The Road Less Travelled

n. reb•el (rĕb'əl)

1. someone who exhibits great independence in thought and action
2. a person who rejects accepted conventions of behaviour
3. one who renounces or resists any authority or controls

In the spirit of the Mavericks and those with the Audacity to Hope.

This debt of gratitude goes to all the startups, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, social activists, conscious capitalists, musicians, revolutionaries, and visionaries who dare to rebel. . .

Are you in the midst of creating the next evolution of Facebook?
Will your new idea transform how we approach the triple bottom line?
Is your new service a gamechanger in how we interact with music and videos online?

Whatever your entrepreneurial endeavors,

I propose -  A toast. . .

May your ideas establish roots, grow, and bear fruit!


Sincerely,

Your comrade in the fight

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less

or

A Case Study

The turn of the century produced difficult business conditions for many companies, including one of America's technical giants, Polaroid Corporation. Founded by Edwin Land and George Wheelwright in 1937, Polaroid was best known for instant photography and glare-free sunglasses. During the 1960s and early 1970s the firm's common stock was part of the "Nifty Fifty," a collection of must-own securities for many portfolio managers and individual investors. Changing consumer preferences, a technological revolution in photography, debt incurred to fend off an attempted takeover, and faulty management decisions during the next several decades sent the firm's stock into a downward spiral until the shares traded for only 28¢ just prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 12, 2001.

At the time of the filing the company listed $1.81 billion in assets and $948 million in debts, including a $360 million bank loan that was due in one month. The stock traded as high as $60 per share in 1997. Polaroid's problems stemmed in large part from the increased popularity of digital photography, which captured substantial market share from the firm's products in instant photography. Other photographers discovered the widespread availability of one-hour processing was nearly as convenient and less costly than instant photography. Polaroid had taken on substantial debt in 1988 when it successfully fought a takeover attempt by Shamrock Holdings. The combination of large debt, high costs, and deteriorating market share doomed an American icon. At the time of the bankruptcy filing many analysts expected the firm to be liquidated and its assets sold piecemeal.

                                            Published by The Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Can you play with the big boys?

At some point every new company, business, or organization will wonder if they have what it takes to compete in the market. Are you smart and/or agile enough? Do you have enough resources or manpower to be competitive? Your "brand" is new and not recognized, will people want to hire you or pay for your product or service? Can I really compete? Better yet, can I compete with the big dogs?

The answer - yes, yes and yes.

Of course its going to be hard work. You have to be smart and savvy, and you have to be offering something that people want and value. But definitely and highly probable.

Point in case: (A good friend emailed this to me yesterday, and I quote "Can you believe people pay for this"?)

The Sales Lounge is pleased to announce our most popular private
workshop has now gone public! To celebrate we are offering this 2
part work shop at our best rate ever.

Here's what you will learn:

Set up profile on Facebook and learn marketing strategies
Set up profile on LinkedIn and learn marketing strategies
Set up profile on Twitter and learn why you should be here
Review voice mail marketing, Email marketing, blogging and more!! Join us but you must RSVP and Pay in advance. This is The Sales Lounge most popular program. Investment only $477! No need to be tech savvy...just bring your laptop and watch the magic of connecting online to grow your business and brand.

For questions and RSVP info please contact Jennifer (we'll leave out her last name). America's top Sales Stylist for Business & Creative Professionals. Thanks! We look forward to seeing you at USA TODAY Headquarters in Mclean, VA at the Ultra Hip Sales Lounge!!

Wow. . . the Ultra Hip Sales Lounge???

Reading this, I think we'll be juuust fiiine.

LOL. . .Good Stuff!

I often read Hugh McCleod's blog at least once a week.  If my schedule allows, more often than that.  He's always got great stuff but sometimes his cartoons in conjunction with the post that follows is so spot on there is no choice but to share.  Enjoy!

From my recent 'Ten Questions' with Mark Earls:

7. In "Creative Age", you destroyed a very sacred cow of the agency world, The Brand. With your second book, "Herd", you successfully went after an equally massive agency sacred cow: The Idea of Consumer as "Heroic Individual" [Embodied by cultural icons like The Marlboro Man, or the existential athlete wearing Nike's]. Your message seemed to be, actually guys, we're social animals. We're social primates; we behave more like chimps and gorillas, more than we behave like lone, cigarette-smoking cowboys. Care to explain the idea further?

[Mark's Answer:] Again to simplify: Human beings are to independent action, what cats are to swimming. We can do it if we really have to, but mostly we don't... Instead, we do what we do because of what those around us are doing (Whatever our minds and our cultures tell us).

So if you want to change what I'm doing, don't try to persuade me- don't try to make me- do anything. Instead, enlist the help of my friends...

But not crudely (as in "Recommendation"). That's just persuasion by another name: another "Push" tactic. I'm convinced the answer lies in creating "Pull" (i.e. Social) forces.

When I wrote that question for Mark, I'd been thinking a lot about the "Heroic, Lone Individual" schtick in mass media, particularly with mass marketing.

Most mass-market messages are consumed alone. Most of the ones we see are so unremarkable- think of a late-night TV commercial for a local car dealer, for example- they're not Social Objects, they don't warrant us doing the social, they don't warrant us sharing them with people. Sure, we can gather in groups around the TV and be watching the same commercial, but the commercial is not genuinely addressing us as a group. It's trying to pick us off, one by one.

Ergo, the world of mass marketing is basically a lonely place. Which makes the Marlboro Man- think riding the range with no other people for miles around- or the existential athlete- think Tiger Woods, about to make the amazing putt- the perfect citizen for it.

Then along comes the internet. Along comes interactive. Along comes "sharing". Along comes media that actually creates real social behavior, as opposed to just trying to create idealized, theatrical versions of it..

Suddenly Mr. Lonesome Heroic seems a bit out of place.

365

Congratulations Barack!

Ladies and Gentlemen we stand at the THRESHOLD,

On The Verge of new times. . .