This is a rather belated Thanksgiving post, and also one that has been sitting in the draft folder for far too long.

On another note, I love Ben Casnocha! Simply because his writing is so interesting and he always puts forth a critical argument that allows you to view the world from a different perspective. I’ve been following his posts for a while now, and fully intend to continue.

So here is one of his gems, Make an Extraordinary Effort. It dawned on me that just making that effort makes all the difference in everything we do.

Making the effort, and being fueled by enthusiasm. One of the quotable quotes I remember from Troy Chin’s talk at our BSM class last year was that people could “smell” his enthusiasm for the music industry. How true. I do not know if it is by coincidence that Seth Godin also blogged about effort two days before Ben, but there you go, another person that is a good read, for an entirely different perspective on the same topic, all about the same time.

I wish I could say that I could go through life sustained on my own enthusiasm, maybe more so in the past, but hardly the case of late.
I draw a lot of motivation from the inspiring people around me. Sometimes, we may not even have similar mindsets, opinions, nor interests, but the fact that they are so driven, drives me too, during times that I feel like faltering. There is nothing more discouraging than being all fired up for a purpose, and then having your enthusiasm fall on deaf ears. I really really hate that.

The new recent Gladwell article on late bloomers and genius can be found here.
He says that, “The Cézannes of the world bloom late not as a result of some defect in character, or distraction, or lack of ambition, but because the kind of creativity that proceeds through trial and error necessarily takes a long time to come to fruition.”

For me, implicitly that suggests effort, because you have to keep doing it, keep making tweaks to make things work. That’s what trial and error means.

So, to the people around me, from all walks of life, who keep me going.
For all these years, for all these months.
For your gift of time.
And company.
And opinions.
And shoulders.
And love.

Thank you for making me who I am.
I keep trying, because.

Tags: thanksgiving, effort, seth godin, ben casnocha, troy chin, thanks,