is afoot.

For me the most recent (and ongoing evidence) that what's afoot isn't just a tremor, but a tectonic shift in the market, is a recent indie film by Swedish co-directors, David Dworsky and Victor Köhler, called Press Pause Play.

Now back in 2008 I wrote a blog post entitled Sex, Drugs, and Rock & (what's next?), about how the internet is dramatically changing the music industry and creating a new kind of counterculture in an unprecented way. From my own research and process of connecting the dots, I definitely concluded; folks, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. 

Almost three years later, to the date, Press Pause Play spotlights a new narrative and brings into sharp focus the reality of today's digital revolution.

I highly recommend that you check this out. If you're an artist (in any sense of the word), techno-geek, and/or digital provocateur...then you're going to ab-so-lute-ly love this film!

"I believe art and design are poised to change the world now like science and technology did in the last century.  Art and design humanize those developments, and fuel true innovation, which ultimately leads to both economic recovery and cultural prosperity. Apple's iPod is a perfect example of technology that basically existed for a long time as an MP3 player, but that nobody ever wanted until design made it something desirable and useful in a way that you could integrate it into your lifestyle."                                                                                                                                                                                             - John Maeda, Art & Design Matter

VS.

You're standing by the water fountain in a park and just across the concrete path, about 30 feet from you, there's a young lady sitting on a bench. Very quietly, with an intense focus, and a degree of serious concentration, she's lost in a book that she's reading. There's very little movement from her other than the occasional rubbing of her nose or a quick scratching of her head. Not drawing any attention to herself, she's clearly enthralled in whatever's happening on those book pages. 

As you're standing there, quietly observing her, you hear a bunch of yelling and shouting in the opposite direction. Across the grassy field, from where you're standing, two guys are talking smack to each other. As a small crowd begins to form around them, they heighten the intensity of the situation by egging on the two men. You immediately lose interest in the young lady, as nothing eventful is happening there. The two gents, though...that has your attention. Something's about to go down...

The young lady reading her book is fundamentals (personified). Quiet, serene, and a bit on the excitement-less side. This can be the nature of fundamentals, but not necessarily always the case. She's  focused, engaged, and measured in her responses to anything outside of what she's immediately doing. At first glance, she's not much of an attention grabber, a bit mundane to an extent. If you were to chat her up, in a conversation though, you'd probably see that there's more to her than meets the eye.

Now on the other hand, the two gents getting ready to throw down... are hype. Loud, brash, over-exaggerated and often seeking attention for the sake of seeking attention. They have the crowd frenzied, rooting for them, with excitement stirring in the air. The crowd is animated; clamoring and in an uproar, interested in seeing these two men go at it. There's alot of excitement buzzing and plenty is going on. Peel the layers back and peer just below the surface of all this ruckus; nothing of significance is really happening at all.

This is what happens often in today's hashtag, like my page, what's trending now, this week's youtube sensation, give me hype or give me death environment. Now there's nothing wrong with this in and of itself, but when it occupies so much space that you can barely see, hear or get access to quality concepts and/or fundamentally good and sound ideas, then this is when it becomes a problem.

What makes this doubly a problem is when this hype-space becomes the market interpretation of choice (across many channels). This now creates a (social media) reality distortion field - It's claiming to bring you customers, make your brand relevant, give you buzz (and I could go on), when in acutality it's often lacking conversations around numerous other value factors (story, emotion, empathy...). These accepted interpretations that run rampant in 'social media circles' speak partially to what's happening in the market. Digital media pundits many times focus on fleeting value that feeds short term "hype," often getting lost in their own techno-babble, forgetting about the issues of sound ideas and basic business fundamentals.

But on occasion we happen upon great content. Something that connects with who we are and speaks to something far below the surface. For me when that happens I take pause because it's not often that it occurs. And when it does it's only fair to give it some extra love.

Definitely worth your time, an incredible 2 1/2 minutes with John Jay, Executive Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy....

Now I have never been heavy into the art world. I don't proclaim to be an expert, an enthusiast 'per se' or a rebel, changing the world with my every brush stroke, but I do get, understand and vibe with the creative energy that drives that kind of center of gravity. 

At the core of innovation is creativity. And what I mean by creativity is "any way to interpret your environment differently than you currently experience it." This can be done in so many different ways...(but that's another blog post...)

Andy Warhol was the master of reinterpretation. He reinterpreted art. He reinterpreted commercialism. He reinterpreted (and maybe better stated, re-defined) pop-culture.

Ever since I started to look at him through the lens of an innovator vs. a creative talent, I'm consistently having a different kind of appreciation for who he was and what he brought to the world of business and art. 

This morning in my inbox was the below video from the Economist. I love that a publication focusing on free-trade, globalisation, government health and education spending takes the time to highlight the influence that Andy had on 'commerce' (what the Economist is all about) and what this idea represents.

Great video. Hope you enjoy.

Whether its a cool product, the world's firs 4D Experience or a design battle the intersection is where forward thinking happens.

So just a couple of days ago when I came across an article from Creativity (I subscribe to their online magazine) and saw the title on one of their posts: An intersection of music, technology and modern dance, I was definitely checking it out. Come to find out it was, once again, another creative video from Ok Go (surprise, surprise). Here is the actual write up from Creativity...

OK Go has a new music video out, in collaboration with modern dance company Pilobolus, and Google. The clip once again features the collaboration between the band and director Trish Sie of Bob Industries (and lead singer Damian Kulash's sister).

The music video, a kaleidoscopic, typographic display of the bandmembers' bodies,is only a small part of the package. Users can also visit the HTML5-power website (only via Chrome), All Is Not Lost, type out a message of their choice (in Roman letters or Japanese) and watch the performers dance it out using their bodies to create letters and shapes.

The video is an effective showcase for the Chrome browser technology. The dance, when viewed on the website, appears in 12 separate windows. The windows themselves will resize and move along with the music. According to a post on the Google Blog, the team included staffers from Google Japan. OK Go has suggested that the video be used as a message of support for the Japanese affected by the Tohoku earthquake.

Check out a behind the scenes video here.

Here's the video...enjoy!

Accessibility (as I've discussed before).

A notion communicated, and you get it. A concept easily understood. Complexity made simple.

In order for forward thinking ideas to permeate the market, and become successful, they need to be able to resonate with an audience. Enthusiasm emerges because there is the realization of the amount of value at the table (and now people are forking over dollars for it). Exploration for the right business model ensues because revenue can be made. And now determining how to scale... 

At the root, can people wrap their minds around your idea and apply it to their everyday lives? Are they able to mentally access it's worth and then share/communicate that with others? This is often a challenge with  thought leaders, innovators and visionaries. Big ideas without the gravity of practicality.

Maybe in some cases we're not even dealing with something that's 'leading edge'. Maybe it's just a product idea that you and everyone else who sees the world just like you thinks is great. You thought the idea had great potential, but once you tried to take it to market, it really didn't have any legs to stand on. Folks outside of your circle, people you don't normally interact with (the larger market) looked at it, saw no value, and the idea went nowhere. It happens...

At the end of the day if your idea doesn't have a certain degree of mass sensibility, then what you are advocating will be marginal. And as many would agree, marginal is problematic.

Now when it comes 'idea sharing' no one reflects this better than TED: A global set of conferences focusing on forward thinking concepts, beliefs and practices from health to science to business. I've personally been a huge fan of TED for years now. I'm even the co-founder of TEDxWDC (TEDxWashingtonDC). One of my biggest issues with TED though, as awesome they are, their "ideas worth spreading" (the organizations slogan), don't actually spread that far. For the most part the TED brand pretty much only has awareness within the 'innovation community.' Innovators talking to innovators. Not a problem in and of itself but if you have a great idea that can 'change the world'....talking to other fellow visionaries will have only a limited impact.

So when I came across the "Spread the TED" video from the folks over at TEDxBuenosAires...loved it.

Check it out.