Shut up. I'm talking.

Last night I got the chance to go and watch the Facebook movie. It was brill, the script was definitely a highlight and the acting was unexpectedly top notch. I won’t give anything away though and this isn’t a review, just know that you must go watch it.

The screening was organised by a tech company called Integr8, most of the people there were techies so most of them ‘got it’. The common consensus when we walked out the room was “WOW, I am so inspired.” I would like to hazard a guess and say that if you have seen it you were probably also inspired.

So let me ask you this, did you go home and execute on your inspiration? Or did you go home and make yourself a cup of tea, speak about how inspired you were get into bed and then go to sleep… inspired?

I am willing to say that 85% - 95% of us did the latter.

I see inspiration as an idea. An idea is only as good as the paper it is written on, it’s the execution that makes that idea good. It’s the same with inspiration. Inspiration is a burst of energy and more often than not it doesn’t last very long.

After being inspired last night most of us woke up this morning, grumbled, and then looked for the closest coffee machine. That inspiration you felt has probably waned now and it is time to get back to the grind.

That is the difference between people who are good and people who are fucking good. In the movie Zuckerberg had a moment of inspiration, ran home and executed right away. Very few people do it. Very few people live it.

It’s the same reason I hate listening to talks (and ironically why you shouldn’t be reading this). That talk is just a snippet of somebody’s idea/concept and unless you LIVE it, it can turn into a wasted time because you will have forgotten what they said by tomorrow. I suppose it doesn’t help that most talks are spoken.like.this insteadoflikethis.

When we watched Gary Vaynerchuk talk about a card show we got inspired to start a tech show and within 2hrs we had created one. We lived the talk, the idea and the inspiration. If we let that inspiration linger there is probably an 80% chance that it would have never happened.

So what am I saying? Well, the next time you feel inspired, don’t wait for tomorrow to get going, by then you may have already lost. Get going right away, go home and then stay awake until your eyes bleed but at least when you wake up the next day you will have carried through on that moment of excitement.