So, last week I did my civic duty and showed up for jury duty. Though I had visions of scenes from, 'Runaway Jury', my day was not nearly as exciting as the John Grisham book/movie.
I was a little annoyed that I got called for jury duty almost three years to the day after I served last time (you're not supposed to have to serve more than once in 3 years) but I was even more annoyed when my name didn't get called AGAIN! I got put on no juries! What a rip off.
Instead, I ended up watching coverage of Super Tuesday and Payton Manning parting ways with the Colts.
The real point of this story is that I brought along a ton of articles and blog posts that I'd been meaning to read and just never seem to find the time. One of them was: Stop Stealing Dreams. Have you read this? It's incredibly well-written by a really smart guy and one of my favorite thinkers named Seth Godin.
You may remember this story, but a few years ago, I heard that Seth was giving a marketing workshop in New York City. Predictably, it's really expensive to go and hear him speak, but I'm a huge fan, I read his blog every day, and I think that he can give advice on anything. He's not arrogant or rude about it, he just asks a lot of questions, with the most valuable one being, 'why?'.
Anyway, I wrote him an e-mail telling him that I'd love to come and hear him speak, but couldn't afford it. As a performer, I told him, I knew how disheartening it was to have empty seats in a theater, so I let him know that if anyone called and cancelled that morning that I'd be happy to sacrifice my day and come down to fill the chair!
I also mentioned that I was sure he and his staff were laughing at me as they were reading the e-mail and that I hoped that they would enjoy their day.
He wrote back within the hour, asked me to bring my guitar, and sing a few songs during the break and we'd call it even!
I made demo CDs for each attendee, sold a bunch of full-length albums (I ended up making money on the day) and got to meet CD Baby founder, Derek Sivers out of the deal. All because Seth Godin does things differently. He actually reads his e-mails, allows himself to connect with people, he answers honestly (I'm sure he would have told me if he didn't think that I was good), and he cares!
Anyway, reading his manifesto on education, I just found myself smiling a lot. I'm a bigger fan of his now than ever before, and if you care about the education system, and making changes (I mean big ones) this is definitely the read for you! If you need the link again, here it is: Stop Stealing Dreams.
Enjoy your day! Kristen
