Category Archives: Thought for the day

Borrow a brain or two

By DavidSCohen | Published: October 20, 2007

Today a friend and I had an exhilarating and stimulating afternoon helping another friend rethink his business plan.  When we were done with that, we turned the focus on a presentation that I am putting together for a client.  We ate pizza.  We talked. We argued. We laughed.  And we got a lot of work done — good work.  Almost certainly better work than if we hadn’t spent the time together.

Don’t get me wrong,  I don’t think every task needs to be a group project, and often we do our best work alone, but sometimes you need to get a fresh set of eyes, or a sounding board to bounce your ideas off of.  There is nothing like borrowing a few extra brains when you need to look at a problem that’s got you stuck or are making serious strategy decisions.  The key is to find folks that you respect and trust.

Whether you call it a think tank or a mastermind group or a brainstorming club, you’ll find that it can be an enormous help to your personal and business growth.   Pick people who are smart and who can bring a range of ideas and perspective to the table.  If the chemistry is right you’ll know because the egos will be in check and even if your new idea is getting dissected before your eyes you’ll know it is being done  out of  care for you and your success.  And don’t forget, it is not all about you — everyone gets a turn and everybody benefits.  You may find that you really enjoy sharing your wisdom and helping your friends in the way they’ve helped you. You also may find that your saw is a little sharper for the effort.

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Have a nice day 2.0

By DavidSCohen | Published: August 27, 2007

A friend of mine has taken to closing his email with statements like “I’m having a great day, because I chose that.” or “Have the day you choose.” At first it struck me as a little bit of a heavy dip into the self-help genre, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  I know for myself there have been times when how I chose to react to an event or obstacle made a huge difference in the eventual outcome.  My friend’s email salutation helps remind the folks that he interacts with that choosing to take a positive view and to separate stimuli from disposition are habits that we can learn and practice.  The more people who put the habit into practice, the better the world becomes.  It’s a prosumerist’s “Have a nice day”.   And it just might be viral: today my morning status update on Facebook was “David Cohen is choosing to have a great day”, and it may seem corny, but I have to say that typing it in and hitting submit felt pretty darn good.  Now here’s the tricky bit – a few moments ago, I had a lousy phone call, and learned some disappointing news.  Instead of sulking I decided to write this post, and in doing so I got back into that positive mindset that I felt when I wrote that status update this morning.  My great day is back on track – because I chose that. Pass it on.

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Thought for (the end of) the day

By DavidSCohen | Published: May 7, 2007

To quote John Maeda (who may well have been quoting someone else), “At the end of the day, there is an end of the day.”

I just love that phrase.  It reminds me that time keeps moving no matter what we do, no matter how we might protest, so you should value your time and use it wisely. It also makes me think that the many trials and adversities we may face will also pass.  We build our lives, reach our goals, survive our struggles, and create our legacies one day at a time. Of course here at Propel Creative we like to say, “At the end of the day there is Krog”.  Naturally, we get some funny looks.

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