On Words and Business

This year I’m finding the entire experience mesmerizing. Not least because of the amazing achievements of every athlete who’s participating.

Read about eight attributes of the Olympic mindset that no doubt helped these athletes get to Beijing this year. And that can help any of us do well in our careers or avocations.

• Determination
• Strength
• Hard work
• Motivation
• Deal with adversity
• Optimism
• Focus
• Tolerance of stress

To what do you attribute your success?

In my college application essay, I wrote about the three things I’d take with me to a desert island. I still remember one of the things–the dictionary. Because it has all the other books in it. (I’m sure I made a compelling case.)

Herewith a twist on that question. What three blogs would you take if you could miraculously have access to them and only them?

I’d take Seth Godin’s blog, the Blog of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, and Gawker. Seems like these would keep things interesting.

What would you take?

Lev Grossman’s column in this week’s Time magazine is all about commenting on blogs and giving people a voice. It applies less to business blogs than personal ones, but it’s still a great read. Especially for those of us who grew up in a world where there were no blogs, and for whom this commenting thing is a late-learned art.

“Maybe commenters are just on one side of a cultural disconnect between two incompatible ideas of what the social conventions of the Internet should be. One is based on the standards of real-world, offline politeness. The other is a kind of communal game in which whoever is cleverest and pushes the most buttons wins.”

If I had two kids, Blogging and Freelancing, Freelancing would get a little bit more of my attention. She’s a bit more serious and sometimes would need a little extra TLC to understand how important she is. She would need extra help with her homework, but hate to ask for it. Blogging would be an independent young woman and I would take advantage of that, in a way. I would love her, of course, but probably have to think hard to remember if she had come home from school yet and was just upstairs on her computer.