Learn to Make Dollars/Money online: February 2018

Wednesday, 28 February 2018

Seth's Blog : Short-attention-span theatre

Short-attention-span theatre

Being first is insufficient.

Google wasn't the first search engine. Facebook wasn't the first social network. Apple wasn't the first home computer, phone or smart watch. Amazon wasn't the first online bookstore.

Before Sonos, before Alexa, before Google Home, there was the HomePod. [pic 1, pic 2]

In 2004, Dan Lovy and I launched a device that could take the music on your hard drive and play it through your stereo. And some other stuff, too. You certainly don't own one. We were five years too early for early adopters and ten years too early for the beginning of the mass market.

I've jumped the timing before.

You can see the same thing happen to inventors of online shopping carts, ad networks, auction sites, ad formats, file sharing, crypto applications, all of it... Even non-profits and musical styles.

I've embraced that pattern for years. Going first. It's thrilling. Not particularly profitable, but thrilling.

Too often, we come to believe that there's some sort of idea race going on. While some need the froth and magic of the new, it turns out that culture is changed by persistence most of all. Be an inventor if you choose, but don't expect that you'll be the one driving the bus once the masses decide to get on.

[The third episode of my Akimbo podcast is out today. It's about VF 145: The Square Tomato. The podcast is now one of the top 100 in the world, thanks to you.]

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Seth's Blog : Low & Slow (vs. fear)

Low & Slow (vs. fear)

My sourdough rye bread failed. For the first time since I've been baking from this starter, this weekend's batch didn't work.

I know why.

I rushed it.

I didn't let the dough ferment long enough.

And then I made the oven hotter, in an effort to get the loaves finished so I could leave to meet someone.

That's not how great bread works. It's ready when it's ready, not when you need it to be.

Of course, the analogy is obvious. Much of the work we do as creators, as leaders, as people seeking to make change--it needs to ferment, to create character and tension and impact. And if we rush it, we get nothing worth very much.

There's a flipside.

Sometimes, we mistakenly believe that we're building something that takes time, but what we're actually doing is hiding. We stall and digress and cause distractions, not because the work needs us to, but because we're afraid to ship.

Impatience can be a virtue if it causes us to leap through the fear that holds us back.

[PS thanks for your support for Catherine Hoke's new book. Loyal readers like you made it a national bestseller on its first day--only Michelle Obama had a faster-moving book. If you didn't get a copy yesterday, I hope you'll check it out. It will change you in ways you don't expect. Here's a review that got posted yesterday:

Odds are, you've never been to prison...but as humans, we're masters at creating our own. Our prison may be the shame of our past, a desire for perfection or our need for acceptance. The walls might be the potential we haven't realized, a loved one we hurt or even a conversation we never got a chance to have.

By bravely sharing her personal story and the behind-the-scenes look at the important and generous movement she's leading at Defy Ventures, Cat Hoke gives us all a second chance...to speak up, to lead and to make a difference.]