If I Show Up to Your Store Front, Then Yes, I Need It Now
Some folks don’t grasp the concept of what they are in business to do.
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June 17, 2008
June 16, 2008
Photo in SmartMoney Magazine for July
Total hit piece - but I am rocking the over-involved, vicariously living, sport’s dad look… Dontcha think?
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Whither the News Business?
Newspapers aren’t dying - they’re becoming something else.
Television News isn’t dying - it’s becoming something else.
Radio News isn’t dying - it’s becoming something else.
Don’t believe me? Visit a newspaper web site, like say WSVN in Miami. Now, visit a newspaper web site like the Orlando Sentinel. Finally, visit a radio web site like 540 WFLA in Orlando, FL.
Aside from the promos and come ons, the news content is mostly the same across all three types of media web sites - though some are more text-centric, or audio heavy, or more saturated with video.
In short, what is changing is that the distribution model of newspapers, radio news, and television news has been entirely been disrupted by the ever ubiquitous web.
News gathering is still a labor intensive resource. Quality production is still resource intensive. Professional content is still resource intensive. That is the strength of the traditional media outlets. What they are not so adept at is realizing that the world has already changed under their feet.
In ten years time, online presences between television stations, radio stations, and newspapers will be entirely indiscernible, and if the laws of the land are changed, will probably be one and the same.
Newspapers dead? Nope. Television news dead? Nope. Radio dead? Not yet.
The only thing actually dead with all of the three major media forms is their notion that whistling past the graveyard is a satisfactory business strategy.
June 15, 2008
Father’s Day
I love Father’s Day.
I love having my boys pile on me when they get up this morning and ask what’s for breakfast.
I cannot remember much about my life before my boys, because I cannot imagine my life now without them.
My dad passed away in March of 2004. He and I had very little in common and as an adult I was not particularly close with him. It was nobody’s fault as to why this was - it just was.
I loved him, because he was my dad.
As my boys grow older I am finding myself understanding a lot more about my dad. It’s even funny to catch myself saying the same things he said to me, to my sons.
My hope today for you who are being feted as Fathers is that you enjoy the day - and make many happy memories.
June 13, 2008
Father’s Day Luncheon
Eating lunch with my 3 yr old at school today for Father’s Day.
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June 11, 2008
More Utterz Feedback
Check http://www.vimeo.com/ for an example of what a good web 2.0 video uploader should look like.
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June 10, 2008
Pigeonholing
Pigeonholing is, according to Wikipedia, a term used to describe processes that attempt to classify disparate entities into a small number of categories (usually, mutually exclusive ones).
It is almost always pejorative in the sense that the pigeonhole-ee - the person or object being pigeonholed - is relegated to a tightly restricted role or position. Most people would say that they hate being pigeonholed, because the act of pigeonholing by definition is to limit for ease of classification - at the expense of getting the entire picture.
The most recognizable form of pigeonholing is typecasting in the movies. Some actors have roles that are so tightly identified with them that they can never find acting work doing anything else; William Shatner as James T. Kirk, Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins, and Bela Lugosi as Dracula
(note to readers: this phenomena is definitely not limited to vampire roles - Ed).
But pigeonholing is a danger that “high performers” in business are prone to as well. Dan Bricklin will forever be known as the Visicalc Guy, Mitch Kapor will always be the Lotus 1-2-3 guy, Ed Esber will always be known as the Ashton-Tate guy who was at the helm during the Dbase IV tanking. Even though all of these guys have been successful afterwards, they are cast into a certain world view because of a need to simplify the world by putting people into neat little compartments.
Some business people have definitely broken the pigeonholing cycle.
Had Steve Jobs fallen off the map following the failure of the NeXT, he more or less would have been pegged as simply being lucky with his first stint at Apple Computer. Instead, he has gone on to be one of the most successful second acts in personal computing history.
I would suggest that Marc Andreesen is looking for his pigeonhole-escaping second act, though he has had quite a few successes following his days at Netscape.
But even for the “little guy” pigeonholing is a constant danger to be guarded against.
For example, you do an outstanding job on a project, and all of a sudden you’re the SME on that particular project - forever. Unless it’s being project manager on a deep space probe or being Chairman of the Fed, or being Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, this is probably not what you had in mind.
Stick around long enough, and one gathers quite a few skills and life experiences that don’t fit on a one page resume or condense down to a single 140 character tweet.
I would hate to think that my professional life can be condensed down to a five minute elevator pitch, or even shorter escalator pitch. Yet I recognize the need to help others get to know what I can do for them in as short a period of time as possible. The key question is - how to summarize the complexity and richness that you have to offer in the ADD business world that we exist in?
From my perspective, you have to have several answers at the ready, tailored to the audience at hand.
“I’m a developer.” “I’m a Marketer.” “I’m a Salesman.”
But beyond that, you have to figure out how to pull out those layers of complexity in your career that make up who you are today. It’s a tough nut to crack.
From my personal history, I have done the following:
- Been the IT director at a startup transaction processing company in Transportation
- Written multitasking kernels for point-of-sales systems
- Written NetBUI networking stacks
- Written SCSI controllers
- Taught Advanced Microcomputer Concepts at the University Level
- Been the Director of a Business Unit for a Software Company
- Written Engineering Software for the Largest Private Banking WAN in North America
- Written software responsible for engineering 100,000 VoIP phones
- Written Social Networking applications such as LinkedIn Contacts and Cheap Gas!
- Have been the President of a Software Consultancy for the past dozen years
Among all of these things, most people know me professionally for only a handful of these - usually, only one or two, tops. Yet they constitute the fabric of who I am as a professional.
My daily challenge developing business for my corporate brand, and increasingly my personal brand, is simplifying my pitch while losing as little detail as possible in the experiences that have made me what I am.
I’m still a work in progress.
Just realize that if you limit me to only five minutes, the really good stuff is outside the time limit.
