Cameron Woodward

[cameronwoodward]

Check out TAPERED THRONE by Brandon Tauszik. The first ever GIF-based visual essay that paints an intimate portrait of Oakland’s Black barbers.

[washingtonpoststyle-blog]

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

Henry David Thoreau 

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Sprinkle Lab co-founder Brandon Tauszik worked intimately with Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg mining audio archives and rarely seen images to present the out-of-print book, Raised By Wolves as a multimedia short.

Tauszik, under the direction of Goldberg, delicately crafts a...

[cameronwoodward]

Kony 2012

I've had the privilege of working alongside some of the greatest activists of the 21 century. After years of lobbing, touring, & fund raising, their grand finale is fast approaching. Watch and learn about the worlds worst war criminal, Joseph Kony, and the hundreds of thousands of everyday radicals who are going to stop him.

[cameronwoodward]

Practice.

I havent been writing in the last few months, and I can feel it. It's taken me close to two hours to write the slop you're reading. It's convoluted, hardly hits a point, and feels forced. It is forced. 

I'm going to write and publish it anyway. I'm convinced I'll write something better tomorrow and even better the day after. 

Intentionally writing is incredibly difficult. The best comparison I can think of is self-assigning yourself homework every. single. day. It’s painful and takes discipline like any art.

It’s scary. It’s difficult. It’s homework.

On the other hand, I believe everyone should write publicly. Regardless of the risks, writing publicly will push you (like it's continually pushing me) to get better and better at communicating clearly and effectively. We live in a miraculous time, the opportunity to self publish is a privilege that pushes us forward. We need your voice.

Here's is a killer video from Ira Glass, it really hits home.

[cameronwoodward]

A life well lived.

Steve Jobs passed away today.

His life was a terrific example of a life extraordinarily lived. 

His legacy, vision, and contribution to humanity will live on for generations to come. The world lost a hero today, my thoughts and prayers are with the Jobs family and everyone else in the Apple community. 

[cameronwoodward]

MAKE: willyoutrade.me

I dreamt up this little idea yesterday and figured I'd give it a go. 

Willyoutrade.me is an interactive mixed-media experiment questioning the nature of wealth, commerce, material and the human condition. I will trade you an object for another object of greater or equal value. Your objects worth will be valuated by narrative potency and perceived worth. If you'd like to trade, you must be willing to be photographed and interviewed for the willyoutrade.me website. 

[cameronwoodward]

What is the bigger risk?

I think the most difficult part of doing something is in the starting. 

A few months ago I was working at a great job. I was challenged, had a great community of co-workers, and was growing both personally and professionally.

I left it all behind.

Although life was great, I knew that I wanted to make something. I wanted to own something and have the creative control to breath something from nothing. Entrepreneurship is an art-form, it’s taking basic elements, mashing them together and... poof! Something.

I remember the weeks leading up to quitting my job. I was stressed, I was frightened, and I wasn't sure if I was making a huge mistake. I made the leap anyway. Looking back, the most terrifying part of starting my business was working up the nerve to make a first move.

If you’re on the edge of making a leap, it’s worth it. Failure or success you’re going to be better for it in the end. Maybe the bigger risk is looking back on life wondering... 

What would have happened if I had made the jump?

[cameronwoodward]

Brand

Is everything.

[cameronwoodward]

It's possible...

to be remarkable. It's possible to live a life of meaning and purpose. It's possible to bless those around us for no other reason than the simple recognition that their potential is only to be recognized to be set ablaze.

What will the world look like with a humanity on fire with passion, empathy, creativity and brotherhood?

Another world is possible.

[cameronwoodward]

Ranting, art, and existentialism.

Hit by a car, or say, a horrific plane crash - what will happen to your art?

What is your legacy?

One of the most amazing aspects of a (great) company* is that mere humans are able to become the spark of organizations that can stand for something. Perhaps your organizational philosophy is to have fun, perhaps it's to make people happy, or something else entirely - but it's selfish of us if our only call in this lifetime is to simply build a company that feeds us individually. If that is our goal, we are zombies.

Our ambitions are too weak if we are not fighting for something bigger.

Let's build products that,  if  when we die, live beyond us. That is, after all, our biological goal - to build something better, to be remembered, to pass on something worth remembering.

*I believe that 'company' and 'art' are words that can be used interchangeably.

[cameronwoodward]

If you're going to build...

an amazing company, you need to live and breath for it.

[cameronwoodward]

I want permission.

The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. And that's the battle for the marketeer; how does your brand, project, comedy album, or new company get the attention it needs to get over the hump?

It's the natural tendency to start advertising and blasting our networks begging (spamming) to be discovered and accepted. However, the spamming methodology isn't very powerful, is working less and less, and pisses a bunch of people off. We have spam filters, ad blockers and are exposed to so many advertisements a day that they've stopped working.

Successful marketing is linked specifically to generating interesting content that is especially easy to spread. And then, finish off the cycle via - the catch.

The catch is when you ask your new-found viewer if you can share with them in the future. It's more than making great content, it's getting the permission to share your content with the same folks again, and again.

Maybe it's too easy of a segue, but, I'm working on some amazing projects with my new company Sprinkle Lab. If you want to stay in the know, sign-up for our newsletter.

[cameronwoodward]

Introducing: Sprinkle Lab

When I think about the Invisible Children family it makes me incredibly proud. The growth trajectory of the organization from the beginning of my tenure, to where the company is preparing to venture today, is incredibly exciting (and has been a wild ride). I count myself as blessed to be a small part of the Invisible Children legacy, working for the organization that has (and continues to) change the world is a real dream come true.

It's with a mixture of excitement and sadness to depart from Invisible Children, for the past 5 years the organization has been my life.  Since I was 17 I’ve loved and lived for the IC brand and mission; and the experience of working with the company has been the most important professional and personal development opportunity of my life-time.

All that being said, owning my own business has always been a dream of mine, and I'm proud to say that my first independent venture is off of the ground.

Say hello to Sprinkle Lab.

[cameronwoodward]

Army of construction

We’re an army of consumers constantly being convinced to buy more, eat more, spend more and then watch television. Once we’ve consumed the latest trend, we find ourselves in front of the television; we brainwash ourselves with commercial media to become new recycled customers for the corporation.

Their advertisers convince us that we’re broken, ugly, unhappy, fat, and insecure. It creates a void in us that we obsessively pursue to fill. Then we repeat the cycle.

We built this suicide machine.

Luckily, we’re not doomed. It’s a choice to impart something better to customers; we have a chance to do something more than business as usual. We have a choice to do work that matters – to build businesses that experiment with new ideas, connect, and create wealth for everyone.

Business is not a zero sum game. Giving has always been better than receiving.

Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! - Helen Keller

[cameronwoodward]

There is no wrong answer.

School is incredible, but it’s also a big cultural joke.

School is not going to allow you to be remarkable – you allow yourself to be remarkable with every choice you make. If you choose school because an academic environment is a place where you can grow and become a better human – go to school.

If you think you need a break, or need to learn in a new place – go get an internship, go farm on an organic ranch in France, dance, sing, run, skip, fly – do things that build you.

School is only one answer to a test question without an answer. 

[cameronwoodward]

A million different ways to live it.

Maybe it seems like a crazy step to quit your job; especially when you like what you do.

Although, it’s probably crazier not to do what you love.

Since the beginning of time, humans have been working to live. Today, we live in an unprecedented age – we’re lucky that we have opportunities to live to work. It’s never been easer to find shelter, food and the bare necessities – this access to resource has nearly been impossible for the rest of our ancestors.

If you’re working to buy more clothes you don’t need and food you don’t need to afford, maybe its time to remind yourself of the dreams you're not chasing.

You only have one life to live.