*Typing*

Miyamoto Musashi is widely considered the greatest samurai to ever live. He was undefeated, winning more than 60 duels. Musashi invented the "niten ichi-ryu" technique, which involved wielding not one but two swords at the same time. He was also a deep thinker. In his life's masterpiece, The Book of The Five Rings, he shared 21 rules he believed everyone should live by...

1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.
21. Never stray from The Way.

If you're an aspiring singer-songwriter, playing for free at the county fair isn't such a terrible gig. You get to practice your craft in front of thousands of people. The problem, of course, is that these people aren't paying much attention to you.

They're deep-throating corndogs, chugging Mountain Dew slushies and waiting in line for their ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl, Scrambler or Zipper. An aspiring singer-songwriter plays the country fair for free for the chance to turn a handful of the thousand or so people in attendance into raving fans.

The hope for the aspiring singer-songwriter is that after several dozen free appearances at several dozen county fairs, they will eventually have a handful of fans that love their work so much, they'll be willing to pay to see them perform in a more intimate setting. The aspiring singer-songwriter plays for the masses with the expectation they will lose 99% of them to find their truest fans.

Because of this, losing readers, followers, listeners and subscribers should be celebrated. You're getting closer to the truest essence of your fanbase.

We apply labels to the world around us to help us make sense of our experience.

We do this constantly with ourselves...

"I am a Christian."

"I am a Buddhist."

"I am a Republican."

"I am a Democrat."

"I am a lawyer."

"I am a painter."

It's worth asking ourselves if this habit of labeling is truly adding to our experience.

When we apply a label to ourselves, we become tempted to embody that label the way water embodies the shape of the glass it enters.

Is this a good thing? I cannot say for sure. What I will say is the kind of "all or nothing" behavior that comes with embodying the labels we choose for ourselves grants us a very limited view of the world.

What if we dedicated a little time each day completely doing away with labels? Try moving from one experience to the next as a label-ess being. Simply exist in each of the day's moment the way an unbiased narrator would.

If you wake up one day with the overwhelming desire to make a million dollars, you will suffer until you have in your possession a million dollars. The price you pay for a desire is a degree of suffering until you possess the thing that you desire: money, fame, sex, food, drugs, luxury, etc.

What's worse is that desire breeds more desire. The moment you have in your possession a million dollars, is the moment you desire two million dollars. And, the moment you have in your possession two million dollars, is the moment you desire three million dollars. And so on.

If desire is a series of islands that each promise warmer and more tropical weather than the last, suffering is the boat we are rowing. Eventually, to do away with our suffering, we must give up desire. We must dock the boat and decide the island we are standing on is enough.

Furthermore, desire and suffering provoke one another like two Bengal Tigers encroaching on the other's territory. When we are suffering, we look towards desire to ease our suffering; and once we get what we desire, we desire more which only leads to more suffering.

Desire and suffering are two side of the same coin.

Social media isn't dead. But, it's bleeding out.

Every day I hear about a friend or a friend of a friend who "quit". What's fascinating to me is how they talk about their departure. They do so with the same religious zeal that decade-long smokers talk about kicking the Camels.

These people are seeking something that social media promised but didn't deliver: Connection.

Connection can't happen by growing a following. Possessing millions of followers can make you a lot of money and make you feel very important. But, it comes with the cost of connection. Celebrities and influencers will tell you this, if they're being honest with themselves.

At the height of his career, Michael Jordan felt the loneliest. He would stay in his hotel room for up to 18 hours a day––only opening the door when it was time to step onto the court––because of the never-ending stream of fans vying for his attention.

The problem with social media is that all of us have become miniature celebrities with very small followings. We still suffer the cost of connection but enjoy none of the gains. Today, 100,000 Instagram followers won't make you rich, let alone pay the mortgage.

While the last decade has been about growing a following, the next decade will be about building a community.

Andy Warhol once shared the following reflection on building The Factory, his legendary studio, club and community...

"A lot of people thought it was me everyone at the factory was hanging around, that I was some kind of big attraction that everyone came to see, but that's absolutely backward; it was me who was hanging around everyone else. I just paid the rent, and the crowds came simply because the door was open. People weren't particularly interested in seeing me, they were interested in seeing each other. They came to see who came."

I like the line by Warhol because it's the perspective of a man who made the transition from a celebrity-artist to some that looked more like a facilitator-artist.

Building a community is the antithesis of celebrity. It's an act of love, in a lot of ways. You create an environment. You foot the bill. You facilitate conversations. Then, you step out of the way.