The Flinch

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 7, 2011 in Book, books, Business, encouragement, Interview, Productivity | 2 comments

I check Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Instagram before I role out of bed every morning. This morning there was something I hadn’t seen in a while … a status update from Chris Brogan. Chris wanted to let his Facebook friends and likers to know about a new book available to download for free called The Flinch.

A lot of people have an innate understanding of what it takes to succeed and they never do the work. Some people don’t do the work because they have family obligations, and they’re unwilling to take risks. Some people don’t do the work because of fear of failure (that’s one of my issues). Some people don’t do the work because they really just don’t want to do it.

Want to make money from blogging? Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog. Want to make money from photography? Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. I don’t make very much from this blog when I just post about how I’m feeling every once in awhile. The more I post about what I know and what I care about, ad revenue increases. It’s a simple principle: if you want to make money doing anything, it has to become your job … the thing you work hard doing every day. In short, stop flinching!

We’re flinching when we doubt we can do something. We’re flinching when the challenge seems overwhelming. We’re flinching when we’ve been hurt and don’t want to be hurt again. We’re flinching when we go to school and makes safe choices that go against the dreams about doing that thing we’ve always wanted to do.

The flinch is an important instinct when you come face-to-face with a rattlesnake, but it needs to be overcome when facing first world problems like having a critic who doesn’t like us. The Flinch, the book is about pushing through all the things that keep us from achieving dreams. I love this part:

“Somewhere in the world, a lion wakes up every morning not knowing what it’s going to eat. Every day, it finds food. The lion isn’t worried–it just does what it needs to do.

Somewhere else, in a zoo, a caged lion sits around every day and waits for a zookeeper. The lion is comfortable. It gets to relax. It’s not worried much, either.

Both of these animals are lions. Only one is a king.”

Inspired? I am! Get The Flinch for free and then fight to win!

Here’s Chris talking to Julian about The Flinch. Warning Julian cusses a lot!

Steve Jobs Reading List

Posted by Neal Campbell on Oct 22, 2011 in Apple, books, Steve Jobs | 0 comments

Monday, October 24, 2011, Walter Isaacson’s authorized Biography called Steve Jobs will be available. If you read it or don’t, the book offers a glimpse into writing that shaped Steve’s personal philosophy. This is a list of books and an article that Jobs says were important to him:

The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

“Secrets of the Little Blue Box”

King Lear (Penguin Shakespeare)

Moby Dick (Oxford World’s Classics)

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Autobiography of a Yogi

Be Here Now

Diet for a Small Planet (20th Anniversary Edition)

Mucusless Diet Healing System

Temple Grandin

Posted by Neal Campbell on Mar 21, 2010 in animals, books, dogs, DVDs, movies, People | 2 comments

My favorite people are, and have always been, animal people … people who deeply care about animals. The day I met my wife at church, I also met her mom and sisters. They told me about all their dogs, cats a rabbit and a pot belly pig. They had me at dogs.

Last night I was flipping through channels and landed on a biopic about a woman named Temple Grandin. Claire Danes played the leading role. I’ve loved Claire Danes since My So Called Life so I started watching even though the movie was already half over. Now I can’t wait to go back and see the whole thing.

From my perspective, movies hardly get any better than when they tell a real life story about a person who struggled through life to make a difference. Temple Grandin is now a Doctor of Animal Science and professor at Colorado State University. She also has autism.

Because of the way she was rased, she pushed through limited expectations to do something that changed the way we treat the animals we eat. Autism gave Grandin the gift of thinking different. As a grad student, she had to visit a stockyard where cows were being prepared for slaughter. She reacted to the stress the cows were going through and went to work figuring out how to alleviate the stress. She says, “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” She designed a system that not only got cows from stockyards to slaughter peacefully, it also saved money.

In addition to her work with animals, Temple Grandin is also an advocate for autistic children. She’s been able to explain to worried and confused parents of autistic kids what the kids are experiencing when they spin in circles, put their hands over their ears or rock back and forth.

I’ve never heard of Temple Grandin before last night so I figure I’m not alone. The movie I watched is in rotation on HBO, but if you care about animals, you might want to order it from Amazon. She wrote a book called, Thinking in Pictures, one called, The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s and another one called, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. I can’t wait to learn more.

Here is a video of Temple Grandin speaking at TED. Tech people need to see this!

5 Books I’m Reading on Kindle

Posted by Neal Campbell on Aug 10, 2008 in books | 1 comment

I love my Amazon Kindle more every day. One of the best things about it is that it makes it so easy to have several books on hand at any time. Kindle keeps the most recent book at the top of the list. My top five right now are:

1. When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
2. Spirit House by Christopher Moore (currently a free download)
3. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
4. Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney
5. The Family by Jeff Sharlet

I’m also reading two dead tree books. The HVX Book and Roadfood.

The 4 Books I’m Reading on My Kindle

Posted by Neal Campbell on Apr 8, 2008 in books | 2 comments

One of the best things about the Amazon Kindle is that it allows me to have several books with me at all times. Right now I’m reading four:

The E-Myth Revisited was recommended by my friend Paul Colligan. It’s about running a small business and the difference between the ones that succeed and the ones that fail.

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell is by my absolute favorite historian, Mark Kurlansky. He also wrote the epic, unbelievably compelling book, Salt: A World History. He takes a subject like Oysters or Salt and wraps history around it. Salt is a history of the world. Oysters is really a history of New York City.

The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs is the story of A. J., a secular Jew who decided to literally interpret and follow the rules in the Bible for a year. The book is often funny, often touching, and often deep.

One Red Paperclip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply, I’m in fund-raising mode for The Big Trip, so that’s gotten me interested in whacky Internet ideas that have worked for people. One Red Paper Clip is the infamous story of how one guy started with a Red paper clip and traded his way up to a house.

Top 5 Books (or series) I’d Like to Read on Kindle

Posted by Neal Campbell on Jan 29, 2008 in books | 0 comments

I love the Kindle more every day, but some of the books I like to read again and again aren’t yet available. Here’s a list of my top five:

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

2. Harry Potter (series)

3. Hermox Tantamoq Adventure (series) 

4. The Historian

5. Lolita