Carl Setzer

Today's thought: Freedom: The least amount of external influence on my life. Looking over my life so far, it's clear to me that I value freedom highly. I've walked away from jobs that looked like they'd box me in. I love the independence I currently have. Even "lots more" money would be a tough choice, and probably not worth it. There's little I'd trade it for.

It's sad how much we lose because of our fear of failure. So many opportunities vanish simply because we were too afraid to act. How will we ever know the extent of our possibilities if we fear reaching our limits? I know, for myself, that most of my perceived limits are illusory. Yet it's uncomfortable to imagine stretching past them. We must master our fears. If nothing else, transfer that to a fear of not trying, of the lost opportunity. That way our fears push us forward. Yet, I feel the ideal is centering ourselves upon love, passion. It's better to run towards success than away from terror. Fear exhausts; love's attraction energizes.

Creativity is, perhaps, the most wonderful gift one could have. Nothing's more unique, more rare than the ability to see things as they could be.

I'm puzzled. Why is Sony deferring to the PDRK?  There's nothing dramatically new about this latest round of adolescent posturing. Of course, the North Koreans haven't taken responsibility. But, why? Is it the threats of violence, which seem rather unexecutable at this point. Perhaps it's simple economics, with a significant lack of theatres willing to show it? Perhaps the other production companies lobbied hard enough, worried about getting caught in the crossfire, so to speak. Perhaps it's the hacking. Looks like Sony had been hit hard. But, is it really so bad that they'll dump the whole $44 million movie production investment? It's looking that way. Of course, most of the coverage I've read has been focused on the hacking. When a global company is reduced to handwritten paper memos, the threat must be considered severe. I'm disappointed that these self-styled Guardians of Peace won this round. Should give us all pause, though. This is a distur...

Just a fun little thing to lighten your evening.

Some more thinking on trust: Building trust, creating relationship is slow, laborious. Counterpoint:  i t's erosion is fast, with frightening speed. Years to build and moments to ruin. As an entrepreneur, one must be ever vigilant against this erosion of trust. The downward slope is far steeper than the assent. When your customer feels commodified, that they're ONLY a revenue stream for you, the connection will be destroyed.

Celebrity had been, and it's really now, about many loving the beloved from afar. The new online economy, this new world, is about making the connection more intimate, more personal. Even with large audiences, the connections are one to one, or feel so.

This sums up my feelings about life right now. Seen lots of frustration, fear and anger today. I wonder how to move forward. That's often the bold challenge, seeking to move past animosity.  Today's anger spent I seek to make things better Progressing forwards.

Lately, I've been considering all the changes Facebook has blasted out over the years. Particularly, I've been wondering about the Facebook pages I manage. In particular, the many changes to the way business pages interact with the general user concern me. I first noticed this with my personal page feed. Business page content gets filtered out, rarely appearing in feeds, even MY pages in MY feed. I'm also noticing a drop in engagement: comments, questions, dialog, et al. This video takes that concern and provides some flesh to its bones. Now I wonder about Facebook's value to small businesses in any capacity. If content and connection gets buried, lost, or goes out to irrelevant audiences, there is no value. Well, little. Ok, well, lesser. The value of Facebook is still immense. Facebook is still a key piece to a social media strategy. It's THE place, with diverse demographics and a truly global reach. Or, as I like to say, it's the place with the eye-bal...