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Thursday, 07 February 2008 11:30 |
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I once did business with and lost around $100k to a woman who was a big-picture visionary, able to see incredible opportunities and create trust with others almost instantly. She did, however, consistently over promise and under deliver, creating an increasingly long line of disgruntled former investors.
When despair was upon her, she would sequester herself to listen to her library of a well-known motivational speaker's tapes, reappearing again an hour or so later ready once more to take on the world. In doing so, this unconsciously incompetent businesswoman avoided painful self-reflection, replacing it with a large dose of audio fire walking. The way I figure it, the motivational speaker owes me (and no doubt other former associates) about $100k. Self-reflection can be painful, but pays incredibly large dividends. Avoid it at your (and others') peril. |
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 11:26 |
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This sign greeted me at a Sydney train station last week: Be heat smart on the train this summer. We know that it can become hot on the train in summer. At Cityrail, we want you to enjoy your trip and be as comfortable as possible, so please take note of these summer travel tips: - If you do feel unwell, don’t get on a train. Ask a member of staff for help.
- If you are on a train and feel unwell, get off at the next station, where help can be called upon more easily.
- Always carry a bottle of water with you.
Here's my translation: Because Sydney's hot in summer and we haven't air-conditioned some of our trains, using our service may lead to heat exhaustion. You sort it out.
Telling the truth to your customers is essential. Knowing, however, that you have a serious problem and ignoring it won't win you any new customers. Cityrail should fix their problem and provide advice in the interim:: Every train in our fleet will be air-conditioned by 2009. In the meantime, we apologise that some of our trains can be hot in the summer -please take these precautions: - If you do feel unwell, don't get on a train. Ask a member of staff for help.
- If you are on a train and feel unwell, get off at the next station, where help can be called upon more easily.
- Always carry a bottle of water with you.
Do you force customers to sort out your problems? If you don-t know the answer to a customer's problem, can your customer help you solve it? Where problems are endemic, can your customers help you prioritise your solutions? |
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Tuesday, 05 February 2008 11:16 |
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The internet copies everything, so how does one make money selling free copies? Kevin Kelly has a great article on this topic. His simple answer is: When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.
And he discusses eight things that can't be copied: - Immediacy,
- Personalisation,
- Interpretation,
- Authenticity,
- Accessibilty,
- Embodiment,
- Patronage, and
- Findability.
Thanks to uberblogger Seth Godin for finding the article for us. |
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Monday, 04 February 2008 11:10 |
In the U2 film Rattle & Hum, there's an amazing conversation between legendary blues guitarist B. B. King and Bono as they are about to practice When love comes to town: B. B. I?m no good with chords so, uh, what we do is?get somebody else to play chords.
Bono: Sure, well Edge?ll do that. There?s not that much?chords in the song - [laughs kindly] ? I think?there?s only two.
B. B. Yeah, I?m horrible with chords.
Become very, very good at something and the rest of the world will happily work around you. |
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