Kirk Wheeler

Some of you may know that I have spent most of my life dealing with the myriad types of cables that can be found in a recording studio. And over the years I have amassed quite a large and now mostly useless collection of all kinds of cables. Big, skinny, long, short, blue, green, red, twisty, curly. You name it. I have it. But I have come to a place where I am ready to let them go. I will keep a few to make sure I can still plug in a microphone if I need to at some point but I just don’t need all the cables I have.

So in the attempt to purge myself of these wormlike creatures I reached out to some of my friends who still have a need for them and asked if they might want any of them. Well a few days ago my good friend Joel came over and dug through the boxes and came up with a pile of XLR cables. We set them aside as they came out of the box and when we were done there was a messy pile on the ottoman and he looked at them and laughed a little bit and said how to some people that pile might look like a huge mess but to him it looked like the recording of a piano.

And that has stuck with me. It is not what the things before us actually are that matter, it is what they represent for us that make all the difference. It’s not the knife, its the meal that it will prepare and the feeling of nourishment that follows.

So now I find myself looking at things a little differently thanks to my time with Joel. I am trying to remember to see what is on the other side of the things that are in my life. And if there is no other side then they are not meant for me at this time and I am planning on letting them go. In an effort of minimalism I am trying to be sure that what is close by has a reason for being there other than the space it occupies.

Thanks Joel.

I have always been mixed on the New Year. Some years I am all about resetting and getting a fresh look at things and some years I am not.

Well this year I am planning on a major overall on the way I handle many things. In other words, I am getting my shit together. Really.

I have had other years like this and they have been met with varying degrees of success but I have been sharpening a number of tools in order to get this overhaul going. But the first truism I plan to tackle is the truth.

Of the many tools we have at our disposal there is but one that will set us free.
I always have Thoreau in my head when I think of the word truth:

“No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well as the truth.”
-from Walden

And today the deal was sealed for me by Seth Godin. I am always surprised at how many people I know who have not read more of his work but right now on iTunes there is an incredible podcast called the Seth Godin Startup School and it is very much worth your time if you are trying to start anything. His mind is focused and his ideas are clearly expressed. Here is the quote that got me today near the end of episode 14:

“The reason we use 100 words to answer a 10 word question is because the other 90 words are designed to distract the person who asked us the question so that we never have to say the 10 words that are true…because we are afraid that if we say the 10 words that are true the person might actually hear what we say and say “you should be ashamed of yourself”, “You should be ashamed that you didn’t know this or that you spoke up about this.”

And that brings me back to the New Year. The first order of business is to give the 10 word answer. To take a moment and focus my ideas and be unafraid to say the 10 words that are true. To know that I dont know everything. To know that I will get it wrong but will make it right. To speak up. To lose the fear of shame and the fear of the unknown. To walk into the uncertain future with a compass. The truth. And that is how I will find my way.