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In search of six major brands
May 9th, 2011
For a high-profile project (can’t announce it yet) for charity that we’re doing in September, we’re looking for six companies with significant marketing budgets that want to participate and be featured. Household names, or brands on the way to becoming one are ideal.
If you’re the CMO or part of the team, and want to know more, drop a note to Lauryn by Wednesday. Thanks.
Seth’s Blog
How long is your long run?
May 8th, 2011
The bank robber may have a long run of just thirty minutes. Stealing money today appears worth it because tomorrow is just too far away to consider.
There are organizations and nations that have been around for hundreds of years and expect to be around for another thousand. They have a long run a little longer than yours.
I think we can agree on what the short run is. The question worth asking your brand, your boss or your family is: what’s the long run? Most of the time, we err on the side of short.
Seth’s Blog
What’s high school for?
May 7th, 2011
Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:
How to focus intently on a problem until it’s solved.
The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.
How to read critically.
The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.
An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.
How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.
Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.
Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.
An insatiable desire (and the [...]
Seeing the truth when it might be invisible
May 6th, 2011
I’ll believe it when I see it.
This is a problem.
It didn’t used to be. It used to be a totally fine strategy to work your way through life only believing what you could see and touch, only caring about what impacted your life right now.
Two things changed:
First, over time, the base of knowledge we have about the world has increased exponentially, and that knowledge compounds. Electrons and ozone and game theory and databases might all be invisible, they might be beyond your understanding, but they’re still important, still looming right at the edges of the life you live right now.
And [...]
Worldwide Linchpin Meetup is coming Wednesday, May 18
May 5th, 2011
Tens of thousands of people in more than a thousand cities have tried this so far.
It’s free and it’s fun. Thanks for leading the way and for connecting over work that needs doing…
The feedback I’ve gotten from around the world from these events has been just amazing. I think you’ll find extraordinary support and some very cool people as well.
Find out details here or take a look at the cities list:
Seth’s Blog
Hard work vs. Long work
May 4th, 2011
Long work is what the lawyer who bills 14 hours a day filling in forms does.
Hard work is what the insightful litigator does when she synthesizes four disparate ideas and comes up with an argument that wins the case–in less than five minutes.
Long work has a storied history. Farmers, hunters, factory workers… Always there was long work required to succeed. For generations, there was a huge benefit that came to those with the stamina and fortitude to do long work.
Hard work is frightening. We shy away from hard work because inherent in hard work is risk. Hard work is hard [...]
On the day everyone is pleased…
May 3rd, 2011
On that day, the day that everyone notices your work, approves and lets you know, then what will happen?
We spend an incredible amount of time and psychic energy planning and working for that day, but why? It will never arrive, and even if it does, it’s not clear that anything special happens.
Perhaps the approval of every person in the entire world doesn’t need to be the goal of your work.
Seth’s Blog
A game theory of NFL negotiations
May 2nd, 2011
Off topic here, a bonus post for those that might be interested:
When two sides are negotiating over something that spoils forever if it doesn’t get shipped, there’s a straightforward way to increase the value of a settlement. Think of it as the net present value of a stream of football…
Any Sunday the NFL doesn’t play, the money is gone forever. You can’t make up for it later by selling more football–that money is gone. The owners don’t get it, the players don’t get it, the networks don’t get it, no one gets it.
The solution: While the lockout/strike/dispute is going on, [...]
Dreams, princesses and the Disney-industrial complex
April 30th, 2011
“Like a dream come true”
Choose your dreams carefully.
Everyone is entitled to a dream. It gives us hope, focuses our energy, makes us human.
Sometimes, though, we get sold a dream instead of creating our own.
Is it really every girl’s dream to become a princess, to be chosen by someone of royal birth and to have a $ 34 million wedding? Or is that the Disney-industrial complex betraying you, selling you short?
I just read that the folks who brought us the Mall of America are going to redo the troubled Xanadu shopping complex in New Jersey and rename it The American [...]
Headroom
April 29th, 2011
The only thing worse than being able to say, “my boss won’t let me,” is having to acknowledge, “my boss will let me.”
Over the last fifty years, the amount of headroom offered to white collar workers has dramatically increased. Piece work and time clocks have been replaced with self-policing and keep-your-own-calendar in many organizations. It’s entirely possible to do very little, very often, particularly in a big company.
When we say, “my boss won’t let me,” what we’re often saying is, “my boss wants great results, but she’s not willing to let me take initiative without responsibility.”
I’d be shocked if any [...]