“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.”
– Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
Irish philosopher and statesman
You can draw value from a naysayer or cynic by remaining objective and positive in your thinking. (yes, it can be tough)
Occasionally, they’ll point out valid hurdles or challenges you haven’t seen. With their help, if you can remain objective (and keep your ego in check), you’ll have a better chance of getting something valuable from the interaction.
“Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)
American civil rights leader
Nobel Peace Prize winner
What if…
John and Abigail Adams had been more concerned with themselves and work/life balance than creating a democracy?
What if… Abraham Lincoln had quit trying after having a business go under and losing his first local legislative race?
What if… Martin Luther King didn’t have a dream and played it safe (and didn’t travel over 6 million miles giving more than 2500 speeches). What if he thought he was too young to have an impact?
What if… Gandhi, Teresa, Roosevelt, Ford, Disney, Walton, Gates, Winfrey, Jobs, Stewart, and Ash hadn’t stepped up and worked hard. (What if the thousands of people who supported them hadn’t?) What if your police, military, firefighters didn’t?
What if… No one pushed it, risked it, and pushed it again?
Be obligated to your world.
“The people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”
- Malcolm Gladwell (1963 – )
Canadian journalist
Are you sitting on some kind of wonderful (waiting for a better day, week, month, year, time to make the call)?
Be careful to invest your money hours wisely. Time is the only thing you can never get back.
Sure… There are lottery winners. But that’s not the way to bet.
Gladwell’s bestseller “Outliers: The Story of Success” is a favorite read of mine (well worth the time) – some great insights on what it takes to succeed.
The hard work piece you already know (hopefully). It’s the impact of luck and culture that are pretty fascinating.
“He who knows most, knows
how little he knows.”
– Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
3rd president of the United States
You don’t know everything.
You do know that, don’t you?
Continual learning is a basic necessity to professional improvement and in many cases it’s other people who will help you get there.
But only if you’re coachable. Are you?
To be coachable means to be…
It means you listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know – exactly the type of listening required in the sales process.
In the world of software, the designation “M2” refers to “Maintenance Release #2”. Maintenance releases are mini-versions that come out between major updates. They aren’t really about flashy new features; they’re more like tune-ups for your car; squeaks and rattles get fixes, tires are rotated, fluids are changed. You get the picture.
It’s been a few months since we released M1; since then, we’ve collected a fresh batch of performance tweaks and bug fixes—over 150 of them, in fact. M2 is a free update for all users of SketchUp 8 and SketchUp Pro 8 in all 12 languages. The best way to get it is to open SketchUp and do this:
Windows: Choose Help > Check for Update
Mac: Choose SketchUp > Check Web for Update
Having stated that maintenance releases aren’t always flashy, we couldn’t resist adding a few shiny, new things that we think you’ll appreciate:
Better Ruby Script Installation
We’ve had a way for other folks to build SketchUp plugins and extensions for years. Anyone with coding skills can use the Ruby API (application programming interface) to whip up new tools that they can distribute any way they like. People have created thousands of great scripts—we consider the API one of the most useful things we’ve done.
The tricky part has always been teaching SketchUp modelers how to install and access the Ruby scripts (Rubies) that they want to use. Adding a sophisticated Ruby used to involve finding a specific folder on your system and putting a bunch of files in all the right places. Try explaining how to do that to your boss.
The Extensions panel in SketchUp Preferences has a new button…
In SketchUp 8 M2, we’ve added two features that should make using Rubies a whole lot easier: The first is a new button on the Extensions panel in SketchUp Preferences. Clicking it lets you install any properly-configured “.RBZ” (ruby zip) file, which puts the needed files into the correct spot, without having to dig around in your computer’s file system. It’s simple, but huge. We’ve also added a lightweight set of “hooks” in the API that should help scripters build their own script-management tools.
Better COLLADA
All versions of SketchUp 8 can read and write COLLADA, a 3D file format that works with lots of other 3D software. It’s managed by the Khronos Group, an industry consortium that decides which features COLLADA should support. As of M2, SketchUp’s import/export support for COLLADA is now compliant with over 90% of the official Khronos compatibility test suite, only leaving out support for animations and shaders—neither of which can be authored in SketchUp anyway.
We think you’ll like SketchUp 8 M2’s ability to seamlessly import and export clean and compliant COLLADA geometry. One particular thing to note: SketchUp now preserves texture names in exported files. This makes it easier to work with COLLADA files in 3rd party rendering tools.
Advanced Camera Tools included in Pro
Back in March, we announced the Advanced Camera Tools for SketchUp Pro 8. The ACTs let set designers, cinematographers, storyboard artists and other people in the entertainment industry work with simulated real-world cameras in their SketchUp models. Until now, the ACTs were a separate plugin that you had to install. In M2, they’re built right into every copy of SketchUp Pro 8.
More Straightforward Pro Trials
After you download and install SketchUp Pro, you can try all of the Pro features for 8 hours (of use) before deciding to buy a license. Up until now, we’ve simply switched off the Pro stuff if you don’t enter a license after the trial period. Effectively, Pro reverted to being just like regular ol’ SketchUp.
The problem was that lots of people didn’t realize that they weren’t actually running Pro anymore. Even worse, folks who had bought Pro licenses and had forgotten (or otherwise been unable) to activate those licenses were missing out on all the great stuff they’d paid for. Our Pro Support team has been fielding dozens of “Why can’t I import a CAD file?” questions per day. It’s been a bit of a mess.
Starting with SketchUp 8 M2, the SketchUp Pro Trial will no longer revert to “free mode” when the trial period expires. A separate version of SketchUp will still be available to download for free, but SketchUp Pro will require a valid license file to run after your trial period has expired.
Mac OS 10.7 Compatibility
Users of Apple’s latest operating system, take note: SketchUp 8 is fully compatible with your hardware. And I ain’t lion. Rawr.