I Didn't Know There Was a Rat in it!

We love you Ratty, sorry you're not coming off too well in this blog.

A story I grew up with, a story we all grew up with, a story about a bad ass hare and an easy going tortoise, I am of course talking about the epic tale called “The Hare and the Tortoise”. It’s a story that is much loved by people the world over and it really makes us believe if just for a moment that if we keep our heads down, believe in ourselves and keep going, well we might just get to where we want to be. Whether this is becoming a millionaire or beating an arrogant, know-it-all hare it doesn’t matter, the principles are the same.

For me I think this concept is something we all want to believe, something we all even say we believe but how many of us actually live like we believe it? Not many you can bet. For most of us think one way and act another, leading to a life of frustration, disappointment and being average and yes landscape architecture is no different.

Not that there is anything wrong with being average or being normal if you like, it’s just that if you had a magic lamp gave it a rub and out popped a genie who was willing to offer you anything you wanted, you could have it all, the life of your dreams, anything, anything at all, do you really think anybody on this earth, no matter what their circumstances would say to the genie “Genie I wish to be average”. I doubt it! Therefore I conclude that nobody will ever feel fulfilled in their lives if all they ever do is be average, no matter how content or peaceful they are with it, being average will slowly be met with regrets, disappointment and a feeling of emptiness, which people will try and fill with superficial modern day conveniences, pursuing life’s of pleasure rather then fulfilment. Pursuing a life centred around themselves and what people can offer them, instead of living a life centred around each other and what they can offer people.

In the recent story I read about the tortoise and the hare, there was an extra character involved, one that I never knew of before, he was the rat and he only entered the race because other people were talking about it and he didn’t want to miss out, so he jumped in, just to be like everyone else, you know, just to fit in, who wants to miss out on all the commotion.

Let’s recap the story by taking the three characters:

The boastful hare: He’s expected to win; he’s got all the natural ability in the world and is born to be fast and powerful.

The humble tortoise: He’s a slow animal, certainly not designed to be fast and even lacks the ability to run, a clear outsider with not a snowflakes chance in hell of winning against a hare

The Rat: He can run, he can train really hard, he can be smart and run right, sure you could say he has potential and sure if a tortoise is going to run I guess the rat might as well run also. Nothing to lose, right!

So race day comes, and they all line up, the hare, the rat and the tortoise, the gun fires and they’re off, straight out of the blocks is the hare, speeding far, far ahead and then the tortoise one foot in front of the other, step by step, slowly but surely, lagging way behind the hare, but of course we all know how this story ends so I’m not going down that road, no I’m going back to the race, where we have the rat!

Now this is where this story gets really interesting, the rat takes one step forward, a good step, fast, confident, full of energy, but unfortunately another step does not follow, as the rat decides, just as the race begins that he will never beat the hare, sure he’ll beat the tortoise, very easily in fact, but the hare not a chance, and who wants to finish second, who cares about second place. So straight away the rat gives up as soon as the race started because he knew he could never beat the hare. And guess what the rat didn’t beat the hare and can you guess what again, the rat never ever beat the hare, in fact the rat will probably never beat the hare not now or in the future, because the rat knows he can’t win. Meanwhile the tortoise goes on to win the race.

The rat was not slow nor was he fast, he was average and because he never tried to be anything else other than average he stayed average and he got average results. The world is full of rats and hares, with all sorts of natural ability that blow your mind away, the truth is most of the hares rely too heavily on their natural ability and most of the rats never stop believing they are average, it takes little steps, no matter how slow or how small, it takes little steps one after another, in the right direction to get you where you want to be, and I guess sometimes it takes an insignificant rat to remind us of that.

So what kind of landscape architect are you:

A.      One with natural ability, that you are destined to waste. (not always, but very often the case)

B.      One with average ability that you believe right down to your core

C.      Or one that knows where you are going and you take small but significant steps to get there each and every day.

If you think you are C, well then prove it to yourself, ask yourself right now, “What little step did I take to get me closer to where I want to be?” If you can’t answer that simple question then you are not C!

Disclaimer:

This writer of this blog has nothing against rats, tortoises or hares any references to them are purely metaphorical, in fact the writer of this blog is a vegan and he loves all of god’s creatures, even the ones that pollute the planet day after day.

Do you want it? Come and take it.



Go get 'em Tiger!



The below dialougue is a result of a discussion I have with myself, upon waking up every morning.

LIFE:

Hi, I’m life.

ME:

Hi

LIFE:

In my right hand I have $100 in my left hand I have $1,000,000 you can take which ever one you choose. All you have to do is take it! Simple, just take it!

Me:

Cool, I’m taking the $1,000,000, thank you so much, see you soon!

LIFE:

See you tomorrow!

For me the above dialougue pretty much sums up how I see eveything, including being a landscape architect. Am I a succesfull landscape architect? Well by many peoples standards the answer is a resounding “NO” . This isn’t a problem, I think being succesful, being great is something you choose, it’s not given, it’s presented, and when it’s presented you have a choice,take it or leave it. That choice is presented to everybody, every day, but very few of us take it and even more of us fail to see it.

I believe the key rests in your awarness to connect yourself to the greatness that is within you.  Which is why I choose to make myself aware and for the purpose of this blog that awarness is all about understanding what makes somebody a great landscape architect, now I could look at both sides and try and figure out what makes somebody an average LA and what makes somebody a great LA, get the result, analyze then compare and contrast, disect and criticly evaluate it and that would be then considered a sceintific study but we’re not in a lab we’re in life and in life you get what you focus on.

Which is why I’ve decided to focus on succesful landscape arhcitects, over the next 3 to 4 months, I will be embarking on a mission to meet, interview and evaluate succesfull landscape architects, people who have won awards, own their own practice and have a well rounded life with a passion and desire for improvment and excellence.

I want to see how they do it, what it takes and hopefully be inspired to take similar steps and one day stand on the shoulders of giants so that one day I can offer the new generations of LA’s to come the gift of inspiration, knowledge and wisdom to achieve great things for our profession.

You see no matter how unusual or unexpected great results are, when traced back you will see that they all follwed a logical format, a format that can be applied to your life. You will also see that succesfull people develop habits that others don’t have and upon applying these  habits on a daily basis they contribute to achieving fantastic results. These habits can also be learnt and applied. It would be delussional to think otherwise.

My theory is that if you learn these habits, if you are open to great opportunities and take action when they present themselves, no matter what your circumstances, you too can be just as great as the people you admire and look up to for guidance and inspiration.

We are all made from the same organic matter, what makes us different is how we believe, behave and percieve.  If you change these three things, you can change your life to suit your desires.

So if you want to be an average LA, don’t pay attention to the interviews, if you want more, if you want to be successfull, if you want to be a great Landscape Architect, then get ready to hear about how it’s done, by people who have done it and continue to do it on a daily basis.

I hope you’re as excited about the interviews as I am, which wil be accompanied by a few benificial extras, to help you make the most out of what “WE” are going to learn together.

The first interview will be posted on the “Landscape Architects” facebook page, the connection to the page is at the bottom of the blog. Make sure you click on the  “Like” button and stay conected.

I look forward to seeing you there,

“You must become the strenght you admire in others” AS A MAN THINKETH BY JAMES ALLEN

Scott.

Enjoy.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Simpleology Blogging Experts

There are so many bloggers out there, who put so much time and energy into their posts, and why? nobody ever reads them, never mind the hopefull blogger who's aiming to use the blog to make money through his google adsense account.

Taking this into account I've decided to pursue a course on the subject and all I have to do to obtain it, is to copy and paste some link on my blog, so what have I got to lose, certainly not money, and what have I got to gain, maybe money!

So here it is, for anybody crazy enough to read my blog, which boasts an incredible three (3) comments left by people over it's entire lifespan so far! I'll keep the champagne on ice for now I think.

I've posted it on my latest blog post, so check it out,

I'm going to give it a go, you should too!

Scott

A Facefull of Facebook

Status update: Facebook is Awesome

Facebook is not becoming a great tool for marketing, networking and socialising and it is certainly not becoming a tool for making money, Facebook is not becoming any of these things, because Facebook “IS” all these things. I know it, you know it and pretty much anybody who isn’t oblivious to what’s going on in modern day society knows it.  Will it last much longer, I’m guessing at least five more years, possibly more, but with a world full of creative, ambitious and hard working people it’s inevitable that something new, different and exciting will take it’s place. What? I have no idea, when? Like I said I reckon about five years more before people jump onto the next big idea. But for now we’ve got Facebook and it’s cool, fast and affordable, did I say affordable I meant to say practically “FREE”. Get yourself an internet connection and just like magic your connected to the world’s largest social network in the history of the world. It’s filled with a diverse range of people with an equally diverse range of interests.

So you have three choices:

1: Ignore this truly awesome wave of potential

2: Use it at your leisure

3: Grab your surf board, put on your wet suit and ride the crest of one of the most incredible waves we will ever witness in our lifetime, enjoy it, love it and reap the rewards.

Like all waves no matter how spectacular, they all come to an end to allow for other waves to come behind it, that’s the nature of the beast. So don’t worry about the wave crashing, just enjoy the fact that it’s here and is ready for you, in fact it’s inviting you, screaming at you, calling for you and wondering what the hell is taking you so long. So be a Facebook snob or be a Facebook genius, it’s up to you.

So why am I typing this blog, oh yeah I’m going to tell you how to do it and give you a link to an incredible guy who will blow your mind with his ingenious ideas of how to capitalise on Facebook.

Like everything I teach to friends or family I break it down into steps, so why should this be any different, so here’s your “Seven Steps for Facebook Success”.

Step 1

Choose for views

 Pick something that motivates you, something you’re interested in, for example I’m a Landscape Architect so surprise, surprise I set up a Facebook fan page called “Landscape Architects” and you can click onto the page from the badge at the side of this page. I set it up to promote awareness of the industry, to keep me enthused about the profession and encourage me to stay up to date with all the latest activity in the world of landscape architecture. I have big plans for this page and well I won’t go on but watch this space!

Step 2

“My Mom says I’m great”

Invite every one of your friends and family to join the page, initially your page will be full of people who want to support you and not people there because they want to support the actual topic of the page. Ultimately you want people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer but at the beginning it is great to start off with whatever people you can get.

What this does is it breaks the ice, it shows that your page is generating numbers and that whoever joins won’t be alone on your page, which is a little embarrassing as I started a page which completely flopped, it was called KITY and was aimed at helping people to find resources for learning languages on the internet. It was a disaster and I got 3 fans, one of those fans was me. This is why it is essential to get whoever you can get at the beginning; it’s just for moral support and to show potential fans that you’ve got something other people are interested in.

Step 3

Sow your seeds

It’s all well and good wanting to reap a great harvest but the crop won’t sow itself, you’ve got to stay active, that means a minimum of one new post every day, always keeping it relevant to the page. Creating a new post every day is all about getting into the habit of doing it. You simply have to set aside a time each day whereby you sit down at the computer and dedicate 15 or 20 minutes to posting something that’s interesting. Post it, leave it and allow it to get a response or two, initially a lot of your posts won’t get any responses, don’t be disheartened by this, it’s just part of the process, it will work out, you have to be persistent with this. The more you do it, the more you will learn what kind of posts get the best responses, for me the best responses come from posting up my own pictures and tagging people in photos, also I get a lot of action when I leave the fans with some thought or suggestion to dwell on in the status updates.

Step 4

Create a Source

This is really easy and involves you helping out people who are trying to do the same thing as you, all you have to do is go onto the search tab on Facebook and type in the keyword that relates to what your page is trying to promote, in my case that would be “Landscape or Landscape Architecture” and so on.... this will give you a whole list of similar groups and fan pages that are on face book, what you do now is you join and “like” every one of them. Why? Because it allows you to be involved with all their posts and status updates, meaning you have a constant pool of relevant knowledge that your page can benefit from, allowing you to pick and choose only the updates and links that excite you, making your page completely unique because unlike all the other pages all the information is filtered through you.

Step 5

Be Cheeky

Look in life you don’t get anywhere unless you’re prepared to stick your neck out from time to time, and you know with a little practice you can be very clever about it and almost verging on the world of being savvy. A term used to describe, sharp, cool and slick business people.

A great way to promote your page without paying any money is to copy and paste your link onto other similar pages. Be clever about this, don’t just start posting your link everywhere, you will get blocked and people will report you and you may even get your page cancelled by Facebook.  To do it right, look for the right angle, read through other pages, see if they posted anything that compliments or is of contrast to something you have posted, leave a nice comment about their content and then place in your own link, kind of like saying, “well if you like that, you’ll love this”. This way it is not just a cheeky way of promoting your page for free to like minded individuals, you have added value to their page by giving them a relative comment or question, meaning that it is more likely that they will actually take the time to look at it.

When your page starts growing in numbers and starts generating content based on the fans input you can have a little more confidence with this tactic and instead of simply posting on the page find the pages that reveal who the administrator is, contact them directly and request that you will post their link on your page in exchange for them doing the same with their page. This is a much more effective and efficient manner to conduct this tactic as it means that 100% of their fans will be notified about your page as opposed to when you posted on their page yourself, where only fans that go directly on the page will see your post. This will only be a fraction of the total number of fans that the page actually has.

Step 6

Chit about chat

This is simple, obvious and very essential, if somebody posts on your page, REPLY, acknowledge that you appreciate the comment, generate conversation, let it develop into something bigger. You have a duty to your fans, you must respond to them, individually at the initial stages of the pages development and then reply in a more general context as comments build up. Ultimately you want fans to have great discussions on your page with you only thanking them for their comments and not actually being involved in the conversation at all.

Step 7

The Double Slap

So you’ve invited all of your friends and since then a whole host of people have also joined, however there are still a large number of your friends that are likely to not join at all. This is when you slap them in the face, not literally of course, every now and again, share a post you have put on your fan page on your personal profile, this opens your page up to all those people that refused to join the page and allows them to change their mind, I know you want people to join your page that are genuinely interested in your topic but you should never close yourself off from a potential fan, when anybody “likes” your page, Facebook does an incredibly nice thing for you and notifies all of their friends, opening you up to potentially hundreds more fans.

So there you have it, seven steps that you can put into action today, there’s literally nothing stopping you, all you have to do is do it. Just like the NIKE sports slogan “Just Do It”, stop thinking about it, it’s a great idea and packed full of potential, so once again, all together now, you at the back, yeah that’s right YOU, are you ready, let’s say it “just do it” a little louder please..........

“JUST DO IT” thank you NIKE for that wonderful slogan J

Now has promised at the start of the post, I’m going to give you a link to a fantastic guy that knows and understands Facebook like the back of his hand. Check out http://www.crowdconversion.com/facebook-marketing-video/ you won’t be disappointed, this man is a genius with a lot to offer you, in fact you’ll notice some of the ideas I mentioned are actually based on things he says, he’ll offer you a great deal by way of communication and promoting your Facebook page and if you’re great at it and pay attention to him, who knows you may even make some money out of it.

Best of luck creating your Facebook fan page and like everything in life you get out of it what you put into it.

Check my page out my fan page “Landscape Architects”, access it by clicking on the badge at the top of this page.

I hope you have as much fun creating and having a Facebook fan page as much as I do, as far as my page goes it has been running since March 2010 and is now approaching 700 fans with my sights firmly set on the 1000 mark, it recieves almost 4,000 views daily and at it's peak it averaged 50 new fans every week for five consecutive weeks running. 2011 is going to be a big year for us and I can't wait, life is great so is facebook and so are you! 

Take care,

Scott.

“Boker Tov”, it’s not a lot but it’s what I’ve got!

A guy walks into a bar, in a foreign country with a foreign language, there’s a rabbi there and a horse having a drink......... He goes straight up to the horse and says “why the long face”, the horse replies I don’t know he’s been like that all day.

There are times when you got to have sense of humour to get you through life, a laugh can turn your day right around, look at it this way you can’t laugh and be depressed at the same time. There are times when laughing seems impossible, there are times when everything you’ve got means nothing at all and there are times when all you can do is use what ever little you’ve got to make a change, to make a difference and hold the possibility of laughter in your mind one more time. 

Currently I’m in an Landscape Architects office of Hebrew speakers with limited English, some however, it has to be said have excellent English, in many cases better then mine. This is a comfort but it’s not a solution. I’ve got to use what I got, what I got is “boker tov” a simple phrase which means good morning. I’m so proud of that little phrase I say it with excellence, every day in the office I use it as much as I can.  Yes everybody gets a “boker tov” from Scott Renwick. The boss, his wife, my colleugues, the cleaner, everyone. I say it with conviction, I smile and say it, cheer and say it, sometimes I say it low, sometimes slow, sometimes loud sometimes soft, it doesn’t matter how , I say it in so many different ways each one excellent, each one beautiful and each one more powerful then the last. 

I can’t say a lot, I haven’t got a lot, but what I got I use a lot, I make an impression, I get a smile and I let them know I’m trying, that I’m there and that I’m persistant. Nobody in the world can say “boker tov” better then me, I’m the worlds greatest! 

I‘m building my entire life on this little phrase “boker tov”, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this means “Good Morning”. It really says everything about me, I’m awake, I’m ready and I’m full lof energy.

“Boker Tov” it’s not a lot, but it’s what I’ve got!

Scott

The Great Power Shortage of 9:36am

Another morning in the Landscape Architecture office and as usual I arrive 10 minutes early and set myself up so I’m ready to hit the ground running at 9:00am. This is how I like it, it always get’s my day off to the best start and I think it’s a good habit to adopt. You can’t guarantee success but you can do a million little things to sure your ready for it when it comes.  This is just one of those little things. 

The day presses on and everybody is setting up, making the morning coffee, opening files, discussing projects, the general commotion that goes on in any office first thing in the morning. Me I’m just sitting at my desk, tapping away, throwing the odd “hello” and “how are you” to people as they go by me. I think it’s important to have communication at the very basic level. It creates a nice atmosphere and builds up greater communication between you and your colleagues.

Everything seems fine until everybody in the office realises that the P: Drive isn’t working, this is essential to every bodies work, this is where all the files for every single project is saved, these are the files we all share and all work on. If this doesn’t work, nobody can actually do anything and the office is down. To top it all off the internet is also down, another detrimental blow to the function of a successful office.  However I was the only person in the office who could actually work on their computer, you see I’ve got into the habit of backing up all my work at the end of each day on my USB key, believe me I felt an little smug working on my computer that day, but not for long as you’ll soon find out!

These things happen, they are all part of life, sometimes you just hit a speed bump on the road, it’s a shame, but it happens and we have ways of dealing with it. It wasn’t until 9:36am that something happened that made me realise where the world actually is and how venerable we all actually are. You see at 9:36am “The Power Went Off”. There were no lights, no computers, no office phone line and no work being done. The office was as good as dead; it was shut down, disabled, terminated, kaput.

Chaos followed as people ran around trying to get it fixed, people were lost; all of a sudden we all had two hands we didn’t know what to do with. While all this was going on, I was thinking “interesting” and “how easy would it be to do this to the whole world?” I honestly think if we went 1 month without electricity the population of the world would be slashed by half. We’d go crazy, we’d realise how dependent we’ve become on modern day conveniences and be in complete despair without them.  

This is when I also realised that there was one person in the office still working, the one guy who works without a computer, a man with led in his pencil so to speak, he does everything by hand, all the drawings, planning and sketches. I thought to myself “this whole office is resting on him”, our success our survival is all based on the guy who totally ignores all technological advances in design, in Landscape Architecture and in the modern world. The guy who is considered a dying breed is the one guy who will save us from complete failure a man we can all learn a lot from.

You see we all pursue to better ourselves, however many people confuse convenience with improvement and it’s not until 9:36am that you realise just how much you improved as a person, as a professional and as a teacher. It’s moments like this that make you realise how powerless you are, it’s moments like this when you realise what you should really spend your time developing, it’s moments like this that teach us to make the right choice.

So turn of the computer, get out your pencil and draw because you never know when it’s going to be 9:36!

Scott.