Category Archives: Writings

“There are no more heroes”

Posted on January 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

With the recent Lance Armstrong scandal and Manti Te’o and the Congressional stalemate over fixing the economy and the Wall Street meltdown a few years ago and all of the other mayhem in those that are often looked to for leadership, this is a common refrain these days, “there are no more heroes.” Of course, if you look back over history, you will see this refrain mentioned over and over. I think in every age, there is a feeling that the heroes of yore have vanished. And here we are again.

I say this is wrong. I say there are more heroes than ever. They just do not get the recognition they deserve. I think there have always been more heroes than people know. I think that we, as a society, as humanity, often look in the wrong places for our heroes, which is why we do not see them.

Let me tell you a story about some of my personal heroes. It’s kind of long, but I hope you will enjoy and maybe get a little something from it.

Starting back in early 2009, I began working around 100 hours a week to build up our new businesses, Soul Of Miami and Life Is Art, while holding down a pretty cool full-time job. I was fired up and excited about forging ahead. Unfortunately, no matter who you are, or how passionate you are, everyone has a limit and in June of 2011, I burned out. Physical and mental collapse.

Did I slow down? Of course not. That would assume more intelligence than I am due credit for. Not only did I not slow down, I accelerated. Later that year, I founded yet another business, PhilanthroFest, creating even more work. More on why this is relevant in a bit.

Now, I have carried a camera in my hand for decades. I guess I got the bug from my dad, who is also a great shutterbug. In all those years, I have never lost a camera. Dropped, broken, burned, spilled martinis on, dumped in the toilet, yes, all of those. But, never lost one. I just do not lose stuff, usually. In 2012, I lost my camera. Three times. Fortunately, I found it again (or rather, others found it and returned it). Unfortunately, I only found it two times.

The final time I lost it was at our 2013 PhilanthroFest Launch Party, when I was running around like crazy putting it together and cleaning up. At some point, I set the camera who-knows-where, and totally forgot about it in all the hubbub. For all I know, it may still be sitting there somewhere, waiting for my return, but nobody has ever found it.

“What the heck, James?” you might say. Why, after nearly 40 years of carrying a camera all over the country, did I lose it so many times last year? That is what the first part of the story is about. I was so burned out, operating so far outside of my abilities, that I just could not keep track of anything, even my beloved camera. When I lost it, that was the wakeup call that I needed to start working on changing my ways.

Needless to say, we could not afford to replace it. Nothing to do really, except move on. even though it meant we could no longer take photos for Soul Of Miami. What are ya gonna do? As it happened, the holidays came along. Everyone was busy doing that and not really many events came up, anyway.

Soon enough it was January 15th, and we were having our first PhilanthroFest Steering Committee meeting of 2013. I will pause here to say that the PF committee members are also some of my real heroes, those this story is not about that directly. These are such dedicated and smart people, who have joined with us to help change the world, I always end up with a huge smile plastered on my face all meeting long (and I usually hate meetings).

In any case, there I was moving through the agenda when my star, Estrellita Sibila, interrupted me and said Daniella Veras had an announcement. I thought she was going to tell us about some new sponsor or something. Instead, she informed me that she had started a fund to replace the camera and put the word out to our friends and they had raised some money for it. Not just some money, as she so understatedly put it. They raised a LOT of money.

I was literally dumbstruck. It is hard enough to surprise me, but this had really come totally out of the blue. Not only was it spectacularly unexpected, but the amount of money was just amazing. I mean, I know everyone is struggling, and all of my friends are already donating of their time and talent to numerous good causes. Yet, they reached into their pockets again and just gave so freely. Even writing this now, it is difficult to explain my surprise and feelings of appreciation. Needless to say, Annette cried. We had enough to replace both the camera and the flash attachment with the newest version of each, a Canon G15 and Canon Speedlite 270EX II Flash with some left over to buy the warranty that I always need. It was amazing.

So, for those of you who think there are no more heroes, here are a bunch of them that you can look up to for inspiration:
Alex de Carvalho, Alexandra Figueredo, Alexis Guillen, Aleyda Mejia, Allen Tito, Annush & Hugh, Anthony Bayona, Art Herrera, Blanca Mejia, Brenda Leguisamo, Deborah Zinn, Eleazar Delgado, Estrellita, Jami Reyes, Janie Coffee, Jeff Cohen, Jennylee Molina, Jorge Fernandez, Joshua Kingston, Kenneth Wilcox, Liza Walton, Lorena Lama, Maria de los Angeles, Marlena Hasday, Monique Hayes, Nancy Richmond, Nathalia Bogani, Natascha OS, Rick Morgan, Sebastian Rusk, Steve Roitstein, Toma Rusk, Vicky Cheung.

This is me saying thank you so much to all of them. You all inspire me every day.

Those are just a few of my many heroes. Hopefully I will be able to thank them all someday. Comment below who some of your heroes are.

A Light At The End

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2013 New Year Resolutions

Posted on January 4, 2013 | 2 comments

I almost never do New Year’s Resolutions, seeing them mostly as a pointless opportunity to let yourself down. This year, however, is different. This year, I realize I need to make some serious and deep changes.

To that end, these are my resolutions:
I resolve to work less (so I don’t burn out and crash). I resolve to get paid more (so I don’t get tossed out of my home). I resolve to see my friends more (so I can renew relationships that have been neglected because of work.) I resolve to work at getting back in shape (so I can have my health to do this a long time). I resolve not to take on rushed projects (so we can focus on quality over quantity).

I’m serious about this. I want you all to call me out anytime you see me breaking my resolutions. I am really serious about this because, at the rate I am going, I will burn out or get tossed out soon. I want to continue doing good works here for a long time, so I have to learn to manage my time and effort. Therefore, if you see me killing myself, if you see me giving it all away, feel free to call me on it. Not kidding.

Doing good is great. But our current rate is entirely unsustainable. The millions of times I was asked “How do you do it all?” should have been a tip off. We’ve been working around 105 hours per week for almost 4 years. (I actually did the math once.) I’m a workaholic. I love to work and I work to love. But, even for me, that is unsustainable. Oh, I’m sure I’ll still regularly hit 70 or 80 hours, maybe the occasional 90 hour week, but my goal is to focus my efforts so that I maximize the results, creating more quality with less effort.

I realize this may sound selfish, but people who know me, well… the people who know me have been pointing this out to me for years, so I guess they’ll understand. You know, you can’t help other people very well if you are out on the street or laid out in a hospital bed. Everybody thinks they won’t burn out. I thought it. Everybody is wrong. I was wrong. Even the most passionate, most driven person will burn out if they drive themselves too hard. No matter your mental state, the body can only take so much effort, so much stress, before it literally collapses (this is what surprised me most). Don’t do that to yourself. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others for a long time.

So, the lesson here is, do good, do as much good as you can, but don’t do more than you can. It is better to maintain a reasonable pace for the long-term than to push yourself too hard for the short-term. Yes, there is much and immediate need, but there always will be. If you kill yourself helping now, you will not be around to help in the future.

A Delicate Balance

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The Fallacy of Common Sense

Posted on December 14, 2012 | 1 comment

As I was waking up this morning, I saw this cartoon and it reminded of how bad the so-called “common sense” is.

from “U.S. Acres”

Many people, I would say even most people, extoll common sense as a virtue. I maintain it is not, rather it is a hindrance that holds us back and keeps us from learning and growing.

Take the above example, “everybody” knows that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, right? Except that’s wrong. In fact, almost the reverse is true. Lightning is much more likely to strike the same place twice than not. (Reference. Another reference. Yet another reference.)

It used to be common practice to treat an ulcer flare-up with milk. Milk is thick and creamy and soothing, right? Except not. Milk actually exacerbates ulcers. (Reference. You can find others.)

When Apple released the iPad, almost everyone was skeptical. Who was going to carry around a giant phone that didn’t make phone calls? Now, iPads and other tablets are ubiquitous.

Even the term “common sense” should turn you off. Who wants to be common? Why do people extoll this as a virtue? (Well, that is the subject of a different column.) But the fact is, common sense generally tells us that doing the same thing we have always done is the way to go. It worked before, it’ll probably work again.

Except, that isn’t what moves us forward. Moving forward requires throwing off common sense, doing something different and new. This is what I call “uncommon sense“, the ability to see things in different ways. The ability to question the norm and accepted. The ability to ignore what common sense is telling you and think in new and uncommon ways. This should be extolled as a virtue, being uncommon, not being common.

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The “Art Basel” Overload – What To Do?

Posted on December 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

This is also posted on the big site, but I wanted to post it here for posterity, because someone needs to say something. Everyone’s thinking it, but I am going to come out and say it publicly. The “Art Basel Week” has gotten way out of hand.

I think it is safe to say that few people get out to more events than we do. There are some that do, but I think everyone would agree we make it to quite a few. We talk to a lot of people. A lot. And this year, the absolute consensus is the number of available events is just overwhelming. “It’s too much,” we hear over and over. Every year there is too much to do, but this year, we hear this refrain more than ever, from everyone. Everyone says they are suffering from overload.

And, it is true. Every year there are more fairs, more exhibitions, more parties and more people. So, how much is too much? You know, we love you all, all of you who bring art to our city, and we are really happy you have come here, but do you not think it is getting a little out of hand? Really, it is getting a lot out of hand. Maybe it is time for a change. I guess I will be the one to stand up and say it.

On Tuesday, December 4, 2012, there were over TWELVE Vernissages / Openings for various art fairs. Don’t believe me? Check out this screen shot from our Tuesday summary. I’ve highlighted all the Vernissages. As you can see, there are a numerous other parties, as well. And that is just Tuesday. (Click the thumbnail for a larger version.) We have over 120 events listed in our full roundup, and I know we have missed dozens of others. How can anyone possibly make even a small percentage of that?

We all know that there are many art people in town this week, and everyone wants to try to take advantage of that. But think about it, if you start a new show/fair/party, there are a couple of options. First, you might just pull people from the regular crowd. If a lot of new events open up (like has been happening), that means quite a few less people for each event. Not optimal.

On the other hand, maybe all these new events do draw more people to town. Where do those people park? Where do they stay? How do they get around. The traffic is already epic fail. It is not going to get better. There are only a finite number of hotel rooms and parking spots. Also, not optimal.

The same is true for the expansion of the current fairs/shows, it is either going to spread the same number of people thinner or it is going to add to the already terrible problem of overcrowding. How long is this really sustainable? How long until people just give up because they cannot handle the load? We have actually already seen this happen. Some people are going out to fewer events because they are so overwhelmed by all the options.

The thing is, you all are doing yourself a disservice with this much activity. Nobody can possibly do it all. Nobody can even do a small percentage. Sure, there are a lot of art people in town, but spreading them so thin hurts everyone. You are missing out on potential sales because people are at the dozen or more other events that night. By jumping on the bandwagon to try to take advantage of someone else’s hard work, you are actually adding to the problem.

Meanwhile, we have 51 other weeks of the year with only a few fairs sprinkled throughout. Like I said, we do love that all you guys and gals come to our city and bring all this art, but how about making it so we can see some of it? How about some of you get together and we all do another art week? Maybe a few.

April would be a good time. It is towards the end of season. Weather is still usually good (at least as good as it gets in Miami). Most of the snowbirds are still here. We are past all the mayhem of WMC, Boat Show, and the other big winter events. Why not create another art week then? Who is going to have the courage to take the first step?

This is what I would really like to see. I think it would be great if a couple of the bigger ancilliary fairs stepped up and took leadership to do this, maybe Scope or Art Miami. Pick a new week. Start a different art week.

Think about how awesome that would be. Anyone who does it will be hailed as courageous and visionary. Plus, you get your name up in lights. Right now, this is “Art Basel Week” (no matter what anyone else tries to brand it) and all of the other fairs and events are mentioned secondarily. But, if one of the other fairs took the initiative to step up and make the change, then that would their week. Rather than just being a follower during “Art Basel Week”, they would be the leader for “Scope Art Week” or “Art Miami Week” or maybe “Pulse Miami Week”. There is a real opportunity here to break out of the pack and be a leader.

The thing is, Miami is not what it was 10 years ago, when the brave souls at Art Basel decided to open up a new fair here. Back then, it was not really seen as an “art” destination, known more for the nightlife and beaches, and it was a challenge to convince people to come for an art fair. But, now it is becoming one of the major players in the art world. Now, it would not be as hard to convince people to come for art. Opening up a second week would give people a much-needed relief from the overload that is “Art Basel Week” right now.

Will anyone do it? Seems unlikely, but we can hope. It would take a lot of guts and smarts, just like the guys who started Art Basel Miami Beach. They took a chance and tried something new, and it certainly worked out. Will anyone else step up and take a leadership stance? We hope so.

I figure I will get a million flames telling me why this is not feasible, but that is okay, leaders always have people telling them that what they are doing is impossible, as they go ahead and do it. Happens to me all the time. All I know is what I hear from the people, and the people are overwhelmed. Something needs to be done.

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How James almost ruined Christmas

Posted on December 1, 2012 | 3 comments

Also called “You’re gonna make mistakes, get over it.”

Let me tell you a little story (remember, I said I’m a Storyteller): On Thursday (Nov 29, ’12), we hosted a PhilanthroFest 2013 Launch Party at CCE Miami. It was a pretty big deal and we were expecting around 200 people, as well as some VIPs and such. So, I showed up to set up and…

Well, for those of you who are event producers or promoters, what is your worst fear? For those that are not, take a guess at what an event producer’s worst fear might be. Got it? The answer is, you show up to the venue and they have no idea what you are talking about.

Yup, that’s pretty much what happened to me. At some point weeks before the event, I was supposed to sign a contract with the venue and with all that was going on, I totally forgot. As many of you know, in addition to PhilanthroFest, I also run Life Is Art and Soul Of Miami. The Art Basel time is, by far, the biggest time of the year for Soul Of Miami because we produce a massive guide to everything going on. Plus, I was working on getting Life Is Art ramped up for 2013. So, with everything going on, I just spaced it.

Get it? We nearly did not have an event that night because I screwed up big time.

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. The site owner was quite accommodating and allowed me to sign the contract right then. A hurried call to our awesome insurance broker got us event insurance in an hour! And, we had an awesome event, though I was a little ragged for the first hour or so.

So, why am I telling you that I am a collossal screw up? Because it is important to understand that I know it, but it does not stop me.

One of my (many) hats is as business coach. I help train people to make a living doing what they love. Because of that, I spend a lot of time just talking to people in social settings about why they aren’t doing what they want to do. Why are they slaving away in a box making money for someone else? The vast majority are just plain out terrified of screwing up, of making mistakes, of being wrong, and that petrifies them, keeping them from doing anything.

This is what is so important. You are going to screw up. Get over it. The above example is not even remotely the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Not even close. Yet, here I am, still doing my thing.

What separates me and those like me from the people who stay in their boxes? It is not that we are fearless, it is not that we don’t think we make mistakes, it is certainly not that we do not make mistakes. The big difference is that we understand it is better to make the attempt and take the chance and make those mistakes than to never attempt at all. What sets us apart is that we keep going even after we stumble and fall. We keep going despite the fact that we know we are going to stumble and fall again.

Here is a quick analogy. You and I are playing Basketball. I shoot the ball ten times and miss nine times. You shoot the ball zero times and miss zero times. Who wins? I failed nine times and you failed zero times. Wow, you failed nine shots less than me! I’m a nine time failure. You must have won because you failed no shots, right?

…

Well, I think you get the point. One key to success is not the number of times you fail, it is the number of times you recover and move on. The only true failure is the failure to make the attempt. Any other mistake, as long as you learn from it and keep moving forward, is not a failure, it is just part of the journey to the goal.

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Leadership part 1

Posted on November 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

I am planning on doing quite a bit of writing about leadership, so I have called this part 1. I am not sure how many parts there will be, but we will see how far this takes us.

First off, there is one defining characteristic of a leader. A characteristic without which, a person is absolutely not a leader. All other characteristics are secondary to this, and may define the type of leader that a person is. But, this particular characteristic is necessary for a person to be called a leader.

Any guesses?
Vision? Nope.
Charisma? Useful, but not necessary.
Intelligence? Definitely not required.
Wisdom? Hah!

The single defining characteristic of a leader is decisiveness. The ability to make a decision. Not just any decision, but a decision that affects numerous people and the consequences that come with it.

Think about this example. Many of you work in an office with others. Oftentimes you are probably talking about going to lunch with your co-workers. How often does this situation come up? You are all sitting around, burning your lunchtime, everyong throwing out suggestions of where to go, but none of them are being chosen. Everyone is hemming and hawing, “Oh, let’s go to this,” or “hey, I hear this place is great,” but no place is chosen. Why?

Finally, one person stands up and says something like, “I’m going to head over to that new Pho place, who wants to come?” Everyone does, of course. Guess who is the leader. If you pay attention to your social interactions such as this, you will notice that it is often, though not always, the same person who finally gets the group moving.

To be a leader, you absolutely have to make decisions. And not just decisions for yourself, decisions for the group. If you are one of the people hemming and hawing, you are not the leader.

Why is this, though? Why do we need people to make decisions for us? What is it about some people that they can do so, while others cannot? We’ll pick that up next time, but here’s a hint, if you think you know, you’re probably wrong.

Edge of the World, copyright James Echols

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“How do you do it?”

Posted on November 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

(I originally posted this over at Life Is Art, but I fet that it would get lost over there, with all of the arts updates, so I am reposting it here for posterity.)

Recently, someone from a very nice organization asked me for advice on how to build their own organization. They looked at what we had done with Life Is Art, PhilanthroFest and Soul Of Miami and they believed we knew some secret for making it work.

We get this question a lot, “How do you do it?” Many times it just means that people are curious how we are seemingly everywhere all the time, tirelessly networking and socializing. Sometimes people are asking how we built Life Is Art and/or Soul Of Miami up from nothing. Those two are actually related.

I thought I would share my answer to the recent inquiry, in case it might help you out, as well. It is a legitimate question and one I wish I had a better answer for.

Photo credit Charlotte Libov

However, there are no real secret tips or tricks that I can give. It is just plain old hard work. My partner and I work, no kidding, around 90 hours a week, and have done so for almost 3 years now. Up until January of this year, I had a full time “regular job”, in addition to running Life Is Art and Soul Of Miami. I am down to working my “regular job” 2 days per week, but Annette still has a full-time job.

We work, almost continuously, from the time we get up until the time we fall asleep, every day of the week. That is the only way I know of do it, if you do not have the money and connections already when you start. We did not have that. When we founded Soul Of Miami and Life Is Art, we had no money and no connections (and no clue!). All of the success, such as it is, has been built purely on hard work, determination and perseverence. Remember the old saying, “Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration,” by Thomas Edison? Well, I believe it is something more like 5%/95%, but maybe that is just me. People often have a hard time believing how right he is, and want to believe that there is some secret to succes. There isn’t.

Admittedly, we are experienced event producers, having done it for many years. So, we understand what needs to be done to make a successful event and how much time it is likely to take. When we started an event organization, we knew that part. That has helped a lot. But, still, starting from the bottom and working your way up is a long, slow, very hard road, but it can be trod, with persistence and passion, some good fortunate and a lot of great friends.

One of the key and large expenditures of time is networking. You have to get out there and be seen in the community, meet new people, make new friends and connections, and continue to cement the ones you already have. Almost every evening we are out after work, shaking hands and giving out business cards. It makes a huge difference. Unless you have a serious budget to advertise, this is the only good way that I know of to get your name out there. In my opinion, this is the biggest key to Life Is Art’s growth, the fact that we actually make a serious effort to get out and meet people.

As far as building a fanbase online, it is all about content and sharing. If you do not have a blog/news page on your website, get one. Update it at least three times per week. Do not just talk about yourself. Find out what other related organizations are doing, and post their news, as well. Find news related to your mission, that your constituents might be interested in, and post that. Share what other people are doing. This not only builds you content, but it builds your relationships.

Same thing with Facebook. Take your fanpage and make sure it is updated a couple time per day. Again, not just your own stuff, share the work of others. You share their work, they will likely share yours. Same works for Twitter. One thing to remember about online work is to keep it real. This is particularly true about Twitter. Don’t just tweet about your work, tweet about your life, tweet about the life of the organization, make it personal and personable. Unfortunately, we do not have time to do this for Life Is Art, but it is what Soul Of Miami is all about.

Honestly, other than that, I have no special wisdom. Really hard work and sharing is all we do. Hopefully, one day it will work out.

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Storyteller

Posted on November 15, 2012 | 1 comment

I’m a storyteller. I come from a long line of storytellers. When my maternal grandfather passed, I was given what I consider our family storytelling totem, his cane. It’s just a plain wooden cane, but it felt like the torch had been passed. He was one of the best storytellers I have ever known and I am honored to carry the tradition.

I tell you that to tell you this. If you are looking for facts and figures, this is probably not the right place. Mostly what you are going to get are stories from my life, stories from my friends’ lives, and stories that I have learned from others. Hopefully, you will be able to take something from them, or at least enjoy them, get a good laugh at my expense.

Life is a story. The best thing about making mistakes, and I’ve made way more than my share, is that they eventually make good stories. The next time you make a colossal screw-up, just think to yourself, in a couple of years, that is really going to be entertaining to my friends. Successes are way less interesting than mistakes, when it comes to storytelling.

Keep this in mind as you go through life. It’s okay to screw up because then you have good stories. Have you ever listened to someone go on about how successful and awesome they are? Boring as heck, right? Pompous jackass, really. But, when they tell you about the time they smacked their face on the diving board and the whole pool had to be drained and cleaned at the cost of $8,000, that is some funny stuff right there, I don’t care who you are.

And I tell you that to tell you this, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The worst that can happen is that you’ll have funny stories. The best that can happen is that you’ll succeed. Take chances. Do things that people say you can’t do. Be wild. Be crazy. Because, eventually, your life will only be the stories you can tell your grandchildren. You really want to just talk about all the horrible TV you watched?

You’ll find this is going to be a theme in my writing. Getting over the fear of completely screwing up is the most important thing you can do to make your life awesome. And telling good stories.

Hopefully my stories will entertain you, maybe they will inspire you, and just perhaps they might enlighten you.

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“Start a blog”

Posted on November 13, 2012 | 6 comments

“Start a blog,” I always tell people, “get free stuff.” Of course, nobody listens to me. Nobody (ever) takes my good advice. And, it does sound silly, ridiculous even, like one of those internet urban legends. “Start a blog and you get free stuff?” Sounds like nonsense. But, it is totally true.

Don’t believe me? Ask any regular blogger. If they maintain a reasonably regular schedule and are at least decent at writing and write intelligently or entertainingly about their subject, I guarantee you they will confirm that they have at least been offered free stuff.

Of course, it isn’t free. One has to develop a following and a reputation for consistency and quality before this free stuff comes. That takes time and effort. In reality, it would probably just be quicker to spend the time flipping burgers and buy the stuff; but there are times, surprisingly common times, when you receive an opportunity that you would not otherwise have been able to access were it not for your blog. But, you will never know unless you start.

So, I am finally taking my own advice and starting a blog. After 4 years of being one of blogging’s biggest proponents, I am putting my money where my mouth is. Or rather, my keyboard. Where will it lead? Who knows. But that is beside the point. The point is to start the journey, only then will you get where you are going.

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