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mgref 's review for:
Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done
by Mick Ebeling
I had the privilege of hearing Mick Ebeling speak at one of my work conferences in September 2015. His message was emotional, inspirational, and motivating - and his book "Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done" was no different.
This book documents the story of how Mick, a film and TV producer, set out to 'help one, help many' by utilizing the new Maker movement to create do-it-yourself technologies that are open-source and available to everyone. His story starts with Tempt, a beloved graffiti artist from California who suffers from ALS. Mick was inspired to help Tempt communicate with his family in a more affordable, effective way. He brought a team together that created the EyeWriter, a device that tracks eye movements to move a cursor on the screen, to help Tempt not only talk to his family but create art again.
The feedback and excitement around the EyeWriter (which you can build yourself using online instructions), propelled Mick into his next challenge - Project Daniel. Mick learned of Daniel, a young boy in the Sudan who had lost both his arms during the war. Amazingly, Mick not only put a team of experts together to 3D print arms for Daniel, he traveled to the Sudan and taught others how to 3D print limbs for other bombing victims. Help one, help many indeed.
I will be following Mick's Not Impossible Labs organization to learn more about the amazing things people are doing as part of the Maker movement. Technology is here to be shared, and here to be hacked, if it means giving people a better, cheaper solution to their problem. Mick's positivity shines throughout the book - below are some nuggets of knowledge and inspiration that I'll be taking with me:
A reminder of how broken (and profit-driven) our medical care system is:
On turning a “no” into a “yes”:
The art of getting things done:
On being a good manager:
This book documents the story of how Mick, a film and TV producer, set out to 'help one, help many' by utilizing the new Maker movement to create do-it-yourself technologies that are open-source and available to everyone. His story starts with Tempt, a beloved graffiti artist from California who suffers from ALS. Mick was inspired to help Tempt communicate with his family in a more affordable, effective way. He brought a team together that created the EyeWriter, a device that tracks eye movements to move a cursor on the screen, to help Tempt not only talk to his family but create art again.
The feedback and excitement around the EyeWriter (which you can build yourself using online instructions), propelled Mick into his next challenge - Project Daniel. Mick learned of Daniel, a young boy in the Sudan who had lost both his arms during the war. Amazingly, Mick not only put a team of experts together to 3D print arms for Daniel, he traveled to the Sudan and taught others how to 3D print limbs for other bombing victims. Help one, help many indeed.
I will be following Mick's Not Impossible Labs organization to learn more about the amazing things people are doing as part of the Maker movement. Technology is here to be shared, and here to be hacked, if it means giving people a better, cheaper solution to their problem. Mick's positivity shines throughout the book - below are some nuggets of knowledge and inspiration that I'll be taking with me:
A reminder of how broken (and profit-driven) our medical care system is:
The MyTobii device – the one we needed for Tempt – was running north of $12,000. We talked to insurance companies, we talked to the state, we talked to charitable foundations – and we got nowhere, and the days stretched into weeks, and the weeks stretched into months, and we got nowhere.
On turning a “no” into a “yes”:
It was always a matter of figuring out what their point of resistance was and finding my way around that, or under it, or through it. I can feel that in my bones. Some people call it determination, optimism, or a strong personality. It’s really just what I do: Suss out people who really wanted to say “yes” but feel they have to say “no,” and then present them the opportunity to take the “yes” path. Ultimately, people like saying yes way more than saying no. You just have to remind them. It’s a matter of rechanneling or refocusing their energy in the “yes” direction.
The art of getting things done:
Let’s be clear. When I talk about overcoming voice, I’m not talking about ignoring it or pretending it doesn’t exist. I am not fearless. I fear failure. And I fear failure a lot. But I teach this to my boys: When you’re feeling afraid of something, or afraid you can’t do something, don’t deny that fear. Don’t just pretend it doesn’t exist. Allow it in. Say hello to it. Get to know it.
And then kick it in the ass and move on.
On being a good manager:
Part of getting things done is knowing when you yourself are not the guy getting things done. A lot of managers need to feel like they’re in the center of everything, and they screw up the work because of their need to see their own fingerprints. But success comes from building structures that stand on their own, not structures that require you to lean against them in order to prop them up. I found the right people. I motivated them. I set the task in front of them. And then I stepped back.It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission, but you get a lot more done if you don’t feel like you need either of those things.
On leaving a legacy:
In my view, we’re all rickety little boats, motoring across the narrow expanse of time that we have here. If you’re going to be successful, you need to leave a wake behind you. If you go slow and don’t leave a wake, then what’s the point? And if you have kids, it’s twice as important to make waves, because you don’t just want to leave a legacy on your own, you want to show them – by example – how to leave a legacy for themselves, too. So when it’s their turn, they’ll leave a wake, as well. I mean, they’re going to go through enough therapy for the bad stuff you taught them. At least you have to balance that out by leaving them some worthwhile lessons.
On adopting and adapting:
If you use the old business model, where you think in terms of progress and setbacks, you might go crazy and give up. But if you look at it from this new perspective – the perspective of a hive of workers all tinkering with a project in their own individual ways – and if you have the patience and the faith to let that work happen, then eventually they will reach the goal you always wanted to reach but never could have on your own.You act the way you want to be, and before you know it, you’ll be the way you’re acting.
On taking risks:
Start with all the mini-risks you take every day. Saying hi to someone you don’t know, speaking up in a meeting when you have a different opinion from everybody else’s, or applying for a job that’s a little over your pay grade. All the petty minor things we think about and decide not to take a change on. We get so caught up in what we should and shouldn’t do, and when we translate that for ourselves, we create meanings around what can and can’t be done. These are not facts – they are conversations that we have in our heads so often that they solidify and seem like facts to us.
But if you create a different set of thoughts – whether you believe them or not, at first, if you just take another set of thoughts, positive, motivating thoughts that are just as valid as the fearful ones you had floating around in your head – then sooner or later (and most likely sooner) they will solidify as well. And those become the thoughts that guide your actions, in place of the fearful ones.
On grief:
A friend once described grief to me in this way: Imagine a wheel with just one spoke. Now draw a spiral from the center of that wheel, out to the edge. As you move along that spiral, you pass the spoke pretty often at first, but less and less often as you move further out along the wheel. That spoke is your grief. Each time you move around the wheel on that spiral, you experience that grief again; it remains intense, but it happens with decreasing frequency.
I also loved hearing about date night, something I also think is important in keeping a marriage strong and connected:
Over the course of the next seven years, a lot of things changed in our lives - Caskey and I moved, we had children, we started businesses, we bought a house. But a few things stayed constant. One was date night; the more complicated our lives became, the more important it was to have a ritual that reminded us that there was something beyond work by day and diapers and feedings by night. Don't get me wrong - I love my three boys with a passion that surpasses words or understanding - but at least once in a while you need to go have dinner and see a movie alone with an actual grown-up who you're actually married to and has seen you naked and still loves you.
Finally, there isn't one specific passage, but reading the horrific things that are happening in the Sudan made me stop and pause. I know I make jokes about my #firstworldproblems, but I try not to take my privilege in life for granted. I can't imagine being faced with such impossible odds for survival, but still managing to wake up and celebrate life... but that's what the people of Sudan are doing. It's a lesson I will take with me the next time I wake up and feel like I'm having a "bad day" because I missed my alarm or ran out of coffee.
Please check out the other incredible things going on with Mick’s organization at NotImpossible.org.