When I was younger,
I didn’t talk about my failures often.
I didn’t like the “poor you” comments
I received
when I talked about failure.
It made me feel like I did something wrong.

A few years ago,
a loved one failed
and I told him
“Try again. You can do it.”

His response?
“Fine for you to talk.
You always succeed.”

THAT was when
I realized
I wasn’t doing anyone any favors
by hiding my failures.

As Siimon Reynolds
in Why People Fail says
failure is a “forbidden subject.
We’re not supposed to fail
and if we do,
we’re supposed to hide it from everybody.
It gives people the wrong impression
about what it takes to be successful.”

Talk about your failures,
especially to the people you’re mentoring.
Take the shame out of this vital part
of being successful.

I hear this… a lot.
And when I respond
with “Get a new job”,
I get a lot of weak-assed excuses.

Steve Tobak has a better response.
(this post on workplace myths
is AWESOME)

“For one thing it’s work,
not happy hour.

Also it’s a free country.
You get to decide
what you want to do for a living
and where you work.

Isn’t that enough?

Sure, the economy sucks.
So if you’ve got a crappy job or
a boss who’s a jerk,
you’re sort of stuck for a while.
Sometimes it’s worse than others,
but the economy is cyclical and
it’s been that way forever.

Besides, if you think your company is hell,
your boss is the devil, and
your coworkers are political, backstabbing creeps,
there’s a fair chance that it’s you.
Nobody wants to believe
they’re the problem.”

If your job sucks,
either change your job
or change YOU.

Few of us
get a new skill perfect
the first time
we try it.
We KNOW that.
We expect it.
We don’t need others
to point out
how imperfect our first try was.

What we need is encouragement
to try again.

Steve Roesler shares

“Transitions and change imply,
by definition,
that people are trying something
for the first time.
When your little child
tried out her first steps
and fell after the third one,
you didn’t offer a performance appraisal.
You hugged her, made a big fuss,
took a video,
and called the grandparents.

Offer the same to adults
who are trying something
for the first time.
Truth be told,
they are feeling like kids at that moment.”

Don’t critique that first try.

Wal-Mart has announced a new contest
aimed at Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
called Get on the shelf.

This is an American Idol type competition.
If you already have a Wal-mart appropriate product,
it requires nothing more
(no entry fee)
than a video.

Why is Wal-Mart doing this?

As per Chris Bolte,
vice president of @WalmartLabs,
“At the end of the day,
we’re hoping to uncover products
that we haven’t been looking at
and give consumers a voice
about what Wal-Mart carries.”

This is a GREAT opportunity
if Wal-Mart is part of your world domination plan.
No guts, no glory!
Make that video and enter today!

I had a discussion yesterday
with one of my buddies
about whether or not white folks were ever slaves
in the U.S.

She insisted they weren’t,
that slavery was not a white issue.

I knew that not only were the Irish enslaved
but they were valued less than African slaves
because they were cheaper to obtain.

So I told her to Google the subject.
She was shocked and dismayed
with the results
and she asked me why no one ever told her.

Exactly.
Why with all the focus on slavery
and civil rights
did no one ever tell her
these issues applied to everyone?
That we’re all more alike
than we are different?

What IS said can be questioned.
What ISN’T said is much more dangerous.

Do your own research.
Don’t accept another person’s truth blindly.

At the American Express Open booth,
the giveaways
included popcorn and cupcakes.
These weren’t branded with American Express logos.
They were branded with the logos
of the small local companies
supplying the giveaways.

The unspoken message?
American Express puts small business first.

Which is what the brand stands for.

They didn’t have to say it.
They didn’t have to advertise it.
The people who cared
about that branding
noticed.

Walk the talk.
Be the company
your brand proclaims you are.
People WILL notice.

Joe Kane, electronic imaging pioneer
and creator of A Video Standard,
presented the first true gray screen
at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

This screen greatly reduces
the amount of time
spent in post production
and color correction
because everyone in the viewing room
views the picture the same way.

If I’m seated in the middle of the room
and I say the flesh tone is natural,
my buddy standing against the wall
also sees the same natural flesh tone.

There’s no dissension,
and
no time needed to prove what I see.

If you need a project to move quickly,
one of the easiest ways to accomplish this,
is to ensure everyone sees
the problem and solution in the same way.
We give them a common vision.

I talked to a product designer
at the Consumer Electronics Show.
He was surprisingly candid
about his issues,
the product’s limitations,
their sales,
their struggles with the competition.

As I shook his hand,
thanking him for the information,
he asked what I did.
(I had industry affiliate on my badge)

When I told him
I was a blogger,
he was horrified.
“But…but…but you don’t
have a red press badge.
We were told not to talk
to anyone with the red press badge.”

Sorry sweetie,
but many bloggers don’t bother
with the hurdles
to get those precious red press badges.

I’m not out to get anyone fired
so I won’t use his information
or quote him
but I could.

Assume everyone you talk to
is press
because we likely are.

Displaying at the Consumer Electronics Show
is very, very expensive
yet I was appalled
at the junior jammer mistakes
many companies made.

There was one company
who displayed their logo everywhere
(a green squiggly line)
yet had their name nowhere.
I had to ask a representative.

I spent five minutes
in another company’s booth
and couldn’t figure out what they did.

Another REALLY large company
had a booth
my 11 year old niece
would have been embarrassed
to have designed.

All three of these companies
fell prey to the sin of vanity.
They assumed attendees knew them
(which is ironic
as the purpose of tradeshows
is often to drive NEW business)
and those were the attendees
they marketed to.

In contrast,
American Express representatives
approached me
with “We’re American Express.
We…”,
assuming I hadn’t heard of them.
I found this endearing
and enchanting.
(who HASN’T heard of American Express)

Be humble when you market.
Assume no one knows
who you are.

I read a recent article
which stated that an author
should spend $5,000 to $10,000
on marketing EACH story.

WTF?

I don’t make $10,000
on each story
(not yet).
That thinking is nuts.

Then I read who wrote the article.
A marketing firm.

I love marketing.
I think marketing firms
normally do a great job.

Don’t ask them
how much you should spend though.
One of their goals
is to have you spend
as much as possible.

Instead, ask someone
(preferably several someones)
who has recently launched
and been successful
with a similar product.

Don’t ask a marketer
how much you should spend
on marketing.