EMBA的小眼睛

Godin's first law of pizza

Pizza quality is inversely proportional to flexibility. At some places, the inflexibility can be appropriately confused with callous indifference or even rudeness.

Saying yes to every prospect and every request isn't the point of most organizations. The point is to do work that people seek out, that changes things for the better, to bring ideas that spread to the world.

Some of the legendary families that serve great pizza in New York aren't in the customer service business. They're in the great pizza business.

Saying yes to every request is one way to do business, but it's not the only way.

The problem with "just"

A few people have dropped me notes referring to the notion that I encourage people to just ship it.

Ship it, certainly. If you don't meet the market, if you don't open yourself to the input and reaction of those you seek to serve and influence, you've done nothing much.

But, "just"?

Not going to let you off the hook with that. The just implies a throwaway. The just has a, "what the hell," element to it. With "just" in the mix, the alternatives seem to be: polish, improve, focus on quality OR just throw it out there.

Holiday shopping head start

I've put together some reviews of particularly arcane, wonderful or just nicely giftable items for people you want to indulge this season. Things you can hold and touch and wave around. Or at least listen to.

So far, royalties from my reviews have raised more than $35,000 for Acumen and other worthy causes. Thanks!

Headphones that dramatically change the experience of listening

A coffee table book featuring funny people in poignant poses

The media needs a narrative

In fact, The War of the Worlds did not cause mass hysteria when it first aired. It was a story fanned by radio-fearing tabloid newspapers.

In fact, Pam (eBay founder Pierre's wife) did not need a place to buy and sell Pez dispensers. This is a tale invented by a PR person and repeated by tech-phobic journalists eager for a simple story.

In fact, Columbus wasn't surrounded by flat-earth believing denialists before he 'discovered' America. This was amplified by Washington Irving (!) in a book that was largely invented without much research.

And George Washington didn't cut down the cherry tree and Robin Hood didn't do all those cool tricks in green tights.

What "no" means

I'm too busy
I don't trust you
This isn't on my list
My boss won't let me

Tenacity is not the same as persistence

Persistence is doing something again and again until it works. It sounds like 'pestering' for a reason.

Tenacity is using new data to make new decisions to find new pathways to find new ways to achieve a goal when the old ways didn't work.

Telemarketers are persistent, Nike is tenacious.

Your incoming--How do you process what's offered?

Your choice: should you come to that meeting, read those articles or go to this event? Should you have those expensive medical tests, have surgery or hire that consultant?

If someone stands up and shares a big idea, some people might run with it, others might not hear it at all.

If you're eager for change, every bit of information and every event represents an opportunity to learn, to grow and to change for the better. You hear some advice and you listen to it, consider it (possibly reject it), iterate on it and actually do something different in response.

On the other hand, if you're afraid of change or in love with the path you're on or focused obsessively on your GTD list, then incoming represents a distraction and a risk. So you process it with the narrative, "how can this input be used to further what I've already decided to do?" At worst, you ignore it. At best, you use a tiny percentage of it to your advantage.

The first lie...

is that you're going to need far more talent than you were born with.

The second lie is that the people who are leading in the new connection economy got there because they have something you don't.

The third lie is that you have to be chosen.

The fourth lie is that we're not afraid.

Time doesn't exist until we invent it

The transcontinental railroads led to the invention of time zones. For the first time, everyone needed to be in sync, regardless of what village one lived in.

A few generations later, we're in all in sync, to the second, thanks to the computers in our pockets.

Time is borrowed, wasted, spent. We find the time, slow down time, take our time. Its Miller, quitting, clobberin time. We focus on the stitch in time, hard time, closing time, not to mention big, daylight savings, race against, first, last, due, nick of...

Time is so variable, so based on our experience, that the absolute measure of time is almost meaningless. Don't even get me started about relativity and time travel.

Naming tool of the year

When it's time to name your project, you probably want to find a domain for it. And, alas, all the obvious and most of the silly dot com choices were taken a very long time ago.

Time for wordoid.

Scroll down on the left, put a short word in the 'pattern' box and off you go.

Thank you, Jay

My friend and occasional co-author Jay Levinson just passed away. He was eighty.

Jay helped invent the idea of the modern marketing book, pioneered Guerrilla Marketing (which has nothing to do with gorillas and everything to do with thinking independently and bravely ) and influenced several generations of leaders.

But most of all, I want to thank Jay for living a generous life. He never kept a secret, never hesitated to teach, to point something out, to lift someone up.

Jay was at his best when, with a mischievous smile, he'd answer a question, turning a newbie into an expert with one of his many lists or with a clever story. The point of his many, many books wasn't that there was a formula to follow, but that there was an attitude, an attitude that could help just about anyone make a difference.

The behemoth and the Acumen Fellows

Today, applications are open for the fabled and important Acumen Fellows program. Every year, thousands of people from around the world apply to spend a few months of intensive training with Acumen in New York, followed by nine months in the field with an Acumen investment. This is rigorous and life-changing work, and it's not for everyone (but if you know someone who can leap like this, please pass it on to them).

For the rest of us, there's the chance to support the work, at least financially.

You may remember the limited-edition behemoth that I published last year. It's more than 700 pages and weighs more than 15 pounds. It sold out quite quickly, but I've kept some in reserve for the appropriate fundraising opportunity. Here it is. $145 a copy.

I'm donating 125 books to this fundraiser, plus the shipping and handling expense. Use this Paypal form to order your copy. I'll give all of the money, plus another $50 a book, to Acumen in support of this year's fellow program.

"I don't get it"

Who is teaching us to look deeper?

If you read a blog post, and it begins with an analogy about car dealers, is your instinct to say, "well, I'm not a car dealer..." and then jump to the next post?

When you see something working (or not working) in the marketplace, something you don't understand, do you stop to figure out why it's working (or not working)? Or is it easier to change the attention channel and get back into line?

I've discovered (the hard way) three rules for writing a blog post that will spread:

Every presentation worth doing has just one purpose

To make a change happen.



No change, no point. A presentation that doesn't seek to make change is a waste of time and energy.

Before you start working on your presentation, the two-part question to answer is, "who will be changed by this work, and what is the change I seek?

"

The answer can be dramatic, "I want this six million dollar project approved."



Sure, but he's our bully

There have always been bullies among us, and it's worth taking a moment to see how our culture has built a role for them to be useful heroes. Taught or not, bullying keeps showing up.

We often (for a while) view bullies as powerful or brave or important--as long as they are our bullies. Richie Incognito, Chris Christie, Rob Ford—each has a long list of supporters, people who have defended a particular bully as a passionate man of the people, as doing their job, as the visceral anti-elite, winning a battle that's worth fighting for.

At some level, it makes sense to have a bully on your side. If you're going to war, the thinking goes, who better to represent you than someone intent on belittling and demeaning the other side?

If it's us against them, the bully who represents 'us' is our hero.

1,000 bands

Brian Eno possibly said that, "the first Velvet Underground record may have only sold 1,000 copies, but every person who bought it started a band." [*]

It certainly wasn't a bestselling album, but without a doubt, it changed things.

The scarcity mindset pushes us to corner the market, to be the only one selling what we sell.

The abundance alternative, though, is to understand that many of us sell ideas, not widgets, and that ideas are best when used, and the more they get used, the more ideas they spawn.

Evoking online trust

Interactions rarely happen with people we don't trust.

How is it that someone sees your website or your social media presence or your email and decides to interact? The decision to interact happens before someone actually listens to what you have to say. Here’s a way to think about the factors that kick in before the browser even hears what you have to offer them today:

Word of mouth
Direct interaction

Belief is more powerful than proof

In fact, the only use of proof is to have a shot at creating belief.

It's not the only way, though, and it's not always the best one either.

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Post industrial •

Post Top 40 •

Post newspaper •

Post privacy •

Coordinate and amplify