Seth's Blog : "Get this over with" vs. ...

 

"Get this over with" vs. ...

"Get something started."

When you walk into a fast food restaurant, the stated, measured, delivered-on goals are to get the transaction over with as cheaply and quickly as possible. The cashier, the fry cook, everyone is rewarded on running the line just a little faster and just a little more efficiently.

On the other hand, when you are the first time client at a contractor, a bank or even a resort, everyone on the staff ought to be focused on getting something started, not over with. A relationship that might last for many stays. An engagement that might lead to conversations that spread. Trust that might surface new opportunities for both sides. It's not about spending more time, it's about caring enough about the interaction and the other person that you're focused on this person, not the throughput level.

You can't do both at the same time.

       

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Seth's Blog : First review: Malcolm Gladwell's new book

 

First review: Malcolm Gladwell's new book

I was lucky enough to get a preview copy and I've posted my review of David & Goliath.

The book comes out in five weeks. Can't hurt to order a copy now, because you'll definitely hear it being talked about everywhere soon.

       

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Seth's Blog : Understanding natural monopoly

 

Understanding natural monopoly

Why is there only one Twitter? One centralized phone network?

A natural monopoly is a business that benefits its users by being the one and only. If there were two incompatible phone networks, you'd need access to both in order to call the people in your life--and remember who was on each network.

Metcalfe's Law states that the power of a network goes up with the square of the number of people using it. In networks, then, there's a real penalty to having a second one.

An expensive shared resource (like power lines) are also a natural monopoly, since the incremental cost of adding one more user to the first line is so much less than the cost of building a second one right next to it.

It's possible to transform a service that might not be a natural monopoly (an app that helps you track your workouts) into one that might be (an app that lets you share your workouts with others).

Many natural monopolies exist in the micro space, as opposed to being universal monopolies used by one and all like the telephone. We only 'want' there to be one trade show for our industry, one trade association, one certification board.

Over time, even natural monopolies fade away, but when you look for breakthrough new projects (particularly as an investor) the home run lies in discovering the next one.

       

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Seth's Blog : Making costumes

 

Making costumes

Look through any fashion magazine and you'll quickly come to understand that fashion is the act of making a costume. This clothing isn't primarily functional (if we define function in this case as warmth, or modesty, or having a pocket to keep keys handy). No, it's a costume.

And costumes are an artifice designed to remind us of something else.

So packaging is a costume.

The experience of entering a store is a costume.

Typography is a costume.

The design of your website is a costume.

There are very few ways to make something perfectly functional. There are a billion ways to invent a costume. Most marketing, then, is costume work, not the search for the most efficient function. Your form can follow your function, sure, but without a costume, it's naked.

       

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Seth's Blog : "If you don't start, you can't fail"

 

"If you don't start, you can't fail"

It sounds ridiculous when you say it that way.

But of course, it is ridiculous. It's (quite possibly) the reason you're stalling.

On the other hand, there's no doubt that, "If you don't start, you will fail."

Not starting and failing lead to precisely the same outcome, with different names.

       

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