Don't Limit Yourself To The Crowd Mentality- Become More Resourceful And Always Validate Information

The crowd mentality is described best like this:

Your sitting in an auditorium and the speaker asks if anyone knows something or if they agree with something. Now everyone in the room is thinking the same thing but nobody is answering the questions with haste. The speaker asks again and everyone looks at everyone else to see how they answer. Finally someone speaks up and the rest of the auditorium feels a sigh of relief as that person took them off the hook to answer FIRST so now they can see what the speaker says next. Even better, they said just what they were going to say! Often after one person speaks up the rest of the crowd starts to speak up too. This is the crowd mentality.

The crowd mentality anchors you to the crowd for information and thus you're following advice from people you respect or even people you don't and you're looking to strangers for validation before you speak. This is a dangerous way to live and limiting as well.

In writing you don't want to take all the rules at face value. You need to analyze everything and realize there is no problem, no rule, nothing, that can't be learned away and a solution put in place.

Information is potential power but you must have it to use it. You must take action on information or it's just a dead shell; and advertisement.

If someone tells you there is a limitation and you really stop and think about it, you may figure out how to surpass that limitation and with that comes a new skill set in your belt.

Here's a real life example:

Writers writing articles on a website/writing mill will often find the screen or box too small and cumbersome to write in. You can't see all your work so it makes it a bit boxed in and limiting. Another fear is that something will happen before you save what your writing and you'll lose it (in MS Word you can have it back up your writing every minute). This is where the writers will then go to trusty MS word and start typing away (it even grammar/spell checks so why not?). When they complete it they will copy paste it into the box and submit it. In Wizzley, (for contrast) when you do this the MS word formatting is automatically removed (although sometimes spaces are left between paragraphs/double page breaks), in most writing mills this "filtering" doesn't happen so what you get is...

The result?

One screwed up looking document. No paragraph breaks, missing spaces after a sentences period, even missing periods throughout the document, and a full blocky looking article that nobody is going to attempt to read like that (no paragraph breaks, just one long block of continuous words).

The solution?

Copy the document into a plain text file editor to strip off all that html tagging. Copy it from the plain text editor and paste it into the content box. (Thank You Wizzley For Doing This For US!).

Result?

Sometimes even that doesn't fix it, the paragraphs get shuffled far far apart and it looks ridiculous- but still doable (even on Wizzley because removing formatting sometimes renders holes in the code thus the extra spaces).

Now most of the people I work with agree that avoiding using word is the best policy. They even put policies in place that say please do not use word or any editor that adds tags or is capable of html (because it will still add tags) when moving content from the site to another program and back.

This "fear" of a problem makes most people stop right there and avoid the problem (if they mess up the consequences "feel" horrible) - but to me this limits me because that's a resource I love but now can't use? Not acceptable. I don't go out like that- I always find a way and if there is no way only then will I succumb to "throwing in the towel". I'm like Rocky in that respect and I attribute a lot of my success to doing just that- vs. following the crowd even when they're wrong, just being lazy, or don't want you to figure it out because it would make them feel inferior.

When looking over this situation i wanted to maintain my resources and find a way to quickly fix it so I started experimenting.

I moved all the copy directly into an html editor called SoThink which strips tags and intelligently maintains the formatting is taken away or broken down to the basic HTML (no java etc...).

My solution fixed two things, it allowed me to maintain my use of MS word and it's formatting, and to strip off the tags INTELLIGENTLY so my formatting stuck (otherwise I'd have to go back and in the other website have to fix all the nuances of my articles formatting). SoThink did the trick (any editor would). Works every time now!

So now I've resolved the problem and found a cure. Over time I started to use this several dozen times a day and now I breathe the format so using word is not only not cumbersome but neither is changing my article in it so it works in the writing mill sites I used. I also have a deeper understanding of "why" it happened and that empowers me to find permanent solutions- not a work around or so called fix. When everyone else is just avoiding using MS Word, including my boss, they don't realize how much of a resource they are giving up.

My point here is that even if everyone else, especially experts, is/are SURE that there is no way around it, or that it would be cumbersome to have to reformat your document then rebuild your formatting stripped off; this doesn't mean that there isn't a way to get around this. With practice anything can become second nature and thus doesn't affect your timing virtually at all!

You develop a skill set spawn called "attention to detail" when you push yourself like this. Following the crowd will often mean learning to be lazy- not always, but most of the time. In our forum on Wizzley- this doesn't apply, but on HP it does- for example.

You become more attuned to your environment, resources, potential resources, and you start to want to learn "how things work" so you can apply those principals to ideas for tweaking something else.

You should go out and learn every day about how things work. I'm talking about soap, shampoo, everything you use or potentially will or ever have used. Figure out how it works, how it's made, how it's physics work.

These are transferable skill-sets (and a lot of raw "data" you can use to resolve problems!) you will use to attune your mind to a solution to anything. The more you learn about molecular science and how things work the more cleaver your mind becomes. Cleverness is the most amazing skill set of them all and it's fueled mainly by INFORMATION!

Back To The MS Word Example... 

Now based on the aforementioned paragraph, what happened next was i was working in my writing account in a writing mill and discovered that this problem was already solved but NOBODY not even the writing mill programmers, realized that there was this button most people ignored.

The programmers ignored it as they just wanted the spell check and editing functions. They didn't seem to think they needed anything else on there so there it sat ignored and never brought up as a resource. The programmers didn't even know it was there or needed! (Wizzley's did, however, but instead of the button they just made it automatic when you import content to strip off the crap tags!).

Me being who I am, curious, I had to know how every single button worked, what every feature, function, and concept did- if I could find the source code and learn it intimately I would.

But even I didn't realize that there was a "copy from MS word" button on the editors tool bar until I LOOKED! Actually it was my mental state being on high alert with the question in mind "how can I..." that allowed me to see it.

Clicking this button allows you to copy the word copy directly into the "code" window where this editor (on page) has a built in tag remover and changer.

It essentially does exactly what SoThink does for me but automatically in the same interface!

So discovering this button changed everything and had I not been looking for resources at the time (always trying to hone what I do into a faster more efficient process and I see everything when I'm looking) I'd of not even realized this button was there.

It's a shame that nobody knows about this very important feature built into the interface and this interface is used everywhere! Luckily, however, this mill I worked for I was eventually moved into a management position for and was tasked to create a tutorial video for new writers using our system.

In that video I included and showed them how to use that "copy from MS word" button instead of saying "don't use word at all- a program your used to and more likely not to make grammar mistakes when writing in- I told them a better workaround than- don't use it. This likely saved them more steps than trying to use another software program that would likely not catch the grammar mistakes and thus our customers wouldn't be very happy would they?

I told everyone I knew and they were blown away like I was to find it! 

My point and goal is simply to make things easier and through writing articles about these things I earn a passive income. (even on the article your reading now!).

The MS word "fix" is just one example to illustrate the power of "self sufficient" thinking and independent thought. If your lost and ask people in the forum for help- don't take what they say as gospel, take it as a resource to help you figure it out. Always validate ANY information you get, even if the person saying it is well respected, highly intelligent, and has given you nothing but great information in the past. Always take new information as a starting point for research- not fact. 

There are hundreds of things that happen on a daily basis that optimizing them by  making small changes to how you do them can help you build a better way to do things- a habit that serves you. This also gives you more power in the cleaver department. The more you do this the more you realize your personal power.

The more you realize your personal power the more confident you feel in doing anything. You feel invincible for the most part because you realize that life is an active sport and those who take action rule the world.

Great writers are independent thinkers, innovative thinkers, and creative thinkers. They all require a mind that itemizes and validates their beliefs and is self sufficient at learning to resolve ANY problem.  Think for yourself and always try to dissolve your problems with cleaver or common sense tactics. Then teach your skill-sets to others.

If your skill set is cool enough  or useful to others (if they learn it too), you can charge others to teach them your "tips and tricks". Even if you just build a series to teach something and earn money from monetizing the site (ads etc...).

Being resourceful is more valuable than having a college education- College is a resource, and being resourceful is being able to tap into knowledge even if you have to research it- to find a solution. It's a core skill set that generates other skill sets- like the mother of skill sets!

With the internet the answer to ANY question is a Google search away... use it! I resolve 80% of my challenges through a Google search and some reading- it's very powerful.

Even tech support centers use Google to "Google your problem" such as the error number you got, even behavior your computer is doing can be Googled "my computer is turning on and shutting down in a loop" is an example of what you can Google and it will give you a thousand solutions to how to fix it or why that would happen! You'd of course have to use another computer to Google that type of problem, but you get the idea.

Remember, Attention To Detail Is A POWER Source. Become The MacGyver of your life and never feel powerless again!

When you get good at any part of your business, start working on perfecting every other part. Every part you perfect will become a resource and expedience is built right in. Even the parts you perfect, keep trying to raise efficiency and lower overhead by doing things better.

There is a point where you should stop trying to reinvent the wheel and you'll know when that is- but it's important that you constantly move up. Tiny increments are necessary to perfect every step of any craft, any vocation, and any skill set.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you eat a computer elephant? One BYTE at a time.

Always be on the look out for a better way until your time and money coming in are in harmony (meaning money is more than time expenditure at your personal "value" that makes you feel well compensated.

Good Luck! Be A Leader Not A Follower!