The best way to enjoy the game is to remember that it is one

What I love about inanimate objects is, they simply go with the flow. 

They seek out the shortest and easiest path, the one that positions them so the world does the work for them. 

It’s an approach humans could learn from. Because in those daily moments when the universe suddenly stops cooperating with us, when life doesn’t seem to follow the intentions of our inner algorithm, protesting and huffing and puffing and taking things personally doesn’t do us much good. 

Walking in a crowded city is the perfect example. Because you’re constantly moderating space in a random assortment of humanity. Endlessly navigating your way between pedestrians and delivery guys and street performers and angry construction workers and dogs wearing sweaters and screaming children riding scooters like maniacs. 

And so, if you have to step off the curb to walk in middle of the street for a block, you do it. 

It’s not something you debate or burn mental calories thinking about, it’s just the shortest and easiest path. You position yourself so the world does the heavy lifting for you. 

Instead of fighting the landscape, you just flow through it. You dance with the current, sliding smoothly and effortlessly around, riding the stream to wherever your destination might be. 

Frogger has finally become a reality. 

And as the zen master reminds us, the best way to enjoy the game is to remember that it is one. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Have you made peace with your own path? LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Giant rocks hundreds of thousands of miles away

Kaleidoscopes are magical objects. 



For five dollars, you can look through a plastic cylinder that contains a few mirrors and a dozen loose, colored objects, and witness beauty right before your eyes. 



In fact, the inventor of the kaleidoscope named it that because the word literally means the observation of beautiful forms. 



The only limitation, though, is that when you look into a kaleidoscope, you only see what’s inside of it. There’s zero perspective beyond your own line of sight. 



A telescope, on the other hand, allows you to see everything outside of it. For thousands of dollars, you can look into an big, clunky instrument that contains two convex lenses that bend the light to make things look like they’re closer than they appear. 



It may not be as cool and colorful and accessible as the kaleidoscope, but then again, you can see the moon. 



That’s why the inventor of the telescope named it that. The word literally means to see far. 



And so, here’s the question worth asking. 



Which instrument are you looking through most often? The cheap, sexy one that allows you to see beautiful things only within your own sphere? Or the expensive, clunky one that allows you see giant rocks hundreds of thousands of miles away? 



It all depends of what kind of vision you have, how much you’re willing to invest in seeing, and how welcoming you the ideas that are light years beyond your own bubble. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you kaleidoscopically forcing others to live by the lights of your worldview, or telescopically tearing yourself away from the safe harbor of conceptual certainty?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Creating too many chances to feel superior

I used to love waking up at the crack of dawn every morning. 

It made me feel heroic and powerful and successful and devoted. Like I was always one step ahead of the rest of the world. 

In fact, the only think I loved more than waking up early was bragging to other people about it. They would blink their eyes in amazement at my level of discipline. And feelings of superiority would wash over me like a soothing wave. 

But what I didn’t realize was that these feelings were slowly grating away at my psyche. Because I was becoming addicted to my feelings of superiority. Trapped in a vicious cycle of too much comparison and criticism, and too little compassion and contentment. 

Here’s how it would work. 

I would set unrealistically high standards for myself, like waking up at the crack of dawn every day, knowing that when I failed to meet them, I could beat myself up, thus reinforcing my feelings of supremacy associated with having my standards in the first place. 

No wonder I was hospitalized multiple times for stress related illnesses. 

Neff’s research on leaving insecurity behind explains this cycle perfectly. She says:

By taking the perspective of the one holding the whip as well as the one quivering on the ground, we are able to indulge in feelings of righteous indignation toward our own inadequacies. 

Too much comparison, too little compassion. 

The point is, there’s nothing wrong with waking up early and getting a jumpstart on your day. But be careful that you’re not creating too many chances to feel superior to others and, most of all, feel superior to those aspects of yourself that you judge. 

Because that’s one hard drug to kick. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Which are your feelings are you addicted to?



LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Honesty may be a virtue, but earnesty is a victory

When we’re
willing to be intentional and enthusiastic and sincere and thoughtful and most
of all, human, about the work we do,
it’s hard for people to turn it down. Or walk away. It’s just so damn unexpected. 

I’ve been wearing a nametag twenty four seven for the past seventeen years. And
not a day goes by without a complete stranger either asking me why I’m wearing
it, or simply saying hello as we cross paths. 

It never gets old. And what’s
fascinating about these encounters is, the moment I pause to look people in the
eye, smile and respond to them with an answer that’s nothing less than
completely earnest, their entire demeanor shifts. I can literally see their
face and body and energy change because of this brief interaction. 

Which
doesn’t make me a hero, just a human. 

But that, to me, is a victory. Especially
in a world that is growing increasingly disconnected, cynical and cold,
earnesty is always the best policy. It’s the one thing people don’t want to
admit they want from each other. 

Not authenticity or staying grounded or
keeping it real or walking in your truth or whatever other bullshit corporate
buzzword is selling books at the airport these days. 

Earnesty. It’s not a
strategy, it’s the default setting of the human heart. 

As opposed to what
happens when the ego is working overtime to sound cool. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What’s your nametag?LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


No more taking on riskless projects

Everything real comes from initiating something new, following through with all of your might and being willing to risk upsetting people along the way. 

When I decided to film a concert documentary underneath a historic tunnel in a popular public park, I was terrified of bothering everyone from the police officers to the parks department to the homeless people living inside the tunnel to the families picnicking outside the tunnel. 

I stressed about it for six months. In fact, on the day of the show, I printed out an official copy of the special events permit and kept it in my back pocket, just in case the authorities tried to shut down production. 

But of course, nobody said a word. Quite the contrary, in fact. The music and cameras and instruments and microphones and orange cones piqued people’s curiosity. And within ten minutes of yelling action, we drew a nice little crowd underneath the tunnel for our concert. 

By that point, I had purged all of my fears around initiating something new and upsetting people, and ended up delighting them instead. Even though I secretly wanted to be arrested by the park ranger, if only for the production value. 

But that’s the entrepreneur’s code. We take the risk. We do something that might disturb the peace. And we hang out balls out there to dangle in the breeze. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Does your project matter enough for the risk and the effort you’re putting into it? 

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


The easiest way to eradicate feelings of powerlessness

Creating a boundary can be as simple as stating what you want. 

Which can initially feel like an intimidating task, but once you start speaking up, you quickly learn that the world doesn’t tilt on its axis every take you make your needs known. 

More often than not, you simply get want you want and everyone involved is completely pleasant about it. 

When I was about twelve years old, my older brother used to bust into my room unannounced, even when the door was locked. 

Usually he just wanted to borrow some of my clothes or play one of my video games. But that didn’t make it okay. I still felt like my privacy had been violated. 

And so, one day after school, I decided to ask my mother if we could stop by the hardware store to buy one of those chain lock door fasteners. I was terrified. Because I had never asked for anything like that before. 

And in my mind, a chain lock was this expensive, complicated mechanical device that required measuring and drilling holes and possibly hiring subcontractors. 

Plus my brother would hate it. 

But to my surprise, my mother thought it was a brilliant idea. In fact, she was proud of me for taking a stand and taking action in support of my needs. 

Nine dollars and ten minutes later, the lock was installed and my privacy was restored. The boundary had been set. And from that moment on, every time my brother tried to bust into my room without permission, the chain rattled against the wood as if to say, this is not okay. 

More than twenty years later, that chain is still on my door. 

Proving, that the quickest and easiest way to eradicate feelings of powerlessness is to make choices. 

That’s where empowerment lives. In that crucial moment when we decide and act, not just stand and ruminate. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How can you create a boundary by stating what you want?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Help the needle find you

I recently read a story about an conceptual artist whose latest exhibit was to literally find a needle in a haystack. 

The president of the art museum hid a single silver needle in a massive stack of hay. The artist was given twenty four hours to find the needle by hand. And the entire event was broadcast on television. 

Sachsalber’s method was simple. He would take a small handful of hay, fold it, bend it, and if the need was in that handful, he’d feel it. The search took him eighteen hours. 

Not exactly the most efficient or effective use of an entire workday, but then again, I never did understand conceptual art. 

But the original riddle is an interesting one. How do you find a needle in a haystack? 

One option is to set the haystack on fire. That way, only the needle is the only thing behind. 

Another option is to drop the haystack in a basin of water. That way, the needle sinks to the bottom. 

Of course, the most sustainable, least messy and cost effective way to find a need in a haystack, is by using a magnet. Because instead of killing yourself trying to sort through the pile for eighteen hours, you simply hold up the magnet and wait for the needle to find you. 

That’s what makes this particular answer so interesting. The question is a reframe. The language is inverted. And that forces your thinking into unexpected directions. 

Debono dubbed this lateral thinking technique reverse provocation, which is to see the opposite of the question at hand. It may appear ludicrous at first, he writes, but it may also lead to original perspectives, particularly in situations where an established order has evolved over a long period of time. 

And so, if your company has a history of asking the same tried and true marketing questions, i.e., how should we target our customers, consider the inversion. Ask yourselves the question, how should our customers target us? 

Maybe that approach will not only find the needle, but move it too. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How are you reversing your provocations?LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Do you think that might have something to do with my bleeding peptic ulcer?

According to an article published in the most prestigious peer reviewed medical journal in the world, there’s a phenomenon called the doorknob moment

It’s where a patient waits until the very end of the visit to reveal critical information, right as the doctor is heading out the door. 

Oh, by the way, the patient says, I’ve been working a lot of fourteen hour days this summer. Do you think that might have something to do with my bleeding peptic ulcer? 

This moment could happen for any number of reasons. 

Perhaps the patient feels embarrassed about admitting her issues. 

Perhaps the patient feels rushed and doesn’t think she has time to say what’s on her mind. 

Perhaps the patient is minimizing her own pain out of denial. 

Perhaps the patient is simply scared of confronting what’s going on in her body. 

I’m reminded of my own doctor, one of the great listeners in healthcare history. He once told me during a visit:

If you listen well enough, the patients will give their diagnosis, but if you listen long enough, the patients will give the cure. 

It’s a healthy reminder that everyone understands themselves at their own unique pace and speed. As much as we’d love to set other people’s goals, we can’t take them where they don’t want to go. 

And so, the best way to treat the doorknob moment is with prevention. Removing obstacles to open communication. Creating a question friendly, low threat environment. Especially when there are power dynamics at play. 

I’ve heard of nurses handing out index cards in waiting rooms. It’s a simple tactic to help relieve some of the pressure around the dreaded doctor consultation. Patients are allowed to collect their thoughts in advance, write down key questions they’d like to have answered and communicate on paper what might be uncomfortable to express in person. 

Of course, you don’t have to be a doctor to experience the doorknob syndrome. It’s a human issue, not just a healthcare one. 

Our challenge is creating a space for people to say and hear whatever they need to hear and say. 

Even if that means sitting there in companionable silence. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How are you creating a low threat, question friendly environment?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


People are at their most when they’re least aware

Watch individuals closely, and it’s always those rare, unguarded moments when they shake off the chronic constraints of the conscious mind, attain an inner posture of detachment and completely surrender all sense of self. 

That’s where the real magic happens. 

Scientifically, it’s a variation of the observer effect, which states that the act of observation has an effect on the phenomenon being observed. 

In this case, it’s the act of unawareness, the lack of watching one’s own behavior and surroundings, that has a positive effect on the moment. 

In the absence of striving and trying and posturing and labeling, somebody does something amazing. And they don’t even realize it. Because they’re not trying. Trying would contaminate the result. 

What’s more, they’re not stressing about being surrounded by the apparent unsatisfactoriness of life. It’s just pure presence. 

I’ve been busking the park by my house for several years now. And what I’ve noticed is, the most virtuosic moments tend to happen when my eyes are closed, my hands are flying, my feet are stomping, my lungs are empty and my ego has completely checked out of the world. Pure presence. 

And although it’s a hard thing to sustain in every moment, it’s worth returning to every chance you get. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How do you get your mind to let go of itself? 

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Give me the gift of desperation

One of my
favorite filmmakers said the advantage of low budget movies is that they put a
wall in front of you, and only creativity will allow you to figure out how to
get around it. 

It’s the law of constraints. The fewer resources you have, the
more you are forced to think laterally. 

In fact, every time life gives me the
gift of desperation, I’m secretly grateful. Because that bolt of panic,
although it steals my breath and sends me into survival mode, it also unearths
a portion of my creativity that I wouldn’t have otherwise engaged. 

That’s why
it’s helpful to check the balance of your bank account right before you start
making sales calls. Because even if it’s a little
bit low, it’s like oxygen to the fire. Acute pressure to motivate your efforts
and expand your horizons. 

And before you know it, you’ve activated areas of
your business acumen that you didn’t even know you had. 

Philippe discusses this
very constraint in his book about the crime of creativity:

If you face adversity with
only a selection from which your personality is composed, I believe you might
not survive. But if you empower yourself, drawing from all that you’re made of,
and all that you did not know you had in you, it will save your life. 

Spoken
like a true tightrope walker. 

And so, whether your constraint is a lack of
money, a lack of talent, a lack of time or a lack of connections, treat it as
part of your survival equipment. 

Leverage your limitations and make something
beautiful anyway. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What’s worse, thinking you’re being paranoid or knowing you should be? 

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


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