Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

Father’s Day and Nobility (0)

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes - 5 times the average.
85% of all children who show behavior disorders are from fatherless homes - 20 times the average.
80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes - 14 times the average.
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes - 9 times […]

The real paradigm shift (0)

There’s a lot to love about the nature of the web community these days. People working on cool projects, loving what they do, excited to get up each day, truly believing that they have the creativity and passion to change the world in some small way. It’s the complete antithesis of so many corporate environments.
But […]

Simplicity (3)

Simplicity is a difficult thing to come by. We live fragmented, disjointed lives, always running from something, to something. We’re trying to get more and more done with less and less time. It’s an impossible race that leaves us tired, empty, drained.
We as a society love to prize the man or woman who can do […]

30 days to a new you (1)

When I was in junior high, I had a mentor who told me something that stuck with me for a long time. He said that it takes 30 days to develop a habit, which meant that if you went one year trying to improve yourself one good habit at a time, at the end of […]

Swept anyone off their feet lately? (1)

Overheard a conversation at the coffee shop this morning. A girl fell in love over the weekend.
The guy really did sound amazing, but the thing that struck me the most was that he wasn’t doing anything that remarkable. Rare, but not remarkable.

The guy’s an actor (in New York of all places.) - The thing about […]

Grow Up (2)

When I was in college, I skipped a lot of class.
I used to rationalize it by saying to myself I was busy with other things. I was running a couple student groups, I was coaching football, I was working a job, I was spending a lot of time at the local bookstore reading marketing books. […]

the invisible man (1)

I have always had a problem with trying to do big, important things.
It’s not a problem in that it often works – for whatever reason, many projects I’ve undertaken have been successful for just this reason. But it’s a problem because I’m often closing a door to the mundane as a result.
We as a people […]

Free Lunch (2)

With the wedding and my upcoming move to Chicago, I’ve been worried a lot about money lately. This week I resolved to not spend any money eating out.
This afternoon, as I was sitting in a Starbucks, I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything all day. A few minutes after I realized I was pretty hungry, […]

Dart Practice (3)

It’s a little embarassing when people ask me what my fiance and I talk about when we’re alone. Embarassing because the conversations usually go something like this:
Person 1: What kind of tree is that?
Person 2: You’re a tree.
Person 1: You’re a leaf.
Person 2: You’re a fig.
Person 1: You’re a newton.
Person 2: You’re an apple.
Person 1: […]

wanting to filibuster (0)

Went to Washington for the International Ecotourism Gala. I’ve decided that Washington is one of my favorite cities.
It’s a young city, very much like New York. Everyone is full of life, everyone seems to be going somewhere or doing something important. It’s like seeing all the idealism in the country congregated in one place, before […]

photographer / writer / designer / hero (1)

I have a buddy back in Colorado. This guy spends his days humbly behind the desk of a publication you’ve probably never heard of. His official job is to manage content for their online presence. But he is probably their best designer, he’s become one of their regular photographers (shooting the likes of Roger Ebert […]

Buy. Silver. Now. (0)

Two years ago I was contemplating buying silver.
At the time, it was hovering around $4 an ounce, and had remained pretty dormant for a long time. The market was down, I couldn’t afford to buy real estate, but I wanted to do something with the meager finances I had.
Of course, all my friends informed me […]

two hundred posts. (1)

It’s been nearly three years since I started writing. It’s amazing what a person learns…
I learned for the first time what mourning meant when I lost someone very close to my heart - my childhood beagle, Lucy. I learned that though they may not have complex brains…or skills marketable in the professional workplace…or refined table […]

Wordpress as a CMS - The Ecotourism Auction Site (1)

I’m wrapping up work this weekend on a site for The International Ecotourism Society in Washington. They hold an auction every year that is responsible for the bulk of their operating revenue, and they wanted a site that would get people excited about the vacation possibilities they had to offer. They also wanted to give […]

Irish blasphemy (2)

I’ve got a lot of Irish in me (red hair, blue eyes, bright white skin, etc,) but for some reason I’ve never been all that into St. Patrick’s Day. Part of it may be that I haven’t the slightest idea who St. Patrick was and what he did - from what I can surmise, he […]

A great man (3)

Manhood is a diffiult thing to accomplish.
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a number of female friends talk with me at length about their difficulty in ‘finding a good man.’ Indeed, this seems to be something that plagues most women I’ve met (other than the ones I’ve dated, of course.) On occasion I’ve heard […]

Lazy Sunday (2)

Every few weeks I get reminded that I work too much. I have a day like today, a day spent at the house watching Walk The Line, eating and being unproductive…and it noticably upsets me. I like to work, and when I don’t I feel as though I’m wasting time.
What is that?
I believe strongly that […]

Wine, cheese and entrepreneurship (0)

Had a great dinner last night with some good friends at work, and the discussion turned to my love for entrepreneurship. Why do I think that it’s such a noble and worthwhile endeavor? Why do I believe in it so much? When you see all the ills that are brought upon the world by a […]

Makes you want to be an Athiest (2)

For all my character flaws, I feel as though I’m generally a pretty good natured guy. But these past few weeks I’ve been extremely angry.
The majority of clients we work with are fantastic - good natured, easy going, and excited to be collectively striving to acheive a shared goal. But once in a while you […]

Don’t worry, it’ll fade… (2)

Someone smiled at me on the subway ride home from dinner tonight. And it really threw me for a loop.
In the bustle of the city, where everyone has a million places to go and a million things to do, we’ve trained ourselves to channel out the people around us. It’s funny - I remember when […]

How to have a successful relationship (3)

I have plenty of theories about what makes a relationship work and what doesn’t (in college, I wrote a book on the subject and sold it to guys for $50 on the Internet. Sold nine copies…I think my mom still keeps them in her basement.)
But if I had to say there was one rule that […]

Making forts (0)

Today was very surreal. A guy skied past me as I was walking up Broadway. Young kids were having a snowball fight in the middle of an intersection usually congested with traffic. The Barnes & Noble I frequent (though a lot less frequently than I’d like as of late) was almost empty. Michelle and I […]

Don’t open a bank account online (1)

I love online banking. Between online bill pay, statements that are constantly updated, the lack of junk mail and live chatting whenever I need it, it’s very close to the perfect service provider solution.
Unless I want to open a new account.
I needed to open a new checking account and decided to do so online. […]

Over the counter (1)

I’m tired.
I’m tired of spending 14 hours a day checking off an inexhaustable supply of to-do’s, serving as a floor operator in an enormous assembly line of inputs and outputs that never end.
I’m tired of going home at night, too tired to write or work out or paint or make dinner or think.
I’m tired of […]

A sad day in Seattle…. (0)

My observations from tonight:

A few bad calls, but I have to say the birds were outplayed.
Whichever team I root for in the Superbowl is guaranteed to lose. Keep that in mind before placing a bet - it may be prudent to give me call beforehand and ask my advice.
Disappointed in the commercials this year. […]

Bono’s a wise man… (0)

One of the more interesting reads I’ve had in a while. Thanks Julie…

Some day, I’ll be able to tell people “I knew him as a kid!” (1)

If you’re looking for design inspiration, do yourself a favor and visit The Generation Church website. This very well could be the most stunning site I’ve seen in the past 12 months.
I knew Sean growing up, and was always humbled by his intelligence. These days I’m similarly humbled by his design aesthetic. Just watch - […]

Burning your business into the ground - Part 1 (2)

A little over a year ago, I burned a business into the ground.
People tend to look at me funny when I talk about failing in business. They seem to still believe what we’re all taught in school - that failing in work or in a relationship or in a business means that the person failing […]

Everything I know about original sin I learned in diapers (1)

On those rare occasions when I find myself in a conversation about the inherent goodness of people, I like to talk about kids.
I went back to Colorado again this past weekend to look for wedding sites. While we were back there we spent some time with my parents, and they ended up showing Michelle a […]

Crabs in a box (0)

Conducted a student focus group at a client today, and was amazed at their responses. They were suprisingly, almost shockingly negative about their experience at the school.
As they were talking, I was wondering to myself how much of it was the school and how much of it was the group. This particular group of kids […]