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Josh Allan Dykstra
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LifeMay 22, 2009

The Grass Ain’t Greener

In 2004, I worked as a night time producer and deejay at Mix 100.3 FM in Denver. My shift was 7pm-midnight. Every evening I greeted my newlywed wife at the door from her day of work, had a quick dinner, and began my 45-minute commute downtown. I would race up Kipling Parkway to Highway 6. By October the darkness arrives early, and it would be pitch black by the time I left. A snappy chill would hit my face on the way out the door, and the night sky around the streetlights would be full of the frosty haze that gathers in the Colorado winter months, threatening to blanket you in snow at any moment. There's something about the cold winter darkness that makes me contemplative, and as I drove I'd stare past the oncoming headlights into the beautiful houses that lined the hills above the road. They were too far away to see anything inside except the warm glow of lamps and the flicker of televisions, but that was enough for me to envision having a house of my own, and the happiness it would bring. "If I had a house," I reasoned, "I would be making enough money and wouldn't have to work a crappy nightshift." Radio station = cool. But night shifts... not so much. "If I had a house, I would sit at home with my wife, and someday, family, and enjoy such a pleasant evening. I would work the hours that 'normal people' do, and it would be glorious." Eventually I shifted to working day hours at the station, and it was glorious... for awhile. Then I grew tired of that. And then I got laid off; try as I might, I couldn't outrun corporate budget cuts at the station. And then I wasn't able find a new job to save my ever-loving soul. Colorado began to be the problem. "If I could only find a job in California," I thought, "THEN life would be amazing. I'd be near the beach, the mountains, and Mickey! What's not to love?" Well, it's been just over three years since we moved to Southern California, and during that time I've learned something. The grass ain't greener over here. In fact, it's never greener anywhere. Our first year in California was one of the most difficult years of our lives. But somehow, through that experience we changed our mindsets. I changed my mindset. I decided that I could paint my grass. People do that you know. The lawn around me could be as green as I wanted it to be. It's easy to find cons, to see downsides. Learning to find contentment and happiness is so much harder. But it makes life so much better.
"Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours." — Helen Keller
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LeadershipMay 19, 2009

Don Tapscott Wants You To Hire Me

OK, well, maybe not ME, exactly, but definitely US Gen Y'ers! For my new book, I've been doing a ridiculous amount of research about generational studies, social media, new technologies, culture shifts, etc. It's an fascinating field, mostly because it's in the beginning of its adoption phases. Given, phenomena do seem to "tip" at a much more rapid pace these days (if you need more info on that, watch this from 2:34-2:54), but by my estimation we've not yet begun to really see widespread mainstream implications from the social shifts that are occurring. As you may well imagine, there is a veritable cornucopia of information on these topics all over the internet. Somebody that's been growing in popularity on my "favorite people I've never met" list is Don Tapscott. He's an author and consultant that specializes in the areas of Gen Y (he calls us the "Net Generation," for good reason) and societal shifts. I wanted to introduce you to this gentleman, if you're not already familiar, because he seems to have a really solid grasp on emerging culture. Today I came across a particularly great article and video today by Don called "Harnessing the Net Generation," which explains in a very articulate way why the war for talent is actually just beginning (not ending) and why us Gen Y'ers could actually be some of the most powerful employees your company could add during a time of uncertainty. Click HERE to see the vid and article. Thanks for maintaining such a positive outlook, Don! I'm with you -- I think we're going to see some absolutely fantastic shifts towards positive culture change over the next decade. //
LegacyMay 13, 2009

Must-See: The Story Of Stuff

I'll keep this brief, as I'd love for you to consider taking the next 21 minutes to actually watch this video. In The Story Of Stuff, Annie Leonard does a completely masterful job of illustrating how we get all our "stuff," where it comes from and where it goes. To be frank, this might be the most important short film you see all year. Hopefully it will inspire you to pass it along and start the dialogue in your own specific circle. Feel free to watch it here, below, or there's a wonderful interactive presentation on the Story Of Stuff website. //
LifeMay 6, 2009

Incorporate Yourself

I'm working on writing another book. It started as an idea for a project I had to create for my MBA program and has morphed into a giant opus that is consuming my life. OK, that last part isn't really true, but it does feel like a pretty daunting task sometimes. This morning I decided to set aside a couple hours to just write. As a completely freelance independent contractor, I'm trying to have more personal discipline with the things I do, starting by setting aside blocks of time to work on a specific thing: Finance Homework, 9a-noon; Book/Writing, noon-3p, that kind of thing. It doesn't always work (I'm not sure if you're aware but there are a LOT of interesting things on the internet), but I think the self-control of a regimen is really great. I'm all about viewing ourselves as a "brand," as an "enterprise." YOU are the business. Even if you get paid as an employee, think of yourself as a contractor: lending your talents to the project at hand. Incorporate yourself. The benefits to this way of thinking are astronomical. I'll explore this concept more in future posts, but in a nutshell it's simply more empowering. It's one thing to say, "This is what I do, and this how I can bring value to your company if we partner together." It's another thing altogether to be sending out resumes all day, getting, or feeling, rejected one after the other. (If you've ever been unemployed you know exactly what I'm talking about; it's literally inhumane.) It's not easy to think of ourselves in this new way, though. There's a lot of sociological baggage we've got to ditch (our culture focuses primarily on weaknesses over strengths, for example), and good time management is a really tough skill to learn. Also, we're taught that a 60 hour work week is what it takes to be successful. But some very prosperous people don't do that. We're told that we get out of something what we put into it. But due to things like the concept of leverage and the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule), we know that's not really true either. We'll talk more on that another day. There's usually a lot of re-training that has to happen before we can learn how to build a better personal leadership brand. For today, I think we start with simply questioning the assumptions. Does your work have to be done the way it's always been done? Do you have to live the way you've been living? There's a cool moment at the end of a film with two brothers sitting on the beach talking about recent frustrating circumstances, and one says to the other: "This is your life. Right now. It doesn't wait for you to get back on your feet." I'll leave you with some thoughts from the principles of Kaizen (Japanese for "improvement"):
  1. Get rid of old assumptions; ask “Why?” five times to get to the root cause.
  2. Don’t look for excuses, look for ways to make things happen.
  3. Say “NO” to the status quo.
  4. Don’t worry about being perfect—even if you only get it half right, start now.
  5. If something is wrong, fix it on the spot.
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