We develop our own future by applying persistence to the possibilities.
From the Bo Burlingham article "The Believer" in the Aug. 2008 issue of Inc. Magazine.
The personal Blog of Howard Mann. Author, Speaker & Entrepreneur. - November 21st, 2008
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Jeff Bezos: Get customer focused instead of skills focused
Business Week has a great short interview with Jeff Bezos that is well worth the read. In particular, I loved his thinking on being skills focused vs customer needs focused. The whole interview is here.
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TNT NBA Playoff Ads Command Attention
It is a beaten to death truism that people are tuning out commercials. I do think that any kind of advertising can still grab your attention when it is done in a way that interrupts the blur of the rest.
Cable network TNT has done just that with their "There can be only one" campaign. These series of ads immediately catch your attention and then force you to focus on the words delivered. Great concept, executed with focus delivers a totally engaging experience. A good (and simple) formula.
Here is an example:
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Quick Posts
Rajesh Setty is giving away his great book "Life Beyond Code. Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps!" A very nice and useful Thanksgiving gift to yourself. Download it here.
It seems the commenting feature on the blog posts has not been working properly. I apologize. It is now fixed. Please do comment and join the discussion.
Great Harvard Business post on lessons that can be learned by the Obama campaign. Loved this part on the importance on purpose: "Bigness of purpose is what separates 20th century and 21st century organizations: yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things - tomorrow, we must build small organizations that can do tremendously massive things."
Tom Peters: 100 Ways to Succeed #146: "Obsess On The Basics! Now, More Than Ever!" "....Keep on each other over those basics—and be liberal with the kudos for those who go an extra millimeter to do a "trivial" job especially well."
The VC's are yelling from the roof tops for startups to batten down the hatches. Like I said in my post from the other day, you have to double down AND batten down. What all of this really means is, of course, you need to get back to the business basics that have always worked and always will.
The smart folks over at Behance have launched an online project collaboration tool that follows their Action Method paper system. Watch the online video tour to get an idea of how it works. Looks like a simple and effective ways to track the individual action items for projects and goals.
Tom Peters and Seth Godin on one stage taking questions from Inc. 500 business owners. Priceless wisdom on a wide variety of topics. Click here to watch then sit back and enjoy!
"It’s easy to say that entrepreneurs will create jobs and big companies
will create unemployment, but this is simplistic. The real question is
who will innovate. A 50-year-old company can innovate as well as two guys/gals in a garage." From an interview with Guy Kawasaki discussing the ideas in his new book Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
"If you want to make your website better at turning visitors into customers (or subscribers), you need to understand why most of your visitors are leaving!" a helpful article to drive home the point that launching your web site is the easy part. If you want your web site to deliver real results for your business then you need to work at with persistence.
Douglas Rushkoff is singing from the same songbook about the importance of the basics... now more than ever. "I’d love for businesspeople who feel all is lost to recognize that this is such a perfect moment to return to core competency, to remember what it was about their industries that excited them to begin with, and to reconnect with the processes and attitudes that make work fun and meaningful again." If you have not read his book you should buy it now and rock your basics!
Howard Mann is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. He is on a mission to get businesses to thrive in every way, in good times and bad, by relentlessly sticking to their basics. Learn more.
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Getting your business to focus on the basics starts with a strong call to action and specific steps that you can take that same day. Howard's talks have been called a one to one mentoring session regardless of the size of the audience. They are highly practical, personal, motivation and fun! Book Howard Mann to speak at your next event or set up a Business Brickyard workshop.Click here to learn more.