I was recently reading the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. In going through this book, I learned that some companies were using a unique strategy of allowing their employees to use 20% of their time to do something that interested them. It had to somehow be related to the company of course; but the options were very wide open.

Google is one of the companies referenced that did this. What results came from employees spending 20% of their time (essentially just 1 work day a week) working on their personal project that interested them?

Well, two things jump out. Gmail, one of the most popular e-mail programs, was originally developed by someone in their 20% personal time. Another was Google News, which is used extensively on a daily basis by many.

Imagine if you allocated 20% of your time to achieve something new, something different, something potentially amazing. What could you do in that time? What could you create?

I’ve recently tried to take full advantage of my 20%. I am working dilegently to launch three personal projects. There will be more information coming on two of the projects; however there is one that I can share with you now!

TheProExposure is a new podcast which I am hosting alongside my colleagues Jason Black and Kimberly Miller. The show will be focussed on the photography, modeling and publishing industries as each episode will feature a new interview with someone from within our industry. I hope you can tune in and enjoy. We are in the process of getting set up with iTunes so you can subcribe to the show there. In the meantime, you can download the show from the website, to which the link is above.

Thank you sincerely!

James Patrick
www.jamesmpatrick.com