success

Cynicism Is Not a Strategy

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It's easy to be cynical – as I'm quite aware.  The economy is tough.  Industries are changing.  Society is altering.  There will probably be another "Transformers" movie.

It's easy to be cynical all the time.  It's fashionable, cool, and makes you look all deep and mature.

Cynicism also doesn't solve a damn thing.  You can be as worried as you want about the career economy, you can be fashionably cynical or really cynical, but here's the basic painful truth:

Cynicism is NOT a strategy.

Being cynical won't solve a problem.  It doesn't make things work better. It doesn't do anything.  At best it can be a shield or an indicator of problems – and that's it.  An alarm doesn't put out the fire, a shield doesn't defeat an enemy.

So ask yourself this – is cynicism something you treat as a strategy?  Is it so core to your identity, actions (or just sheer posing) that it's something you treat as vital, as part of your identity as something that is somehow going to yield results?

It's not.

Strategy is about planning, organizing, measuring, and achieving.  Being cynical doesn't do any of these things.

In fact the longer you remain cynical, the less you get done, and the more cynical you become.  Not a recipe for success.

– Steven Savage

Imagination And Success

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You're a fan.  You have imagination.  It's what led you to make the ultimate historical fantasy baseball team.  It's what let you make Steampunk Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart.  You are a person that gets into information, plays with it, and shares it.

That imagination is not a waste of time.  It is critical for your success.

I've come more and more to the conclusion that success – we're talking career here, but really in anything – is dependent partially upon having a good imagination.

If you can dream, you can solve problems.  If you can imagine, you can find new ideas.  If you can speculate, you can create.

If you have your imagination going, you also feel alive.  When your mind is able to come up with new ideas and have fun, you're enjoying what you do.

Imagination gives you the power to do.  Imagination also makes what you do fulfilling and enjoyable.

So cultivate your imagination.  Enjoy it.  Play with it.  Apply it.  Enjoy and indulge all those strange fannish, geeky activities from fanfic to fanart to web pages and more.  This keeps your imagination healthy and pumped and exercised.

Then, in your career (and indeed all your life) you have this active, powerful imagination to provide you new ideas.  To drive you.  To play with and enjoy all aspects of your life.

All those seemingly useless Role Play games and LOLArt?  That's exercise for the imagination.

Imagination is key to success.

– Steven Savage

Rebelling your way into total failure

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Thinking outside of the box, thinking different, doing things your way, finding your own vision, etc.  A lot of business advice and career advice I hear – and indeed preach – is about not necessarily following everyone else.

This of course is a valid point – most people's successes are individual, and you have to find the proper balance in your career of doing what works, and what works for YOU.

Unfortunately some people take "rebellion against the norm" a wee bit too seriously and manage to rebel themselves into complete and utter failure.

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