Lessons in failure

I think it's safe to say that we all fail sometimes. Sometimes we fail pretty hard. That's fine. It's life. It's a learning experience.

But when it comes to a project that depends on success -- there are no second chances, there is no turning back -- how do we deal with failure?

After class last week, I had a revelation. I thought:

 yeah, I can do this. I can actually start up this company. I can patent it; I have local connections to start with. I'll start branding. I know how to use social media. This could work. 

Ideas were forming in my head before I could stop myself. I thought about all the ways I could advertise. I thought about reaching out to different kinds of people who would support my idea and help me make it a reality. I thought about connections and networks I had that could benefit and be part of my project. 

Then I stepped out of the classroom. The further I walked away from the threshold, the further I felt my ideas sink. What if it doesn't work? What if it flops? What if I just can't do it?

Then I realized that it really doesn't matter. If I hit rock bottom, it can be an inspiration to start anew. And if I fail, if everything I could do flops on the ground like a dead fish, so what? It's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean I can never succeed again. It just means it wasn't the right time for one idea. 

I wrote another post about Karen Larson, owner of The Candy Bar in downtown Durham. She had a greeting card business before. Her business didn't flop, but her ideas were ahead of their time. Now, her same style of greeting card that she used to sell as a new product is sold all over the place. Larson didn't consider it a failure; she just had to stop. And now she has a new business that is everything she wanted it to be. 

PowerPoint as a tool

Last night, I was working on the last part of my powerpoint presentation to pitch to my imaginary team of investors.

I was asked to use PowerPoint or iMovie. I chose to use PowerPoint because I know how to use it better, and I think in terms of usage, it can look more professional.

I am no expert in PowerPoint. I used a basic template that I thought resonated well with my project. I looked for pictures online that I thought would go well with my presentation. Overall, I think PP was a very useful tool for me to be able to organize my thoughts and put them down in a logical manner.

PP also has a bunch of useful tools that iMovie uses as well. While I am more familiar with iMovie, I found the transitions section to be very professional and useful while finishing up my slides. I even loved the easy accessibility for recording audio. I've never dabbled much in PP, so everything is kind of new to me. However, I do know that PP has gotten exceedingly user-friendly if you know what you're looking for. 

I also found it relatively easy to use graphs and tables, though my presentation did not need so many. I wish I had used PP more when I was younger. Professors use it in almost every lecture. It is kind of amazing to me how aggravated I can get when I look at a PP presentation because someone has not used it to its full potential, there are lots of words, the pictures are unnecessary, etc. Yet, strangely, when it comes to how I make my own PP presentation, I can't remember what works and what doesn't. 

Here's hoping it all works out! 

News in Comics - a pitch to investors.

I have an idea for a company. In some of my other posts, I've gone into some detail about it. Now, however, I have a pitch to make.

In my entrepreneurial journalism class, we were asked to make a slideshow presentation with audio to pitch to a team of investors. Our inspiration was the show "Shark Tank."

Until I learn how to embed my presentation, you can view it through Google Docs. 

If we didn't ask the hard questions

I was thinking about it the other day during a profile interview. One man came into my journalism class and talked about his cocaine addiction, his drug-addicted family, his hopes and dreams, his writing, his body-building.

We sat around the room and asked him questions. We were allowed to ask Jay anything. He was open. He distanced himself enough to recover from his past, and for an hour--maybe less--he answered hard questions.

What were you addicted to?
When did you recover?
How did you recover?
Is it hard being a bartender around alcohol all night?
When did you know you couldn't do drugs anymore?
How long did you know your friend before he fell off a balcony and got brain damage?

Then I wondered to myself: What would news look like if we dared not ask the hard questions?

How old are you?
What do you do for a living?
...

It would be boring. It would be more like an interview where you skim the surface of a person's soul and see if they have usable skills for your story.

Just skim the surface.

 The news would be boring. No one would be able to write biographies of Steve Jobs. No one would be able to write real obituaries. The news would have started as a good idea and slowly faded into nothingness. The same sort of things happen with bias, too. When people share only one side and don't ask about the other side, there's corruption. People stop turning on the evening news and opening the paper because it's just stale opinion.

If we didn't ask the hard questions, we wouldn't have news.

The social media conundrum

This time last year, I did not have a Facebook. I had email. That was it. Oh, and I had a phone with disabled internet because my dad was against smartphones.

A year later, if you kindly fast-forward through my life, I am now on a multitude of social media websites.

1.  Wordpress - another blog. 
2. Audioboo - an audio recording sharing network.
3. Soundcloud - another audio recording sharing network.
4. Youtube - a video sharing network.
5. Don't forget Twitter! 
6. I actually have a Facebook now.
7. I have a gmail, a comcast, and a school email.
8. Not to mention two separate bloggers and a pinterest, just for fun. 
9. I have an iPhone.

You know what I've realized about social media? Only some people understand its centrality to the rest of the world. Only some people care if they are put on it. Only some people hesitate before allowing me to post their name, faces, and information to the world wide web.

That's huge! Why don't people care anymore?

And that's the social media conundrum: a numbness to all things interwebs.

I'm not saying social media is a bad thing. I've just learned, since becoming a journalism student, how serious the internet can be. Maybe people try not to care about the seriousness of the internet because it equals impending doom or something. I don't know.

As a journalist, though, I am intrigued by the turn of events. People used to try to avoid giving their credit card numbers over the phone. Today, they plug them in to the same web browser page that is connected to Twitter, Blogger, and Boston Globe. Interesting.

This post: 'Tis a silly rant!

This blog shall be a silly blog, because right now I rather just feel like spewing my emotions onto this page.

If it is not well known already, I really would like to implement graphic news plan. Where to start, when to start, who to start with -- I know none of these answers.

But the reason I have such a strong desire to deliver and consumer graphic news is because it would be fun. I don't know if I would ever be known as its creator or if anyone would really care. Rather, the purpose is because it would be enjoyable. It would be a more enjoyable way of consuming the news than the regular morning broadcasts, the ink stained papers, the twitter feed.

I just want something different.

Which also sounds silly because news is always different, isn't it? It's always shape-shifting and becoming unrecognizable for a time.

I hope one day, graphic news exists, even if I am not the creator. I hope it becomes well-done, widely-used, and informative. I hope it's fair. I hope it can convey journalism in a good form. I hope it sheds light on truth and extracts details from scenes and stories that journalists don't have the time to convey and photographers don't have the will to capture.

5 things I wish I knew before...

Before I realized what I wanted to do with my life--write--I looked at news as a necessary but boring component of everyday life. I figured that when I was older, I might actually appreciate it. Until that day, though, it was just a way to bond with mom in the morning before the bus came.

When I finally realized I wanted to write, I was a senior in high school. I finally could admit to myself that science was not my foretold forte despite my family's predictions. 

I had some friends in journalism, and they seemed to really like it. Though I cared about English classes for the first time, I could never see myself rushing to deadlines, interviewing strangers, or being in a noisy newsroom. I still can't, really, and yet I'm immersed in its reality. 

There are five things I wish I knew before becoming a journalism student in college, regardless of my somewhat true ideas of what it entailed beforehand.

1) I wish I knew that journalism would only take over your life if you let it. There are plenty of journalists who do it for the love and hobby of it. There are others who want thousands of people to know their journalistic ways. Finding a middle ground is possible.

2) Talking to strangers isn't as scary as it sounds. With emails, phones, and internet, interviewing people can be fun and easy. And people love talking about themselves and their projects.

3) Journalism classes and books really will prepare you. 

4) Reading is the only way to be good at writing. That's what I learned when I read Stephen King's book on writing. That guy reads 80 novels a year. Some are on audio so that when he travels, he can listen. And almost all his books have been on the New York Time's Bestseller list. So yeah. I should probably start reading 80 novels a year. 

5) It's as hard as it looks. It's scary. It takes a great deal of time management and patience, even as a staff writer for a university paper. It's a challenge, but it has given me some of the best skills, intra- and interpersonal, that I could ask for.

*This blog idea was stolen from Corinne.