Out of this World

Chicago is city of many cultures and people--I can walk outside my condo in the South Loop and two blocks in either direction encounter a three sushi restaurants, two Yoga clinics and two cigar bars.

My experience Saturday was something entirely different than smoking a Havana washed down with a sift of Bushmills.

The US Men's National Soccer team was hosting--more on that later--Honduras in a World Cup qualifying match at Solider Field. In the universe of men's soccer, it was a pretty big deal. Whoever won this match, had a leg up in making the World Cup in 2010. The US won 2-1, and will most likely qualify for the Cup next year.

What made this so memorable, though, was not the action that went on the pitch; no rather it was the atmosphere surrounding the game.


These photos are a mere glimpse of what the scene was like outside the stadium before the game--thousands of Hondurans, all caught up in national pride for their team. Outward shows of emotion, a sense of patriotism that you don't typically see here in the US (although there are Bears fans who might disagree with me on that). Most Hondurans I spoke with flew in from their home country to watch the game. While this soccer match was one in a litany of sports options any American with a satellite dish or mobile phone could have witnessed this night, to Hondurans, this was the center of their galaxy, their sporting epicenter.


The 55,000 or so announced crowd was easily 70-75% rooting for Honduras, which in effect, made the match a rare home road game for our national team (as you can see by the photo of red shirts signifying the minimal US support inside the stadium). When Honduras scored a goal early in the match to go ahead, we felt as though we had been transported to its capital of Tegucigalpa. The crowd erupted in civic unison, even the Honduran media checked their objectivity at the door and shouted through the closed windows of the press box.

As we walked outside the stadium after the match we saw many misty-eyed Honduran fans, knowing the loss could spell doom for their World Cup hopes. I felt a sense of appreciation for their tears--when you travel as far as many of them did, are so emotionally invested in your country and team, why would they not be sad over the result?

Of course, I am a Cubs fan, so I feel some sense of empathy. We know all about disappointment.

5 steps to Journalistic Reinvention

I was reading a book by basketball coach Rick Pitino titled "Rebound Rules". In it, he talks about how as a baby boomer, he's not the most technically-savvy guy. One of the most successful college coaches of all time, Pitino has won a national championship and hundreds of games. You wouldn't think he would need to to embrace technology--after all, he's Rick Pitino. Isn't that what graduate assistants are for?

Wrong.

In order to compete in the uber-competitive world of college basketball, Pitino has developed new software techniques, video-conferences with his staff, and although he has yet to tweet, he texts as often as a 15-year-old on a Red Bull high.

It then hit me why this guy, and others, have continued success.

Reinvention.

Here are Innovative Journalists 5 steps to reinventing yourself. No better time than today to start-

1. Admit you must. Like any addiction, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Saying "I don't do email" or "Facebook is for kids" is the language of the lost.

2. Back to School. I don't mean necessarily college--although it's done wonders for this journalist--but studying the market. Subscribe to Google Reader and receive updates from sites such at Poynter.org, TechCrunch.com or Mashable.com. Read influencial bloggers such as Monica Guzman or Etan Horowitz. Be a student of innovation. This will fuel your own ambition.

3. Define, then refine your brand. When I say "brand" I don't mean on par with Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft or McDonald's. Spending millions each year on advertising is not a strategy I would endorse. When I mean is carving out your place in the online universe. What skills do you have that would benefit others? What message do I have that will be a conversation starter? This is a simple formula: available resources + intellectual capital= personal brand.

4. Implementation. The 800-pound elephant in the room. One difference between achievers and pretenders is achievers' ability to implement their plan once it is in place. Pretenders tend to over think--what if changed this? How about this tweak? What if it didn't work? So what. Act. Sign up for an account on Blogger or Word Press and get pubished today. Send out a message to your email network asking if anyone knows a good web designer. Actions stimulate brain activity. And the resources available to act are already in your rolodex.

5. Humility. Speaker Jim Rohn says "humility is the path to prosperity". Understanding you don't know it all, you won't know it all over night, and most important, we live in a transparent, open-sourced culture where the skills you need to succeed are on your Mac screen.

And if all else fails, you can always ask your neighbor's 7-year-old how to use Facebook.