In Seth Godin’s new book “The Practice – Shipping Creative Work” he has a section called Generous with 45 short chapters. Seth has long written and spoken about doing generous work. There is something about “generous” which demands some study and attention. You can be generous with your time and money and you can generously listen and try to understand what someone needs.

If you want to make a change in the world and I hope everyone does you first need to be generous. What problem do you want to solve? What changes are you trying to make? It seems to me very few great things are done where someone asks for payment in advance. This is being generous. If you are looking to change the world you might find the best way to accomplish this is to share an idea with someone else. It does put you in a position of vulnerability. The person might take the idea and run off with it. But keeping the idea to yourself might be selfish.

Make something to help improve someone or something. Then generously share it. You will get paid but there is risk.

My Mom Nancy Marshall created and gave gifts to her Mother and Mother in Law Christmas of 1966. Her Mom was Marion Irene Hodges (Duffet – Maiden name) and Martha Lilian Marshall (Veall – Maiden Name) was my Dad’s Mom. Dad’s Mom went by her middle name Lilian. They were two personalized collages. Thought the family might enjoy a look at these while they are still around.

Marion Hodges

You will notice a predominant New England here.

This was soon after my grandfather died. They had moved from Marblehead to Harwich on Cape Cod when Grampy retired a couple years earlier.

Lilian Marshall

After the Veall sisters sailed over from England in the 1920’s, if I remember correctly, she settled in Toronto.

My only Aunt, Anne Thompson has compiles quite a bit of Marshall and Veall history and has gifted this work to her children.

Because it is not easy to see all the detail I added some close ups in a slideshow format.

My business partner Peter Viliesis and I have a clear focus going into 2021 after this rather different year. In order to stay on track we’ve created a list of words to remind us of our mission. Here it goes in random order:

• Generous
• Goal
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Constraints
• Tension
• Generous
• Partnership
• Story
• Empathy
• Trust
• Plan
• Connection
• Action
• Protect
• Value
• Transformation
• Collaboration
• Process
• Principles
• Clarity
• Simple

Each of these words has an important part in the overall business plan. I put this list here first on the personal website using my non business persona to get it out and to document it for myself. There are more we could add but for now this will do.

There are books I read which leave me empty. Not because they were not good, because I simply did not want them to end. On occasion I have remedied this sense of loss by flipping the pages to the beginning and reading it all over.

John Steinbeck’s The Pearl is one of those books. I remember coming to the end and asking myself, “What did I just read?” I wanted to remain in La Paz and was not ready to leave Kino, Juana and Coyotito. Steinbeck took me to a places I was not ready to leave.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name is a lesser known book written by Margaret Craven. It had the same effect on me as The Pearl did. Her first novel published in 1967 in her mid 60’s, the setting is Kingcome in British Columbia where First Nation people have lived for thousands of years. This is where Mark Brian, a young vicar is sent by the Bishop.

Even today as I think about these books I feel the profound sense of loneliness, starting deep inside me after just a few pages in. The loneliness I found in these books has never resolved itself when I return to their pages.

If you want to challenge yourself and this is not about trying to convince you about anything it is simply worth looking at this three part series on Netflix.

1 – Episode One looks at ways to turn human waste into drinkable water.

2 – Episode Two digs deep into Bill Gates and documents how he needed partnership with others to move forward.

3 – Episode Three will challenge you to think differently about how we produce energy now and how nuclear still might be a viable and out best option to reduce carbon emissions.

Plus you will meet some radically fascinating people you would never have otherwise know. It is a good three hours spent. And don’t forget his desire to defeat polio once and for all.

Okay maybe a bit of a harsh title but worth thinking about. Billions of people in the world play and drink water from a source where their own piss and shit flows to. Watching the first Netflix episode of “Inside Bill’s Brain” you understand what a monumental problem this is. Children are dying from diarrhea because of the lack of sanitation where they live and Bill and Melinda Gates set out to look for solutions after reading an article written by Nicholas Kristof.

I’ll admit I was uncomfortable watching the episode so focused on human waste yet at the end I was inspired by the story and the journey. If you have Netflix it is well worth watching and learning, but perhaps not during dinner.

A documentary that tells Bill Gates’ life story as he pursues solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems.

If you have not watched the movie Spotlight or if it has been a while or if you did not really pay attention it is worth seeing right now. It is on Netflix now and I’m not sure for how much longer.

It is the devastating story of how the Catholic Church covered up years of predatory sexual abuse committed by priests and others.

Spotlight

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The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.

Now I’ve watched this movie several times over the past few months to study great writing and to think about how systems work and why we need to know more about them. How does a system like the Catholic Church allow this to happen and let it go on for years? How did it not protect thousands of victims? It wasn’t just in Boston, it was discovered to be a global problem. Wherever the Catholic Church was it most likely had priests who were sexual predators. In the end you realize the system enabled it. The Catholic Church covered it up and then moved the offending priests to other positions where they abused all over again.

The same thing has happened in the Boy Scouts. There are over 82,000 sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America. Keep it quiet and cover it up.

Everyone is a part of many systems to varying degrees. It is important to identify the systems we are a part of and look critically at those systems. Are they good or bad? What is the history of the system? Systems influence our daily life and sometimes they make our lives easier and sometimes they make our lives more difficult. Systems which benefit me may put others at a disadvantage or do outright harm to them. This is where the systems break down.

Have you heard about Humans of New York? Created by Brandon Stanton it has over 25 Million Followers. A few years ago I had the privilege to hear him in person with my daughter Jessica. It was her Christmas gift to me. Tim Ferriss interview Brandon and if you need a great listen this weekend check this out.

You can fast forward through the first part until you get to the interview. Brandon lays is all out when talking about his journey.

And they are powerful –

Understanding constraints can help you get things done. At the same time they can help you do better work and create better stuff. Seth Godin writes about this in his new book “The Practice” and he too recognizes having constraints enhances the creative process.

It is worth studying. I’ll give you an example. Time is often a constraint when you are working on a project. If there is not a deadline you are likely to get the project done. With the deadline of let’s say, the end of the week, you now know you need to have something done and this will force you to do two things. The first thing is you will get to work to meet the deadline. The second is you will accept your work even if it is not perfect. You only had so much time.

Constraints can also be resources, money, size, materials and many more things. You are more creative about preparing dinner if you only have a few items to work with in your refrigerator. The constraints will make you more creative. I am not explaining this the way I would like however my constraint is I want you to hear about this. So as flawed as this post is you have it in your hand.

Understanding and embracing constraints will help you in every area of your life and give you the courage to put your work out there. Perfect never comes.

You might be interested in the video. If you don’t have the time here are a few quotes from the TedTalk. Thank you for Ding Ling for providing this summary.