Instigator Blog

What Did You Learn in 2006?

Answer that question on your blog. Link back here and email me directly (so I know!)

And you’ll be included in the growing list of submissions to this group writing project.

The response has been awesome. We’ve collected $260 for charity so far. My goal was $300.

The deadline is today! Of course it’s Xmas Eve, but there may be a few of you out there that still sneak your lessons learned posts online. (And, if you’re a day or two late, I’ll forgive you, promise. But get in touch so I know you’re writing something!)

With that in mind, this could be the last batch. We’ll see. Six great posts with some wonderful lessons learned, a good amount of humor and entertainment to boot. Enjoy.

• Kirsten Harrell learned that bloggers are awesome! Hard to disagree with that.
• Karen lists 3 things she’s learned in 2006. I envy her ability to not dwell on mean people, and completely agree with her notion of living for now.
• Jim Estill has a handful of things he’s learned this year including a great lesson, “successful people do tough things.” Yup, sacrifice, make tough decisions, step out onto a road with blazing traffic (don’t do that last one.)
• Jonathan Karpfen puts a bit of a twist on the group writing project. He’s collected a “best of” list from his peers at Airborne Entertainment. There’s certainly an eclectic mix of lessons learned. Amanda learned that chicken needs to be refrigerated, while Aron learned the importance of communication. From reading Jonathan’s post I learned that Airborne Entertainment is…an interesting place.
• Miriam Schwab learned the importance of diversifying your marketing strategy. With the accessibility and relative low cost of some marketing efforts like blogging, etc. this makes complete sense.
• Greg Balanko-Dickson presents What I Learned in 2006. Greg takes an interesting approach to his blog post; giving us his lessons learned on a monthly basis!

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Submissions to the Group Writing Project keep coming. We’re asking people to tell us what they learned in 2006. In return, I’m donating $5 to charity per post and giving away some great prizes.

The writing project is ending December 24th…so there’s some time to get your post in. My goal was $300 … we’re very close!

The prizes include:

• Phil Gerbyshak’s book 10 Ways to Make It Great! (two signed copies!)
• The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living by Randy Komisar (recommended by Austin Hill)
• What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Ted Demopoulos
• Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra (recommended by Jim Kukral)
• Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle has donated his book, Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing: 57 Word of Mouth Marketing Challenges for the Entire Workforce.

Prizes will be given away randomly next week once all the submissions are in.

In the meantime here are 5 more submissions to the writing project:

• Terry presents 1 Big and 12 Little Things I Learned From Blogging This Year. Terry’s big lesson is that he’s accelerated his own learning through blogging, which many people may overlook as a benefit.
• Emmanuel Oluwatosin has learned a number of valuable lessons as an entrepreneur including how much courage is needed to finish a project and how to handle failure.
• Shawn Hessinger is back with more lessons learned. Take a look at Bootstrapping is where it’s at, Perfect is the enemy of good enough and Roll with the punches.
• David Lambert has a couple of hard lessons learned this year. David watched the company he worked for close its doors. He learned what that’s like, and what it’s like to be searching for a job. He found one!
• Cody McKibben presents 5 Things 2006 Has Taught Me. I love Cody’s first lesson learned — “I need a muse.”

Thank you to everyone who has participated and promoted this effort. It’s been a blast!

Time for another set of 5 posts by some great bloggers who’ve answered the question, “What did I learn this year?”

Thanks to these 5 submissions, $25 will be going to charity. We’re at $250 so far! Thank you to everyone who has participated!

And there’s still time. The last day I’ll accept submissions is December 24th, so feel free to write a post on your blog about what you learned in 2006 and let me know. It’s important that you email me because I might not see the trackback (and some blogs don’t send trackbacks.) I’ve found a few posts by doing some digging around on my own…

OK, enough of that — check out these posts:

• Chris Cree submits his life lessons from 2006, which include, “I learned that doing the right thing for the wrong reason isn’t a good idea.”
• TopLawStudent tells us about what he’s learned at law school. Law school isn’t in my future but anyone that’s in it or planning to get into law should probably read this blog.
• Anastasia Pryanikova has some lessons from the crib. Anastasia lists some great lessons that she’s learning from her young daughter.
• Dr. Ellen Weber presents 10 Keys I Learned in 2006 that Change What I’ll Do in 2007. Dr. Weber’s all about the brain, and since we all have one (right?) her lessons are quite interesting. My personal favorite (which harks me back to my university days), “Lectures work against the brain.”
• Robyn McMaster (Dr. Weber’s colleague!) brings us lessons learned from nature. Robyn’s observations are fun and lighthearted, and we can all use a little fun in our lives.

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With a couple of days remaining on the group writing project I’ve still got quite a few submissions to publicize.

My original goal was 50 submissions for a total of $300. Including my own posts (I believe I’ve written 3 or 4 for the project) we’re now at $210. Not bad! We’re getting there!

Feel free to write more submissions, contact friends, spread the word, and help me reach my goal. It’ll mean $300 (or more!) to charity and lots of warm and fuzzy feelings all around.

In the meantime, here are 5 more submissions:

• Whitney Hoffman learned that turning 40 isn’t so bad. More than that, Whitney’s learned to care less about what other people think, a good lesson for all of us.
• Renee wants to write an ebook on how many things she learned, but she focuses on just one for this group writing project — the beauty of networking.
• Sashidhar Kokku has 15 things he’s learned this year. Some are professional others are extremely personal. Bravo for putting it all on the table Sashidhar.
• Rick Cockrum lists 4 things he’s learned this year. Rick always gets to the heart of the matter, and his lessons learned are no different. (I particularly like #2.)
• Tony D. Clark tackles some little things he’s learned this year. He starts his post off with a bang, “If you’re not learnin’, you’re dyin’.” Oh, and he created the awesome graphic on this post. He’s a great cartoonist.

To join this group writing project, all you need to do is:

1. Write a post on your site that answers the question, “What Did You Learn in 2006?”
2. Link it back to Instigator Blog and email me about it.

Simple as that! The graphic used in this post should not be reused without Tony D. Clark’s permission but you’ll find a graphic you can use on other posts. Here’s a good example.

There are some obvious measures of success:

• fame
• fortune
• power
• groupies

And I certainly wouldn’t throw a stick at any of those, but there’s more to success than that. When it comes to blogging, some will say “success in blogging is tied to your influence.” Influence is a form of power. And although there’s no perfect way of measuring influence, when it comes to blogging things like readership, feed subscribers, comments, trackbacks, etc. do indicate influence.

More important than influence, and outside the realm of the blogging world, I want to measure success by the amount of opportunity I create for others.

Why would creating opportunities for others be a measure of success?

1. What you give, you get in return.
2. You learn a ton about social networks and the power of communities.
3. Helping is an active process, not passive. Success is active; you have to go out and get it, not sit back and wait for it to come.
4. Creatively, you’ll be bursting at the seams.
5. New opportunities will arise for your own projects and businesses.
6. It feels good, and success should feel good.

I’m not rich, powerful or famous, and there are no groupies tracking my every move.

But in the last few months I’ve worked on helping others with their projects and ideas. I’ve made it clear I’m open to helping and creating opportunities for others through my growing network of contacts, business experience, etc. My efforts have already been returned in kind, and I have no doubt good things are on the horizon. I’ve learned an immense amount, and interacted with some amazing people. And business-wise I’ve got my hands in more projects now than ever!

Creating opportunities for others is easier than you realize and it should be a huge part of anyone’s success.

This post is part of my Group Writing Project, answering the question, “What I Learned in 2006?” You can participate too! Until Sunday, December 24th, write a post answering that question. Link back to Instigator Blog and let me know. I’ll donate $5 to charity and you can win some great prizes.

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