Maine Creative Services

What’s the goal of your business? To make money, right? Actually, that’s misguided, says the wise former Apple “evangelist” Guy Kawasaki, now a venture capitalist.

The first thing I learned is that the people who change the world—the people who really make a difference—aren’t motivated by money.

Instead, Kawasaki notes, they want “to make meaning and create products they themselves would use.” I totally agree. Apply those principles to your business, and watch it flower.

There are three principle ways of making meaning, says Kawasaki.

“The first is to increase the quality of life of your customer.

“The second way is to right a wrong: To take something and look at the marketplace and say, ‘You know, there must be a better way to do this.

“The third way is to perpetuate something good.”

That seems to me to be a pretty simple recipe for successs, both worldy and spiritual. So take a step back and look at yourself, your business, your employees.

Are you just in it for the money?

More from Guy here.

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

“Making the complicated awesomely simple… that’s creativity.”

Charles Mingus

I’m getting pretty weary of Blogger’s many limitations and, uh, eccentricities (Can you say “bugs?”)

In the previous post (below), for example, I must have tried to format the color of my bullet list about 15 times, but no matter how I selected them, those first two bullet points would not turn yellow. Got it at last! #16 was the charm, I guess.

But should I really have to select all but the first letter of each bullet point, change it to yellow, then go back and select just the first letter and do it again? On each point?

So, I ask you, honored neighbors in the blogosphere, where should I take this thing? Typepad? WordPress?

What do you use, and why?

Simplify doesn’t mean “dumb down”.

It means your memos, presentations and other businesss documents should only be as technical as they need to be depending on your audience. Obviously, if you’re writing or speaking to engineers, you can safely assume a certain level of technical competence — although you might be surprised at how many software developers, for example, can barely crank out anything beyond the most rudimentary PowerPoint presentation.

But you should keep it as simple as possible, even when addressing a technically- sophisticated audience, like medical doctors.

That’s not just my advice. It comes from an American doctor who attends a lot of technical presentations and gives quite a few himself. His advice, on Presentation Zen:

Always ask yourself how technical do you really need to be. If you’re a specialist speaking to generalists, do they really need all the details? This is particularly true when discussing your own research or work (where it’s easy to get carried away).

Can you say: “The technical details are in the handout” (to be distributed after the talk) or “for those interested in the technical details, I’ll be in the lobby after the talk”?

• Can one complex slide be broken down into several simpler ones? Can you use simple graphics and complex descriptions?

• Most importantly: the basics are really important: (a strong) opening, informal tone… work the room, using the blank screen feature, and, of course, Passion, Passion, Passion!!!

I once saw a great talk on the notoriously difficult subject of biostatistics in which the speaker started his talk by standing up in his sportcoat and tie and said “I don’t know about you, but I get pretty worked up talking about biostats so I’ve gotta get this coat off and get ready to rock.” It was funny but genuine and showed passion and informality right from the start. A nice move I’ve copied on occasion.”

“Dr. Ted’s” advice applies not only to speaking but writing, too. Try it yourself. But don’t be surprised to discover– it’s hard work to keep it simple. But your listeners/ readers will love you for it! (Hey, they might even buy what you’re selling.)

Any effective communication requires answering two basic questions before you start to write:

• Who are you trying to communicate with?
• What are you trying to get them to do?

Then tailor your memo, email or other message so they — your intended audience — understand it.

That last bit is where many companies fail, especially those in technology. Their copywriters and marketing communications consultants are so sophisticated in tech stuff, they think the average office worker is, too. Not so, as a UK tech survey reported in the BBC found:

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  Three quarters of workers waste more than an hour a week deciphering what a technical term means

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  Terms like jpeg, javascript and cookies are among the problem words

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  Younger workers are just as likely to be confused by computer language

Computer People recruiters, which questioned 1,500 workers, says effective technology professionals must “understand the need to tailor their levels of jargon.” In other words, as I’ve been saying for years, write clearly and keep it simple.

Thanks, Lifehacker, for the link.

“The three most important elements in any speech are: brevity, levity, and repetition. Let me say that again: brevity, levity, and repetition.”

Daniel Pink, author, Free Agent Nation, at a 2005 commencement address

If he’d sat down right after that, it would (theoretically) have been a perfect speech.

Do you have notes jotted everywhere? I know I do. As a full-time writer, ideas are my bread and butter, and I hate letting any of them slip away.

Consequently, I’ve got ideas scribbled on Post-Its, yellow pads, my PDA, digital voice recorder and some Backpack pages. And let’s not even mention the thousands of half-started files in dozens (hundreds?) of folders and subfolders. I often jot down new ideas in a Word doc, save it, then promptly forget all about it — or can’t find it when I need it.

Thanks to a mention in Walt Mossberg’s WSJ column, I’ve been trying out a free note-taking application that shows promise for people like me. (No, not brain dead. BUSY. Too much to keep track of. And like that.)

It’s called EverNote. It’s basically an endless roll of notepaper, not unlike the old green and white striped fanfold computer paper the MIS guys used to use for their reports. (That’s a better analogy than a giant roll of toilet paper, right?)

EverNote lets you snatch just about anything (text, images, etc.) from just about anywhere (Web page, Word doc, spreadsheet, even a hand-scribbled diagram on a tablet PC). Just right-click “Add to EverNote” and it’s added to the bottom of the list – even if the app itself isn’t running. Pretty slick.

Best of all, each note contains a clickable link to its source, no matter where it is. You can also type, drag or paste content into a note, or use a special button on the Firefox toolbar.

There are built-in templates for to-do lists, expenses, shopping lists, but either they’re pretty lame or I’m not using them correctly. That’s OK, I’m still making good use of the product.

Your notes are manageable because you can assign categories to each, then filter by category. You can also search, click on the timeline to go to a certain date, or scroll. Notes can be collapsed or expanded to save screen real estate.

Unlike Backpack, EverNote lives on your hard drive, not a Web page. For you, maybe that’s a drawback, but I prefer it. It’s much, much faster, more nimble and more flexible than Backpack. And it, too, is free. Try it here.

So… what do you use to stay organized?