Bob Dylan When and why you should reinvent yourself

Bob Dylan When and why you should reinvent yourselfBob Dylan When and why you should reinvent yourselfWhen he was a 20-year-old kid, nobody in New York really knew what to make of Bob Dylan.He had come to the city about a year after dropping out of college, simply telling people he was there to visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie and to start a new life as a performer.This was an exciting time to be there, though. The folk music scene was picking up steam, and soon, the clubs were giving him his time of day. Hed show up, perform, and move on.With time, however, attention started to congregate around him. Slowly, he began to get showings on the radio, a few critics heard his name, and by 1962, he had managed to sign on with Columbia Records, even releasing a self-titled debut album.This was the beginning of a career that has now spanned mora than six decades. To say that Dylan is an iconic figure in 20th-century culture is to understate his name. There were times around his peak when he was arguably larger than the concept of pop culture itself.With his poetic music, he has shaped movements and genres, and he has done so while staying relevant throughout. In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.The secret to Dylans longevity comes from a part of him that most people are afraid to face in themselves the part that tells you, at a certain point, its about reinventing yourself.Life is long, and its diverse, and its challenging. To live is to grow and to grow is to create a new self when circumstances demand. Dylans story shows exactly how we can do this byCommitting to development beyond successExpanding your identity to beat plateausValuing the authenticity of growthWe dont become who we are by staying as we are now. We do so by continually evolving.2Commit to development beyond successThe benefits of success have diminishing return, but they tend to amplify temptation.Once you have a taste of what you thought was the goal, and you realize that maybe it wasnt all you had imagined it would be, its very easy to fall into a cycle of chasing mora.External success, especially, has an allure. Early on, it can have many different perks as it covers our basic needs, whether they be personal or financial, but once those basic needs are met, it just becomes a game of setting a higher bar for no other reason than familiarity.By the mid-1960s, Dylan had become a national and an international superstar. He had started to bring the kind of music that was previously on the fringes to the masses.Then, right at the height of his newfound fame, in a move that shocked and even alienated many of his fans and contemporaries, he chose to switch up his sound. He added an electric guitar to the mix. Rather than exploiting what already worked for mora, he changed gears.After becoming what the media called the spokesman of a generation, he left behind his old sound so he could continue to explore and grow, even if it meant giving up existing success.Iro nically, later, this change would actually go on to be one of the reasons for his longevity.Any meaningful achievement is never the product of direct planning. Its often the byproduct of a commitment to developing yourself in a more inwardly-focused way. Its what you get by aiming to be someone who is willing to try new things for the sake of growth and maybe fun.Your sense of attachment to who you want to become is more valuable than a life of more.Expand your identity to beat plateausIn a way, the dive into electric sounds in the 1960s was just the start of his experimentation.Throughout his career, Dylan would go on to produce songs with a touch of everything from his early folk music to blues to country to gospel to electric rock and roll to even jazz.A lot of this was a natural evolution for him, but there were times when he explored simply because he had to. He was stuck in some way, either not progressing or moving backward.When he injured his flosse and wasnt able to pay as much attention to his instruments, he focused more on songwriting, forming an identity around that. When he was struggling with his aging voice in performances, he decided to completely reinvent how he made sounds.There are various reasons we fall into plateaus in our lives. Sometimes, the cause is time. Sometimes, its a lack of interest. Sometimes, its something else entirely out of our control.If this is concerning a thing that we have built confidence around, it can be an incredibly difficult transition, and often, if it isnt dealt with, it can even force a mental purgatory.By remaining versatile to the idea that you can create a new identity by mixing and matching with something else, plateaus dont have to exist longer than they must. You can bypass them by changing the rules of the game, rather than trying to change the game itself.The fact that you defined yourself one way in the past doesnt have to get in the way of you choosing another way that leads to a better end. These l imitations are often just mental.There is always room to improve, and there is always a path to refining something about yourself in a meaningful way. You just have to be open to seeing an opportunity when it arises.Value the authenticity of growthWhen we change ourselves in response to lifes demands, there is generally tension between doing what we must do and what we feel we ought to do to remain authentic to ourselves.We all have an innate nature that is, to some degree, always a part of who we are, and this nature doesnt respond well to anything that conflicts with what it finds natural.That said, we often wrongly conflate this nature with our broader character, identity, and value system at any given point in our life. While its true that a part of our brain is largely programmed the way it is at birth, much of how it understands the world is, in fact, malleable.For decades, psychologists have studied the different stages children go through as they age or as their experience b ecomes more complex, but it wasnt until recently that they realized that adults similarly go through a layer of very natural phases of development.3The more we live, the more we change in ways that are authentic to us in a new form.When Dylan was called the spokesman of his generation due to his counterculture lyrics and then being pressured to lead the movements that were occurring at the time, he began to hide out. At the height of his fame, he started to shun being in the public eye. Why?He had gotten married and was starting to have kids, and he realized that this part of his life was far important to him than his career, and he wasnt willing to let his privacy suffer for it.There is no such thing as a static identity. As we follow the arrow of time and experience, we all grow in various ways, and throughout this process, so does our concept of who we are.This growth can bring with it shock, but that doesnt mean it isnt authentic or necessary.All you need to knowTime changes a l ot of things, but perhaps most of all, it changes our circumstances. How well we accommodate this, then, depends on how well we are able to reinvent ourselves.Over the decades, Bob Dylan has seen just about as much as anyone, and we have seen him overcome just about everything to remain an icon. He knows change better than most.Here are three important things we can take away from his storyChoose development beyond success. External achievements have diminishing returns, and after a certain point, the only way to capture meaningful success is to give up chasing more of what you already have. By exploring new things and becoming more of what you want to be, even if it means sacrificing familiarity, you eventually find what you were looking for without even aiming at it.Expand your identity to beat plateaus. At different times, for different reasons, we all end up in places where we no longer see a way to improve. We get stuck. Now, rather than fighting this stuckness within the confi nes of an existing identity, the more effective way to deal with this is to mix and match parts of yourself to create a new identity. You can change the rules of the game to broaden possibility.Value the authenticity of growth. There is a sense of pride in doing what you know and doing what aligns with who you are as a person at any given point. Sometimes, however, who you are changes in response to circumstance, and while it can be disorienting, it is also often necessary. Theres an authentic way to grow as a person.Many of us find comfort in what we know, who we are, dreading the idea of changing ourselves. But living in an evolving reality and expecting a stable sense of self doesnt work.You are going to have to change one way or another. Why not take dienstgrad of it yourself?Want to think and live smarter? Zat Rana publishes a free weekly newsletter for 30,000+ readers atDesign Luck.

3 essential steps to turn a passion project into a business

3 essential steps to turn a passion project into a business3 essential steps to turn a passion project into a businessThree years ago I got serious about turning my passion project of Tudor history into a business, and now I see regular five figure monthly revenues with an average profit of 50%.If you would have told me then that selling physical products would be the way I make a full time income, I would have laughed. Ive only been studying eCommerce for the past six months, hardly an expertStill, over the past 5 months, Ive traktament nearly $50,000 in products related to my niche, and Id like to share the three steps I took to turn my passion project into a full time businessBuild a passion project platformDevelop a proof of conceptGive your audience moraBuild a passion project platformIn 1998 I started writing about history online. In 2009 I started podcasting about Tudor England.My dream when starting welches to be surrounded by history, to write and be creative, and to be able to work anywhere I could find a wi-fi signal.Theres a quote I keep on my wall that saysNever compromise on a dream. Always compromise on how it will come true.This is what my platform looked like when I startedPodcastBlogI was on a call with a business mentor who bedrngnisiced that, while I had a great site filled with lots of useful information, I wasnt actually making it very easy for people to give me money. Well, I have Patreon, I responded.She pointed out that there are only a handful of profitable organizations that rely solely on asking readers to pay directly for your content. Even National Public Radio has to sweeten your pledge by offering swag.The lightbulb turned on. What if I tried selling things to people? Real physical, tangible things that they could own? Things that would also remind them how much they love my show, and give them an easy way to share my show with people?I didnt know anything about shopping cart software or sourcing products, but three years ago I g ot serious about making a business out of this passion project.Being an introverted writer type, the idea of customer service made me queasy.Develop a proof of conceptAfter brainstorming for a month, I came up with the idea of doing a planner/diary filled with Tudor historyMonthly calendar with a quote from a famous TudorWeekly pages with This Week in Tudor HistoryRenaissance music listening lists and Spotify playlistsGorgeous titelblatt inspired by an illuminated manuscriptWith a company likeBlurbyou can print books on demand, so the only out of pocket costs are a designer for the cover, a subscription toInDesign, and the time spent learning how to create a planner. All told, it cost me less than $200.I spent the month of October, 2016 designing the planner, gathering the dates and information, and putting it all together. In early November I put up some Facebook ads and got my first saleI had no idea how many would sell. I was hoping for 50. Before Christmas I had traktement over 300It took me two months and less than $200 to develop a proof of concept.Now that I had proof, I knew people would pay for physical products in my niche. I also noticed customers who found me through the Facebook ad had never heard of me before. They liked my Facebook page and started listening to my show.That made my download numbers go up, which meant that more people could find me through the podcast charts. Many of those people signed up for my mailing list, because I offered a discount on the planner in exchange for the email address.In six weeks, I added four times as many email subscribers as I had the entire year before. - Heather TeyskoThis is what I have termed the Abundance Whoosh, because it was a whoosh of new email subscribers, new listeners, and sales, in one big spiral.Give your audience moreI spent early 2017 trying to replicate this success. I only knew about print on demand books, so I stuck with that strategy for the first few months of the year, creating journa ls that were historic.For example, I created a journal with a cover based on a 15th century French book of hours. It was shaped like a heart and filled with quotes from Henry VIIIs love letters to Anne Boleyn.I also started working with a printer to create a 2018 planner with customizations you cant get with Print on Demand, like a pocket in the back and a ribbon marker. But I really wanted to add more products likeclever mugst-shirtscreative leggingsSites likeCafePressandZazzlehad margins so small you arent left with any money to pay for the ads you run on Facebook. I knew ads were a big part of my success with the planner, and I wanted to duplicate the Abundant Whoosh- growing my audience and not just selling things to my existing one.Then I found out about Shopify and print on demand services.Whats the difference between using Shopify and going the CafePress route to give your audience more ways to support you?Ownership of the sales process.The CafePress compromiseWhen you use Ca fePress, or similar merch sites, you hand your customer over to that company. They take care of the entire transaction from start to finish, sending you a commission once a month. All you have to do isUpload your artworkShare your shop addressThis is easy for brands with limited time but want to offer something for their audience to buy.But handing your customer over to another company mean you are losing touch points with them.Most of these march sites wont give you the email address of the people who bought your products. They add your customer to their own email list, where they will then send marketing campaigns featuring other creators.You cant set up discount codes as an incentive to sign up for your mailing list, and when the customer receives their purchase, the branding isnt yours. You have, in effect, created a customer for another company instead of your own.The Shopify differenceShopify is a web host, shopping cart, and payment processor all in one. When integrated with a print on demand company that only prints and fulfills your orders, youve got the perfect recipe for success.Shopify handles the payments and Gooten or Printful handle the fulfillment automatically, from my shop,TudorFair.com, with simple integrations.No more directing customers to a different company.I tell my podcast listeners they can support the show and buy cool stuff. Here is the flow after thatCustomer buys from my siteI collect the money via PayPal or Shopify PaymentsThe fulfillment company charges me and fulfills the orderThe fulfillment company ships the product, with my branding, to my customerThe next day, an automated app sends a personalized thank you note to my customerThe fulfillment company updates the tracking informationI dont pay the fulfillment company anything until I already have a sale. There are no fees to get started, or to import your products to Shopify. The only fee is from Shopify, where the basic plan after free trial starts at $29.99/month.The margin s are larger because Im doing more of the work. If creating a full time income from a passion project is your goal, you have to work.If creating a full time income from a passion project is your goal, you have to work. - Heather TeyskoThe downside is when a customer hasnt received their order, or wants to return something youre the one handling that.The percentage of people doing that is so small, the extra bit of work is a tiny price to pay for ownership of the process.You have more options for productsWith Shopify you can sell a huge variety of products through various fulfillment companiesAliExpressimports goods from ChinaPrintfuloffers clothes and postersGootenhas tote bags and phone casesArtsAddoffers everything from clothes to home decorArt of Wheredoes some very cool clothingGalloreeeven offers custom printed skateboardsBeeouxoffers laser-cut sterling silver jewelry in designs you provideYou can put your designs on nearly anything you can think of Many of these fulfillment co mpanies have cross-over in their product offerings.Some products may not be a perfect fit, but they can be on theme with your niche enough to make sense. Ive sold Tudor-themed jewelry that was not an exact English history match.You have more places to sellShopify will integrate with Facebook so you can have your store on your Facebook page, and in many countries people can check out within the Facebook environment directly, never having to leave the app.As you get more experience, you can explore the dozens of apps in Shopify that will help grow your customer base, and provide subscription options, affiliate selling, reviews, and social proof.Your steps to successIf this is something that appeals to you, here are the steps you can take to start offSign up for a free trial of Shopify. (Use myaffiliate linkto get a two week trial, and Ill get a small commission.)Investigate the various print on demand companies you can work with to get your products into your shop.Ask your audience wh at they want from you and what theyll pay for.Design your products, hiring freelancers fromFiverror usingPicMonkey.Link your fulfillment provider to your Shopify store.Make sales.Send personalized thank you notes with links to your content.Use the Abundance Whoosh to spiral your success.Since October I sold nearly 1000 2018 Tudor Planners, and hundreds of items ranging from leggings that have portraits of Henry VIIIs wives, to combat boots with portraits of Elizabeth I.I also started a subscription box service where each month I send a box of curated treats related to Tudor history. All of this has equaled nearly $50,000 since my shop launched.Running an eCommerce site isnt for everyone, but I have more blog traffic, more podcast listeners, and more interest in my work overall, simply by integrating product sales into my portfolio. - Heather TeyskoOnce we purchase something from someone, we become more invested in their success, so now I have a growing number of supporters who are p ersonally interested in helping me grow my work and spread our shared love of history.I have become a huge believer in product sales as a way to grow, serve, and deeply connect with an audience, especially for creative passion-based businesses.I believe in it so much that Ive started teaching other creatives how to build their own shops. You can learn more when you get my freeGetting Started on Shopify Guideand join myFacebook group where we share our experiences growing stores based on creative passion businesses.Heres to lots of new paths for creating income and spreading our messagesHeather Teysko is a storyteller, writer, and podcaster, and mom who has been writing about history online since building her first website on Colonial American history in 1998. But even more than that, she is a creative entrepreneur. You can find Heather on Twitter and her amazing Renaissance English History Podcast.Thisarticlefirst appeared onGoins, Writer.

Just Add Salt to 3D Printing

Just Add Salt to 3D Printing Just Add Salt to 3D Printing Just Add Salt to 3D PrintingPass the salt is a phrase you hear at the dinner table, but not when it comes to 3D printing. That could change as a team of researchers at Wilkes University uses the mineral to make medical scaffolds and more.You dont think of salt, but it can mischung well with 3D printingto give scaffolds improvement in material porosity, says Xiaoming Mu, assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Wilkes University. Its ideal for biomedical because you can culture cells and beyond. We had originally worked through a few technologies, but this had the strength we were looking for.His team originally started looking at substances that were coarser than salt, but they ultimately saw that salt could be used after it went through a special leaching process, in which salt particlesare added to a polymer resin. The particles contact each other and, in the small space between each particle, there is fusing.Later o n, shining light and curing the polymer is involved, with water ultimately dissolving, Mu says. We need salt to connect so water can go inside the structure, otherwise there will be encapsulation and it cant be washed out.Different granule sizes of salt, from coarse to extra-fine, were experimented with to understand the variety of porosity that can be achieved in this method. Image Georgia TechConner Dunn, who worked on the project while a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology, described the method as a layering process.A motion stage moves up and down and a projector above this rotating stage holds the resin in place, he says. The projector on top then projects a cross-sectional stellung onto the resin and then photocures the polymerunder the projector itself, he says. Among the rest of the process is the motion station moving down and the rotating sweeper eventually laying another thin layer of material over a previously cured layer.The researchers used custom-built 3D printers and they basically used a projector to project a cross-sectional image onto a liquid, Dunn says. You have a self-supporting, powder bed-type printer that comprises a pretty simple fabrication scheme, according to Dunn.Simple leading images to our software and the exposure duration and layer thickness are factors, he says. We customized things. We built the frame for the printer itself, bought separate motors and a motion stage projector.From the customization, Conner says they developed MATLAB softwarethat processed the images and controlled the motion. The frame is customized because with the printers we had available it wasnt easy to print because we could not get even infill in the platform.The sweeping blade, resin bag, and the blade design changed over time. As the sweeper pushes new material over, it inlays the material, Dunn says. The salt leeches out within the CAD model.I think salt was chosen partly because its low cost and can be implemented in existing 3D pr inters right now, Dunn says. You dont think salt. But it just shows you have to keep an open mind.Eric Butterman is an independent writer. For Further DiscussionYou dont think of salt but it can mix well with 3D printing to give scaffolds improvement in material porosity, Prof. Xiaoming Mu, Wilkes University