Taking Pictures

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Taking Pictures

November 12, 2008. By Peter Lloyd

Dick Summer helps people motivate themselves. He's a man so full of ambitions, abilities, and ideas, that, when you talk with him, you have to listen.

Dick Summer in cockpit

He's a story teller with a big, radio-and-advertising voice. Once a big-time personality in New York City and Boston, his website currently offers deeply personal messages about love and life that his voice has the power to drill into you and make your skin raise goosebumps.

My favorite Dick Summer quote: How can anybody be bored when there are so many problems to be solved and questions to be answered?

Not exactly what we're used to in the nuts-and-bolts business of invention and innovation. His appeal, I would think, would compete with Oprah's. But his spirit is made of the stuff that drives innovation.

I interviewed Summer some time ago, when he was written up for his claim that conjuring up positive images from real life can be a great source of auto-motivation.

Wondering then, what if you can't think of any positive images? I asked Dick. His answer was unabashed.

Consistently when you show someone what they are doing and ask for comments on it, the first 15 or 20 comments you get will be things like: I'm not sitting up straight, I hate my voice, I don't like the color of my hair, and on and on.

And then you say, is there anything good?

And people stop and they take a look and they take a deep breath, say hey, yeah some of the things he's saying make a good deal of sense. But we're so accustomed to trying to find the problem that we don't see the solution that's staring us right in the face.

Why not apply this technique to my home or office? Especially when I'm having trouble with motivation. Carry a camcorder around and shoot. Maybe get a bunch of friends to do it, too. Then we could get together and look at it what we've shot.

If Dick Summer is right, we'll all be surprised at how good we really are. At least we can build on what we learn. But only if we concentrate on what's right.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest business problems.

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