Astonish Your Customer(s)

Do you do 80% of the work?

Laura Brashier, founder of the web site 2date4love was asked what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Her advise:

If you think you’re an aspiring entrepreneur first ask yourself this question:

Am I the 20% of the people who do 80% of the work?

If you answered YES, then you have what it takes. Keep on learning and don’t stop until you get there.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Men no longer allowed to pee from standing position

Change a rule = Get noticed.

I think it was P.T. Barnum who famously said, "If you want a crowd, pick a fight.".

There are all sorts of ways to get noticed. The best way is to create a remarkable product.

Another way is to change very longstanding rules and conventions and norms.

Enter the Vancouver restaurant that bans men from peeing while standing.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Where are the homeless senators and congressman?

Are there any? Is there one? Today? Ever?

Why? Why Not?

Be wise as to the profession you choose - some come with unwritten yet valuable guarantees.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Cool Is Back (but it has, regrettably, left the room)

I am not a veteran of Silicon Valley and therefore do not know my way around.

It was 1999 and I was in Silicon Valley calling on a customer. It was near dusk and I was racing to the airport. I was speeding around a bend and I saw it: A gigantic banner proclaiming "Cool is Back" along with a picture of the iMac. It was huge, hanging over the front door of the building, bathed in light.

I remember thinking two things:

1) That must be Apple's HQ

2) It must be great to work in a place that brought "Cool Back" and proclaims it publicly. 

If what's cooler than being cool is, Ice Cold, then Steve Jobs was an Arctic Glacier.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Steve Jobs - More like Lincoln than Edison, Einstein

Steve Jobs:

• Adopted
• College dropout
• Apple III and Lisa computers were flops
• Hired John Sculley
• Fired at age of 30, from Company he founded and led
• Created NeXT Inc., hobbled by exorbitant price tag and key design flaws
• Largely written off as a has-been during 11 year absence from Apple
• Cube-shaped Macintosh
• Pancreatic cancer
• Liver transplant
• Option backdating scandal

Abraham Lincoln:

• Lost job in 1832
• Defeated for state legislature in 1832
• Failed in business in 1833
• Sweetheart died in 1835
• Had nervous breakdown in 1836
• Defeated for Speaker in 1838
• Defeated for nomination for Congress in 1843
• Lost renomination in 1848
• Rejected for land officer in 1849
• Defeated for U.S. Senate in 1854
• Defeated for nomination for Vice President in 1856
• Again defeated for U.S. Senate in 1858

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.