Comments on: How To Do Something Great

By: sam

sam — Fri, 19 May 2006 12:04:02 +0000

i want to do something great , but ????

By: Julio

Julio — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 05:03:09 +0000

Those words typed seem like so little, but they are rich in the obvious. It is the obvious that i have not seen. But now i know they are there and what they are. It makes me think.

By: Brooks

Brooks — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 03:11:36 +0000

I’ve often felt that my life was meant for something more profound than the mere sake of living. I think the worst thing a person can do is buy into the premise that thinking great thoughts means you are having delusions of grandeur. My god, what if the great minds of the world had talked themselves out of their dream, amibitions, motivations, etc. because they were afraid of labels? So my advice is simply this, do whatever it takes to make your ideas a reality. Plan well, do your research, then plan some more, but ultimately it comes down to one thing—your desire to change things for the better. We all know what we need to do, but we’re so complacent in our lives that we sometimes become apathetic. The key is to find some way to stay motivated from day to day. Never let your dreams die.

By: grantcravens.net

grantcravens.net — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:14:18 +0000

How To Do Something Great

The people at To-Done have a to-do entitled “How to do something great.” The tip that helps me most is “Sometimes “great” is simply really good. Great is rarely perfect.” I think I stive too much to be perfect, that I hold back when I can’t…

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 18:05:51 +0000

I’ve been involved in a lot of start-ups. Sometimes your endeavor will not be sucessful no matter what you do — the cards can align against you. But for the sucessful and for the fun ventures I’ve been involved with one of the more important qualities is that the owner really wanted what he was after. One start-up I worked for (that was later crushed by a much larger corporation, see previous: cards) was making a kind of server. Every day the owner of the company came round to check on progress and every day he marveled at something we’d accomplished. His intensity and absolute desire to see this machine function drove everyone else further. We believed because of him. The company didn’t go anywhere but the machine did get finished. We’re all still proud of it. My point is this, don’t just do any old thing great — find something at the center of your imagination and hopes. If you find that thing then all the sacrifices you will have to make (less sleep, less fun time, damaged relationships) won’t be sacrifices at all, just the price of creating something you love.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 15:42:28 +0000

Excellent post, excellent comments. “Inspiring” comes to mind.

By: oneafrikan

oneafrikan — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 15:43:17 +0000

There’s a famous saying that goes as follows:
“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”
– Henry Ford

I wholly and completely agree with this, and in my experience is most of the time the deal maker or breaker.

Paul Graham talks about working with people that you might describe as “animals” – people that you can rely on to put the hard graft in, and I think this is an element of it as well.

It seems that we’re always busy doing this and that, and we’re always talking about ideas that we have, but the people that get ahead are the ones that make things happen when everyone else it out partying, watching TV, even sleeping.

That something great requires a “great” effort, and most of the time the usual rigours of everyday living are too much of a comfort zone or obstacle, so the greatness never gets realised.
A lot of people just wont get up earlier or work later to do that something great.

Alexander the Great thought that sleep was an inconvenience; Tiger Woods wins a Major, and is out on the course the next morning practising for the next major; the next gen of Web 2.0 people are busy creating, innovating and delivering web 2.0 while everyone is still figuring out blogging and RSS; it took U2 29 tries (if my memory serves) to find a record company; Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France ‘cos he was out training in France before anyone else was and doing it tougher than anyone else was, conditioning himself for the real race…. the list goes on.

I believe if you focus your energies on the right actions, and combine that with a willingness to work outside the norms to make your greatness rise to the surface through the work you do, then you will already be greater than you were yesterday, and that’s pretty much all that counts.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:11:06 +0000

Great advice, very well put. You did a great jobs on that post.

By: merkin

merkin — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:44:02 +0000

drink lots of whiskey.

stay away from fundamentalists, fanatics, josh groban.

let creativity rip.

By: Holy Shmoly!

Holy Shmoly! — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 08:44:27 +0000

How To Do Something Great

How To Do Something Great

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