We used to live in what I will call a Media Dictatorship. A Media Dictatorship is a world where content is created by a few dictators (media companies), and as a result, those few dictators are able to charge a premium to advertisers for access to the eyeballs and ears of the people watching that premium content. This process is called television, radio, print, magazines, and newspapers. Think about the Super Bowl and Super Bowl commercials for a second. One night a year, content providers or dictators (the cable network hosting the Super Bowl) know that they will have an entire country watching their show, and as a result, they are able to charge a fortune to advertisers for a 30 second commercial. According to the Associated Press, a 30 second spot for the 2008 Super Bowl was $2.7M … Read More »

Starting a business is very hard. In a matter of 24 hours your emotions can range from thinking that your business will be the next Google, to thinking how moronic you were for even contemplating the idea in the first place.

In order to start a successful business, I believe you need two components above all else.

1. A Team
Collective knowledge is more powerful than any one individual. But I believe Eric Schmidt puts it best:

“How should you behave? Well, do things in a group. Don’t do things by yourself. Groups are stronger, groups are faster. None of us is as smart as all of us…..” – Eric Schmidt, CEO Google.

2. The Entrepreneurial Snowball Effect
Beyond having a team, you need a group of people that can feed off of each other. People that together, build continual momentum regardless of the challenges by … Read More »

Lately, I’ve been having writer’s block. When I first started writing this blog I intended to update it once a day. Once a day quickly became once every two days, which quickly became a few times a week (if I’m lucky).

And the more I think about it, the more obvious it is to me why we all sometimes have “writers block”, or lack of creativity, ingenuity, or good ideas.

The more we try to plan or over think things, the more complicated they become.

My best ideas have come at the weirdest times, great opportunities came unexpectedly, and some of my most insightful and eye opening conversations happened with strangers. Completely unexpected and out of the blue.

This idea, or notion of “out of the blue”, not only applies to good ideas, but to life and opportunity.

If we plan less, work hard, and … Read More »

How can you really expect to be successful if you sit back and simply do what is expected?

I’ve heard on numerous occasions about how getting a certain job, whether enjoyably or not enjoyable, will accelerate chances of success.

People strive so hard to do their best, to get that great job, and yet when they get that job, they can’t help but think how miserable it is.

If we are truly to be successful at anything, we can’t simply go through the motions. We must love what we do. If we are counting down the clock till 5pm, what is the point?

At the end of the day, success comes from hard work and a desire to do well. If we don’t like what we do we will simply do less, strive for less, and just go through the motions.

“Get busy living, or … Read More »

Data is King. If you don’t believe me, consider this:

Rental car companies and insurers are refusing service to people with poor credit scores because data mining tells them that credit scores correlate with a higher likelihood of having an accident.
Nowadays when a flight is canceled, airlines will skip over their frequent fliers and give the next open seat to the mine-identified customer whose continued business is most at risk. Instead of following a first-come, first-serve rule, companies will condition their behavior on literally dozens of consumer-specific factors.
The “No Child Left Behind” Act, which requires schools to adopt teaching methods supported by rigorous data analysis, is causing teachers to spend up to 45 percent of class time training kids to pass standardized tests. Super Crunching is even shifting some teachers toward class lessons where every word is scripted and statistically … Read More »