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Richard Branson And The MavHERick Mind

When Liz Pabon in her book
The MavHERick Mind
defined a leader as
“someone that is willing to do what other won’t
and do so with empathy and understanding,”
I thought of Richard Branson’s first airline seat sale.

He and many other passengers
were stranded after a flight got cancelled.
Instead of waiting for someone else
to figure out how to get him to his destination,
Richard Branson took the lead,
chartering a plane and
selling the extra seats.

Everyone on that flight could have done the same.
They didn’t.
Only Richard Branson did
and, I would venture,
he is the only one now a billionaire.

The Encyclopedia Of Life

When I first heard about
The Encyclopedia Of Life,
a wikipedia for biodiversity,
I thought “hasn’t this been done already?”

Actually no.
Not on the internet nor in print.
There is no single reference
containing every species on Earth.
In fact, the 1.8 million species number
people throw around
is just an educated guess.
No one knows how many species there are.
Because no one has a comprehensive list.

So next time,
you think everything needed
is already supplied,
think again.

Arguing

When I was young,
I would argue a fact I knew rock solid
until the other person conceded
or walked away.

Today, I’m the one walking away.
I state my case,
why I’m qualified to have an opinion,
and then stop talking.

Why?
Because in all the years of arguing,
I’ve never changed a made up mind.
I simply wasted my time
and got myself irritated.

Neither is conducive to success.

DPI, Image Quality, And Promotion

With the advertising for my upcoming book launch,
I’ve collected a folder full of cover art images.

Why?
Because that folder is needed.
Every advertising venue has a different size requirement
and these sizes have to be exact
or the advertiser will be charged a penalty or worse, rejected entirely.

There is also an image quality requirement.
90 DPI (dots per inch) is the standard
for web/e-publishing
as the average screen can’t resolve higher.
Print, though, print requires a higher quality.
300 DPI is the minimum and usually standard
but the requirement can reach over 1200 DPI.

So when designing images or artwork or logos,
start at a high DPI.

Proprietary Systems And Mass Market Adoption

Entrepreneurs are naturally protective of ideas.
We prefer to own everything associated with our product
including the entire product chain and
all spin off products.

But as venture capitalist Andrew Waitman says
“as long as systems are proprietary and not inter-operable,
cost will prevent mass market adoption.”

In other words,
we simply don’t have the resources to cover the world,
to do everything.
So we cheat.
We partner
and we give away information,
gambling that these small allowances
will allow for bigger gains.

Preparation For The Road Ahead

Many of us feel that if we make “it”
(it being whatever destination we’re moving towards),
our troubles will be over.

Thus far, I haven’t seen that happen…
for anyone.

As our goals are reached,
we set new goals,
more challenging goals.

Today’s troubles are there
to prepare us for tomorrow’s greater ones.

As award winning author Ciara Gold was told,
“all the rejection letters you receive
help you prepare for dealing with tough reviews.”

So enjoy each stage of the game.

Be Happy, But Not Too Happy

A study by
the University of Virginia,
the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign,
and Michigan State
shows that people who are moderately happy
earn more than both
the extremely happy and
the extremely unhappy.

That makes sense.
Optimism is needed to overcome challenges
but hunger is needed to push forward.
The ideal is having a mix of both.

Good Friday, The Panic Of 1907, And The Power Of Story

Salesmen know stories sell.
Even on number driven Wall Street.

The New York Stock Exchange,
during its 144 years plus of history,
has only been open 3 Good Friday’s.
1898, 1906 and 1907.

Why?
Legend has it that,
despite protest by Irish-Catholic traders,
the markets opened on Good Friday, 1907
and that this “caused” the Panic of 1907.

Logic, facts, prove otherwise
but the legend persists.

A good story lives forever.

The Cheating Culture Vs Bloggers

The Cheating Culture written by David Callahan
discusses how more and more people are cheating
and how easy it is to do.

Maybe it’s easy for the average person
but I doubt it is for the rich or famous.

But why would that be when Callahan writes
“Government regulators don’t have the resources
to crack down on cheating,
especially by the super wealthy”?

Because while government regulators don’t have the resources,
the blogosphere and other media types do.
If I can prove Warren Buffett
(or any other successful person)
cheated on his taxes,
I can make myself a million bucks.
That’s a huge incentive.

Think about that the next time
you’re tempted to trade ethics for success.

Building A Subscriber Base

Seth Godin,
in a recent post about the music industry,
talks about the power of subscribers.

“Magazines make 10x return on equity of books,
you know why?
Because magazines have subscribers and
books don’t.
So every time a book comes out
they gotta run around looking for someone to buy it.
Where as the magazine people just look
for the next author to write the next article
in the next magazine.”

Subscribers are a must now
even in the book world.
There are publishers with subscribers
(Harlequin).
There are authors with subscribers
(Nora Roberts with her 11 new novels out in 2008).

Customers are too precious to let walk away.