Tag: Podcasts

I was wrong about Gary V and does he give a shit?

Posted on by philipdodson

I have always been a bit perverse and when every woman and her cat started to love Gary Vaynerchuk and worship the ground he walked on, I started to get put off. I also didn’t like his hustle shit and his American shouty voice.

I ordered Jab, Jab, Jab whatever, and could only listen to about 10 minutes of it and never listened to anymore.

People often listen to Garys or Tonys or Seths and think they can magically solve their challenges and they can become like them. We can’t we are unique. We have to be ourselves.

It had got so bad, that I almost wanted to vomit whenever I heard him or people talk about him. OK, perhaps a slight exaggeration.

However, I am on this quest to go to people I do not like and open my mind, to get out of my echo chamber and see what others have to say. If you always block out the other view, then you are missing so much.

I am on a mission to drop the ‘I’m always right’ mentality that was stamped on me from my childhood. It was like a badge of honour to be right in the Dodson household growing up, sadly, whatever the cost.

Increasingly, I have become a fan of the slightly mad, but in my opinion, different and brilliant James Altucher, I am finding more and more of his stuff enjoyable. He doesn’t advise, he simply tells his story and he has an interesting story and way of telling it.

OK, I get James’s email blasted into my inbox every day and I often read his blog or listen to his podcast. So, just a few days ago up pops ‘what I learnt from Gary Vaynerchuk’, shit I thought I had that spam filter set to cut out anything with ‘Gary’ or ‘V’ or ‘Chuk’ in it.

I decided to remind myself of my new missions, so I clicked on it today, it’s taken me several days to build up to it.

I listened with an open mind, and it took the first 5 minutes of the 1-hour long episode to quell my annoyance, Gary you probably would find my accent and way of speaking annoying, but I persisted and I opened the mind and listened without evaluation.

Wow! He actually has some good things to say, this is no surprise when you think about what he’s achieved. Well, some actually really great things that resonate with me and make a lot of sense.

Am I a convert? NO

Will I listen or read more of his stuff? Not likely, but probably occasionally now. He’s just not for me and I am not looking to have dreams like raising $Billions to buy the NY Jets.

So Gary, here it is, the public apology, I was wrong about you Gary.

Does he give a shit what I think? NO

That’s the thing he is being true to himself, brave, vulnerable and he is being the real thing. He does not care what the critic thinks and rightly so.

We will not all like the same things and that’s ok, but better to be absolutely loved by the people who do like what you have to say and that is the case with Gary than to be wishy-washy and try to fit in.

Don’t be hooked up on being right, no one is all good or all bad, nothing is black or white and we do not have to be with someone or against them.

Mainly we do not listen to others outside our bubbles as we are scared of being wrong.

The Ice King

Posted on by philipdodson

Spy Pond Ice Harvesting from a 1854 print.jpg
“Spy Pond Ice Harvesting from a 1854 print” by from a print. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

The Ice King was the latest episode of my favourite podcast from Roman Mars of 99% Invisible, the thing I love most about their diverse episodes is there is always a lesson to take from it.

So Frederick Tudor, the aptly named ‘Ice King’, saw a gap in the market, this was in 1800’s long before refrigeration was invented. He realised that Massachusetts was sitting on a huge natural asset in winter, ice in ponds. He believed that he could make his fortune in exporting that ice to hotter locations or even within the US.

Many people simply laughed at his idea and ridiculed him. The critics said it would never work.

After his first shipment to Martinique had quite literally melted for his customers, as not surprisingly the local population were unfamiliar with the product, they wrapped it in blankets, took it home, only to discover the ice had gone!! He found many other challenges.

He stuck at it, in spite of debts, bankruptcy and debtor’s prison, to eventually make his Waldon Pond ice world famous, being served in India, to Queen Victoria, leading to Norwegian copycats!

He did eventually make it, he paid off his debts, bought himself an estate and settled for peaceful rural lifestyle that he had wanted.

The natural ice trade melted away evenutally (awful pun) as fridges came along and the growing population in North East US led to the lakes being polluted by sewage. Brings a whole new dimension to on the rocks.

Three lessons here, one, never give up on your dreams. Two, never listen to the critics, as they are not the ones in the ring daring to be great (Brene Brown’s great work). Finally, don’t wait to create your ideas, as like anything, something/someone will come along and you will have missed your chance to be different.