Wanted to share my keynote from last week’s A-Ha! Social Media Summit. My marching orders for this were:

So, just to set the stage – this is not going to be about lean startup or agile development how to do some cool hack. It’s just me, tellin’ my story and sharing what I believe: that you should forget what others think of success and instead, do the crazy thing and stray off that path of success in order to follow your own passions. Because I believe that when you do that, you’re gonna rock it.

I started with a TED-style 15 minute talk:

Followed by an exercise to help everyone discover their own path that involved lots of 3×5 cards, a little creativity and – I hope – some awesome connecting with others.

You can find the full slide deck here: Follow Your Own Path.

I just got back from Agile 2011 and I have to admit, I was skeptical. It’s been 10 years since we signed the Agile Manifesto and I just had to wonder, “it’s been 10 years – why do we still need a conference on this? We get it already!”

But I was also excited because they had a new stage called New Horizons about What’s Next for Agile? And I had the extreme honor of getting to present on this stage to share what’s been happening in the Startup community with the Agile community. To talk about how I believe Lean Startup is what’s next for agile. Not just startup projects, but all development.

And in the end – as it always seems to be – meeting all of the awesome people, having all of the enlightening (and sometimes slightly drunken) discussions, and remembering just how freakin’ amazing the Agile community truly is – I left feeling incredibly inspired, energized, and with this unshakeable feeling that there is just so much potential – so much more we can all be doing. So, even if 10 years has gone by, that doesn’t take away from how much more we can accomplish.

And with that in mind, here’s a quick screencast on how I believe Lean Startup pushes agile development to the next level…

You can find my complete slide deck on slideshare and I’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s next for agile.

What do YOU think is next for agile? Or do you think all this agile stuff is just crazy talk?

Over 130 people – half techies, half business folks – converged on Microsoft NERD this weekend to start their own companies, have some fun & make some noise.

Friday night, 50 of them stood up and pitched their ideas in quick 60 second spots, interrupted only for a quick game of multiplayer rock-paper-scissors.

Pitches ran the gamut from gamifying entrepreneurship to games to solve the world’s biggest problems. From help with dating to help finding babysitters. Investing help through forecasting small company returns to a game that lets you invest in twitter hashtags.

One pitched a joke “I’m going to create a double rainbow – I mean, a Double Game Layer around the world!”. Some just sounded like it – DidWeShag.com for sharing those vital date details. And a guy named Sting pitched something about the Police (PayYourTicketsOnline.com).

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“To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.”
– William James

I got this quote from Michael Bungay Stanier’s book Do More Great Work. Great Work, you see, is what lights you up, it’s what makes a difference. Great Work is the work that matters.

I can picture you right now, reading that phrase and I just know you’ve got an idea. Something you’d love to do. An area you could really make an impact in, that would build on all those things you kick ass at, the things you’re truly passionate about, the stuff of heroes.

I know that’s what made me buy Stanier’s book and probably all those others who’ve launched it to the #1 rank in it’s category on Amazon’s Kindle store.

So why aren’t we all out there doing our Great Work?

Can you imagine if each of us managed just one piece of Great Work this year? Not just for how awesome it would make us feel (although that would be pretty amazing). But for the difference it would make in the world when everyone was out there doing something more. Something that pushed beyond the same old same old we spend so much of our lives in.

So what’s stopping us?

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