Image: pyramids (maldivian style) courtesy of notsogoodphotography

A perfect life. A simple life. A life without mistakes?

If you’re like most people, you do your best to avoid mistakes. It is natural. Mistakes have consequences we dislike and we all  like to be comfortable.

What is the price we pay for that?

In life, there’s expensive mistakes and there’s cheap mistakes. According to Seth Godin’s recent article “A hierarchy of failure worth following” sometimes we should aim to make more mistakes.

Within a business context, he suggest that we should seek to fail more often when we are creating proposals than when we are developing prototypes than when we are presenting to senior executives than when we are interacting with customers than when we are delivering on past promises. Makes sense to me. A similar hierarchy can be applied to our personal lives (Want to try? Leave a comment here)

The importance of Seth’s article is that it opens our eyes to a simple reality: We mostly learn from our mistakes. If we are always doing our best to to avoid making mistakes, we slow the rate of learning. And a slower rate of learning means a slower rate of growth.

Yes, growth. That ultimate holy grail of modern life. Both the personal and the business type. How much would you be willing to pay to accelerate yours?

Here’s a small price to pay: spend 5 minutes NOW to reflect and get your priorities right. Choose a hierarchy (almost ANY hierarchy is better than NO hierarchy) of domains where you are more willing to fail than others; then act accordingly.

You’ll have a better life for it. I guarantee it.

Unless I am making a mistake in saying that

Contemplating a trip to my country of origin can be a daunting experience. Who doesn’t remember that scene from “Clear and present danger” where Harrison Ford is warned not to stay still or run the risk of getting shot? Or the one  where his car is ambushed in what looks like a really, really poor city, and the car in front of him is blow to bits with an RPG? Then there’s of course the whole fear of being kidnapped, so vividly depicted by Russell Crowe in “Proof of Life”.Who in his right mind would want to go to such a dangerous place? To a place that the US Department of State has recently warned that “(…)While security in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years, violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas as well as large cities.“?

I do.

I am not suggesting that everything you read or hear about Colombia from the news is false. Not at all. Crime does happen in its cities. Kidnappings have happened since I can remember, and I have family and friends who have gone through that ordeal. But I also know that when you choose to travel, you are by default willing to take some risks.  And unless you are totally risk averse, you likely will be willing to accept some level of risk if the reward is big enough.

Ahhhhh, the reward. (hint: make sure you watch the video I linked to just now. Go do it now)

Rather than write about the wonderful rewards of coming to Colombia, let me show you with a short promotional video. Be aware this is pure marketing and it is showing the best of my country; yet what you see is (a lot of) what you get. I invite you to come at your own peril; as the marketing campaign puts it, “the risk (in coming to Colombia) is wanting to stay“. I hope you enjoy this video. ‘Til next time.

Images: Wake Up Sydney! Mother Earth slide show, courtesy of Jono Fisher @ flickr

Did you enjoy my previous article about Wake Up Sydney? Then you will love this one.

Today I received a message from Jono Fisher (the creator behind this awesome event) where he pointed us to some beautiful photos of that night (you can see them at the start of this article). In his message he also shared the reactions he has received from the audience in the aftermath of this inspiring event. Here’s a small sampler:

“One of the most beautiful evenings I have attended in a long time. Not only was it inspirational, it was empowering and I do not think that there was a person that was not touched by what you brought together the other night. The level of integrity and honesty was refreshing and I really look forward to attending more!”

“Thank you for a beautiful evening. The audience response was inspiring! The town hall was brought to life with the art nouveau look and feel”

“After news of earth quakes and oil spills, the evening became a refreshing celebration of kindness and our connection to the living earth…The power of experience was truly inspiring and galvanising. Come on Sydney, let the kindness flow!”

Jono then invited us to imagine where the kindness revolution could go next. What are your thoughts? Obviously, there is next year’s Wake Up Sydney concert (sorry, I call them ‘concerts for the soul’), which I suggested to Jono we should hold at The Domain (photo)…. what do you think? (Tell us in the comments)

But like I said, Jono is already thinking of more ways to help spread the Revolution really fast. Here’s three of them I’d like you to consider:

• Good Life Cinema: Diverse films, speakers & interactive conversation exploring a new version of the “good life”.
• Funding/Sponsorship: Ensuring that the kindness revolution can expand and be sustainable.
• Online tools: A place for blogging, connecting and the sharing of kindness stories.

Would you mind participating in the poll below, and tell us which one do you like best?

In the email’s footer I also found a small blurb that explained, in a beautiful and succinct way, the purpose of Wake Up Sydney;  and explained why you absolutely should join the Revolution. Let this small paragraph be my farewell for today. Till next time!

Wake Up Sydney! is a new kind of social enterprise that challenges traditional methods of doing business. We are founded on the idea that kindness is a revolutionary force that can transform our city. We are committed to inspiring daily actions that can make Sydney the Kindness Capital of the world. Since launching in April 2009, over 25,000 free kindness cards have been distributed encouraging anonymous acts of kindness. Our stunning live events help inspire more kindness while also helping to raise funds for the kindness cards.  Sydney is Waking Up! Want to join the revolution?

What would you say if I told you that last night Sydney begun to wake up, and is becoming the kindness capital of the world? And what if I also told you that the person who started it all was a gentle and caring man who has no interest in ‘syrupy goodness’?

Welcome to a new era. Kindness 3.0 is here to stay.

You have heard of Web 3.0, right? How about Education 3.0? Well, Jonathon Fisher, Blake Beattie, and myself are just some of the evangelists of a new kind of kindness. One that is global and starts locally, with deliberate acts of (often anonymous) kindness. One that is designed to inspire, and leaves everyone it touches better than when it found them; and one that is for normal people, and often transforms them into everyday heros.

The night Sydney woke up just happened

Last night, Jono invited an amazing group of artists to celebrate Mother Earth with all of us. We meditated with Petrea King; shared aboriginal dances by Descendance; listened to Uncle Max (an aboriginal elder) explain the wisdom of nature and how to sustainable live with mother earth; enjoyed Antacrtica in a multimedia feast presented by Liz Courtney;  observed a fascinating conversation between Jono (Wake Up Sydney founder), Susan Murphy (Zen Master  & filmographer & Author) , John Seed (Ecology artist and winner of the order of Australia for his works protecting the rain forest) and Uncle Max (Aboriginal Elder); and thoroughly enjoyed some inspiring music by Katie Noonan (ARIA Winner) and Cameron (one of Katie’s captains ).

I understand this is the third version of this event, and like most things that come in 3′s, it was a magical event. If you’re mystical, you will understand why Sydney woke up to the most torrential, cleansing waterstorm this morning. If you’re not, keep your eyes open, for miracles have already started to happen.

An invitation to Pass it Forward

Some of you may know that about one year before Jono started to Wake Up Sydney, I was founding Pass it Forward, the Australian kindness movement that unknowingly assisted him in his quest. Jono has distributed over 15,000 kindness cards (you can order yours, FREE, right now – click here) that are now in active circulation, being passed from kind-heart to kind-hand, one stranger to another.

I would like to invite you to join us now. Why not? Go right now to Jono’s web site, order your cards, and become a Kindness Revolutionaire.

Viva la Revolucion! With you in Kindness, Diego

“We have an awful, awful reality right now. America, you’re at the top of your game: This is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world”. (…) We, the adults of this generation, have blessed our children with the destiny of a shorter life span than their own parents. Your child, will live a life ten years younger than you, because of the landscape of food we have built around him.” -Jamie Oliver, TED

(If you can’t see the video ABOVE, please click here to see it at TED.com)

Do you think that we’re ok because we don’t live in America?Think again. The obesity epidemic has no boundaries, and has spread to almost every corner of the Globe. The financial cost to our health system and the social cost in lost lives from this epidemic is now officially larger than that of smoking, homicide, or violent crime.And how did we get here? Because of the food-scape effect. Want to know what that is? Read on.

If you follow the obesity debate internationally, you’ll find plenty of explanations for this new epidemic. According to Jamie Oliver, the food landscape (aka food-scape) we build around ourselves has a massive impact on our eating habits. We have created an environment that values convenience above all else. Why have we exposed so many generations to this set of values? We now live with the consequences: a new generation of quite literally millions of children who do not know or understand the importance of cooking at home, of making choices regarding your eating habits, nor of having a balanced diet.

And just as behavioural economics revolutionised our understanding of how financial systems work, behavioural psychology has also transformed our understanding of why we do what we do. In his best-seller book “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” Dr Wansink shares empirical proof that our ‘table-scape’ (the way we set up food and dinner at the table) has a massive influence on whether we over-eat or not.

But should we make this debate a policy matter, or leave each individual to their own devices? Many in the food industry argue that the solution must come from individuals; that the choices people make about physical activity and eating habits are what led us to where we are; and that people need to take more responsibility for their actions, and start making more informed choices. Information, thus, appears as the almost magical solution. But as Dan and Cheap Heath argue in their best-seller “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die“, even the most powerful information will be ignored unless it is crafted in a way that is ‘sticky’ and memorable. Furthermore, Dr Wansink’s social experiments have proven without a doubt that even the most well-informed of us still make unhealthy choices when faced with an environment that is not supportive.

Should we then rely on policy instead? The fact that governments have unsuccessfully tried to introduce policy solutions to this issue has often been argued as ‘proof’ that this is not a domain where government can effectively generate positive results. A few years ago, for example, Singapore introduced a ‘Trim & Fit’ state-sponsored program. Under this program, children had their Body-Mass-Index scores tested regularly; all students with BMIs above official guidelines would be enrolled in compulsory extra exercise classes for at least one hour a week. Can you believe that they were also to be formally and informally humiliated for being overweight or obese?By March 2007 the Singapore government had put an end to this program, “…after parents complained that overweight children were being singled out and teased” (Washington Post).

But the truth is that if it was an issue of individual choice, we would simply never have found ourselves in the dire situation we are in. We need to fund programs at the federal and local government level that teach children how to cook; that changes the food-scape we expose our children to; and that provides incentives (both financial and social) for adults that provide an environment that encourages our children to be active, make good good choices, and to develop the habits that will give us back a generation with a longer life-span than hours.

The solution isn’t either policy or information or environment. It must include all three of them! Ask yourself when was the last time you made a real and sustainable change in your life; were you determined to make different choices? How about the environment you created around you: did you design it so that it would support yourself through this change in a healthy and positive way, in a relaxed and easy manner? And what about policy? Did you create new rules that were flexible enough to be bent, yet strong enough to provide guidance and direction?

The solution must come from the holy trinity of ourselves, our environment and our governments. Pick one, and do something about improving it. Which one is yours?

If you think I have been drinking too much of my own Kool-aid, please come tell us at my blog on crazycolombian.com/foodscape; we’d love to hear from you!

Image: "Day 294 / 365 - Rose Cottage" courtesy of xJasonRogersx

Today I woke up and read an article by my friend, mentor and thought leader Steven di Pietro. He is world class in customer service, and has started sharing his wisdom on how to turn Customer Service into profits by changing staff behaviour  at his web site Service with Purpose.

So I was reading his article today, where he simply shares why he bought his Mac. And I thought WOW! He just sold me a new Macbook! I wonder if he realised he was doing that? He probably isn’t even aware of it, let alone getting commission on a sale that is worth over a thousand dollars!

After leaving a comment to encourage him to turn this single event into an idea that could add a new honest and transparent revenue stream to his life, it got me pondering…. why was a simple message so powerful in convincing me to replace my perfectly good MacBook for a new one, and get thousands of dollars worse off in the process? This article attempts to share my insights with you when I answered that question.

The first reason his article was so powerful is because he totally meant every word of the article when he wrote it. It came from the heart. He didn’t write it to make a sale (although I hope he finds a way to!), and he didn’t write it to be popular (although I hope his blog becomes the next-best-thing since slice bread). He wrote it because he found a product so remarkable that solved his problem so efficiently and beautifully, he wast literally inspired to write about it.

Now think about how ads are written. They are often written by overworked creative types who have been forced into a process to deliver by a certain deadline something to help a client sell. The good ones have a good process, know (and love) their clients, and make great ads. Average ones just go through the motions and deliver the ‘goods’ un-whole-heartedly.

Another reason traditional ads don’t work is because they’re not scalable. You can’t write a small ad that costs you next to nothing, and see if it works. But you can try to serve others from your heart, put the message out there, see if it resonates with others, and then start to adjust little by little. In one case, you have a once-off large investment and the hope it will work. In the other, you have a tiny investment, and you have the permission of your audience to grow and evolve your message organically. One has profit at its’ heart, the other love.

Yes, love. I am talking about love and business. Sounds like an oxymoron? Not at all. Love is the killer app. Don’t believe me. Go read the book by Tim Sanders. In it, he eloquently makes the case far better than I ever could. Now go back and re-read this article. Use a yellow highlighter every time you find the words heart or love (hey! I meant on paper, not on the screen! Now go buy yourself a new Macbook to solve the problem you just created…. ) Are you surprised? I mentioned it so many times, and you maybe didn’t even notice.

You see, a life of love, of service to others, of doing what you love doing, of sharing your love with those around you (even if in the form of referals for their awesome products or services or articles) is a life worth living. We didn’t know that in the ’70s when mass media and broadcasting where the norm. But as social media grows, and teaches us that ‘sharing is caring’ in a very fun, practical and easy way, well, magic starts to happen.

So go crazy today and stop advertising. Share what you love in the way that you love it. People will know you’re being authentic, and you will ‘sell’ more of whatever you’re trying to sell (your products, your ideas, even yourself!) a lot more than if you use the traditional methods. Oh, and you will also enjoy the process a lot more.

Am I drinking my own Kool-Aid too often? Tell me what you think at twitter or in the space for comments below.

Image: my drive to work today courtesy of emdot

Yes! After a short break we’re now back with a vengeance. This online presence is about to go through a major evolution, so please be patient with us as we grow our online life. My commitment to my readers has always been to publish one article per week that might grow your life when you reflect about it. For the last few months I could not live up to that promise for personal reasons, and so I totally stopped publishing.

But some of you have told me you miss my writing, and I have a terrible itch to share thoughts with you. And so I came to the decision to come back in a slighlty different form – for now – and in what I hope will be an improved form in the coming months.

So here’s my promise to you: For the time being, I will start to regularly publish again, whenever I feel I REALLY have something to say. I will tweet ultra-short articles, publish small bite-sized thoughts, and share longer articles on a regular basis. What’s regular? Life will determine that for me. At some time it will mean once a quarter. I think you will hear from me at least once per week. And because you already have an inbox that is full, I will not send you stuff more than once per day. That is my promise to you today. If at any time you feel I am breaking my promise, please send me an email to diego (at) crazycolombian ~dot~ com and I promise to listen to your perspective with an open mind, and to answer by email within a week (at most).

Since I just promised to not post more than once per day, I am going to resist the itch and post the article I actually wanted to write today, and schedule it for tomorrow. If you want to know what it was about, please watch this space. I really want to share some thoughts with you today!

Thanks for your continued readership, and I hope you have forgiven me for my prolonged absence.

The crazy Colombian is back! I am excited, and hopefully so are you.

At your service,

Diego

Image: construction sign courtesy of underbiteman

Two weeks ago I typed crazycolombian.com in my web browser, and ended up in a web site selling US mortgages. How could that be? After some investigation, I realised that a hacker had used a WordPress security gap to gain access to my web site and  install code that redirected any visitors to a different place. Having figured it out, I then spent then next few days researching how to get rid of the hacker and cut his access to my web site so he could not do it again. By the end of it, my blog was back to normal.

Or so I thought.

At 9 AM yesterday I received an email from my webhost provider. They were informing me that, due  to a breach of their Terms of Service, my hosting had been suspended. At first I freaked out. I had just paid 2 years of renewal with them! Could they really do this? How would I reinstall by site somewhere else? This isn’t fair! Before I approached them to ask – no, demand!- that they restore my site and fix the problem, I decided I needed to calm down. And a few hours later, I realised that it is not their responsibility to ensure my web site is secure and has all the relevant upgrades to the software I use to run this blog. So I decided instead to approach them, ask for their help, and see what they said. An hour later I got an answer; and It wasn’t particularly helpful. This is what they said:

To have the account re-activated you will need to remove all malicious scripts and you will need to update and secure your own files, one you are certain that the files that are on your account are both clean and secure you will need to let us know what you have done to secure your files, once we can validate the security steps that you have taken and can no longer see a issue we will be able to re-activate the account/websites.

On the one hand, I was disappointed. Although the hosting plan I have is relatively cheap, I was expecting them to take some ownership for the problem. After all, they are recommended by WordPress (the company that makes the software for running this blog) as the best commercial host for their software. I was outraged that Bluehost was washing their hands of and putting the ball entirely in my court. I was particularly peeved because the hacker got it because of a hole in WordPress; and it was that same company who recommended Bluehost as a reliable provider! Anyhow, I rolled my sleeves, asked them to allow me access to my files, and went to work.

The good news is that I my blog is (almost) back to normal. I still have to repeat the same  work for my other web sites (Pass It Forward; the english and spanish version of “Zen and the Art of Photographic story-telling, and the english and spanish versions of “The other plan colombia”); but at least now I know how to fix all of them!

Besides a few late nights of work to fix it, this experience has left me with something else: four valuable lessons. Let me share you the pain of learning them the hard way, and share them with you right here, right now.

1. Do not ignore security and backups. Proper back ups of your site are a pain to administer, but a blessing when disaster strikes. If I had been more disciplined about them, the amount of work I had to do to restore my web sites would have been cut in more than half.
2. Carefully design your backup solution. There’s backups, and then there’s backups. Some will copy everything, and make it very easy to do a full restore. Unfortunately, a full restore will also restore the malware and backdoors that made you want to start again in the first place. On the other hand, partial backups (of your databases and image files, for example) are cleaner to restore and won’t bring malware or backdoors with them, but they will be very time consuming, as you will need to repeat any manual customisation you have made over time. Think carefully about the different scenarios that may lead you to want to do a full or partial restore, and design a backup solution that accounts for all those scenarios, with the least amount of effort.
3. Remember that you get what you pay for. By choosing a low-price hosting plan, I elected not to pay for additional services in managing my web site, so I should not have been upset with Bluehost’s initial response. When choosing a hosting plan, think about what you need, carefully choose the one that gives you most value, and then be ready to live with your decision.
4. Treat ohers the way you want to be treated. No, I am not going all religious on you here. I am simply flagging that when I approached Bluehost in a corteous manner after having been angry with their first response, they then treated me with the same respect. Next time you pick up the phone (or open your email client) to make a complaint, take a few deep breaths, calm down, and talk to them as you would like them to respond to you. Ask for help rather than demand explanations, and I can almost guarantee you will have a better outcome from the interaction.

On the bright side, this incident gave me an opportunity to write a new post. I am still going to hybernate for a bit longer, but have decided that until I start publishing again, I will post some new entries with recommendations from our archives.

One last thing: If you have received any old articles in your RSS feeder or your email inbox, they are probably previous articles that were mistakenly sent again by the service I use to manage subscriptions. Please accept my apologies for this inconvenience, and I hope you enjoyed today’s article anyway.

You might have noticed that my pub­lish­ing has become erratic as of lately. Whilst my inten­tion has been to pub­lish an arti­cle every week, other respon­si­bil­i­ties have taken pri­or­ity in my life at this stage, and I have not been able to keep up with my orig­i­nal commitment.

The time has come to acknowl­edge that this blog will go on hia­tus for a while. I am not sure if ‘a while’ will be one month. one year, or even longer. For the time being, I encour­age you to review the archive for some insight­ful and inter­est­ing articles.

I would like to thank all of you who over time have become loyal fol­low­ers of this blog, and promise this won’t be the end. As soon as my cir­cus­tances evolve once again, I will be back with more writing.

With my warmest regards,

–Diego

Image: Colombia, Villa de Leyva courtesy of momentcaptured1

It has been over 15 years since I left Colombia, and I have often been asked what was it really like living there. My answer always tried to balance the amazing beauty of the place with the very real and significant risks that come with being in my native country.

Recently I found a fascinating book by Australian writer Matthew Thompson. In My Colombian Death, Matthew describes the adventures he had while in Colombia. What I found fascinating about his book was that he showed a raw, and (in my opinion) much more real picture of Colombia than what you will often get when asking about my country.

If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear what you thought about it. If you haven’t read it, I will leave you with two excerpts from his book that resonated with me. In both excerpts, he relates a conversation he had with a local girl who was serving as his guide while in Bogota.

“The thieves are very good here. Still, to be robbed is better than what else happens all the time – they decide to shoot or stab you. Or they think you are worth money and they kidnap you. You can be stupid in Australia, but you can’t be stupid here. But, like I said, sometimes it is just up to God, and if He decides it is time for you to die, then smart or stupid makes no difference and you will die.

‘ Sounds like He decides a lot in Colombia.’

‘ Yah, well, that’s because we live closer to God up here’. “

(Note: Bogota, Colombia’s capital, is 2,640 meters above sea level)

” You think you have the same view of life as these people?’ she said while gesturing with a cigarette towards a very dark, short, and poor-looking family packed tightly together in front of us in the cable-car queue.

‘Well, I guess I have a better idea of how they see life than I do of how a Muslim or Buddhist does’.

‘Sorry sweetie, but I don’t think so. I am Colombian, and I was Catholic, but I still cannot understand these people. This is a complicated country. Those people are Indians. Maybe they were displaced by the war. They probably have indigenous beliefs that mix with Catholic beliefs. They probably see life and death in ways you can never comprehend. For them, death might be a door to another world which is neither heaven nor hell.”

‘That’s an extreme example’

‘This is an extreme country. If you come here and think you know what other people believe, you are a stupid gringo, and it is my job to see you are not. Your God is a philosophy book or old churches or art. That is not how God speaks in Colombia. You have seen a little of Bogota, enough to see donkeys on the street next to expensive cars. You have seen soldiers and beggars and students and whores. We have a war but you can live here without noticing it. Everything is here at the same time. I was bored when I visited my brother Eduardo in Australia. I am sorry but it is the truth. My sister is in America. Everyone expects me to leave, but I won’t. I love it here. I feel alive here. It is my country, and maybe it is crazy, but so am I”

What do you think? Share your views on the comments section below.