One Trait Every Entrepreneur Must Have

If you're looking for some inspiration ... watch this video. 

If you're into tech in any way shape or form ... watch this video. 

If you like the Matrix and want to see what it would be like if Neo and Morpheus met in real life ... watch this video. 

If you're older than 20 ... watch this video. 

I think you get the idea by now. Watch this video. 

There are a couple of things that amazed me about Brian: 

1. Desire - Many times Brian keeps referring to his intrinsic need to understand why San Francisco and New York were the places to be. What he did when he got to those places was truly nothing short of amazing, I am not going to spoil the story here because I really want you to hear it from him... so watch the video. In summary though, it is truly amazing what you can accomplish (even Kevin Rose was amazed) by simply having the desire to do so. You should always be thirsty for knowledge. 

2. Creating luck - Brian's story is a great example of what happens if you work hard enough to create your own luck. At one point, he describes his entire whirlwind of a journey in the past year or so as, "serendipity." You may consider it oxymoronic, but I believe someone can create serendipitous events. Brian understood the power of networking very early on and that played out much later in his life. His story tells me that if you work hard enough and get to know enough of the right people ... you can create your own luck. 

The main message that I took out of this interview though, was a trait that both Brian and Kevin exhibited. Brian did so by admitting that despite his overwhelming intelligence (skipped 4 grades in grade school and started University at 14) ... there will always be someone in a room smarter than him ... always. Kevin, despite all his success, exhibited this trait by commending Brian on the brilliance of some of his ideas. 

This one trait ... is humility. When you are as successful as either of these two guys, it's so easy to be proud/arrogant/boastful ... but what makes them heroes in my mind, is how humble they are. 

The Dangling Carrot

One of the most interesting stories I came across this past week was regarding a unique marketing move by Facebook. Here is a quote from a great insidefacebook.com article that sums it all up: 

"Facebook has just announced an expansion of its partnership with social game offer provider TrialPay on its DealSpot product that gives users Facebook Credits in exchange for watching branded videos."

This move really caused me to think about how we as consumers view and ultimately consume advertising. I've realized that the consumption of advertising and our reaction to what we see is analogous to the psychological principle of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  

Facebook here is using an extrinsic model. The dangling carrot being offered are free Facebook credits which, consumers can then use to purchase real items. Seems like a pretty tasty carrot and given the amount of people who play social games on Facebook, this method of delivering an ad - in a social game - combined with the fairly strong reward ... may just work. However, the question still remains to be seen whether these ads will actually be effective. 

The problem with offering an extrinsic reward for something like the act of watching an ad, is that consumers would probably be more interested in earning the reward rather than caring about what's on the ad. Who's to say that the consumer can't just hit play on the video and walk away from the screen? Considering the years of training we've undergone through traditional TV ads, this act isn't totally out of the realm of possibility.  

There is another model to consider here and that is the intrinsic motivation model. In this one, a consumer would naturally seek to do something and gain pleasure from the very act of doing it, rather than from the reward that is waiting on the other side. One of the best and simplest examples of this would be the fostering of brand advocates. In order to do so of course, a company would need to create a product that is worthy enough to be advocated. 

When thinking about applying this to the Facebook/Social gaming model... what if companies tried something truly drastic and gave customers the opportunity to tell their friends about something ... yet not reward them for doing so? Would this prompt customers to naturally want to tell their friends about what they were doing? Is this is a stronger form of advertising? 

It'll certainly be interesting to see how the dangling carrot story unfolds. 

Think Like a Child

Image courtesy of FlickrEarlier today, I came across this wonderful blog post by Nathan Furr on Forbes (thanks to a tweet by Sarah Prevette) about how kindergartners think differently to MBAs. Nathan cites an famous challenge known simply as the Marshmallow challenge and explains how kindergartners are the top performers at this challenge, simply because they approach the problem differently. 

I have always been fascinated by the way children approach things. At such a young age, they are not bound by the same mental rules that you and I are bound by and so to them... the world seems infinitely malleable. They always seem to be in a state of wonder when it comes to their surroundings. It is this sense of wonder that marketers should try and invoke with their brands. What was the last brand you came across that for some reason made you feel like a kid again? A lot of the success of the iPad can be attributed to this sense of wonder which the product exudes. 

Next time you are faced with a marketing challenge or perhaps even a challenge to come up with a creative way to do something ... think like a child. Try to ingrain a sense of wonder into the process/product and you may find that people naturally gravitate to it simply because there's always some part of us that wants to feel like a child again. 

Instant Gratification

Has social media (more specifically Twitter) conditioned us to the notion of instant gratification? Let's see ... when was the last time you found yourself using Twitter, simply because the 'regular news sources' were too slow? I'll admit, I found myself doing that just two nights ago when President Obama was about to address the nation. My question is this ... does it really matter whether you hear the news right now? It's not like the facts are going to change a couple of hours from now ... what happened, happened and eventually everyone will hear it. 

A Professor of mine once said that the most important lesson any University/College student can learn, is how to embrace delayed gratification. The process of acquiring a degree takes an average of 4 years ... yet when you are in the trenches, writing exams, putting together presentations and submitting reports ... the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be a lifetime away. Eventually though, it will come. 

To what extent has social media influenced your need for instant gratification? Perhaps even the proliferation of mobile devices and the ubiquity of information has added to this need? When was the last time you waited patiently for something and tried to soak in as much of the waiting experience as possible? 

Wile E. Coyote (pictured on the left) certainly is persistent ... but would things have been different for him, had he been patient? 

What Ignites You?

The fear of public speaking (glassophobia) is one of the most common fears among human beings. Passion can beat fear. A few days ago, I wrote a post about finding your passion. Ignite is about overcoming that fear and sharing your passion. 

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending an Ignite workshop in my local city of Waterloo and it truly was an inspirational evening. A room full of passionate people, regardless of what they are passionate about, can certainly make for an enlightening evening. The true beauty of an Ignite event (although I have never attended one yet but I can imagine based on my experience tonight) ... is the people. Everyone who attends - regardless of whether they are speaking or not - is sure to be inspirational in some way. From what I learned tonight, here is why you should give an Ignite talk: 

1. You have a story to share - You may just need to be given a chance to share it. 

2. People want to hear it - The Ignite audience is not only willing to hear your story, but revel in it. 

3. You may run into another you - By exposing your passion, you open yourself up to a tribe of other people who may be as passionate as you. Ignite is your chance to meet them. 

It's time people heard what you have to say... so ask yourself... what ignites you? Once you've found the answer, then stand up and share it.  

Find Your Passion

Today marked the end of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. A tournament that lasted for just a little over one and a half months. It came down to two magnificent cricketing nations in the final... India and Sri Lanka (my home country). 

To my dismay, but to the delight of over a billion people... India was victorious. It was truly one of the most thrilling cricket matches I have seen in a very long time. Both sides played phenomenally well, but to quote the Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara, "The better team won." 

India and Sri Lanka are two nations (among a few) that live and breathe cricket. Cricket is to those nations as hockey is to Canada, as rugby is to New Zealand, as the New York Jets are to Gary Vaynerchuk... you get the point. When you find something you are extremely passionate about, it consumes you and becomes embedded in the very core of your existence. It can propel you to do things that you would have never considered otherwise and sometimes may even defy any kind of logic. Have you ever seen someone who is truly brilliant at what they do and yet, ask for no (real) money for it? or better yet, they give their art away for free? They do for the sake of doing and not for the sake of receiving? 

These are passionate people. Find your passion. 

The Benefits of Being Awesome

source: kwawesome.comCommunities blossom when brilliant ideas comes to life... this is one of them. 

The concept is simple.. think of something awesome that you want to do... and these folks will give you the money to do it. How much money? $1000 (More than enough). How awesome does it have to be? That's up to you. 

Every community in the world should adopt this idea. It doesn't take much, in the case of #kwawesome, it only takes 12 people giving money 6 times a year. If you do the math, that basically means for $500 you could potentially be funding 6 truly awesome projects a year. This is almost a form of micro-level venture capital and certainly one that should be shared among many communities. Can this happen in 3rd world countries where there may not be so much money to pass around? Sure. Just replace the money with resources of some kind, because ultimately that's all money really is. 

Here are 3 (of probably a 1000) reasons why this is such a brilliant idea:

1. It's simple, so simple that it can be replicated, and should be. 

2. It is built around a community - One of the questions in the application is "How will your idea impact our community?" This forces applicants to think of something greater than themselves, which is something this world needs more of. 

3. It will inspire people to action - The smallest ideas may in fact be the ones that change the world. There may be someone out there who has an idea for the next YouTube/Twitter/Facebook (YouTwitFace as Conan would say) and this may just be the kick in the pants he or she needs to get started. 

I encourage you to learn more about the KW Awesome Foundation. It may just inspire you to start a foundation in your own community... which of course... would be #awesome. 

The F Word

Free. 

Earlier today, Seth Godin wrote a post on the Domino Project's blog about some news surrounding the project's next release. For a limited time (due to sponsorship by GE) the book is going to be available for free. I hope that the Domino Project team releases some numbers about how many people rushed to order the free version of the book... but it will be equally interesting to see how many people order the paid version as well. 

If you find something you genuinely love doing, why not turn it into an art and give it away for free? This is what Seth Godin does everyday with his blog. If someone spent some time assembling all Seth's blog posts over just the past year into a single book (categorized by topic)... I would imagine that book would sell for a lot of money; however, if you were already subscribed to his blog... you would have got all of that goodness for free. 

If you're a brand manager... think of something that your consumers would be more than willing to pay for... and instead offer it for free. I know it seems to defy probably every sound business principle, especially within a public company but if you can take the risk then why not try it. If you're an entrepreneur trying to make a name of yourself, why not start by offering something of value... for free. I'll leave you with two examples of folks who are heroes of mine and who have built their respective empires by offering value for free: Gary Vaynerchuk and Leo Laporte.