Matt Helt | SecretPenguin Blog

I wrote a post right before Big Omaha called Big Omaha This Week - Then What? I was concerned that Big Omaha would come and go, and we’d get back to our lives as if nothing happened. I knew the event was going to be great, but I wondered what would happen after everyone went home.

Well, here’s what happened. Buzz about the event lasted for weeks. Tons of people blogged about it and gave the event a huge thumbs up. Then the organizers, Jeff Slobotski (@jjsnyc) and Dusty Davidson (@dustyd) of Silicon Prairie News, started posting videos of the speakers and that gave the event another boost of momentum.

But I’m back to feeling like something else needs to happen. A community was born out of Big Omaha and we shouldn’t wait until next year to get everyone back. People made connections. Some have continued, while others faded away. That’s natural. But what’s unnatural is the force that Big Omaha created. We need a way to foster this outside of the event.

Another post I wrote last month, Big Omaha, was in a sense a rallying cry alerting the creatives in Omaha that there was a ton of work out there for all of us to share in. I had just spent time in L.A. meeting some really fantastic people and wanted those in Omaha to know that “West Coasters” were sincerely interested in working with them. We have the talent here and they need our help. This post got a lot of people excited and I was hopeful that Big Omaha would be the catalyst that connected that bridge.

Now all of that has come and gone, and I still get the feeling that something more needs to happen. Here’s what I propose: We need to take the community built out of Big Omaha, combine that with the interest the coasts have in working with us, and develop a place where we can all connect. My friend Kurt Daradics (@KurtyD) kept mentioning that he wanted to make a bridge from L.A. to Omaha. He took action and along with Jolie O’Dell (@joileodell) and Jon Dingman (@dingman) put together Roadtwip. They hopped in a car and drove to Omaha, discovering other tech communities along the way. I was really inspired by their trip so I started thinking about what Kurt said. He wanted to build a bridge to Omaha. He wanted to connect us with L.A. He saw the talent that exists in Omaha and wants to foster it. Kurt is a visionary and understands that communities like ours are going to be the creative powerhouses of the future. So I propose that we create that bridge. Let’s not wait for the coasts to discover us. Let’s send out the signal that we’re ready to work - we’re ready to be thought leaders and move technology in the right direction.

I purchased BridgetoOmaha.com today to do just that. I envision this as the place where the world can connect with the talent here in Omaha. We’re fragmented right now, but this can bring us together. I see it showcasing each and every tech company in Omaha, showing what our strengths are and how to contact us. I was very sincere in saying in the Big Omaha post that the new way to do business is through collaboration. There’s so much work out there that we can all benefit. There’s no need to try to destroy our local competition. We can all succeed. And the great thing about us all succeeding is that Omaha will be better off because of it.

BridgetoOmaha.com is going to need a lot of input. I don’t see this as being a SecretPenguin project. It needs to be your project. It needs to be our project. As much as I hate projects done by committee, I think we’ll probably need to put one together to see this thing through. I’m looking for people in Omaha who subscribe to the philosophy of collaboration. I’m especially looking for business owners in tech/creative who want to build that bridge, not only to L.A., but to the rest of the world. If you’re looking to insert yourself so that you can try to hoard all the work, then we don’t want you. You can stay home. But if you’re honestly interested in supporting our community, understand that you and your competition can both succeed, then we want your input.

Send me an email (matt@secretpenguin.com) if you’re interested in participating. The more businesses we can add to this site the better. There truly is strength in numbers. Once I get an idea of how many people/businesses want to be a part of this I will send a note to everyone detailing what the next step will be.

I look forward to working with each and every one of you to make Omaha even better than it already is.

I got a call this morning from my wife and she told me that a friend of the family took his own life yesterday.

My first reaction was a sense of heartache for the family he left behind. He was the father of two young children. His parents are amazing people and don’t deserve to suffer through the loss of a child. His death leaves me wondering about how awful his life must have seemed to him. Did he really feel that hopeless that he needed to die to relieve his suffering? Did he think about how his parents would grieve for the rest of their lives? Did he consider how his children would grow up without a father? There’s no way to tell. Unfortunately for those left behind, it’s a tragic, unnecessary death.

As I’ve talked about in past posts, life is the most miraculous thing in the universe. But since we’re surrounded by this miracle every moment of our lives, it loses its uniqueness. This in itself is a tragedy. Imagine being by yourself on a seemingly lifeless planet. And what if you came across a small insect, the only one you’ve seen in days. Would you squish it because it was annoying you? Probably not. You would be in awe of it because it represented the one thing you thought didn’t exist on the planet. Yet most of us don’t hesitate for a second to smash the life out of a small insect crawling across the desk at work. Ick, a bug, kill it. But that bug’s life is not unimportant. It may be small, but it’s just as valid as your life. I can guarantee its life is less destructive to the world than yours is.

Life is life, no matter the size or intelligence. For some reason it sprang up out of the particles left behind by exploding stars. Yet we end it so freely and willingly. The man who took his own life yesterday didn’t understand the miracle that existed in him. And many of us are blind to the life that exists in the smallest of creatures. But it’s there. My hope for the world is that we begin to find the miracle in life - our own and in the creatures we share this planet with. When we do that then maybe we’ll begin to do truly amazing things.

I was watching President Obama give his commencement speech at Notre Dame today and it sparked me to revisit an idea I had some time ago. I had this question come up in my mind “What if I was asked to give a commencement speech? What would I say?” I don’t think anyone’s going to ask me to do that any time soon, but I wondered what I would say to the class of 2009. Would I be optimistic or pessimistic? Would I tell them the truth about life as an adult or would I sugar coat it? I really wanted to see what came out of my head, so I thought I’d write down to see what I’d say. Here it goes…

“Hello class of 2009. My name is Matt Helt. Thank you for inviting me here today to share my thoughts on what your life is going to look like after college.”

“First of all, let me start out by saying how fortunate you are. You may think you worked hard to earn your degree, and for a small percentage of you there’s probably some truth to that. Most of you, though, coasted right through with your B or C average. You woke up every morning, threw on your sweat pants and hoodie, and walked to your class. You sat there disinterested, taking a few notes, thinking about what to eat for lunch. This basically goes on for four years and then the university says you completed all the requirements for a degree.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing you for being fortunate. I was the same way. I floated through college without a care in the world. I graduated magna cum laude and barely opened a book. I’m not that smart. I just figured out very early on how to play the game. Every class I took was basically a course in critical thinking. Every professor I had a class with had a way he or she wanted you to play the critical thinking game. Figure it out early enough, and you have a pretty good chance of passing the class.”

“Is the system broken? Not necessarily. I just think a college degree isn’t that important. It’s definitely not a measure of who you are as a person. It just means you were willing to play that particular game. There are tons of examples of highly successful people who never spent the time getting a degree. I wanted nothing more than to get done with college as quickly as possible because I saw it as the antithesis of the real world. There were several times I wanted to drop out and get on with my life. But I didn’t. I stuck it out, just like you.”

“So what does your degree earn you in the real world? Well, many employers say it’s the first thing they look for. This is understandable because it’s a way for them to filter out resumes. If you don’t have a degree, they won’t interview you. Which is a shame. You could be the most talented, self-taught whatever, but you’re immediately cut out of the process.”

“But none of you have to worry about this - you all have your degree. You can put B.A. or B.S. underneath the ‘Education’ line on your resume. Congratulations. You’re through to the next round. Maybe you’ll get an interview, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll get that job with the Fortune 500 company of your dreams, or maybe you’ll work in a small cubicle next to a guy named Doug who’s been in his job for 15 years now. What’s more likely? You sitting next Doug.”

“Unfortunately, most of you will end up in a cubicle. This is just a fact of modern American business. Cubicles are no different than cages. Yet most of us tolerate them. We say to Mr. or Mrs. Employer ‘Sure, put me inside a small padded room with a computer and a phone, I don’t mind! Oh, I can’t look outside? That’s okay, sunlight is overrated.’ This is what life is like for most people working for a corporation. Don’t believe me? Just wait. You’ll have an opportunity to experience it yourself.”

“Now, I’m not here to tell you that real life sucks. But I am here to warn you. It’s very easy to fall into their trap. Your future employer will try every way they can to make you buy into their philosophy. And their messengers are the folks in Human Resources. They’ll act like your best friend, then cut your throat when the big guys and gals upstairs tell them to. Believe me, I’ve seen it. If you see HR walking through your cube farm with security following them, then that means today is firing day. I don’t know how many times I starting packing up my belongings when those days came around. Most of the time they weren’t coming for me. But on other days, I was on the list. It ain’t fun. They’ll tell you it’s not personal, it’s just business. They’re lying.”

“Businesses also try to create an artificial sense of community. ‘We care about your career!’ No they don’t. It’s a stall tactic. They make it seem like they’re investing in you, but all they’re really doing is making you want to stay. Once they have no use for you, you’re gone. There’s no loyalty on their part, but they’ll tell you they care all day long.”

“So what can you do? First of all, throw most of what you learned these last 4 or 5 years in the garbage. Yeah, I know it sucked having to sit through a semester of cell biology, but you won’t use it. Nor will you use that philosophy class or sociology class. They wasted your time. Your first job won’t ask you to quote Kant or explain the concentric zone theory of metropolitan development. They’ll say here’s your computer, make us more money. If you’re a science major or mathematics major, then there’s a good chance you’ll use some of what you learned. But eventually your bosses will want the same thing.”

“Like I said earlier, for most of you, this is what your life will look like. You will grow to tolerate this and so will your spouse. Both of you will live this way until you retire. After retirement, you’ll set yourself up so that you can live near a beach or golf course and spend your days recreating. Ah, the American dream - put up with crap your whole life only to die a slow death during retirement.”

“For some of you in this room, life won’t be this way. You’ll choose a harder life. You’ll have this itch to do things your own way. You will risk everything to live a life that matters. You’ll fail sometimes, and win sometimes. But in the end what you did mattered. The world changed because you decided you didn’t like the way things operated. And when it comes time for you to retire, you’ll fight like hell not to. Your job was never a job. It was passion. It was living a life according to what your heart told you to do. For too many years I listened to my head. I did the safe thing and suffered for it. Safe was nearly the death of me. Now I take risks. Calculated risks, yes, but risks nonetheless. Taking risks gives you a reward. There’s no reward in playing it safe. There’s only compensation with safe. Rewards only come when you stick your neck out there and do something positive.”

“So now that I’ve got you all scared, let me tell you a secret. There’s hope for you. You are the only one controlling your life. There will always be external forces tugging at you to fit into the fold, but if you listen to your heart, then you win. Your heart will tell you which way to go. Your heart will let you know what feels right. Your head has a way of betraying you. It rationalizes things and gets you stuck. Don’t fall for it. After all, how rational is life anyway? Life is a magical, mystical thing. The very idea of it is crazy. Yet you exist. Make something happen with that magical thing you’ve been given.”

“Class of 2009, I say to you with the utmost sincerity, please do something meaningful with your life. Don’t give in to corporations who only want to use you to make more money. Don’t waste your days trying to make as much money as possible. Money is useless. Use your time to build community. Use your time to care about the world around you. Be open. Care about people. Respect diversity. Seek to understand those things that scare you. Fear is often the result of miscommunication. Understand that your religion does not make you better than those who have different beliefs. Often times you’ll find that you share the same beliefs, they’re just taught in a different way. Throw your ego away. You may be smart, but there’s always an opportunity to learn something new, especially from those who you think you have nothing to learn anything from. And above all, be present in the moment. All you have is right now. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is an idea. This very moment is the only thing that is real. Try your best to recognize it. If you do that, then you’re more likely to listen to your heart. Your head speaks of past and future, but your heart operates according to one clock - the clock of now.”

“My one wish for you is that you experience fully the life you’ve been given.”

I read an article today that told of an old Mohawk belief. It goes something like this:

You were born with a gift inside you, given to you by the creator. But the thing is, you can’t see this gift. Nor can your parents. Only the people in your community can see it. And it’s their job to help bring it out of you. Why?  Because your gift doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the community.

I am really moved by this concept for a couple of reasons. First, it gives ownership of our gifts/talents to our community. And second, it makes us think outside of ourselves. If we could embrace the idea that the talents we have should be used to lift up our community, then we would live in a much different world. A culture of caring would develop. We’d look for what connects us, rather than what divides.

I think a lot about the winner-take-all mentality and how destructive a concept that is. I’m reminded daily that this is the way the world works. I see it everywhere I go. Greed is one of the most American of qualities. Why? Because greed creates demand. Demand creates wealth. Wealth promotes growth. Growth consumes resources. Resources create new products. New products create greed. It’s a hideous feed-back loop. Everything in our society is set up to perpetuate this belief. Americans dream of getting rich. They want more money than they know what to do with. They want to consume massive amounts of resources because they can afford to. And society, rather than shun them for taking more than their fair share, rewards them with power and celebrity. It tells them that they “made it.” That they are a “success” and others should emulate this success. All we’ve ended up doing is creating a global parasite, incapable of sustaining itself. And we all know what happens when the parasite kills its host.

Clearly, the Mohawks knew what they were talking about. In order to sustain their lives, they had to find the gifts within one another and share them. The guy with the most objects didn’t help them survive. But the woman with the best tapestry skills, or the guy with the best hunting skills, they were the most valuable. We need to apply that thinking to our society. Those that do the most for the community are the most valuable. We shouldn’t use wealth to measure value.

Our current system is broken. I think we’re all starting to recognize that. It requires non-stop growth and we’re now reaching a level that’s unsustainable. So something has to give. We have to change the system.

There’s a movement happening. If enough of us jump on board, then that movement becomes a shift - a shift in consciousness, a shift in power, a shift in the rules. It’s our time to destroy the status quo and take our community, our country, and our planet away from the profiteers. This planet is too beautiful to waste it like we have. And our community is too important to ignore. Give yourself to your community and discover who you truly are.

I spent a lot of today thinking about a quote I heard a number of weeks ago. I believe it was Duke Stump (@skratta) who threw it out there for me to chew on. It was a quote by Buckminster Fuller, one that for some reason I had never heard:

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”

This little quote smacked me right between the eyes. There was so much truth in it. The tiny caterpillar crawling on the ground, gnawing away at leaves, has this wonderful potential locked away inside it. One day it will suddenly form a chrysalis and begin its transformation into something completely different from its current self. Then it will break its cage and take flight, realizing it’s true nature as a butterfly. There was nothing about it during the caterpillar stage that communicated that this metamorphosis would occur. Yet it existed inside, waiting for just the right time to show itself.

I see a parallel between a caterpillar and a person sleepwalking through life. Inside each of us lies the potential to become something amazing. For much of my life I was a sleepwalker. I woke up everyday uninspired, dreading the day that lay before me. I had no passion, no direction. I began to treasure Fridays and hate Mondays. Time moved slow and I chewed away at my work, one boring leaf at a time.

My life began to change when I became a Buddhist. I began to see my life as a journey to discover, or awaken, to my true nature. That’s pretty much the definition of enlightenment. So I knew I needed to make a change quickly or I was going to live a life that didn’t matter. That terrified me. If I continued the way I was, making no positive impact or meaningful contribution, I will have lived a wasted life. In my mind, life is the most miraculous thing in the entire universe. I am the expression of stardust that the universe has combined to observe itself. A star cannot love. A planet cannot care. Yet as tiny as I am in comparison to those two objects, I have more potential for loving and caring than all of the stars and planets in the universe combined. That’s what life is all about - being given this brief moment in time to spread love and caring to one another. We have this “butterfly” locked inside all of us, this potential to do absolutely amazing things. We are the ultimate expression of the universe. Yet the vast majority of humanity sleepwalks through life.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Dune. Close to the end the main character, Paul Atreides, or as he is know at this point in the movie, Paul Muad’Dib, drinks this water of life stuff (I think it’s giant worm bile) and sees all this crazy shit. Basically, it causes him to awaken to his true nature and become the universe’s super being, or Kwisatz Haderach. (I’m totally showing my fanboy side right now.) When the visions fade he yells out to his dead father “Father, the sleeper has awaken!” I first saw this movie when I was eleven. From that point on I always wondered what that phrase meant. Now I know. And I didn’t drop acid to figure it out - something inside me just ignited and I began to wake up. And when I woke up, things changed dramatically. I realized that this gift of life that I have been given will not be wasted. I will do everything I can to transform the world we live in into the most positive, loving, caring environment that I can. I will seek truth in everything I do. I will strive to hurt no one, and give my all to lift up humanity. This is it folks. We’ve got one shot. And never has there been a better time in the history of our species to experience this awakening.

So I guess my question for you is, are you sleepwalking? Do you dread going to work tomorrow morning? Are you working so that someday you can retire and not work, then rot away in a lounge chair for the last few decades of your life? Because if you are, then you need to wake up now. You have been given this miraculous opportunity to experience the most amazing thing in the entire universe. You are alive. Take that gift and do something incredible with it. Find your passion and share it with the world. Seek out people who will help you with this, people who understand that what you have to offer is important.

I invite you to join me in this movement. There is a shift happening and you can be involved starting right now. Devote yourself to the human cause and share your passion with the world. Awaken to your true nature and become the butterfly that is inside you. I promise you will not regret a single moment of it.

It’s about 6:30 am on this fine Saturday in early May. I went to bed three and a half hours ago after attending the first ever Big Omaha. So why the hell am I up now? Pretty simple: I am so inspired by what I saw here in Omaha the last two days that I can’t sleep. Seriously. The first thing that came to my mind when my eyes opened was what am I going to do to keep this excitement going. Sleep was impossible after that. I then decided that sleep was lame and came up with an acronym for it: Simply Living Everyone Elses Possibilities. If you sleep while your competition is working, they will beat you. If you sleep because you’re uninspired, you will have to live out other people’s dreams, not your own.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I still think sleep is a good thing and I plan to engage in a lot of it while I’m on this planet (I love naps). But I now understand why really successful people don’t sleep very much. It’s because they are so inspired during their waking life that there’s no need to dream about. There is so much to get done - sleep just gets in the way it.

So what has me so jazzed right now? Alright, you ready for this? YOU. Yep, YOU. Why? Because I met so many of YOU the last two days and YOU set me on fire (I’ll stop with the obnoxious capitalization now). I am so blown away by all the great people I met that I can do nothing but think about how I want to work with all of you. You are a thought leader. You are a part of the creative class. You are working with tech to make really cool shit. Best of all, I can connect with any of you almost instantaneously. Pretty freaking rad I think.

So how awesome was Big Omaha? Unreal. That’s all I can say. Absolutely 100% lived up to the hype and maybe even exceeded it. I think it will be a few days before we get a good sense of the impact, but I have a feeling those of us that were there will look back at this event and point to it as the time when everything started to change for the better. We saw the power of an idea yesterday. Jeff Slobotski (@jjsnyc) and Dusty Davidson (@dustyd) took an idea and made it real. Because they were committed to that idea we all benefited. This is the movement which will captivate us for many years to come. If we learned one thing from yesterday it’s that passion drives innovation, not the pursuit of wealth. Wealth is a by-product of that passion. If you reverse that and have wealth as your motivation, chances are you will be miserable. Live your passion each and every day and you will have no other option than becoming a success. And no, having a big ass bank account doesn’t mean you are a success. That’s not the measurement anymore. That’s the greed culture’s measurement. Our measurement, the how-do-I-help culture’s measurement, is how many people have benefited from me waking up today? How many people are better off because I jumped out of bed and immediately started to think of how my passion will help them? Do that each and every day and you will have no choice but to be a success.

Great to meet all of you yesterday! Thanks to Jeff and Dusty for taking a risk and against all odds managed to pull off an amazing conference. Thanks to all the amazing speakers for sharing your passion with us. It was truly some the coolest shit I’ve ever heard. That round-table was insane. I think I’m glad Matt Mullenweg didn’t show up (no offense, Matt) (who am I kidding, Matt is not going to read this). Great way to turn a negative situation into a positive.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few people who inspire me on a daily basis. First of all my wife, Janie, is my biggest inspiration. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and she truly earns that day every year. She is an absolutely remarkable person who doesn’t have any quit in her. Against all odds, she makes things happen, does the bulk of the parenting, works two or three jobs simutaneously, mows the lawn, teaches our youth, and puts up with me. I am so blessed to have a life partner like her.

Dave Nelson (@SecretPenguin), my business partner here at SecretPenguin, never ceases to inspire me. His creative genius blows my mind. Best of all, he’s the most humble guy you will ever meet. Seriously. Ego is not in his vocabulary. Because he is the way he is, I work hard because I want him to succeed. I am very passionate about doing everything I can do to make Dave’s life better. Not just for him, but for his wife, Sara, as well. She’s been supporting his passion, so I hope to make that pay off for her.

Cody Peterson (@codypeterson), our art director, is amazingly talented. He comes up with the coolest shit. I wish I had one ounce of his creative genius. His committment to producing quality work is so inspirational. I can’t wait to see what this guy comes up with over the next five years.

The Roadtwip crew - Kurt Daradics (@kurtyd), Jolie O’Dell (@jolieodell) and Jonathon Dingman (@dingman) - you guys rock. You put together a project on a short timeframe and are making amazing things happen. Congrats on your success and I know there’s more to come. Follow the second half of their adventures at Roadtwip.

My new friend, Espree Devora (@espreedevora), who is incredibly passionate about what she does at ZexSports.com. Her energy is contagious and I want to bask in her glow for a very long time.

My best friend, Brian Wetjen (@wetchman), is as good a friend as a guy could have. I’m incredibly inspired by what he’s accomplished as a business owner. Not only is he my friend, but a mentor as well. He never hesitates to share his knowledge with me.

Okay, this post is way too long. If you made it to this point, thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to collaborating with you to make this world a better place for eveyone. Now go get some sleep. You’re going to need some rest. Changing the world tends to be a little exhausting.

We have now reached the week that Omaha will play host to one of the most exciting tech/entrepreneur/social media conferences in the country - Big Omaha. Starting Thursday night, thought leaders from Omaha and around the nation will converge on our city to listen to a great line-up of speakers, meet new people, and talk about all the great things we’re working on. There’s tons of excitement surrounding this event and there seems to be a real interest on the part of the out-of-towners to see what Omaha is all about. I have no doubt that they’ll find a city filled with very bright people who want to make a difference in the way our world operates. I couldn’t be prouder to call myself an Omahan and hope all of you feel the same.

But I have this nagging question that’s been bugging me for a couple of weeks now. What’s next? Big Omaha will be here and end before we know it. After it’s over, will we be energized enough to take action to affect change? Will we truly embrace the movement of collaboration and help one another succeed rather than try to keep each other down?

Knowing how passionate each of you are, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to be just fine after this event. But there is a legitimate concern about how we will keep up the momentum. We can’t rely on the organizers of Big Omaha to do it for us. There needs to be a grassroots effort to sustain this energy and continue to bridge gaps between us. Tweet-ups are a good way to do this, but we need more of them. And we need to spread the message to those in our community who don’t have access to technology. In many ways, technology can cause us to deepen the class divide in our country. If we’re going to lift our neighbors out of poverty, then we need to reach out to them and see if they are interested to joining the conversation. I also think we’re excluding some of the older members of society who have a tremendous amount of knowledge to share. Many of these people are looking for a way to share what they’ve learned, and we can be the recipients of that knowledge if we just take the time to listen.

In no way am I trying to say I have all the answers. I don’t even know if I have the skills to organize something after Big Omaha. But I know a lot of you reading this do. All I’m proposing is that we make Big Omaha a 365-day conversation. Those of you willing to lead should take this opportunity to do so. It could be as easy as reaching out to a local nursing home and hosting a Tweet-up at their facility. Or teaming up with Girls, Inc. to show the students how to use technology to change their lives. It could be pretty amazing what we come up with. All it takes is the desire to affect change.

If you’re in Omaha on Thursday, May 7, feel free to stop by the SecretPenguin/What Cheer studio at 6 pm. We’re hosting a pre-Big Omaha party and would love to meet you. You can find the invite here.