Finding Direction

I've been struggling with the content of this blog and the direction that I feel I should take it. This is true of most things in my life, but I came to a realization in class today that maybe that is the point. There are so many things that I can look at and find brilliance but I struggle to find my own path in nearly every way. I think this feeling is true of many college graduates. We have high expectations, but are not totally prepared for reality. I want my blog to be representative of that.

If there is one thing I have experience with, it is seeing young people step into "the real world" after graduating from college. I've come to realize that this is a scary and confusing time in life. Perhaps more than just about any other life stage. I want to dedicate my blog to giving tips and sharing experiences for those young people. Hopefully it can be of help.

More details to come soon, but for now I will continue to wander happily through life without a strong sense of direction for the specifics, but some pretty strong core values.

A Season to Be Thankful

I LOVE Thanksgiving. My co-workers actually make fun of me for saying that about everything this time of year, but it is true. It brings out the best in people! I love to log into Facebook each morning and see what my friends are thankful for in their lives. I won't mind do much when 'no shave November' is no more, but I will miss the thankfulness and positivity I'm seeing everywhere!

Last night, The X Factor dedicated their show to Thanksgiving. Wow. It was heartfelt, emotional, and the best performances any of the contestants have put on to date. Nicole Scherzinger made a comment to one particularly cocky contestant that if he remains thankful and humble he will go all the way. It was quite amazing how much more passion was put into the music and how much more it meant to the audience to know that the song was dedicated to someone who changed the life of each person performing on stage. Bravo, X Factor! Great television and an authentic, positive reminder of what the world should be enacting this week and always.

Crossroads Church does a Last Wednesday service in November that always reminds me of the millions of things that I take for granted and roots me back in reality. It generally falls the day before Thanksgiving and consists of members of the church talking about things that they are thankful for through the struggles they are enduring. It is powerful! There is always something for which to be grateful and if we concentrate on those things it makes everything else seem a little less dramatic. I get caught in the trap of stressing and worrying about all of the little things that might not go right and I forget to think that for the most part the consequences are not so bad.

My plan for the upcoming year is to write at least one thing per day that I am thankful for in that moment and hope that it will have some impact on the way that I view my day to day life.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Taken for Granted

Last week, I had a professor ask our class what percentage of people continue their formal education after high school. As we began to ponder the answer, he said, "in your world it's around 100%." This comment shocked me. To be honest, I was thinking it had to be around 75%. I mean this was not college graduation rates we were talking about. This was attending some college. I honestly think that I could count on my two hands how many people my age I know who did not at least attend some college. In reality, this number is just slightly higher than 50%. This fact really did shake me up a little bit. Perhaps the bubble that I'm living in is a little bit smaller than I thought.

This theme of education popped up a number of times this past week. In my small group, we were asked to talk about our favorite teacher. I struggled to narrow it down to just one while many in the group struggled to think of one. Again, this shocked me. I always had teachers that cared about my progress as well as my personal well being. Some of them even still keep in touch. Two of my high school teachers, "The Sacred Team," taught history and have a Facebook page dedicated to history with thousands of followers consisting of decades of students whose lives they made an impact on...in a seriously boring subject I might add. I went to public school and assumed that all other public school students had a similar experience. How have I gone through life for so long taking my opportunities for granted?

A friend from my high school class recently posted her thankfulness for this education and for the value her parents placed on it. I have to second that and give thanks to all of the wonderful individuals who have built into me and spent time building creative and memorable lesson plans that obviously could have been taken directly from a textbook. Allow me to now say THANK YOU to all of the teachers who care!

P.S. You should check out The Sacred Team on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sacred-Team/371757704337. They rock!

Cluetrain Manifesto

In my MS-Marketing social media course, we have been talking about web 2.0 and the changes that have occurred to make the web a 2-way conversation instead of just an information seeking tool. In studying this phenomenon, we read The Cluetrain Manifesto by Levine, Locke, Seerls, and Weinberger. This book was published in 2000 and is essentially a prediction of the future of web interactions. Talk about a spark of brilliance! These individuals were able to predict consumer driven content in a time that most of us were still "dialing up" to look up information.

I had to really think back about how I used the web in 2000. I was a junior in high school and it seems as though it was about the time that music sharing really hit it big with Napster. I also recall waiting forever for something to download via the dial up connection. This was years before Facebook and MySpace were created and I stand in awe of the predictions that the authors of Cluetrain announced at this early period of web 1.o.

They seemed to base their ideas on the fact that "business, at bottom, is fundamentally human" (L82) and "they will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf" (L138). They knew that businesses needed to make themselves relatable and that consumers needed to feel like they were in control of the information they chose to receive and were also able to share their opinions with other consumers. All of these predictions have come true. The authors of Cluetrain still feel like the web has a ways to go. They foresee consumers leading the search for what they want and being in complete control. This will also actually benefit advertisers since it "is still a guesswork game, and guesswork means waste" (20).

These four authors were willing to put out into the world their ideas for where the web would lead. They hit a homerun! I think when you realize the spark of idea might catch and change into something more, it is vital to discuss it with community and allow the insight of others to push ideas forward. The work of these four individuals is brilliant and began with a couple of insights that they saw in the way the web was initially created and the needs of consumers that had been yet unmet. Amazing and inspiring! I can't wait to see where we go from Web 2.0.

Notations were made from the Kindle Version of The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition available here: http://www.amazon.com/Cluetrain-Manifesto-10th-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B002EF2AE8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1321210906&sr=1-1

A Little Background

Welcome to my blog! I want to start by explaining the title "Sparks to Brilliance." The first thing that comes to mind is this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6DFvDTvfZY&feature=channel_video_title.

It might not be quite as powerful on video but being present with 3,000 other people and watching one candle ignite thousands of others in a room of people united if even just for that one moment is pretty powerful. Candles and light in the darkness has always fascinated me.

I also think that this video represents the way that ideas can spread. We all know that there is no stronger way to spread your message in marketing that through word of mouth. I think sometimes it is hard for us to see the outcome until a huge number of people have gathered toward one cause or in support of our product or message. It is so powerful!

I have noticed little sparks in my life that seems to stick and grow. It is crazy that I can hear about something in class that I never knew existed and then have a friend mention it to me the same week as well as read an article in the news. Something completely foreign to us all of a sudden comes center stage as if we are supposed to know about it and perhaps do something with it. I want my blog to be about those little things that in the end pile up to create brilliance. Brilliance through light and also hopefully a couple of brilliant revelations or ideas.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!