Theme 59: Pioneer

To be a pioneer it means that you have to be very careful, because you are clearing the way for something. What are you clearing the way for?

It’s not a race for you to get to the finish line in real life.

Every day when you’re waking up, stay aligned with your own personal mission.

The way you do one thing is the way you do all things.

Create a business that has meaning because that's what people will connect with.

Create real relationships not just virtual ones.

Decide what you stand for, don't just take it from a marketing manual.

Maybe none of us will cure cancer (or maybe you will) but if you can bring some positivity into your own life and the lives of those around you that's a really great thing.

The period of growth is the most difficult time - Harder than starting the business and getting it off of the ground. It's a time when the backyard pioneers shine and the copycats fade away.

It's important to have a filter to understand what's relevant advice and what's not so relevant.

You can't please everybody and you shouldn't try.

The brand was very much me. The core values of the business, the story, the guiding principles — They're all very personal and all based on my own story and values.

That perfect moment just doesn't exist and never comes. Just jump in!

Have goals and aspirations that are uniquely yours.

Choose a path that is only yours and choose it with confidence.

We all have the power to be backyard pioneers (the unsung pioneers, the little guys) in the context of small business.

If you don’t want it bad enough, you will not succeed.

A modern-day pioneer is somebody who has the courage to do something different, somebody who has the vulnerability to be wrong, and to fail.

I always try to be kind to people, not hurt anyone. That made me come this far. I’m still here, and people helped me because I am that way.

We are all pioneers...Each of us must find a sense of belonging for the first time in our own lives. Belonging is not a country. It is not singular. It is not a noun. If anything, I would say it’s a network. It’s a community. And we have to make community. We have to knit them together with these shared passions and vulnerability and kindness and encouragement.

I don’t want us to fall prey to the idea that our curiosity must be quarantined from our work less we become distracted or waffly. We don’t want to check the very thing that defines us at the door because it might not match the dress code.

For every success, you're going to trip and fall maybe three or four times.

There are no rules as you move forward into the unknown. Don't go out there unprepared, don't charge ahead without looking forward, don't think about what it's going to feel like when you trip and fall.

Know your audience. I'm not quite sure the people who don't get my jokes or can't appreciate them, I'm not quite sure I want them around me.

Why on earth would you look at somebody beside you and say, "Can I do this? Can I be successful? Can I take my creative idea, my solution and can I succeed?" That's being a pioneer...is NOT doing that.

You become the one who is leading the teams in ways that everyone feels included, everyone has a voice. Because it's when all the people have a voice, you'll uncover ideas and thoughts and concepts that you have never dreamed could come true.

I think diversity of mindset, diversity of personality types is what also brings together these great teams. If we're all thinking alike, you'll never get to the great work.

“When things get difficult, the only thing that will keep you continuing and going is going back to your ‘why.’”

“I was like, ‘You know what, we need to pursue something that no one else is pursuing. And, we were dumb enough and naïve enough to start something in healthcare because it was difficult.”

I don't know when exactly I stopped being "that Asian girl" and became Miss Info. But I wouldn't have lasted long enough to find out if I was checking my retweet counts or my Instagram comments.

If your passion can protect you, and if it can also shield you from judgment, then I would say use it by really exploring all of the different aspects of whatever your passion entails because then you're more worthy of that protection and you will contribute better to that creative community.

Nobody could deny that I loved what I did, even the little tiny menial parts of it, and I knew my shit backwards and forwards. I think that was the ultimate thing, that passion, and the work behind it is what broke people down. That's how passion protects you.

When I found hip hop, that was it—that was the great love of my life. I knew I couldn't rap or sing. I don't want to dance. I have stage fright all the time. But I knew that I could document hip hop for the artist and for the people who were involved, the fans. I could find the truth, the fact, spread it and mark it down for history.

I was never driven by ambition or financial reward; I don't think you go into hip hop journalism thinking that you're going to then get the hip hop lifestyle. Those two things do not meet.

I never had a clear idea of where I wanted to go, but I think that's actually an advantage.

You don't necessarily set out to be a pioneer, you go out and you get lost.

Being a pioneer sounds like such a romantic term, it sounds like a great achievement, but I think it only exists in hindsight because when you start out pave a way, that's not what you intend to do. You're just running into the dark, solo, no flashlight, no plan.

What also helped me was isolation—the freedom to be odd, ridiculous, unwanted, and resilience.

Any of the tools that I have have been from my parents, and I use them all of the time: work ethics, attention to detail, respect, devotion, books—so many books—and music.

What has helped me get past fear and self-loathing has been to blinded by passion.

When all the people have a voice, you uncover ideas and thoughts and concepts that you have never dreamed could come true.

You have to own culture. You become the light. You become the one who really is leading the teams in ways that everyone feels included. Everyone has a voice.

I think diversity of mindset, diversity of types - personality types - is what also brings together these incredible teams. And if we're all alike and we're all thinking alike, we'll never get to the great work.

Não pense só em coisas brilhantes, crie coisas brilhantes.

We learn more from something that doesn't work then from if everything works.

Because you'll have an opportunity and the odds are in your favor. You'll either hear no, maybe, or yes. 2 out of 3 .... the odds are in your favor.

If you have what you believe is an original, creative, terrific idea but you get timid and wonder what your client might think ... present it anyway.

If you take nothing away from this morning except this statement, "think about it—there always can be a first time."

DJ [De Pree] said, “George, nobody in the furniture industry sells their catalogs. And I said yes, I do know that. There can always be a first time.

Now, Brody died in 1944 of a heart attack eating French pastry at a bistro in NYC. Not a bad way to go.

Herman Miller is a pioneer. Ask them about the next frontier.

So I taught them screenprinting. I didn’t know about screenprinting either, so I was actually teaching myself. Little did I know that when I joined Herman Miller in 1970 and they asked me if I would design a [picnic] poster and I said I would. I would do 19 more and they’ve gotten a fair amount of recognition. That was my own personal pioneer story.

I had my own pioneer story of sorts when I joined the Peace Corps in 1965. My assignment was to teach at a government trade school for girls.

Everything that happened in my life came about through people asking the question and exploring 'what if.' We're in a world right now where we can focus a lot on what is. But I want to challenge you in home, in work, in your communities to really explore 'what if'—what if you took the time to leverage your experience, your opportunity, to make communities in this world healthier and better for all.

If you look at culture as the root for a new framework that provides an opportunity for communities to build an impact policy in ways that create social, educational, economic and environmental impacts that open up opportunities for communities, you're looking at healthier, more robust communities. And artists can play an integral role in that as being catalysts using social capital to leverage and bring folks together.

If culture shapes health and artists shape culture, then culturally shaped communities can have change.

Pioneers set up camp in the unknown. They can be comfortable in the uncomfortable.

You gotta let people see what it is you are, what you do. You can't create things and leave it in the basement.

You have to be light. Light attracts.

We were born to create more than we consume.

We were all born to create. Every kid with a crayon in their hand scribbles.

Instead of tearing down, I build up. That's what I live by.

If you really love something, you will sacrifice. You will give of yourself.

When we box ourselves too tightly into a single identity or career path, we deprive ourselves of the nutrient necessary to remain connected to the world around us. We are lacking in vitamin curiosity.

Pioneers are fundamentally curious. They want to see what's just over the next ridge. They want to discover whether the stories are true.

When we are young, we are presented with a set of pretty basic isolated end-goal career and identity options . . . Nobody tells you that your curiosity, your life experience, is going to determine a lot about what kind of doctor or firefighter you become.