FreshNerd

The realest, most true, most beautifulest post I’ve ever read from any blog. I really thought I was alone when it came to the LA promise. Derek Sivers nailed it (pause):

When I lived in Los Angeles, I noticed they have a strange speaking pattern.

Everyone speaks in future tense. (Or, more specifically, present-tense inaction, future-tense action.)

“This guy from EMI is interested and going to be presenting it to the VP.”

“We’re in talks to do a pilot for the fall.”

“I’m getting ready to work on some new material with a writer from Friends.”

Of course these are the things some people have to tell themselves to be hopeful when facing another day of challenges.

But of course nothing materializes. You never hear it mentioned again, and you politely don’t ask. (Surprising circumstances always foiled the certain event.)

I felt like wearing a t-shirt that says, “TELL ME WHEN IT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING.”

So now when I hear a future-tense sentence, my ears shut down. I’ll say “cool!” and hope it helps, but I don’t believe a word.

Try noticing this in yourself and others for a week. Are you speaking more in future tense or present tense? Are they?

- Derek Sivers

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#3 and #4 is the most important in my opinion…

If you steal my money I don’t have that money anymore.  If you copy my music I still have it, and so does everyone else who has it.  No one loses anything, the supply of copies just increases. – Peter Jenner

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–which is:
Try to please everybody.
Herbert Bayard Swope

Former club bouncer and Los Angeles native Estevan Oriol got his start in the entertainment business managing tours for huge artists like “House of Pain” and “Cypress Hill” almost 20 years ago. While globe trotting with them he began his photography career taking flicks of the madness and glitter that surrounds international celebrities. When he was back home in L.A though, it was a much different story. He took his cues from the street life surrounding him. The singular dramatic black and white photos he produces are gripping, beautiful, and authentically menacing portraits of individuals fully immersed in L.A gang lifestyle. Blessed with a talented eye and a hood pass, he takes pictures in places armed with a camera where most tough guys would take a weapon. Offered for the first time to the public for free, in this exclusive interview from The Run Up, Estevan Oriol expresses his thoughts, methods, and views on approaching everyday with the hunger of a hustler who doesn’t know where his next meal will come from.

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Not sure how I missed this, but here it is. Aspiring artists please pay close attention…everything ain’t always what it seems. Props to Q-Tip for being a true artist.

Spotted over at Friends We Love, Posterboy speaks about the inspiration behind his work, speaking through artistic expression, and the future of Posterboy.

Click inside to see some of Posterboy’s work…
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This is by far one of my favorite vlogs from Jay over at Illdoctrine.
This video is a mandatory must see for anybody who is ambitious (or awake as I call it). Watch this once a day if you have to….I do (??).

1. Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly. Throw yourself into the experiencing of something: concentrate on it fully, let it totally absorb you
2. Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth): Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.
3. Let the self emerge. Try to shut out the external clues as to what you should think, feel, say, and so on, and let your experience enable you to say what you truly feel.
4. When in doubt, be honest. If you look into yourself and are honest, you will also take responsibility. Taking responsibility is self-actualizing.
5. Listen to your own tastes. Be prepared to be unpopular.
6. Use your intelligence, work to do well the things you want to do, no matter how insignificant they seem to be.
7. Make peak experiencing more likely: get rid of illusions and false notions. Learn what you are good at and what your potentialities are not.
8. Find out who you are, what you are, what you like and don’t like, what is good and what is bad for you, where you are going, what your mission is. Opening yourself up to yourself in this way means identifying defenses – and then finding the courage to give them up.

Ok, check out my dude Maleonn from Shanghai. He’s a photographer that dropped everything (day job/financial security) to chase his dream (yea!). Be sure to read his inspirational interview over at Scoute. And dont forget to go into work tomorrow and quit (I am not responsible for anything that happens after that).

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