The Business Of Making Lemonade

couldn’t help google image searching pumpkins. couldn’t.

Is anybody there?

Is there such a thing as the next big thing?

It is semi impossible to imagine anything being big anymore.

Like all the big ideas have been taken up. That can’t be true.

But what about for the ideas that don’t involve the ability to manufacture cars or create online social networks?

A former-nyc-er like myself once said - it’s good to get out of NYC because in it, there’s no big fishes, there’s no big ponds - it’s all a drowning pool of 15 minutes of fame. Where you come up with your life’s work (at the moment) you work so so so hard, and then it is submerged under your housemates’ staggering genius, and the guy down the hall, and the woman in the Bronx, and and…

But with the onslaught of blogging, and making it to the top list of what blogs are featured by other blogs that blog about blogs… and Celebrities start endorsing your cereal and milk combinations and family photos, you’ve made it?

But it’s no longer the point of the journalist - you don’t write one thing and then get your hefty check, then a bunch of recognition and reference once published. It’s now the era of the every journalist, the every diary-est, the every realist, the every, everyone. 

I thought once before that the lemonade in the situation is to emphasize the individual, the family aspects - but that’s everyone. So you make Facebook, an etsy, a wordpress, facebook, and are on top.

Has everything become one swirly mass vortex of New York?

in tribute

Please take a moment today to remember Brandie Bailey. Taken prematurely from this world 5 years ago today. 21, selfless, genuine, and truly one of the most outstanding, in every way possible, humans who lived.

5 years ago and still not a day has gone by without thinking of her. How she would be so thoroughly enjoy every step of her life. And dreaming up all the adventures, and exploring, and future planning and everything else best friends do.

The last thing she said to me before I departed on a surprise mothers’ day trip, 5 years ago, was “we’re in this together, you aren’t supposed to go without me.” I have wrestled with those words, she wasn’t supposed to go without me! But in happiness she has been with me every step of the way and I think she’s enjoyed the journey.

In sadness, these 5 years and still so much pain in the loss.
In silver linings, I can share who she was to the world and try and live in her honor.

I ask all my friends to take a moment today to do 3 things.

1. Do everything possible to create the safest situation while riding your bike. And ask your friends to do the same.

2. Extend genuine compassion and reach out to people who you might not otherwise. Those people who aren’t given the time of the day - that was Brandie’s gift and she was all the richer for it.

3. Tell your friends you love them.


——
All my friends, I love you.

Brandie, I miss you, so much.

6 Days in 1

To conceive that a human can be constantly running (on overdrive all 24 hours of every day) is a lovely thought. 

In practice it’s only performed by those influenced by drugs and the divine and those who are truly dedicated to the art of success. The art of masterfully taking care of business. 

In Place of Something Missing

The great void.

People fill it with:

religion - lovers -education - depression - work - retail therapy - anxiety - food - friends - meditation - fitness

What makes sense to us is what?

Not being alone, working harder, providing for our children, being more fit, making “a difference,” being educated, taking risks, being open?

I find that all business models I particularly look up to are the ones in which people create the perfectly shaped, sized, smelling, tasting, thinking, being piece to the puzzles in our lives. What can occupy our minds for those minuscule moments between work, play, kids, art, socializing, projects? What makes us look forward to what?

Our attentions are capsized by the overblown up rafts of culture, media, appearance, networks, details, roles, experience, poverty, and everything else. We are inundated.

Who has the power to captivate, control and motivate?

Those people who take in everything and produce the best of those void fillers.

April Showers… Bring Verdancy

Drinking tea, answering emails.
Wanting to make a greater impact here and in other places in my life.
Feeling the urge to do something bigger.

This should help.

My dad always said - an independent company that has seen 6 decades of change in the world, the economy, trends, politics - that’s the business of making lemonade.

My turn.