having the idea is easy

This quote is from an excerpt of a discussion about the craftsmanship and process that is required to take an idea to a remarkable product. Its the reason two people can have an almost identical idea and only one of them turns it into something successful:

… one of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left John Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people “here’s this great idea,” then of course they can go off and make it happen …

-Steve Jobs-

The rest of the quote is here on the Signal vs. Noise blog.

the myth of waiting for inspiration

I always thought that inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.

I read this here

studying without doing

Seth Godin’s post is specific to entrepreneurship, but I think it applies to any creative activity:

Until you confront the fear and discomfort of being in the world and saying, “here, I made this,” it’s impossible to understand anything at all about what it means to be a entrepreneur. Or an artist.

The full post is here

the fear of missing out

This is a great post by Seth Godin about a problem that is getting worse now that we are so connected with media – you help The Resistance to trick you by spending too much time trying to be ‘in the know’.

Quote from the post:

Somewhere, right this very moment, someone is having more fun than you.

Making more money than you.

Doing something more important, with better friends, and a happier ending, than you. Or possibly just better at Words with Friends than you are.

You’re missing out.

…

The lizard brain can’t rest until it knows that everyone likes us, that no one is offended, that all graphs are ticking up and to the right and the future is assured. But of course, the future (and the present) isn’t perfect. It can’t be.

The full post can be found here