Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

music business

Heating up the car

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A common method for heating a cold car is cranking the dial on the temperature to full red, and blasting the fan on its highest setting.

But if your destination dictates you drive for more than a few minutes the car soon becomes uncomfortably warm, and then you need to adjust to an extreme in the opposite direction. You end up taking 1 step forward and 1 step back until you land somewhere in the middle.

Work can feel the same way; an extreme amount of effort at the beginning of a big project can lead to having to compensate by back pedaling in the other direction.

Try keeping things regulated. Put the temperature dial close to the middle, and keep the fan at a medium speed. Acknowledge that your work will take more than a few minutes and accept that your project may be slightly slower to warm up, but ultimately you’ll have to make fewer major adjustments and stay more comfortable.

The Simplest Way To Invest In Property

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Here’s a simple way to invest in property: create art, then share it.

Write a poem, compose a song, paint a picture, sculpt a statue.

It will take practice, patience, self awareness, and showing up each day. You may feel frustrated, uncomfortable, afraid, excited, accomplished, acknowledged, soothed and a host of other emotions.

You will exercise your mind, convey a message, create something from your unique perspective, and share a small piece of yourself.

And you will own a piece of intellectual property.

Do this enough and you may own a small neighborhood.

One day the market in your neighborhood may even start to rise.

All you have to do is begin.

Help me help you

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If you want a useful restaurant recommendation it’s important to ask someone you trust and make sure they know you’re lactose intolerant, love spicy food, and will be in New York City in May.

Most people do the opposite when they ask questions at work: it’s more like they’re asking their best friend where to get dinner tonight – there’s a lot that doesn’t need to be said and pre-existing knowledge and experience with exactly this problem.

At work this method causes back and forth, even more email, and extra time.

When asking for help from busy people, or from people who’s attention is important to you, don’t overlook asking your question directly and don’t forget to give them the information they need. That will help them help you fastest.

This is also why people prefer handling things over the phone or in person – it ensures they can have an efficient conversation, help decipher next steps, and move on (and have a trimmer inbox to boot).

Being A Good Partner

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If you provide a service, you can’t tell your buyer how important your relationships are and then demand something unreasonable from them when your supplier puts pressure on you.

Because then what you’re saying is “my supplier relationships are important, and my relationship with my buyers can be sacrificed because without my supplier, I have nothing to offer.” This of course makes no sense because without buyers, your suppliers will be out of business.

The hard part about partnerships isn’t when two sides are at odds, it’s when business priorities are at odds with business promises.

In those cases it’s critical to consider what your objectives are, and what promises you’re making to everyone, and then evaluate what being a good partner means.

Small Excuses

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They add up. And each time you make one, you put an obstacle in your own way.

Tonight I almost skipped my nightly dose of apple cider vinegar because I just brushed my teeth and it would taste bad.

I love the feeling I get from taking the stuff and it’s crazy to me that minor feelings of aversion to a bad taste would somehow outweigh something I value highly; it’s crazy I’d subconsciously prevent myself from taking this action.

Then I had the realization that I get in my own way all the time and reflected on recent frustrations in my life where I’m getting in the way of my other goals.

Next I had the idea for this post, and thought:

But you haven’t posted in ages, plus you’d be staying up later

and caught myself making 2 more small excuses and then grabbed my phone and started typing.

I’ve started with 2 steps:

  1. Promise to get out of your own way
  2. Notice where you’re making small excuses

Once you’re frustrated with stagnation and inaction enough to commit to clearing your own mental path, tuning in makes the source of friction obvious.

The combination of those two steps is powerful: You’ll be bias to action and cutting through excuses in no time.

Your Life With One Bar

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That thing in your pocket – you know; the rectangular one? The one that helps you Facetime grandma or read what your crazy friend has to say on Facebook or that you can’t live without on a long flight because HELLO! Stranger Things Season 2 is out and you’re somehow only 2 episodes in!

Something really, really messed up is about it to happen to it.

First, think about all the times it works well: When you’re connected to the internet and you forgot to print your boarding pass and then… “Oh yeah, I can just download the app and enter in my reservation confirmation that’s sitting in my inbox. Easy.”

Or remember the time when you remembered at the last second its Dad’s birthday? How happy was he to hear you and your daughter sing to him? Remember the look on his face?

Of course there was that horrible hurricane. And you were FREAKING OUT because you know your sister lives RIGHT near there in Florida and…oh thank god, she checked in on Facebook that she’s ok, just without service for a bit.

Now think about the times when it doesn’t work so well.

UGH, the file is too big but I have to send this stupid thing for work and WHY CAN’T THIS WORK WHEN I NEED IT TO?

Or CRAP, no connection so Facetime won’t work. I guess we’ll just have to connect later and say “Happy belated” (if I remember) even though I TOTALLY am NOT late, my stupid phone just doesn’t work.

What about that AMAZING playlist. The one that ALWAYS helps you with anxiety on a flight. Just fire up Spotify and download it and…shit. One bar. No sleep on this flight and my presentation tomorrow is SCREWED.

Welcome to life with one bar. Always.

This is what the FCC wants to do with their repeal of the net neutrality laws. They want to give you one bar.

…but not for everything.

Only on stuff that you use a TON, that you LOVE, but that doesn’t happen to jive with your internet company’s bottom line.

You know, the same internet company that manages to raise your bill every month for no reason. The one that provides you download speeds slower than ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD for
MORE MONEY than ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

Think about that: you pay to have internet service provided to you, but instead of just providing the already over-priced, over-throttled service they now
tell you what and how you can use it and can charge you more for the privilege.

Imagine if you did that with your business, how fast would you lose customers? They could choose another provider so easily.

Luckily our internet providers don’t have that problem – you’re basically choosing between mediocre and fine because they’ve already lobbied to make sure we don’t have a choice.

Now, very soon, they’re going to get to decide how much Facebook you get to go on, how much Spotify you get to listen to, or heck, maybe they’ll charge you more to use Facetime.

Sound ludicrous and moronic? It is.

It’s pretty insane to think that you could possibly be charged more money to use apps that you love. Or that they can limit the amount of time you spend streaming your online college course that you’ve already paid kind of a lot for because you’re trying to get a job so finally your kid can go to a decent school.

It’s insane to think about what life would be like always having one bar.

I don’t want to be told what to do, what service is best for me, or get charged even more money for even WORSE service.

I want an open and free internet.

If you do too you can take 2 really easy steps you can do in 3 minutes:

  1. Write to Congress (just fill out your name and address)
  2. Share that link to as many people as you can. Use this post if it helps you do so.

That’s it – but you have less than 48 hours.

If you’re feeling heroic you can also call congress (they’ll show you how after you follow step 1 above).

Just do one that one thing to avoid having one bar on all your favorite apps.

Your grandma and I thank you.

Andy

p.s. The current FCC chairman was a lawyer for Verizon for years.