inspiration...

And it's still minus seven degrees where I live...

Sucks to be us.

In better news, I had a breakthrough yesterday.  

(detour)

It's been said that working in the realm of ideas (filmmaking, storytelling, TV producing, preaching, entrepreneurialism etc...) is 80% walking around doing nothing.

It's true.

It just takes time sometimes for a good idea to filter down into your heart.  If you're anything like me you get several dozen 'good' ideas per day.  Naturally you can't bring each of those good ideas to life, you have to choose some to focus on.

How do you choose?

Mostly, you walk around thinking about them.  You pretend to work, and think about them. You go out to dinner with your family and you think about them.  You go to meetings and think about them.  You buy coffee and think about them.  You take your sons to get their hair cut and you think about them.

You think.

And gradually you stop thinking about certain ones and keep thinking about others.

When you do that kind of thinking for months and months and sometimes years eventually you get down to some filtered ideas that are actually good.

(end detour)

I wrote down what I believe will be our TV production slate for the next 12-18 months.

Ready?

-a half-hour bio-documentary series featuring Hollywood greats.

-a half-hour talk series mixing in-depth conversation with behind the scenes access to pop-culture icons.

-a half-hour reality series for teens mixing romance with activism.

-a half-hour travel show for families.

-a half-hour health show.

-a half-hour talk series with a multi-cultural twist.

-an hour-long dramatic series for U.S and Canadian cable.

I realize I haven't given you very much info (this is after all IP we're talking about here...) but I hope it's enough to show some interesting breadth of focus.

'Cause that's what I thought might be useful for you.

Many of us, especially those who work from someone else, do one thing and one thing only. That's all fine and good but, never mind the fact that that's not exactly a great way to build a diversified career, it's also no way to build a diversified life.

It's my belief that you and I should be more than our job.

The "So, what do you do?" cocktail party question should always be answered with an adventure.

I realize that you don't do what I do.  That's cool.  I still think you might want to consider diversifying your life--expanding your known universe.

Percolate some ideas already.  Build a bigger you.  Design some diversity into what you do, how you do it, why you do it and who it impacts.

Nothing works better in a contracting economy than an expanding humanity.

Do your part.

Your audience will thank you, your wife will love you better, your bank account will follow, you'll start loving what you do and you'll be being obedient to your calling.

T