I took this quote from Seth Godins latest micro book Tribes:
“Do you beleive in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy”
This resonates with me because it will motivate us to find solutions that ‘non believers’ will be too inept, apathetic or bored to uncover.
Entrepreneurs ought launch something they beleive in conceptually, not just financially.
“It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?”
I read the first half of the 4 hour work week… I put it down before finishing. The book could’ve been written on a 10 page presentation – startup blog view.
Tim Ferris currently the best selling Author on the New York Times list. The words here are very important: He’s the best selling author, not best writing author.
Tim Ferris knows how to sell. He’s got a couple of great ideas which are absolute gold. He’s sold them in guru style. Power to him.
Title: 4 hour work week – he got the title name from doing a Google ad word experiment to see which title got the most clicks.
The Cover – cubicle dwellers dream of this lifestyle. Create a visual.
Outsourcing your life: Possible for those with a large existential stream of income.
Vicarious living: Most how to books never actually get implemented, it’s about the dream. Readers rarely implement, so concepts don’t get questioned.
The brand: Tim is the brand. He knows how to work a system.
Bottom line: The idea works and he works it.
The truth: He worked his butt off first, got massive cashflow, then scaled down. I challenge anyone to not answer their phone, email and live in another country and do it all in four hours a weekand ‘become’ wealthy. Not possible, unless you’ve already done what Tim did.
Like any book – we take the bits that work for us and ignore the stuff which doesn’t apply.
Sometimes you could build a company or a business on a simple idea. His idea is outsourcing. But it’s the way he sold it which makes him a world beater.
All entrpreneurs ought take a lesson from Tim on how to bundle things up to sell.
Here’s a few categories or Industries which have been revolutionized by Mass Customization:
T-shirts (Threadless & Neighborhoodies)
TV (Youtube & Joost)
Handbags (Elemental Threads)
Journalism (Blogs & podcasting)
Newspapers (RSS)
Job Seeking (Aggregation & feeds)
Book publishing (Lulu)
Tourism (the web in general)
Luxury goods (fractional ownership)
Music (itunes)
Networking (facebook & social apps)
In fact there’s just too many to mention.
But the real question is this: If it hasn’t hit your industry yet, why not and what are you doing about it?
I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.
I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:
Worth a read.
I try and use pictures on every blog entry.
I use pictures every time I do a business presentation.
You might see something my words didn’t tell you.
My words might tell you something my picture didn’t show you.
(Where’s wally?)
I recently bought the book below. I have read this book before, and yet I felt the need to purchase it and add it to my library.
Yes, I will read it again, but that’s not why I purchased it. In fact it was a $50 impulse purchase.
On close inspection of the photo above you’ll notice this hardcover version of the book has beautiful embossing and a soft silken fabric cover. It’s tactile and premium. This book was an ‘ego’ purchase.
We normally associate ego purchases with items which are on display: Fast cars, haute couture clothing, funky sunglasses, golf clubs, Euro design kitchens and bathrooms, flying first class et al. Places where our consumption choices are on display. However, The Prince by Machiavelli will not be on display – only in my house and head.
The lesson for start ups is this: Our ego can be leveraged in any category. Even boring stuff like books. We’ll often pay more (which I did, more than double) because our ego isn’t an external thing, ego is about self importance, whatever that means to us.