Businesses are beginning to understand that recession or no recession, purchase decisions are not influenced by price alone.  For the most part, we want to purchase affordable products/services of uncompromised quality and value.   For that reason, I’m quite intrigued by the advertising and marketing direction of today’s companies: sell a better product at a better price and make it interesting.  Companies need to fight for our loyalty now more than ever, and they’ll do so at whatever cost.  Ads are getting down to business: raw, straightforward facts.  I say this with the Rogers and Bell ads at top of mind.  At first, you had to put two-and-two together “I think Rogers is talking about Bell when they refer to that blue couch”.  But now, you don’t need to be a Math scholar to understand their message “Spend less than Rogers, get more with Bell”. The amateur price-wars of yesterday are gone, replaced with arguably immature “I’m better than him because…” ads. The Rogers and Bell marketing campaigns appear to have my best interests at heart – they tell me all the ways I can get more while saving more. So part of me is impressed at their “fight” for my hard-earned dollars because it looks like I end up the big winner at the end of the day.  It’s not that simple though.

I have a beef with the Rogers/Bell battle: Two players in any given industry will not push service and quality to its peak.  I’m a Rogers client who knows people that use Bell services, and I’ve found that we share one thing in common: no one’s happy.  Rogers’ automated customer service line is anything but helpful and my one alternative isn’t much better.  I’m numb by the realization that Canadians are stuck when it comes to choices.  I simply cannot buy-in to the notion that the customers’ interests are truly protected.  I can appreciate the great marketing direction behind the campaigns, but I struggle to accept that we, as customers, will ever get what we deserve from either provider.

Unfortunately, they won’t come out and write that in their advertisements.

Dear Friends,

These are ideas that I’ve read, heard, seen, found, thought up or stole.

Some have helped me get out of creative ruts and moments of self-doubt – like when I feel that my work isn’t good enough or isn’t contributing anything significant. Others have helped me say “why the fuck not?” when faced with making a safe versus unsafe decision. A few keep me in the realm of possibility.

All serve as fuel for the fire.

So fill up!

16. “WE DON’T PLAY, EVEN WHEN WE BE PLAYIN’”

Outkast making the case for serious play. Seriously.

15. THE ONLY TIME YOU LIVE IS NOW

You don’t live 2 minutes from now, 2 hours from now, 2 days from now or 2 years from now. You’re only alive at this moment, so why not make that time the best time possible?

14. IT’S NOT ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU ARE, IT’S ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU WANT TO BE

So how good do you want to be? (This was the great Paul Arden’s way of saying don’t talk about it if you don’t live it.)

13. JUST ASK

Really, what’s the worst that could happen? Besides, there are worse things in life than hearing someone tell you no.

12. “IF YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO BE WRONG, YOU’LL NEVER COME UP WITH ANYTHING ORIGINAL”

Words of wisdom from Sir Ken Robinson, someone who understands that failure is only one attempt preceding success.

11. GET HIGH

For real. You might see some next shit that you’d miss otherwise. Take Bob Marley, who doesn’t seem to miss anything:

“Herb is a plant… herbs are good for everything. Why these people who want to do so much ‘good’ for everyone – who call themselves governments and this and that – why them say you must not use the herb? … We see them just say ‘You must not use it, you must not use it ‘cause it make you rebel.’ Against what?”

10. “THE SPIRIT OF YOUR DESIGN MUST MATCH THE SPIRIT OF YOUR CONTENT”

The designer of “No Logo” telling Naomi Klein that basically, all of the pieces matter. This line is one of the best ways to see if your work really “represents”.

9. “GOOD DESIGNERS (AND ARTISTS AND WRITERS) ARE TROUBLEMAKERS”

The troublemakers understand that the most dangerous things about our society are the very things that we take for granted. The quote above is from the perverse optimist himself, Tibor Kalman.

8. “WHEN EVERYBODY ZIGS, WE ZAG”

One of the dudes who designed the Air Jordan’s said that if they do something that everyone likes, they scrap the idea. If they do something that makes people feel uncomfortable, than it means that they’re doing some next shit.

7. ALLOW YOUR FUTURE TO CONTROL YOUR PRESENT

I’ve seen many lives in ruin as a result of the past dictating the present. The only way the past has any bearing on your present is if you allow it to. Switch up your mentality from PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE to FUTURE-PRESENT-PAST.

6. DON’T ASK SOMEONE WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT YOUR WORK – ASK THEM HOW YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER

More often than not, you’ll get an honest answer.

5. SHARE

Your time. Your ideas. Your work. Your energy. Share everything you have and more will come back to you.

4. “IT’S NOT WHERE YOU TAKE THINGS FROM – IT’S WHERE YOU TAKE THEM TO”

Jean-Luc Godard co-signs stealing – but only stealing that which speaks to your soul. (I stole this from Paul Arden, who stole it from Jim Jarmusch.)

3. GOD IS IN THE DETAILS

No really, she is. Take a good look. Right there, do you see her? She’s right in that space that separates the best in your field from the best in the world.

2. ROLL THE DICE

Because it’s better to regret what you have done than what you haven’t.

1. DO WHAT YOU LOVE

A wise man once asked me, “what do you love to do?” After I answered, he asked me, “then why aren’t you doing it?” Doing what you love will make it easier to get up in the morning and it’s more rewarding than any material object will ever be. I really can’t stress this one enough.

(((Respect to Paul Arden, Bruce Mau, J. Sakiya Sandifer, Karim Rashid and others for the inspiration information. *Before I forget, this is the snack like version of my original Incomplete Humanifesto. The original includes ideas about life and love and relationships – but you don’t wanna read about that…)))

Creativity is the ability to develop something new by throwing away past ideas or concepts. So to start, we first must reach into the depths of the seemingly impossible. We need to go beyond the innovative ways of making money and somehow transform the economic system altogether. As the philosopher Alan Watts says in his book Does It Matter, “money is a way of measuring wealth but is not wealth in itself”.

Our society is a victim of temptation and the more stuff that accumulates around us the more cluttered our minds become. Fortunately, these things and possessions have no feel. At most they are a temporary lust that fills an empty void. We have to move towards a system that caters to our most basic needs; food, shelter, mental/physical services and art in all of its forms. This also requires a society that promotes our growth toward becoming higher beings.

Herman Daly, an ecological economist, states that more growth in terms of physical product is not the answer. Daly says “this only compels people to work harder in order to be able to afford the unending stream of ‘new’ goods being supplied by the system”. Daly expresses that “marginal costs of additional growth in rich countries, such as global warming, biodiversity loss and roadways choked with cars, now likely exceed marginal benefits of a little extra consumption”.

The human being is considered a very advanced species, maybe because we hold the only opinion on the topic, but I would argue that our steps are minimal and all over the map. This is directly related to our lack of trust in one another and in the universe. We steal each others money and point fingers while putting all of our confidence in this ‘virtual’ wealth. Yet, there is no depth here. There is nothing pure or hopeful about it.

We have built and expanded our world from side to side and from top to bottom because we have no concept of the actual space that surrounds us, this infinite magic that is energy. If our goal can be to inherently help and improve one another we will reach a greater fulfillment and our society with naturally change to fit our mold.

We can no longer make physical products that are intended to break and fail for the sake of doing business. The number one reason being the environment and the second being the empty and disheartening experience we tolerate when deceiving one another. People in this period of time have no idea what they are really working for. We have created a continuous competition among ourselves while disregarding the beauty and health of a natural phenomenon that is our home.

Human beings never really appreciate something until it is gone. This is how we have evolved, to always have more, but we cannot buy back the lakes and trees once they disappear. We desperately need to connect and when we do I guarantee we will witness something amazing. This economic downfall is an opportunity for us to realize the insignificance of money. This may be a naïve way of thinking due to the current system we find ourselves in and I know people are suffering but we cannot look for a quick fix. We need to put our minds together, tap into the collective consciousness and build something new, something seemingly impossible from our current view.