Osama Bin Laden is dead and today I recall the feelings I had on that fateful day in 2001. Although I am admittedly filled with thoughts of joy about how this evil is wiped off the face of the earth, I still cannot seem to shake the sadness that continues to live on with those who lost loved ones over the past 10 years. And although the Seal team executed this operation with surgical movie-like precision, there have been other Seal teams that did not have the same fortune during this extended war against terror.

And it is with this in mind that today I recall the story of Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal who was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions against the Taliban during Operation Redwing. During Operation Redwing, Marcus lost his closest friends and was quite literally a Lone Survivor in … Read More »

Cover via Amazon

If you want to understand where wealth creation will come from in the coming years then you should read Clay Shirky‘s latest book called Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

His argument is so simple but so profound and that concept is this:

“A trillion hours a year of participatory value are up for grabs. That will be true year in and year out.”

If you think about how most of us spend our time, you’d recognize that it’s probably spent  consuming media. We spend hours watching TV, checking Facebook statuses, reading articles, watching YouTube videos, but only recently have we begun to collectively contribute and generate our own content. When added together, this aggregate thinking and aggregate contribution, or “cognitive surplus” as Clay puts it, can add up to value that we are just beginning to fathom.

However, that value is … Read More »

I recently finished reading What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis.

This book is important for so many reasons, but the most important point of the book is that fundamentally, business in general is changing. Economics, supply and demand, manufacturing, education, fashion, government, finance, all of it is changing and unless you understand these changes and adopt a newer way of thinking, you will be in for a rude awakening when you realize everything you learned in Econ 101 no longer applies.

From Jeff’s Book:

“Many industries built their value on scarcity. Airlines, Broadway theaters, and universities had only so many seats, which meant they could charge what they wanted for them. They were scarce and thus more  valuable. Newspapers owned the only printing press in town and you didn’t, so they could charge you a fortune to reach their audience. Shelf space … Read More »