History in the Making

Started From the Bottom and We're Still Here

A new Six Minute Story podcast is live today: It's all about finding our authentic voice in the sea of "everybody else." You can also find it on iTunes.

Fantastic Stories and Where to Find Them

Confession: I used to write non-fiction books, organize conferences, and launch self-help programs. I traded it all in for storytelling.

New episode of Six Minute Stories:

My Friendship With Criminals

A few years ago, I found myself - surprisingly - in the friendship of a few criminals and decided to tell about it. It's on new podcast called Six Minute Stories... available on iTunes and SoundCloud. Here's the first episode.

Six-Minute Story: Writing from the Dark Places

Bad experiences leave a mark. But the stories we tell about them leave our mark on the world. Here's this week's Six-Second Story, which talks about writing from the dark places. Earbuds recommended.

Six-Minute Story: Leaving a Legacy

This week's story is on the topic of leaving a legacy. I talk about fatherhood, Andy Griffith and Bigfoot - all in the same episode.

Six-Minute Story: My Scariest Moment

Okay, I decided to get a little vulnerable with this one. A bigfoot encounter and my other greatest fears.

When you're finished listening, feel free to continue here.

Six-Minute Story: I Submitted My Resignation

Okay, I don't actually have a job to quit.

But I did walk away from a dream this past year, and I'm not sad about it. My hope is to move from Ben 1.0 to Ben 2.0... or version 1,684 or whatever I'm on right now. (We have to quit the good things to get to the great things.)

I parted with STORY, sold Dream Year, shelved social media, and quit all of my comfortable things in order to undertake the one difficult thing I love.

I made a little audio recording to tell you about it.

Feel free to click here if you're curious.

It's the End of Doing Business as we Know it

A few months ago, I tweeted that blogs were dead. 

Everyone piled on. Michael Hyatt said his was doing better than ever. Someone beat me down with their twitter-stick. I saw friends of mine 'liking' rebukes by the opposing side. Basically I infuriated all of the people who have blogs. I started to wonder if I was crazy. Maybe I had a blind spot in my worldview.

And then Chris Guillebeau posted this.

It's the literary equivalent of a microphone drop.

Not only is there an over-saturation of thought-leadership, formulaic e-courses, self-proclaimed expertise, memoirs, social content, podcasts and how-to books, but people are getting pretty sick of it. Business as we know it is about to change.

Chris acknowledged that the advice you'll find in his books might now be obsolete. And I would say the same thing for mine. In fact, I'm writing this - ironically - on a blog because I know that not many people will read it.

Throughout my 10 years of conference making, I saw a rapid rise in the number of "aspiring presenters" looking for a platform. Especially among white men. After featuring creative directors at Nike, Cirque du Soleil, Disney and others, I was shocked at the number of people who approached me to speak at STORY, as if curating a popular Instagram account or blog gave them the same expertise.

In fact, some people were so desperate for speaking opportunities that platforming presenters was actually a significant revenue stream for us.

The "platform economy" did that to us.

It made us think that being perceived as an expert was more important than actually being one. But the social economy has changed. Experts are out. Blogs are out. E-courses are out. Building a mailing list is out. Speeches are out.

Want to know something?

When I published the book Dream Year in 2014, I was so aware of the over saturation of thought-leadership at that time that I knew there would be no speaking opportunities for me. So I came up with the "pitch night" concept where I traveled to 12 cities and platformed other people talking about their dreams.

I basically pulled a judo move on the platform economy to share my own book.

I think I've found my own way forward in the anti-expert economy. And there is a way. I wouldn't get to enjoy a schedule like this if there weren't. But this time, I'm not going to write books about it, blog about it, release e-courses about it, hold teleseminars about it or try to capture your information in a mailing list...

Because that would defeat the entire point.

Started From the Bottom, Now We're (Still) Here

It's been over a year since I posted anything here.

Blogs are dead.
(Except for middle-aged-man blogs read by other middle-aged men.)
(Twitter killed the blogging star.)
(And Instagram killed the Twitter star.)

But I had to write this somewhere, and I don't keep a journal.

A good friend of mine recently acquired STORY so it's no longer mine.
I shelved Dream Year coaching.
Deleted my Instagram account.
Decided not to travel this year.
Don't have a single thing on my calendar.

We have a new baby in the house.
And a most adorable three year old girl.
I've taken up ropes courses with my three boys.

I wake up every day, work-out, and then spend a few hours with my kids.
Around 10 AM, I do some emailing and tidying up.

After lunch with my family, I head out to write for several hours.
Fiction.

I've been working on a novel for nearly two years.
Two hours a day for two years. I'll be done February 28.
It's been the most enjoyable but agonizing thing I've done.

Even more, I'm starting at the bottom of this craft.
20 years of career-building activity down the tubes.
All because I can't keep the stories inside me.

People keep asking, "So what's next?"

I think the last decade was all about building a platform for most people.
Selling our soul to the devil of social media.
Then trying to convince people we were "experts."

In the meantime, we lost our identities, stayed perpetually in "post mode,"
and generally let the tail wag the dog of our lives.

I think we're entering a new season of getting our lives back.
Spending time with the people we actually care about,
And making good things we love.

Blue Ocean Twitter

Twitter is starting to read like the classified ads. So much content. All in one long continuous feed. The chances of your brand getting attn are slim to none. And even if it's read, it's forgotten seconds later.

Even the social media wizards who cry "it's about conversation" are getting really low interaction rates.

I checked.

Part of the trouble is everyone takes the same approach. One of these categories:

Inspiring quotes.
Cheeky observations.
Linking to articles.
Preachy mandates.
Retweets of influencers.
Constant few-word replies.

I'm trying to figure out 'blue ocean' when it comes to Twitter.

Blue Ocean is where you're NOT fighting for attention. You're NOT doing what everyone else is doing. You're doing something fresh. Never been done before. Cuz you can't compete with them.

You can't out-link Harvard Business Review or 99u.
You can't out-quote Dale Partridge (unattributed as they are).
You can't out-observe Jim Gaffigan or Sarah Silverman.
You can't out-reply Gary Vaynerchuk.
You can't out-preach Rev Run or Seth Godin.

So what do you do that's different?
That's unique to your brand or voice.
That makes your Tweets can't-missable.

There's open water out there... somewhere.

The Hidden Potential of Your Place

What's made STORY so exhilarating for me over the past 6 years has been realizing the hidden potential of spaces and the people who gather in them.

Starting in the Paramount Theater in Aurora our first year sparked a creative resurgance in that sleepy little Illinois town. Moving into the House of Blues was about giving people a more irreverent experience. Projecting a thunderstorm onto the ceiling of the Cathedral was about surprising the audience with an unexpected canvas. And the Harris Theater was pure storytelling theater.

I think we grow blind to the potential of our spaces. We fail to realize how incredible that large empty wall is over there. Or what happens to the feeling of the room when sunlight is allowed to pour in. Or the way it affects people when the lights go out and suddenly they feel the sense of anticipation.

I'm not sensitive to a lot of things (just ask Ainsley =( but I'm highly attuned to the potential of environments. And for me, it's not just about the creative use of them; it's about moving people, casting vision, calling something out of them.

Over the past few years, I've been asked by two large churches to create multi-million dollar capital campaigns that would help tell their stories in a more life-impacting way. When I walked into their environments, it's almost as if the campaigns designed themselves. The spaces, the people, the talent, and the context culminated into the perfect expression for what they needed to do.

A few years ago, I got to help a church in Miami catch a vision for an arena event that would draw in the entire city and make use of production tools they'd never touched before. The result was a packed, mind-blowing city-wide experience.

And two years ago, I helped design an outdoor-theatrical experience on the streets of Norfolk, consisting of actors, period costumes, set designs, live musicians, and living dioramas. Experiences like this change people's lives. It's not just the website, the brochure copy or the message. It's the environment.

I'm looking for some organizations, companies or churches that might want to work together on creating something truly remarkable together. It could be a "STORY presents..." experience or something proprietary to your own vision and mission. Hit reply on the email under my photo, and let's talk.

An Extraordinary Story about the Dream Year Book

I wanted to share an extraordinary story with you about the Dream Year book. But more importantly, it's about the dream of an amazing person named Rachel Moore. She was the assistant editor on Dream Year and walked with me through the whole publishing process. What happened at the end is nothing short of remarkable. Here's an email she wrote me back in July. I just got permission to share it with you...

Hi Ben,

I wanted to write you with the sincerest thank you the book you wrote. In order to follow my own Dream Year, I submitted my notice of resignation last week to pursue a career in dance.

Even though dance has been my passion since I could move, I had decided many years ago that I would not pursue it as a career. Governed by a fear of failing as a performer (in New York City, no less!), I followed the more practical route of high school to college to steady-paying office job.

Once here, I was lulled into complacency by a dependable income and health insurance. I convinced myself and convinced myself that dance was not the career choice I should make. Like you mention in your manuscript, my life was fine as it was. Why change it around? 

It was reading and helping ***** edit your manuscript that lit the spark in my stomach. I had been keeping myself from dreaming for so long. But I watched myself offer structural and line edits and write promotional copy for Dream Year, and I felt the greatest hypocrite. Here I was working on a book telling me to follow my dreams, and I was doing exactly what it said not to.

I kept your very advice in mind that reminds us not to say “No” for other people, and I auditioned and have been accepted into a West African dance company called Kotchegna. In leaving *****, I will be able to devote myself to training, auditioning, and performing with this and other groups. Your words and support pushed me to pursue a dream I had all but swallowed away.

Thank you.
Rachel

Rachel and her dance company are crowd-funding their show on Indiegogo. Would you please take a look at this page and consider helping them launch this dream?

Behind the Scenes at STORY with Welby Altidor

My good friend Ashton Owens hosted Welby Altidor, the executive creative director of creation at Cirque Du Soleil... and shot these incredible behind-the-scenes photos of him at STORY.

Our emcee David Wenzel catching up with Welby before he introduced him.

Affixing the microphone backstage.

Consulting with Sherri Meyer, our amazing line producer.

On stage at the event.

Welby asked us the day before the event what he should talk about. =)

Meet and greet with some of our STORY attendees after his main stage talk.

We booked Welby through a speaker's bureau. When we first invited him through his agent, he said no. But I found his email address by trying various combinations of his name  at @cirque. One got through. I shared my heart and more about STORY, expressed how much we'd love to have him... and he said yes.

Look Better than You Are, Not Better than Others

I've gone back and forth so many times about writing this post because I didn't want to offend anyone. But I can't bottle this up anymore...

If you're using an executive assistant - unless you're famous or incompentent - they're meant to be ENDO-skeletal in their support to you, not EXO-skeletal.

In other words, they're meant to support you behind the scenes... not become your dumping ground for relationships. I can't tell you how many times someone has handed me off to an assistant to schedule an appointment, when all it required was one glance at a Google calendar and a few pecks on the keyboard.

Couple of things going on here:

1. You're communicating: "This conversation just went below me. I'm going to hand you off now." or worse... "I have no idea how to use an online calendar."

2. Is it a status thing? You've made it by hiring a $300 a month assistant? You look like those guys who put spoilers and rims on a Honda Accord.

3. What's with these calendars out there that are swarming with so many crazy appointments that you can't possibly find the clarity in them?

4. If you're handing me off, you're basically saying my time is less valuable than yours. Friends don't hand off friends. So when you do, I know where we stand. As a result, my relationship with you just changed as well. And it ain't good.

5. No one else can convey the sincerity, the history, or the value you bring to a relationship. When you check out, it degrades the relationship.

Virtual assistants are meant to help you look better than you are. Not better than other people. It's meant to be like those "people movers" at the airport, where you appear to be walking faster, but clearly, there's another force at work.

I interact with a lot of busy people in my work for STORY - film directors, notable authors, creative directors, philanthropists, business owners. And sometimes I see an assistant's name in the cc line. But the relationship is never handed off. There's a mutual respect. Or at least I'm made to feel respected. And valued.

Rather than saying, "Let me have Louise schedule something with you?" ... why not blind carbon copy Louise, have her schedule something, and then give you the dates to pass along? Keep Louise in the background.

No one wants to talk to Louise.

Photo Recap of Dream Year Pitch Nights

I've gotta be the luckiest guy on the planet. Who gets to launch a book by visiting 11 cities in four weeks? Don't get me wrong - I hated leaving my family, but we decided it was worth the investment. People forget that "real relationships" were the original social media. I'll take a real-life conversation. Every time.

Last spring, I invited the friends on my mailing list to consider hosting a Pitch Night in their city when the book came out. It would allow people to engage with the message by sharing their own dreams... but also pre-sell books.

Twenty people responded.
Sixteen cities went for it.
Eleven cities made the cut.

Half of each audience didn't even know who I was until the night of the event. But it didn't matter. It required a book purchase to attend. Average attendance was around 150 people. And the publisher graciously paid for the tour.

I scheduled Pitch Nights in regions in order to keep the travel schedule sane. I jumped from city to city each day, spending only one night near the airport, so I could fly out early the next morning. I never rented a car. To stay disciplined, I worked out in the hotel fitness centers, ate mostly salads, and read on the plane.

NEW YORK CITY

New York was the first event, but it wasn't a "green-lit" city, so the crowd was smaller, around 30 people. (I just don't know very many people in New York). Also, the  coordinator Jess experienced a personal crisis the month of the event, so we didn't get off on our best foot. But I wanted to come to NYC so we did it anyway. The Pitch Night was held at the Brooklyn Brewery, but the crowd was too intimate to take photos. One day we'll give NYC another go. Next book. =)

NASHVILLE

Nashville was --how do they say-- bangin'. Great crowd. Cupcake truck. Live music. Cornhole in the lobby. And lots of wonderful pitches. The coordinator Tracee Persiko did an amazing job emceeing. She's like a young Ellen Degeneres. Milk-out-the-nose funny. Lots of wonderful friends in the crowd as well.

Those Nashville folks are a little calloused to the word "dream." It's been associated with their town for decades, and there's a palpable sense of jadedness. But I relished the role of reminding this crowd about the consequences of not dreaming - being cast as a minor character in the great story of someone else.

SEATTLE

Dan Cumberland, his wife Stacia (l), and friend Hannah (c) pulled off a killer pitch night at the Seattle School. It was the Ritz Carlton of pitch nights. Programs on the seats. Gourmet food in the greenroom. Beautiful presentations slides. Pitches like clockwork. I was actually nervous because of how well-run it was.

The Seattle audience was made up of a lot of Seattle School students and graduates, which made it an intellectual crowd. The pitches were mostly related to the field counseling and psychology, which was fascinating. This wasn't your typcial audience of dreamers - these were lots of "on-track" grad students who weren't about to leap out of anything. But it was an incredible event.

OMAHA

I could've sworn that Omaha would never get "green-lit" but Felicity White and Robert Murphy pulled it out. They wanted this event to happen. In fact, getting 100 people on board to "green light" the event was one of the three criteria for hosting one. The organizers who truly wanted the event... made it happen.

And yes, I wore blue V-neck Urban Outfitters tees for every single Pitch Night.

I loved the Omaha event. I mean, loved it. The event was held in a beautiful little coffee house / concert venue, so the place was packed. Cozy. Warm. Inviting. The pitches were great. The music was lively. And I've never signed so many books in one place. It caught me off guard, honestly. They were truly gracious people.

OKLAHOMA CITY

I knew OKC was going to be a killer event when they hit their 100-people minimum in just 8 days. This was our largest event with nearly 200 people in attendance. The pitches were beauuutiful. Every pitch night had its own vibe, and OKC's vibe was love for their city. Lots of city-based causes represented. Ben Nockels who organized the event, is such an influencer in this town.

Now something even better is happening -- the attendees are rallying to host another Dream Year pitch night to keep the movement going. (I actually have a sub-dream that these pitch nights will become annual events.)

{SIDENOTE: iTUNES AND AMAZON}

A fun sidenote -- the top three airport book chains made Dream Year a featured book in all of their stores during the month of August. And both Amazon and iTunes named the book one of the 20 best nonfiction books during the month of August.

INDIANAPOLIS

Indianapolis' Pitch Night was held in a historic downtown meeting hall. This was an incredibly entrepreneurial crowd, and there was prize money to be won. Some crowds are warmer than others (now I can relate to how touring indie bands and comedians might feel), and this crowd was a bit apprehensive. I think it's because most attendees had no idea what this event was really about until it was over... and then they loved it! But the coordinator Mike Rowell did an amazing job.

 MINNEAPOLIS

I love visiting Minneapolis every chance I get. Coordinator Pat Laeger did an incredible job pulling off Pitch Night. An American Idol finalist kicked off the night with music. The pitches were fascinating - lots of artists in this group. And this crowd loved to laugh and celebrate the presenters. I have a ton of dear friends in the Twin Cities - I got to see one of my dearest friends from over 9 years ago. Plus, I'm a huge Garrison Keillor fan, so these are my people. =)

GRAND RAPIDS

Grand Rapids was an extraordinary event. The coordinator Lisa Anderson kept saying she wasn't an event organizer, but she fooled me. She got sponsors on board, free beverages, and a spread of food for the attendees. The event was held in a co-working space, which was a perfect venue. The place was packed. The pitches were tear-inducingly powerful. There was even a standing ovation.

My good friend David Wenzel was the relational glue that brought so many organizations together. Start Garden, Boxed Water, and some other groups banded together to make it a success. On top of this, I got to stay in a bed and breakfast in Grand Rapids' historic district, which was sinfully delightful.

{SIDENOTE: THE FLIGHTS}

(With over 32 flights, so many things could have gone wrong. One missed flight could've destroyed a pitch night. But by the second city, I could tell there was some serious favor on my travel. Gate agents would upgrade me for no reason. When a delayed flight threatened to leave me stranded overnight, an agent broke a rule and got me on an oversold flight... as it was boarding. It was so obvious I was being "helped" that I lost all fear of mishap. Whenever a problem arose, I just watched and waited for the intervention.)

DENVER

I arranged to bring my entire family to the Denver Pitch Night because there was a direct, four-hour flight from Virginia Beach, And Ainsley and I really wanted to take our kids to a Young Life Family Camp at Trail West in Buena Vista. Turned out to be one of the best weeks of our lives. (After Annie got off the plane =)

Here's the Dream Year pitch night team (l-r) - Kelly Reece (organizer), Shelly Rollison (musician), Kayti Christian (superstar), and Jeff Wright (ambassador). Love these people. I almost want to leave the beach and move to Colorado just to be closer to them. We spent an evening at dinner, in the Tattered Cover Book Shop, and then trying to get into a Colorado Rockies baseball game at 11 PM.

Denver wasn't a "greenlit" city, but this team rallied the troops and pulled off an amazing event. The pitch night was held in a really hip marketing agency with rolled-up garage doors. The pitches were all very artistic and spiritual - much different than the other nights. But I absolutely loved it.

This is the first event where I spoke at the end of the night, rather than the beginning, and realized I should have been doing that the whole time.

After Denver's pitch night, my family spent a day at the Denver Zoo and then drove two hours southwest to Buena Vista, Colorado where Young Life's Trail West camp is located. I won't go into details on how great this experience was for us, but we are never the same. My family is braver, stronger, and more close-knit.

CLEVELAND

Cleveland needed Dream Year, I could tell. This is a city that's been bruised and battered, but the people are so full of hope and strength. My friends Joy Trachsel and Kevin Rush organized the evening in an old cathedral near downtown. The pitches were great. But when I started sharing the message of the book, this crowd came alive. They were like sponges soaking up every principle. Lots of laughter, head nodding, and shouts! Everyone walked out the door on a high.

LEESBURG, VA

I lived in northern Virginia for seven years, so this trip was a little bitter-sweet. I didn't really want to go back because of some scars... but it turned out to be such an incredible experience. My friend Drew Clyde hosted the event in the Tally Ho Theater in downtown, historic Leesburg. The presenters were diverse and fun and well-spoken. Drew did an amazing job building community at the event.

I spent the next day visiting Middleburg, Virginia which is the setting of a novel I'm writing this October to December (after STORY) and then wandered through the towns of Brambleton and Reston where Ainsley and I lived, where our first two kids were born, and where some dreams were birthed. It was therapeutic.

I had such a great time meeting so many wonderful people across the country and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. I wish this was my full time job. =) If you purchased a book or attended a pitch night, I'm grateful to you.

Someone once said that no one can be successful unless a whole lot of people want them to be. And I'm eternally indebted to you for letting me experience just a tiny, little modicum of success this month. Now back to STORY. I've neglected it for too long, and we've got 30 days until the event.

If you'd like hear more information about a Dream Year cohort I'm starting in October, shoot me an email at [email protected]. I'll send you information. I'm looking for 12 people who want to do something audacious. It'll be group-based, run for 6 months, and turn into actual, executed ideas at the highest levels.

The New Rules of Work

1. People enjoy work. Under the right circumstances.
    You don't have to whip them to motivate them.

2. People are better as specialists at multiple companies
    than generalists at one company.

3. Work environments are no longer centralized.
    Online collaborative tools are making offices extinct.

4. Clients are the new bosses. They're the ones who say...
    you get to do work.

5. Management is now team building not rule keeping.
    We are becoming a society of independent makers
    who each get called to be a part of projects

6. Teams are interchangeable. You no longer have to work with
    people you don't like.

7. Success is adaptability, not consistency for long periods of time.
    The product and the process are no longer permanent.

8. Tenure means nothing anymore. Ideas rule.

9. Competition has been replaced by disruption.
    Not doing the same thing better, but doing a better thing.

10. There are no longer "product businesses" and "service businesses"
       There are "everything businesses"

Your Friends on the Periphery

One of the surprising things about pursuing a dream is seeing who doesn't turn out to support you.

In nearly every one of my coaching sessions with Dream Year participants, I have to warn them about failed expectations from their closest real-life friends.

Unfortunately, they're just not the ones who are going to buy your thing, fund your kickstarter, support your craft, or contribute to your cause. Sometimes they do, but most times they don't.

There is no honor in one's own country.

Isn't this the carpenter's son?
Can anything good come from Nazareth?
Aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

They don't exactly see greatness in you because they don't see greatness in themselves. You are one of them, after all.

Your attempt to do something better with your life upsets the social ecosystem that has been in place for decades. If you're not content with your circumstances, then what are you saying about theirs?

Dreaming is an indictment on the way things are.
And on the way your friends are living their lives.
"You think you're betta than me?"

This realization often leads to discouragement. You begin to wonder if they were really ever friends in the first place.

The answer is yes.

Yes, of course, they are your good friends. "But you are not doing this for them," I tell them. "You are doing this for everyone else."

Even more suprising than finding out who doesn't support you is seeing who actually does. It's often your secondary and tertiary friends who turn up to help.

They're the friends of friends. The ones orbiting your life but not necessarily in it all the time. You run into them at parties and at the grocery store and wish you could see more of them, but circumstances just haven't allowed it. They're the ones who peek at your life from behind the veil of social media. The ones who surprise with you a 'like' or a contribution from out of nowhere.

I didn't even know they LIKED me! you think.

They're far enough removed to overlook how ordinary you are, but close enough to admire what you're doing. And when it's time to make that ultimate push toward the completion of your dream, they're the ones charging the hill with you.

Later, you'll tell your real-life friends about it and hope they'll suddenly realize what they're missing. But most likely, they'll mutter a bemused "cool story, bro" and go back to keeping you grounded.

And that's okay.

Every dream requires "persons of peace" to help bring it to life. And 99.9% of the time, your real-life friends aren't the ones. You'll meet the right people.

So shake the dust.

And get outside of your own neighborhood.

-----------

Hey, I'm trying to "thunderclap" an announcement on Twitter about the new Dream Year book on August 5th. In other words, if we can get 250 people to "donate a tweet" about the book, we have the potential to have a "social reach" of hundreds of thousands of people!

Right now, we have 8 days to find 131 more people to donate a tweet. If we don't hit the goal, it won't happen! But we're soo close. Would you be a part of it? If so, just sign-up at this site and help us announce the book in one thunderous voice. 

Write the Rules, Then Be Creative

STORY isn't built off the backs of an existing production team or facility. Everything we do rises from the venue like a phoenix in the desert. One very expensive phoenix. But our biggest advantage is our limitations.

I can't imagine what it would be like to have an unlimited production budget... or speaker budget... or creative budget. I wouldn't even know what to do with that.

And yet we attract a who's who of creative influencers across the country because we're breaking new ground with this principle of restraint...

First, write the rules. Then be creative.

In other words, we create the "toolbox" before we create the programming elements. We decide what production capabilities we'll have before we create anything. This creates limitations, but also new, unforseen possibilities.

Last year, when I walked into the Chicago cathedral, I immediately made a rule that we wouldn't use video screens. Instead, we'd use the cathedral's vaulted ceilings as a projection surface. Showing videos wasn't an option, but it was the perfect space to create mouth-dropping environmental projection.

Our creators are like unbridled stallions. I have to work really hard to keep them from turning everything up to "eleven." The prevailing form of event production is the currently touring rock show. So ours is not.

They go Coldplay. So we go Broadway.

Hear me out on this. It takes guts to give yourself restraints. But when it works, it's powerful. And you'll be found not copying culture, but creating it.

Someone Paid The Toll

In every success story, someone undertook the hardship, paid the price, and bore the burden to achieve something great. Sometimes it was paid by the person himself. But most times, it came from someone before them.

President John F Kennedy seems like the starting point of a famous family lineage. But historians are quick to point out that his father Joseph was the true political trailblazer... the patriarch of a dynasty.

But by the time grandfather Joseph was born, the Kennedy family had already achieved tremendous influence. This came from the great, great grandfather P.J. Kennedy who became a powerful political operative in Boston.

But to find out who paid the toll, you have to go back even further.

P.J. was the son of a poor barrel-maker named Patrick who arrived in east Boston in the late 1840s. He survived a "coffin ship" across the Atlantic in order to escape the depression and famine in Ireland.

Patrick was the first to pay the toll.

But he wasn't the only one. Patrick died in 1858 at the age of 35 from working so hard that he weakened his immune system and fell victim to one of the immigrant diseases. He left $7 in his bank account for his young wife Bridget.

It was Bridget who began washing the clothes and cleaning the houses of other people. She saved up enough money to open her own "notions" shop and bakery. She worked hard enough to send P.J. to a nice school in Boston and show him the world of self-employment.

In turn, P.J. purchased ownership in bars, and parlayed his business success to run the Democratic preccint office... thanks to his mother.

It was Bridget who overcame poverty and fought hard to set a new course for her family. She died in 1888 with $2,200 in assets.

Bridget.

Bridget Kennedy paid the toll.

The Unfair Deal

This new "maker society" that's emerging is forcing artists to become knowledgeable business owners as well. And it's causing a lot of them to cry "foul!" whenever they find themselves in a raw deal.

Designers, for example, are notorious for decrying the low pay or no pay that accompanies their craft. They're angry about it, in fact. And I love designers.

But here's a little business lesson for the independent makers who are trying to make their way in the land of buying and selling...

In business, the deal that you can get is the deal that you can get.

Let me explain.

There are no rules in business. Sure, the governments tries to limit monopolies. It regulates minimum wage. You can't cheat the stock exchange. You have to pay taxes. And you're not allowed to launder money or steal from people.

But you are allowed to charge whatever people will pay for something. And by contrast, you are allowed to pay people whatever they accept to be paid.

That $4 pastry at Panera did NOT cost them $4 to make. Your iPhone didn't come anywhere close to $500 in costs. And your attorney probably drives an Audi because he charges you in excess of his actual costs. You agreed to pay an "unfair" amount because of the emotional need it satisfied.

The best way not to be under-paid or not-paid is to not agree to the deal in the first place. You have that right.

If we were "successful" designers, photographers, filmmakers, writers, or artists, it's because we were able to charge in excess of what our actual time is worth. This is, by its very definition, an "unfair" deal. But that's the way the economy works. People trade their money for their perceived desires.

Whenever I find myself in "unfair" deals, I complete the work with gusto and vow (to myself) never to do the same deal again. But I don't hold it against the other person. They got the deal they could get. And I could too.