Made vs. Worked On

What’s a Lego Kit for? The assertion here is...to sell a lot of Lego kits. And to bring joy to kids and parents everywhere. But why is there joy? The completed kit does two things…it teaches someone how to follow instructions and it raises their status with the people around them…which makes those people happy…and in turn the kid happy. And then the proclamation…look what Sally made!

But Sally didn’t make it, she worked on it. If Sally had made it, she would be completely on the hook if it didn’t work. But as long as there are built-in escape hatches (like missing parts, hard to follow instructions or bad design to name a few) she has someone else to blame, and consequently can’t claim she made it. She can say she completed it. In fact she can say she completed more quickly than all her friends. She can say she completed it without using the instructions. But she can’t say she made it.

There was a time when Lego didn’t come in kits. We had the choice of raw blocks and maybe sets of blocks. The joy back then was everyone waiting to see what we could come up with. Sometimes it made people happy and sometimes it didn’t, maybe even scratching their head. But it taught us something…how to be okay with “it might not work”.

Claiming to make something from a Lego kit is no different than someone working on an assembly line claiming they made the car. Of course they didn’t make it, they worked on it. But when they entered the Pinewood Derby as a kid and carved out a car from a wood block and then publicly raced it…they made that.

We need more making and less worked on. And we definitely need to teach more making because in life when real change is on offer, if we need to solve a really interesting problem...there is no instruction booklet…and no one else to blame.

What are you going to teach…making or working on? Choose wisely.

Content Creating Business

Right now, at this very moment, you’re in the content consumption business. Fifty or a hundred years ago, it’s likely at any given time you weren’t. Back then you were either working, mainly through physical labor or engaging in one on one social behavior. Industrialization, technology advances and broadband internet access have changed all of that. The creation of goods is far easier and cheaper than ever. Simultaneously, the access to goods is far more efficient and also cheaper than ever before. What’s created is a storm of massively produced stuff along with increasing amounts of time spent on getting that stuff…because it’s so easy to do so.  

A world full of so much consumption leaves room for a wonderful opportunity…to be unique by choosing to be in the content creating business. The caveat is to challenge yourself to make interesting stuff, something that’s hard, something that might not work. We need people making solutions to interesting problems, leading change for the better.

We need creation more than ever…but please not another smart phone photo layered with filters. 

Make interesting stuff…because so many people don’t.