Angie Clever

If I had one piece of advice to give you for today, it would be to make something happen today. Not tomorrow, not when you boss tells you to, not when the market changes, not when finances are a little better- but today. That’s right start today.

The best way to know if an idea will work or no is to test it directly. If I have a new game idea that I think is a fabulous idea, the only way I know if it is going to work is if I put it together and say “Hey guys, lets play this”. Sometimes it goes over great and it’s talked about for years to come—other times it completely falls apart. The same applies to dating, if you never get up the courage to ask that someone out, you don’t know what would have happened. Sure you might have gotten flat out rejected, but then again you might have found a mate for life.

You never know if something is going to work until you attempt it, but it’s easy to pack away an idea, pushing it off further and further, until it’s lost. We make all kinds of excuses, but they all center on fear. Let’s face it, the uncertain is scary. <ul class=”uls”>
 

• Thinking with Fear - You can scare yourself out of an idea easily. “90% of new businesses fail within the first 10 years”. So maybe it would be better not to start that business, right?
• Giving in to Critics - My parents really don’t think art is a good career choice, jobs are just too unstable. Letting other people decide for you.
• Overthinking the Possibilities- If I ask my boss for a raise he might ask me to work extra hours, or he might say no, or he might fire me, or he might promote someone else instead, or he might laugh at me, or he might say no, or he might give me only part. Lets face it, the human brain is an amazing thing, and its easy to think up 10,000 different could-be scenarios.
• Failure First Thinking - I just know if I ask her out, she”ll say no and laugh at me, its not even worth it. Justifying yourself by overemphasizing failure.
• Taking Risks without Facts - I can spend $1000 to join the program, because it will make me rich! You don’t eget all the facts, but since you know that you’ll get rewards (”get rich”) you overlook the risks involved in investing time and money.

Don’t let the risk of failure control your decisions. As humans, we innately try to avoid pain. Our animal instincts tell us that if we touch something and it burns us, we should not touch things that look like that in the future. That works fine for animals, now stand up on two legs and stop fearing failure.

If a game I make is a total flop, then I have invested money, time, and brain-power into something useless. I can then stop spending and thinking about it. I can stop letting it eat up my time. I take a loss. If a game is a success, then it will make me money for the entire time it is produced, not to mention I’ll have a design, engine, and concept that I can manipulate and use in future games.

When a plan something succeeds I reap long-term benefits. If a plan fails, I take a short term loss. Just one successful plan can make up for 100 bad ideas that I was able to cut short, and take only small losses. Think of your failures as a learning experience, an investment towards more successful ideas. Good or bad, putting an idea into motion is going to bring you closer to accomplishing your goals.

As you are thinking of all those tomorrow-plans that never seem to come to fruition, remember that you don’t know where you will fail until you do it. Start working on a project—you will be amazed at how far you will get. Take your ideas to completion (even if that is failure!). Let yourself get burnt from time to time, it isn’t the end of the world—and then you know for sure what will burn you and what will not! Take a risk and try something new, start a project or do something that you’ve been putting off. Set goals for yourself. Take steps toward theme very day. Here are some examples from my life, to show you what I’ve been working on.

• Game Design Center - I want to make games, it has always been a passion of mine. I started this site in July 2007, and am currently getting an astounding amount of traffic at about 20 visitors a day. I am painting the illustrations and working on the system for one TT-RPG game and a card game. My goal is to start producing websites and games for private customers to build capital for my own line of products.
• Angie Clever Blog Optimization - I am posting at least one blog every other day, I want to build content and draw traffic. I want to make some passive income by advertising. More importantly, I want to provide a value on the net. There is so much junk out there—particularly in blogs (seriously, nobody really thinks you sex life is interesting except you– Pick another topic, Please!) , I want to provide some interesting reading content that will help people like me overcome their fears and take a step towards doing what they want to be doing with their lives. No to mention, I want to keep an update on what I am doing to help more effectively achieve my goals.
• Tango Dancing Lessons - I love to dance, do I know how? Not at all. I was a musician for a lot of years and I have a pretty good sense of timing. I don’t look too stupid at a club. But classical dance? It’s a little terrifying. I figure I’ve got a chance—I signed up for the class in a couple of weekends. I’m a little nervous, but you never know if you like it until you try.
• Deep Sea Fishing in the Gulf Stream (East Coast) - Fishing is great. I think I have a competitive bone though, if I had a boat, I could see myself becoming one of those obsessive fishers with 300 lures that competes for million dollar pots to get the biggest fish. I just want to catch a big one! Just once. I went for the first time last year. I took a head boat charter out to the gulf stream for about $80. If you live near the coast and have never been, I highly recommend it. The only down side is that you have to register in advance, so you may get a smooth calm day, you may get a choppy windy day. They provide the bait, tackle, everything you need. There’s a little cafeteria on the boat. The boats hold 20-40 people. All in all the social aspect was great, being on the open ocean was an awe-inspiring experience, and I caught some fish. As relaxing goes, I would say being 30 miles from all civilization (we are talking out of reach of cell towers here!) is the way to go—your boss couldn’t reach you if he tried, at least not without the coast guard’s help. I’d love to be better at this sport, but hey- I’d never thought that I would even like it. You don’t know what you want till you give it a shot.