I discovered this blog, Infatuateur, via Cultural Offering. It’s a curated feast of beauty and style that includes nature & animals, architecture & interiors, food & drink, men’s style and beautiful women.
In the words of its keeper, “I am a man who is bewitched by beauty and smitten with infatuation.”
Worth checking out over an idle hour.
Image: https://infatuateur.tumblr.com/post/802742838748200960
“Just when the gods had ceased to be, and Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone.”
Gustave Flaubert, letter to Madame Roger des Genettes, from The Letters 1830-1880
Such an evocative sentence.
Photo by Mindaugas Vitkus on Unsplash
A great reminder from Steve Layman. I was tempted to copy/paste the full post, but here’s a snippet:
We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost tomorrow.
Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment in advance (and regular payments forever).
An important warning about the decline of deferred gratification. Read the full post, here.
Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash
I may be a little late to recommend this as Christmas Eve reading (hopefully not), but Broken Ground, the inaugural collection of short fiction from Uncertain Stories, is superb.
I’ve only read the first two stories so far and they are original, thought-provoking and definitely “uncertain” – as the website promises: “new short stories with a supernatural or speculative edge”.
Also, and always a bonus, the book comes beautifully wrapped.
Along with the single-sheet, super short story, Mark, you can see above, the volume comes a 16-page Little Uncertainty, “small books that we give away for free to help spread the love of short stories.”
What’s not to love?
Kurt at Cultural Offering updates his list of 25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter.
Really not sure I’m worthy, but I am deeply honoured and flattered to be included. Cultural Offering was one of the first blogs I followed and it is a never-ending source of perspective, information and inspiration.
Add it to your list and check out the others.
Thank you, Kurt.
Photo by Ioana Trandafir on Unsplash
I’m very flattered to be mentioned in Execupundit’s list of Uniquely Personal Blogs.
It’s high praise that I’ll attempt to measure up to.
Thanks, Michael.
Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash
(I wrote this for my Burning Pine site, but then realised it belongs on here, too.)
When you’re a small business, a micro business or a freelancer, it’s different.
Whatever you do centres on you. That’s not an ego thing. It’s just that clients are buying “you” – the unique blend of experience, skills, understanding and relationship you bring.
Here are a few tips and reminders for those who find they’ve inadvertently become their own brand.
It’s probably not your professional skill. If you are a designer, writer or accountant, your clients are probably not (just) buying pictures, words and numbers. You may be an average financial adviser or marketer who is exceptionally good at listening and empathising. You may be an SEO expert or trainer on the invoice, but your value is in being a sounding-board, informal coach or counsellor. It can be hard, but you need to understand what the client is buying, as well as what you’re selling. That’s not easy to put in a brochure, but it’s what drives loyalty, repeat business and referrals.
That’s your job. Leave your ego at the door and make your client look great to their boss or the board. That’s what pulls you up through their organisation and across the organisations of their career path, building a network of contacts and new clients as you go.
Get up, get dressed, be at your desk. Even though “dressed” is seldom a suit and tie. Even though “desk” isn’t in an office with a PA. Written back when Blackberry was still a thing, there’s a lot of value in Nicholas Bate’s Professionalism 101 (here as a handy download). Nicholas is now at Hunter Gatherer 21C.
What do you think? What have I missed?
Photo by Marcus Neto on Unsplash
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
Attributed to W. Edwards Deming (but incorrectly, it would seem).
Photo by Arturo Añez on Unsplash
There’s so much wisdom in Steven Pressfield’s posts, but this particularly resonated, “You have to have a slate.”
I was doing a free rewrite on the lot at MGM when a producer friend spotted me on the bungalow’s porch and plopped down in the chair beside me. She asked me what I was working on beside this freebie.
I hesitated.
Don’t hesitate…
“you have to be able to rattle off four, five, six projects—and be able to pitch ‘em all with full professionalism.”
Read the full post, and more, here.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, letter to Marcus Terentius Varro
Varro, I learn, was Rome’s leading expert on gardens and agriculture at the time and the literal translation is ““If you have a garden in your library, everything will be complete.”
Photo by Lucas Calloch on Unsplash
