2018: Day 132 the one where I read the book Crushing It
Dear Reader,
Today I ventured out to an actual Barnes & Noble bookstore. Sure somebody at the store had to help me find a hardcover copy of the new Gary Vaynerchuk book, “Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too.” We walked to the back left corner of the store and sure enough they had some copies of the book. I grabbed one and paid for it before heading out to watch a soccer game in the rain. Throughout the hour or so the game lasted I read the book. My evaluation system is pretty simple based on looking at the form, function, assumptions, and structure (FFSA) of the arguments being made. In this case, the argument is really disjointed by the inclusion of a series of testimonials. Some of the assides were interesting to read and a few of them were pithy and added some value. Most of them were just echoes of the original content. They were not really derivative or anything, but they were just an echo of the central message.
A lot of the content creators that entertain me on YouTube seem to really enjoy the words, speeches, and talks of Gary Vaynerchuk. The first time I ran into something from Gary was during an episode of the YouTube series “Hot Ones” hosted by Sean Evans. That was back on October 12, 2017 and it was an interesting episode within the series. I had to pretty much do some research to figure out why Sean Evans was talking to Gary. For those of you who have spent some time around me you know that I really do preach about the powers of staying positive and focusing in on finding that perfect possible future. My take on what I have ready so far from Gary is that we agree on being positive and pushing forward. The difference would be in the toolkit being deployed to push things forward and the degree of effort. I generally recognize that people have cycles of productivity and creativity. To do what Gary does and to really push a social media empire you have to be all in and always devoted to the cause. I’m always go and always pushing forward, but it is not with the same type of single minded purpose that Gary talks about.
Maybe that is something that I should spend some time pondering. My contributions are mostly written and are devoted to my efforts to help push society forward. Gary does seem to be onto something that resonates with people. Given the nature of the intersection of technology and modernity a certain degree of opportunity does exist right here and right now that has never existed before. Gary is describing how to use a increasingly powerful class of technology to help bring people together in a world where our attention is increasingly fragmented. Today I did not host a live stream on YouTube. That block of my time was spent reading Crushing It! The book overall was not a difficult read. I’m pretty sure that it is not intended to be a challenging read. Really figuring it out might take a few passes for folks that are trying to figure out the methodology and understand the differences in social media platforms and communication frameworks.
Dr. Nels Lindahl
Broomfield, Colorado
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