Here is a re-post of a story I wrote over 2 years ago on a personal blog. I had just discovered This American Life and this story came out of some online study I had done. I thought I would share it here as I think it will be useful to you. Just reading what I wrote two years ago I’m kind of laughing to myself.

Well, I love radio story telling so I went and did a youtube search for Ira Glass. Now, why I went to youtube to find out something about a radio guy is beyond me but I’m glad I did. I found this really good video of him talking about story telling and how they find good stories and how hard it is to find good stories. Let me share his video with you and then comment on it.  Pay special attention for his commentary from the 1:45 point and on.

Ira talks about being able to kill something that is not going to live up to the standards they have set for their show.  He says that all radio productions are trying to become crap and without failure there is no chance for success.

After hearing him say this I felt an instant connection with him.  He’s a small business guy too.  If you own a business with less than 500 employees then you are considered small business.

I believe that everything wants to become crap.  Without constant work and attention to everything my business wants to become crap.  Without a daily walk with God my faith wants to become crap.  Without care and upkeep my home wants to become crap.  Without working on my marriage it wants to become crap.

It’s human nature to want something for nothing.  It’s hard for us to not do nothing and hope for positive results.  When we do nothing things become crap.  If I ignore my marriage it will become crap.  If I ignore my spiritual walk it will become crap.  If I ignore any area of my business it will become crap.

Ira believes that by fighting against crap you will get lucky.  This is the only thing he says that I’d have to disagree with.  I don’t believe in luck of any kind.  Isn’t there a quote that says luck is opportunity meets preparation?  I don’t believe that hard work produces luck or increases your chances to receive luck.  I think luck is for the faithless.  Luck is for those who spend $1 a week hoping the lottery will save them from financial doom.  Luck is for those who believe life is the spin of the wheel of fortune.  We don’t do luck at my business, we do hard work and preparation and then look for opportunity.

I think we can learn something from Ira that is applicable in our personal and professional lives.  Fight the crap!  See it coming and kill it, even if it is your idea and you can tell it’s crap.  It’s ok to admit to your failures.  If you fail then it means you were willing to take a chance.  It means you weren’t willing to just stand on the sidelines and hope things would work out in your favor.

Kill the crap and learn from it!

Related posts: