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Seth Goden and 37signals

Seth Godin is like a new BFF.  Why?  Because if I…..

If I have to explain it to you, you may not get it.  Click here to go to his blog.  Highly recommend you read Seth Godin’s blog every day. It’s simple to subscribe to it and you can have it waiting in your in box each morning.

But maybe you’d rather just stick with a plan that’s certain to be safe.

Anyone here remember how Napster destroyed the Music Industry’s decade-old business model?  The Internet is changing all the rules.

Next on deck, 37signals.

Here’s my prediction, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll most likely become a victim of a Napster-like competitor.

Or, you could just stick your head in the sand.

Who Is Leading Your Tribe?

Tribes, by Seth Godin.  Heard of it?  Read it?

The tag line, “We need you to lead us”, really hits home for me.  Why?

Because, in today’s world, if you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of chaos and uncertainty.  “Duh”, right?

What I’d like to challenge is our predisposition to look to others to be better leaders.  When in reality, the real work, where the biggest need is, is right in front of you as you look in the mirror.

Quite complaining about others needing to do this or do that – and presumably thinking that your life will get better as soon as “they” change.

Let the change begin and end with you.  Period.  Because until that happens, you are in no place to expect it from someone else.

Exploiting Chaos!

Walking through an airport this week, a book title caught my eye, “Exploiting Chaos“.

Why?  If I have to explain this to you, you most likely won’t understand. But, because I’m a sucker for people who want to understand and continuously improve, I’ll give it a brief try here.

Chaos is a paradox.  We can (and probably do) hate chaos.  Or, we can (and probably don’t) love chaos.

Hate it for all of the societal norm reasons most hate chaos.

Love it for all the opportunity it brings.  Yes, opportunity.  So once again, if I have to explain this to you, you won’t understand.  But if I were you, I’d quickly try to figure it out, or get left behind.

Mantra, Mantra, Mantra

Mantra, mantra, mantra.

From Wikipedia:  A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of “creating transformation” (cf. spiritual transformation).[1] Their use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra.

I will not be discouraged.

I will not be discouraged.

I will not be discouraged.

There will be  times when you think the path you’re on – the one you convinced yourself and others was absolutely the way – may actually be wrong.

This is why courage and perseverance were invented.

Hire a CPA or Do It Yourself?

MBA courses insist you take accounting.  Ever hear an MBA student rave about their accounting classes?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to teach students what to look for in a good CPA?

Don’t leaders in organizations have finance departments?

Isn’t the leader’s purpose to lead? To set the course?  To dream, to communicate and to inspire the vision?

Maybe I’m missing something.  Maybe I’m not.

So, just wanted to get our minds thinking about this.

All I’m pointing out is that society places a certain “worth” on an MBA degree.  I’m not disagreeing with that.

Society also places a certain worth on reading the best selling business books.  Not disagreeing with that either.

For me, what it all comes down to is that degrees, or books, don’t matter much if you can’t translate what you know – into something much better than before.

It’s almost like buying a gym membership, or exercise equipment, but not using it.