Dismiss at your risk.

Don't dismiss anything. I want that to be your maxim for the day.
We all have a tendency to discount and dismiss items that don’t fit into our particular sphere of influence and interest. We also tend to gloss things over in the constant flood of information that we are bombarded with everyday. Today I would like you to make a conscious effort to reach beyond your comfort zone and read a blog, listen to a podcast, pick up a new book that isn’t your usual fair. Lets help each other to broaden our horizons and look at new perspectives.

I will digress for a minute here. I picked up a book on Audible.comnot to long ago called “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall after I had seen him on an interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Let me tell you how much I hate to run, I’m a big guy over 6’3” and 250+, and being from the mid-west have always been a short range football runner, but McDougall’s narrative about running and the people, places, and ideology involved gave me an entirely new perspective on running and on life.

I also picked up WWGD (What Would Google Do) by Jeff Jarvis on Audible.com. I’m not necessarily in the tech industry, but who isn’t affected by it anymore, yet the insights and ideas proposed by Jarvis about business have helped me think about how I do my job and look at my customers in an entirely new light. The book also pushed me into looking into other areas and information. Since I read WWGD I have also read The Cluetrain Manifesto 10th anniv edition, which is also a great pickup for anyone looking at taking their business into the digital age (there will be a blog post later about the Cluetrain Manifesto). It also turned me on to Jarvis’s blog, BuzzMachine,

which he continues to update with ideas and insights into the digital economy.

What I’m getting at, the long way, is that these are books that I would have never picked up if I didn’t break out of my comfort zone. They have information that may change your world view or help reinforce it, but ultimately they help to broaden your horizons and knowledge base and that is always a good thing.