by Joyce

Think Different

 A few nights ago, I got out of bed at 1:11, unable to sleep. I shuffled through the house, found my phone in the dark–that’s where I read my Kindle books–and slipped my “Smart Blanket” over my head, ready to snuggle in and put my feet into the foot holders at the bottom of the fleecy blanket. I was hungry, so I sliced a bit of Dill Havarti cheese, placed a few rice crackers on the cutting board, (see, you can walk around in that Smart Blanket), and poured myself a glass of wine all by the light of the phone. 

I made it into the living room carrying my stash, sat myself and the cutting board down, and then proceeded to sit the wine glass into mid-air, missing the coffee table altogether.

The carpeting cushioned the glass from breaking and absorbed the wine—a good thing it was white wine, not red.

 I threw a towel over the wine wet spot to absorb it, mashed it around with my foot, and settled into what I intended in the first place.

 “When you grow up,” I read, “you tend to get told the world is the way it is, and you ought to just live your life inside that world. 

 Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

 That’s a very limited life. It can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you was made up of people that were no smarter than you. And that you can change it. You can build your own things that people can use. – Steve Jobs

 Think Different

 — Apple’s slogan from 1992 to 2002

I didn’t know that.

 One advantage of a Kindle is that it has links, and that night, although I rarely do, I hit one and found Steve Jobs’ commentary. 

 I was reading Building a Brand by David Miller, the best book on copy-writing if you’re into that, or marketing if you have a company or even write a letter. Marketing is something we do whether we know we’re doing it or not. I always run from it, thinking I stunk at it (or is it stank?), and it scares me, 

 Once Jobs wrote a nine-page description of his company, very technical, but after his experience with Pixar and seeing the value of story, he switched from being focused on his company to being focused on his customers. Most customers don’t want to waste calories on reading a lengthy description of your company. They want to know how it will serve them. “Think Different” was born. And Jobs wanted Different to be a noun instead of “differently” which is grammatically correct.

 “I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.”–“Flannery O’Connor

 Yep. I know that one. 

 But if you want a great resolve, think of Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars Movie. He did it with one shot.

  • “Do I have what it takes?” In his case, to be a Jeti.
  • He got the job done–destroyed the Death Star.
  •  Good triumphed over evil.

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