And singing loud! He’s a bit early… 5lb 5oz. He’s being watched closely but will be just fine :) Mamma’s doing well too!

But man, things like Quilts and Photoshop Tennis on Dreamless.org (gone but not forgotten) … or K10K’s matchmaker … or crazy YayHooray projects … they really made an impact.

Everyone out there participating on forums: stop talking nonsense and start doing something constructive! (And yes, that goes for me too)

Huge thanks to my wife & daughter for being themselves.  I am so thankful for all of my family, friends, coworkers and the incredible community of people who inspire me daily through Threadless.  Happy holidays.

When thinking recently about some of the values I subconsciously lived by when starting Threadless, I kept coming back to one.  I was never afraid to figure things out on my own.  Things may not have been done as well as an “expert” could do them but they got the job done.  It is also extremely gratifying to just stumble your way into the unknown and come out of it with something new that you learned or made or figured out.  The feeling of surprising yourself, finding out that you are capable of doing something you didn’t know how to do.

It’s a value I look for in people I work with.  People willing to step outside their comfort zone every once in a while and do something new… innovate.

If you don’t already know it, you are capable of so much more than you already know.  Push it.  I bet you could figure out how to make the best blueberry pie in the world if you wanted to.

We talked a lot about what he wants to do with his life.  He is having a bit of a hard time finding his passion.  (Though I think he’s closer now.)

At one point he asked me what my passion was.  And it was actually kind of hard to answer.  I’ve always considered myself passionate about what I do but I never thought in depth about what it is I’m so passionate about.  Because it’s not t-shirts.  And it’s not the internet.  (Though I love being involved in both.)  When it comes down to it, my passion is creating things.  I think that is every entrepreneur’s passion – to create something.  It’s so simple.

Do you have a passion for making things? If so you’ve found your passion.  Now you just need to find something you’re interested in and use your passion to build something around it.

Months ago Arli was getting pretty rowdy with her food at the dinner table. I had her help me make a sign that said “No Throwing Food” and posted it up at our table. She stopped and she can’t even read. But since she helped me make it she knows what it is and if the problem comes up again, I just point to the sign!

I think there’s a great opportunity for a cool product line built off the idea that kids are super smart, you just need to communicate with them on their level sometimes. The goal being to make things educational for children that also make parents’ lives easier.

Who wouldn’t want that?

BTW, this book is amazing.

Typically ideas like that are exciting, everyone agrees it should happen, then it doesn’t.  It just never happens.

Every day for weeks after that I would make it a point to ask him if he has found an Airstream yet, how is it coming along, when will it be here, let’s do this! Finally, he sent me an eBay link.  I instantly purchased it and told him he now needs to go make a road trip to get it.  He said we don’t have anything to get it with.  I told him to go get a trailer hitch put on our van.  He did, we got it, we gutted it, we soundproofed it and it is still sitting in our atrium and used as a conference room today.

Push forward, make it happen.

1. The art is reusable, “generic” & owned by the artist.  We are looking for cool art on a tee.  No logos, no rules, no specifications – just art.  Should an artist not create a painting because they don’t have a buyer?  Should a photographer not take a picture because someone isn’t set up to pay for it yet?  We also let the artist keep the copyright, even if their design is chosen for print – they just give us the right to create apparel from it.  So basically, the ‘work’ isn’t done just for Threadless.
2. Threadless is very open and it is ongoing. There is no theme.  It’s simply about submitting a design that would look good on a tee.  Each design has it’s own start/end date for being scored. Each design is judged on its own, not in comparison with other designs. The general concept is “Is this design awesome enough to print?” rather than “Is this the best design?”
3. We pay. A lot! We pay $2,500 to each designer who has their tee printed – 5 times the market rate for a tee design.  Plus we pay $500 more each time it’s reprinted or the design is licensed elsewhere, $2,500 more for Bestee of the Month and $20,000 more for Bestee of the Year!  And that’s just for apparel rights. The designer can monetize their work on other mediums if they please.

But anyway.  When I was thinking in the tub, I got to think about what inspires an artist to create a painting from nothing vs a designer creating a logo for a project.  I’m more of a designer than an artist and have trouble creating something from nothing.  But I do enjoy solving problems with a design.  So much so that sometimes I like to do it in my free time.  In fact, the t-shirt contest I won that inspired me to create Threadless had a very defined project specification.  It was for a specific event and had to have specific information displayed on it.  And that’s when it hit me.

I feel that what makes spec work OK for me sometimes isn’t so much about the specific terms and pay and design requirements involved.  It’s about why you are doing it.  Is it for a friend? Is it for charity? Is it an exciting, fun project? Do you get enjoyment out of working on it? Do you need to find a creative release?

Much as an artist doesn’t typically treat a personal painting they are creating as a job or something they need only do if they are making money from it, a designer can get that same sort of creative problem solving pleasure out of a real project with a specific purpose and beneficiary.

Just a little stream-of-consciousness from the tub.

Two nights ago I got the drive.  It went by so fast.  I fired up Photoshop first, whipped up a design, installed Wordpress, built a template – and I was done after about 5 hours!  So then I was sitting on this empty frame.  Today I wrote a post about comic books and then launched the blog.  Then I wrote this post.  I wonder when I will write my next post. Ha!