This week’s inspiration post excites me. I had the great fortune of seeing Cindy Gallop, Ad Industry Icon turned Web Entrepreneur and social change maker, speak last night. Cindy’s a disruptor of rather epic proportions. Cindy doesn’t do status quo. In her words when she consults with businesses to help them effect the monumental change needed to survive in what she calls the new world order, “only hire me if you want to blow shit up in your industry’. You see, she’s so brilliant in her execution of ideas, that she can say such things and have it come across as being endearing and more so, irresistibly attractive.
The outline of her talk was on three things: structure, money and discomfort. Structure in the sense that businesses needed to stop operating the old way to survive in the new world order. Business models need to be rewritten and shaken up. Businesses need to stop profiting here and then writing checks there to social causes to ease their consciences. Businesses need to start making money by doing good – it is indeed the way of the future. Then onto money she went, in the way that taking payment and the way in which one can be paid is changing before our noses and this is going to radically transform commerce. Finally, discomfort, in the sense that we need to bring women into equal responsibility and decision making in business if we’re to become the community driven, collaborative businesses that consumers crave and women can so expertly provide. Women ask different questions to men – often the tough questions such as ‘What are you thinking?’, which needless to say elicited a good giggle from a knowing crowd. So much of her way of thinking resonated with me and pushed my own thinking. There was one quote that I wanted to share with you, in an effort to make your thinking time this weekend, time that is positively charged towards a happier you, as it certainly will be me.
“What are the things you most love to do and what are the circumstances in which you most love to do them: Design your job, business model and life around that”
To that I add: Really stop. Really think. Be truly honest. What does it look like? What have you started thinking about? Write down a series of spontaneous things that make you wildly happy to be doing them. Different to what you’re doing now?
Have a fab time on that mental journey. If you’re a little scared of what you start thinking about, in that nervous teen kiss kind of way, then it’s probably a good thing you started thinking about it!
Bon courage for an even more blissfully satisfying life,
Links to Cindy Gallop awesomeness for those of you who’d like to learn more…
http://www.ted.com/speakers/cindy_gallop.html
Beautiful IMAGE taken by Elizabeth Lippman for the New York Times.
